A. We currently use OOTPX as our sim engine. You MUST have the game in order to participate.
B. If a new version of OOTP is released, the league will review whether or not we will upgrade. If the league does upgrade, owners must be willing to upgrade as well to continue participating in the league.
C. A reliable Internet connection is a must so that you can participate with roster exports, forum activity, etc.
D. AIM/ICQ. Both are compatible with each other, although AIM is preferred. Both are free downloads at www.download.com.
E. An owner must accept the terms of the rules and is the sole person responsible for all transactions involving their team.
F. No owner may own more than one team, nor may the owner collude with any owner or group of owners to unjustly enrich any team. Any owner found guilty will be expelled from the league and exposed on the OOTP Online League Forum.
G. All owners are encouraged to submit a line-up export or a “No Change” email at least once a week. If the commissioner feels your inactivity has been going on for a long period of time, you will be replaced.
H. Owners are required to respond to all trade inquiries. It is very rude to ignore owners by not responding, so please remember common courtesy.
II. League Settings
A. 3 sims per week (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday)
B. Exports are due by 9am CST the day of a sim.
C. Sim Schedule
1. Off-Season. The offseason is broken down into 13 sims, following the regular 3 sims a week schedule. The full breakdown of the off-season schedule can be found on the BTI Calendar.
a. Rule V Update Sim: (End of Season - December 1st) NO FREE AGENT BIDS ACCEPTED
b. Rule V Draft Sim: (December 1st - February 1st) NO FREE AGENT BIDS ACCEPTED
c. Free Agent Sims: 4 sims (February 1st - February 28)
d. Spring Training Sims: 5 sims (March 1 - Opening Day)
2. Regular Season. Regular season sims will consist of 7 day sims. The ONLY exception will be July 31st. Because of the trading deadline, on sim #17 we will sim to July 31st, so that trades can be entered on sim #18.
3. Playoffs. Playoffs will be simmed one series at a time on 3 consecutive days.
D. Pitching Rotations. During the regular season, you are allowed to use a minimum of a 4-man rotation. During the playoffs, you are allowed to use a 3-man rotation.
E. SPARKY will not use the coaching OR scouting system provided in OOTP.
F. Ratings. SPARKY will use 1-100 ratings scales on batting, pitching, running & bunting, and fielding ratings. BTI will use star ratings. However, the star ratings will be based on ALL players, not based on players at that position as it previously was done in OOTP6 and previous versions.
G. Development/Aging Modifiers. The following ratings will be used for these modifiers:
1. Min. Days of Service - 172 2. FA Service - 6 years 3. Arbitration Eligible - 3 years 4. FA compensation - No 5. Waiver Days - 21 6. DFA Days - 30 7. Rule 5 Draft - Yes, typically December 1st 8. Minor League Option Years - Yes
B. Financial
1. Avg Attendance - 28,000 2. Avg Ticket Price - $10 (owners can adjust their own ticket prices) 3. Away Gate Share - 20% 4. Avg Media Contract - $40,000,000 5. Fixed Media Contracts - Yes, everyone has the same contract 6. Salary Cap - No 7. Budget Control - No, Full revenue available 8. Revenue Sharing - Yes, Luxury Tax
a. Soft Cap (% of average payroll): 120 b. Tax Above Soft Cap (%): 20
9. Cash Max - $45,000,000 10. Typical Salaries
Superstar - $13,500,000
Star - $10,000,000
Good - $6,000,000
Above Average - $3,000,000
Average - $1,500,000
Below Average - $1,000,000
Fair - $600,000
Poor - $400,000
C. Schedule
1. Games - 162 per team 2. Start - 1st Monday on or after April 1st. 3. Balanced Schedule - Yes 4. Typical Series Length - 3 games
D. Amateur Draft
1. The amateur draft will take place on March 1st every season.
2. There are 15 rounds total, and the entire draft is done through the game using the in-game draft list options. Be sure to check the calendar to find out the schedule of which rounds are run when.
3. 17 rounds of players will be generated. Any player not drafted will get dumped into free agency.
4. SPARKY does NOT allow the trading of draft picks. We utilize free agent compensation.
5. Be sure you are familiar with how the draft list option works. There is a thread in the forum called "Drafting 101" that explains everything in detail.
E. Rule 5 Draft
1. The Rule 5 draft will be run via the lists in the game.
2. No longer will there be a sim prior to the draft to update rosters. From now on, we will sim up to the draft, and you will do any final protections and generate your draft lists at the same time.
IV. Minor Leagues
A. The BTI will contain 5 minor league systems: AAA, AA, A, Short Season A, and R.
B. Each team will have 1 AAA, AA, A, Short Season A, and R team.
VII. Transactions
A. Trading
1. Trading is open from January 23 to July 31.
2. Trades are to be posted on the forum. One team posts the trade, the 2nd confirms it. Only then will a trade be processed.
3. Trades are to be processed by the simmer ONLY. If you try to process a trade yourself, you are risking that you could potentially corrupt the league file.
4. You are NOT allowed to trade draft picks. However, you can only trade the first 2 rounds of draft picks, and you can only trade draft picks for the upcoming draft.
5. You are also allowed to trade a player for a draft pick straight up, or a player for cash straight up. No longer does a player need to be included on both sides.
6. A max of $10,000,000 can be traded in a single trade.
B. Free Agent Bidding
1. Free Agent bids are made in the game by the individual owner. Your bids are exported with your team exports.
2. During a sim, usually after a a day or so, the player will respond to your offer, and will let you know if he accepts or declines. If he accepts, you will have him on the DFA, and will be able to assign him for the next sim.
3. For 25 years old and under that are signed as Free Agents, IF their average yearly contract is greater $550,000 per year, the contract MUST have a minimum of a 3 year contract.
4. Players who are 35-years-old and younger who sign a contract averaging $6,000,000 or more per season are ineligible for trade during the first season of the contract.
5. One-year contract offers for free agents 35-years-old or younger cannot exceed $5,999,999. If this action occurs, the player will be released with no financial penalty to the team. There penalty is their more than likely inability to try and sign the player because they are angry they were released.
6. If an owner is found to be making FA bids during the period of when players file for FA & 01/23, any player they signed will be released, and the owner will only be refunded 50% of the total contract value that was added to their player expenses.
7. You are not allowed to bid on FAs after Sept 1st. Any FA that is signed after Sept 1st will be released back to FA, and you will incure all penalties.
C. Free Agent Compensation
1. Free Agent Compensation is run through the game. Computer will have final say in what free agents are eligible for Free Agent Compensation.
D. Contract Extensions
1. Extensions are also made by the individual owner in the game. Extensions offers are exported with your team exports.
2. During a sim, usually after a day or so, the player will let you know where you stand with your offer. You will be able to view their response when you download the latest sim file.
3. Extensions can be made at any time of the season.
4. You can also offer extensions to players that are not in their final year of their current contract. However, you can only do so if they are willing to talk to you about it.
E. Player Bonuses
1. When making a FA offer or extension, you are allowed to offer bonuses for such things as awards, PA, or IP. However, BTI will be putting a cap on these.
2. The following chart indicates the maximum amount of dollars to a given for a bonus/incentive:
1 star players - $500,000
2 star players - $750,000
3 star players - $1,000,000
4 star players - $1,500,000
5 star players - $2,000,000
Note: In terms of stars, if a player has stars for both actual and potential, the league office will also use the greater number of stars to determine if the bonus rule has been broken.)
3. PAs cannot be less than 400, or greater than 700.
4. RP IP cannot be less than 50, or greater than 125. SP IP cannot be less than 150, or greater than 275.
5. If an owner is found violating this rule, the player will be released immediately, and will only be refunded 50% of the total contract value that was charged to their player expenses.
VIII. Stadium Changes
A. You may request to build a new stadium in the off-season.
B. A team purchasing a new stadium must remain in that stadium for 10 sim years before reapplying for a New Stadium or "relocation."
C. Costs will be as follows:
Base Cost: $35m (Grass/Open/number of seats equal to owners previous stadium/random generated dimensions)
Turf: $1m
Dome: $6m (includes turf)
Retractable Roof: $9m (includes grass)
Additional Seats: 1,000 seats * $2m (max of 45,000 total capacity)
Corporate Name Sponsor: -$7.5m
Interest Charges: 20% per year max of 8-year payment plan
D. To determine the ratings for the stadium, a tool will generate the numbers accordingly by the commish. Then the owner that would like to build will pick 3 numbers between 1 and 30. The owner will then be given the ratings for the 3 parks, and the owner can choose which park out of the 3 that they would like to purchase. (Its like the owner has contracted 3 companies to come up with a design for a park, and he picks the one he likes best. Gives the owner a tad bit more flexibility.)
E. Obviously an owner can’t pay for their stadium all at one time. Therefore loan payments may be made with interest calculated.
F. Owners will also have the option of moving back into their former stadium after the 10 year or greater period is up for $15 million dollars.
G. Owners may NOT move into previously vacated stadiums.
H. If an owner misses a payment for a given year, the interest doubles to 40%. If the owner misses a 2nd payment, the interest doubles again to 80%. If the owner misses a 3rd payment, the owner then automatically moves into their previous stadium, and has to pay the remaining cost of the stadium (interest free), plus an $8 million dollar fine.
I. After your minimum requirement of 10 seasons in the new stadium are completed, if you had a corporate name given to your park, you are eligible for one of two options:
1. You can apply for a new corporate sponsor for your park, in which you would receive $7.5 million dollars in cash, just like if you were building a new stadium.
2. You can rename the stadium to any name of your choosing, cost free.
IX. Stadium 'Relocation'
A. If you are interested in "Relocating" your team, you somewhat can. Due to the fact that a new owner might want to be the team that you originally were, we want to be able to keep all 30 MLB teams intact. So there will be some different rules in terms of relocating, listed below.
B. You will not be able to leave the current city that your team currently plays in. Instead you remain the same team and city, but the costs will be considerably less.
C. Teams whose fan base has reached 30 or less at the end of the season are eligible for relocation.
D. To apply for relocation, you will need to indicate that is your intention, as well as the normal stadium construction guidelines, as you will be building a new stadium on the other side of the city.
E. Once relocation has been approved by the commissioners, the following will take place:
1. It will take 1 season for your new stadium to be built.
2. During that season, your fan loyalty will be dropped 1 level, due to the fact that current fans are now pissed that you are abandoning them.
3. Normal payments for the new stadium will occur, except in this case the local taxpayers will pay for 50% of the new stadium.
4. Once your season of waiting has completed, you will then move into your new stadium. You fan loyalty setting will now be reset to the average, and fan support will be reset to 50.
