Pastime Strat-O-Matic Baseball League

PASTIME STRAT-O-MATIC BASEBALL LEAGUE

OVERVIEW

Each year the (PSBL) utilizes the internet and the SOM baseball game’s most recent version and season to simulate a full baseball season.
The PSBL consists of 20 teams, each owned and operated by a different manager.
Each team will feature maximum roster sizes of - 45-man major league roster, 7-man Expanded majors roster and a 30 man minors.
All games will be played by a designated league member daily, utilizing autoplay.

Key Dates (offseason dates are approximate):

Regular Season – April 1 to Approximately October 1
Playoffs – October, potentially into early November
Updated rosters with finances sentby the 4th of each month during the regular season.
All-Star Voting – last week of June
Amateur Draft – Begins the last Monday of June
Post Season Award Voting – December 15
Constitution Ballot– January 5 w/Constitution update – Feb 1
Roster with current season salaries issued – Feb 1
Player Release Date – Feb 15
Free Agent Bidding - March 1 to March 15

COSTS / REQUIREMENTS

There is a $5 annual membership fee, to be paid on April 1 of each year. Donations are accepted to help offset web and domain hosting fees.
PSBL uses the most recent Strat-O-Matic version and season data disk.
Each owner is asked to make a serious commitment to the PSBL. Long-term committed owners provide for a stable, successful league.
The PSBL web page is located at TBA. The e-mail list is .

KEY LEAGUE MEMBERS

The Executive Committee (EXCOM) consists of: Commissioner, American and National League Presidents, Three At-Large members. Each officer serves a one -year term.
Salaries listed below will be paid at the end of the current season once the Commissioner and EXCOM have determined that the job has been successfully completed. The Commissioner and EXCOM reserve the right to withhold funds or assign funds to multiple parties based upon their end of the season evaluation.
If a league officer resigns at the end of the season his last year’s salary is not paid.
Owners may not exceed $2,000,000 per annum in league salary UNLESS the position that pushes him past this threshold has been offered to and declined by all other owners.
Commissioner ($1,000,000).Oversees PSBL activities/maintains schedule.
Finance/Roster Manager ($500,000). Tracks player movement; contracts; misc. financial transactions; distributes monthly report on the 1st of EACH MONTH. Managers rosters and all transactions
Game Operator ($650,000). Gathers CMs and Rotations; plays and reports games daily while posting the league backup file daily.
Webmaster ($500,000). Maintains website including working with game operator to post results daily.
Encyclopedia Manager #1 & #2 ($400,000). Updates encyclopedia annually and updates league with key historic events
League Historian #1 & #2 ($400,000). Updates league with key historic events
Free Agency Coordinator ($500,000). Coordinates all things Free Agency.
League Presidents ($350,000). Each league president will coordinate his league’s all-star game; settles intra-league disputes; monitors player usage, etc
Constitution Manager ($350,000). Monitors compliance; coordinates rule changes, proposals, votes etc.
Rookie Draft Coordinator ($350,000). Coordinates rookie draft.
Game File Creator ($275,000) Creates the new SOM league file for the season
Awards Manager ($350,000). Chooses player of the month awards (Pitcher, Player, Rookie); Sends ballots & results for all-star game and post-season awards.
Blogger ($350,000). Responsible for weekly articles to be posted to the website.
Usage Monitor ($450,000) – Monthly check of each roster and identify overused players and soon-to-be overused players. Results sent to the league.
Miscellaneous Articles ($25,000) - Owners will be allowed to submit one-page articles for $25,000 (maximum of 4 per month).

LEAGUE SETUP

Nicknames may change no more frequently than every 3 years, unless special approval is granted by the commissioner, and must be a nickname used by a pro team. Teams may not change cities until they have spent at least 5 years in the current city, unless permission is granted.

•The PSBL is divided into two leagues (American and National). Each league has two divisions (East and West). A team may never switch leagues

•20110 Divisional Alignment - Opening Day is April 1.

American League / National League
Romasco Div / Kahle Div / Koelle Div / Miller Div
New York (NWA) / Brooklyn C (BCA) / Appleton (APN) / Cedar Rapids (CRN)
Cincinnati (CPA) / Brooklyn S (BSA) / Seattle SS (SSN) / Potomac (PNN)
Chicago (CWA) / Cleveland (CSA) / Anchorage (ASN) / Macon (MAN)
Boston (BRA) / Philadelphia (PQA) / Pittsburgh (PPN) / Springfield (SIN)
Suffolk (SSA) / Chula Vista (CVA) / Tabasco (TBN) / Seattle (SEA)

Ballparks - Teams may choose current or past MLB ballparks or define their own.

Ballparks may be altered once per season, prior to opening day. Ballpark reconstruction costs $5 million. Ballpark modification - Maximum of 2 points, cost for 1B point = $250,000, and cost for HR point = $500,000.

REAL-TIME SCHEDULE

The PSBL schedule will follow the current calendar (day by day).
All official transactions will take place no later than the next day.
Owners may submit computer managers as often as desired

CREATING PSBL LEAGUE

Each year, upon receiving the new game disk, the Game File Creator will create a new PSBL league and place players onto their proper team.
Excepting minor leaguer players, all remaining players will be placed in the free agent pool and available via the waiver wire.
All players that appear on the seasonal SOM diskette are available to play.

ROSTERS

For the purpose of game-playing, each team is limited to 25 “active” players. But, from Sept. 1 until the end of the regular season, teams are allowed up to 40 “active” players.

SALARIES

There are 4 type of contracts
Minor League (R to AAA)
Major League (A0 to A6)
Free Agent (FAxx)
In Season Signing (F)
The Finance/Rosters officer determines new salaries based on the A contract chart below.
Teams will be given $8 million on April 1, and $7.6 million monthlyfrom May-Sept.
Salaries will be paid on the last day of each month during the season.
A player cut during the month will receive his full monthly salary from the team with which he began the month.
Players traded during the month will be paid their full monthly salary at the end of the month by the team that acquired them.
The sum of a team’s salary will be divided by 6 to determine the monthly deduction.
Extra allotted money leftover after payroll is met goes to a team’s cash reserves. Those reserves can be used for trades, or to pay payroll should teams exceed the allotted limit.
The standard minor league contract will be a 1-year, automatically renewing pact. A minor league player will assume an “A1” contract beginning the following PSBL season after making hisMLB debut.

Minor league players -new draftees are assigned a $10k salary if they have yet to play in professional ball. New Draftees salaries will go into effect the last of the month in which they are drafted

Minor League Contracts
R – Rookie is $15,000
A – is $20,000
AA is $25,000
AAA is $30,000
“Minor” series contracts conclude the PSBL season after he appears in a Major League game, and results in an “A0” or “A1” contract.

Major League contracts (A1 to A6)

Major League contracts
A0 (1st year): salary is $90,000
A1 (1st year); salary is $100,000
A2 (2nd year); salary is $200,000
A3 (3rd year); salary is $300,000
A4 (4th year); salary is $500,000
A5 (5th year); salary is $1,500,000
A6 (6th year); salary is $2,000,000
FA (Free Agent)
“A” series players will have their contracts increased by one for each year played in the Majors.
“A0” players have 75 or fewer major league at bats or 30 or fewer innings pitched prior to the current PSBL season. If this player is not called to the majors by his MLB team for the following year, A0 players may be protected in the Expanded Majors.
“A1” contract status begins after a player has exceeded 75 AB/30 IP, and will be repeated until the player compiles at least one year of MLB eligibility. (To be quantified by how MLB decides Rookie of the Year eligibility).
Note - it is the individual player's manager that must point this out to the Finance/Rosters officer. It will not be the responsibility of the Finance/Rosters officer to verify yearly the MLB experience of every player under an A1" series contract. All A0 will advance to A1 automatically unless the individual owners verifies the player still qualifies to be an A0. “A6” contracts end after the 6th Major League season and results in free agency.
“FA” contracts conclude at the end of the contract term and result in free agency.
Teams will be able to match up to two expiring FA contracts annually.

Expanded Majors

The maximum seven-man subroster can only be used players who do not receive a card by SOM. This will primarily refer to A0 contracted players (the Cup of Coffee Rule), veterans who are struggling to maintain a career and players who miss a season due to injury. To be placed here, players have to qualify for an A0 contract, or have MLB experience in their past but not have a current SOM card.

Minors

30-Man minors roster with a 7-round Amateur draft.
Consists of players who have no MLB experience. Players acquired during the in-season Amateur Draft do not count against the limit until the following winter’s release of the Baseball Prospect book. After its release, teams must cut down to 30 men or less by Feb 1 of each year.
Players who are promoted to the MLB major leagues during the PSBL regular season DO NOT HAVE TO BE PROMOTED. However, they will receive the appropriate raise due to them once their A-contract status kicks in. There will be no moving of players from the minors to the expanded or regular majors until the offseason.

Major and Minor League Roster Draft

One week before Free Agency begins, teams must protect 40 of their 45 major league rostered players. In reverse order of finish from the previous year, teams may pay 100K (to another team) per pick and select a player off of another team. No team can lose more than one player. The draft continues until every team passes on their option to pick. Selected players must remain on the 45 man roster for the duration of the upcoming PSBL season. If the player is released, he must first be offered back to his original team at a cost of 20K
Expanded Majors and Minors are ineligible for the Roster Draft

Cash Reserves

Teams whose payroll is less than their monthly allotment can build up a cash reserves (and through trades involving cash) which enables them to carry a payroll exceeding the monthly cash allotments.
If a franchise falls under zero, they have until the end of the fiscal period (the month) to rectify the situation. If they fail to do so, they lose their player with the highest usage total to that point in the season. The league buys back that player(s) at 20 cents for each dollar owed that player for the duration of his contract. If the player earns more than $4 million per season, the buyback is 15 cents on the dollar.
These players become free agents and adhere to the “Release and Waiver” rules
Teams can go into debt (RED) in the off season after the PSBL World Series up until April 30.
Beginning after the completion of the 2013 PSBL season, teams may carry a maximum of $30 million cash reserve. Teams have until the beginning of free agency 2014 to bring their reserves down to $30 million.
Besides trades involving cash, teams have several options for spending the cash.
Purchase of sandwich round picks - $1.5 million purchases a pick between Rd 1 and Rd 2 in the 2014 Amateur Draft or 2015 Amateur Draft. No limit to picks other than financial ability.
Ballpark alterations – Teams willing to spend to alter their ballparks in 2014 and 2015 may receive a 25% discount on the moves
Extra Iron Man – At the cost of $3 million per player, teams may add an extra Iron Man in 2014 or 2015.

Contract Extension

Each season teams may extend the contract of 1 player who just completed an A5 or A6.

This extension will be paid according to the determined (either A5 or A6)plus a 50% annual increase

The extension will be for two years, after which time the player becomes a free agent.

An extended A5 player essentially had his contract one additional year, while an extended A6 player added two years.
The deadline for extending a player is the annual pre-season player release date

FREE AGENTS

All non-rostered players will be placed into the free agent pool.
The Draft will utilize – WEBSITE.
The FA schedule will be released annually by the commissioner/Free Agent Coordinator.
The players will be divided into lists for auction, with each position accounted for and divided as equally as possible as determined by the FA Coordinator.
Players not signed to contracts at the close of the free agent period will be available to be signed as an F, or 1-year non-renewable, contract. Such players will be available on a first-come, first-served basis during the regular season.
The commissioner and free agency coordinator will then designate “due dates” for each step of the FA process, which should take two weeks..
After the conclusion of the process, the results will be posted in a master file.
There is no maximum bid or salary. The minimum bid is $100,000 per year for 1 year. Bids will be valued at 100% of the first season’s salary and 50% of each subsequent season’s salary. For example, a 2-year bid at $100,000 is valued at $150,000.
Bid lengths range from 1-5 years.
Owners may may “match” the highest bid for up to two of their players who have received FA bids.
Teams that go over 45 men upon a signing would have to release a player before being allowed to bid again. After the process ends, teams must reduce their roster size to 45 players, at the usual 25% penalty for cuts of existing players is in effect. Or they can pay a 15% penalty (of contract bid value) for newly-signed players.
Any unsigned players can then be signed by owners as F contracts during the season.
Teams with a negative cash balance at the beginning of free agency may not participate. The league office will determine at what point a team is solvent and thus able to participate during the Free Agency process.

TRADING

Teams may trade their players, draft picks, cash, or players to be named later. Players to be named later, however, must be “named” in the original trade announcement. Such players will then switch teams after the season in which the trade takes place.
Teams may trade year-round with the following exceptions - Postseason rosters are finalized at midnight, September 30, trading is prohibited during the playoffs, expansion proceedings and two days before, during, and afterthe amateur draft and free agency.
In all trades, both managers must confirm the trade with the commissioner.
If the trade violates any league rules, is incomplete, inaccurate, or not in the best interest of the league, the commissioner will notify both teams. The Executive Committee reserves the right to disallow any trade it deems not in the best interest of the league. The league may veto this decision with a 75% majority.
Any trade may be appealed by a PSBL member If 3 teams so appeal, the EXCOM will determine the legality of the trade.
No trade may result in a team’s failing to comply with the roster requirements. If a team makes a trade extending its roster max levels, they must announce as part of the deal, the necessary moves to bring them into compliance (i.e. releasing a player, additional trade).
Each team must submit an updated CM within 3 days following a trade. (after the updated LZP has been released).

RELEASE AND WAIVER POLICY

Teams may release players at any time of the year. These players then become available to be signed by any team to an F contract (defined above).

In order to release a player, the team must submit the request, using the player release spreadsheet, to the commissioner AND the league accountant. The cut is made public to the league. If no one claims him after two days, the contract is void, and he can be signed as an F contract. Claiming rights are reverse order of the current standings. Interested teams must submit their claim by e-mail.

If the player becomes an F contract eligible player, the league is notified. Upon notification, claims can be made by any team at appropriate F contract levels. The contract amount will be based on the equivalent A contract, based upon service time. Players with more than 6 years MLB service will cost $4 million to sign.