Written: September 1998
Revised: June 2, 2004
New Changes in Red
Great Midwest Baseball League (GMBL)
The GMBL is a Fall\Winter league using Strat-O-Matic's most recent verion of the CD-ROM baseball game.
A. LEAGUE POSITIONS
The GMBL shall have the following positions and position responsibilities:
Executive Committee: The Executive Committee shall consist of the Commissioner, the AL President and the NL President. The Executive Committee's responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
B. MEMBERSHIP
Additional members shall be added on a "NEED" basis and be decided by the Executive Committee.
The League shall consist of 24 teams; each owned by a separate member, divided into 2 Leagues of 12 teams each. There will be 3 divisions inside of the leagues with respect to geographical logistics maximizing Face to Face play wherever possible.
If a new owner takes over a team they may choose from any available ballparks in the league they are taking that team over from (no crossovers). He may also choose to trade with an established team or another new owner during the following offseason. This will be retroactive for all new owners during the 1998-1999 or 1999-200 season. Once an owner chooses not to change he will stay with his current ballpark for as long as he owns the team. Original owners will not be able to change ballparks unless switching with a new team (you picked the park, stick with it).
C. SCHEDULE/ROTATIONS
The league shall play a schedule comprised of 162
games. The schedule is set up so that we maximize divisional play early and late
in the season and Inter-league games will be during June and July. The
schedule will run from April til September in Strat terms (November to April
in real life).
Each manager will play their 81 road games on the
schedule with home field advantage turned on.
Pitching Rotations will be sent in by October 15th for the whole year. They will be allowed to be updated at the beginning of each month . Any errors as a result of in season changes will be cause for penalties to be imposed, so if you make changes, make sure you check closely on your usage.
The monthly schedule can be found on the GMBL
Calendar page.
For the final month of the
season we will break the schedule in half, making the games on the 1st thru 15th
due at the end of the first week and games on the 16th through the 30th due at
the end of the second week. (so that we don't hoard all games for the final
day.)
The league will conduct an All-Star game in July of each
year, the date to be the middle date of the three off-day window
set aside for this purpose. The managers for the two leagues teams will be the
respective league managers with the worst record from the previous full season.
The starting lineup will be the players the computer has given the most
"All-Star selection votes" at the end of June. The balance of the rosters will
be filled out with "nominations" from the managers of all teams of their own
players only (due after the end of the June games), and final selection will
rest with the two managers involved, with the proviso that each team in the
league must be represented in the final rosters.
D. ROSTER/PLAYERS
Players eligible for play within the GMBL shall
be players available in the Strat-O-Matic game for that season. The maximum
roster size after the draft is 35 players (carded or non-carded). During
the season, a teams roster may fluctuate between a maximum of 38 players
and a minimum of 32 players to facilitate the ease of multi-player trades.
If at some time, after a player is initially drafted, he does not receive
a Strat-O-Matic baseball card for that season, then he may be kept on the
roster as a non-carded player.
All teams will be required to submit their preseason
roster by October 15th for the new season and the roster must conform to
the maximums and minimums stated above.
During each month of the season, each team will
select an active roster of 25 carded players and all other players will
be placed on the in-active roster. During the final month of the season,
all carded players may be promoted to the active roster, at the discretion
of each Owner/G.M.
Players may only play a position for which they
received a rating in the SOM computer game. The exception to this
rule will be outfielders who may play in any outfield position with the
standard out of position penalty imposed by SOM.
For players that were issued two (2) cards, the
COMBINED card generated by Strat-O-Matic using the combined statistics
for both cards will be used during the season and in the playoffs.
Two weeks prior to the draft, each Owner/G.M.
will reduce his roster to a maximum of 25 (carded or non-carded) players
and will send the unprotected carded players into a player pool to be selected
in the next GMBL draft, along with all free agents and any new cards issued
for that year by Strat-O-Matic.
E. TRADING
Trading shall be permitted with the following
restrictions:
1) There will be a trade freeze on during the
last 2 months of the season and during the playoffs.
Once the playoffs are completed all teams are
free to make trades up to and during the draft in September. Trading
will be permitted during the draft but this provision will be removed if
it is found that the draft is being held up by owners not having trades
made prior to their selection spot. (In other words, once it’s your pick
it’s too late to make a deal). All teams may have no more than 35
players at the conclusion of the draft so keep this in mind when making
trades. (ex. If you make a trade that gives you 27 players after
the cutdown date but before the draft begins, you will not be able to use
your 9th and 10th round picks)
All offseason trading must be completed by October
15th, when the rotations for the new season are due and each team must
submit their pre-season roster.
During the season, all trades prior to the end
of the month will take effect at the beginning of the following month.
To become effective all teams involved in a trade
must report the trade to the Commissioner and respective League Presidents.
The parties involved in a trade may report the trade via phone or e-mail
or U.S. Postal Service mail.
Trades may only involve players (carded or non-carded)
or draft choices in the next draft, however all clubs must be equal to
or below roster limitations when the trade is reported to the League or
must cut a player(s) to get to that limit.
Trades may not involve "player(s) to be named
later". "Future considerations" may only be draft choices and must be clearly
defined at the time of the trade. All players and picks must trade hands
at the time of the deal.
All trades are reviewed and approved by the Executive
Committee. Any trade may be voided by the Executive Committee, however,
the Committee must communicate the reason for voiding the trade to the
League membership. When one or more members of the Executive Committee
are involved in the trade they will not be included in the decision of
whether the trade is valid. Any owner may protest a trade if he feels
that it is not in the best interest of the league and will communicate
this to the Executive Committee along with his reasons and they will render
a final determination following the above guidelines.
F. GMBL DRAFT
Each year, after the issuance of the new set of
Strat-O-Matic baseball game, the GMBL Draft will be held in early September with
the exact date to be announced well in advance by the commissioner. All teams must make the needed cuts to their rosters
in mid-August with the exact date to be announced by the commissioner each
season and notify the League Office which players
are to be protected on their roster. Prior to the date of the draft,
the League shall publish a list of all carded players eligible for the
GMBL draft. All computer-carded players who are not on a GMBL roster are
eligible for the draft.
The first two rounds of the GMBL draft shall be conducted in the chat
room on the league website or any other software that will work for the
league at large should the chat room prove unusable, with the Commissioner
or Vice-Commissioner running the draft. The exact date of the draft
will be determined by the end of February each season so that all owners
will have six months notice of what day the draft will be held on. During the live draft owner will have 3 minutes from the time of
the previous pick being posted to make their selection. After the Commissioner has notified the next
member that he is up the member will then make his selection prior to the
conclusion of the 3 minute limit. Teams may elect to "pass" and not select
a player in a particular round(s). If the team does not pass or make a
selection in the 3-minute time limit he will have until the next manager
makes his selection to pick or the computer will make the selection for
the manager. The draft will continue for a minimum of 10 rounds or
until every team has 35 men on their roster.
Owner/G.M.'s are not required to participate in
the draft in the chat room. If an Owner/G.M. does not wish to participate
in the draft in the chat room, the team must forward, to the Commissioner,
a list of the players they wish to draft, in the order they wish to make
the selections, whether by position or simply by name.
The first round draft order for the bottom 10
non-playoff teams shall be determined by a lottery. The ten teams in the
lottery will each have a chance at the top 5 spots, determined by the following
list:
24th team - 22 chances
Once these are determined, the top five spots
will be determined by drawing from a hat. The first team selected
gets the top pick in the draft. Once that selection is made, the
rest of the chances for that team are removed and the second spot is drawn
for. This continues until the top 5 picks are set for the first round
of the draft. At this point, the five teams left are placed in spots
6 thru 10 in reverse order of their regular season finish.
Playoff teams and the top 6 non-playoff teams
draft order will determined by their won-loss record during the regular
season with the fourteenth (14th) team selecting eleventh, the thirteeth
(13th) team selecting twelvth (12th), etc. From the second round
on, the draft order is determined by the final finish of each team in reverse
order (the worst team picks first, best team picks last).
Any ties for drafting position shall be determined
in the following order:
1.Worst record head-to-head competition.
Each team must draft 650 ABs at each of the 8
fielding positions, as well as DH in the AL and they must have 2 players
rated to play at each position eligble for each game throughout the season. If you do not draft enough
ABs at one position your last pick will be rescinded and the league will
replace that player with one that fixes the usage issue. This will
continue until the team is in full compliance.
G. PLAYOFFS
Each year, at the conclusion of the regular season,
a League Champion shall be "crowned" through a process of playoffs. The 3 division winners and the team with the next
best record regardless of division will qualify as the wildcard in each League
for a total of 8 teams in the playoffs. The wildcard can not face a team
from it's own division in round one and would face the team with the second best
record should this situation arise.
2) The maximum number of players/draft choices
per trade is 10 for both teams.
3) A team may trade picks for the following year
and one year after that but no further once the playoffs have ended (ie
during off-season following the 1999-2000 playoffs you may trade 2000 and
2001 future year picks but not picks in 2002).
23rd team - 12 chances
22nd team - 8 chances
21st team - 5 chances
20th team - 3 chances
19th thru 15th - 1 chance each
2.Worst road record.
3.Smallest run differential (runs scored minus
runs allowed).
4.Coin toss.
Any ties for qualifying for the playoffs shall be
determined by a playoff game or games (if more than two teams involved then use
tiebreakers to decide who plays who).
Any ties for the seeding or qualifying for the
playoffs shall be determined in the following order:
1.Best record head-to-head competition.
All playoff series shall be best of seven (7)
game series with the team with the better seed having the extra home game.
Playoff Schedule
2.Best road record.
3.Largest run differential (runs scored minus
runs allowed).
4.Coin toss.
Home field in the Snow Bowl shall rotate on a yearly basis with the American League being the home team in 2002-2003 and the National League being the home team in 2003-2004.
There is a minimum of 1 off day at the conclusion
of a series and may be more depending on how long the series actually runs. There will be an off day between games 2 and 3 and games 5
and 6 in each series. The playoff rotation will be run continuously and
will be turned in to the league before each series is to begin.
It is mandatory that both teams be played by a human coach for all playoff
games via Netplay, IM or phone. If one coach can not do so, they must find
another coach in the league OR someone from outside the league approved by the
commissioner to coach their team so that both teams have a human coach for all
playoff games. Owner/G.M.'s must submit a playoff roster of twenty-five
(25) players prior to the start of the playoffs. These twenty-five (25)
players will be the only players to play in the playoffs. Owner/G.M.'s
may report rosters via phone or e-mail or U.S. Postal Service mail.
Each team shall be permitted to designate one
(1) pitcher that has "STARTER" ONLY on his card to have the additional
capability of "RELIEF" throughout the playoffs. The pitcher will then be
considered to be a "STARTER/RELIEVER" and will be subjected to the Playing
Rules as far as rest between starts/relief appearances is concerned. (A
starter being used as a reliever will automatically be given a point-of-weakness
rating of three (3).
During the playoffs, players shall be limited
on the following basis per series:
Batters Limit
Pitchers Limit
At-bats and innings pitched totals are from the
back of the player's card.
H. PLAYING RULES
Computer users MUST configure their game as follows
for play:
0-250 at bats- 5% of the total at-bats on the
card
251-399 at bats- 8% of the total at-bats on the
card
400+ unlimited
0-50 IP 10% of the total innings on the card
51-99 IP 15% of the total innings pitched on
the card
100+ unlimited
Pitchers with less than 100 innings on their
card(s) can NOT start in the playoffs.
Starters who are not rated * or do not have 200+
IP can not pitch on 3 days rest.
Players who were unlimited during the season ARE NOT automatically unlimited in
the playoffs and are subject to the rules above.
Use DH for all American League games and NO DH
for all National League games.
When setting up the computer manager, no dead-ball
settings are to be used, this will cause pitchers with starter only on
their card to relieve and we want to avoid this.
All Strat-O-Matic advanced and super advanced
rules shall apply, except where amended or altered by league rule or constitution
changes.
1. All batters with
Batters
2. Pitchers with an ERA of 5.49 or less
who have only STARTER on their card may only start as many games as shown
on their card.
Pitchers with only STARTER on their card Pitchers with an ERA of 5.49 or less who have
only RELIEF on their card may only pitch 110% of the innings shown on their
card. Pitchers with only RELIEF on their card Pitchers with STARTER/RELIEF or RELIEF/STARTER
on their card and an ERA of 5.49 or less fall under both restrictions of
innings pitched and games started. Pitchers with STARTER/RELIEF or RELIEF/STARTER
on their card,
3. Pitchers with STARTER and 200 or more innings
pitched or an * listed on their card(s) will be permitted to start
every fourth (4th) day (three (3) days rest between starts). All
other pitchers with STARTER listed on their card will be permitted to start
every fifth (5th) day (four (4) days rest between starts). These
pitchers are still subject to the above ERA rules.
4.Any pitcher that has both starter and reliever
on their card may do both during a season, 5.Pitchers with STARTER only on their card may
NOT relieve (with the exception of the playoffs,) and pitchers with RELIEF
only on their card may NOT start.
6.The Strat-O-Matic ballpark ratings for hits
and home runs shall be used for each team for the city they are playing
in.
7.Injuries shall NOT be used.
8.Starting pitchers must pitch 4 innings unless
they give up 4 earned runs prior to the 5th inning, or if HAL removes him
for the home team.
DH use for Inter-league games will be determined
by the home club:
AL home team - Use DH
NL home team - No DH
Create/Update Subset Stats
Super Advanced with BK/WP/PB.
Super Advanced Stealing System.
Use Miscellaneous Rules.
Do NOT use injuries
Allow GBA on pitcher's card.
Ballpark/Clutch: Yes; Weather: Yes
Super Advanced Strategy Chart
Use SADV Fatigue Rules (No Pitch Count)
Use Closer Rules
Ignore over usage
SuperHal and SuperPlatoon options will be used
by all teams. Every team must use these features or they will be
invalidated in some games.
The following Max Rules will also be used:
Bunt for Base Hit
Improve out distribution
Improve base running realism
More baserunning decisions
Doubles/Triples option
Realistic Throwing Errors
Robbing HR Rules
Pitch-Around Option
9.Before beginning each series you need to use the
Days Off feature on the Game Setup screen. This will compensate for
fatigue in starting pitchers since we don't have our road games included in the
stats.
I. STATISTICS
Each Owner/G.M. shall be responsible for compiling
statistics for the teams playing at his park and sending them to the opposing
Owner/G.M. Immediately following the conclusion of each home series a manager
will send the game files, subsets, boxscores, play by play and the scoresheet
to each opponent, their respective League President and both the Commissioner
and Asst. Commissioner.
J. COMPUTER MANAGER INSTRUCTIONS
As it has been fixed, we will go back to using
the computer manager export/import functions for this season. All
teams need to set up their computer manager, export it and send a default
one to the commissioner by October 15th. The commissioner will post
each teams default CM on the main web page. Then each month teams
will have until the 1st to send out a new CM to each of their road opponents.
If they are not received by the 1st, the home team has the option of contacting
the road team for a new CM or just playing the game using the default.
Also, the home team will be responsible to let the commissioner know who
did not send them a CM for each month. The road team does have the
option of just telling all his opponents for the month to use his default
file, but keep in mind that you have to make sure you have the proper players
active and that no one gets overused late in the year. There is no
penalty for doing this, teams will only be penalized if they do not make
any contact with their road opponents in a month.
K. PENALTIES
Since we are a play-by-email league, and therefore,
strictly on the honor system, most penalties will be related to lateness,
thoroughness and neatness. Violations that will result in warnings and/or
penalties being levied by the Executive Committee include, but are not
limited to:
1. Late Computer Manager Instructions.
1st occurrence of #1, #2, #3, #4 - Warning
1st occurrence of #5 or #6 - Fined a 4th round
draft choice.
If a team has traded the draft choice that they
would be fined, they will be fined the next highest draft choice available
(i.e. a team is to be fined a 2nd round draft choice, but has traded that
choice, they will be fined a 1st round draft choice.)
7. Exceeding the maximum number of at-bats or
innings pitched allowed for the player (special penalty):
Hitters
Starting Pitchers and Starter/Relievers
Relief Pitchers and Starter/Relievers
In the case where a player is traded after the
overuse occurs, once the draft is completed I will assign the penalty to
a player with similar stats.
Fines are levied against the Owner/G.M. and not
the team. (I.e. if John Smith has lost a 3rd round draft selection due
to fines and he quits the GMBL, the fine will be rescinded.)
L. FRANCHISE FEES
Franchise fees are not charged in this league
unless the price of a web page and the plaque deem it necessary in which
case the whole league will vote upon it.
M. AWARDS/HALL OF FAME
During the last month, teams will submit nominations
of players from their team to place on the post-season ballot for the All-GMBL
Team to League Statistician. At the conclusion of the season and after the final statistics
have been distributed, the following individual awards will be voted on
by the league membership:
1. Player of the Year
N. ADDITIONS/CHANGES/DELETIONS TO THE GMBL
RULES & REGULATIONS
From the beginning of February until the end of
April any Owner/G.M. may "challenge" any rule (with the exception of Rule
"A"). "Challenged" rules are reviewed by the Executive Committee and can
be placed on a ballot to be voted on by the entire League membership during
the month of May with a 2/3 majority being required to change a rule.
Owner/G.M.'s may feel free and are encouraged to use the discussion page
on the league web site to discuss any challenges before bringing them to
the Executive Committee. They must then notify a member of
the Executive Committee of "challenges" by U.S. Postal Service mail or
e-mail and must list the rule to be "challenged" and whether the proposal
is to add, change or delete the rule. If the proposal is to add or change
a rule, the Owner/G.M. must include the exact wording of the addition/change.
The Executive Committee will consider all challenges and additions and
may reject any Rule Challenge if they feel it is not in the best interest
of the league. This will require all four members of the committee
to vote against the proposal to keep it off of the ballot and the information
must be communicated to the League membership and reasons given why this
challenge/addition will not be included on the post-season ballot.
The Executive Committee is empowered to implement
an "executive order" and make temporary additions/changes/deletions to
the R&R's at their discretion to ensure the smooth operation or statistical
accuracy of the League. Any "executive order" executed must
be communicated to the League membership and will be voted on in the following
off-season if it is to be included in the next season.
O. FACE-TO-FACE/PLAY-BY-PHONE PLAY
Face-to-face, play-by-phone play or any play over
the internet between two owners may be substituted for play-by-email during
either the regular season or in the playoffs.
2. Late rosters/monthly inactive list.
3. Late results.
4. Rotation violations.
5. Not submitting post-season nominations.
6. Not submitting post-season ballot.
2nd occurrence of #1, #2, #3, #4 - Fined a 2nd
round draft choice
3rd occurrence of #1, #2, #3, #4 - Fined a 1st
round draft choice.
4th occurrence of #1, #2, #3, #4 - Expulsion
from the League.
Penalized 25 ABs for each AB of overusage the
next season, if it is more than they would have they may be kept on your
roster as an uncarded player or they may be cut and once the draft is completed
I will assign the penalty to a player with similar stats.
Penalized 3 GS for each GS of overusage the next
season, if it is more than they would have they may be kept on your roster
as an uncarded player or they may be cut and once the draft is completed
I will assign the penalty to a player with similar stats.
Penalized 7 IP for each IP of overusage the next
season, if it is more than they would have they may be kept on your roster
as an uncarded player or they may be cut and once the draft is completed
I will assign the penalty to a player with similar stats.
2. Pitcher of the Year
3. Front Office of the Year
4. Rookie of the Year
5. All-Star Team (both leagues)
Any questions or suggestions, email Mark McNeil, page developer.