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CONSTITUTION OF THE The World Baseball Association was founded with the intent of providing an international association-style online OOTP league. To that end there are geographical requirements for team locations and specific rules that are in place to support that goal. The basic background leading to the league is that baseball has become a greater international sport by the year 2100 when the WBA begins. The WBA represents the highest level of baseball on the planet when it begins play that year. A. The WBA will begin play with two leagues that each contain two divisions. These leagues, the Americas League and the Intercontinental League, are not subleagues of a single main league but are two distinct entities. The champions of each league will play in the best-of-nine World Championship Series every year. 1. The Americas League will have two divisions - the North American Division (Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and the United States) and the Latin American Division (the remainder of the Americas). 2. The Intercontinental League will have two divisions - the Afro-European Division (all African and European nations) and the Asian Division (all Asian and Oceania nations). 3. Season length will be 156 games with no All-Star game. Teams will play the other 4 teams in their division 24 times each (96 games) and the 5 teams in the other division 12 times each (60 games). a. Tiebreakers for division and wild card places will be in accordance with rules posted on this thread. When OOTP does not schedule them correctly, the games will be manually edited by the commissioner. b. Due to the WBA revenue model (see Financial System section) tiebreaker games will also be scheduled to decide non-playoff finishes within a division. If two teams are tied a coin flip will decide the home team. If more than two teams are tied a random draw will decide the two teams and then a coin flip will decide the home team. 4. Division winners and two wild cards will qualify for the playoffs. Each league will play a best-of-seven semifinal series and a best-of-seven championship series. 5. The league was created with teams in specific locations based on those geographical alignments. Founding and new owners may relocate their teams provided they provide a logo and uniform set for their team after the move. Additionally the team must remain within the geographical alignments and must also be located in an urban area/urban agglomeration/metropolitan area recognized to have a population of at least 2,000,000 and the city name must be the primary city of that area. B. Each team shall have four minor league organizations (AAA, AA, A, Rookie). 1. There are no age limits for any particular level of play, owners are free to organize their systems as they wish. 2. Each minor league structure will mimic the parent league, including division alignments. Minor league teams must be from the same nation as their parent team. City size is not enforced for minor league teams. 3. All minor leagues are full season leagues with a 134 game schedule (26 games against each team in the same division and 6 games against each team in the other division). 4. Playoff qualification for the minor leagues is the same as the major league level but playoff series will be best-of-five. 5. Roster limits are as follows: AAA - 25 AA - 25 A - 30 R - 35 C. Possible expansion will be discussed by the league as a whole and will be subject to the Amendment Procedure. [ Back to Top ] A. The WBA will be governed by majority rule to the fullest extent possible, but the Commissioner shall retain the right to enact league changes deemed in the best interest of the league. Unilateral action will be avoided as much as possible. B. WBA Commissioner 1. General Duties a. The Commissioner has ultimate responsibility for (i) setting deadlines for team exports, (ii) running simulations, (iii) maintaining the League website, (iv) supervising the draft, (v) overseeing free agency, and (vi) all other issues of day-to-day governance of the WBA. b. The Commissioner may delegate his responsibilities as necessary. 2. Replacement a. The WBA Commissioner serves a lifetime term. b. In the event that the Commissioner retires, the role will be passed to the current owner receiving the most votes (plurality) in a leaguewide election. C. League Commissioners 1. General Duties a. Each major league will also have a League Commissioner (separate from the WBA Commissioner) who will assist the commissioner in enforcing the WBA rules with particular focus paid to the teams in that specific league. Their primary focus will be reviewing the rosters of their league's teams to ensure that no roster or contract violates the provisions of this constitution either intentionally or accidentally. [ Back to Top ] A. The WBA is open to any owner, and all owners shall control one team in the WBA. The WBA will start with OOTP 16 and will update to new versions of the program at times to be decided by the membership. B. Owners should stay as active as possible to ensure the health and future of the WBA. Owners that persist in a lengthy period of inactivity may be removed from the league by league vote or unilateral commissioner action. Warnings will be given prior to any such action. C. If an owner will not be able to participate for a certain period of time due to vacation or any other reason, they may post regarding their time away on the forum and that will be taken into account. D. The Waiting List shall be maintained by the Commissioner. Any person who requests placement on the Waiting List and who provides information requested by, and follows a procedure created by, the Commissioner, may have their names placed on the Waiting List subject to the Commissioner's discretion. 1. There is no express order to the Waiting List. Being on the Waiting List confers no rights to a team nor does it guarantee future WBA ownership. [ Back to Top ] A. Regular season simulations will be run 5 times in every 7-day period, usually on a Sunday-Thursday schedule. Postseason and offseason sim schedules may differ and any changes will be published on the forum. 1. Team exports are due by 8:30 pm Central on the day of the sim. 2. An owner who shows a pattern of submitting faulty exports that endanger the physical integrity of the league file shall be subject to discipline at the discretion of the commissioner. 3. Each regular-season simulation will process one week in the WBA and will be run without interruption. No changes may be made once the simulation has commenced. If, after the simulation has commenced, an error is found that makes continuation of the sim impossible or endangers the physical integrity of the league file, the Commissioner (or other owner delegated to run the simulation) may (i) make any changes to a team's roster, (ii) abort the simulation, or (iii) take any other reasonable action that he deems to be in the best interests of the league. 4. If the commissioner is unable to simulate games according to schedule, he will make every reasonable effort to notify the owners that there will be a delay, either by e-mail or via the WBA website or Forum. 5. A new league file will be made available and corresponding HTML output will be updated as soon as possible following the conclusion of the scheduled simulation. B. No "simming ahead" is allowed except by the WBA Commissioner, the League Commissioners or their delegates in their official capacity, and such "simming ahead" should only be conducted when such action is in the best interests of the league. "Simming ahead" is defined as (i) simulating scheduled regular season or playoff games before the season in which those games would have occurred is completed or (ii) any other action in which the league file is used to simulate games or events in advance to gain a competitive advantage over other league owners. Any owner found to have done so is subject to discipline at the discretion of the commissioner. [ Back to Top ] A. The WBA will not utilize the OOTP revenue system but will instead utilize a revenue system defined within this section. 1. The goal of the WBA revenue system will be for all teams to earn an average of $50,000,000 in revenue every season. 2. Each team will receive a National Media (NM) contract payout of $20,000,000 each season. 3. Each team will receive a Local Media (LM) contract payout based on the previous two years and determined by the following formula. a. $300,000 * [26 - (Last season finish in standings) - (Two years ago finish in standings) + ((Last year wins) + (Two years ago wins) - 156)/12] 4. Each team will receive merchandising (MER) revenue based on the previous two years and determined by the following formula. a. $(42,735 + 10/234) * (Two years ago wins) + $(85,470 + 20/234) * (Last year wins) 5. Each team will receive a wins based payout (WP) of $(76,923 + 6/78) per win. a. To ensure consistent revenue in the WBA in the event of tiebreaker games, tiebreaker games will be considered by this formula to add half a win for the winner and subtract half a win for the loser. 6. Each team will receive a team strength based payout (TS) of $4,000,000 multipled by their pythagorean winning percentage. a. The WBA utilizes an exponent of 1.83 for the pythagorean calculation. 7. Each team receives a season finish based payout (SF) determined by their place in the division standings and according to the following schedule. 1st Place - $9,000,000 8. In the first two seasons values of 78 wins, a 0.500 pythagorean winning percentage, and third place finishes will be used in the formulas for past seasons that do not exist. B. WBA expenditures and player contracts will be controlled within the game and according to the following rules. 1. For the initial season all teams will have a $50,000,000 budget and $10,000,000 in cash. 2. The cash maximum is $50,000,000. 3. Prior to each subsequent season, team budgets will be determined as follows: The known NM, LM, and MER values based on the previous two seasons plus estimated WP, TS, and SF payouts utilizing the previous year's pythagorean winning percentage. 4. The minimum salary in all major leagues is $200,000. 5. Players are eligible for free agency after 5 years, arbitration begins after 3 years of service and will be handled in-game. Minor league free agency occurs after 5 years. 6. In-game extensions are allowed. 7. Contracts, either extension or free agent, may be offered for a maximum of 5 years. 8. No contract offer, either free agent or extension, may have any year with a salary less than 90% the value of the previous year in the contract. 9. No contract offer, either free agent or extension, may have any year with a salary greater than 110% the value of the previous year. 10. All team option years must include a buyout equal to at least 25% of the option year salary. C. Current financial projections and year-end financial results will be available at all times via the website. These financial pages are based on the OOTP CSV export data that is also used to power the OOTP Online Utilities (OOTPOU). [ Back to Top ] A. All free agency claims are to be handled in-game within the OOTP software. B. Free agents ARE allowed to move between leagues. As the WBA has no shared draft this is a mechanism for players to move from one league to the other. C. Any changes to free agency rules must be accomplished via constitutional amendment. [ Back to Top ] A. The trading deadline is July 31st in OOTP time. The final trades of the season will be processed following the completion of the sim week immediately prior to the sim week encompassing July 31st. B. Trades between leagues ARE allowed. C. Any combination of players, draft picks, and/or cash may be traded aside from the limitations listed below. 1. "Players to be named later" and conditional picks are not allowed. 2. No draft pick from any round later than the 5th may be traded. 3. Only picks from the next two drafts may be traded. D. Retained salary may be included in trades, but please accomplish this with cash instead if at all possible. E. All trades are final after both owners have confirmed the trade in the appropriate board on the Forum and the commissioner has acknowledged the trade. F. Trades will be processed before the next sim, so instructions for roster assignments of the traded players should be included in the post. G. Human-CPU trades are not allowed. H. The commissioner will publish and keep updated a list of draft picks for the next two drafts in the first five rounds. [ Back to Top ] VIII. ROSTER, POSITION AND INDIVIDUAL PLAYER SETTING RESTRICTIONS A. 25-man active roster and 40-man secondary roster are in effect, postseason roster rules are disabled. Expanded roster size is 40 players and takes effect on September 1st of each season. B. All owners shall have complete lineups and depth charts submitted in order to expedite simulations. C. There are no restrictions on position learning in the minor leagues. D. Any rotation setup allowed by the OOTP software may be used. E. Owners are responsible only for managing their own settings, not for in-game moves made by the OOTP AI. F. To the extent that OOTP allows for individual player settings, an owner may change any of these settings [ Back to Top ] A. After the World Championship Series, the season awards shall be voted on by active WBA owners via Stats+. Discussion in the forum is actively encouraged. In the event of a tie vote, first place votes will be the first tiebreaker and the OOTP software shall serve as the second tiebreaker. [ Back to Top ] A. Hall of Fame induction shall be voted on by active WBA owners via Stats+. Discussion in the forum is actively encouraged. The following rules apply: 1. There is no waiting period following retirement. 2. Further requirements may be enacted via the Amendment Procedure. [ Back to Top ] A. Amendments to the WBA Constitution can only be implemented in one of the two ways listed below. Any owner may post a proposal at any time in the appropriate forum. If and when it becomes clear that the proposal has been fully discussed and has sufficient support to warrant a vote, the commissioner will open the voting. Votes may be submitted only via post on the voting forum thread. 1. The amendment will pass if it garners a YEA vote from 2/3 of current owners at any time during a one-month voting period. 2. The amendment will pass if has garnered a YEA vote from 4/5 of submitted votes after one week. [ Back to Top ] XII. TECHNICAL MATTERS AND GAME SETTINGS A. Designated Hitter 1. There will be no DH in the WBA. B. Inaugural Drafts 1. Draft order will be determined in-game by the OOTP software. 2. The drafts will begin when the league is filled. After the league is filled the commissioner will announce that the league is underway and there will be a three day draft preparation period. 3. Each team will have a $50,000,000 budget for the inaugural draft. 4. The inaugural drafts will be run via OOTPOU. 5. The WBA Inaugural Drafts will be league-specific. Draft order, pools, and selections are limited to each league individually (Americas League and Intercontinental League), i.e., there is no shared association draft. 6. The draft pool origin settings have been set so that players in each league draft are only from that league's nations. The percentages are based on a commissioner-determined combination of nation population and baseball quality. 7. 25 rounds of the Inaugural Drafts will be run via OOTPOU. The remainder of the Inaugural Drafts will be run automatically within OOTP. C. Amateur Draft 1. Draft order will be determined by regular season in ascending order of winning percentage (including any played regular season tiebreaker games). In the event of any ties, head-to-head record between the involved teams shall be the first tiebreaker and the previous season's winning percentage shall be the second tiebreaker. If teams remain tied then random draw will determine order. In the case of all ties, the tiebreakers utilized will determine draft order in the first round and then the picks will alternate in following rounds. 2. The amateur draft date will be set for February 1st each year and the draft pool reveal will be set so that it takes place as soon as possible after the end of the regular season. The draft will then be loaded into Stats+ as soon as possible so that owners may begin working on their lists. The draft timer will become active two mornings after the conclusion of the WBA Championship Series. 3. The WBA Amateur Drafts will be league-specific. Draft order, pools, and selections are limited to each league individually (Americas League and Intercontinental League), i.e., there is no shared association draft. 4. The draft pool origin settings have been set so that players in each league draft are only from that league's nations. The percentages are based on a commissioner-determined combination of nation population, baseball quality, and number of WBA team seasons in the past 8 years. 5. Amateur drafts will be 20 rounds long and the game has been set to generate players for 24 rounds. 6. Draft timer is 3 hours for Rounds 1 and 2, 2 hours for Rounds 3-5, and 1 hour for all remaining rounds. D. Spring Training 1. Spring training will be utilized each season in each league of the WBA. E. Park Changes 1. A WBA owner is allowed to make changes to the team's home park effects under the following stipulations: a. The owner must use the WBA Ballpark Creator Tool to design the park. b. The WBA office reserves the right to enforce either the use or the non-use of a humidor depending on the resulting park factors. c. Upon a change to park factors the park may not be changed until either 5 seasons have passed or team ownership has changed. d. The owner may apply for a waiver to the WBA Ballpark Creator Tool requirement if the tool's results are extreme or for any other reason. The commissioner will rule alone on the waiver. e. All minor league parks will be domes with 1.0 park factors across the board. F. Changing Player Positions 1. Owners may change the primary position of their players so long as the player has a defensive rating at the new position. G. OOTP Settings 1. 1995 statistical settings were imported to begin the league. 2. Automatic evolution settings are OFF except for "More/less offense" and "More/less pitching" which are ON. 3. Coaching and scouting systems are turned off. 4. Scouting is therefore 100% accurate and is on a 1-10 scale for all abilities. Overall and potential ratings are in stars and Ratings > Max and Potential < Actual are both YES. 5. Storylines are enabled. 6. Injury frequency is set to MEDIUM and delayed injury diagnosis is set to NEVER. A modified injuries.txt file is used. 7. Suspensions are set to LOW and drug suspensions are enabled. 8. The Personality and Morale systems are both OFF. 9. Player development settings are as follows: Batter Development: 1.150 10. Rainouts are OFF in both leagues. [ Back to Top ] A. Format 1. The WBA Cup will be a quadrennial tournament between national teams played in January. The inaugural WBA Cup will be held in 2108 in the United States and each subsequent edition will be played in the previous winner's nation. 2. There will be four groups of four teams each for a total of 16 teams. Each group will play a double round-robin and group winners will advance to the best-of-3 semifinals, with the semifinal winners advancing to the best-of-3 finals. 3. Group play tiebreakers will default to OOTP but may be manually revised as necessary by the commissioner. 4. Nations will qualify for the WBA Cup based on the number of currently active professionals in the WBA as of Opening Day of the season before the tournament. The eight nations with the most active professionals from each region (ABL and IBL) will qualify. Ties will be broken based on WBA team location as the first tiebreaker and then number of players at each specific level beginning with the major leagues and moving down. B. Miscellaneous Settings 1. Injuries will be turned off from Opening Day of the WBA Cup until the day after the final game is played. A. Player Development Settings added (Section XII-F-9) - Amendment Vote B. Amendment Procedure changed (Section XI) - Amendment Vote C. Team Option 25% Buyout Value requirement added (Section V-B-10) - Amendment Vote D. Annual salary decrease allowed (Section V-B-8) - Amendment Vote E. Park Changes Section modified to require WBA Ballpark Creator Tool (Section XII-D) - Unilateral change by commissioner F. Trading Section modified to allow draft pick trades between leagues (Section VII-C-3) - Amendment Vote G. Rainouts turned off (Section XII-F-10) - Unilateral change by commissioner H. Regular season sim schedule (Section IV-A) - Amendment Vote I. Arbitration System Added (Section V-D) - Amendment Vote J. Team Exports time due changed from 9:00 to 8:30 Central (Section IV-A) - Unilateral change by commissioner K. Tiebreaker Rules added (Section I-A-3-a) - Unilateral change by commissioner L. Major Changes to Trading (Section VII) - Unilateral change by commissioner M. Miscellaneous Changes to Draft Rules (Section XII), Arbitration Changed to In-Game (Section V), WBA Cup Section Added (Section XIII), Amendment Section Changed to XV from XIII - Unilateral change by commissioner N. Addition of Minor League Park Factors rule - Unilateral change by commissioner O. Injury setting changes (Section XII-G-6, move to Medium with modified injuries.txt file) - Unilateral change by commissioner [ Back to Top ] (Constitution format and style credit to The FOBL. Used with permission.) |
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