League Rules (current as of 2029)
Basic Rules
The League requires all owners to do their best to maintain a well-formed organization from top to bottom. Owner responsibilities include:
• To maintain a roster by exporting regularly.
• To be responsive to emails, IMs, and posts/PM's on the message boards.
• To participate in league votes and drafts.
Being an owner in this League gives you the following rights:
• The right to be heard; both for trade offers, and in suggesting changes to the league.
• The right to have the league work effectively (i.e. without extended down periods) in perpetuity.
• The right to be able to participate in any future leagues.
If you as an owner cannot fulfill your duties for an extended period of time or if you lose interest in the league, please notify the Commissioner and we will make the appropriate arrangements. Given that TTWB runs with one Commissioner and 2 Co-Commissioners, there should always be someone around to answer any questions you may have.
Each season will take approximately three months “real time” to complete. It will constitute of 162 regular season games, a best-of-seven Division Series, a best-of-seven League Championship, and a best-of-seven World Series. Seven (7) days will be simulated, and sims will typically be run on Tuesday (evening)/Thursday (mid-day)/Saturday (morning). Once a season is completed, there will be a week-long break to discuss any changes that need to be made to the league prior to moving forward in the next season. Suggestions for changes should be made on the League Message Board.
Roster Rules
The League runs with standard modern roster rules. The major league (i.e., “active”) roster is limited to 25 men, and we play with a 40-man roster rule (follow this link for a complete explanation). Along with 40-man rosters, we have waivers, and minor league free agency. To facilitate roster motion, you are allowed to DFA players for up to 15 days (follow this link for a complete explanation).
From the moment a player is added to the 40 man roster, they get a major league contract of 500k/yr. This lasts salary is in place for (approximately) the first three years of Major League Service, upon which they get arbitration for (no less than) three years, and finally are granted free agency at the end of the six year period. For the purposes of calculating playing time, 172 days constitutes a year, and players have only 3 option years where they can be shuffled between major league and minor league rosters.
Minor League roster limits are as follows (for 2029 season):
AAA - 25
AA - 25
A - 30
Short A - 35
R - 35
WL - 0
Roster Constituency
You must ensure that you can field a reasonable major league team at all times. This means you must have 4 healthy SP's on your roster and 4 healthy MR's at all times. In addition to having a healthy starter for all 8 positions, you must also have a capable backup at each of these positions, although a single player can back up multiple positions. You must have at least 3 positional backup players, including at least one capable of playing C, one capable of playing IF, and one capable of playing OF. At key junctures during the season (the start of the season, the all-star break, and one month after a major injury on your team), whatever changes necessary to make sure a reasonable team is fielded will be made by the Commish if the team’s owner has not done such. If this occurs, a search for a new owner will begin shortly afterward unless the Commish or Co-Commissioners are notified.
Roster Moves
Roster moves will be processed before every sim. Your lineup exports will effectively take care of not just your lineups, but also waivers, waiver claims, free agent signings, contract extensions, and player releases.
Free agency and contract extensions will be handled using the game's built-in engine. Each owner will be able to make offers to their own players along with free agents from within the game. The owner must export his file in order for these offers to be processed.
Trades must be confirmed in the forums by all teams involved before they will be processed. Trading is allowed only between the beginning of the offseason and July 31 without waivers, between August 1 and the end of the regular season for players clearing waivers.
Trades allowed include:
• Players
• Draft Picks (ONLY rounds 1-5 of upcoming draft may be traded)
• Cash
• Players to be named later
Trades may NOT include:
• Future Considerations
Draft Day trades can not include players - due to possible trade veto scenarios
Pick trading:
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Owners will be allowed to trade picks from June 1st (following the conclusion of the current draft) to May 1st. You can only trade picks for rounds 1-5 of next upcoming draft.
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There will be no pick trading from May 1st TTWBtime to June 1st TTWBtime - regardless of it is MiLBers, other picks, or cash being swapped.
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A pick can only be traded once. Example: Ludington cannot acquire Iowa City's 3rd round pick on July 1st, 2028 and then include it in a trade with Potthole on Feb 1st, 2029.
*Team Option Rule
In order to prevent abuse of team options, if anyone implements a final team option that's greater than 150% of the lowest annual salary on players with an average annual salary of $10 million or greater, (not including incentives), that team option will be converted to a player option.
*Waiver Claims
If you claim an 'out of options' player on the waiver wire, he must be placed on your 40-man roster BEFORE you designate him a spot in your system. In addition, he must be added to your Active Roster (25-man), OR be exposed again to waivers before being assigned to your minor league system.
Career Ending Injuries
Career ending injuries will be converted to 12 month injuries if the owner of the injured player informs the commissioner within one (1) month game time of the injury. The 12 months will be retroactive to the date of the career ending injury.
Stadium
Ballparks may be modified at the beginning of any season at a cost of $5 million. No park factor will be allowed to exceed 1.300, and no park factor will be allowed to go below .700.
TTWB initial player acquisitions
Free Agency:
Free Agency in TTWB operates very similar to that of MLB. There is one difference though; a team signing a player will NOT lose their draft pick for the following year. As such, only “Type A “Free Agents receive compensation in TTWB now. While the game automatically gives the team who lost a FA the signing team’s pick, the Commissioner will go reverse this prior to the draft. It is up to each team to make sure they have the correct amount of picks 1 week before the draft. If the draft comes up and those picks are NOT correct, the Commish will NOT change them and it is up to the teams themselves to figure out compensation.
Note 12/8/14: You cannot offer a milb contract to a FA who played at the major league level during the previous season, until Spring Training opens. Question - when does that window start, when free agents file, October, or after World Series?
The Amateur Draft:
The TTWB draft will take place May 1 - June 1 in the game. If a team’s picks are not correct prior to May 31 in the game, they cannot be changed. As such, it is up to each team to make sure they are correct. The amateur draft is 15 rounds long, and picks will initially be processed via email. For rounds 1-4, we conduct an email draft using a shared Google doc. All remaining rounds will be CPU’d. Owners who pick that day will send the Commissioner a draft queue OR must be ready to make a pick – otherwise, the computer will make the pick.
OOTP still has some bugs in their draft module. As such, tweaking of the class may be required from year to year and the Commissioner’s discretion. One noticeable bug is the amount of two-pitch Starting Pitchers. While OOTP claims that these pitchers will learn a 3rd pitch, that has yet to be seen on and noticeable level; thus starting pitchers will be tweaked a higher rate than most other positions
Rule 5 Draft
The Rule 5 draft is a yearly draft, typically held in December, wherein major league teams can select certain players who are not protected by their teams. The draft was originally intended to prevent teams with better financial situations from hoarding young players.
Differences between OOTP and Real-World Rule 5 Drafts
OOTP's implementation of the Rule 5 draft does not match the real-world version of the draft in every way. Here are the ways in which the OOTP Rule 5 differs from the real world:
· In the real world, teams pay a fee for selecting a player. This fee does not exist in OOTP.
· In the real world, a minor league phase of the Rule 5 exits. It does not exist in OOTP.
Rule 5 Draft Roster Rules
There are a number of roster rules relating to Rule 5 drafts.
1. A team that wants to select a player in the Rule 5 draft must have at least one spot open on its secondary roster.
2. A player selected in the Rule 5 draft must remain on the selecting team's active roster or disabled list for the entire season, or else you shall release him.
3. A player who was drafted in the Rule 5 draft can be waived. If he is claimed, then the player must remain on the claiming team's active roster for the remainder of the season (or release him).
4. A player selected in the Rule 5 draft can be traded. The team that receives the player must keep the player on its active roster for the remainder of the season (or release him).
5. A player selected in the Rule 5 draft must spend 90 days on the active roster. This rule prevents teams from picking players and then dumping them on the disabled list for an entire season to avoid using an active roster spot. This rule can extend into the following season if necessary.
6. A player selected in the Rule 5 draft can be released - see below.
Rule 5 Draft Eligibility
A player is eligible for the Rule 5 draft if he meets the conditions listed below. Follow the links to learn more about some of the terms used below:
1. The player has at least three but fewer than six years of professional service time, and the player was age 19 or older when he first signed a contract.
2. The player is not on the team's secondary roster.
Note: Players who were age 18 or younger when they entered the league are eligible if they have at least four, but fewer than seven years of professional service time. In other words, young players get an extra year before they become eligible for the Rule 5 draft.
Another way of looking at this rule is this:
A player not on a team's secondary roster is eligible for the Rule 5 draft if the player was age 18 or younger when he first signed a contract and this is the fourth Rule 5 draft since he signed, OR if he was age 19 or older when he first signed a contract and this is the third Rule 5 draft since he signed.
Players who are eligible for the Rule 5 draft are designated by a pound sign (#) on the Transactions page. You can also see a player's Rule 5 eligibility on the Contract & Status subpage.
Rule 5 Draft Process
The Rule 5 draft progresses in reverse order of the team's final record in the previous season. The draft proceeds just like any other player draft in OOTP, with one notable difference: only a team with an available slot on its secondary roster can select a player. If a team does not have an available slot, its turn is skipped. The draft continues until all teams have either selected a player or had their turn skipped. Most Rule 5 drafts are relatively short affairs, with only a few teams selecting players.
Releasing Your Rule 5 Pick
1. Rule 5 players are returned to the original team by sending an e-mail announcing that intention to ttwb-trades@gmail.com
2. Any team wishing the claim a Rule 5 player can do so by responding to that e-mail announcing their intention to make a claim. Waiver priority will be the same as during the regular season.
3. Any team claiming a Rule 5 player from waivers must comply with the normal Rule 5 requirements (i.e., player must either remain on 25-man roster or the DL).
4. If unclaimed after a period of at least 24 hours, the player will be considered waived and designated for assignment (removing him from the 40 man roster) and returned to the original team's AAA affiliate (or highest affiliate with a roster spot available).
TTWB Finances
TTWB moved to a cap-less league starting in the 2021 season. There are no more local media contracts which favor one team over another due to past success. We will operate with National media revenue to each team of $37.5 Mill per year. Carry-over cash was reduced from the 2021 level of $30 Mill to $20 Million starting in 2022. In order to retain competitive balance we have also capped stadium size at 45K. Ticket prices are not capped by the league. Revenue sharing is in place as well which should tax every team over $75 Mill in salary.
As we have seen, OOTP 12 has treated team financials a bit more “fair” than in past iterations of the program. Furthermore, we have added a few more wrinkles for ways to use money, such as draft bonuses, player development budget, and the player auction. With all the changes to revenues and costs, we would like to help the owners understand exactly where money is coming from and where it is going, while also helping to describe what you see on the financial page. First, we will cover each of the various revenue sources, which are as follows:
CASH - think of this as the carryover profit from the previous season (because that is what it is). We have capped the amount that owners can carryover from year to year to prevent teams from just banking an insane amount of money. We feel that in the past this has led to some owners making some unreasonable contract offers, which ends up being detrimental to both the owner and the league in the long run. By capping carryover cash, you can never go into a season with more than 20 million of your previous season’s profit. We feel that this is realistic, because if you were to a real life situation, a team’s owner owns the team to make a profit, so we see the money that is over 20 million as the owner’s way of realizing his profit so he can expand his pizza business.
Gate Revenue - this is based on your attendance multiplied by your ticket cost. You can maximize this by adjusting your ticket prices to suit the demand for your team. Winning teams have higher demands and can charge a greater ticket price while still selling out. Playoff Revenue - if you make the playoffs, you will get some extra money.
Media Revenue - this is a fixed number (37.5 Mill currently) that is given to every team at the start of the season. We can adjust this to account for unexpected issues with financials, such as the game paying everyone on your 40 man roster a major league salary of (at least) 500k. Regardless of the adjustment, each team will receive the same fixed amount per year.
Merchandising Revenue - this tends to coincide with the quality of your team, attendance, fan interest, player popularity, etc. If your team is better, you will likely see more money from merchandising.
Revenue Sharing - this is a relatively low amount that is intended to help teams that may be hurting financially. The game determines this amount, and we are still working to tweak how this works. Again, it’s not a very big number, relatively speaking. So, the above is where your money comes from. At the beginning of the season, your balance will reflect the amount of carryover cash you have, plus the media revenue. However, your balance will be lower than that total, due to a few projected costs, which will be explained below.
The following are the costs of running your team that will ultimately determine your final loss/profit:
Player Expenses- this is the amount of money that you spend on players. This may end up being higher or lower than your “payroll” if you add/remove players via trade during the season.
Player Development Costs - this is the amount of money you spend on developing your minor league players. This amount does not show up on your Financial Overview page on the web. You can adjust this amount during Feb/March (spring training).
Final Year End Balance - To determine your final year-end balance, you merely subtract your costs from the revenue sources. To determine whether you made as much as you spent, simply compare your balance to the CASH amount that you began with. If you made a profit, you may want to consider spending more money on player development, or maybe you should spend on a free agent to improve your team. You could also consider spending on a player during the auction, or drafting players with larger bonus demands. You could buy out a player that makes too much.
If you suffered a loss, you may want to consider spending less on player development. You could look at trading a higher priced vet to a team with a better profit outlook. You could consider making trades where cash becomes a factor.
You will notice that if you consult the webpage and look at your financial overview, that your current Balance is lower than your Media+Cash sum. That is because the game is assuming costs for player development and the draft. You running “Balance” amount is sort of a measure of cash on hand, because the game treats your player development and draft bonuses as large lump sum expenditures that you need to set money aside for. If you plan to spend less on the draft or player development costs, you can mentally add that amount to your balance to give you an idea of where you stand during the preseason. Once the season starts, the player development budget is set, but you still have control over how much you ultimately spend on the draft when the time comes.
Hopefully the above gives us a good idea of where all the money goes. We should strive to at least break even each year. The 20 million that we allow teams to carryover can help offset a single season loss, or even a few seasons if you are losing 5 million per year. It gives you enough of a cushion that you should have ample time to adjust your spending or consider more financially efficient ways of building a winning team.