PENN Rulebook

I. Penn League Basics

A. The Diamond Mind Baseball (DMB) computer program is used to simulate the Penn League season.

B. Teams will be divided into, as close as possible, an equal number of teams in 2 or 3 divisions.

C. A complete 162 game regular season schedule is utilized to determine the divisional championships, as well as wildcard teams for the Penn playoff competition. If there is a tie for the final wildcard spot or the championship of one of the divisions, there will be a one game playoff between the teams to determine the winner. If there is a tie between the two division winners or wildcard teams, the following method will be used to determine the higher seed:

1. Head-to-Head record

2. Division record

3. Coin Toss

D. Game play generally occurs daily, with occasional scheduled off-days.

E. Daily postings of box scores and standings on game days can be found in the appropriate Penn League bulletin board subject.

F. All rules changes and proposals must be agreed to by a ¾ majority of current GMs in order to pass, unless otherwise specifically noted.

G. A season is considered to start the day after the league champion is determined, and ends with the crowning of the league champion.

II. Team Rosters

A. Major League Roster

1. Each team is allowed up to a 40 player major league roster and a 20 player minor league roster.

2. The roster should be planned and developed to get a team through all the trials and tribulations of a 162 game schedule. This is the pool from which injured players, etc. may be replaced.

3. Free agents (or players currently not on any team's roster) may NOT be added to a team roster while the season is in progress. Undrafted players will remain that way until, at least, the next post-season player draft.

B. Active (Major) Roster

1. Each team will have 25 players on the current, active, major league roster, through September 1. On September 1, all rosters will expand to 40 players.

2. Out of Time Players - Every team must field a valid lineup every game, which is that every spot in the lineup is filled with a player who eligible to play that position. If a team can not field a full team, they have 72 hours in which to rectify the situation through trades. If the team does not rectify the situation in 72 hours, the commissioner will place a qualified minor leaguer from the team's roster to fill the position, or if none is available, the worst available free agent qualified to fill the missing position. The worst free agent will be defined for batter as the player with a defensive rating of AVG or worse with the lowest OBS, regardless of ABs. For a pitcher, it will be a pitcher with a Durability rating of AV or worse for the category (Starter or Reliever) that needs to be replaced, with the highest ERA available, regardless of IPs. The new free agent player's time is exempt from expiring.

C. Minor League Roster

1. Players who are still have their minor league or rookie eligibility status can be placed on the minor league roster. Teams can only have 20 players on this roster at any time.

2. Players on this roster cannot be placed on the active, major league roster until after September 1, and are not eligible to play in the playoffs.

D. Injuries

1. The DMB Injury Option is NOT used.

E. Moves/Changes

1. All routine roster/lineup/managerial changes should be communicated via either e-mail to the commissioner or the Penn League bulletin board. All changes should be accompanied with all pertinent information as specified by the commish, including players that are changing from the active and inactive roster, lineups, pitching information, spot starting percentages, platoons and managerial tendencies.

2. Minor league assignments are for a minimum of 15 games. Thus, once a player is sent down, a minimum of 15 days have to pass before he can return to the active roster.

3. Roster Change Deadline is 10 PM ET. Changes should be submitted before that time to guarantee that they will be in effect for the upcoming game that night.

F. Position eligibility

1. Players are only eligible for their DMB specified position(s).

3. Outfielders may play any outfield position, although there may be an inherent defensive penalty applied within DMB in "out of position" situations.

G. Protected Players (off-season)

1. Prior to the next season's draft, all players that were classified as minor leaguers in the season completed will be promoted to the team's vet squad if they completed the criteria to be a vet. Once promoted, they lose their minor eligibility permanently.

2. Players are considered vets if they have more than either 150PA, 50IP, or 50 game appearances in their MLB career. Players are considered rookies/minor leaguers if they have 150PA, 50IP, or 50 games appearances or less in their MLB career.

3. Before a specified post-season deadline, each team can protect up to 12 of their veteran players.

4. A team can protect all of their minor league players and all players that are considered rookies/minors for the upcoming Penn season. There is no limit to the number of players a team can protect who are rookies and minor league players.

5. Players that were promoted from minor status to vet status as mentioned in section G.1 may be retained. These players will count against the team's 40 player vet roster limit and are exempt from being considered in the 12 player limit mentioned in section G.3.

III. Playing Time Limits

A. When a player reaches the specified playing time limit, he is no longer eligible for daily game play and must be sent to the minors.

1. Normal Season Playing Time (PT) limits.

a. Batters = PTP plate appearances reach or exceed 120% of a player's actual season number of At Bats.

b. Pitchers = PTP Innings Pitched reach or exceed 120% of player's actual season number of Innings Pitched.

2. RH/LH Playing Time limits.

a. If a player has more than 81 real life plate appearances against a certain pitching handedness, he is eligible to continue to start against that pitching handedness until his Penn playing time limit runs out.

b. If a player has less than 81 real life plate appearances vs. a certain handedness, he is eligible to start vs. pitchers of that type only up until he reaches his actual playing time number of plate appearances from that side of the plate.

c. The 81 plate appearances are for a full regular season, and can be adjusted to 0.5 plate appearances for the actual number of games played in the shortened season.

3. When a player's time is up, GMs will have 48 hours in which to submit an updated profile or provide instructions on what to do. If they fail to do this, the commish will farm the expired player, or remove them from the lineup if they are only expired against a certained pitcher-handedness. If a batter is expired and needs to be replaced in the lineup, a current active player will be placed in the role, if they qualify. If no active player qualifies, then the commish will promote the player with the most plate appearances that qualifies at that position, without regards to the player's stats.

IV. Player Draft

A. A post-season player draft is held allowing all teams to fill out their 40 man major league roster and their 20 man minor league rosters.

B. All non-protected players from the minor and major league levels are included in the draft pool, and are eligible to be drafted.

C. There will first be a 10 round major league draft. Only players that have used up their rookie eligibility in the year just completed can be drafted. No players that are still considered rookies or minor league players for the upcoming season are eligible to be drafted.

1. For the first 3 rounds, teams will have the opportunity to pull back their own players when they lose players in the draft. In any given round, no team can lose more than 3 players. Once the draft round is done, teams that lose players in that round can pull back the same number of players they lose and protect them. A player will not be considered "lost" if the original team drafts him back.

2. For the final 7 rounds, teams can draft any players that are eligible to be drafted.

3. For this 10 round draft, the draft will be held in inverse order of the last season's team winning percentages. If teams had identical records the previous year, a coin toss will determine which team drafts in the spot in the odd-numbered rounds with the other team drafting in the spot in the even-numbered rounds. If there are any new GMs as a result of expansion, they will draft at the end of each round, in order they committed to the league.

4. At the end of the 10 round draft, all undrafted players will revert back to their original team's major league roster.

5. At this point, there will be a draft for teams to complete their rosters to 40 major league players. Teams that are above 40 players must cut players until their are at 40 players. Teams that are below 40 players can participate in the draft until they reach 40 players. Moreover, teams can cut players and continue to draft,

once they reach 40 players.

6. When all teams reach 40 players or all teams pass drafting players in the draft, the draft will stop and the major league rosters for teams will be set.

D. The minor league draft will follow the major league draft.

1. Only players that are considered minor league baseball players are eligible to be drafted in this draft. This means the player must have signed with a MLB team by the end of February to be eligible for the minor league draft.

2. Teams will draft in inverse order of last year's finish.

3. Teams can continue to draft until they reach their limit of 20 minor league players. Again, teams at 20 minor leaguers can cut some of their players to continue to participate in the draft.

E. At any time in the vet or minor draft, if a GM attempts to draft a player that is currently on a team, the GM will be able to re-select a player at their convenience.

F. The draft will be of the open-format variety. In other words, there will be NO specifications of certain rounds for certain positions. (e.g., 1st round is a starting pitcher draft round, etc.)

G. The draft will be conducted, for the most part and as long as time allows, on an individual pick basis and done using the appropriate Penn League bulletin board subject as the communications medium.

1. Draft timers and round specific draft lists may be utilized at the discretion of the commish, if it's determined that the draft pace is too slow.

2. While the draft timer is invoked, if a GM fails to make a selection prior to the time his normal selection spot comes due in the following round, he will have considered to have PASSED in the previous round.

3. It is every GMs responsibility to stay active and provide their draft picks in a timely manner. If you're not able to check-in during certain periods, the use of mini-draft lists, forwarded to the next GM in the draft order and/or the commish, is suggested.

V. Trading

A. All trades are to be posted in the appropriate Penn League BB subject, and confirmed by both parties, with final approval of the trade verified by the commish, as all trades need to be at arms length.

B. Draft picks, both current and future, are considered to be acceptable trade material.

C. Players to be named later (PTBNL) are NOT acceptable.

D. Traded players may not be traded back to the original team in less than a 1 year time frame. However, formerly traded players are eligible to be drafted, if available, by their original team(s) at any point in time.

E. A trading deadline occurs at 11:59 PM ET on August 31. After the deadline passes, trades are not allowed until after all post-season play has been completed.

F. Those trades that are considered to involve "Player Dumping" will be controlled and limited as follows.

1. Player dumps will be defined as obtaining a player with value in the current season in exchange for one of the following:

a. Future draft picks.

b. Players with significantly less value or comparable stats in the current season. This would apply even though these players may bring higher future value. This is, obviously, fairly subjective, so it will be a judgment call by the commish and/or perhaps a league vote.

2. A team may be the beneficiary of no more than 2 player dump transactions during any season. With the beneficiary being the team on the receiving end of a player with value in the current season.

3. There is no limit on the number of "short end" player dump transactions a team may enter into. Short end being the flip side of the beneficiary.

VI. Playoffs

A. Post-season playoffs will be held to determine the overall Penn League championship.

B. A 4 team playoff format will be used, with Divisional champs and wildcard teams participating in the playoffs.

C. The wildcards will be non-divisional championship team(s) with the best record(s) as determined by the highest win percentages.

D. All playoff series are a best of 7 format. The wildcard will play the team with the best record that is not in the same division. The remaining two teams play each other.

E. The following guidelines are in place for players to be eligible to play in the playoffs. Only batters that have 150 plate appearances will be allowed to start in games. Furthermore, only pitchers that have pitched 66 innings can start a playoff game and all pitchers must have pitched 20 innings to be allowed to relieve in a game.

F. 3, 4, or 5 man starting pitcher rotations may be specified for the playoffs.

VII. Statistics

A. A league wide statistical package will be issued periodically. The package will be in a Zip file format and be posted to the Penn webpage.

B. The stat package will contain individual team statistics, including individual playing time percentages, as well as general league statistics.

VIII. GM Responsibilities

A. All GMs need to remain reasonably active, especially in the areas of routine team maintenance (e.g., dealing with injuries, playing time limits, etc.), commish requests for league votes, opinions, and information, as well as timely replies to other GMs on trade inquiries, etc.

B. All GMs should be responsive and timely with their post-season draft interactions. It is the responsibility of the individual GM to find other options (i.e., forwarding mini-draft lists) during periods when they might not be able to submit their pick in a timely manner.

C. If it appears to the commissioner that a GM has become reasonably inactive, he may place the GM up for a league vote to be expulsed.

IX. Replacing open GMs

A. When a GM declares they are leaving the league current league GMs will have first chance at taking over the open team prior to offering it to an outside GM.

1. The order, which current GMs will be offered the open team, will be based on worst record to best record of last season’s standings.

2. If a GM opts to take the open team, then his team will become the open team and it will be offered to current GMs. This process will be repeated until all current GMs pass on the open team. At that point the open team will be offered to an outside GM.

B. If no GM can be found to take over the open team, the open team will be disbanded based upon the following schedule, depending on when in the year the GM decided to leave the league:

1. If announced after the completion of the annual vet & minor drafts, the team will be computer controlled through the season and disbanded the day before announcing retainees for the following season.

2. If announced after player retention but before the annual vet draft, the team will be disbanded as of the vet draft.

3. If announced during the vet or minor draft, the team will be disbanded at a time agreed to by a majority of the current GMs.

C. If a new GM is found, the following rules will apply:

1. All trades executed by the previous GM will be honored.

2. Any penalties incurred by the previous GM under rule B.2 will be removed for the new GM.

X. Disbanding of teams & League Contraction

A. All players, vet & minor, on the disbanded team will be made immediately available for the vet & minor draft. If the team is disbanded during the vet draft or minor draft, the disbanded team’s players will be made available at the end of the current draft round.

B. Any trades that included a DP trade will be honored.

1. Teams who received the disbanded team’s DP slot in the draft will still receive that traded slot based upon where the disbanded team would have drafted in the draft.

2. If a team gave up a DP slot in a trade with the disbanded team, the team will still lose that DP slot. Since there is no team now to select in the traded DP slot, the draft will proceed to the next scheduled team.

XI. League Expansion

A. All current teams with open GM spots must be filled prior to expansion being able to occur.

B. Voting to approve expansion for the following season will occur during the All-Star break of the current season. Approval does not mean we will expand, it only means we have given approval if the opportunity presents itself.

C. If a team is disbanded, expansion will not occur until the season following the disbanding of the team, even if the league had previously approved expansion.

D. Expansion teams will be assigned to the division with the worst win-loss record of the previous season if all division currently have the same number of teams. If the league has an unbalanced number of teams in each division, the expansion team will be assigned to the division to balance the team count in each division.

E. Once a GM has been announced for a new team, he may begin trading immediately. Of course since he will not have any players until the expansion draft, he can only offer DPs at this time. If he trades for a player, the player will count as part of his roster and is subject to all rules concerning protected players.

F. The process for drafting in expansion years will occur as follows:

1. Existing teams will each retain 10 players.

2. Expansion teams pick players from non-retained players already on existing teams until they have 10 players. Existing teams can pull back up to a total of 3 players for all players drafted by expansion teams.

3. Regular draft starts with expansion teams picking just before the playoff teams.

4. Rounds 1-3, existing teams can pull back up to 3 players.

5. Rounds 4-10 of regular draft.

6. Expansion teams will pick from the remaining undrafted players until their player count equals that of the existing team with the fewest number of players on their roster as of round 10. After that, the remaining undrafted players will return to their original team

7. Rounds 11 thru the end.

8. For minor league draft, existing teams can retain as many minors as they want. The expansion teams will pick at the beginning of each round. This will give them a fair shot at any minors not retained or some good prospects not yet drafted.