No Expansion Professional League Rules
A) APBA Baseball for Windows version 6.0 is used for the NXPL. Owners are also required to load the latest game patch, and the latest play-by-play patch, available at the APBA Games web site.
B) The official data disk will be the APBA data disk for that particular year. For years in which the APBA disk does not include all players from the MLB season, the Bill James Encyclopedia will be used to import the missing players. The data disk will have a one-pass Merlin performed on it. Every owner should own a copy of each data disk.
C) NXPL consists of 16 teams, split into two leagues. Each team will have a real-life franchise base team. A franchise’s ‘base team’ may only change if an owner leaves. A new owner may choose his new franchise base, from the same league, upon the first draft after his acceptance into the league. New teams will retain the historic nickname of their team but can locate it in any city the franchise historically called home.
D) The league will not expand. The whole purpose behind the formation of the league is to simulate what Major League Baseball would have been like without expansion. The league will not employ a playoff system beyond the pennant winners, and the DH will not be employed.
E) The full roster limit for a season is 42. The active roster for a series during the season is 27.
F) Teams must have at least five pitchers with starter grades on their active roster.
G) Other various rules/settings:
1) Bunt for a hit is turned OFF
2) Park and Wind Effects are turned OFF
3) A Farm Team Organization IS used.
4) ‘Games Per Team’ is set to 154. ‘Based on Games Per Team’ is set to 162.
5) AutoSub is turned ON. (Tired, Bushed and Worn Out.)
6) Batters Faced Limits are turned ON.
7) No .930 for OPS less than .600 is turned ON.
8) Injuries and Fatigue Status is set to ‘Fatigue Only.'
9) Players are limited to 150% of their real-life stolen base attempts. After they exceed that, their steal totals will be zeroed out and they will be assigned SA/SS of N 00.
10) Pitcher 3 batter rule is OFF.
11) The Initial AIM Status for the league will include ‘Set All SF = 100.’
H) Stadia in the can be domed or not at their owners' discretions. Rainouts will be made up if possible at the Commissioner’s discretion.
I) NXPL seasons will run continuously, with break enough in between to organize and conduct cuts and season drafts.
J) The results c-file for each series will be e-mailed to the groups.io account Monday morning, or as soon as possible thereafter. In the e-mail, the deadline for visiting teams to post updated f-files will be announced. Upon that deadline, the Commissioner (or his designee) will mail to the io group a ‘play-ball C-file’ along with the new deadline for results to be submitted. If an owner has not sent in results from a series by the deadline, the commissioner will sim the games on his PC, using each team's default micromanagers.
K) Each manager is responsible for providing the micromanager for his team's road games to the rest of the league.
L) Players may not play out of position unless dictated by injury or ejection.
II - PLAYER MOVEMENT / DRAFT
A) Teams may hold any carded players from the previous season's final roster. They may also hold over players who are uncarded in the current season, but do have seasons remaining in the future. These 'zz' players DO count toward the roster limit, but they may NOT play in games. There is no usage requirement for a player to be retained from season to season.
B) The season draft order will be determined by the previous season's final standings. The reigning league champion will select last. The runner-up will select next to last. The remaining teams will pick in order from worst to best record. Ties between two teams will be broken by head-to-head records, if the teams are in the same league. The team which fared poorer in the head-to-head record will receive the higher pick. If that is a tie or the teams are in different leagues, a random public manner of deciding the order will be used, at the discretion of the commissioner. Ties among more than two teams will be broken by random. Each team may draft as many rounds as it wants, up to 45 players. After the draft, rosters will be cut down to 42. ‘zz’ players may be cut at this stage. When roster are cut to 42, there will be one add/drop round where each team can drop a player from his roster and pick up one unaffiliated player. ‘zz’ players cut after the draft are not eligible to be picked up in the regular draft, or the waiver round. After this add/drop round, players cannot be added from the free agents, with the exception outlined in II.H.
C) The draft will be held in a manner to be selected by the commissioner, with general agreement of the league members.
D) Only players carded on the current data disk are eligible to be selected in the season draft.
E) Before the First Round of the season draft, each owner will be able to reserve one player who made his major-league debut for the owner’s franchise base team that year. If the franchise base had no Major League debuts in a season, the owner will not be able to reserve a player.
F) An owner may elect to reserve additional ‘franchise’ players for a season, at the continuing expense of its original draft picks. For example, if an owner wants to select four franchise rookies, one is the free franchise pick. The remaining three come at the expense of its 1st through 3rd-round picks. If an owner has traded a pick, he is ineligible to make an extra franchise selection in that spot, or in any subsequent draft rounds. A team that obtains another team’s draft picks cannot use them to reserve any additional franchise players.
G) The NXPL does not employ a salary structure.
H) Trading of players and draft picks is allowed. If a trade involves an uneven number of players, the team which receives more players must cut down to 42. The team receiving fewer players may take the other team’s cuts, or add players from the free-agent pool. Only draft picks for the next scheduled draft or currently underway draft may be traded.
I) No approval of trades by the commissioner or other owners is required. The only exception is if a trade leaves a team unable to fill a position, rotation slot, or bullpen slot, the commissioner may rescind such a trade.
J) Players may be demoted to and promoted from the minors before any series, but not during a series. Since we have long series, MaxBF turned on, Injuries turned on, and No 930 players, owners will need to be diligent in making sure their teams’ fatigue status is good before each series, even with a 27-man roster.
K) Teams may expand their major-league rosters to as high as 40 on the series which falls closest to the 124-game mark of the schedule. This date will also serve as the trade deadline for post-season participation. The commissioner will announce the date as it approaches.
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III – Fran Costello World Series
1) Two-way ties: In the American League, a one-game playoff which shall be considered a regular-season game in terms of stats and fatigue. It will be held on the first day after the end of the regular season. In the National League, a three-game playoff series which shall be considered a regular-season game in terms of stats and fatigue. It will begin on the first day after the end of the regular season. Home field advantage will be determined by a random public method announced by the commissioner. There way be no off days before or during the playoff.
2) Three-or-more-way ties:
a) Head-to-head record among all the teams involved.
b) Random public method, determined by the commissioner.
B) World Series home-field advantage will be awarded to the team with the best regular-season record. The series will be played in the standard 2-3-2 format.
C) Player eligibility for the World Series is determined by the player's team as of the trade deadline. Owners will submit playoff roster f-files before the World Series begins. Visiting teams will be given the opportunity to make changes before each game of the series.
D) Postseason limitations:
1) Pitchers’ fatigue status carries over from the regular season, though AIM DOES NOT utilize Max BF in the postseason. Be warned, that means low-inning pitchers can be used for APBA-balling.
2) Position players are governed by AIM.
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A) The Commissioner of the NXPL is Chris Strovel.
B) The Commissioner can be removed from office if someone else wants this job and at least half the owners want to roust the bum.
C) The Commissioner's responsibilities:
1) Maintaining a World Wide Web Page for the League.
2) Posting Commissioner Files in a timely manner after receiving and compiling games.
3) Keeping track of rosters from season to season.
4) Organizing and conducting the Season Draft.
5) Attracting new owners during expansion or an owner's departure.
D) Organizing votes by the league on any rule-change proposals.
E) The Commissioner will act as final arbiter for any and all situations not covered by these rules.
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- updated 11/4/24 I.A changing to BBW 6.0, eliminate references to BBW 5.5 import program; I.E clarified to include both roster limits; added I.G.10 for 3-batter rule; added I.G.11 to account for league practice of normalizing PR/SF; II.A clarified to not be redundant with I.E; II.B clarified that ‘zz’ players cut during/after the draft are not eligible to be drafted or added by waiver; - updated 7/31/23 II.B clarified to allow cutting of zzs.- updated 1/25/22: I.G.8 and II.A amended after league votes- updated 8/10/20: sections I.A; I.C; I.J; II.B; II.H; III.A.1; III.C)- updated 2/5/19: II.H amended after league vote; clarified III.A.2.b; clarified III.C- updated 5/15/17: clarified trade deadline, II.K