The initial draft will be a 24 round draft, where each owner will choose 23 or 24 players .(There are only 282 players available, so 6 teams will be able to draft 24 players and 6 teams will draft 23 players).The AL and NL will draft separately. All 1901 players will be available in both drafts so for 1901 all players will be drafted in both leagues. The draft will be a standard serpentine draft. In other words, round 1 will be 1-12, round 2 will be 12-1, etc. The order will be determined by a random lottery using random.org. I will ask an owner from the other league to do the random lottery for my league.ONLY PLAYERS THAT ARE WIS ELIGIBLE IN 1901 MAY BE DRAFTED.
Rounds 1-20 will be 1 player each
Rounds 21-22 will be 2 players each except that the last 6 teams to draft in round 22 will get only 1 player.
The shortfall in players (18) will be made up by drafting players with a maximum salary of $500k from 2012. These players may be replaced by AAA players if desired once the season starts. 6 teams will have 1 2012 player and 6 teams will have 2 2012 players. The 2012 $500k players will also be exclusive-a list of 2012 players drafted will be posted at least twice daily. All teams will also get 6 position and 4 pitching average AAA players.Any shortfalls in future seasons will be handled in the same way. 2012 players and AAA players may not be keepers for the following season.
Prior to the player draft there will be a 1 round draft for team/ballpark selection. The order of this draft will also be determined by a random lottery. Franchise/ballpark selections will be exclusive. Please use an actual team name from the list of available franchises, and use a ballpark used by your selected team name.
Rounds will be timed with half hour time slots, running from Noon to 5:30 PM, Eastern Time, Monday through Sunday.The inaugural draft will take 24 days.
Missed Picks
If an owner misses a pick in rounds 1-3, all subsequent picks in that round must occur during their scheduled time slot. In other words, no picking ahead of your time slot in the first three rounds unless all owners before you have picked. If the pick is still missing by the start of the next draft day, the commissioner will make the draft pick for the team.
Starting in round 4, owners no longer have to wait for missed picks to be made up. As long as the owner before you has picked, you may make your selection.
An owner who has 2 or more missed picks at any one time may be considered to have left the league. The commissioner reserves the right to take over the team and/or give the team to a new owner immediately.
Proxies
If you will be away during your pick, you have two options:
(a) post a public proxy in the league forums OR
(b) send a proxy to the commissioner and the two owners immediately following you AND post in the league forum draft thread that you have done this.
Failure to comply with at least one of these two conditions will be considered a missed pick. As long as you do either of these two things, your proxy will be honored, even if the owner posting for you posts late. All owners are expected to honor proxies responsibly – we will absolutely stop the draft, and undo “incorrect” picks if a proxy is not honored.