Since my first “biglenr tribute league” has just filled and we are about to get started…I’m going to start a second one. This will be very different…and it’s a treat. Len ran one of these leagues a few years back and it was about as much fun as I have ever had in a theme league at WIS.
If you’ve come this far, please keep reading…this will be a theme league adventure like no other.
But read carefully.... This is a difficult league to understand. It's INTENSELY fun to draft, and a lot of fun to play.
The most important concept is: You will get screwed over.
The corollary to that concept is: You will screw over others.
If you can accept those conditions, you are in business. If not, there's probably an open league or a $255m league you can play where you won't have to make tough choices.
Now that you know you will be hosed, and that you will hose others....The big question is how?
Well, to start with... You get to draft an exclusive player. This player can only be used by your team, and you must use him. The player must have at least a 10 year WIS career, and at least one of his available seasons must have a salary $7m or greater.
That's pretty good, right? You have a player that nobody else can use... Well, here's the problem (and the first hosing).... Another owner will choose what YEAR your exclusive player gets to play in. Yep, if you choose Babe Ruth, some SOB will most likely give you the shambling wreck of the 1935 Babe as your player. Oh yeah, your player must meet or exceed his real life PA/162 or IP/162 total for your team to be playoff eligible. That’s really important. Guaranteed someone is going to forget about this and miss the playoffs. And it you are clever, there might be ways to really screw someone over by giving them a season for their player with an IP or PA target that will be very difficult to hit.
Well, that sucks right? Hang on. It gets better…or, worse.
Yet another owner will select the stadium for your team. Forget the Astrodome or Dodger Stadium or the usual OL parks, you're most likely going to wind up in Coors, Hilltop, or some other nasty little piece of work. Stadiums are also exclusive, of course. Here's the list of all ballparks available in theme leagues: http://whatifsports.com/mlb-l/ballparks.asp?lid=1 If you're used to OLs, theme leagues give you a number of choices that aren't available in OLs, so it's worth taking a look.
Well, that's not too bad, right? You got 24 other players you can use… But wait... Do you hear that big slurping sound? That's the BIG suck, the coup de grace. Yet a 3rd owner will pick a franchise and a decade (00-09 is a decade, ie: 1940-1949) for your team. Franchise must be active at least 8 years in that decade (that takes the Federal league teams, the 1880s, and the 2010s out, but leaves the 1960s Mets and 1890s Senators in, for example.) Franchises will be defined by standards of www.baseball-reference.com. You have to make up the rest of your team from that franchise/decade. (WHAT? I have to use 1935 Babe Ruth in Coors and fill in the team with the 1930's Senators? Yup, now you’re getting the hang of it.) Franchise / Decade combo is also exclusive. NOTE: Exclusive Player TRUMPS franchise. Even if you've been given the 2000s Yankees, if someone has Jeter as an exclusive, you can't use him to build your team. This can lead to very interesting situations.
Why would anyone agree to this type of abuse? Well, you get to dish it out as well as take it. YOU will pick someone else’s year for their exclusive player. YOU will pick someone else’s stadium. And YOU will pick someone else's franchise/decade combination.
Here's the deal....
As commish, I will be owner #1....The next person to sign up will be owner #2, etc. As you will see, there is really no advantage to my going first, and in fact there may be a disadvantage.
Owner 1 will select his exclusive player....(eventually, he will draft stadiums, years, and franchises for the last few teams)
Then owner two signs up.
He selects his exclusive player at sign up
He selects the year for owner 1's exclusive player (eventually, he will draft stadiums and franchises for the last 2 teams)
Then owner 3 signs up
He selects his exclusive player at sign up
He selects the year for owner 2's exclusive player
He selects a stadium for owner 1
(eventually he will select a franchise for the last team)
Then owner 4 signs up
He selects his exclusive player at sign up
He selects the year for owner 3's exclusive player
He selects a stadium for owner 2
He selects a franchise/decade for owner 1 to complete his team. Owner 1 now knows exactly how screwed he is
And so on....
Got it?
CLARIFICATION: When you select a season for another owner's exclusive player, you are selecting just that, a SEASON. If the player was traded during that season and therefore has multiple partial/combined versions, it is up to the original owner which version he wants to use.
One other condition... In the event that someone either colludes or just doesn't get the concept (i.e. I draft Greg Maddux, someone gives me 1994, and someone else gives me the 20's yankees to fill my team from....) then a screwing can be overruled by the COMMISH (me) + 4 other owners. If 5 people think something funny is going on, it just might be. I expect people to play in the spirit of the theme, but just in case, we'll have this rule that I hope we never have to use.
Here's the other rules
- No AAA, No WW, No trades, No DH, No Clones, no live play
- injuries on
- Random realignment
- $80m cap but it won't play that high if we're doing things correctly.
Wailing, whining, complaining, trash talk, and threats are welcome in the league forum.
You in? If so, please sign up here, but please only sign up if you are really, truly, definitely 100% in…the way this is set up, it is a royal pain in the Brian Asselstine if someone drops out midway through the signups.
NOTE: In the event a team wins enough games to make the playoffs, but their exclusive player doesn't match/exceed the PA/162 or IP/162, the forfeited playoff spot will go to the next team in the wildcard. (most wins not already in the playoffs). Tiebreaker will be Expected Winning Percentage as found in the advanced standings…so a small but important incentive for no one to play silly games with fatigued players. In the extremely unlikely event that we still have a tie, we will use random.org to decide the winner.
5/10/2015 5:53 PM (edited)