The Open League is the most basic of options in SimLeague Baseball. Like all simleagues, it consists of 24 managers split into two leagues, each with three divisions of four teams. Open leagues fill quickly because they do not have any special rules or customization like Theme leagues. Also, the goal of an Open League is to mimic the competition and overall level of play in real-life baseball. In a sense, every Open League should look like an average league throughout baseball history and each team looks like an average team. Many of the rules in Open Leagues reflect this fact.
Most notably, the salary cap for an open league is $80 million. Each team can afford a couple of all-star caliber players to go with a roster of solid contributors, making up the 25-players. Open Leagues do not use the DH in either league. These leagues also randomly assign six AAA players to each team. These players are based on real-life players who did not play much and were not very good. It is not a recommended strategy to rely on AAA players in Open Leagues.
All Open Leagues use the same default rules, but there are three separate types of Open Leagues that users may join: Standard, Diamond Legends Career and Champion Leagues. In Standard and Champion Leagues, players are drafted by season (1923 Babe Ruth, 2004 Barry Bonds, etc.). Champion Leagues are only available to users who have won or played in at least five SLB World Series. Champion Leagues do not have any special rules for prizes as will be discussed later. Standard Leagues are truly "open" to everyone.
Diamond Legends Career Leagues are based on the former STATS Inc. online game that has now partnered with WhatIfSports.com. In the DL Career League, users draft players. To come up with these career stats, we calculated an "average" season for every player. For those players who did not or have not played long careers, we adjusted their potential plate appearances or innings. DL Career Leagues use the same salary formulas and simulation engine as all leagues.