OTHER
REALITY BASEBALL 2 OFFICIAL CONSTITUTION AND RULES
Original
Version 6/8/08 (Matthew M. Rectenwald), 2nd Version 6/25/08 (MMR),
3rd Version 7/31/08 (MMR), 4th Version 4/3/09 (MMR), 5th
Version 11/11/09 (MMR)
Background
Other Reality Baseball 2:
Other Reality Baseball 2 (ORB2) is
named after a now defunct historical league called Other Reality Baseball. The
former Other Reality Baseball was the beginning of big things for online league
baseball using Out of the Park, as it spawned the Monty Brewster Baseball
Association (MBBA), the Federation of International Baseball (FIBB), the
MoneyBall Union (tMBU), and Atlantic Coast Baseball (ACB), among others. Now,
we aim to take advantage of OOTP9's vastly improved historical capabilities by
starting a new "Other Reality" beginning with the 1962 game season.
We'll start there, and see how history unfolds with some twists and turns of
chance!
League Settings
How to Join
Welcome
to ORB2!
Welcome to Other Reality Baseball 2 (ORB2).
We are a historical based league of 24 teams, starting with the 1962 season and
expanding as those years come up, with each franchise aimed to be owned and
operated by someone passionate about computer baseball. We are always
interested in finding more people as passionate about baseball as we are, and
with that we give some ways that our selection process is different than most
leagues.
The ORB2 aims to attract people interested in finding out more about the league
and becoming a part of the community before earning ownership. These people are
affectionately referred to as "Vultures."
Vultures participate in day-to-day league activities by contributing to forum
discussions, writing articles about teams and/or players, and otherwise
interacting on a regular basis with current owners and other Vultures. In most
cases, an active Vulture will be assigned beat writing in either one of our two
independent leagues. Through their participation, Vultures gain valuable
knowledge of the league, its players, and most importantly, its owners.
Conversely, the other league owners get to learn more about potential ownership
candidates.
There is no "pecking order" when it comes to Vultures; new owners
will be selected based in part on seniority, but also based on overall
participation and general "fit" with the rest of the league. Thus,
having been around longer than the next guy might help you become the next
owner accepted, but it is by no means a guarantee. By the same token, just
because you haven't been around as long as some other, doesn't necessarily mean
you can't or won't be considered for the next opening.
Owners must have the leagues’ current version of OOTP and may only control 1
team. In addition, we discourage forum baiting. Treat others are you would wish
to be treated. The ORB2 is not a place for personal attacks on others; it is a
place for baseball talk.
Governing Board
The ORB2 will be governed by a board of three. The following are their
descriptions:
A. Commissioner: The
Commissioner generally keeps things organized. He takes care of the day to day
minutia such as forum maintenance, rules, ownership recruiting and retention,
managing the Governing Board, and generally keeps things on track.
B. Vice Commissioner: The Vice
Commissioner will assist the Commissioner with all of his tasks as well as
ensuring that the league members are all participating at a satisfactory level.
C. Owner Representative: The Owner Rep will be the owners’ voice to the
Governing Board and will assist the Commissioner and Vice Commissioner when
necessary. This position has a two season term limit.
Please note: The Commissioner has the
power to add or subtract positions to the Governing Board at any time, for any
reason.
Owners and
Participation
Owners are expected to participate by exporting lineups, writing content on the
forums and promptly responding to communication attempts by others in the
league. We recommend Personal Messages within the Forums as the primary
method of communications between owners. An owner will be relieved of his
team if THREE lineup exports are missed in a row with no communication to the
Governing Board. You are also expected to post team news on a regular basis on
the forums - yes, this is a “writing league”. A Participation Point
system is used to track owner activity and provide rewards for owner
involvement.
Every owner is required to obtain a
minimum of 20 Participation Points by the end of each season, with a minimum of
10 of those points being from TN. (In addition, owners with 0 Participation
Points at the midseason update will be subject to removal by the Governing
Board).
Ownership is a privilege, not a right. The Governing Board must assure that all
owners are contributing in order to sustain a healthy, active league. Failure
to earn your 20 PPTs by the stated Participation Point Deadline means you have
given up your ownership rights in the ORB2. Those rights may be returned to you
at the Governing Board's discretion. If you are in your first or second
continuous season in the ORB2 and you have not met minimums, chances are you
will not be returned your ownership rights. Should the Governing Board choose
to return ownership rights to you, you will accept them along with a mandatory
two season Probationary Period:
Owners who enter during the course of
the season will be responsible for a pro-rated PP amount. If they enter after
the All-Star break they will be given a prorated PP minimum.
Terms of Two Season Probationary
Period:
- You fail 3 exports in one season with no Owner Availability posts and you are
gone
- You ever miss a required vote with no Owner Availability post and you are
gone
- You will be required to earn 40 PPTs in Season One of Probation with 20 of
those by the All-Star Break and at least 1/2 of your ending total from Team
News (20 TN points min)
- You will be required to earn 30 PPTs in Season Two of Probation with 15 of
those by the All-Star Break and at least 1/2 of your ending total from Team
News (15 TN points min)
- If you meet all terms of this two season Probationary Period, you will return
to normal owner status with the 3rd season.
As mentioned above, owners are
expected to submit Team Exports for every sim or post in the Owner Availability
forum that they will not be exporting. Owners must post in the Owner
Availability forum when they expect to be unavailable for a period of
time. If you are unavailable for one-third or more of an ORB2 season, you
are in jeopardy of losing your franchise. In these situations, it is your
responsibility to find an AGM to run your team while you are away, but the
Governing Board will help where possible. Owners are given an opportunity
to participate in shaping the rules of the league, and thus participation in
mandatory league votes is, in fact, mandatory.
**What constitutes a sufficient Team
News report? In order to qualify for the points, your Team News writings
must be original, owner-created content. Copying and pasting from your
OOTP team page will not count. You must have at least two solid paragraphs
of original, owner-created written content. One sentence is far less than
a paragraph. Non PPT-worthy postings should be pinned in your Team News
forum or posted elsewhere on the board. Also, please post each news item
as a separate thread for easier tallying.
Participation Points
In order to reward owner
participation, a bonus system is available. Owners will accumulate
Participation Points (PPT) based on the criteria described below. These points
can be redeemed for the improvement of an owner's franchise (see below). Points
will carry over from season to season. Teams are required to accumulate 20
Participation Points per season to continue ownership of their franchise.
|
League Features |
4
PPT |
|
Trade Analyses, Player Spotlights |
2
PPT |
|
Team News |
2
PPT |
|
League Polls |
1 PPT if more than 10 votes |
|
Player left in DFA past allotted time |
-2 PP, -2 FI |
|
Failed exports (w/ no notice after 1st freebie) |
-2 PP |
|
Failure to participate in a mandatory league vote |
-4
PP, -4 FI, -$25,000 |
|
Posts 500+ |
20
PP (doesn’t count towards minimums) |
|
Posts 250-499 |
10
PP (doesn’t count towards minimums) |
|
Posts 100-249 |
5
PP (doesn’t count towards minimums) |
Other points may be awarded or taken away
at the Commissioner’s discretion. Special projects will be subject to a Point
determination by the Commissioner. Participation Point Updates will occur at
the beginning of the regular season, at the All-Star Break, at the end of the
regular season, and at the end of the season. Points may be redeemed during the
off-season only.
Points may be redeemed for the
following (more rewards will be available before 1963 season begins):
|
Participation Point Rewards |
|
|
Add $100,000 to cash (not to exceed cash
max) |
20
PPTS |
|
Increase Fan Interest 1 point (Max: 85) |
20
PPTS |
|
Increase Fan Loyalty 1 value (Max: Average) |
40
PPTS |
|
Increase Market Size 1 value (Max: Average) |
40
PPTS |
|
Stadium Alterations
|
50
PPTS + $40,000 cash |
|
Stadium Expansion
|
80
PPTS + $100,000 cash (you can pay this over 3 seasons max if desired) |
|
Change Logo (through Historical Rules, see
below)
|
50
PPTS + $50,000 cash |
|
Player Fielding Inquiry
|
10 PPTS |
|
Pitcher Endurance Inquiry ·
Submit proof
that a pitcher started more than 50% of his career games or 100% of his starts
in one season (not in a year behind where we currently are) will then change
those ratings based on his judgment and career stats
at Baseball Reference.com |
10
PPTS |
|
Offseason Motivational Program (increases a
players Leader Ability by 10 points on in game 200 point scale, max 70 point
increase) |
10
PPTS |
|
Player Appreciation Program (increases a
players Loyalty or Desire for Winning Team by 10 points on in game 200
point scale, max 70 point increase) |
10
PPTS |
|
Community Service Program (decreases a
players Greed by 10 points on in game 200 point scale, max 70 point
increase) |
10
PPTS |
|
Offseason Higher Learning Program (increases
a players Intelligence by 10 points on in game 200 point scale, max 70
point increase) |
10
PPTS |
|
Offseason Training and Conditioning Program
(increases a players Work Ethic by 10 points on in game 200 point scale,
max 70 point increase) |
|
|
*= There is a
limit of 70 points per player, per category, of movement each offseason. |
|
Scout a Minor Leaguer
Program
Each
year from the end of the World Series until the beginning of the regular
season, you will be able to "purchase" a player from the minor
leagues using 20 Participation Points. To determine who your players are, we
will use Baseball
Reference Minor's Affiliates by year (change the link year to the year you
want, example link is for 1971). Whichever teams were your historical teams
affiliate that year will be the teams that you will be able to choose from. You
will only be able to use players that never reached the Major Leagues in
historical MLB in this program. In order to determine their current ratings, I
will be using my judgment to develop ratings for these players. They will be
based loosely on their past and heavily on their future. I will use various
tools to help me decide on their ratings and talents.
Regarding
affiliates, for our purposes we have Major League parent teams that don’t match
the real MLB. We will convert as follows:
ORB2
Seattle Pilots= MLB San Diego Padres
ORB2 Washington Senators= MLB Texas Rangers
Sims
Sims will be conducted 3 times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 8AM
Central each day unless otherwise noted in the Sim
Complete thread. Each sim will consist of 15 days on
the ORB2 schedule, except when season milestones must be met (ex: playoffs,
trade deadline, AS Game, etc). Playoffs will occur as announced by the
Commissioner.
Historical Logos
(added 1968)
We try to keep a good balance between
historical and “Other Reality”, with that here are the rules on Logos. Historical
logos are based on the information found at Chris Creamer's Sports Logos.
Simply go to the page, and find your team…it’ll walk you through the primary
logos throughout the years. It also offers secondary and alternate logos (with
years). Here is how the process will work:
Historical Stadiums
(added 1968)
We try to keep a good balance between
historical and “Other Reality”, with that here are the rules on stadiums.
Historical stadiums are based on the information found in our Baseball Chronology.
Here is how the process will work:
Waivers
Waivers are done using the in-game
Waiver Wire. Please note that if a player refuses assignment to the minor
leagues, waiving him won't get him to accept assignment either. He would either
have to be kept on the major league roster or released.
Special: Trade Waivers
Designated for
Assignment
The DFA is essentially
being used as a holding area in the ORB2. Basically, any player acquisition
regardless of the type now goes to your DFA. Once on the DFA, it will be up to
you from within OOTP to determine what your next course of action is for those
player(s). If the sim is halted by OOTP b/c you have not resolved your
player's DFA status, they will be outright cut.
Once a player is in DFA, what can I do with him?
(1) You can assign him to your 25-man roster (prefaced by a placement on the
40-man)
(2) You can assign him to a minor league roster, however...
- Players with a big-league contract must be placed on
the 40-man roster before being assigned to the minors.
- Players with five or more years of MLB service can
refuse assignment to the minors and must be kept on active roster or released
- Players with no option years remaining must clear
irrevocable waivers before being assigned to the minors.
(3) You can attempt to negotiate a trade involving the player before 7/31
(4) You can out-right release the player and eat his contract
If a player is left on
DFA longer than the allotted time (21 days), that owner will be hit with a
penalty of -2 Fan Interest and -2 PP.
Player Eligibility
Position Players:
Position players are allowed to play any position you'd like, with the
understanding that if they aren't "rated" at that position they
probably won't fare so well. The basic defensive spectrum is in use in OOTP,
assigning positions a declining degree of difficulty as such: P, C, SS, 2B, CF,
3B, RF, LF, 1B. The basic concept behind the defensive spectrum is that players
can generally adapt fairly well to a defensive position to the right of the
spectrum, but not as well to the left of the spectrum.
Pitchers:
Endurance is a measure of how many pitches a
pitcher can throw before tiring. Pitchers with high Endurance ratings tend to
be used as starting pitchers, while pitchers with low Endurance ratings tend to
be used as relievers.
Amateur Draft
Draft
order is figured by the worst record to the first record. The ORB2 playoff
teams will be the last picks of the draft, wild-cards first in order of record,
followed by division winners in order of record. Teams
with the same record will have their draft order determined by a tiebreaker
process. Tiebreakers: Pythageorean Record
(worst first), Runs Scored (least first).
The December 15th amateur draft will
be 5 rounds. The draft pool will be released 75 game days in advance and
will include players who debut in the upcoming year, from MLB history.
Rule 5 Draft
The Rule 5 Draft will take place each
offseason. You must make sure to protect your players on the 40-man, or risk losing
them to the Rule 5 Draft. Anyone lost to the Rule 5 Draft are lost, there's no
"I forgot" rule in the ORB2. Control your organizational roster. If
you decide after drafting them that you don't want them, you must first offer
them back to the team you drafted them from. If they refuse to take that player
back, they are your property and you are free to do with them what you want.
Trades
ALL trades must be posted on the message board and confirmed by both owners and
will be completed by the Commissioner AFTER the games are simmed.
Cash: Trading of cash is allowed
with a $1,000 minimum in no less than $1,000 increments.
Draft Picks: Draft Picks may be
traded for the next two seasons.
Trade Protests: If an owner
wishes to protest a trade as collusion or extremely lopsided, he must notify
the Commissioner. If the complaint is valid the Commissioner will assemble a
league trade committee to make a ruling on the trade. All committee rulings are
final and will be accompanied with an explanation.
Please respond to trade offers as
quickly as possible and be nice, even if the offer is absurd.
Off Season Free
Agency
FA offers will be made via FTP exports from within OOTP. The simulation
schedule will vary as the Commissioner sees fit, and will be specified in the
Forum Calendar. All teams should set a team password and do a Team Export
BEFORE bidding on any free agents. Please leave that password on your
team for security purposes.
Players signed during off-season free
agency may not be traded until June 1 of the upcoming season.
Players must not be offered Contract
Incentives of more than 10% of the yearly value of the contract offer in each
category. If we find an illegal contract offer that team will immediately lose
the player and forfeit the entire monetary value of the contract. Don’t do it.
In Season Free Agency
The signing of free agents during the season is managed from within the game
and your team exports.
Contract Extensions
Contract Extensions are handled from within the game, may be done any time, and
as many tries as the player gives you.
Franchise Relocation
and League Expansion
Franchise Relocation is forbidden in any case except for a historically
accurate franchise relocation, in which point the following procedure may be
followed:
The owner may choose to take the
historical relocation. The relocated franchise will receive bonuses for their
new fan base according to how many participation points the owner would like to
spend.
|
0
PP |
Fan
Interest=6 (1-10), Market Size=10 (1-20) |
|
50
PP |
Fan
Interest=7 (1-10), Market Size=13 (1-20) |
|
100
PP |
Fan
Interest=8 (1-10), Market Size=15 (1-20) |
The owner may choose to deny the
historical relocation and keep their franchise where it is. There will be a
significant cost to do so, but each cost will receive a reward as well.
|
100
PP |
Fan
Interest=6 (1-10), Market Size=10 (1-20) |
|
200
PP |
Fan
Interest=7 (1-10), Market Size=13 (1-20) |
League Expansion will occur in the
years that Major League Baseball Expanded (1969, 1976, 1993) and with the same
number of teams. Expansion is directly tied to the above rules on Franchise
Relocation. We would expand historically accurate except if a team that moved
stayed in place under the above rules. Example (the most complicated one I
could think of):
Let’s say the Milwaukee Braves decide
not to move to Atlanta in 1966. The owner pays 200 PP to keep the Braves in
Milwaukee and gets a Fan Interest and Market Size injection. Thus, Atlanta
doesn’t get a team.
We then expand in 1969, and Seattle
gets an expansion team, the Pilots. They are there for one year, and then are
scheduled to move to Milwaukee. Milwaukee already has a team, so they can’t
move there. The owner doesn’t want to keep them in Seattle. They would then
have the option of moving to Atlanta. The owner chooses to do so.
The new Atlanta team cannot be the
Braves, as Milwaukee has chosen to keep that name. Since the franchise move was
declined, the new Atlanta team can remain the Pilots, or become the Brewers.
Whew, that was pretty complicated,
hey? With each situation the Commissioner will provide all the options
available.
All-Star Game
Each league will mandatory vote for
the All-Star starters through the StatsLab All-Star
Voting Utility. Reserves and Lineups will be decided by the All-Star
manager (previous season League Championship Series winner). The All-Star
game will be simmed live with the All-Star managers making live roster changes,
if there is sufficient interest and participation of all necessary parties. Failure
to vote for these will result in a penalty of -4 PP, -4 FI, and -$25,000 cash.
Owner's Choice Awards
Voting for Owners Awards will be a mandatory league vote, will take place
during the playoffs through the StatsLab Awards
Voting Utility..
Failure to vote for these will result in a penalty of -4 PP, -4 FI, and
-$25,000 cash.
Mandatory Voting
The ORB2 is a league where participation is expected out of all owners. The
following important league issues require a mandatory vote:
These types of league issues will be
subject to a mandatory email/PM vote, facilitated by the League Presidents.
Such League Votes will have a 72 hour voting window. Owners who do not
participate in the mandatory voting will be penalized -4 PP, -4 FI, and
-$25,000 cash.
Credits
Thanks go out to Global Baseball Consortium, Montgomery Brewster Baseball
Association, Federation of International Baseball, Atlantic Coast Baseball,
Global Unified Baseball Association, the MoneyBall Union, Monty Brewster World
Baseball Association, Cooperstown Chronicle Baseball League, Between the Lines
Baseball League and any others that inspired this document or were used as a
model for differing sections