League Introduction and Guidelines

[MLBPA]

Welcome to MLB Central Dynasty. This is a 30 team Dynasty League where each GM will own a team and control the daily aspects of your team.

The league will start in 2014 for Opening Day with real-life contracts and players. Over time, each team will become the owner's own as they draft rookies, release players, sign free agents, make trades, etc.

If there is anything you think we can do to improve this experience, please post in the Problems, Concerns or Suggestion.

The MCD expects every owner to uphold a high sense of integrity and sportsmanship when dealing with other owners and ANY collusion of ANY kind will not be tolerated.

You must create a chatango account or consistently answer PMs from other owners.

[MLBPA]

New Owners

Every New Owner gets 1 Free Amnesty

Note: Please see Amnesty and Cash Obligations.

Roster Limits

Effective for 2022 Season and Beyond: Your entire roster, 40-man and minors, will all be on Fantrax. You may use all of the players on your 40-man during your matchup. You may add new players to your roster from your 40-man through transactions (trade, waiver wire, free agency) or by calling up minor leaguers. These transactions/call ups must be announced on Proboards to be official. You may never exceed 40 players on your 40-man roster during the season. You also may not use your minor leagues as a way to stash players and "stream" during a matchup.

Salary Cap

There is a hard $135M salary cap. You may not go over the cap through FA bidding. You are allowed to go over the cap in trades, extensions, and arbitration during the offseason, up to $155M. If you are not under cap by the time the season starts you will be subject to the following penalties:

Week 1: Loss of both Rule V draft picks
Week 2: Loss of the right to sign FAs the following offseason
Week 3: Loss of all draft picks in rounds 3-5
Week 4: Loss of all draft picks in rounds 1-2
Week 5: Banned from league

Additionally, if your team is over the cap at the start of the season you will lose the right to the extended $155M hard cap the following offseason, and will be confined to the standard $135M cap until the following offseason.

Extensions/Options

In the offseason, you may DECLINE any extension or team or player option year in a players contract. Once you decline a year in a players contract you may not unvoid in any trade. Roster changes will be allowed until the specified roster deadline. Once you decline a year in a contract, ALL years there after are declined as well.

We will be using legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/for ALL salary purposes
Note: You will use Player Scale for any player 6 yrs or less

Minors

We will have a limit of 65 prospects, but you will be able to go over that cap at $0.4M per prospect. Only players who have yet to complete a season with 50.0 IP (>50% GP are GS), 30.0 IP (>50% GP are not GS), or 150 AB can be placed in the minors. Players may be placed in the minors during the season in which they pass these thresholds

Contracts (Years 1-6)

We will be using a scale for players in their 1st-6th years. A player's first year is the year that they exceed either 150 AB or 50.0 IP (>50% GP are GS) or 30.0 IP (>50% GP are not GS) in a single season. Next season will be his second and so on. For a season to count against a players service time, he must reach either 50 AB or 20.0 IP (starter) or 15.0 IP (reliever). This is the scale we will use for 1st-3rd:

1st year: $0.3M
2nd year: $0.5M
3rd year: $1.0M

For players in their 4th - 6th year we will use the following scale, new as of the 2024 season:

We will now base salary off of Fantrax score rather than statistics. This will enable a quicker and smoother calculation for those rolling over the Master Roster while also fully encompassing all of the stats that go towards winning in our league. A player's Fantrax score will be multiplied by two numbers to get a salary

First is a ranking multiplier. This allows us to account for the fact that Fantrax scores are generated on a scale instead of being a direct calculation of statistics themselves. Here are how ranking multipliers shake out:

Hitters:

Rank 1-30	0.150
Rank 31-75	0.100
Rank 76-150	0.075
Rank 151-250	0.050
Rank 251-350	0.025
Rank 351+	0.000

Starting Pitchers:

Rank 1-25	0.150
Rank 26-60	0.100
Rank 61-120	0.075
Rank 121-220	0.050
Rank 221-300	0.025
Rank 301+	0.000

Relief Pitchers:

Rank 1-30	0.150
Rank 31-75	0.100
Rank 76-150	0.075
Rank 151-250	0.050
Rank 251-350	0.025
Rank 351+	0.000

Please note that these rankings are for that specific position. The easiest way to see this ranking is by going to Fantrax, setting the stats to "20XX Regular Season - YTD", selecting only the position group you want to see (Hitters, SPs, RPs), and setting the display per page to 250 or 500 in the bottom right hand corner. The number you're looking for is under "Rk". Do NOT use the number under "RkOv"

The second multiplier is based on the scale year a player is, much like what we have now. This simulates real life and the increasing arbitration values by year for players. This multiplier is:

Hitters and Starting Pitchers:

Year 4	0.70x
Year 5	0.85x
Year 6	1.00x

Relief Pitchers:

Year 4	0.47x
Year 5	0.57x
Year 6	0.67x

Note: the Relief Pitcher multipliers here are 2/3 of the Hitter and Starting Pitcher multipliers, so these are rounded for display purposes while in the actual calculation they are exact (ie, calculation uses 0.70 * 2/3 = 0.466666666...)

The final step is rounding the resulting number to two decimal places. This number is the player's salary in millions for the ensuing season

The minimum salary of Year 4-6 players is $2M

If an MLB team calls up a prospect, but you wish to leave them in your minors, you will not owe them their contract until the first season after pass the 50/30 IP/150 AB barrier. If you do call the player up to your MLB team, you will owe them $0.3M even if they have not yet reached the IP/AB barrier. If you then send them back down to your minors, you will no longer owe them anything.

EDIT, 11/04/2023: Scale rules have been updated to reflect changes starting in the 2024 season. Please note that for the 2024 season only, these arbitration values will be multiplied by 0.75 to make for a staggered rollout of the new changes

Contracts (Years 7+)

All options and opt-out clauses will become team options. You will be able to exercise or decline the option, and the salary will be the amount that it says on Cot's.

Minor Leaguers are not owed salary, but they will cost you $0.4M for every prospect over the total amount of 65 prospects.

After a player's 6th year is over you will have the option of picking up their new contract on Cot's or letting them go to Restricted or Unrestricted Free Agency. All extensions/contracts must be signed no later than December 1st the end of the World Series.

EDIT, 03/16/2017: The date above has been changed from December 1st to the end of the World Series. This is because some players sign new free agent contracts between the end of the World Series and December 1st, and the goal of this rule was never to encompass free agent contracts but rather extensions signed by players with their current team.

Note: As long as the player never becomes a free agent in MCD, you can continue to extend them.

If you wish to pick up a player's contract or an option, you must announce your decision by December 1st or the announced date by the Commissioner 

If a player retires on a real-life contract, then you will not owe him money. However, if you signed the player in free agency in the league, you will owe the standard release penalty of 50% of the contract each year for the remainder of the contract

Restricted Tag

Starting in the 2015 season and offseason and beyond, the Restricted Tag will be the only tag in MLB Central.

The bidding will be done as its own, separate week from all other UFA bidding. It will occur before all UFA bidding in the offseason. The bidding will be open, as usual, and all normal bidding rules will apply. When a high bid stands for 24 hours, there is a decision to be made. 

The tagging team has 3 options once a contract is signed: Match the contract and keep the player, sign and trade the player to the winning team, or let the player go to the winning team for only any applicable Compensation Picks. The tagging team will have 72 hours to make a decision.

Each team will receive 2 Restricted Tags per season. Only players coming off of their (6)th scale year can be tagged, and they must NOT have a real life extension that can otherwise be picked up by the team that owns him. 

The player(s) that your team designates for a Restricted Tag MUST be acquired by your team no later than that season's MLB trade deadline.

If you are using 2 Restricted Tags, one will be designated as the Primary Restricted Tag (PRT) and you will receive a 20% 10% yearly discount on whatever contract the player signs. The second player will get the Secondary Restricted Tag (SRT) and receive no discount. If you are using only one Restricted Tag, you must pay the full amount that the player agrees to; this rule is designed to give a slight financial break to those GMs who have 2 players on the market, not one.

Compensation will be uniform between Restricted Free Agency and Unrestricted Free Agency (see Compensation Rules for more details)

NOTE: For the 2015 offseason ONLY, any player at all can have a Restricted Tag used on them. This is so anyone who was counting on using the now-defunct Franchise Tag has an outlet to turn to.

EDIT, 07/31/2016: For a PRT player to qualify for the 20% discount, the team's SRT player MUST sign an offer with an average annual salary of no less than $5M. This is to prevent team's from tagging players who would normally not be tagged in order to receive a discount on their superior player.

EDIT, 08/01/2019: The PRT discount will now be 10% instead of 20%, effective for the 2019-20 FA period. This rule was approved in the 2018-19 offseason to be implemented one year later.

[MLBPA]

Starting Lineup:

C
1B
2B
3B
SS
LF
CF
RF
Utility
x5 Starting Pitchers
x5 Relief Pitchers
x21 Bench

Scoring

We play in one 30-team league on Fantrax. Tie breaker in standings will be fewest loses, then head to head, and then division record

Schedule

Division mates each x2 (8 games)
All other teams in league x1 (10 games)
Same-place finishers in each division from other league x1 (3 games)

In essence, you play three interleague games against similarly talented teams. A first place team will play a "first place" schedule, and so on.

Categories

Hitting: R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OBP, SLG
Pitching: K, QS, W, ERA, WHIP, SV, HD

The Journey to the World Series

Each year, 12 teams will reach the playoffs. Each division winner will qualify as well as three wild cards from both the AL and NL. The MCD Season will end Week 21 of the MLB Season. The top two division winners earn a first round bye for their efforts - this format mirrors what the MLB does as of 2022. The tiebreaker for any NL or AL playoff matchup is higher seed. The tiebreaker in the World Series is better standings finish from the regular season

[MLBPA]

First-Year Player Draft

We will hold a draft each year during the season. This draft will be begin that years entry draft has passed. The draft will last 7 rounds and all players drafted in the most currently-finished draft are eligible. 

The Draft will be held in reverse order. The team with the worst record from the previous season will be awarded the first pick in the draft, and so on.

Draft Times: (Clock will Stop Overnight)

1st will be 24 Hrs
2nd will be 12 Hrs
3rd-4th will be 8 Hrs
5th-6th will be 6 Hrs
7th will be 4 Hrs

During 7th Round if you miss your pick you will be skipped and can make your pick later, but if you do not make your pick within 2 days after draft is finished YOU will not receive a PICK

Undrafted Players in Current Draft, may not be Drafted UNTIL Rounds 5th thru 7th.

Following Guidelines must be followed when drafting:
-Must be Draft Eligible for that Yr of Draft!
-HS Players must be (Graduating) Senior in HS to be Eligible.

Note: If you Log-in when your On The Clock (OTC) and do not pick before getting off, you will be subject to Auto-Pick (AP). Only exemption to this will be 7th Rd.

Effective this 2015 offseason:

Free agents will be classified as "Type A" or "Type B" after the season according to the player rater. The following is a breakdown of Type A and Type B free agents:

Type A:

Ranked 1-15 SP in the previous season
Ranked 1-30 Batter in the previous season

Type B:

Ranked 16-45 SP in the previous season
Ranked 31-75 Batter in the previous season
Ranked 1-15 RP in the previous season

If the player is not resigned by his former team and is a Type A or Type B free agent, appropriate compensation is awarded to the player's former team.

- Teams that lose Type A free agents are compensated with a pick following the first round of the following year's amateur draft.

- Teams that lose Type B free agents are compensated with a pick following the second round of the following year's amateur draft.

Note: The draft order of the compensation rounds is ordered according to their ranking in the Player Rater.

These compensation picks may be traded at any time after the player is signed.

In order to earn compensation, the team must own the player BEFORE the regular season trading deadline.

Rule V Draft

Effective with the 2018-19 Rule V Draft, the draft will expand to 4 rounds. The order will still be inverse of standings and follow a snake format. Rounds one and two will occur in November while rounds three and four will occur in February. All unowned prospects with 0 MLB IP and/or 0 MLB PA are eligible for the draft, including but not limited to players signed as July 2nd IFA "bonus babies". 

[MLBPA]

Free Agents will be auctioned off, meaning every team has the chance to acquire a free agent. As in an auction, the highest bidder wins. However, to win the auction, your bid must stand the highest for at least 24 hours. The minimum contract length is 1 year. The maximum is 5 years.

Minimum Bid is: $0.5M

If the number of years offered is increased, the maximum percent decrease in annual salary is as follows:

One year: 13%
Two years: 17%
Three years: 23%
Four years: 33%

If the number of years offered is decreased, the minimum percent increase in annual salary is as follows:

One year: 15%
Two years: 20%
Three years: 30%
Four years: 50%

Minimum bid increment is $0.1M. In other words, if the current bid is 2 years, $2M, the next bid must be at least 2 years, $2.1M.

Remember, the per-year salary over the life of the contract remains constant for MLBC-signed players. Please keep average annual salaries at exact increments of $.1M ($100K).

Note- When Adding Years Length of contract Wins in case of Tie in Salary per yr.

You will recieve a hometown discount depending on how long you have owned the player:

<1 year: 2%
1 year: 5%
2-3 years: 10%
4-5: 15%
6+: 20%

**New for 2018: To lower the confusion of when you need to own a player since in order to get a discount, a new category for owning a player less than one full season has been added; one full season is defined as owning a player from before Opening Day of the season

Restricted Tags: The bidding will be done as its own, separate week from all other UFA bidding. It will occur before all UFA bidding in the offseason. The bidding will be open, as usual, and all normal bidding rules will apply. When a high bid stands for 24 hours, there is a decision to be made.

The tagging team has 3 options once a contract is signed: Match the contract and keep the player, sign and trade the player to the winning team, or let the player go to the winning team for only any applicable Compensation Picks. The tagging team will have 72 hours to make a decision.

Note: If a players does not get a Offer after the last bid is Won, The Owner who owns the Tag can choose to use a Qualifying Offer of $0.5M @ any amount of years they Choose. (Up to 5 yars Max.)

Sign-and-trades: You will be allowed to trade free agents in the first 72 hours after signing them AS LONG AS BOTH TEAMS REMAIN BELOW THE CAP. After that time has passed, signed FA signed cannot be traded until May 1st of the year of acquisition. This only applies to off-season acquired Free Agents.

Amnesty

Amnesty Clauses will work as follows:

-Every current owner will receive one (1) amnesty clause.
-Every new owner who joins the league will receive an amnesty clause to use.

-This amnesty clause can be used to release any player on your team, with either no, or a lowered cap penalty. If the player's salary is below or equal to $20M a year, you will not need to pay anything after amnestying him. If the player costs over $20M per season, you will pay 50% of all salary above $20M for the duration of the contract. For example, if I have a player for $32M signed through 2014, I would owe $6M through 2014 after amnestying him.

-After being amnestied, a player will go to waivers. If he costs under $20M and is claimed, the claiming owner will owe him all of his salary. If he costs over $20M, the claiming owner will be responsible for all salary that the waiving owner is not paying. For example, after amnestying my $32M player, if he is claimed the claiming owner would owe him $26M a season.

-If the player goes unclaimed, he will become a normal FA to be bid on.
-Amnesty clauses are not tradable.
-Once you've used your amnesty clause you will not receive another one, so be smart about it.

Developing Players(DP)

There are two different processes for Free Agents during the season. For Developing Players, there will essentially be a waiver process. If there is an unowned DP that you want (must be playing in the majors with fewer than 6 years of experience). Their will be a Waiver Wire Thread for Waiver Claims and Releases. (Please See Waiver Wire.)

Waiving a Player

Any player may be waived from your team. If the contract is an MLB contract/FA Contract, each year you will be responsible for 50% of the difference in the contract you owed.

All players who are in their first through sixth years of experience have non-guaranteed contracts or a Developing Player(DP). This means you can release them, at any time, without penalty.

Retirement

If a player retires on a real-life contract, then you will not owe him money. However, if you signed the player in free agency in the league, you will owe 50% of the contract each year for the remainder of the contract.

Waiver Wire

1) The waiver order to start off with will be randomized.
2) When a player is waived, he will enter waivers for the next 48 hours. If you wish to put in a claim for that player, you need to put a claim on them and they will be moved to the appropriate thread.
3) Players who qualify for Rookie Scale 1-6 will need to either be claimed or Nominated to pass through waivers to FA.
4) The team with the highest placement on the waiver order that claims a player will win that player, and then move to last place in the waiver order.
5) If you win a claim on a player you will pay half (50%) of the player's salary (the waiving team pays the other half still).
6) If a player goes through waivers unclaimed, he will become a normal FA and will be bid on as such.
7) In order for a player to "go through unclaimed," you need to place a thread in the waivers stating the you are not claiming. If the player then passes through the 48 hours unclaimed he will become a FA.
8) If you send several claims at once, you need to list what your order of priority on each player is.
9) You are not allowed to go over the cap when claiming players.
10) The claiming deadline will be the final day of the final week of the regular season (claims must be submitted by this time, they can be processed afterwards) and will re-open for business after the roster is changed over into the next season.

Note: Please refer to Rookie Scale to determine what yr they qualify for.

International Free Agents (IFAs):

International free agents who sign contracts with MLB teams in real life will be eligible to sign contracts in MLB Central. If they are signed using the July 2nd IFA bonus pool, then they will be eligible for the Rule V Draft.

-Players will be bid on as normal free agents, with yearly salaries. There will still be a 5-year maximum on contracts.
-The LMs will have final say over who is eligible to be bid upon.

Besides in the Rule V draft and IFA, teams may not acquire unowned prospects.

[MLBPA]

Trading Options

-The Trading Block is a place where every owner can place their players if they are looking to trade these particular players. Please entitle your trading block with "Team Name Trading Block"
-Every GM can also be reached by private message (PM)
-Every GM is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to have a GroupMe Account

Draft Picks Trading

Draft picks can be included in trades. You can only trade your current year draft picks and the following year until after the World Series.
You may only trade MLB Players, MiLB Players and Draft Picks. You may not trade permanent cap, but you can pay for a players contract for up to 1 season ahead of the current or upcoming one, including the current or upcoming season.

If a team trades a player with a wrong contract then that team is required to pay the amount of money that the contract was off by. Unless the 2 teams reach a separate agreement.

Trade Posting Process

To post a trade, go to Trades and post the trade with the names of the teams involved.

When posting a trade you must have:

Player Name
Position
Salary (Including Length)

If you wish to add the payment of a salary you will add that with the trade. You may exceed the cap in a trade during the season, however you must get under within one matchup period or your roster will be ruled illegal. You can also trade draft picks. Both owners must accept the trade, and then the league will vote on it

Trade Review Process

A trade can be officially approved in two ways:

1. If a trade has six more approvals than it does vetoes
   
2. If a trade has more approvals than vetoes 48 hours after all parties have posted official acceptance to the trade

Once a trade is officially approved, both teams can make the changes on their Fantrax rosters immediately. If a  trade reaches four vetoes, it is officially nullified and no changes are made

Once you have submitted a vote on a trade, you are not allowed to remove it without permission from an LM.

Trade Deadline

The trading deadline for the MCD will be 11:59 PM ET on the Sunday of the 18th matchup week of the season (unless otherwise noted). All trading will resume once the roster has been carried over into the new MCD season, following the end of the MLB regular season. All owners will be notified.

[MLBPA]

There will be Yearly Huddle following each season in the MCD. The Yearly Huddle will consist of topics that GM's and League Managers select. The Yearly Huddle will be debates that will end in polls that could include rules changes. The Yearly Huddle will be what kicks off our off-season, when teams can start all transactions once again. A schedule will be posted by the League Mangers every off-season.

When the Off-Season starts..

-Post upcoming Free Agents and post tags and tenders for Free Agents
-Drafts
-Free Agency open to ALL Owners.

Trading is open as soon as the World Series is over.

[MLBPA]

We hold every member to a very high standard in this league and if you step out of line one too many times penalties WILL be handed out, NO EXCEPTIONS. We are all here to have fun and play a game. There are various infractions for which you can be fined which include, but are not limited to,

-Failing to update roster regularly
-Causing a disturbance within the league or chat room
-Going over the roster limit
-Going over the salary cap
-Breaking ANY rule stated in these threads.

Penalties can include but are not limited to

-Reduction in salary cap for season(s)
-Loss of draft picks for season(s)
-1 week suspension of a key player on your team
-Removal from the league

CHEATING/COLLUDING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. ANY PARTY THAT IS FOUND TO HAVE ANY PART IN CHEATING WILL BE IMMEDIATELY BANNED FOR LIFE. DON'T CHEAT.

[MLBPA]

Once again, the League Managers would like to thank you for giving our league a chance. We only ask for a couple of things from you.

-Always keep your roster UPDATED at ALL TIMES. There will be random roster checks and you do not want to be caught with an outdated roster! Penalties will be given accordingly.
-Keep at least TWO threads at all times updated. 1) Team Roster and 2) Transaction Files. This will help the league immensely in organization and will make it run much more smoothly.
-Please be respectful to every owner in this league. We aren't running a circus show and any cheating/colluding must be reported to one of the League Managers and SHOULD NOT be taken out on the chat box. The chat box is solely for general chat. Penalties will be given accordingly.

We hope you guys have a fun inaugural season in the MCD and we plan to keep this league going for as long as we can!

AFTER READING THIS GO TO THE LEAGUE OATH AND READ AND SIGN AS WELL. SIGN IT IN BOLD INK AS PROOF THAT YOU HAVE READ ALL THE RULES.

League Managers!