1980s Keeper League Structure

League Structure:
- Championship will be decided by total points accumulated over all 10 seasons. 1 point for each win, 5 points for making the playoffs, 5 additional points for making the finals, and 10 additional points for winning the finals.
- Each night will be 1 week of the season. 162 Games.
- 2 Divisions of 8 teams.
- 162 game unbalanced schedule (14 games vs teams in the same division, 8 games vs each team outside of division).
- Manager settings will be due by 5PM for that evenings games and will be submitted by sending the computer game CM file (.MGR) to the commissioner.
- Unique Stadiums (each stadium can only be used by one team)
- Stadiums will be kept for all 10 seasons and will use the settings for each specific season
- 2 Week off-season for Keeper selection, draft, trading and manager file setup.

Player Pool:
- Batters with less than 80 AB's are INELIGIBLE (but will be available for drafting as a reserve) 50 in 1981 due to the strike
- Pitchers with less than 40 IP's are INELIGIBLE (but will be available for drafting as a reserve) 25 in 1981 due to the strike
- Minimum AB's and IP's will be reduced for the 1981 strike season
- Batters or Pitchers with lowercase team abbreviations are INELIGIBLE (and will not be in the draft pool)
- NO usage limitations for eligible ABs or IPs. Minimums based on AB/IP are defined for season eligibility
- Players that play for multiple teams in one year in the same league are carded once by SOM, we will use the full year card for that type of player. Players that play for multiple teams in one year in both leagues are carded for each team by SOM (no full season card), we will use the card with the most ABs/IPs for that player from a single team.

Roster Structure:
- Roster Size = 25 plus 3 Ineligible Reserves
- Keepers = Min 12 / Max 18 (including reserves)
- In Season trading is allowed before August 1st. Draft picks can be traded.
- A player that misses a season or is un-carded can be a "Keeper".

Game Rules:
- SUPER ADVANCED RULES WITH BK/WP/PK (with limited MAX RULES: Doubles/Triples Option, Bunt For Base Hit, Robbing HR Rule)
- BALLPARK EFFECTS - ON (when available)
- WEATHER EFFECTS - OFF
- CLUTCH HITTING - ON
- ADVANCED STEALING
- ADVANCED STRATEGY CHARTS
- DO NOT USE MISC RULES
- USE CLOSER RULES
- USE INJURIES
- USE SADV PITCHER FATIGUE
- ALLOW GBA ON PITCHERS CARDS

Lineups and Usage Options:
- ALL TEAMS WILL USE A DH
- IGNORE OVERUSAGE
- MINOR LEAGUERS INELIGIBLE
- Lineups "DRAFT LEAGUE MODE NO REST"
- GIVE SCHEDULED DAYS OFF
- USE SUPER HAL BULLPEN - OFF
- USE SUPER HAL LINEUP SUBS - ON
- USE ACTUAL PITCHER BATTING CARDS - OFF
- ALLOW EXTRA GS FOR CERTAIN PITCHERS - OFF
- USE SUPER HAL PINCH HITTING - OFF
- USE SUPER HAL PINCH RUNNING - OFF
- Fatigue rules will be used for pitchers (i.e. SP* and RP fatigue)

Draft Structure:
- Inaugural Draft will be serpentine, 29 rounds, random order generated, Draft will be hosted on Strat Draft.
- 29 Rounds (28 players, 1 stadium).
- Stadiums can be picked in any round.
- Daily draft window 10AM - 10PM EST (we have some PST managers)
- Time limit - NO CLOCK in first round, 2 hour clock in remaining rounds. Exception, since the inaugural draft sets the table for the decade, the clock will be set to a 4 hour clock for the first 5 rounds, then a 2 hour round for the remaining.
- 1981 and later drafts will have enough rounds to fill each teams roster. Each team will pick until they have 25 players and 3 reserve players.
- 1981 and later draft sequence will be determined by previous season record, and will NOT be serpentine.
- Inaugural Draft Pool will consist of all MLB players that were officially carded in 1980.
- Successive Season Draft Pools will consist of all officially carded MLB players for that year, that are not identified as keepers.

Playoff Structure:
- Playoffs teams will be the 2 division winners plus the next best 4 records from either division. All rounds will be 7 game series.
- All playoff teams will be reset to full rest before the first playoff round (including clearing all injuries).
- Tie breakers for playoff seeding and draft seeding will be determined based on head to head records between the tied teams, then run differential in head to head games.
- If a tie breaker will result in the elimination of a team from the playoffs, a 1 game playoff will break the tie. The team with the better head to head results will be the home team in the 1 game playoff. This game will be considered a "regular season" game, fatigue and injuries from the season will remain in place. The tiebreaker levels will be head to head record, then head to head run differential, then a coin flip.
- Wild Card Round - The division winners will be seeded 1-2 based on winning percentage and tiebreakers. Seeds 1 and 2 will get a bye to the Semifinal Round. The wild cards will then be seeded 3-6 based on winning percentage and tiebreakers. The wild card round pairings will be 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5. 3 and 4 will get home field advantage.
- Semifinals - The remaining division winners will be seeded based on winning percentage and tiebreakers, followed by the remaining Wild Cards being seeded by winning percentage and tiebreakers. Semifinal pairings will be 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3, with 1 and 2 getting home field advantage.
- World Series - The remaining division winners will be seeded by winning percentage and tiebreakers, followed by the remaining Wild Cards being seeded by winning percentage and tiebreakers. Seed 1 will have the home field advantage.

Playoff Schedule:
Wild Card Round
Game 1: #6 at #3, #5 at #4
Game 2: #6 at #3, #5 at #4
---rest---
Game 3: #3 at #6, #4 at #5
Game 4: #3 at #6, #4 at #5
Game 5: #3 at #6, #4 at #5 (if necessary)
---rest---
Game 6: #6 at #3, #5 at #4 (if necessary)
Game 7: #6 at #3, #5 at #4 (if necessary)
---rest---
---rest---

Semifinals (Reseeding of remaining teams)
Game 1: #4 at #1, #3 at #2
Game 2: #4 at #1, #3 at #2
---rest---
Game 3: #1 at #4, #2 at #3
Game 4: #1 at #4, #2 at #3
Game 5: #1 at #4, #2 at #3 (if necessary)
---rest---
Game 6: #4 at #1, #3 at #2 (if necessary)
Game 7: #4 at #1, #3 at #2 (if necessary)
---rest---
---rest---

Finals (Reseeding of remaining teams)
Game 1: #2 at #1
Game 2: #2 at #1
---rest---
Game 3: #1 at #2
Game 4: #1 at #2
Game 5: #1 at #2 (if necessary)
---rest---
Game 6: #2 at #1 (if necessary)
Game 7: #2 at #1 (if necessary)

(note - all days will remain in the schedule, rest days and days of games not necessary, so if you sweep the first round, your pitchers will get extra rest if the other series goes longer)


Franchise Name selection list (based on actual 1980's minor league teams, 1 franchise per city). 1970s manager have first choice of keeping their franchise name if it was active in the 80s:

Albuquerque Dukes (70s Terry)
Buffalo Bisons
Calgary Cannons
Charleston Charlies (70s Chuck)
Columbus Clippers - Rob
Denver Bears
Denver Zephyrs - Jim
Edmonton Trappers - Joe
Evansville Triplets
Hawaii Islanders (70s John)
Indianapolis Indians - John
Iowa Cubs (only 1 Iowa franchise can be selected for the commish's sanity)
Iowa Oaks (70s Joe) (only 1 Iowa franchise can be selected for the commish's sanity)
Las Vegas Stars - Terry
Louisville Redbirds - Rick
Maine Guides - Chuck
Nashville Sounds - Sean
Oklahoma City 89ers
Omaha Royals
Pawtucket Red Sox - Allan
Phoenix Firebirds - Paul
Phoenix Giants (70s Paul)
Portland Beavers (70s Steve) - Steve
Richmond Braves (70s Bill) - Bill
Rochester Red Wings
Salt Lake City Gulls
Syracuse Chiefs (70s Rob)
Tacoma Tigers
Tidewater Tides
Toledo Mud Hens (70s Jeff) - Jeff
Tucson Toros - Mike
Vancouver Canadians
Wichita Aeros - Guy