These rules were borrowed mostly from the Off-Topic Baseball Association (www.otbaonline.com), which were written by Sebastian. He rocks, and so I stole them for the most part. Any changes to the rules may be generally made at any time either by commissioner decision or league vote.

I. Introduction

1. The Classic Baseball Union (CBU) (aka the CeeBoo) is an Out of the Park simulation baseball league founded in July 2009 to provide a fun fictional baseball experience for anyone.

II. Owner Participation/Activity

1. Owners are expected to make at least semi-regular exports with their teams. If an owner misses 4 unexcused/unexplained-scheduled exports in a row, the commissioner reserves the right to replace said owner. If 4 exports are missed the commissioner also has a judgment call to make no replacement moves, but may run the computer manager for the team after 4 export misses to make sure there is a competitive roster going.
2. Any owner should post in the Owner Vacations and Absences board if they know they will and or could be gone for an extended time. Any requests can be made through that forum, but the commissioner is not obligated to any moves not made through exports.
3. If necessary the commissioner reserves the right to make any necessary moves for sake of moving to simulation along. Any necessary moves that are made will not be undone under any circumstance. Please own your team and help the league along.
4. Cheating is not tolerated; the league office will review any case and make judgment calls based on the allegations.

III. Sim Scheduling & Exporting

1. Sims will be run on a Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday schedule with exports due in the evening. Deadlines for exports, trades, or for any changes will be 7 PM central time on those respective days. With one weeks notice the commissioner reserves the right to move up or move back scheduled sims to work with his own personal schedule.
2. If there appears to be an error in exporting the league officials will look into the problem, however resimulating will be avoided at all costs.
3. Any trades made will be processed after the importing of exports, with any trades please make sure you leave commissioner instruction for where the players are supposed to go. All players involved in trades are expected to be placed DFA for convenience.
4. Sims will be run in half-month blocks (with expectation of the playoffs). Short sim periods may be used to get to the league All-Star break, League Amateur Draft,  Trading Deadline, Roster Expansion period, or any other deadlines seen fit by the commissioner. playoffs are simmed one series at a time, Playoffs and the offseason may or may not follow the S/T/T routine schedule, but will get their own calendar schedule to follow when the time becomes appropriate to do so.

IV. Transactions

1. Both teams must agree to a trade for it to be processed. Generally, one team will post the trade, and the other will agree to it on the message board. The HTML page links for the players involved must be included on the post. Without this information, the trade may be delayed/canceled. Trades must be confirmed by both parties prior to the simulation in order for the trade to be processed, with exceptions possible at the commissioner’s discretion. In that trade thread is the appropriate place to alert the commissioner to any roster moves involving any players in that trade.
2. All other transactions other than waivers and trades are to be completed in the game. Players placed on the waivers must be posted on the board including a HTML link to the player. Any player who is placed on waivers in game without being done on the board as well will result in a one time warning and that player placed back on waivers, all subsequent issues will result in fines and loss in team cash, along with those players being placed back on waivers.
3. Draft picks will NOT be allowed to be traded and the league will follow compensation of draft picks as allowed with the game software.

V. Settings

1. Basic Setup
   1. Financials are enabled
   2. Scouts/Coaches are to league vote
   3. DH rules will be up to league vote.
   4. Simulating minors is enabled.
   5. Ability Ratings are set to 1-10 scale
   6. Talent Ratings are set to 1-10 scale.
   7. Other Ratings are set to 1-10 scale
   8. Ratings above 10 will be displayed.
   9. Star Rating system is enabled.
2. Financial Setup
   1. Salary Cap: $100,000,000
   2. Salary Floor: $40,000,000
   3. Team Cash Maximum: $40,000,000
   4. Minimum Player Salary: $350,000
   5. 40-Man Roster Rule: Enabled
   6. Waivers: Enabled for length of sim period, but no less than 15 game days.
   7. Minor League Option Years: Enabled
   8. Rule 5 Draft: Enabled
   9. Salary Arbitration: Enabled
   10. Minor League Free Agents: Enabled
   11. The team minimum salary will be enforced at the end of each season. Any team not meeting the salary floor will be subject to a fine of two times the difference between the mimimum salary and the team’s actual salary. Teams must be in compliance after 4 seasons in the league (protection for expansion teams). Will not be enforced until the end of the 4 season after the inagural draft.

VI. Stadiums

1. New owners will have until their first opening day to submit a new stadium and team move. Teams not submitting a new stadium risk having a generic stadium being made.
2. Park Factors will be determined using Gambo’s/Dark Horse’s stadium converter spreadsheet. Park factors must arrive between RAVG/LAVG between 88-112, and RHR, LHR, 2b, and 3B ratings must be between 70-130. Stadiums outside of these regulations will be altered or rejected. Commissioner has the right to alter a stadium or proposal as he or she sees fit to keep realism in check.
3. Stadium Capacity will default at 45,000.
4. New stadiums may be open air grass, open air turf, or dome turf. Retractable stadiums are considered upgrades and may be purchased for an additional $6 million in cash or by subtracting 3000 seats in capacity.
5. Seating upgrades may be purchased during the offseason at the rate of 500 seats for one million dollars. There is a 5000 seat (10 million dollars) per season limit and the max capacity of a stadium will be 60,000 seats. When the request is made is when the money will be subtracted from team cash balance.
6. Current owners at no cost can make new stadiums after five seasons in the current stadium. Any upgrades or extra seating made will be lost.
7. Remodeling. A team may change park dimensions at a cost of $5 million + $100,000 * total points of park factors changed, with RHB and LHB factors counting separately for applicable factors. For example, if an owner remodels a stadium to change HR LHB from .96 to 1.00, HR RHB from .97 to 1.01 and doubles from 1.04 to 1.00, the total cost would be $5 million + $100,000*12, or $6.2 million.

VII. Expansion

1. Expansion will take place when the league as a whole approves of it and there are enough active current owners and potential future owners to justify it.
2. The league will expand by two teams when it does expand, holding an expansion draft to fill the two new team’s rosters. The expansion draft will last three rounds, with each team losing a maximum of one player in each round. Either expansion team can stop at any time during the draft.
3. Players selected in the expansion draft have their entire contracts made the responsibility of the selecting team.
4. Expansion teams can trade players selected in the draft immediately to any team.

VIII. Relocation

1. New owners can relocate and rename their team the following off-season after acquiring the team. For instance, if a new owner comes in during the middle of the 2007 season, he/she will be able to rename the team for the 2008 season. If an owner takes over a team during the 2008 off-season, he/she will be able to rename the team for the 2009 season.
2. Existing team owners wishing to rename and relocate their team may do so only with league office permission, and only after 10 years at the original location.
3. Those relocating teams must submit a new stadium and logo before the season flips.

IX. League Office

1. The league office consists of the commissioner, the assistant commissioners, the league presidents, and the commissioners emeritus. The league office discusses issues and potential changes in the league before discussing them with the league as a whole. League officers may be asked to handle sim running responsibilities if the commissioner is unable to fulfill them. If you have a conflict with another owner or the League Office, please direct your issues to your respective League President first.

X. Rosters

1. Teams in the league are required to field a 25 man roster at the major league level. There is no minimum for the amount of players to be kept on the 40 man roster, outside of having 25 players on it (for the 25 man roster). There is no minimum amount of players for teams to have at the minor league level. The roster maximums for the minor league levels are:

• • AAA: 30 players
  • AA: 30 players
  • A: 35 players
  • Rookie: 40 players

Special Note: Teams that run a sim with one or more players short of 25 on the ML 25 man roster will be notified and asked to add additional players to their 25 man roster. Teams that run several sims short of 25 men on their 25 man roster in a row run the risk of having players moved to their 25 man roster without their permission and may be considered “inactive”, running the risk of replacement as owners.

XI. Offseason & Draft

1. Upon completion of the Championship game, a small amount of time will be given to teams for final contract extension offers and releases. Teams wishing not to offer arbitration to eligible players should release them during this time.
2. Once the season is flipped, teams are committed to arbitration salary given, and any player not resigned will officially become a free agent.
3. The amateur draft will be run during the season and will run over 1 week. Drafts may end early, but will never run late unless for some unforeseen circumstance (holidays, etc).
   1. The Draft will be a time slotted setup where auto picks will be made if you miss your time slot. These are final.
   2. Generally the draft will be done on the message board, and the first round will be spread over two days, the following round over one day a piece. Draft lists are strongly encouraged.
   3. If the draft is ahead of schedule the commissioner reserves the right to move ahead time slots for the next day in hope of getting further through the draft faster. An autopick list will be made at the beginning from the draft, and any owner at the appropriate time can make an autopick for an owner ahead of him.
   4. The draft should be scheduled to start on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and shall be done by Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Sims may be shortened before hand to help make the draft scheduling go smoother.
4. The Rule 5 draft will occur during the offseason, one schedule offseason sim will sim up to the draft, the next day will be allowed time for draft lists to be made via message board PM list, and the draft will be simulated, no exports will be taken between the draft and the last day to protect people.
5. Free agency will be run throughout the offseason, and there are no limits on offers made.
6. Spring training will spread across two simulations.

XII. Salary Cap Violations

1. Salary Cap – Any team in violation of the league’s salary cap will be given one simulation period to fix it without penalty. This grace period is awarded solely at the commissioner’s discretion and may be denied for any reason towards the good of the league, including abuse of the policy. This grace period shall not be awarded during the period that is past the trading deadline but before the end of the playoffs.
2. Any team in violation of the league’s salary cap at the end of any grace period, or immediately in the case a grace period is not granted, will undergo the following remedies, enacted by the commissioner, in the order listed:
   1. A. A fine of $1 million immediately upon expiration of grace period
   2. If team remains above cap one sim after fine outlined in (1): Release of player(s), at commissioner’s discretion, to bring team below cap, accompanied by another $1 million fine.
3. Any habitual salary cap violator, as determined by the commissioner, is subject to punishments above those outlined above, including but not limited to: larger fines, forfeiture of draft picks, and removal from league. This punishment is at the discretion of the commissioner and subject to review by the league officers.

XIII. Appeals Process

1. All punitive league measures are subject to appeal. To appeal, an owner must submit, via private message to the commissioner, a statement with the following information: decision being appealed, reason for appeal / reason for disagreement with league decision, and suggested remedy in lieu of commissioner decision. Within two days of receipt, the commissioner must forward this PM to the members of the League Council or create a thread in the League Office forum (confidential to league officers) with the contents of the PM displayed. The League Council will vote within 2 days of receipt (4 days of appeal submission) whether to approve or deny the appeal, or enact a compromise between the appeal request and the initial punishment.

XIV. Playtesting

1. The league is to be playtested by the commissioner before every season and league output adjusted to be similar to the following. Some variation is acceptable, but should stay within a reasonable range (maximum variation should be approximately .50 ERA and .010-.020 in all batting rates).

XV. Media Compensation

1. Because the league will be a writing featured league there will be some compensation for efforts made.
   1. Writing a team story will result in a  +1 increase in the fan interest modifier and will pay a team cash stipend that will $250 per word. So far example a 500 word story would be worth $125,000. These stories can be written once a week (real time not in game time).
      1. i.     The longest story will get the credit for the cash bonus, in the case of one or more stories being written.
      2. ii.     Up to 1000 words. After that its all written for free.
   2. Writing a league story, or any story outside of the focus of your own team will result in a +1 increase in the fan interest modifier for your team, and will pay a cash stipend that will be $500 per world. So a 500 word story will be worth $250,000. These credits can be applied up to once a real time week.
      1. i.     Also pays up to 1000 words. However special articles like longer draft previews or work that shows obvious research can be paid higher by the commissioner.  If there is every a question, please notify the commissioner of your plans before writing.
   3. At any time the league can throw out ideas for stories and if the task is accepted they can be done for bonuses described in a and/or b.
   4. Manipulation will not be tolerated, there won’t be any going through articles and deeming them quality or not because we are not likely all professional writers, but if it feels like the story is a bunch of useless words thrown together the commissioner can make a call to issue warnings, or not provide compensation.
   5. One full simulated year should take anywhere from 7 to 10 weeks. If an owner writes about the team in 80% (6 of 7, 7 of 8, 8 of 9, 8 of 10) or better of the weeks, there will be a +1 increase in the team interest overall (not the modifier) and a $500,000 bonus.
      1. i.     The same bonus gets applied if the owner writes about league stories just as often.
   6. Obviously these rules are subject to change, however the impact they have will be significant but far from separating the most active owners to the busy ones. The fan interest modifier goes up and down with team performance and team transactions, which is why there’s a special bonus for being consistent (the actual fan interest gets boosted). The maximum amount of money might end up being a tad above $5 million, which obviously adds up, but its far from an extreme advantage.

Special Note: Basically we want people to write, and to do it for the fun of the league, if they do not want to, they by no means have to, but if they do there’s a small incentive.

XVI. Commissioner’s Authority

1. This league is meant for fun and excitement. However in the best case for the league the commissioners decesisions are the word, and while everything shall be up for a vote, in situations where simming at any time may be haulted the commissioner may make a timely decision to keep the league moving. Any fixes, mistakes, or changes may be made, however will be posted in a thread dedicated for those issues.