Home / Constitution of the PEBA
The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance (PEBA) is a fictional Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) leagues. The league is formed solely for the enjoyment of its members (hereafter alternately referred to as “GMs”).
The Constitution of the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance will be referred to for all questions regarding the rules and regulations of the PEBA. The Constitution may be revised as necessary for the league to evolve. Changes will be made at the sole discretion of the Board (see below). Whenever appropriate, members will be consulted prior to a Constitutional change. In order to participate in the PEBA all members must agree to adhere to this Constitution. By doing so, you are acknowledging certain responsibilities involved with your participation and are agreeing to uphold them in an effort to make this playing experience as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved.
Member opinion on Constitutional changes is solicited whenever it is feasible to do so. Members are expected to provide opinions on proposed changes during each off-season.
While member input is welcome, note that decisions by the Board are final; no further debate will be welcome once a decision is rendered. Rather than a democracy, the PEBA should be viewed as a benevolent autocracy. Opinions are taken very seriously; in the interest of maintaining stability and focus, however, members hereby consent to accept rulings from the Board without argument.
PEBA members recognize that the league is intended to recreate a realistic modern baseball experience. Limitations of OOTP will occasionally result in opportunities for personal gain that would not occur in real life. Members agree to adhere to a common sense policy when approaching these situations and will refrain from taking advantage of unrealistic opportunities presented to them by the game. Members recognize that interpretation of what constitutes “unrealistic” is based on the discretion of the Board, who can and will enforce unilateral actions to prevent/reverse moves that go against the spirit of the CSA.
In situations where a move is deemed as potentially being in violation of the CSA, it is reasonable to present a written explanation for said move privately to the Board. Once the Board has reached a verdict, however, further argument will not be tolerated. The general mantra here is: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” If you are uncertain whether a move you’re considering would violate the CSA, contact the Board to receive guidance. Your case will always garner the best reception when you provide forewarning.
At all times, members are expected to be courteous and respectful to their league-mates. The PEBA is established not only as a baseball league but as a social experience. While disagreements and debates will always be a part of any gathering of individuals, it is expected that members will treat one other with due dignity. All new league GMs will use their real names in their forum signature to facilitate familiarity between members.
Participants are expected to be both competitive with and courteous to their fellow GMs. The PEBA is a league that rewards participation and competitive play. All members are expected to live up to this standard and agree to do their utmost to put forth the best franchise they possibly can. At the same time, members acknowledge that the PEBA is a social experience as well. Members participate to have fun and communicate with like-minded baseball aficionados. When the twin goals of competitiveness and courtesy collide, members should err on the side of courtesy.
Members are expected to respond politely to your fellow GMs’ trade proposals (no matter how unrealistic they may be). This can be as simple as saying, “I am not interested at this time.” Members must respond to trade communications – however briefly – within four days of their receipt. If you have sent a communication to a fellow GM and received no response within this time frame, you may send a complaint to the Board. Members excused from exports are also excused from responding to trade communications.
The PEBA puts a great deal of value on creative writing submission from its members as well as other forms of participation. Members receive CP for taking the time to better the league with their contributions. CP can be exchanged for a variety of useful benefits and writing is the best way to earn them, so contributing news articles is highly recommended for all members. See Article XI for more information on Contribution Points.
The PEBA shall be governed by a Board appointed by the Commissioner. The Board is responsible for running sims, keeping up the web site, paying hosting costs, making decisions in the best interest of the league, answering questions, resolving conflicts when they arise (with the expectation that members’ desires/concerns are addressed with fairness), clear communication if/when unforeseen events arise, and any other functions required to maintain the league. Above all else, the Board has a responsibility never to abuse its status. Board members are strictly prohibited from altering/adjusting sim results to favor a particular team or divulging “inside information” that would lead to a competitive advantage.
The Board may divide responsibility for these tasks amongst themselves in any manner they deem appropriate. These are considered lifetime posts. A board member may resign if he or she so chooses, but not until a suitable replacement is found.
When a new version of OOTP is released, the Board will determine a schedule for migration. This will not occur until a.) the PEBA is in the off-season, and b.) the Board has had time to review the new version and determine its suitability. Once a schedule has been laid out, all PEBA members will be expected to purchase the new version in a timely fashion.
Volunteers willing to assist the Board with their duties are welcomed with warm appreciation. While many aspects of league management must be handled solely by the Board, there are several areas where the contributions of members can prove invaluable. Those members who donate their time and effort will be rewarded in Contribution Points (CP – see Article XI).
Current Board Officers are:
During the regular season, two sims are scheduled each week. During the playoffs and off-season, a third sim (or more) may be held as schedules of participants allow. Alterations to the schedule will be announced in advance by the Board to provide members ample time to prepare. The Board will periodically release schedule updates to keep members up to date. The latest schedule is always linked from the league homepage.
There are seven base responsibilities involved with participation in the PEBA.
The Board will contact GMs neglecting any of these responsibilities, but Contribution Point (CP) penalties will be immediately assessed to GMs who neglect Exporting, Roster Management, and DFA Management responsibilities). Continued neglect could result in additional CP penalty. Repeated violations can result in forfeiture of your membership.
Details of these seven responsibilities are found below:
EXPORTING:
It is mandatory for every GM to export in advance of every regular season sim regardless of whether or not they have moves to make. Members are also expected to export in advance of any playoff sims in which their team is participating. Exporting in advance of off-season sims is optional but highly encouraged.
An online export tracker is available to assist members. (see Article IX). The Board will provide notification, on both the forum and homepage, when a new league file is ready.
Exports may be submitted at any time during a sim cycle. To avoid last-second hang-ups that may prevent you from exporting, all members are advised to send a “safety export” immediately upon importing a new league file. A more thorough export may be submitted later in the cycle. Getting into the habit of sending a “safety export” is good practice.
Members agree to post notice via the appropriate forum if they will be unable to make one or more exports. PEBA members recognize that timely exporting is the most basic and essential requisite of a smoothly running league. In turn, the Board recognizes that life responsibilities/emergencies can and do occasionally conflict with the exporting process. Unexcused and excused missed exports will be handled thusly:
ROSTER MANAGEMENT:
Each sim, every GM will ensure the rosters of all teams of all levels that are in-season meet all requirements listed below:
Minor league roster limits (except age) are not enforced during the teams off season.
As the entire PEBA world is meant to mimic real life baseball conditions, teams are expected to have age appropriate rosters. Failure to meet these requirements will result in auto-assignment by the Board (which may not be to your liking). On first offense, when any player is found to be illegally on a roster, the GM will be warned. All subsequent offenses will result CP penalties outlined in that section of this constitution.
Roster Expansion: On September 1 of each year, the PEBA level roster expands to 40 players.
Playoff Rosters: Playoff roster eligibility is determined by OOTP. To be eligible for the playoff roster, a player must be on the 25-man major league roster or DL by the day prior to a league’s roster expansion. If less than 25 players are on a team’s active roster on the listed dates, the vacant roster spot(s) must also remain vacant during the playoffs. Roster moves cannot be made while a playoff series is in progress. Ineligible players on a playoff roster will be removed by the Board. Their vacated roster spot may not be filled for the duration of the current playoff series.
Playoff injury replacement rules:
LINEUP MANAGEMENT:
GMs are expected to have all applicable lineups, rotations and depth charts fully set up for each team within their organization while that team’s league is in season. Minimum requirements include:
As leaving injured players on a roster increases the risk of injury to other players on the roster via overuse, GMs are expected to adjust for injuries (use the Disabled Lists as appropriate) and take other roster movement as needed.
DISABLED LIST MANAGEMENT:
Players must be removed from your DL within one sim of returning to full health and serving their minimum DL stint. Note that the number associated with each DL (15 or 60-day) represents the minimum time the player must remain there, not the maximum.
DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT LIST MANAGEMENT:
Players will be placed on a team’s DFA list for one of three reasons:
Players who are designated for assignment may stay on your DFA list for up to the length of the next two sims + 1 day (usually this will mean 15 days during the regular season). GMs must assign, trade or release a player before his allotted time on the list expires. Failure to do so will result in auto-assignment by the Board (which may not be to your liking).
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT:
GMs are expected to keep all teams in their organization fully staffed while in season. Any organization which is not fully staffed at the beginning of the season will be given a warning. Failure to have your organization fully staffed within 2 sim cycles following the warning will result in a $500k fine per open staff slot. The Assistant GM slot is the only slot that is not required to be filled.
PARTICIPATION:
Members are required to participate in several league events and functions. These include:
In addition, it is expected that each GM will earn at least 50 total CP per season. A CP during a season. A CP “season” concludes upon arrival of the Winter Meetings.
The league also has several special events. Most special events are considered optional (the Amateur Draft being one exception). The Board will spell out any participation requirements in advance of these events.
PEBA teams have no salary cap. GMs are, however, expected to steer their clubs toward profitability.
If a GM chooses to pursue a policy of deficit spending losses beyond -$35,000,000 will be erased upon the end of a season, but the team (and possibly the GM) will expose themselves to multiple penalties.
Owner-Provided Cash Relief: At the end of a season, a team owner may provide cash out of his pocket to cover excessive team losses. For every $2.5M received in this manner, the team will lose a point of fan interest. If the team has available Discretionary Funds, the owner-provided cash will be deducted from those funds. Any portion of the owner-provided cash infusion that is covered by a team’s Discretionary Funds will not count towards a fan interest penalty.
Ticket Prices: Each GM may set his team’s ticket prices. These prices should remain within reason. Setting outrageously high prices – i.e. double what any other team is charging discouraged (prices may be found in the History > Season Summary section of statslab) GM’s will be warned for a first offence and subject to a Fan Interest penalty of -1 for every subsequent offence, Media contracts will be based on a team’s market size.
Maximum Cash & Discretionary Fund: The maximum amount of cash that any team can carry is $35,000,000. This total will be checked immediately upon the conclusion of each season. Teams with cash over their league maximum will have the excess total placed in their private Discretionary Funds account. Funds in this account can be used to purchase ballpark renovation/relocation awards. This account may not exceed $50,000,000. See Article XIV for more details on the renovation/relocation awards that can be purchased with Ballpark Funds.
Revenue Sharing: A set percentage (31%) of each team’s seasonal revenue will be collected at season’s end and distributed evenly amongst all teams in the league. Those teams generating above-average income will pay more, while those generating below-average income will receive more.
Performance Based Loyalty and Market Effects: A team’s performance has the potential to affect its fan loyalty and market size. Since expectations are different in different markets, each team will be reviewed based on the expectations for their market. Teams with the largest markets and largest budgets will have the greatest expectations. Teams in smaller markets with smaller budgets will have lesser expectations. Teams will be awarded or penalized based on how they fared against those expectations.
Expectations will be based on market size, team budget, playoff appearances in the last ten seasons, and team record over the last 5 seasons. Points are awarded/subtracted based on team record, place in division, playoff appearance, and winning a championship. A minimum of 2 years must pass between fan loyalty changes, and a minimum of 3 years must pass between market size changes. Winning a PEBA championship makes a team exempt from market size/fan loyalty drops for the next 3 years.
The Players’ Bill of Rights, as stated below, is a list of “spirit of play” tenants that members should take to heart before engaging in negotiations with players. The message it sends is that we as a league value realism and spirit of play above personal gain. Though OOTP may allow GMs to sign players to unrealistically long-term, low-end contracts, the PEBA holds itself to a higher standard when it comes to realism and fair play. We choose to police ourselves and adhere to the real world principle that player salaries often will and should increase during a player’s arbitration and early free agency years. Not a rule, per se, The Players’ Bill of Rights is more a statement of principle:
PEBA Player Contracts: Contracts are governed by several house rules. Before offering a player a contract, familiarize yourself with these rules. Contracts in violation of these rules are subject to review by the Board, which reserves the right to void the contract. If you wish to offer a contract that breaks one or more of these rules, contact the Board prior to making the offer to explain your intent. You will be provided with guidance on an agreeable contract offer.
[1] Contracts are governed by the Common Sense Accord. Any contracts that, in the Board's view, unreasonably exploit a flaw in the game AI will be subject to restructuring or voiding. GMs are encouraged to contact the Board for guidance before making a contract offer when in doubt.
[2] GMs with offending contract extensions will be offered a restructured contract to bring them into compliance with league rules. $500,000 will be added to the first year of the player's extension. Alternatively, the GM can opt to void the contract extension, however, their next offer to the player cannot exceed 1 year in length.
[3] Contracts to free agents will not be restructured. In the event that a contract with a free agent player is voided, the GM who offered the voided contract will not be allowed to make any additional offers to that player for 1 month in-game.
[4] Maximum contract length is six years (including option years), with one exception detailed below.
[5] Extensions to players with fewer than six years of ML service time cannot exceed two years in length.
[6] Vesting, Player, and Team Options are allowed in multi-year contracts subject to the following provisos:
Team options must include a buyout fee of at least $2,000,000. Vesting options must be realistic. You cannot ask for more than PITCHERS 30 games started, 180 IP (starters) , 20 games finished (Relievers). BATTERS 450 AB, 120 games played.
[7] No-trade clauses will not be allowed.
[8] The international free agent signing period is in July of each year, and PEBA teams are allowed to bid on international free agents.
Amateur Draft: The PEBA Amateur Draft will be held on June 7th of each season. It is 15 rounds in length, managed via StatsLab, conducted live in the PEBA chat room (linked from the league homepage) over a two-day period. These live events will be scheduled well in advance to allow GMs time to prepare. Though attendance at the live event is not mandatory, participation in the draft itself is mandatory. PEBA GMs unable to attend live drafting hours will be expected to create a pre-rank list within StatsLab that is sufficiently deep to cover for at least 7 rounds. All GMs are encouraged to create draft lists even if they plan to attend the draft. GMs are also encouraged to cover themselves beyond the minimum required draft rounds.
Rule 5 Draft: PEBA will hold a Rule 5 draft on December 1st of each season. Each round, teams will have the option of either making a pick (if they have an available secondary roster slot) or passing. The Rule 5 Draft will end when all teams have passed in a round. GMs will use OOTP’s in-game draft utility to construct their Rule 5 draft lists. Teams cannot make more selections than they have open secondary roster spots. Players selected in the Rule 5 draft must stay on the selecting team’s active roster or DL for one full season. They may be traded or released. If the player is traded, the acquiring team will still be required to keep the player on the active roster for the entire season. Players who are released are automatically returned to their previous team. In order to provide a consistent Rule 5 draft environment, the following rules are in place during the Rule 5 sim cycle. No players may be added to active or secondary rosters during the Rule 5 draft sim cycle. There is a trade freeze during this sim cycle. All healthy players eligible to return from the 60-day DL must be rostered or released during the sim cycle preceding the Rule 5 draft. Failure to properly attend to your roster prior to the roster freeze could result in your team losing desirable players. Once rosters are frozen, there is absolutely no recourse. It is your responsibility to attend to your roster in a timely manner.
For all drafts, order will be determined by record in the previous year (from worst to best). Drafts will be in “straight” order, with teams picking in the same slot each round (excepting cases where draft picks have been traded).
Trading Period: Trades may be made from the end of the PEBA post season until the trade deadline (July 31 of each season). Players, draft picks, and cash are all viable items to trade.
Trading Restrictions/Qualifiers:
Other Trading Restrictions/Qualifiers (Waived During Winter Meetings):
No team may circumvent any of the above constraints in any way. This would include waiving players in order to avoid a trade restriction, or trades through third parties that have the explicit intent to circumvent the rules. Teams deemed to be intentionally circumventing trade restrictions will have the transaction nullified, and repeated offenses could result in dismissal from the league.
Financial Trading Considerations: It is the responsibility of GMs to police themselves regarding contracts acquired via trades. While you may exceed your budget, bear in mind that there are penalties for being too far in debt (see Article IV).
Announcing Trades: Once a trade has been agreed to, notification of the agreement should be posted in the forum. One of the parties should post a list of exactly what each team is receiving. Please hyperlink players’ names to their HTML player pages. Minor league players should have their current level noted. The second party must then confirm the trade by reprinting the full list of what is being traded (links not necessary). Both GMs may include simple instructions on where to assign acquired players in advance of the upcoming simulated games (please keep these brief to keep the workload reasonable). Please format your thread headers thusly: “Trade between ARL and AUR”. Use this guide to insure proper trade post protocol.
Trades involving more than two GMs must be executed as a series of two-team trades. Each of these must be posted with a header that indicates both that they are part of a multi-team trade and the order in which they should be processed (e.g. “CAN-OMA-YUM: Trade between CAN and OMA (Part 1 of 2)”).
Processing Trades: The Board must review all trades and sign off on them before they become official. Once approval has been given, the trade will become final and will be reflected in the next sim. Most trades will be passed without question. Factors which may hold up a trade include (but are not limited to) a.) one or more violations of the trade restrictions listed above, b.) a massive and patently obvious imbalance in returns, or c.) extremely unusual structuring (e.g. 1 player for 10). In these instances, the Board will work with the GMs involved to mediate a satisfactory deal.
Protesting Trades: Individual GMs who feel a trade meets the criteria for disallowing should PM the Board privately to express their opinion. If a sufficient number of complaints are registered, the Board will discuss the matter with the GMs involved in the trade before making a final determination on the fate of the deal. Public complaints of trades will not be tolerated.
The Winter Meetings will be conducted as a non-mandatory live event each off-season. Player trade restrictions are waived for the duration of the Meetings as noted in the Trades section of this constitution. In addition, teams in attendance may trade discretionary funds and Contributor’s Points.
The PEBA employs StatsLab, an online utility suite created by community member “fhomess”,which can be found linked from the league’s home page. League activities managed in this utility are:
Article writing is one of the most valued ways that members can contribute to the betterment of the league. GMs are encouraged to use as much creativity, including the use of images and other media in their creations. Commonly used features include inserting pictures, hyperlinking text/pictures, changing font types/sizes/styles, and inserting HTML code. If you prefer, you may instead type your articles in Word or another Rich Text Format editor. When you are finished, simply copy your text and paste it into Submit News.
Members are required to hyperlink the first appearance of any PEBA-related proper noun (names of players, teams, personnel, leagues, etc.) to their respective HTML or StatsLab pages, and to include any diacritics appearing in names. An easy way to do this is to go the respective HTML/StatsLab page, copy the pre-hyperlinked name and paste it directly into your article. This method retains any diacritics in the name (like accent marks, for instance) and will work in both Submit News and Word (the hyperlinks will transfer when pasting from Word to Submit News).
New members will receive a reminder notice when submitting an article lacking links/diacritics. For established members, articles submitted without links/diacritics will have CP deducted from the amount they would have earned. 1 CP will be deducted per missing link/diacritic, with the first miss gratis. No notification of deduction will be sent; established members are expected to be aware of league policy on this issue.
Pictures and graphics can be added to your stories through Submit News as well. They will need to be housed somewhere on the internet, either on your personal web space, at an image website like Imageshack.us, or uploaded directly to the PEBA server. To add an image, place your cursor where you would like it to go and click the “Insert/edit image” button located on the bottom-left of the icon rows. A window will pop up. Enter the location of your picture into the “URL” field (see below for instructions). Click on the “Advanced” tab and type a description of the picture in “Title” field (this description will appear when the mouse cursor is hovered over the picture). If the dimensions of the picture exceed 300 pixels either horizontally or vertically, use the “Dimensions” field to shrink the picture. You can play around with the other options as you like. When you’re finished, click the “Insert” button to add the picture.
Hyperlinking of pictures and text is also possible through Submit News. To hyperlink a picture, click on it and then click the “Insert/edit link” button located on the bottom-left of the icon rows (just to the right of the “Insert/edit image” button). Then you simply paste the link into the URL field and click the “Insert” button. Your picture is now linked. Follow the same method for linking non-PEBA-related text. Highlight the text to be linked, click the “Insert/edit link” button, paste in the URL and click “Insert”.
At your option, you may also add “Easter egg” links. Easter egg links are links to non-PEBA-related web pages. Readers enjoy finding these surprise links littered throughout the league’s articles. You add Easter egg links just as you would a normal link. Highlight the text to be linked, click the “Insert/edit link” button, paste in the URL and click “Insert”. Links to inappropriate material will be removed.
In certain advanced cases, you may wish to insert HTML code into your article. This is useful when creating an article that uses a HTML template (example). To insert HTML, click on the “Edit code” button located on the bottom-right of the icon rows (third icon from the right). Copy your HTML code and paste it into the window that pops up. Be sure to paste over any existing code if you’re copying over a full article. When you’re finished, click the “Update” button and your imported code will be displayed in Submit News.
When you’re ready to submit your article, locate the Publishing section located directly under the box where your text is typed in. Select “Submissions” from the Section pull-down menu and select your team’s name from the Category pull-down menu. You may also enter in an Author Alias if you like. Type in a Title for your article at the top of the page.
Now you’re ready to submit your work. Just to the right of the Title field is the “Save” button. When you click the “Save” button, the article is sent to an editor’s inbox. The editor will make any necessary edits and publish the article on the homepage.
Once the article has been published, copy the homepage version of the text and paste it into a new thread in the appropriate writing sub-forum. This will give league members an opportunity to comment on your work. Forum versions of article need not be hyperlinked.
When constructing article storylines, please keep the following in mind:
The PEBA forums are provided as a place for league members to share their thoughts on matters both related and unrelated to the league. Members should create new threads in the appropriate sub-forum. Two off-topic sub-forums are provided for discussion of non-league topics. All topics are welcome in these sub-forums with the exception of political discussion/debate, which is forbidden.
Members are expected to maintain civility when communicating with their peers on the forums. Competitiveness is welcome as long as respectfulness is maintained. Disagreement and debate will naturally be part of the forum experience, yet at all times, members should consider the feelings of their peers before posting. Members making disrespectful or insulting posts will receive a warning. Hateful, intolerant or bigoted speech will result in a member’s immediate expulsion from the league.
PEBA forum etiquette requires that members refrain from making multiple posts in a single thread in a short time span if no response from another member has yet been made. If a member wishes to make a number of quotes and responses, or if he has multiple thoughts to share, he should include them all in one post rather than separate them into multiple small posts made one right after the other. If a member thinks of an addendum to a post he just made, he should edit his last post or wait for another member to respond before posting his new thought.
Members are welcome to maintain a team blog in the appropriate league writing sub-fourm. Forum blogs are excellent tools for posting quick thoughts when there isn’t time or material to flesh out a full-length article. Blog entries do not need to be formatted like homepage aritlces (i.e. no links or diacritics need be included). Members maintaining forum blogs should create new forum threads for articles submitted to the homepage rather than posting articles in their blog.
New members will receive a reminder notice when making rapid fire posts in a thread. For established members, rapid fire posting will result in a CP penalry. -1 miscellaneous CP will be assessed for repeated violations of forum etiquette. No penalty notification will be sent; established members are expected to be aware of league policy on this issue.
Members may earn Contribution Points (or CP) by participating in various league activities. These CP’s can be exchanged during the PEBA’s Winter Meetings for a variety of benefits, CP can be earned in several ways. No more than 600 points can be carried over from one year to the next, any CP’s over 600 will be lost. The rate of these events are as follows:
Standard Awards (Maximum: 400 points)
Bonus Awards (Annual Maximum: 50 points)
The Board may award bonus CP’s for actions helpful to the league (contributing to server costs, help with recruiting, artwork etc). The awarding of Bonus CP is completely at the Board’s discretion. Maximum 50 points per season.
New GM Welcome Present
New Gm’s will receive 100 CP’s when they join the league as a welcome present
IMPORTANT : GM’s should earn at least 100 CP’s a season for automatic renewal of GM contract (New GM Welcome Present CP’s cannot count towards this total). At least 30 CP must come from blog posts, 20 CP from forum posts and 20 CP from Article posts
Contribution points can be exchanged during the Winter Meetings for any one of several improvements or changes to the organization and the players in it. Note, however, that the PEBA takes its history very seriously. Before considering team detail changes, please keep the following notes in mind.
Below is a list of Standard Contribution Rewards Available:
Altering Team Details
Change Minor League Affiliate Details: Exchange 20 CP + an article on the changes to alter details of one of your minor league affiliates. You may change as many details as you like (city, name, logo, colors, ballpark, etc.). Selection of this reward must be announced to the Board prior to the conclusion of your league’s regular season, and all desired changes must receive Board approval. This reward may be selected once every three seasons for each affiliate.
Change Major League Team Details: Exchange 60 CP + an article on the changes to alter details of your team. You may change as many of these details as you like: nickname, logo, team colors, cap and jersey. Selection of this reward must be announced to the Board prior to the arrival of your league’s All-Star break, and all desired changes must receive Board approval. This benefit may be selected once every six seasons.
PEBA takes its history very seriously. Before considering team detail changes, please keep the following notes in mind:
New GM’s may not alter team details until they have spent one full season with the league
Any desired change to major or minor league team details must be announced to the Board well in advance. See the respective reward descriptions for details.
For desired location changes, the geographical distribution of other teams in the changing team’s division/league and the appropriateness of the population of the desired new location relative to the changing team’s league must be considered. Locations that are deemed inappropriate for either of those reasons will be disallowed. In some cases, a location change may be possible with realignment involving one other team. In these instances, if all else is acceptable, the Board will speak with the GM of the other team to determine if realignment would be acceptable.
Team nickname changes must bear some relevance – historical, cultural, etc. – to the team’s location (Exceptions to this will be allowed if the relocating team retains its previous nickname). Name changes that bear no association with the team’s location will be disallowed
While a GM requesting an art change is welcome to send in a sample, the Board reserves the right to reject submitted art samples. Samples may be used by the PEBA art team as inspiration for a unique design. The GM will be provided with multiple samples to choose from but should be aware that his own art submission may not be used.
A GM can send a player to participate in an off-season Winter Ball (WB) program to work on certain baseball skills. This results in increases to “actual” ratings, but “potential” ratings would remain unchanged. Players with larger separation between “actual” and “potential” ratings will benefit most from Winter Ball. Players with little separation between “actual” and “potential” ratings are not ideal candidates for winter ball. Note that any ratings that only have an “actual” value are guaranteed to improve (e.g. Running Speed, Stealing Ability, etc.).
Working on any qualified area will always result in a real improvement. But because scouts differ in their evaluations of players’ ratings and because of the large skill range represented by each point on the 1-10 scouting scale, Scouts may not report a change to the player’s rating. However, WB improvements are “true” improvements made within OOTP’s player editor and will translate into on-the-field performance. Gains may increase – sometimes dramatically – depending on the breakthrough factors listed below.
To be eligible for winter ball, a player must meet all of the following criteria:
There is a monetary cost associated with sending a player to Winter Ball that is determined by how much CP is being spent on the player:
A maximum of 110 CP may be used on any one player.
The following is a complete list of the areas a player can work on in winter ball and the CP cost to work each area. The “Total Package” option can be purchased to improve every rating in the category, but to a lesser degree than specializing. Each category list is ordered by difficulty – it will be easier to improve areas at the beginning of the list than those towards the bottom.
Batting
Miscellaneous Offense
Fielding:
Pitching:
Special Coaching
GM’s may select up to one player per off-season to receive special one-on-one coaching with their team’s roving instructor during the off-season and Spring Training. These opportunities are much more intense than attending Winter Ball, requiring the player to be dedicated in giving their complete focus on the goal of their training. The monetary cost associated with this coaching is $1,000,000 per player.
To be eligible for this special assignment, a player must meet the following criteria:
Special Coaching CP Reward Options:
This is an extremely intensive training and requires the player’s total focus on gaining this new proficiency. You may select the positions to be learned. The final results aren’t guaranteed, but you should expect a minimum rating of 2 in the new position. A player must have at least one positional rating of 3 or higher according to OSA to be eligible for this improvement. The rating of the newly learned position will not exceed the player’s highest current positional rating. The new rating is greatly influenced by the position you’re trying to learn and the player’s current defensive ability. The defensive spectrum is as follows (with progressing difficulty from left to right): 1B – LF – RF – 3B – CF – 2B – SS. Players trying to learn an easier position will have a greater chance of a breakthrough. Players currently proficient in difficult positions will have an easier time learning a hard position. No player may gain proficiency at catcher or pitcher via this improvement.
Remove one pitch from pitcher’s repertoire and improve remaining pitches. You may select the pitch to be removed and designate how you would like your pitcher’s talent improvements to be distributed amongst his remaining pitches (e.g. 50% towards fastball, 40% towards slider, 10% towards curve). The great the pitcher’s talent in the removed pitch, the more gain will be realized in his remaining pitches.
This is an extremely intensive training and requires the player’s total focus on gaining this new proficiency. The player is guaranteed to learn the new pitch, though the final ratings aren’t guaranteed. Both Current and Potential talent are increased by this reward. The ratings of the newly learned pitch will not exceed the player’s highest Current/Potential pitch ratings.
Members must have participated in the PEBA for one full season before qualifying to select any Ballpark Reward with the exception of Additional Seating. Cash costs of ballpark rewards will first be deducted from a team’s private Ballpark Funds account (if available) before on-hand cash reserves are touched. See Article IV for details on Ballpark Funds accounts. Unless noted, all Ballpark Rewards require an article about the reward to be submitted prior to the start of the upcoming season.
Improvements to an existing Ballpark
Ballpark Naming Rights
Teams may sell the naming rights to their stadium in exchange for either fan interest or cash. This allows GMs to rename an existing stadium. There are two ways to choose this reward:
New Ballpark Construction
Constructing a new 35,000 seat ballpark in your current city costs 100 CP base cost + $50,000,000, and you must submit a news release at least 1,000 words in length announcing plans for the new ballpark. At the time this reward is selected you may elect to increase the new ballpark’s capacity to 45,000 for an additional $10,000,000 or to 55,000 for an additional $25,000,000 above the base cost. Additional CP may be exchanged at the time of purchase to offset construction costs; every 10 CP spent will lower the construction costs by $1,000,000 (to a minimum of $25,000,000).
Ballpark construction costs are eligible for a Construction Loan (see below).
There are a number of benefits to constructing a new ballpark:
Team Relocation
Any GM may elect to relocate his team (the Board must approve your team’s new location). Details are essentially the same as the Ballpark Construction reward. Certain teams may have extra incentive to relocate, however, while others may have incentive to stay put. There are 6 criteria that are checked when you elect to relocate:
GMs who meet 3 of the 6 criteria qualify for double the Ballpark Construction reward (+2 Fan Loyalty and Market Size). GMs who meet 1 of the 6 criteria will receive the same benefit as the Ballpark Construction award. GMs who don’t meet any of the criteria will still gain +1 Market Size but will take a penalty of -1 to Fan Loyalty (reflecting the “mercenary” ways of team ownership). In all circumstances, relocation confers the additional benefit of allowing a team to change major league details as if the “Change Major League Details” reward had been selected (no additional CP or cash expenditure required, but the required article on changes still applies).
Construction Loans
Ballpark Construction and Team Relocation (but not Renovation) costs are eligible for a Construction Loan. GM’s may apply to the PEBA Board for a loan to cover the cost of the Ballpark construction. If the Board agrees to the loan, the GM will be given a repayment schedule from the board stating over how many years you have to repay the loan and the annual amount to repay. Interest will be added to the annual loan repayment at 1% of outstanding amount at due date (Loan repayments will be made on Jan 1st or thereabouts of each year.
Defaulting on a first payment will result in a fan interest penalty and an interest charge of 30% on your next payment. Defaulting on a second consecutive payment repeats the punishment and may well result in foreclosure of the loan which would result in repossession of the new ballpark.
The league settings detailed here are subject to change. The Board reserves the right to make changes to league settings during the off-season as he sees fit. While most of these changes will be reported, some may be made without notification in an effort to change the landscape and “shake things up”.