Good Afternoon All,
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have a full season of MLB Showdown with the old 2000-2001 sets. It’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally been able to do it. I’ve created a league with all 30 teams and decided to play a full season and maybe even more. Below are the rules I’ve laid out for the next however long this is going to take.
General Rules
- 5000 salary point league min 17 players.
- 8 position players plus a DH for both leagues
- 4SP 4RP
- If a starting pitcher allows 3 ER he loses 1 inning pitch and then every 3 ER following.
- Relief pitchers lose an IP when they allow 1 ER.
- You can intentional walk and sacrifice bunt.
- You go for the lead runner on ground outs unless going for a double play; the lead runner is out always then you roll for the double play. (example runner on 1st and 2nd and you hit a grounder if you go for a double play the runner going to third is out then you roll to get the out at first.)
Scheduling
Every team plays every other team (87 games). Then 2 series vs. the division (24 games). Then once more against their respective league minus their division <NL or AL> (30 Games). 3 random series against the opposite league that has to be one team from each division (9 Games) then the last 4 series is against the division again (12 games).
Those are the basics, HUGE NEW RULES FOR SEASON PLAY BELOW
1. Every 27th game we have a huge shake up called The Rustling. Specifically after the following games are played (27th, 54th, 81st, 108th, 135th)
A) Each player has a chance to turn into a different card then the one on the current roster (If Wizards printed cards for the base and pennant run 2000 & 2001 set for a certain player) I’ll roll a D-20 to determine if they change. The below is how that would be done if I own 2, 3 or 4 copies of the card.
2 Cards
Card #1: 1-10
Card #2: 11-20
3 Cards
Card #1: 1-6
Card #2: 7-12
Card #3: 13-18
Reroll: 18-20
4 Cards
Card #1: 1-5
Card #2: 6-10
Card #3: 11-15
Card #4: 16-20
B) If any team goes over the 5000 salary cap they must cut as many players to get down to below or equal to the 5000 mark.
C) In order to make up for the lost players the teams will sign players from the free agent pool (ONE AT A TIME) until they have full rosters. This is done in the snake format, so pick 1-30 are normal then the order is reversed so the team that picked 30th gets the 31st pick and the team that had the 1st pick has the 60th and so on if necessary. The order for this will be determined randomly through some sort of online simulator.
D) Every player on every team will make an injury roll. I will roll a D-20 and if the roll lands on a 18 they are out for half the time (12 games), 19 that player is out until the next shake up (27 games). If a 20 is rolled that player is out for the entire rest of the season.
E) If any players are affected by injuries then the teams will acquire players from the available player pool at the reverse order that was used in step 3.
That’s it for the 5 shakeups in each season.
Playoffs
Six teams make the playoffs each year. The division winners get the 1-3 seeds then the next best record gets the 4-6 seeds.
First round is as follows:
1-2 Seeds have a bye
#3 plays #6 and #4 plays #5 in a best of 5 game series.
Second round:
The number 1 seed plays the lowest seed.
The number 2 seed plays the second lowest seed.
This round is a best of 5 series.
Third round:
The last two teams remaining in each league play a 7 game series.
World Series:
Best of 7 game series.
Offseason
After the season is finished the first 2 offseasons will be a little different than the remaining ones.
1. The first offseason 6 players will randomly be chosen from each team and they will be placed in the free agent player pool.
A) Each team may get 1 “Franchise Player Save” per offseason which allows a team to retain one player that was randomly selected to be cut and keep them on the team.
B) After the players are cut, the teams will draft from the player pool to fill out their roster. The order of the draft will be the same as almost any rookie draft (the worst team gets the number 1 pick, the second worse gets the 2nd and so on). This is a non-snake draft so the team that has pick 1 of round 1 will have pick 1 of round 2 and so on.
C) After the players are selected from the available player pool they sign 3 year contracts. At the end of the 3 years with the team they will automatically be cut at the end of the year unless the team use their Franchise Player Save.
D) There is no spring training because IDK how that would work but before the new season starts each player on each team does an injury role to determine if they are injured for the first shake up of the year. The shake up rules from above are applied (roll 18-20, then in random order you draft players from the available pool. The only difference here is that any player signed during the season is signed for a 1 year deal and are immediately cut at the end of the year unless a team uses a FPS (Franchise Player Save))
2. The second offseason will work very similarly to the above.
A) 6 random players are cut except for the newly acquired players from the offseason (those 3 year deals stand), the franchise can use a FPS on anyone cut during this time.
B) The teams then fill out the roster the same as the above. Non-snake draft same as the above.
C) Same for the above, they all sign 3 year contracts.
D) No spring training and again the same rules as the above. Injury rolls and signing new players to keep the rosters up.
3. The third offseason and every one on since this will be the same. The rest of the players who haven’t been signed to 3 year deals in the previous offseason will be cut (except the one player at has the FPS). Then we have a draft to fill out the rosters same as the above. But from every offseason on there are no random players being excised from teams. At the end of their contracts they will leave the team and the process above will repeat itself indefinitely.
MISC OTHER STUFF
- No trading because I’m not sure how that works with me being the sole GM so far.
- I’ll be giving out accolades and there will be an all-star game. I’ll be polling people I know who are familiar with MLB showdown and the MLB in general to help me pick the all stars and give out accolades.
- The salary cap will probably stay the same throughout but I could adjust that or the required roster size. Not sure yet.
- When a team acquires a player from the player pool they can choose any iteration of that player that is available.
Addendums
- I might have to limit the amount of innings players pitch so I think once a player goes above 175 innings they lose 1 control and once a players goes above 215 they lose 2 control and if they can’t lose anymore they have to be shut down until the playoffs.
- For batters this is less of a problem but if they go above 700 ABs they might have to take a loss in on base.
- I think I’ll change the injury rolls to 18,19,20 meaning different things as described in the above.