LHBA League Rules

1.1 The Lock Haven Baseball Association (LHBA) is a simulated baseball league founded in 2007.

1.2 The league was formed as a fill-in between LHFA (Lock Haven Football Association) seasons. The league will always attempt to mirror the rules of MLB but is always willing to change or adjust rules in-order for the league to remain playable and enjoyable.

1.3 The LHBA League Office MAY AND WILL use its absoulte power on any matter it feels betters the league or is essential to the continued survival and fair competitive spirit of the LHBA.

1.4 Owners that are ABUSIVE , NEGLIGENT , or CHEAT WILL be removed from the league without requiring any league wide vote.

1.5 By accepting a LHBA, franchise you automatically ACCEPT and ABIDE by all LHBA rules and regulations. Failure to do so will result in your immediate and swift removal from the LHBA

2.1 The league will NOT charge dues. Owners must be ACTIVE , HONEST , and willing to play H2H (head to head) whenever humanly possible.

2.2 All managers will be required to play their portion of home games by the stated deadlines. The season runs 16 weeks and each week consists of 6 games against the same opponent (3 home and 3 road).

2.4 The 1 st part of the week (series 1) is required to be played by Wednesday at 11:59pm. The HOME TEAM for this portion of the week will be responsible for coordinating playing the series Head to Head against the opposing manager, playing the games against the opposing manager's manager profile, or simulating the game. The stats from that series are required to be e-mailed to the opposing coach, along with a CC to the Commissioner's Office, for website update and maintenance.

2.5 The 2 nd part of the week (series 2) commences NO LATER than Thursday at 12:00am and must be completed no later than Saturday 11:59pm EST. The HOME TEAM for this portion of the week will be responsible for coordinating playing the series Head to Head against the opposing manager, playing the games against the opposing manager's manager profile, or simulating the game. The stats from this series are required to be e-mailed to the Commissioner's Office for compilation for the following week's season file and for website updating and maintenance.

**** Any series NOT COMPLETED prior to the deadline, and not previously approved by the opposing manager or the Commissioner's office, will be SIMULATED by the Commissioner's Office.

3.3 Duties of the Commissioner will include: maintenance of the league disk, direction of draft, communication where necessary with all LHBA managers, final arbitration of disputes, and discretionary power to clarify the written language of the constitution and set up procedures for the reporting of game results. Amendments to the constitution that involve changes in rules will be subject to majority league vote (The Commissioner will NOT vote, unless in case of a tie). Wording clarifications may be accomplished at the commissioner's discretion.

3.4 The commissioner may appoint deputies at his discretion, to help mediate in trades that are controversial, to help adjudicate decisions where a conflict of interest involving the commissioner is apparent, and to help with the distribution of disks/information in the event that the commissioner is unable temporarily to perform these duties.

3.5 Any votes by the league must have a simple majority in order to pass. All other decisions made by the commissioner are final. Some rules WILL NOT be voted on if they are deemed immediately vital to the well-being of the league. Some rules may be changed or re-worded during the season without vote to ensure smooth regular season play.

3.6 In the off-season members are encouraged to suggest rule changes or the tweaking of any current LHBA rule. At the end of any rule suggestions and/or discussions, any new or tweaked rule may be subject to a simple majority vote or may be put into immediate action as seen fit by the commissioner.

5.1 If you will be unable to exercise full control over your team for ANY reason during any part of the year, you must notify the commissioner in advance so that appropriate measures may be taken. Create your manger's profile to reflect the upcoming games that you will be absent. Your home game will be autoplayed according to the instructions you leave with the commissioner. While the league office will attempt to monitor your team to its best advantage, any penalties your team may accrue during this period of non-involvement will ultimately be your own responsibility. If it is determined that the non-playing of games has become a matter of your own convenience rather than circumstances beyond your control, the league is then authorized to seek a replacement. Occasionally events occur that may prevent prior notification (computer failure, sudden illness or accidents). Such incidents will be evaluated on a case by case basis and, if deemed appropriate, the league may provide relief.

The LHBA is an active-participation league. The league is authorized to seek replacement ownership if it is determined that a member has fallen out of good standing.

6.1 Managers are currently allowed to choose their stadiums. If the stadium is not currently in the game, and must be created, managers are responsible for providing all pertinent information about the stadium, dimensions, weather, etc to the Commissioner for creating the stadium. Teams may move to a new stadium that is not currently in use only during the off-season. No more than one team may occupy the same stadium at the same time.

7.1 The LHBA Draft will consist of 20 rounds and the drafting of 30 players per team. Round 1-10 will consist of drafting 1 player per pick. Round 11-20 will consist of drafting 2 players per pick.

7.2 Seeing that we are using All-Time Greatest players, the draft order will be chosen at random out of a hat prior to each draft.

7.4 A team may carry no more than 15 pitchers. Of those 15 pitchers, a team may carry no more than 6 starting pitchers.

7.5 Even though the game allows you to use a player designated LF, CF, or RF at any of the 3 outfield positions without penalty, you MUST draft at least 1 player at each position. That being the case, you need to draft 8 position players (a Catcher, 1st Baseman, 2nd Baseman, 3rd Baseman, Shortstop, Left Fielder, Center Fielder, and Right Fielder) and at least 5 starting pitchers for a total of 13 players. You can draft the remaining 17 however you like, keeping in mind that you can have no more than 6 starting pitchers and 15 pitchers total. THERE IS NO DESIGNATED HITTER!

7.6 Trades are allowed and encouraged during the draft. Trading of picks during Rounds 1-10 will be considered 1 pick, where trading of draft picks in Rounds 11-20 will be broken down into a pick a and b basis, since each pick per team during these rounds consists of 2 players.

8.2 Team may carry no more than 15 pitchers. Of those 15 picthers, teams may carry no more than 6 pitchers designated as SP. Since some pitchers have a SP and a RP rating, only those players that have the designation of SP as their PRIMARY POSITION will be considered a starting pitcher.

9.2 There is NO trading of future considerations or any "players to be named later." All terms of the trade must be announced when the trade is announced. Trades can be made at any point during the week and will be deemed official when the Commissioner's office is notified of the trade. However, players will not be considered to be "traded" until the completion of the current 3-game set. Trades will go into effect as follows:

If a trade is made between 12:00am Sunday and 11:59pm Wednesday, the trade will go into effect with the new league file that is posted on Thursday morning, or if all games for that portion of the week are completed prior to 11:59pm Wednesday....whichever comes first.

If a trade is made between 12:00am Thursday and 11:59pm Saturday, the trade will go into effect with the new league file that is posted on Sunday morning, or if all games for that portion of the week are completed prior to 11:59pm Saturday....whichever comes first.

9.3 A trade will not be considered COMPLETE until both teams have completed all games to the SAME game calander date. Say Team A and Team B make a trade. Team A has played all of their games up to, and including, April 10 according the game calander, however, Team B has not reached that date yet, the trade will not be complete until Team B completes their games through April 10. In this case, if you make a trade and both teams are not at the same point, use those players that were in the trade as you normally would. You can elect to sit those players out, however, please try not to overuse those players (ie. high pitch counts, etc).

9.4 Since league files are updated as each series is completed, it is possible that a home team manager may start their portion of series by playing the computer manager before the Wednesday 11:59pm deadline. If you plan to do this, please be courtous to ask the opposing manager if they are OK with this. If the opposing manager gives you the OK to start the series early, and a trade occurs with that team during that period, the trade will go into effect at the completion of that series AND the corresponding series for the other team involved in the trade (see Rule 9.3). Once a series has started, trades may occur, but will not become COMPLETE and OFFICIAL until that series has completed.

9.5 All trades will be reviewed by the commissioner. If a team appears to be dumping players in order to strengthen another team while getting no real value in return, the trade will be held up. Both teams will then have a chance to put in writing their reasons for making the trade and the trade will be re-examined. Those who would challenge trades should consider the following: managers have competing philosophies concerning the relationship of current to future value, and the comparative valuation of players at different positions. The league takes no rigid position on these basically philosophical considerations.

9.6 Trades are not official until both teams report the trade to the Commissioner's Office and it is announced by the Commissioner through e-mail/website. Trades go into effect with the release of the next set of league files (see Rule 8.2).

9.7 All trades will be performed by the commissioner on the league disk, though individual managers may execute trades on their own disk for the sole purpose of generating new manager profiles . In fact this is recommended. No games may be played using traded players until the trade is included on the official league disk.

9.9 Uneven trades are allowed (ie. 2 for 1). Given that this is allowed, teams may need to waive players or pick up free agents due to a certain trade. A team may claim NO MORE THAN 3 players through an uneven trade. Given this, all roster rules must be followed when waiving and claiming players.

9.10 After making a trade, teams will need to update their manager profile. Please update your manager profile promptly.

9.11 Players aqcuired via trade may not be released for 1 full week (7 days) from the date of the trade. However, players acquired via trade may be traded again at any time.

10.1 Free Agents may be picked up during the trading season as a result of uneven trades. First come first serve. If you claim a free-agent, you must waive a player. ALL ROSTER RULES MUST BE FOLLOWED. The Commissioner can deny a free agent signing if roster rules are not followed.

10.2 Any player released during the season as result of an uneven trade is immediately put on waivers and available for pickup.

10.3 Players aqcuired via trade may not be released for 1 full week (7 days) from the date of the trade.

11.1 Players in the field are restricted to positions for which they have ratings, with the exception of when there is an injury or late in a game (after the 7 th inning), as a result of substitutions. The following are the guidelines for players:

Only pitchers with a starting rating may start.
Only pitchers with a reliever rating may pitch in relief. (Pitchers with both ratings can obviously do both)
All teams must employ 5-man rotations . Starting pitchers may start on 3 days rest towards the end of the season or if required by team usage and injury situations.
Outfielders may change positions within the outfield and suffer the defensive penalties assigned them by the game.

12. Penalties:

12.1 Any altering of player ratings in the league file will be considered cheating and will result in permanent expulsion from the league.

13.1 The post season will consist of 4 teams. Those teams will be the regular season division winners and 1 wildcard winner from each division.

13.2 The Divisional Championship Round will be a 5-game series, played in a 2-2-1 format. The wildcard team will start play at the division winner for the first 2 games. Games 3 and 4 will switch to the wildcard team's home site. Game 5 will be played at the division winners home site.

13.3 The LHBA World Series will be a 7-game series, played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format. The team with the best regular season record will host games 1,2,5, and 7. The opposing team will host games 3,4, and 6.

13.4 If two teams are tied at the end of the regular season, the tie will be broken by a one-game playoff. Home-field advantage will be set by a) divisional W-L record, b) head-to-head record, c) difference between runs scored and runs allowed.

The LHBA will have two files (league disks) per week. Deadlines are Wednesday night (11:59pm EST) and Saturday night (11:59pm EST) . Managers are required to e-mail the files for the Wednesday deadline to the opposing coach and the Commissioner's office. For the Saturday deadline, managers are required to e-mail the files to only the Commissioner's office. Files will be posted on the LHBA website under http://www.lhfa.org/lhba/downloads.htm on Thursday and Sunday.

If any owner fails to report their series results 2 weeks in a row, without prior approval of the Commissioner's office, their team will be considered dead and they will be removed from the league and a replacement will be found for that franchise.

If any owner fails to report for their series results for any 3 weeks during the season, without prior approval of the Commissioner's office, their team will be considered dead and they will be removed from the league and a replacement will be found for that franchise.

Please inform the league office in advance if you are going out of town or find that for some reason you are unable to play your games in any given week. The LHBA does allow people to go on vacation and, of coarse, work, but please let us know about any absences or times when your games cannot be played on your end. The LHBA wants almost NO series to be simmed, with owners help and consideration this can be done.

The Saturday night deadline is FIRM because we need to have a firm deadline each week in order to stay on schedule. Any results not received by Sunday will be autoplayed, but I may allow (not always) the away manager to play the results if the home team has given permission or has not reported.

1. Check your manager profile. Make any changes you would like to it and send them to the LEAGUE OFFICE. You may also send profiles to your hosting opponents. Special instructions sent to your hosting opponent, ALWAYS TAKE PRECEDENCE over anything on the league disk.

2. You may also send any special instructions regarding starting lineup or starting pitching selection, to your hosting manager.

1. Wait 12 hours after receipt of league disk before playing your games, to allow your visiting manager to send special instructions, if any. This is a common courtesy. If you do not hear from your visiting manager in that time, go ahead and play the games, using the computer manager to select pitcher and lineups. It is possible that the manager set up the profile to satisfaction with the league office prior to the release of the disk.

3. Only play using the latest file sent by the commissioner via email or posted on the league web site.

4.When starting games, make sure that Generate Boxscore and Generate Scoresheet are both set to "yes" and that the boxscore generated is in "Expanded" format. [expanded is preferable to news format for this purpose, because it contains more info.] If you are like me, you will leave your game set this way and you will not have to think about it every time you go in.

When you receive the league disk, save the zip file to the "import" subdirectory of your LHBA2007 league directory. Do not open the zip outside the game module, which has built in capability for processing the disk correctly.
Select "Transfer" and "Install league database" from the upper toolbar. The program will prompt you to select the file, which you should find where you saved it, in the LHBA2007\import subdirectory. The game will automatically install the files.

When you wish to create an export zip of your team's statistics, select "transfer" and "Export statistics" from the upper toolbar. You will be prompted to select the team(s) for which you want to export the files. Select only the teams you played in the current play period. The program will automatically create an export zip in your LHBA2007\export subdirectory. From your mail program, select this new zip file as an attachment and send to the commissioner, and your opponent. Please use the following naming convention for your file: hometeam-awayteam-week#-series#.zip