RULEBOOK
& ARTICLES OF FOUNDATION
Article 1: Definition and Vision
Polo Grounds Baseball (PGB) is an simulation computer baseball league with all games played on a weekly basis. PGB operates as a “keeper” league, with rosters remaining intact each off-season, and due to its style of game play, could be considered a “GM-Only” league. Upon admittance to PGB, managers agree to these articles, and will operate a single team.
Article 2: Leadership Structure
The Director’s primary responsibilities include, but are not limited to: organizing PGB functions; modifying, interpreting and enforcing league rules; scheduling; league-wide communications; and oversight of other routine business. Duties may be delegated as needed.
Amendment A: Purview of The Director: Playing rules and procedures are determined solely by The Director, with input from league members and committees employed as warranted. All members will be encouraged to participate on committees, and their topical recommendations will be considered binding.
Article 3: Game Play
Games will be played on a rotating basis by a PGB manager, as assigned by The Director, from March to September, with results posted on a regular basis. Managers are responsible for monitoring their lineups, CMs, roster moves, and other game-related information. The official game rotation will be assigned by the Director, and is encouraged, but not mandatory.
Article 4: Teams
PGB consists of 18 teams in two divisions, and will play 162 games per season. Teams are allowed forty-two (42) players on their roster, with a maximum of 26 players active for games at all times. Team identities/names must be in good taste, and are subject to approval.
Amendment A: September Rosters: Active rosters can expand to 28 players starting around September 1 of each season.
Amendment B: Off-Season Roster Limits: Winter rosters must be trimmed to 34 players by early December. Individual rosters are allowed to exceed 34 after the initial cut-down.
Article 5: Roster Construction
Teams will acquire players via the Annual Draft, Rule 5 Draft, and Supplemental Draft. MLB players from eligible rosters (REG, ADD, MIXED, or COMP) will be included in the Annual Draft. Once rostered, players remain eligible until their release. Each player is allowed a maximum of five options (promotion/demotion) per season. MIXED cards will use only combined AL+NL stats.
Article 6: Player Usage
Each player will be restricted to 110% of their actual ABs and IPs. It is up to each manager to monitor these limits. To simplify gaming duties, players may slightly exceed the overuse threshhold to allow for completing a 3- or 4-game gamer set. Starting pitchers must have four days rest between starts at all times–no exceptions. Postseason limits are 10% of actual ABs and IPs per 7-game series, but no limits on one-game play-ins. However, winning play-in teams must use the same roster for their subsequent series.
Amendment A: Consequences of Overuse: Every effort will be made to limit judgement calls, but there will be exceptions, such as multiple infractions from the same team or trace overuse by player with limited AB/IPs. Ex: hitter with 15 ABs exceeds by 25% might not warrant a full penalty. The general penalties are:
0-110%: No penalty
111-112%: None in 2025; 7th rounder starting in 2026
113-116%: 6th rounder
117-120%: 5th rounder
121-125%: 4th rounder, plus loss of postseason eligibility
126-130%: 3rd rounder, plus loss of postseason eligibility
131-140%: 2nd rounder, plus loss of postseason eligibility
141%+: 1st rounder, plus immediate, permanent loss of player
Important to consider: mid-game overuse is no longer permitted, so as a best practice, managers should de-activate players prior to reaching a potential penalty threshold. In case a forfeited pick has been traded, penalty will be moved up by one round. Immediately after the season, a period of self-reporting and an anonymously-assigned peer report of infractions must be submitted. After both reports are compared and discrepancies sorted, penalties (if any) will be announced by the Director.
Amendment B: Intentional Misuse of Players: Lineups are composed of players eligible at each position. Players may play out of position ONLY to temporarily cover injuries, or as HAL dictates during in-game strategy.
Amendment C: Players Out-of-Position: No player can begin a game playing a position not listed on his card, including SP/RPs. The only exception is an outfielder moving to a corner position in which he is unrated, where he maintains his defensive rating from either CF or his original corner position.
Amendment D: Injuries: The usage of injuries has been suspended to ease gaming duties.
Amendment E: Library Usage: Managers can avoid more severe penalties by claiming players up to two players from the Library (undrafted players.) Cost is a 7th-rounder for selecting one player, or a 6th rounder for two players. To utilize, managers must have expired players on their roster needing to be replaced. The replacement will be the free agent at the designated position with the most AB/IPs.
Article 7: Ballparks
Teams may customize their ballpark by setting OF fences and IF range. Settings can be altered annually by a factor of (+2) through (-2), with a maximum differential of (8).
Article 8: Postseason
The two division champions and five best remaining records will qualify for the postseason. Division champs will receive the top two seeds and will have a first-round bye plus home-field advantage vs. the remaining division champion and qualifying runner-up during the second round of postseason play. All series use the 2-3-2 home/away schedule. Off days are scheduled after games 2, 5, and 7. The matchups are as follow, with higher seed having home-field advantage:
Play-in Game: Wildcard team #6 vs. Wildcard team #7. (1 game)
Wildcard Round: Wildcard team #3 vs. winner of Play-in Game; Team #4 vs. Team #5. (best of 7)
Championship Round: Division winner #1 vs. lowest remaining seed; Division winner #2 vs. highest remaining seed. (best of 7)
World Series: Winners of championship round. (best of 7)
Amendment A: Tiebreakers: One-game playoffs, which are part of the regular season, will be held only when playoff eligibility is at stake. Home team will be determined by coin flip, and is played the day immediately following the end of the regular season. If a tie occurs that only affects postseason seeding, this tie-breaker will be used: The same tiebreaker process is applied for draft seeding, with the team losing the tiebreaker drafting earliest.
Tiebreaker #1: Head-to-head record between tied teams; winner gaining the higher seed.
Tiebreaker #2: Head-to-head run differential between the teams; winner gaining the higher seed.
Tiebreaker #3: Regular season run differential for all games; winner gaining the higher seed.
Tiebreaker #4: Coin toss.
Amendment B: Postseason Usage: Postseason limits are 10% of actual ABs and IPs (rounded to the nearest 1/3 of an inning) per 7-game series, but no limits on one-game play-ins. During live Netplay sessions, no trace overuse is allowed. If games are being played on a hosted computer (HAL) starting pitchers must be pre-set to not exceed their inning limits, and batters that would typically exceed their usage may not be inserted into the starting lineup. One other note: winning play-in teams must use the same roster for their next series.
Article 9: Annual Draft and Supplemental Draft Procedures
Players meeting eligibility standards will be available for the Annual Draft to take place every offseason. Eligible players include unclaimed American League veterans and rookies. Teams select in inverse order of regular-season record from the previous season. Playoffs teams will be slotted after all non-playoff teams, with the league champion selecting last. Players selected must remain on a PGB roster for a minimum of one full season.
Amendment A: Tiebreakers:
Tiebreaker #1: Head-to-head record between tied teams, with series loser drafting first.
Tiebreaker #2: Head-to-head runs scored between the two teams, with loser drafting first.
Amendment B: Draft-Day Procedures: Drafts are conducted over several days, usually in February and/or March, on a timed schedule. A round takes one full day to complete, with 3-5-minute selection intervals, using the Stratdraft website. Teams can draft at their appointed time, even if the team ahead of them hasn’t selected a player. Managers missing their slot can make a selection at any time during the rest of the day’s draft, or afterwards if needed. In special circumstances, the draft can be suspended to accommodate managers notifying The Director BEFORE the day’s draft begins.
Amendment C: Revised MLB Player Eligibility for Annual Draft: Only unclaimed AL veterans, AL rookies, and recently released AL-rostered players with at least 25 ABs/10 IPs are be eligible for the Annual Draft. AL veterans and rookies traded to the NL in mid-season are also eligible if their overall usage meets the thresholds.
Amendment D: Lottery: To disrupt strategic tanking, the actual number and identity of teams involved won't even be determined until after the season. Using a six-sided dice roll, here is the formula that includes all non-playoff teams:
For teams entering the lottery:
Dice Roll of 1: teams 1, 4, 7 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 2: teams 2, 5, 8 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 3: teams 3, 6, 9 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 4: teams 1-4 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 5: teams 1-7 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 6: teams 1-11 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
A dice roll of 1, 2 or 3 results in a completely random chance for the bottom 9 teams. A roll of 4, 5, or 6 results in essentially a weighted lottery that includes up to 11 teams. The worst teams still have a slightly better chance at the top picks, but without nearly as much incentive to try to purposefully lose. Once the number of participating teams has been established, a second roll will determine the exact placement of the top three spots in the draft, with all remaining slots resuming their natural position.
Amendment E: Supplemental Draft: Conducted in the early off-season, teams will select in reverse order of record (1) MLB-rookie-status NL player that is eligible for the following PGB season only. The player and draft slots can not be traded at any point.
Article 10: Rule 5 Draft
Re-established in 2021, the draft is traditional-style three round draft of non-protected players. The draft will be conducted early in the offseason, usually bunched together with the Supplemental Draft
Teams provide protected lists of 16.
Draft order determined by inverse order of winning percentage.
Teams add one player to their protected list each time they lose a player.
Each team can lose a max of three players before their roster is frozen.
Teams may re-draft unprotected players from their own roster, if desired.
Draft slots are non-tradable.
Players drafted do NOT need to remain on the next season's active roster.
However, draftees must be retained on the offseason 34-man roster.
Article 11: Trades and Transactions
No trade or transaction is final until it has been approved by The Director. Once approved, new lineups and/or pitching rotations must be submitted before players can be used. Transactions will be rejected by the Commissioner if it results in an illegal roster or player movement. Annual Draft selections may be traded for the following year only, unless approved by the Director.
Amendment A: Releasing Players: Since rosters may never contain more than 42 players, teams must occasionally release players to fit within this limit. Also, immediately following the Annual Draft, teams must release players to maintain a legal roster. Players can also be traded instead of released, but once a player release has been posted (or announced) the player is immediately ineligible for further transactions.
Amendment B: Daily Transactions: Players may be added to or demoted from the 26-man roster at any time, with a limit of five player movements per season.
Amendment C: Future Consideration: No trades with “future considerations” (except for draft choices) are allowed. Trades involving unclear compensation, draft or performance-based stipulations, or players to be exchanged later will be voided.
Amendment D: Restrictions on Trading of Draft Choices:
Draft choices may only be traded for the next regularly scheduled draft. The Director will void trades involving draft choices beyond the upcoming draft. The first day of any year’s draft will be the first day these future choices can be traded (ex: 2018 choices can’t be traded until the 2017 draft begins.)
Draft slots past Round 5 can NOT be traded at any time.
Players that have been selected in the current draft after Round 6 can only be traded AFTER all 42-man rosters are posted.
Article 12: Sportsmanship/Tanking
Tanking was defined by Committee #1 as trying to lose games for the purpose of improving draft position. The fallout from the practice is a reduction of balanced competition and usually decreased levels of involvement, and fall outside what PGB considers fair competition and good sportsmanship. Important to note: tanking does not include rebuilding strategically via the draft, or trading away quality veterans. A few past examples include:
Leaving top players unused or grossly underused.
Unnecessarily playing players out-of-position.
Flipping platoons to create artificially weak lineups.
Self-sabotage by manipulating bullpen or CM settings.
Amendment A: Consequences of Tanking/Underusage/Intentional Neglect: Depending on severity, penalty for tanking/neglect can include any combination of forfeiture or suspensions of the offending player, loss of lottery participation, and/or forfeiture of a draft choices in the next Annual Draft. Subsequent penalties will increase in severity.
Article 13: Resignation of Membership
Members are requested to complete the current season prior to voluntarily resigning their PGB membership. As a courtesy to other members, those opting for resignation are encouraged to give as much notice as reasonably possible.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
Committee #1: Tanking
Enacted a lottery system in affect for the first three spots in the Annual Draft.
Committee #2: Rosters
Reinstated a three-round Rule 5 Draft, and established the winter roster limit at 34 players.
Committee #3: Overuse
Determined a penalty system for flagrant or neglectful overuse; instituted the 3rd-round escrow freeze. (Freeze rescinded prior to 2025 season.)
Committee #4: Dispersal
Created a model for player distribution from folded or disbanded PGB teams.
Committee #5: Seeding
Re-worked the playoff seeding system to ensure greater equity.
Committee #6: Omnibus
Disbanded the usage monitoring system, further standardized overuse rules, clarified Dispersal policies.
Committee #7: Alignment
Established new divisions and expanded playoff eligibility to seven teams
Committee #8: Usage
Confirmed usage limit at 10%, but simplified PGB rosters to include 42 players, all active.
Committee #9: Trading
Trading Policies: Considered restricting the trading of draft picks, but declined to take any new action.
Committee #10: Draftpool
Suspended the eligibility of players from NL rosters in future Annual Drafts.
Committee #11: Supp. Draft
Added a one-round winter draft of NL rookies for single-season usage.
Committee #12: Penalties
Further refined the overuse and penalty system enacted by Committee #3.