Constitution

Official Constitution

Updated: May 2018 (2034 season)

This Constitution has been established to set clear rules and expectations that will create an enjoyable and realistic experience for league members.

Preamble

Preamble wrote:The Brewster Baseball Association (BBA, or “The Brewster”) is a fictional Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) league. The Brewster is composed of a full baseball universe.

By agreeing to adhere to this Constitution, all members acknowledge certain responsibilities and agree to uphold them in an effort to make this playing experience as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved.

The Constitution will be changed and updated as needed. The Commissioner reserves the right to change any portion of this document at any time. General Manager input on Constitutional changes is welcome at any time; however, these matters are determined by vote of the Governing Board or by the Commissioner. The Commissioner determines whether the proposed change is major enough to warrant a league wide vote.

Premise and Evolution

JANUARY 1973: “Businessman” Montgomery “Monty” Brewster, who has come into millions of dollars from a deceased uncle, forms the Society for the Preservation of the Baseball System, which then decides to launch a new Major League for baseball. The Montgomery Brewster Baseball Association was thereby formed.

The original incarnation of the league went strong from the 1973 season until the 1994 season. We do have all of the in-game history preserved for the most part, but also still have the CATO History available from 1973-1994.

In April of 2010, the MBBA was brought back to life with the 1995 season.

After the 2001 MBBA season, the decision was made to begin to add international leagues. The European Baseball Alliance (EBA), an 8 team league, was the first league added. This changed the main name of our league to the Monty Brewster World Baseball Association (MBWBA).

After the 2028 season, the decision was made to expand the major leagues from 24 to 28 teams. With this, the decision was made to eliminate the EBA. The EBA players were put into a dispersal draft for the four new major league teams, and an Expansion Draft was held. Once complete, the new 28 team league was divided into four divisions of seven and was renamed: The Brewster Baseball Association (BBA).

Culture

The Brewster Baseball Association has a rich history and an active forum. Our GMs come from a variety of backgrounds, jobs, and locations; we all hold different interests, but we all share in participating in what we believe is one of the very best OOTP leagues and communities in existence. We feature some of the best analysis and writing in the world of OOTP baseball. The BBA Forums are the gathering place where our members enjoy the experience of running a baseball franchise within a community of OOTP fans. Our GMs are competitive but also helpful. They are friendly but not without faults. We don’t always have the same opinion or viewpoint. Debates and disagreements are a part of life, and the Brewster Baseball Association is not different. However, members are expected to be courteous and respectful of others, and always treat others with the proper dignity no matter what disagreements may be involved. We welcome all newcomers to our community!

Governing Board

The BBA is governed by a board of four people:

Commissioner: The Commissioner is the leader of the Governing Board. He will direct and work with Governing Board members to guide the overall vision of the league, and help the BBA improve and flourish. The Commissioner will ensure, along with Governing Board members, that the best interests of the league are protected at all times. The Commissioner will cast the tie breaking vote on all BBA issues.

Vice Commissioner: The Vice Commissioner, along with the Commissioner, is responsible for ensuring that all things happen that make the league go: simulating the games, maintaining the league file, updating the home page, and monitoring the forums. He is always available to answer questions about the league.

League Director: The League Director works under the direction of the Commissioner to ensure that league members are informed, educated, and active in the community. The League Director is responsible for Participation Point tracking, new General Manager on-boarding and development, and monitoring/encouraging forum participation.

Public Relations Director/Historian: The Public Relations Director/Historian works under the direction of the Commissioner to market the league outside of our community and actively recruit new members. He also serves as the Historian, maintaining the Unified History document and the Hall of Fame, as well as developing ideas for historical features and working with all league members to bring them to fruition.

League Simulation Schedule

During the regular season, sims are typically done three times a week (currently Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday), with Export Deadline times designated by the BBA League Calendar (as modified by any additional posts on the fourm). “Export Deadlines” mean that GM exports should be made prior to that time. Simulations will be run that day at some point following the Export Deadline, to the best abilities of the Commissioner or Vice Commissioner. During the playoffs and off-season, the sim schedule may be increased to up to 6 sims per week. Alterations to the schedule will be announced in advance by the Commissioner to provide members ample time to prepare.

Becoming a BBA General Manager

As BBA teams become available, the Commissioner will select the new GM for that team from the pool of active “vultures”, traditionally picking the applicant that has been most the most active participant, contributing articles and features and participating in forum discussions. Key tools for becoming a BBA General Manager include:

General Manager Responsibilities

The Brewster Baseball Association looks to provide members with the experience of running a real baseball organization. One of the most important aspects of creating that experience is that all teams have active and involved General Managers. We look to our General Managers to take their role seriously: checking the forums regularly, exporting, contributing to the league in various other ways made available to you, and replying promptly to Personal Messages and emails are all parts of creating this real-life experience. If you don’t enjoy these things, then this is not the proper league for you.

Once you’ve become a General Manager, there are several essential responsibilities involved in active participation in the BBA:

Provide Regular Exports:

  • Maintain Legal Rosters
  • Manage DFA and Disabled Lists
  • Staff the Organization’s Personnel

Participate in BBA Community

  • Accumulate and Use Participation Points
  • Participate in Mandatory Votes
  • Respond Politely and Promptly to Trade Offers
  • Be Unwilling to “Tank”
  • Be Able to Update OOTP Versions As Needed

Further details of what these responsibilities entail are described in the sections below.

Exports and Roster Regulations

Exporting is expected for all sims. It is the responsibility of members to ensure that they have exported in advance of a mandatory sim. An online export tracker is available to assist members. The Commissioner or Vice Commissioner will also provide notification on the forums when a new league file is ready, immediately following each sim.

If a member fails to export three consecutive times without explanation, they should expect a Personal Message from a League Director checking on their status. A timely response (24 hours seems reasonable) will be expected; failing that, the League Director will assume that that GM is no longer actively involved with the league and begin to take steps to transfer control of that team to a new GM.

Roster Regulations
Each export will conform to the following regulations:

1 – Active Roster: The active roster for all BBA teams will be 25-27 players.
Failure to meet these requirements will result in auto-assignment by the Commissioner or Vice Commissioner (which may not be to your liking) and a penalty of 2PP per player, per sim. Failure to comply with roster rules for three consecutive sims will result a fine of $5,000,000, to be taken from their bonus funds, if possible. Special considerations (such as a team egregiously affected by injury) will be ruled upon by the Commissioner.

2 – Active Roster (Minor Leagues): The active roster for all minor league levels will be no more than 30 players. GMs are expected to have enough players in their minor leagues to field competitive teams.

3 – Lineups/Rotation/Depth Charts: GMs will ensure these are properly filled for all major and minor league teams.

Teams may choose to employ either a four or five man starting pitching staff during the regular season. Only during the playoffs is a three man starting pitching rotation allowable.

Roster notes:
o Position players may fill any position, with the understanding that if they aren’t “rated” at that position they probably won’t fare so well. As such, GM’s should acknowledge that in some cases, choosing to assign a player out of position may raise questions regarding adherence to anti-tanking rules.
o Similarly, pitchers with low stamina and only two pitches may start games, but are generally better suited to relief roles. As such, choosing to assign a player out of position may raise questions regarding adherence to anti-tanking rules.
o Players with a major-league contract must be placed on the 40-man roster or clear waivers before being assigned to the minors.
o Players with five or more years of major league service can refuse assignment to the minors and must clear irrevocable waivers.
o Players with no option years remaining must clear irrevocable waivers before being assigned to the minors.
o Some players will refuse assignment to the minors and must either remain in the major leagues, be traded, or provided their outright release.

4 – Disabled List (DL): GMs are expected to adjust for injuries as needed. Players who are out of action for a duration that exceeds that of a sim are expected to be put on a disabled list appropriate to the injury. 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 (10 or 60-day) represents the minimum time the player must remain there, not the maximum.

5 – Designated for Assignment (DFA): Players that are newly acquired or waived are found in your DFA area. Players must be removed from DFA prior to their limit expiring. Options include: Assigning players to the active roster (prefaced by a placement on the 40-man), negotiating a trade, giving players their outright release, assigning players to a minor league roster.

If the sim is halted by OOTP because you have not resolved your player’s DFA status, the simmer will try to keep this player in your organization by:

A – Attempting, if there is room, to add the player to the 40-man and active rosters
B – Attempting, if there is room, to add the player to a minor league club

If no roster spots are available, the player will be released.

6 – Personnel: GMs are expected to keep all teams in their organization fully staffed while in season. Teams found to not have a full complement of personnel by Spring Training Sim #1 will be fined a penalty of 2PP per personnel member missing to be taken out of the team’s bonus funds, if possible. In addition, the simmer will hire personnel for them at this point.

Participate in the BBA Community

Participation Point System
In order to ensure and reward an active, dynamic league of fully participating and involved GMs, the league utilizes a Participation Point (PP) System. The BBA puts a great deal of value on creative writing submission from its members, as well as many other forms of participation. Members receive PPs for taking the time to better the league with their contributions. PPs can be exchanged for a variety of useful benefits and writing is the best way to earn them.

Every BBA General Manager is required to obtain a minimum of 20 Participation Points by the end of each season with at least 12 of those points coming from Team News. (In addition, General Managers with less than 3 Team News articles at the midseason update, not including any points from exporting, may be subject to removal by the Governing Board). To sustain a healthy, active league, the Governing Board works to ensure that all General Managers are contributing. Failure to earn your PPs by the stated deadline means you have given up your General Manager rights in the BBA. Those rights may be returned to you at the Governing Board’s discretion. If you are in your first or second continuous season in the BBA and you have not met minimums, chances are you will not be returned your General Manager rights.

Key details of the Participation Point System can be found at the following links:

Important league votes are considered mandatory. These include (but are not limited to) votes on All-Stars, Season Awards, and Hall of Famers. A 2 PP penalty will be assessed for failure to participate in mandatory votes/events.

Trade Talk Interaction
Members are expected to respond politely to fellow GMs trade proposals (no matter how unrealistic you may find them to be). This can be as simple as saying, “I am not interested at this time.” Members are expected to respond to trade communications – however briefly – within two to three 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 Commissioner.

Tanking
The act of tanking (purposefully attempting to lose games in the regular season to increase draft position) is very much frowned upon by the Governing Board and league as a whole. GMs are highly encouraged to ‘tread carefully’ in this matter. As such, when especially egregious or repeated tanking occurs, the commissioner reserves the right to levy penalties against the perpetrating GM at his discretion.

OOTP Version
When a new version of OOTP is released, the Commissioner will determine a schedule for migration. This will not occur until a.) the BBA is in the off-season, and b.) the Commissioner has had time to determine the new version’s suitability. Once a schedule has been laid out, all BBA members will be expected to purchase the new version in a timely fashion.

Game Settings

Basic Finances and General Management Rules:

Ticket Prices: Each GM may set his team’s ticket prices. These prices should remain within reason. Setting outrageously high prices – e.g. double what any other team is charging – is grounds for expulsion from the league.

Salary Cap: $110M
Cash Maximum: $20M
The Salary Cap and Cash Maximum are established for the BBA at $110M and $20M, and apply from Opening Day of each season until the end of the Landis Memorial Series. There are situations in which OOTP does not manage these items properly, so they are also monitored outside the game by the GB. If teams are found to be above the cap during a sim, they will be penalized by deduction from their bonus funds. The fine will be equal to the total amount they are over the cap divided by the total number of sims in a season, and multiplied by a factor of 5. This penalty will be continually applied each sim that the team exceeds the cap.

Bonus Funds
The BBA, in addition to in-game financial rules, has several outside-of-the-game additions to its financial model. The in-game setup allows for a $20 million Cash Maximum for each BBA team. Teams with cash over this amount will have the excess placed in is team’s Bonus Funds account. Funds in this account can be used for various purposes, such as to pay for Stadium Maintenance, to purchase Ballpark Construction, Renovation & Relocation awards, or to convert to cash on hand. Each team’s Bonus Funds account may not exceed $40M.

Contract Extensions
Contract extensions are largely left to the OOTP AI to govern; however, it is advised from the league directorate that GMs use their ‘best judgment’ to provide realistic and fair offers to players. As such, the commissioner reserves the right to veto any extremely disingenuous deals for the good of the league.

One concrete contract rule strictly enforced is that any player with less than 5 years of ML service time will not be allowed to sign a contract extension of longer than 3 seasons. Additionally, any player with less than 5 years of ML service time may not be tendered an extension of longer than 3 seasons. Any contract found violating this rule will be nullified and will have to be renegotiated to fit within this rule. Teams that violate this rule will be penalized $10 million from their Bonus Funds.

Additionally, all contracts are limited to a maximum of six years in duration.

Stadium Maintenance

Stadium Maintenance is an integral part of the league’s financial model. Stadiums must be properly maintained over time or they will become old and unappealing to fans. Therefore, each team will be required to pay annual fees based on the age, size, and features of its stadium. Payments are generally made from a team’s Bonus fund accounts, but may also come from cash on hand or exchange of PP as necessary.

Per annum fees are dependent on the age of your stadium.

  • 0-9 years old are free from expenses.
  • 10-19 years old require a base 2.5M or 25 PP.
  • 20-29 years old require a base 5M or 50 PP.
  • 30-39 years old require a base 7.5M or 75 PP.
  • 40-49 years old require a base 10M or 100 PP.
  • 50 years or older require a base 15M or 150 PP.

Note that the bigger the stadium the harder it will be to maintain. As such, the pros and cons of added capacity for both the present and future should not be taken lightly. Maintenance costs will be adjusted by a maintenance factor as follows:

  • 30-35K seats have a maintenance factor of 0.8
  • 35-40K seats have a maintenance factor of 0.9
  • 40-45K seats have a maintenance factor of 0.95
  • 45-50K seats have a maintenance factor of 1
  • 50-55K seats have a maintenance factor of 1.05
  • 55-60K seats have a maintenance factor of 1.1
  • 60-65K seats have a maintenance factor of 1.2

Additional Maintenance fees:

  • Grass –Grass stadiums cost a base $500,000/year to maintain.
  • Artificial Turf – Artificial Turf is free to maintain each year.
  • Permanent Roof – cost a base $500,000/year to maintain.
  • Retractable Roof – cost a base $1,000,000/year to maintain.

At any time, if you would like to reduce these dues you may exercise the PP reward to build a new stadium and drop back maintenance to 0 for ten years. See the section on Ballpark Rewards for details.

Amateur and Rule 5 Draft Order Determination

The BBA holds two drafts, the Amateur Draft (aka Rookie Draft) and the Rule 5 draft. Participation in the Amateur Draft is mandatory. Participation in the Rule 5 Draft is optional. Each draft is described below.

For all drafts, the draft order will be determined by a weighting of each team’s win total of the previous three seasons, with the just-completed season (Y1) consisting of 50% of the weight, the year before that (Y2) consisting of 30% of the weight and the year before that (Y3) consisting of 20%.
Draft Wins = (.5*Y1+.3*Y2+.2*Y3)For example, a team whose wins total for the three most recently completed years, starting with the most recent, were 67, 81, and 74, that team’s weighted win total for draft-ranking purposes in all three upcoming drafts is 72.6 (.5*67 + .3*81 + .2*74). At the end of each season, each team’s three-season weighted win total is recalculated.

All drafts will be in “straight” (non-serpentine) order, with teams picking in the same slot each round.

Amateur Draft

The BBA First Year Player Draft (the “Amateur Draft”) will be held in the Preseason/Spring of each season. It will be 20 rounds in length. Amateur drafts will be managed via OOTPOU. The Draft is revealed in-game 75 days before the draft and the draft will begin in OOTPOU shortly after that point. Supplemental picks will not be issued after the draft starts in OOTPOU.

Amateur Draft participation is mandatory. All GMs are encouraged to create draft lists within OOTPOU even if they plan to drafting within an announced time window.

After the conclusion of the draft, teams must negotiate and sign their draft choices within OOTP. If you fail to sign a player in the draft’s first three rounds, you will receive a draft pick in the next draft equal to that position. These supplemental draft picks must be signed that year. If not, a subsequent supplemental pick will not be issued for the next draft.

Free Agent Compensation Picks
Compensation for BBA lost Free Agents will be provided to the player’s former team in the form of supplemental draft picks. Teams that lose a Type A Free Agent will receive a selection in the 1st supplemental round of the amateur draft (between the 1st and 2nd rounds). Teams who lose a Type B Free Agent will receive a selection in the 2nd supplemental round (between the 2nd and 3rd rounds). These designations will be based solely upon the WAR totals for said players from the immediately preceding season.

Note: Players who were willfully declined team options will NOT be granted compensation eligibility regardless of whether or not they meet the threshold. Players who willfully decline their player options or do not meet their vesting options will be, though.

Type A Designation: The top 14% in WAR of SP and position players (each category individually ranked) as well as the top 10% of RP will become Type A Free Agents.
Type B Designation: The top 15-32% in WAR of SP and position players as well as the top 10% of RP will become Type B Free Agents.

For purposes of Type designation, a SP is defined as a pitcher who threw twice as many starts as relief appearances in the immediately preceding season.

Order for these supplemental rounds is based upon the same order used in the other rounds of the amateur draft. If a team has more than 1 compensation pick due to them in either the 1st or 2nd Supplemental Round then their 2nd pick will not take place until the end of the original order is exhausted once. If a compensation eligible player is not signed by the start of the amateur draft in the OOTPOU utility (generally the Preseason Sim) then that player will lose his compensation association.

Rule 5 Draft

The BBA 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 active and secondary roster slot) or passing. The Rule 5 Draft will end when all teams have passed in a round. The Rule 5 Draft will be handled using the in-game export. There are 10 rounds in the Rule 5 draft. Please bear in mind that players who appear to be available for the Rule 5 draft in-game may become unavailable if their teams add them to their 40-man roster on the import before the Rule 5 sim. Teams can only select players if they have an open positions on their 27 and 40 man rosters.

If chosen in the Rule 5 draft, a player must be kept on the selecting team’s 27-man major league roster for the entire season after the draft—he may not be optioned or designated to the minors. The selecting team may, at any time, release the Rule 5 draftee to return him to his former team; however, this should NOT be done in game. Instead, this should be posted in Ping: Commish along with further instructions, if necessary, to replace said player on their roster. Once a Rule 5 draftee spends an entire season on his new team’s 27-man roster, his status reverts to normal and he may be optioned or designated for assignment.

To prevent the abuse of the Rule 5 draft, the rule also states that the draftee must be active for at least 90 days. This keeps teams from drafting players, then placing them on the disabled list for the majority of the season. For example, if a Rule 5 draftee was active for only 67 days in his first season with his new club, he must be active for an additional 23 games in his second season to satisfy the Rule 5 requirements.

In addition, Rule 5 picks cannot be sold or traded to any team in order to circumvent Rule 5 restrictions.

Any player chosen in the Rule 5 draft may, however, be traded to any team while under the Rule 5 restrictions, but the restrictions transfer to the new team. If the new team does not want to keep the player on its 27-man roster for the season, it must offer the player back to his original team before he was chosen in the draft.

The league uses guidelines inherent in OOTP to determine Rule 5 eligibility. As a general rule, players eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft are players who are not on their Major League organization’s 40-man roster and:

  • were signed at age 19 or older and have been in the organization for four years; or
  • were signed at age 18 or younger and have been in the organization for five years.

These players are designated in game in your team’s “Transactions” screen by a “#” mark beside their name. Players marked with the “#” symbol are Rule 5 eligible unless they are added to the 40-man roster.

Trade Restrictions and Qualifiers:

Trade Restrictions and Qualifiers wrote:Within these restrictions and qualifiers, a GM may trade any player under their control. Cash on hand is also a viable trade commodity.

Player Restrictions:

  • No more than five players may be included by a team in a single trade.
  • Players selected in the Amateur Draft are ineligible to be traded until the offseason after their being drafted.
  • No player may be traded within 90 days of signing a major league contract, or within 30 days of signing a minor league contract.
  • Free agents signed to off-season major league contracts may not be traded until June 1st during the upcoming season.
  • No Player to Be Named Later (PTBNL) may be included in a trade.

Other Restrictions and Qualifiers:

  • Amateur Draft Picks are not allowed to be traded.
  • Rule 5 Draft Picks are not allowed to be traded.
  • Participation Points are not allowed to be traded.
  • Cash: Only cash on hand may be traded.
  • Contracts: It is the responsibility of GMs to police themselves regarding contracts acquired via trades. Teams that exceed the Salary Cap due to a trade will be notified of the violation and have one sim to adjust or the Commissioner will make a move that will get the team under the Salary Cap.
  • Trade Deadline: The BBA Trade Deadline is August 21.
  • There will be no Waiver Trades past the trade deadline.

Once a trade has been agreed to, notification of the agreement should be posted in the Completed Trades Forum. One of the involved parties should post a list of exactly what each team is receiving. Please hyperlink players’ names to their HTML player pages. Minor leaguers should have their current level noted. The second party must then confirm the trade. Both GMs may include simple instructions on where to assign acquired players in advance of the upcoming simmed games (please keep these brief to keep the workload reasonable). Use this guide to ensure proper trade post protocol.

Due to constraints within OOTP, 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.

Trade Protests: If a General Manager wishes to protest a trade as collusion or extremely lopsided, he must notify the Commissioner. If the complaint is valid the Governing Board will make a ruling on the trade. All such rulings are final and will be accompanied with an explanation. Public complaints of trades will not be tolerated.

Out of the Park Online Utilities (OOTPOU)

:OOTPOU is a stand-alone utility using data files from our league file that creates a much richer interactive experience for online play, giving you access to a wealth of information and utilities without having to have game access (great for the 9-5 work GM!). We use OOTPOU for our Draft and Awards voting currently.

Credits

Thanks go out to Global Baseball Consortium, American Baseball Association, Other Reality Baseball 2, Federation of International Baseball, Global Unified Baseball Association, Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance and any others that inspired this document or were used as a model for differing sections.