LDB Rules - User contributions [en]

Keepers and Drafts

2020-12-20T23:01:27Z

107.185.202.29: /* Snake Draft */

== Keepers ==

=== Majors ===
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate five players on their [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors]] rosters as keepers. Only players signed to long-term deals (contract status of K1/2) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their current salary: auction price, less a 10% signing bonus. However, no player can be paid less than the [[Finances#Payroll|league minimum]]). A player may be kept twice for a total of three seasons with a team, and then they become a [[#Restricted Free Agents|restricted free agent]].

==== Restricted Free Agents ====
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they are restricted free agents (RFAs). RFAs are up for auction during the following [[#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]]. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid for that player. The team with RFA rights is generally the previous owner, unless the RFA rights were previously [[External Transactions#Trades|traded]] to another team.

====Hometown Heroes====
Mid-season free agents are automatically free agents after the season ends. However, each team will be allowed to designate one of its mid-season free agents, mid-season free agents claimed from waivers, and players traded with mid-season contracts as its "hometown hero" (HTH). K-, H-, S-, RFA, and NG waiver pickups are not eligible; the player must clear waivers if he was on one of these contracts. The HTH must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer LDB rookie-eligible. The HTH must also have accrued positive fantasy statistics on an active roster of an LDB team in order to grant HTH status the following season.

The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars, but two million for RPs and three million for catchers. The HTH contract cannot be extended beyond that one year. To qualify as a Relief Pitcher, a player must have pitched the majority of innings in the prior season as a reliever.

Teams have the option to expand the number of HTH contracts granted each year beyond the one provided by substituting for a commensurate number of keeper contracts.

=== Homegrown and Super-twos ===

Homegrown players are players drafted into [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA]] (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors keeper total]]. After AA players' promotion to the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="2" | Homegrown Salary Structure
|-
| Year 1
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 3
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 4
| $4.0 million
|}

If a homegrown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless released and not claimed on waivers.

Teams may promote a homegrown player in the second half of a the LDB season (after week 10's final roster lock) without starting the four-year clock on their homegrown status. These players are "super-twos" and are treated exactly as homegrown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="3" | Super-two Salary Structure
|-
| Salary Year
| Salary
|-
| Year 0 (promotion year)
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 1
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 3
| $4.0 million
|-
| Year 4
| $7.5 million
|}

Teams may decide upon promotion whether they want they player to use up a year of eligibility or to be a super-two at promotion time through notice to the Commissioner.

===Injured Keepers===
After the keeper deadline, but prior to the start of the auction, a team may release any keeper, H4, S4 or HTH and receive their salary in full for use at the upcoming auction if a player is injured or an injury (or updated extent of an injury) is reported after the keeper deadline. If a team releases a keeper or HTH under this rule, they may not designate a replacement keeper or HTH.

== AA Draft ==

The first phase of a season's draft will be the AA Draft, the only means for adding to a team's [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA Roster]] besides trades. Two years prior to the draft, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects, as determined by the Commissioner. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner may award new picks at his discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.

To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be LDB rookie-eligible, having less than 131 AB or 50 IP.

The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season, as the Commissioner sees fit, subject to the requirements herein. For teams that do not make playoffs, the AA draft order will be in ascending order by wins from the previous season. Wins are used rather than the winning percentage to remove any advantage from intentionally forfeiting games by missing the innings requirement. The order for teams missing playoffs is then followed by teams making playoff appearances in ascending order of finishing places. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.

=== Logistics and Requirements ===

Once a team is on the clock and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), that team will incur a $2 million fine, subject to the provisions below, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. Such a team may jump back in and pick at any time. A team may assign another GM to make the pick on its behalf.

If the draft is not complete by 10 PM EST on the Friday prior to the auction, two penalties are assessed: (1) the $2 million fines above and (2) the three teams who have caused the longest delay between picks, counting only the hours between noon and 10 PM EST, will each be fined $1 million for each pick remaining in the draft. The delay must be at least 3 hours to qualify for this fine. In this situation the AA draft will be completed on the morning of the auction before the auction commences.

== Majors Draft ==

[[File:Place_your_bids.jpg|border|right|250px|]]After the AA Draft, LDB will draft [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors players]]. The draft will be in an auction format. The Majors draft will take place at a time established by the Commissioner.

At the draft, teams will nominate players in an order established by the Commissioner. A nominating team will name the player and an opening bid for that player. The bid must be at least the minimum league salary. Other owners may choose to raise the bid on that player. The team that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.

Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
* $0.5 million - $9.5 million: $0.5 million
* More than $9.5 million: $1 million

In the event of a tie, deference is afforded to bidders drafting remotely. In the event the tie is between two remote or two present GMs, the tiebreaker will go to the team that comes first in the nomination order after the GM who nominated the player. If a GM is involved in a tiebreaker, they will win the next tiebreaker he is involved with.

If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights may match the final bid once it is in and re-sign the player for a fourth year.

GMs may draft until: (1) they have signed 26 players, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can make a new nomination.

===Blind Auction Option===
The Commissioner may timely announce that any number of rounds will be conducted by blind auction. In a blind auction, teams take turns nominating players as they do above. Nominating a player requires the nominating team to post at least a minimum salary bid. Teams then simultaneously make a single bid. Bids under $10 million must be rounded to the nearest $0.5 million, and bids $10 million or higher must be rounded to the nearest $1 million. The highest bid wins the player. Ties are resolved by: (1) deferral, (2) an open "bidding war" process that resembles our current open auction, or (3) draft nomination order in the event that nobody defers or offers a higher bid.

== Snake Draft ==

The final component of a season's draft is the Snake Draft, during which time each team may draft up to five additional players for their Majors roster. Players with H1, H2, S1, or S2 contract statuses may fill Snake round draft spots, but must be announced before the Majors Draft starts. Players may not move up or down from the Snake Draft slots once the Majors Draft begins.

Every player chosen in the Snake Draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three Snake draftees may be given non-guaranteed (NG) contracts, which the drafting team must declare as the player is drafted. See [[External Transactions]] for the benefits and limitations of NG contracts. Players drafted as NGs during the auction must remain NGs cannot be converted to K1s prior to Opening Day.

== Rule V Draft ==

In order to dissuade teams from retaining players in AA that are performing well in MLB, LDB will hold an MLB Rule V-style draft during each year's All-star Break. In that draft, teams may poach such players from other teams farm systems. To be eligible for the Rule V Draft, a player must:
* Currently be in LDB AA,
* Not be a team's designated protected player,
* Be age 23 or above as of draft day (birthday on draft day counts),
* Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career, and
* Currently be on an MLB team's 26-man roster.

The Rule V draft will take place over the All-star Break each season. During that week, and before the draft begins, teams will be afforded an opportunity to announce one protected player that cannot be drafted and to promote AA players subject to the Rule V draft before the draft. A player may not be designated as a "protected player" in consecutive years. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a team passes, the team may still participate further in the draft. There are no restrictions on the number of players one team may take or have taken from them. The draft order will be non-serpentine, with the order being in reverse order of the then-current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the all-star game. The commissioner will conduct the Rule V Draft via means he or she deems most efficient (e.g., email, website, or conference call).

Teams drafting players by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following one and a half seasons. Teams may place Rule V draftees on the IL. However, spending a half season on the IL (10 weeks, aggregated over all IL stints), does not count toward the one and a half seasons. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.

A team that drafts a player in the Rule V Draft and drops that player in the off-season is still accountable for the player’s salary if unclaimed.

Rule V draftees may be traded. Traded Rule V draftees or draftees claimed off of waivers will remain under the same restrictions for teams acquiring them.

If a team is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the IL and cannot move him by trade, the player must be offered back to his original team for $0.2 million. If the original team declines to take the player, he enters general waivers. When an original owner acquires a player back before they have cleared waivers, the original team is under Rule V restrictions described here.

Teams may not change their protected player once the draft begins without either promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:57:42Z

107.185.202.29: /* Playoff Rosters */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and VIJAY. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. In the event two teams playing each other both miss the 44-inning requirement, both will be assigned FUs. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, MGS.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

In the event pairwise comparison of head-to-head points is circular, then pairwise comparisons of totals runs scored in head-to-head matchups is the next category used. If this is also circular, then total head-to-head HR then K then aRBI are applied (in that order). If still tied, then tiebreaker is determined by fiat by the LDB Commissioner’s preferred method (rock-paper-scissors suggested but not required).

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play). However, in the event a player comes off the IL after rosters lock, there is no roster violation, but the owner must drop a player within 24 hours or prior to the start of their next matchup, whichever comes first.

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

Teams on bye weeks must still ensure that they are abiding by the 31 man roster rule. If a player comes off the IL during a bye week that puts a team over the 31 player limit, the owner must drop a player within 24 hours or prior to the start of their next matchup, whichever comes first.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

Keepers and Drafts

2020-12-20T22:53:45Z

107.185.202.29: /* Rule V Draft */

== Keepers ==

=== Majors ===
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate five players on their [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors]] rosters as keepers. Only players signed to long-term deals (contract status of K1/2) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their current salary: auction price, less a 10% signing bonus. However, no player can be paid less than the [[Finances#Payroll|league minimum]]). A player may be kept twice for a total of three seasons with a team, and then they become a [[#Restricted Free Agents|restricted free agent]].

==== Restricted Free Agents ====
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they are restricted free agents (RFAs). RFAs are up for auction during the following [[#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]]. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid for that player. The team with RFA rights is generally the previous owner, unless the RFA rights were previously [[External Transactions#Trades|traded]] to another team.

====Hometown Heroes====
Mid-season free agents are automatically free agents after the season ends. However, each team will be allowed to designate one of its mid-season free agents, mid-season free agents claimed from waivers, and players traded with mid-season contracts as its "hometown hero" (HTH). K-, H-, S-, RFA, and NG waiver pickups are not eligible; the player must clear waivers if he was on one of these contracts. The HTH must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer LDB rookie-eligible. The HTH must also have accrued positive fantasy statistics on an active roster of an LDB team in order to grant HTH status the following season.

The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars, but two million for RPs and three million for catchers. The HTH contract cannot be extended beyond that one year. To qualify as a Relief Pitcher, a player must have pitched the majority of innings in the prior season as a reliever.

Teams have the option to expand the number of HTH contracts granted each year beyond the one provided by substituting for a commensurate number of keeper contracts.

=== Homegrown and Super-twos ===

Homegrown players are players drafted into [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA]] (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors keeper total]]. After AA players' promotion to the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="2" | Homegrown Salary Structure
|-
| Year 1
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 3
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 4
| $4.0 million
|}

If a homegrown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless released and not claimed on waivers.

Teams may promote a homegrown player in the second half of a the LDB season (after week 10's final roster lock) without starting the four-year clock on their homegrown status. These players are "super-twos" and are treated exactly as homegrown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="3" | Super-two Salary Structure
|-
| Salary Year
| Salary
|-
| Year 0 (promotion year)
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 1
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 3
| $4.0 million
|-
| Year 4
| $7.5 million
|}

Teams may decide upon promotion whether they want they player to use up a year of eligibility or to be a super-two at promotion time through notice to the Commissioner.

===Injured Keepers===
After the keeper deadline, but prior to the start of the auction, a team may release any keeper, H4, S4 or HTH and receive their salary in full for use at the upcoming auction if a player is injured or an injury (or updated extent of an injury) is reported after the keeper deadline. If a team releases a keeper or HTH under this rule, they may not designate a replacement keeper or HTH.

== AA Draft ==

The first phase of a season's draft will be the AA Draft, the only means for adding to a team's [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA Roster]] besides trades. Two years prior to the draft, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects, as determined by the Commissioner. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner may award new picks at his discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.

To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be LDB rookie-eligible, having less than 131 AB or 50 IP.

The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season, as the Commissioner sees fit, subject to the requirements herein. For teams that do not make playoffs, the AA draft order will be in ascending order by wins from the previous season. Wins are used rather than the winning percentage to remove any advantage from intentionally forfeiting games by missing the innings requirement. The order for teams missing playoffs is then followed by teams making playoff appearances in ascending order of finishing places. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.

=== Logistics and Requirements ===

Once a team is on the clock and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), that team will incur a $2 million fine, subject to the provisions below, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. Such a team may jump back in and pick at any time. A team may assign another GM to make the pick on its behalf.

If the draft is not complete by 10 PM EST on the Friday prior to the auction, two penalties are assessed: (1) the $2 million fines above and (2) the three teams who have caused the longest delay between picks, counting only the hours between noon and 10 PM EST, will each be fined $1 million for each pick remaining in the draft. The delay must be at least 3 hours to qualify for this fine. In this situation the AA draft will be completed on the morning of the auction before the auction commences.

== Majors Draft ==

[[File:Place_your_bids.jpg|border|right|250px|]]After the AA Draft, LDB will draft [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors players]]. The draft will be in an auction format. The Majors draft will take place at a time established by the Commissioner.

At the draft, teams will nominate players in an order established by the Commissioner. A nominating team will name the player and an opening bid for that player. The bid must be at least the minimum league salary. Other owners may choose to raise the bid on that player. The team that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.

Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
* $0.5 million - $9.5 million: $0.5 million
* More than $9.5 million: $1 million

In the event of a tie, deference is afforded to bidders drafting remotely. In the event the tie is between two remote or two present GMs, the tiebreaker will go to the team that comes first in the nomination order after the GM who nominated the player. If a GM is involved in a tiebreaker, they will win the next tiebreaker he is involved with.

If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights may match the final bid once it is in and re-sign the player for a fourth year.

GMs may draft until: (1) they have signed 26 players, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can make a new nomination.

===Blind Auction Option===
The Commissioner may timely announce that any number of rounds will be conducted by blind auction. In a blind auction, teams take turns nominating players as they do above. Nominating a player requires the nominating team to post at least a minimum salary bid. Teams then simultaneously make a single bid. Bids under $10 million must be rounded to the nearest $0.5 million, and bids $10 million or higher must be rounded to the nearest $1 million. The highest bid wins the player. Ties are resolved by: (1) deferral, (2) an open "bidding war" process that resembles our current open auction, or (3) draft nomination order in the event that nobody defers or offers a higher bid.

== Snake Draft ==

The final component of a season's draft is the Snake Draft, during which time each team may draft up to five additional players for their Majors roster. Players with H1, H2, S1, or S2 contract statuses may fill Snake round draft spots, but must be announced before the Majors Draft starts. Players may not move up or down from the Snake Draft slots once the Majors Draft begins.

Every player chosen in the Snake Draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three Snake draftees may be given non-guaranteed (NG) contracts, which the drafting team must declare as the player is drafted. See [[External Transactions]] for the benefits and limitations of NG contracts.

== Rule V Draft ==

In order to dissuade teams from retaining players in AA that are performing well in MLB, LDB will hold an MLB Rule V-style draft during each year's All-star Break. In that draft, teams may poach such players from other teams farm systems. To be eligible for the Rule V Draft, a player must:
* Currently be in LDB AA,
* Not be a team's designated protected player,
* Be age 23 or above as of draft day (birthday on draft day counts),
* Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career, and
* Currently be on an MLB team's 26-man roster.

The Rule V draft will take place over the All-star Break each season. During that week, and before the draft begins, teams will be afforded an opportunity to announce one protected player that cannot be drafted and to promote AA players subject to the Rule V draft before the draft. A player may not be designated as a "protected player" in consecutive years. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a team passes, the team may still participate further in the draft. There are no restrictions on the number of players one team may take or have taken from them. The draft order will be non-serpentine, with the order being in reverse order of the then-current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the all-star game. The commissioner will conduct the Rule V Draft via means he or she deems most efficient (e.g., email, website, or conference call).

Teams drafting players by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following one and a half seasons. Teams may place Rule V draftees on the IL. However, spending a half season on the IL (10 weeks, aggregated over all IL stints), does not count toward the one and a half seasons. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.

A team that drafts a player in the Rule V Draft and drops that player in the off-season is still accountable for the player’s salary if unclaimed.

Rule V draftees may be traded. Traded Rule V draftees or draftees claimed off of waivers will remain under the same restrictions for teams acquiring them.

If a team is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the IL and cannot move him by trade, the player must be offered back to his original team for $0.2 million. If the original team declines to take the player, he enters general waivers. When an original owner acquires a player back before they have cleared waivers, the original team is under Rule V restrictions described here.

Teams may not change their protected player once the draft begins without either promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:52:44Z

107.185.202.29: /* Playoff Rosters */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and VIJAY. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. In the event two teams playing each other both miss the 44-inning requirement, both will be assigned FUs. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, MGS.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

In the event pairwise comparison of head-to-head points is circular, then pairwise comparisons of totals runs scored in head-to-head matchups is the next category used. If this is also circular, then total head-to-head HR then K then aRBI are applied (in that order). If still tied, then tiebreaker is determined by fiat by the LDB Commissioner’s preferred method (rock-paper-scissors suggested but not required).

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

Teams on bye weeks must still ensure that they are abiding by the 31 man roster rule. If a player comes off the IL during a bye week that puts a team over the 31 player limit, the owner must drop a player within 24 hours or prior to the start of their next matchup, whichever comes first.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:49:48Z

107.185.202.29: /* Advancing to the Playoffs */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and VIJAY. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. In the event two teams playing each other both miss the 44-inning requirement, both will be assigned FUs. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, MGS.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

In the event pairwise comparison of head-to-head points is circular, then pairwise comparisons of totals runs scored in head-to-head matchups is the next category used. If this is also circular, then total head-to-head HR then K then aRBI are applied (in that order). If still tied, then tiebreaker is determined by fiat by the LDB Commissioner’s preferred method (rock-paper-scissors suggested but not required).

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

Rule Changes, Disputes, and Contingencies

2020-12-20T22:47:59Z

107.185.202.29: /* Data Loss, Unavailability, and Inaccuracy */

== Rule Changes ==

=== Offseason Rule Changes ===
Offseason rule changes are proposed, debated, and voted on as a package in one streamlined rulemaking process during the offseason. The manner in which such process takes place is prescribed by the Commissioner. Offseason rule changes may be proposed to the league by any GM and are adopted by a majority of teams voting for or against such changes. At the conclusion of the official rulemaking process, the Commissioner may also announce subsequent rulemaking processes, as necessary, in the offseason.

The offseason, for purposes of rule changes, ends at the keeper deadline.

=== In-season Rule Changes ===
In-season rule changes are strongly disfavored, but may be instituted so long as no team objects. However, this requirement does not apply in the case of ambiguity, where the [[#Rules Board|Rules Board will craft a rule]].

=== Decisions Crafted by the Rules Board ===
Decisions crafted by the Rules Board due to ambiguity are automatically incorporated into the Rules, whether they occur during the season or in the offseason.

==Commissioner Relief==
The Commissioner may provide relief to teams in situations where a roster mistake or misunderstanding of the Rules: 1) has no impact on the outcome of any LDB matchups, 2) severely hinders a team's ability to compete in either the short or long-term, and 3) is brought to the Commissioner's attention promptly.

== Rule Disputes ==

In the event of a dispute over one of these Rules, the Commissioner will resolve it or, if he chooses, nominate one or more GMs to resolve the issue.

== Contingencies ==

=== Data Loss, Unavailability, and Inaccuracy ===
Given the complexity of LDB and the fact that CBS cannot completely accommodate all of the nuances of the game, owners should expect some reasonable low level of data loss, unavailability, and inaccuracy. When such a case arises, the Commissioner will fashion a fix that he feels best furthers the intent of these Rules and the spirit of the league.

In the case of stats accumulated during the resumed portion of a suspended game resumed in a week following the week in which the suspended game took place, per CBS policy, the game stats will only be applied retroactively to the original date if the suspended game is resumed within seven days. All stats accumulated during the resumed portion of suspended games completed after seven days will not count towards any fantasy statistics for the season.

The Commissioner may allow the Rules Board to decide how to address such a situation. See [[Legacy_Rules_and_Rules_Board_Reporter#In_re_Robinson_Cano.27s_Contract_Status.2C_2012_LDB_1_.28Feb._16.2C_2012.29|In re Robinson Cano's Contract Status, 2012 LDB 1 (Feb. 16, 2012)]].

=== Incapacitated GMs ===
Should a GM become incapacitated, unable, or unwilling to manage his or her team, the team will be taken under receivership by the league. During receivership, the league shall collectively manage the team so as to maintain competitive balance within the league. The Commissioner will announce the means by which such a team will be collectively managed.

In the case of an incapacitated GM or GM unable to manage his or her team, if that GM has any chance of regaining the ability to manage within six months or by the next first of March, whichever is longer, the team shall remain in receivership for that period of time. However, if a GM is definitely unable to return, the Commissioner may turn over the team to a new GM as he sees fit.

In the case of a GM unwilling to manage his or her team, the team remains in receivership for as long as the Commissioner sees fit, until it is turned over to a new GM.<ref>Matt McQueeney was unavailable for comment.</ref>

=== MLB Work Stoppage ===
In the event of a season that starts late or misses some mid-season weeks, the Commissioner has discretion to rework the schedule as necessary to facilitate the continuation of the LDB season.

In the event that games are cancelled through the end of the season or where there are insufficient weeks remaining to conduct a full playoff bracket, non-expense portions of LDB dues will be refunded to GMs. If MLB plays games through the All-Star Game break, a league champion will still be decided on the basis of best overall record, but that champion's accomplishment will be marked with an asterisk, otherwise there will be no LDB champion for the year. A team denied a championship due to a shortened season will be known as "Seliged."

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:38:48Z

107.185.202.29: /* Pitching Penalties */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and VIJAY. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. In the event two teams playing each other both miss the 44-inning requirement, both will be assigned FUs. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, MGS.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:38:31Z

107.185.202.29: /* Pitching Penalties */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. In the event two teams playing each other both miss the 44-inning requirement, both will be assigned FUs. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, MGS.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:36:22Z

107.185.202.29: /* All-star Break */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, MGS.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:35:51Z

107.185.202.29: /* Pitching Penalties */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, NQW.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:35:08Z

107.185.202.29: /* Playoff Rosters */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: NQS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, NQW.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops may only be made by teams that have not been eliminated from their respective post-season brackets, and may only be made after the conclusion of all of each week’s games, but before rosters lock for the first day of the next round (i.e. “between” each round of post-season play).

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:33:53Z

107.185.202.29: /* Playoff Scoring */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: NQS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, NQW.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops are prohibited until the conclusion of playoffs.

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are identical to the regular season's: ERA, aWHIP, MGS, K, HRA and VIJAY.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:33:38Z

107.185.202.29: /* Playoff Rosters */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: NQS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, NQW.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops are prohibited until the conclusion of playoffs.

Playoff rosters contain 26 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 26-man playoff consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, reserve pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However players on the IL may be added to the 26-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

Players within the 26 man roster may be freely subbed in and out during the playoffs. Each playoff team must accumulate at least 30 IP per playoff week or else they will lose MGS, ERA, WHIP, HRA and VIJAY, just as they would in the regular season.

If an owner fails to set a legal playoff roster before roster lock on the first day of a playoff week, all active players will automatically be considered part of the 26 man playoff roster. The remaining spots will be assigned to bench players in the order that they appear in MLB games until a team reaches 26 players.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are as follows: ERA, WHIP, NQW/GS, K/9, HR/9, and STARR.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

The Game

2020-12-20T22:30:57Z

107.185.202.29: /* McQueeney Performance Penalties Known as "McQueeneys" */

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. Each league has two four-team divisions. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday)<ref>With the exception of the first and eleventh weeks, which may extend beyond seven days.</ref> for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 12 games are in play each week. After the regular season, top-performing teams advance to the playoffs.

== Schedule ==
Scheduling will be announced by the Commissioner before the [[Keepers and Drafts#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]] each year. During the regular season, each team will play the other three teams in their own division twice (6 games), each other team once (12 games), and each team will have two additional non-division intraleague matchups (2 games). Matchups for the extra two intraleague matchups will be determined by the prior season's records. Teams with the two best records in one division in a league will face the teams with the two best records in the other division in that league, and vice versa for the two teams with the worst records their divisions.

The Commissioner will implement "road trips" where teams play out of their divisions multiple weeks in a row. However, road trips may not be so long that they create a competitive imbalance for teams on long away stretches as a result of losing weekly tiebreakers for such periods.

== Scoring ==
Lucid Dream Baseball scores the ten active batters and up to eleven active pitchers each day on the following statistics:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="500"
|-
! colspan="2" | LDB Scoring
|-
! width="200" | Batters
! Pitchers
|-
| On-Base Percentage (OBP)
| Modified Game Starts (MGS): 3*IP + 2(IP-4) + K - 2H - 4ER - 2(R-ER) - BB
|-
| On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS): OBP + SLG
| Adjusted WHIP (aWHIP): (H + BB + HBP)/INN
|-
| Runs Scored (R)
| VIJAY: (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)/4
|-
| Adjusted Runs Batted In (aRBI) = RBI - GIDP
| Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
|-
| Home Runs (HR)
| Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
|-
| Adjusted Stolen Bases (ASB): SB - CS/2
| Earned Run Average (ERA)
|}

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, the home team will win all such categories.

== Roster Requirements ==
Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, teams must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a team fails to meet these minimum requirements, the following penalties are applied:

=== Batting and Fielding Penalties ===
For every batter missing from a team's lineup on a game day, that team receives one "AAA start" for each missing player, which is 0H, 5 AB with 2 GIDP. After three separate days of batting roster violations, the team is penalized $0.5 million per player per day. The ﬁnes will be deducted from the following season’s payroll. Fines are deducted after luxury tax calculations are made.

=== Pitching Penalties ===
If a team fails to reach the required 44 innings pitched in a given week, that team will automatically lose the following categories: NQS, ERA, WHIP, HRA, and STARR. These losses will count as losses in the standings and will be known throughout the league as FUs,<ref>Fuck-ups</ref>. Should a team miss the innings requirement once, there will be an increasing penalty scale as follows:

* First infraction: warning
* Second infraction: $1 million fine
* Third infraction: $3 million fine
* Fourth infraction: $5 million fine
* Fifth infraction: loss of team's next AA draft pick in possession at the time of the infraction

Financial penalties will be levied following completion of the next LDB Championship Series, thereby impacting the subsequent year's budget.

== McQueeney Performance Penalties <ref>Known as "McQueeneys"</ref>==
The McQueeney Performance Penalty deducts LDB cash from a team's subsequent yearly budget when that team finishes the regular season with a sub-.400 winning percentage (including any FU losses and excluding any FU wins) in the second half of the regular season. The "McQueeneys" will be assessed according to the following formula:

:LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-WL%)), rounded to the nearest half million

Additionally:

*The McQueeney Penalties shall be capped at a $20M maximum potential fine.
*The Commissioner may, at his discretion, grant an exemption from the penalties for any team that actively and competently manages its roster throughout the season and does not make a concerted effort to sell players on its active major league roster for future value (i.e., draft picks, cash, or AA players).

For examples, a team with a .380 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$1.5 million * (100(40%-38%)) = LDB$3 million; a team with a .333 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$10 million; and a team with a .200 winning percentage would incur a penalty of LDB$30 million.

McQueeney penalties and fines for missed innings belong to owners, not teams. When an owner leaves LDB, her fines go with her. A new owner is not responsible for paying the fines that his team's previous owner has incurred.

However, a new owner can choose to pay his previous owner’s fines and instead opt to be exempt from McQueeney penalties during his first year of ownership. A team who chooses this option must still actively and competently manage his team, however, or else the Commissioner may override the exemption and impose the fines in full or in part at his discretion. Additionally, this exemption is only available in the event a departing owner leaves with an outstanding fine of $5 million or more.

== All-star Break ==
LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game. That week, at the option of the Commissioner, LDB will: (1) hold an LDB All-star Game and, (2) if easily accomplished, fold any official MLB stats accrued that week into the subsequent week.

The All-star Game will be held between the Federal League and the Union Association and use the official MLB statistics accrued during the week of the MLB All-star Break. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. All-Star teams can list starting pitcher alternates in case their starters do not pitch at all.

The league that wins the LDB All-Star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series and McQueeney Cup final.

Each league's team will be managed by the owner of the prior season's league champion. The manager will be in charge of conducting the voting for his league's players and tracking their stats. All-Star teams shall consist of a full lineup, three starting pitchers, and two relievers. There will be no alternates or lineup changes; if a player goes on the IL or misses the weekend, their spot remains empty. Every team in the league must have at least one player on the team. The All-Star Game will use regular season categories. The manager must report the final stats on the Monday following the All-star break and should report the daily stats on Saturday and Sunday.<ref>An easy way to track such scores is to use CBS's "Scout Team" page using the "Last 7 Days" viewing option. The manager may need to calculate rate stats separately.</ref>

There is no home field advantage in the All-Star Game; category ties are treated as ties. If the final score is tied, tiebreakers will be as follows: HR, aSB, Ka, R, RBI, OPS, VIJAY, OBP, WHIP, ERA, NQW.

The Commissioner has discretion to adjust these rules unilaterally prior to the LDB All-Star Game if he deems it necessary. Changes after the All-Star Game has begun require a majority vote.

== Playoffs ==

=== Advancing to the Playoffs ===
The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Eight teams make the playoffs: the four division winners and two wild card teams from each league. The wild card teams from each league first play each other in a wild card round. The winners of the wild card round advance to the Lucid Division series, where they will play the division winner in their respective leagues with the second best league record (that division winner therefore gets a one-round bye). The winner of the Lucid Division Series advances to the Lucid Championship Series, where they face the team with the best record in their league (the league winner therefore gets a double bye). The home team in the Lucid Dream Series is determined by the winner of the [[#All-star_Break|All-star Game]]. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs, determine seeding, and home field advantage in the event no LDB All-star Game takes place are as follows:

# Overall Points
# Head-to-head Record
# Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
# Intra-division Record
# Overall Roto Performance
# Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved by independent pairwise comparisons. For example:

:Consider 3 teams: A, B, and C:
:* A beat B in Week 1, 9-5
:* A beat C in Week 2, 10-4
:* B beat A in Week 3, 13-1
:* B tied C in Week 4, 7-7
:* B beat C in Week 5, 8-6
:* C beat A in Week 6, 11-3

:Therefore, head-to-head:
:A vs. B = (9+1) vs. (5+13) = 10 vs. 18.
:So B > A

:A vs. C = (10+3) vs. (4+11) = 13 vs. 15.
:So C > A

:B vs. C = (7+8) vs (7+6) = 15 vs. 13
:So B > C

:Therefore, B>C>A, and so B and C make the playoffs. Theoretically, if A = C in head-to-head, we would have to go to another tiebreaker, in this case performance vs. the rest of their division.

=== Playoff Rosters ===
Once playoff rosters lock for the first time, player adds and drops are prohibited until the conclusion of playoffs.

Playoff rosters contain 20 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. The 20-man playoff roster consists of: active position players, reserve position players, active pitchers, and players potentially activated from the IL. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted from AA until the following Monday. However, position players on the IL may be added to the 20-man roster after rosters lock if there is a space reserved for their potential activation.

The 20-man roster has the following requirements and constraints:

Offense

Position players within the 20-man roster may be freely subbed in and out of slots during playoffs.

Pitching

Each playoff team must start five pitchers during playoffs: SP, SP, SP, RP, SP/RP (flex). Starting pitchers must start at least one game for each week they are selected for a playoff roster.

Teams may designate alternate starting pitchers in the event that a rostered starting pitcher does not start any games during the week. If alternates are needed but an owner did not designate sufficient alternates, starts from non-rostered starting pitchers will be used in the order they occurred during the week, until the owner accumulates stats from a number of starters equal to the number of rostered starting pitchers. Pitchers otherwise remain active the entire week and cannot be benched.

If an owner fails to set a playoff-legal pitching staff before roster lock on the first day of the week, pitchers will be assigned to the playoff pitching staff in the order that they appear in MLB games until the team has a legal staff.

=== Playoff Scoring ===

Pitching stats for the playoff week are as follows: ERA, WHIP, NQW/GS, K/9, HR/9, and STARR.

In the event of a playoff tie in points, such games will be decided by a cumulative measure for each stat category. Specifically: at the start of each season, a volunteer must determine the Categorical League Average Performance (CLAP) for each scoring category from the previous season. The CLAP will be determined by the mean and standard deviation for each category over the course of that season. However, such calculations must exclude scoring weeks that are not exactly seven days.

CLAP is the default tiebreaker, but in the event that last year’s CLAP is not prepared by the end of the official rulemaking process in the offseason, the tiebreaker will be ERA, then OPS in the event of an ERA tie, then coin flip in the event of an OPS tie.

:Example
:Let's use aSB as an example. Over the course of the previous season, each team has 20 different aSB scores, for 280 data points total. Let's assume that out of the 280 observations of aSB, the mean is 2.5 and the standard deviation is 0.75.

:Now let's say that Team A has 4 aSB and Team B has 2. Team A would get +2 in tiebreaker scoring (because it's 2 Std Devs over the mean) while Team B would be given -0.67 (because it's 2/3 Std Devs. below the mean).

:We repeat this for all stats and see who has the higher total.

:Weights will be calculated annually at the beginning of the regular season.

=== The McQueeney Cup ===
LDB will award the McQueeney Cup each season to the non-playoff team that wins the McQueeney Cup bracket, which will be played over three rounds parallel to the LDB playoffs, with Union and Federal ladders composed of each divisions' respective four non-playoff teams, seeded in order of regular season finish, with the last round including the Union and Federal finalists. The winner of the McQueeney Cup will receive a sandwich round pick between the first and second round of the amateur draft. In all other respects, McQueeney Cup games are decided as a regular playoff game. The winner of the McQueeney Cup may choose to either take the sandwich round pick or forfeit that pick in exchange for wiping his McQueeney penalties to $0, should he have any.

<references/>

Keepers and Drafts

2020-12-20T22:28:25Z

107.185.202.29: /* Hometown Heroes */

== Keepers ==

=== Majors ===
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate five players on their [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors]] rosters as keepers. Only players signed to long-term deals (contract status of K1/2) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their current salary: auction price, less a 10% signing bonus. However, no player can be paid less than the [[Finances#Payroll|league minimum]]). A player may be kept twice for a total of three seasons with a team, and then they become a [[#Restricted Free Agents|restricted free agent]].

==== Restricted Free Agents ====
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they are restricted free agents (RFAs). RFAs are up for auction during the following [[#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]]. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid for that player. The team with RFA rights is generally the previous owner, unless the RFA rights were previously [[External Transactions#Trades|traded]] to another team.

====Hometown Heroes====
Mid-season free agents are automatically free agents after the season ends. However, each team will be allowed to designate one of its mid-season free agents, mid-season free agents claimed from waivers, and players traded with mid-season contracts as its "hometown hero" (HTH). K-, H-, S-, RFA, and NG waiver pickups are not eligible; the player must clear waivers if he was on one of these contracts. The HTH must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer LDB rookie-eligible. The HTH must also have accrued positive fantasy statistics on an active roster of an LDB team in order to grant HTH status the following season.

The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars, but two million for RPs and three million for catchers. The HTH contract cannot be extended beyond that one year. To qualify as a Relief Pitcher, a player must have pitched the majority of innings in the prior season as a reliever.

Teams have the option to expand the number of HTH contracts granted each year beyond the one provided by substituting for a commensurate number of keeper contracts.

=== Homegrown and Super-twos ===

Homegrown players are players drafted into [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA]] (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors keeper total]]. After AA players' promotion to the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="2" | Homegrown Salary Structure
|-
| Year 1
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 3
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 4
| $4.0 million
|}

If a homegrown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless released and not claimed on waivers.

Teams may promote a homegrown player in the second half of a the LDB season (after week 10's final roster lock) without starting the four-year clock on their homegrown status. These players are "super-twos" and are treated exactly as homegrown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="3" | Super-two Salary Structure
|-
| Salary Year
| Salary
|-
| Year 0 (promotion year)
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 1
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 3
| $4.0 million
|-
| Year 4
| $7.5 million
|}

Teams may decide upon promotion whether they want they player to use up a year of eligibility or to be a super-two at promotion time through notice to the Commissioner.

===Injured Keepers===
After the keeper deadline, but prior to the start of the auction, a team may release any keeper, H4, S4 or HTH and receive their salary in full for use at the upcoming auction if a player is injured or an injury (or updated extent of an injury) is reported after the keeper deadline. If a team releases a keeper or HTH under this rule, they may not designate a replacement keeper or HTH.

== AA Draft ==

The first phase of a season's draft will be the AA Draft, the only means for adding to a team's [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA Roster]] besides trades. Two years prior to the draft, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects, as determined by the Commissioner. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner may award new picks at his discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.

To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be LDB rookie-eligible, having less than 131 AB or 50 IP.

The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season, as the Commissioner sees fit, subject to the requirements herein. For teams that do not make playoffs, the AA draft order will be in ascending order by wins from the previous season. Wins are used rather than the winning percentage to remove any advantage from intentionally forfeiting games by missing the innings requirement. The order for teams missing playoffs is then followed by teams making playoff appearances in ascending order of finishing places. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.

=== Logistics and Requirements ===

Once a team is on the clock and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), that team will incur a $2 million fine, subject to the provisions below, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. Such a team may jump back in and pick at any time. A team may assign another GM to make the pick on its behalf.

If the draft is not complete by 10 PM EST on the Friday prior to the auction, two penalties are assessed: (1) the $2 million fines above and (2) the three teams who have caused the longest delay between picks, counting only the hours between noon and 10 PM EST, will each be fined $1 million for each pick remaining in the draft. The delay must be at least 3 hours to qualify for this fine. In this situation the AA draft will be completed on the morning of the auction before the auction commences.

== Majors Draft ==

[[File:Place_your_bids.jpg|border|right|250px|]]After the AA Draft, LDB will draft [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors players]]. The draft will be in an auction format. The Majors draft will take place at a time established by the Commissioner.

At the draft, teams will nominate players in an order established by the Commissioner. A nominating team will name the player and an opening bid for that player. The bid must be at least the minimum league salary. Other owners may choose to raise the bid on that player. The team that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.

Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
* $0.5 million - $9.5 million: $0.5 million
* More than $9.5 million: $1 million

In the event of a tie, deference is afforded to bidders drafting remotely. In the event the tie is between two remote or two present GMs, the tiebreaker will go to the team that comes first in the nomination order after the GM who nominated the player. If a GM is involved in a tiebreaker, they will win the next tiebreaker he is involved with.

If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights may match the final bid once it is in and re-sign the player for a fourth year.

GMs may draft until: (1) they have signed 26 players, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can make a new nomination.

===Blind Auction Option===
The Commissioner may timely announce that any number of rounds will be conducted by blind auction. In a blind auction, teams take turns nominating players as they do above. Nominating a player requires the nominating team to post at least a minimum salary bid. Teams then simultaneously make a single bid. Bids under $10 million must be rounded to the nearest $0.5 million, and bids $10 million or higher must be rounded to the nearest $1 million. The highest bid wins the player. Ties are resolved by: (1) deferral, (2) an open "bidding war" process that resembles our current open auction, or (3) draft nomination order in the event that nobody defers or offers a higher bid.

== Snake Draft ==

The final component of a season's draft is the Snake Draft, during which time each team may draft up to five additional players for their Majors roster. Players with H1, H2, S1, or S2 contract statuses may fill Snake round draft spots, but must be announced before the Majors Draft starts. Players may not move up or down from the Snake Draft slots once the Majors Draft begins.

Every player chosen in the Snake Draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three Snake draftees may be given non-guaranteed (NG) contracts, which the drafting team must declare as the player is drafted. See [[External Transactions]] for the benefits and limitations of NG contracts.

== Rule V Draft ==

In order to dissuade teams from retaining players in AA that are performing well in MLB, LDB will hold an MLB Rule V-style draft during each year's All-star Break. In that draft, teams may poach such players from other teams farm systems. To be eligible for the Rule V Draft, a player must:
* Currently be in LDB AA,
* Not be a team's designated protected player,
* Be age 23 or above as of draft day (birthday on draft day counts),
* Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career, and
* Currently be on an MLB team's 31-man roster.

The Rule V draft will take place over the All-star Break each season. During that week, and before the draft begins, teams will be afforded an opportunity to announce one protected player that cannot be drafted and to promote AA players subject to the Rule V draft before the draft. A player may not be designated as a "protected player" in consecutive years. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a team passes, the team may still participate further in the draft. There are no restrictions on the number of players one team may take or have taken from them. The draft order will be non-serpentine, with the order being in reverse order of the then-current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the all-star game. The commissioner will conduct the Rule V Draft via means he or she deems most efficient (e.g., email, website, or conference call).

Teams drafting players by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following one and a half seasons. Teams may place Rule V draftees on the IL. However, spending a half season on the IL (10 weeks, aggregated over all IL stints), does not count toward the one and a half seasons. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.

A team that drafts a player in the Rule V Draft and drops that player in the off-season is still accountable for the player’s salary if unclaimed.

Rule V draftees may be traded. Traded Rule V draftees or draftees claimed off of waivers will remain under the same restrictions for teams acquiring them.

If a team is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the IL and cannot move him by trade, the player must be offered back to his original team for $0.2 million. If the original team declines to take the player, he enters general waivers. When an original owner acquires a player back before they have cleared waivers, the original team is under Rule V restrictions described here.

Teams may not change their protected player once the draft begins without either promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers.

<references/>

Keepers and Drafts

2020-12-20T22:23:39Z

107.185.202.29: /* Hometown Heroes */

== Keepers ==

=== Majors ===
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate five players on their [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors]] rosters as keepers. Only players signed to long-term deals (contract status of K1/2) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their current salary: auction price, less a 10% signing bonus. However, no player can be paid less than the [[Finances#Payroll|league minimum]]). A player may be kept twice for a total of three seasons with a team, and then they become a [[#Restricted Free Agents|restricted free agent]].

==== Restricted Free Agents ====
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they are restricted free agents (RFAs). RFAs are up for auction during the following [[#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]]. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid for that player. The team with RFA rights is generally the previous owner, unless the RFA rights were previously [[External Transactions#Trades|traded]] to another team.

====Hometown Heroes====
Mid-season free agents are automatically free agents after the season ends. However, each team will be allowed to designate one of its mid-season free agents, mid-season free agents claimed from waivers, and players traded with mid-season contracts as its "hometown hero" (HTH). K-, H-, S-, RFA, and NG waiver pickups are not eligible; the player must clear waivers if he was on one of these contracts. The HTH must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer LDB rookie-eligible.

The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars, but two million for RPs and three million for catchers. The HTH contract cannot be extended beyond that one year. To qualify as a Relief Pitcher, a player must have pitched the majority of innings in the prior season as a reliever.

Teams have the option to expand the number of HTH contracts granted each year beyond the one provided by substituting for a commensurate number of keeper contracts.

=== Homegrown and Super-twos ===

Homegrown players are players drafted into [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA]] (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors keeper total]]. After AA players' promotion to the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="2" | Homegrown Salary Structure
|-
| Year 1
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 3
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 4
| $4.0 million
|}

If a homegrown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless released and not claimed on waivers.

Teams may promote a homegrown player in the second half of a the LDB season (after week 10's final roster lock) without starting the four-year clock on their homegrown status. These players are "super-twos" and are treated exactly as homegrown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="3" | Super-two Salary Structure
|-
| Salary Year
| Salary
|-
| Year 0 (promotion year)
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 1
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 3
| $4.0 million
|-
| Year 4
| $7.5 million
|}

Teams may decide upon promotion whether they want they player to use up a year of eligibility or to be a super-two at promotion time through notice to the Commissioner.

===Injured Keepers===
After the keeper deadline, but prior to the start of the auction, a team may release any keeper, H4, S4 or HTH and receive their salary in full for use at the upcoming auction if a player is injured or an injury (or updated extent of an injury) is reported after the keeper deadline. If a team releases a keeper or HTH under this rule, they may not designate a replacement keeper or HTH.

== AA Draft ==

The first phase of a season's draft will be the AA Draft, the only means for adding to a team's [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA Roster]] besides trades. Two years prior to the draft, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects, as determined by the Commissioner. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner may award new picks at his discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.

To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be LDB rookie-eligible, having less than 131 AB or 50 IP.

The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season, as the Commissioner sees fit, subject to the requirements herein. For teams that do not make playoffs, the AA draft order will be in ascending order by wins from the previous season. Wins are used rather than the winning percentage to remove any advantage from intentionally forfeiting games by missing the innings requirement. The order for teams missing playoffs is then followed by teams making playoff appearances in ascending order of finishing places. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.

=== Logistics and Requirements ===

Once a team is on the clock and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), that team will incur a $2 million fine, subject to the provisions below, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. Such a team may jump back in and pick at any time. A team may assign another GM to make the pick on its behalf.

If the draft is not complete by 10 PM EST on the Friday prior to the auction, two penalties are assessed: (1) the $2 million fines above and (2) the three teams who have caused the longest delay between picks, counting only the hours between noon and 10 PM EST, will each be fined $1 million for each pick remaining in the draft. The delay must be at least 3 hours to qualify for this fine. In this situation the AA draft will be completed on the morning of the auction before the auction commences.

== Majors Draft ==

[[File:Place_your_bids.jpg|border|right|250px|]]After the AA Draft, LDB will draft [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors players]]. The draft will be in an auction format. The Majors draft will take place at a time established by the Commissioner.

At the draft, teams will nominate players in an order established by the Commissioner. A nominating team will name the player and an opening bid for that player. The bid must be at least the minimum league salary. Other owners may choose to raise the bid on that player. The team that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.

Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
* $0.5 million - $9.5 million: $0.5 million
* More than $9.5 million: $1 million

In the event of a tie, deference is afforded to bidders drafting remotely. In the event the tie is between two remote or two present GMs, the tiebreaker will go to the team that comes first in the nomination order after the GM who nominated the player. If a GM is involved in a tiebreaker, they will win the next tiebreaker he is involved with.

If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights may match the final bid once it is in and re-sign the player for a fourth year.

GMs may draft until: (1) they have signed 26 players, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can make a new nomination.

===Blind Auction Option===
The Commissioner may timely announce that any number of rounds will be conducted by blind auction. In a blind auction, teams take turns nominating players as they do above. Nominating a player requires the nominating team to post at least a minimum salary bid. Teams then simultaneously make a single bid. Bids under $10 million must be rounded to the nearest $0.5 million, and bids $10 million or higher must be rounded to the nearest $1 million. The highest bid wins the player. Ties are resolved by: (1) deferral, (2) an open "bidding war" process that resembles our current open auction, or (3) draft nomination order in the event that nobody defers or offers a higher bid.

== Snake Draft ==

The final component of a season's draft is the Snake Draft, during which time each team may draft up to five additional players for their Majors roster. Players with H1, H2, S1, or S2 contract statuses may fill Snake round draft spots, but must be announced before the Majors Draft starts. Players may not move up or down from the Snake Draft slots once the Majors Draft begins.

Every player chosen in the Snake Draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three Snake draftees may be given non-guaranteed (NG) contracts, which the drafting team must declare as the player is drafted. See [[External Transactions]] for the benefits and limitations of NG contracts.

== Rule V Draft ==

In order to dissuade teams from retaining players in AA that are performing well in MLB, LDB will hold an MLB Rule V-style draft during each year's All-star Break. In that draft, teams may poach such players from other teams farm systems. To be eligible for the Rule V Draft, a player must:
* Currently be in LDB AA,
* Not be a team's designated protected player,
* Be age 23 or above as of draft day (birthday on draft day counts),
* Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career, and
* Currently be on an MLB team's 31-man roster.

The Rule V draft will take place over the All-star Break each season. During that week, and before the draft begins, teams will be afforded an opportunity to announce one protected player that cannot be drafted and to promote AA players subject to the Rule V draft before the draft. A player may not be designated as a "protected player" in consecutive years. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a team passes, the team may still participate further in the draft. There are no restrictions on the number of players one team may take or have taken from them. The draft order will be non-serpentine, with the order being in reverse order of the then-current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the all-star game. The commissioner will conduct the Rule V Draft via means he or she deems most efficient (e.g., email, website, or conference call).

Teams drafting players by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following one and a half seasons. Teams may place Rule V draftees on the IL. However, spending a half season on the IL (10 weeks, aggregated over all IL stints), does not count toward the one and a half seasons. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.

A team that drafts a player in the Rule V Draft and drops that player in the off-season is still accountable for the player’s salary if unclaimed.

Rule V draftees may be traded. Traded Rule V draftees or draftees claimed off of waivers will remain under the same restrictions for teams acquiring them.

If a team is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the IL and cannot move him by trade, the player must be offered back to his original team for $0.2 million. If the original team declines to take the player, he enters general waivers. When an original owner acquires a player back before they have cleared waivers, the original team is under Rule V restrictions described here.

Teams may not change their protected player once the draft begins without either promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers.

<references/>

Keepers and Drafts

2020-12-20T22:21:31Z

107.185.202.29: /* Hometown Heroes */

== Keepers ==

=== Majors ===
In the off-season, GMs will be able to designate five players on their [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors]] rosters as keepers. Only players signed to long-term deals (contract status of K1/2) are eligible to be kept. These players are retained for the next year at their current salary: auction price, less a 10% signing bonus. However, no player can be paid less than the [[Finances#Payroll|league minimum]]). A player may be kept twice for a total of three seasons with a team, and then they become a [[#Restricted Free Agents|restricted free agent]].

==== Restricted Free Agents ====
After players have served three seasons under a contract, they are restricted free agents (RFAs). RFAs are up for auction during the following [[#Majors Draft|Majors Draft]]. However, the GM owning RFA rights has the option to match the winning bid for that player. The team with RFA rights is generally the previous owner, unless the RFA rights were previously [[External Transactions#Trades|traded]] to another team.

====Hometown Heroes====
Mid-season free agents are automatically free agents after the season ends. However, each team will be allowed to designate one of its mid-season free agents, mid-season free agents claimed from waivers, and players traded with mid-season contracts as its "hometown hero" (HTH). K-, H-, S-, RFA, and NG waiver pickups are not eligible; the player must clear waivers if he was on one of these contracts. The HTH must be a player who logged non-September call-up time in the Majors and is no longer LDB rookie-eligible. The HTH must also have accrued positive fantasy statistics on the active roster of the team wishing to grant HTH status. The HTH gets a one-year contract extension at six million dollars, but two million for RPs and three million for catchers. The HTH contract cannot be extended beyond that one year. To qualify as a Relief Pitcher, a player must have pitched the majority of innings in the prior season as a reliever.

Teams have the option to expand the number of HTH contracts granted each year beyond the one provided by substituting for a commensurate number of keeper contracts.

=== Homegrown and Super-twos ===

Homegrown players are players drafted into [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA]] (and possibly promoted). Homegrown players do not count against the [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors keeper total]]. After AA players' promotion to the Majors, they are subject to the following salary schedule:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="2" | Homegrown Salary Structure
|-
| Year 1
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 3
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 4
| $4.0 million
|}

If a homegrown player is traded, they remain on the same salary structure when they join their new team, unless released and not claimed on waivers.

Teams may promote a homegrown player in the second half of a the LDB season (after week 10's final roster lock) without starting the four-year clock on their homegrown status. These players are "super-twos" and are treated exactly as homegrown players for keeper purposes, but they follow an accelerated salary promotion scale:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
! colspan="3" | Super-two Salary Structure
|-
| Salary Year
| Salary
|-
| Year 0 (promotion year)
| $0.5 million
|-
| Year 1
| $1.0 million
|-
| Year 2
| $1.5 million
|-
| Year 3
| $4.0 million
|-
| Year 4
| $7.5 million
|}

Teams may decide upon promotion whether they want they player to use up a year of eligibility or to be a super-two at promotion time through notice to the Commissioner.

===Injured Keepers===
After the keeper deadline, but prior to the start of the auction, a team may release any keeper, H4, S4 or HTH and receive their salary in full for use at the upcoming auction if a player is injured or an injury (or updated extent of an injury) is reported after the keeper deadline. If a team releases a keeper or HTH under this rule, they may not designate a replacement keeper or HTH.

== AA Draft ==

The first phase of a season's draft will be the AA Draft, the only means for adding to a team's [[Organizational Structure#AA|AA Roster]] besides trades. Two years prior to the draft, each team will be given three or four AA draft picks, depending on the availability of prospects, as determined by the Commissioner. These draft picks are tradable. The Commissioner may award new picks at his discretion to teams inherited by a new GM that sold off an abundance of prospects and AA draft picks during the season prior.

To draft a player in the AA Draft, the player must be LDB rookie-eligible, having less than 131 AB or 50 IP.

The AA Draft will be held prior to a new season, as the Commissioner sees fit, subject to the requirements herein. For teams that do not make playoffs, the AA draft order will be in ascending order by wins from the previous season. Wins are used rather than the winning percentage to remove any advantage from intentionally forfeiting games by missing the innings requirement. The order for teams missing playoffs is then followed by teams making playoff appearances in ascending order of finishing places. The draft position of a traded draft pick corresponds to the original owner, not the owner at the time of the AA Draft.

=== Logistics and Requirements ===

Once a team is on the clock and has not picked for one full day (24 hours), that team will incur a $2 million fine, subject to the provisions below, and the draft may continue on as if he has picked. Such a team may jump back in and pick at any time. A team may assign another GM to make the pick on its behalf.

If the draft is not complete by 10 PM EST on the Friday prior to the auction, two penalties are assessed: (1) the $2 million fines above and (2) the three teams who have caused the longest delay between picks, counting only the hours between noon and 10 PM EST, will each be fined $1 million for each pick remaining in the draft. The delay must be at least 3 hours to qualify for this fine. In this situation the AA draft will be completed on the morning of the auction before the auction commences.

== Majors Draft ==

[[File:Place_your_bids.jpg|border|right|250px|]]After the AA Draft, LDB will draft [[Organizational Structure#Majors|Majors players]]. The draft will be in an auction format. The Majors draft will take place at a time established by the Commissioner.

At the draft, teams will nominate players in an order established by the Commissioner. A nominating team will name the player and an opening bid for that player. The bid must be at least the minimum league salary. Other owners may choose to raise the bid on that player. The team that turns in the highest bid will be awarded the player.

Bidding prices are subject to these increments:
* $0.5 million - $9.5 million: $0.5 million
* More than $9.5 million: $1 million

In the event of a tie, deference is afforded to bidders drafting remotely. In the event the tie is between two remote or two present GMs, the tiebreaker will go to the team that comes first in the nomination order after the GM who nominated the player. If a GM is involved in a tiebreaker, they will win the next tiebreaker he is involved with.

If a player being drafted is an RFA, the team holding RFA rights may match the final bid once it is in and re-sign the player for a fourth year.

GMs may draft until: (1) they have signed 26 players, (2) run out of money, or (3) pass their turn to nominate a player. The Majors draft ends when no GM can make a new nomination.

===Blind Auction Option===
The Commissioner may timely announce that any number of rounds will be conducted by blind auction. In a blind auction, teams take turns nominating players as they do above. Nominating a player requires the nominating team to post at least a minimum salary bid. Teams then simultaneously make a single bid. Bids under $10 million must be rounded to the nearest $0.5 million, and bids $10 million or higher must be rounded to the nearest $1 million. The highest bid wins the player. Ties are resolved by: (1) deferral, (2) an open "bidding war" process that resembles our current open auction, or (3) draft nomination order in the event that nobody defers or offers a higher bid.

== Snake Draft ==

The final component of a season's draft is the Snake Draft, during which time each team may draft up to five additional players for their Majors roster. Players with H1, H2, S1, or S2 contract statuses may fill Snake round draft spots, but must be announced before the Majors Draft starts. Players may not move up or down from the Snake Draft slots once the Majors Draft begins.

Every player chosen in the Snake Draft receives the league minimum salary. Up to three Snake draftees may be given non-guaranteed (NG) contracts, which the drafting team must declare as the player is drafted. See [[External Transactions]] for the benefits and limitations of NG contracts.

== Rule V Draft ==

In order to dissuade teams from retaining players in AA that are performing well in MLB, LDB will hold an MLB Rule V-style draft during each year's All-star Break. In that draft, teams may poach such players from other teams farm systems. To be eligible for the Rule V Draft, a player must:
* Currently be in LDB AA,
* Not be a team's designated protected player,
* Be age 23 or above as of draft day (birthday on draft day counts),
* Have accumulated 900 PA, 225 IP, or 50 pitching appearances over his career, and
* Currently be on an MLB team's 31-man roster.

The Rule V draft will take place over the All-star Break each season. During that week, and before the draft begins, teams will be afforded an opportunity to announce one protected player that cannot be drafted and to promote AA players subject to the Rule V draft before the draft. A player may not be designated as a "protected player" in consecutive years. The draft will last until each team passes. Once a team passes, the team may still participate further in the draft. There are no restrictions on the number of players one team may take or have taken from them. The draft order will be non-serpentine, with the order being in reverse order of the then-current standings at the close of the LDB week preceding the all-star game. The commissioner will conduct the Rule V Draft via means he or she deems most efficient (e.g., email, website, or conference call).

Teams drafting players by Rule V will be required to keep them on their LDB Majors roster for the following one and a half seasons. Teams may place Rule V draftees on the IL. However, spending a half season on the IL (10 weeks, aggregated over all IL stints), does not count toward the one and a half seasons. Owners will not be required to include Rule V draftees on their playoff roster.

A team that drafts a player in the Rule V Draft and drops that player in the off-season is still accountable for the player’s salary if unclaimed.

Rule V draftees may be traded. Traded Rule V draftees or draftees claimed off of waivers will remain under the same restrictions for teams acquiring them.

If a team is unable to maintain the player in LDB Majors or the IL and cannot move him by trade, the player must be offered back to his original team for $0.2 million. If the original team declines to take the player, he enters general waivers. When an original owner acquires a player back before they have cleared waivers, the original team is under Rule V restrictions described here.

Teams may not change their protected player once the draft begins without either promoting that player or subjecting him to waivers.

<references/>