The Game

LDB is divided into two subsidiary leagues: the Federal League and the Union Association. During the regular season, each team will play another team for one week at a time (Monday to Sunday) for a total of 20 weeks, with each statistical category representing one game, meaning 14 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 Majors Draft each year. Schedules are unbalanced, meaning that teams will play teams within their league more often than teams outside their league. Each team will play their divisional opponents twice each, and each team from the other division once. The only exception to this will be the team’s designated "natural rival." Each team will be paired randomly with one team from the other division, and will play that team twice instead of once.

Scoring

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

LDB Scoring
Batters / Fielders	Pitchers
On-Base Percentage (OBP)	Net Quality Wins: $NQS=2QW+W-L-2GS$
On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage: $OPS=OBP+SLG$	Win Percentage Added (WPA) (see Fangraphs for information on WPA)
Runs Scored (R)	Run Expectancy over 24 Base/Out States (RE24) (see Fangraphs for information on RE24)
Adjusted Runs Batted In: $aRBI=RBI-GIDP$	Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
Home Runs (HR)	Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
Adjusted Stolen Bases: $ASB=SB-{\frac {CS}{2}}$	Earned Run Average (ERA)
Defensive RZR Plus-Minus (+/-) [based on Hardball Times Revised Zone Rating (RZR) data; for fielders the formula is -.88 x balls in zone + .96 x balls fielded + .48 balls fielded outside zone + .24 double play turned or started + .24 outfield assist) the formula for catchers is + 1.6 caught stealing - .44 steal allowed - .24 passed ball +.24 double play started or turned. See owner’s supplement in early February 2009 for defensive data. All positions are normalized based on the previous year’s mean per inning performance such that an average inning at any position scores zero. All positions receive a weighting as follows: C - 2.023, 1B - 1.000, 2B - 1.885, SS - 2.026, 3B - 1.628, LF - 1.250, CF - 1.667, RF - 1.250	Adjusted WHIP: $aWHIP={\frac {H+BB+HBP}{INN}}$

Just as in baseball, there can be no ties. If a statistical category ends in a tie at the conclusion of the week, then the system will award a win to the home team for that week.

NEW SCORING FOR 2013 SEASON:

LDB Scoring
Batters / Fielders	Pitchers
On-Base Percentage (OBP)	Net Quality Wins: $NQS=2QW+W-L-2GS$
On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage: $OPS=OBP+SLG$	Adjusted WHIP: $aWHIP={\frac {H+BB+HBP}{INN}}$
Runs Scored (R)	STARR = (RIP+3*SV+3*HLD-8*BS-8*RL)
Adjusted Runs Batted In: $aRBI=RBI-GIDP$	Home Runs Allowed (HRA)
Home Runs (HR)	Pitcher Strikeouts (K)
Adjusted Stolen Bases: $ASB=SB-{\frac {CS}{2}}$	Earned Run Average (ERA)

Roster Requirements

Each week, each team must meet the league minimum innings pitched requirement (IP) of 44 innings per week. Additionally, GMs must have an eligible player in each positional roster spot (but not designated hitters) each day. If a GM 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

For every three innings (or fraction thereof) under the required 44 innings that a team does not pitch each week, that team receives one "AAA start," which consists of 3 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 2 HR, -3 NQW, -0.40 WPA, and -4.42 RE24. Any games lost due to a AAA start will be recored in the standings as FUs, and will count as losses in the standings. But for the purposes of determining the following season’s draft position, they will not be counted as losses.

All-star Break

LDB will not hold regular games during the week of the MLB All-star Game, and will instead hold the LDB All-star game between the Federal League and the Union Association. The Commissioner will announce the logistics for such a game, and each of the divisions will select and announce players for the game. The division that wins the LDB All-star Game will have home field advantage in the Lucid Dream Series.

Playoffs

Advancing to the Playoffs

The LDB Playoffs occur after the regular season concludes. Three teams from each division make the playoffs for a total of six total playoff teams. The team with the best record in each division receives a first-round bye while the teams with the 2nd and 3rd best records in each division play each other in the first round. The higher seeded team in each round is the home team. The home team in the championship series (the "Lucid Dream Series") is determined by the winner of the All-star Game. The tiebreakers to determine which teams make the playoffs (and to determine seeding) are as follows:

1. Overall Points
2. Head-to-head Record
3. Wins (excluding tie wins from standings points)
4. Intra-division Record
5. Overall Roto Performance
6. Commissioner’s Coin Flip (with witnesses)

In case three teams are tied in overall points, a three team head-to-head tiebreaker is resolved as it is in the following example:

In the situation where there is a three-way tie, each pairwise comparison would be made independently. 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

Playoff rosters contain 25 players and lock at the start of each round of the playoffs. Once rosters lock on Monday of each playoff week, players cannot be promoted or demoted to/from AA or AAA until the following Monday.

Each playoff team must start exactly 5 pitchers in each round of the playoffs. Each team must start 3 starting pitchers, 1 relief pitcher and 1 flex (starter or reliever). Pitchers must remain active the entire week and cannot be benched. Teams may not select pitchers who are on the DL as one of their 5 pitchers unless that pitcher is scheduled to come off the DL during that round of the playoffs. If a team decides to include a pitcher on the DL as one of their 5 pitchers, they must also declare an alternate pitcher in case the pitcher on the DL does not appear in a game during that week.

Pitching stats for the playoff week are as follows: ERA, WHIP, NQW/GS, K/IP, HR/IP, RE24/IP and WPA/IP.