What is Ahiba 3?
Ahiba 3 is a fantasy baseball league of 32 fictional teams with fictional players. We aim to have some fun in a casual, easy going environment. The Participants in Ahiba 3 simulate the ownership and management of real baseball teams, using Out of the Park Baseball X to simulate the outcomes of the baseball games. Ahiba 3 is based on it’s grandfather leagues, AHIBA and AHIBA 2. AHIBA3 will use similar rules in AHIBA and AHIBA 2 but use the in game finanancial system and have high school and college feeder leagues. AHIBA stands for “Alan Hale jr. (RIP) Internet Baseball Association.”
What do I need?
You need a copy of OOTP X and internet connection. You can participate without it, but it is mighty harder to be successful.
What do I need to do?
All owners need to actively participate in the league. Participation can be defined thusly: Keep up with your team (occasion roster changes, replace injured players in your line ups, manage your minors), keep up with your correspondence (respond to trade offers, etc.), and make sure you’re active in offseason activities (free agent auction, contracts, amateur draft). If there’s a chronic problem, remediation is up to the commissioner. That could include fines or expulsion. We don’t want to keep an inactive team from competing when there are other owners waiting to take over and be active.
The Financials
Ahiba3 will use the in game financial system. We have salary cap (90 Million) and all transactions can be handled in game. The cap may be increased or decreased yearly by the commissioner to benefit the league. All teams will start the game with equal market size(5), fan interest(75), and fan loyalty(5). These may change over time by the game engine. The minimum salary is set to 400K. In the first season all players will have no history and full options and follow the normal game salary process. There will be no revenue sharing and the teams full budget will be available to the GM. Max cash set at 300 million. So you lose anything over this amount. Again, this can be adjusted by the commissioner for the benefit if the league. No rule V draft. Media revenue is based on market size. Over time market size, fan interest, and fan loyalty may change over time by the way the team is being run.
Roster limits
The roster limit is set at 140. During the off season a team cannot have more than 140 players total on their team. During the season you can go over this but you need to trim down to 140 for free agent signing period during the offseason. The 140 players can be distributed in any way the GM sees fit. We use ghost players, so you don't need to keep all your minor league rosters full.
Free Agency
Free agency will be handled in game. You can sign an unlimited amount of free agents per sim. The player (game engine) will decide where he wants to play. You can offer a player any contract amount for any amount of years, but no incentives. Player or team options are allowed. We will play with minor league free agents turned on. There will be no free agent compensation. You can trade draft picks (1-5) and all teams will play with the DH. Players with over 6 years of service time (172 days = 1 year) will become free agents. AHIBA3 has minor league free agency to keep teams from hoarding all the talent and to keep the league competitive.
Contracts
Any contract amount of length can be offered to a player, but no incentives. If a player is signed with incentives in the contract, the player will be released and the GM will be fined the full amount of the contract. You can sign an uneven or backloaded contract, but the highest year cannot be anymore than 2X the lowest year. We will play with arbitration and this will be handled in game (afte a player hits 3 service years). You can avoid arbitration by signing the player to a long term contract. If a player retires, the contract is wiped and teams no longer are required to pay the player. There are also super 2 players that may get arbitration in their 2nd service year. This is the top 17% of players with the most service time. So keep this in mind.
Arbitration
Arbitration will be handled in game. Arbitration can be avoided by offering the player a contract before the arbitration meeting. Arbitration is offered after 3 years of service. 1 year of service equals 172 days. There are also sometimes players that will get arbitration at 2 years.Salary Cap
The salary cap is set at 90 million. The commissioner may change the salary cap up or down to benefit the league. The cap is a hard cap and may only go over the cap briefly after a transaction. If a team goes over the cap, they will have 3 sims to get back under the cap or be fined by the commissioner. The fine will be 1 million dolars a sim up to a max of 4 sims. If the team is still over the cap, the teams highest paid players will be released until the team is under the cap again.
Waivers
Waivers set to 15 days (2 sims)
Playoffs
Division winners plus wildcard
Sims
We will sim 7 games at a time. Sims will be done Monday-Wed-Friday mornings. All exports are due 3AM that day.
New GMS
New GMs can join the league. If there is enough interest the AHIBA3 will expand and may even restructure. New GMs will be able to rename all teams, pick logos, and design all stadiums(next offseason). There will be no expansion draft, all new teams will be created with new players. New teams will miss the first amateur draft the year they are created but can participate in the free agent signing during the off season. After that they will participate normally.
Current GMs
You will be able to redesign your uniforms and change team names at anytime. Team cities will need to stay in place for history purposes unless approved by the commish. All stadiums can only be renamed or changed during the off season.
Feeder Leagues
AHIBA3 will be fed by 1 32 team college and 1 32 team high school feeder leagues. All players in the amateur draft will come from these leagues. So the future draft pools will already have stats and history to make it easier for GMs at draft time and overall more interesting. The feeder leagues are all fictional. They also will be 5 years instead of the traditional 4. This was done because the extra year helps the players develop better and produces more players so there is enough to fill our amateur draft each year.
Stadium
All teams start with 45,000 seats and stadium seating may be expanded in 1,000 seat increments (max 15Xs). You can purchase 1000 seats for 10 million dollars, with a maximum purchase of 2000 seats per offseason. The max stadium seating from this moment forward is 60,000.
Increasing Market Size
Ability to purchase market size increases. This process allows teams to grow market sizes similar to real life where teams brand their team names and players to create larger fan bases. Teams should ask what their current market size is before purchasing to know how much they have to spend to get an increase. Pricing will be as follows:
Market size is a scale from 1-20 with 20 being the largest. A team would pay 2M times the current value in cash. Team A has current market size 11, they wish to purchase 1 market size, they must pay 2M times the current size (11) = 22M.
Beware:
Investing in market size does not guarantee that the increase will stay in effect if you can't keep people in your seats.
Writing requirements:
There aren't any participation points and you aren't required to do any write ups at this time. You are required to have fun and run your team your own way.
Draft Pick Trading
You are allowed to trade amateur draft picks 1-5. If it is before the All-star game, you can only trade the upcoming picks for the current years amateur draft. After the All-star beak, you may trade both upcoming picks 1-5 and the following years picks 1-5.
Career Ending Injuries
Career ending injuries will occur in the AHIBA league. But GMs will have a choice to to accept them or not. If you accept them, nothing is done. The player will retire at the end of the season. If you dispute them, you will need to notify the commissioner. The commissioner will uncheck the CEI box, and the player will be out a min of 12 months or the original injury time. Which ever is greater.
