![[ ]](GREY.GIF){kind=small}
The OOSL American Association will be starting soon. The opportunity for OOSL members to participate and bring their Minor League rosters over into the OOSL AA was open for a short time. Now, OOSL members may join the OOSL AA as long as there are open teams, but as you know, the OOSL Minor Leagues have been disbanded.
Listed below is information concerning the OOSL Owners who will participate in the OOSL American Association, and whether or not they will bring their Minor League affiliate with them. Below that is AA Ballpark information, and below that is the AA Constitution.
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| OOSL Team Owner | Participating in the | Taking Affiliated | |
| and Team | American Association | Minor Leaguers into AA | New AA Team Name |
|------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|------------------|
| | | | |
| Travis Cooper, | No | ------ | ------ |
| Detroit Tigers | | | |
| | | | |
| Adam Janis, | Yes | Yes | Louisville |
| Boston Red Sox | | Atlanta Crackers | Colonels |
| | | | |
| Josh Kirshner, | Yes | ------ | Minnesota |
| Brooklyn Dodgers | | | Twins |
| | | | |
| Dirk Knemeyer, | Yes | No | Brooklyn |
| New York Giants | | | Atlantics |
| | | | |
| Shannon Knemeyer, | No | ------ | ------ |
| Cincinnati Red Legs | | | |
| | | | |
| Dan Lee, | Yes | No | Buffalo |
| Cleveland Indians | | | Bisons |
| | | | |
| Ed Mortimer, | Yes | Yes | Philadelphia |
| Philadelphia Athletics | | Pittsburgh Crawfords | Phillies |
| | | | |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| OOSL Team Owner | Participating in the | Taking Affiliated | |
| and Team | American Association | Minor Leaguers into AA | New AA Team Name |
|------------------------|----------------------|------------------------|------------------|
| | | | |
| John Mortimer, | Yes | Yes | Saint Louis |
| Saint Louis Cardinals | | San Francisco Seals | Browns |
| | | | |
| Mike Mortimer, | Yes | No | Toledo |
| Philadelphia Phillies | | | Blue Stockings |
| | | | |
| Denis Telgemeier | Left League | ------ | ------ |
| New York Yankees | | | |
| | | | |
| Mike Thomsen, | Yes | No | Indianapolis |
| Chicago White Sox | | | ABC's |
| | | | |
| Dean Voyles, | Yes | Yes | Birmingham |
| Chicago Cubs | | Los Angeles Angels | Black Barons |
| | | | |
| Lon Whitehead, | Yes | Yes | Newark |
| Baltimore Orioles | | Providence Grays | Eagles |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | |
| Associate Manager | AA Team Name |
|------------------------|----------------------|
| | |
| Greg Brooking | Bacharach |
| | Giants |
| | |
| John Dean | Washington |
| | Senators |
| | |
| Dan Levine | Providence |
| | Grays |
| | |
| Mark Whittaker | Detroit |
| | Wolverines |
| | |
| Chris Wiseman | Pittsburgh |
| | Crawfords |
| | |
| Chris Malitsky | Toronto |
| | Blue Jays |
|-----------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| AA DIVISIONAL ALIGNMENTS |
| (with Owners) |
| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | |
| AA | AA |
| EAST DIVISION | WEST DIVISION |
| | |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| | |
| Bacharach Giants (Brooking) | Birmingham Black Barons (Voyles) |
| | |
| Brooklyn Atlantics (DKnemeyer) | Detroit Wolverines (Whittaker) |
| | |
| Buffalo Bisons (Lee) | Indianapolis ABC's (Thomsen) |
| | |
| Newark Eagles (Whitehead) | Minnesota Twins (Kirshner) |
| | |
| Philadelphia Phillies (EMortimer) | Louisville Colonels (Janis) |
| | |
| Providence Grays (Levine) | Pittsburgh Crawfords (Wiseman) |
| | |
| Toronto Blue Jays (Malitsky) | Saint Louis Browns (JMortimer) |
| | |
| Washington Senators (Dean) | Toledo Blue Stockings (MMortimer) |
| | |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
---------------------------
1999 AA Ballpark Selections
---------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEAM | ALL-TIME AVERAGE | 1999 STATS | |
| | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| SINGLE | HOME RUN | SINGLE | HOME RUN | BALLPARK |
AA EAST | L/R | L/R | L/R | L/R | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bacharach | 8/8 | 8/8 | 7/7 | 7/7 | Bacharach Park |
Brooklyn | 3/3 | 4/7 | 1/5 | 2/9 | Union Grounds |
Buffalo | 11/11 | 7/7 | 11/11 | 7/7 | Olympic Park I |
Newark | 8/8 | 8/8 | 8/8 | 6/9 | Ruppert Stadium |
Philadelphia | 9/7 | 11/17 | 9/7 | 11/17 | Shibe Park |
Providence | 6/6 | 0/0 | 7/12 | 8/13 | Messer Street Grounds |
Toronto | 8/8 | 8/10 | 10/10 | 10/10 | Skydome |
Washington | 5/7 | 0/0 | 7/5 | 2/0 | Griffith Stadium I |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NL AVERAGE | 7.25/7.25 | 5.87/7.12 | 7.50/8.12 | 6.62/9.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEAM | ALL-TIME AVERAGE | 1999 STATS | |
| | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| SINGLE | HOME RUN | SINGLE | HOME RUN | BALLPARK |
AA WEST | L/R | L/R | L/R | L/R | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Birmingham | 8/8 | 0/0 | 10/10 | 0/0 | Rickwood Field |
Detroit | 8/8 | 10/10 | 8/8 | 10/10 | Recreation Park |
Indianapolis | 8/8 | 8/8 | 8/8 | 8/8 | ABC's Field |
Minnesota | 11/9 | 9/11 | 13/7 | 7/13 | Metropolitan Stadium |
Louisville | 6/6 | 14/14 | 6/6 | 14/14 | Eclipse Park |
Pittsburgh | 8/8 | 8/8 | 8/8 | 8/8 | Greenlee Field |
Saint Louis | 10/9 | 17/10 | 10/9 | 17/10 | Sportsman's Park IV |
Toledo | 9/9 | 19/19 | 9/9 | 19/19 | Speranza Field |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NL AVERAGE | 8.50/8.12 | 10.62/10.00 | 9.00/8.12 | 10.25/10.25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||| |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Association (AA) is a subsidiary of the Ohio Old-Time Strat-O-Matic League (OOSL). Its governance will be in association with OOSL practices and procedures. The goal of the AA is to provide another opportunity to participate in a league featuring some of the greatest talents in baseball, with an emphasis on fun that reflects the early legacy of Major League base ball.
There will be no separate league dues for any owner who is current with their OOSL league dues, UNLESS a member requires that stats/rosters be mailed via the US Postal Service. If any manager chooses to receive their stats/updates via regular mail, they will be charged a non-refundable fee of $15 prior to the start of the season.
The AA will consist of 16 teams. The teams will be seperated into two divisions of 8 teams each. Teams will play a 144 game regular season schedule, consisting of 16 games against each of the other 7 teams in the same division, and 4 games against each of the 8 teams in the other division.
The league will consist of teams that are owned and run by a mix of human owners and league owned, computer managed teams. The preference will always be to have as many human controlled teams as possible, with the goal of having all 16 teams owned and controlled by humans.
Teams in the American Association may not switch their name, city, or affiliation under any circumstance. A team can switch to a different historical ballpark in their home city, but must remain in the same ballpark for at least three seasons before changing from one to another.
Since it is expected that many of the ballparks that would be considered the appropriate ballparks for the franchises in question have inadequate statistical data to rate them in the normal Strat-O-Matic method, each owner will be allowed to set up the characteristics of his own ballpark within the following parameter: there will be no more than a 10 number variation from the single or homerun numbers between left-handed and right-handed batters.
For example, if you choose to rate your ballpark 1-20 for homers for right-handed batters, you will be required to rate your park AT LEAST 1-10 for lefthanders. Likewise, if you rate your park 1-3 for right-handers, you will be allowed a maximum of 1-13 for lefthanders. Since the league will play all games via computer, no graphic depiction of your ballpark need be made, as it is irrelevant.
The league is governed by a Commissioner and two others who collectively make up an Executive Council. Currently the Commissioner is Lon Whitehead and the Executive Council includes Dirk Knemeyer and Ed Mortimer.
Most league decisions will be made in the context of the parent league, the OOSL. Smaller decisions pertaining solely to the American Association might be made by the Commissioner or Executive Council. However, while some league matters and issues are determined by the Executive Council, no major rule change can be made without an open vote of all league members who are eligible to vote.
Any decision made by the Commissioner or the Executive Council as a whole can be challenged by another league member and, as such, be brought to an open vote. Even league members who are not eligible to vote can challenge one of the above situations. League-wide votes are final and not open to challenge. Tie votes result in the status quo being maintained.
In order to be eligible to vote an owner must have played through an entire American Association season and paid for the subsequent year. This is to prevent individuals who will not be around for the long term from manipulating situations in a way detrimental to the league.
Any member of the American Association, whether they have voting privileges or not, can suggest a new rule or a change to an existing rule that will then be brought up for a league-wide vote, unless the Executive Council unanimously deems it unworthy of consideration.
After the Regular Season the two divisional champions meet in a best-of-nine series to determine the Temple Cup Champion.
In the event two or more teams have the same record to lead a division, a tiebreaker process will begin. If there are only two teams with the same record, they will meet in a one game play-off that counts toward the Regular Season statistics. The team that hosts that game will be determined by the following tiebreaker process: head-to-head record, record within the division, runs scord-runs allowed differential, a coin flip.
If there are more than two teams with the same record, the tiebreaker formula is used until only two teams remain to play in the one game play-off for the division title.
There are no usage restrictions in the play-offs beyond those in place for the Regular Season, except that only pitchers who started at least 10 regular season games are eligible to start Temple Cup games.
The Temple Cup will be played in a 2-2-2-2-1 format. The team with the best Regular Season record hosts games 1, 2, 5, 6, and 9.
Tiebreakers for determining home field advantage are: head-to-head record, record against the other division, greater runs scored-runs allowed differential, coin flip.
Each American Association team must have 30 players on its roster with no less than 16 fielding cards and no less than 11 pitching cards. Each AA team must, at all times, have a total of no less than 1500 carded innings pitched among its pitchers, and no fewer than 800 dedicated at bats for each defensive position (A player may count towards the dedicated AB at any position he is carded to play, but may only count at one position for purposes of meeting the minimum roster requirement).
Any player who has a card in Strat-O-Matic's Career Normalized card set and meets the following requirements is eligible to participate in the American Association:
Did not play on an OOSL team during the same year AND Is set up for at least 224 at-bats or 50 innings pitched by Strat-O-Matic.
All players and pitchers are limited to 200% usage of their actual at-bats, plus walks or innings pitched. Any player who exceeds 200% usage will immediately be made ineligible for the remainder of the regular season beginning with the game following the one in which he exceeded the limit.
The Strat-O-Matic gameplay rules will be identical to those used by the Ohio Old-Time Strat-O-Matic League (OOSL) except as noted below. In all situations not specifically covered in this document, gameplay issues will be resolved in accordance with standard OOSL rules interpretations.
All super-advanced Strat-O-Matic rules are employed with the exception of the closer rule and any Maximum Rules that allow results not based on the actual Strat-O-Matic cards. These include Improve statistical accuracy, Bunt for base hit, Home field advantage, Starting pitcher clutch, doubles/triples option, and force daily injuries.
Each manager will be required to turn in a computer manager file prior to Opening Day of the season, along with any other pertinent instructions. The only other instructions that will be allowed will be specific game-by-game starting pitching assignments and specific game-by-game starting lineups. No other contingency instructions will be allowed in order that each team, human owned or computer run, will be handled in a manner that will be relatively equal.
All actual league games will be played on the computer by the Commissioner in a computer vs. computer format. Games will be played between Monday and Friday of each week, with updated league roster and statistic files e-mailed to owners by 11:59 pm Saturday of each week. League members may then peruse their stats and rosters and make any changes to their computer manager files, sending them via e-mail (attached or in text form) to the Commissioner by 11:59 pm Sunday evening for the next week's games. Instructions will be accepted after that point with the understanding that some or all of a team's games for that week may have already been played. If no new computer manager file is turned in for a franchise for a week's
games, the existing computer manager file will continue to be used.
The Temple Cup Series representative from each division can protect 10
players from free agency. The remaining seven teams from each division can protect 14 players from free agency.
Each team will then lose one player not on the protected list. This will be determined randomly and with an identical chance for any player on a given team to be lost to Free Agency, determined by a roll of the dice.
All players lost to Free Agency enter the draft pool for the upcoming year.
The Annual Draft occurs in March or April, in conjunction with the OOSL draft. (See below for the format of the 1999 Inaugural Draft Procedure)
It is a two round draft. Along with the one free agent randomly lost, each team must release one player of the owner's choice into the draft pool prior to the start of the draft.
AA teams and OOSL teams draft together. Draft order is inverse of regular season winning percentage. Situations where two or more teams have an identical record are resolved in the following manner: AA team always drafts before OOSL team; team in the same league/division as the OOSL/Temple Cup Champion drafts ahead of a team in the same league/division of the losing team; better head-to-head record drafts ahead of worse; coin flip. It is a straight draft order, including 32 total teams.
Teams may draft without restriction provided that all players taken qualify in the Player Qualification section of this document above.
Teams are free to trade without limit during periods of open trading.
Computer teams will not participate in trades.
Trading will be allowed from September 1 until the midseason All-Star game. No trading will be allowed after the All Star game has been completed. All teams must conform to the AA roster rules at the completetion of any trade. No trading will be allowed between the competion of the All-Star game and the annual OOSL/AA Winter Meetings, which will be conducted at a date to be determined in either February or March of each year. At that time, a two-week period will be in effect when AA teams may complete trades with each other, or with OOSL teams as per the regulations stated below. At the close of that two-week period, no further trading by AA teams will be allowed until August 1.
Any trades that involve teams from both the AA and the OOSL must be unanimously approved by the AA Executive Council. The criterion for trades between leagues to be approved are the following:
While an owner who controls both an AA and an OOSL franchise can trade between them, those trades will be scrutinized to an even greater degree than other cross-league trades, which already will be evaluated with a very critical eye. Be very careful when submitting trades to the Executive Council for approval. Also, make sure that every owner involved on the deal has formally signed off on it as a done deal BEFORE submitting it to the Executive Council.
Any American Association owner can challenge a trade if he deems it unfair for a ruling by the governing body of the league. (This pertains to trades between AA teams only. All AA/OOSL trades will automatically be reviewed.)
Now, for the draft itself. The plan is to transact all of the draft (one way or another) via email. For the first 10 rounds, you will send your pick to me when it's your turn. I'll gather about 5 picks at a time, then make a league-wide announcement to update the progress of the draft. It will be very important that we keep the draft moving along at a good pace, but you'll have ample time to prepare for your selection. The first 10 rounds need to be completed by Sunday, August 8. If we lag behind schedule, we will intensify the process the weekend of August 7/8, basically requiring that you check your email several times each of those days and have your picks ready when your turn comes up. I don't want to start off the AA on the wrong foot by having to either wait excessively for one team to pick OR by using draft-o-matic to select for a delinquent team, so it's up to everyone to keep up to date with their information.
I can't forsee being able to keep a pace that would have us getting through roughly one round per day, which is what we'd need to do to get all 30 rounds in prior to September 1, so after 10 rounds are completed we'll change formats. For rounds 11-30, you will need to put together a list of how you want to use each selection as your turn comes up. However you want to put your list together is fine by me, as long as it provides for a clear cut selection with each pick (i.e., you can't say "take the best catcher", but you can say "let draft-o-matic select a catcher"). You may either send one long list that goes all the way from round 11 to round 30, or you can send me your draft list in 3 chunks. The first list would cover rounds 11-17 only, the second list would covers rounds 18-24, and the third list would covers rounds 25-30. This way, you could wait and see how rounds 11-17 unfold before making out your draft list for the next several rounds.
Once we move the draft from the pick-by-pick mode of the first 10 rounds to the list mode, the draft will pick up a lot of speed! As soon as I have all of the lists in hand, rounds 11-17 will be completed essentially immediately. The results will be emailed out, and those who need to send their next chunk (I love that word!) of their draft list will have only a few days to do so. The entire draft should be completed by Saturday, August 28 at the very latest. If some unforseen problem keeps the draft uncompleted as of that date, the entire league timetable will be moved back (let's not let that happen).
Back to OOSL Central.![[ Made with OS/2 ]](MADEOS2.GIF)
![[ W3C HTML v4.0 Checked! ]](HTML4.GIF)
![[ IACT Button ]](IACT-B.GIF)
Click here to send e-mail to the OOSL League Office with questions or comments.