Expansion - sean this time

[Peter]

Id be willing to move to the AL central please

lol i think the only team that makes sence is milwaukee because they were in the al once already. pittsburgh has been in the nl since jesus was born

Sure, but if you are trying to vote on the side of realism, then shouldn't we not have an expansion?

i just think it it's going to be done it should be done in the most realistic way possible and when theres another option that makes much more sense, it seems obvious to me. im guessing im not the only one

[Jordan]

Id be willing to move to the AL central please

lol i think the only team that makes sence is milwaukee because they were in the al once already. pittsburgh has been in the nl since jesus was born

Sure, but if you are trying to vote on the side of realism, then shouldn't we not have an expansion?

i just think it it's going to be done it should be done in the most realistic way possible and when theres another option that makes much more sense, it seems obvious to me. im guessing im not the only one

If we are willing to go as far as to expand which is very fictional, I would think a slight division change would be very minor compared to expansion.

[Jordan]

Calgary would never get an expansion team because they are in the middle of no where, write them out. They tried to have a minor league team, the Calgary Cannons, but the poor weather led to bad attendance and no longer made economic sense to have a team in Calgary.

Maybe we should look at attendance numbers of minor league teams to see which cities would be most interested in having a team.

Sacramento, Columbus, Louisville, Buffalo are cities that pop out to me on that list. Las Vegas is not even on the top 20 - when people go to Las Vegas, they are normally not interested in going to a baseball game.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/sports/201...ar-503987/


It shouldn't be a matter of population to determine which city can sustain a Major League team. It should be a matter of which city has people that would want to go to a baseball game.

Look at the Green Bay Packers in the NFL, they always sell out but are in an illogical location population wise for an NFL team.

[Peter]

i was never really on board with thinking calgary was the answer however i do think vancouver would be a good location and if they were in the Al west and then milwaukee for example was switched to the Al central. that would leave all nl divisions with 5 teams per and would geographically allow any nl division to take on a team based on what the league feels would be another good candidate for a team

[mattynokes]

If this happens it needs to be as realistic as possible. Back when I first started getting into Mogul I attempted to create an expansion league for TBD and ARI in 1998. I still have those rules and they worked very well. Here's some things that need to be addressed.

1. Is the interest really there? I'm not not questioning it, it's just a question that needs to really be considered. Sean is right, now it the best time to launch the idea. My concern would if we add expansion and then we find 8 or so seasons down the road that the interest has dwindled. We need to be able to continuously fill 32 GM spots.

2. Do we have a 32-team schedule template? If not we need to make one or try to find one on the SM boards. Without one the schedule will be chaos. We'd have random one-day series, multiple off days in a row, and an extended regular season.

3. Where are the teams going to be located? There's many options. Indianapolis and Portland are two that have not been brought up yet. Here's some Yahoo style logos that I either edited (poorly) myself or incorporated because it simply works easily as-is.


Carolina Skyhawks


Portland Pilots




Las Vegas Aces


Indianapolis Stars

4. And where are they going to be placed at? We must have a 16-16 split. Period. The easiest option is to have both of them placed in the AL. The next idea would be to move a NL team to the AL and split the expansion teams into different leagues. I would personally be against a big shuffle. Maybe one team moving leagues/divisions to make it work geographically, but I also don't think traditions such as rivalries should be messed with.

Here's how I'd run the expansion process...

1. Decide Where Teams Will Be Located

2. Decide Who Will Run The Teams
I don't think it should necessarily be left to an experienced GM here. Running an expansion team from the ground up would be sexy for a new GM.

3. Make 2019 or 2020 The Planned Inaugural Season
Reasoning will come later.

4. Allow The Expansion Teams To Draft Starting 2018
Back when the Rays and D-Backs entered the league they participated in the '96 and '97 drafts. I would assume the reasoning was to allow them to start building up their farm system. Players were loaned to other team's to develop for the expansion teams.

How this would work is the expansion team would need to get an existing team to agree to develop their players. Then run the draft as normal, but allow the expansion teams to "pick" #31 and #32 in each round. Skip entering their picks in the game until after the draft. Then sign them to the developing teams and edit their contract to draft day.

5. Run The Expansion Draft According To Rules Below

1. Any player under 22 will automatically be protected.
2. Teams will list all eligible players in order. Also number the players and please do something to break your top 15 (which will be protected throughout the entire draft) and the remainders.
3. If no protect list is submitted players will be ranked and protected by Scouting Score regardless of age.

Expansion Draft Rules

The draft will be done in three phases. Teams can only have a max of 5 total players selected in the entire draft. Each expansions team will make 10 selections per phase for a total of 30 selections.

Phase 1: 15 protected players (Min), 10 selections by each team, 5 player protect bonus for each player selected

Phase 2: 20 protected players (Min), 10 selections by each team, 3 player protect bonus for each player selected

Phase 3: 25 protected players (Min), 10 selections by each team, 1 player protect bonus for each player selected

[Jordan]

I know peter doesn't have a team yet, but ive been impressed lately to see some of the more interesting comments and ideas come from our newer GMs. It says a lot for the future of this league.

[Jordan]

If this happens it needs to be as realistic as possible. Back when I first started getting into Mogul I attempted to create an expansion league for TBD and ARI in 1998. I still have those rules and they worked very well. Here's some things that need to be addressed.

1. Is the interest really there? I'm not not questioning it, it's just a question that needs to really be considered. Sean is right, now it the best time to launch the idea. My concern would if we add expansion and then we find 8 or so seasons down the road that the interest has dwindled. We need to be able to continuously fill 32 GM spots.

2. Do we have a 32-team schedule template? If not we need to make one or try to find one on the SM boards. Without one the schedule will be chaos. We'd have random one-day series, multiple off days in a row, and an extended regular season.

3. Where are the teams going to be located? There's many options. Indianapolis and Portland are two that have not been brought up yet. Here's some Yahoo style logos that I either edited (poorly) myself or incorporated because it simply works easily as-is.


Carolina Skyhawks


Portland Pilots




Las Vegas Aces


Indianapolis Stars

4. And where are they going to be placed at? We must have a 16-16 split. Period. The easiest option is to have both of them placed in the AL. The next idea would be to move a NL team to the AL and split the expansion teams into different leagues. I would personally be against a big shuffle. Maybe one team moving leagues/divisions to make it work geographically, but I also don't think traditions such as rivalries should be messed with.

Here's how I'd run the expansion process...

1. Decide Where Teams Will Be Located

2. Decide Who Will Run The Teams
I don't think it should necessarily be left to an experienced GM here. Running an expansion team from the ground up would be sexy for a new GM.

3. Make 2019 or 2020 The Planned Inaugural Season
Reasoning will come later.

4. Allow The Expansion Teams To Draft Starting 2018
Back when the Rays and D-Backs entered the league they participated in the '96 and '97 drafts. I would assume the reasoning was to allow them to start building up their farm system. Players were loaned to other team's to develop for the expansion teams.

How this would work is the expansion team would need to get an existing team to agree to develop their players. Then run the draft as normal, but allow the expansion teams to "pick" #31 and #32 in each round. Skip entering their picks in the game until after the draft. Then sign them to the developing teams and edit their contract to draft day.

5. Run The Expansion Draft According To Rules Below

1. Any player under 22 will automatically be protected.
2. Teams will list all eligible players in order. Also number the players and please do something to break your top 15 (which will be protected throughout the entire draft) and the remainders.
3. If no protect list is submitted players will be ranked and protected by Scouting Score regardless of age.

Expansion Draft Rules

The draft will be done in three phases. Teams can only have a max of 5 total players selected in the entire draft. Each expansions team will make 10 selections per phase for a total of 30 selections.

Phase 1: 15 protected players (Min), 10 selections by each team, 5 player protect bonus for each player selected

Phase 2: 20 protected players (Min), 10 selections by each team, 3 player protect bonus for each player selected

Phase 3: 25 protected players (Min), 10 selections by each team, 1 player protect bonus for each player selected

The Schedule issue is something that I brought up when we talked about this in the staff forum. we need to have or find an appropriate schedule file, because otherwise as you said, the schedule would be a mess.

I do not see how Vancouver would be any better than Calgary. Vancouver will face the same weather issues as Calgary. Plus, in real life, when it comes to baseball, Vancouver natives are typically Mariners fans, and when it comes to baseball, Seattle natives are Canucks fans. In other words, the locations I think are too close together for another team.

Indianapolis is a possibility however, they are the next location after buffalo that I see as a possibility.

I know I listed Sacramento, but I think id be against that because we have enough teams in California.

(sorry that it says I edited your post btw, I accidently clicked edit post instead of quote)

[Peter]

I just think Vancouver is a better option because of the proximity to america, every canadian team (toronto and montreal) have always been bordering the US and could be considered more similar to an american city; also the climate is much more baseball oriented just think seattle obviously. baseball in calgary in april, i'd imagine it would be pretty cold

also from what i hear calgary is a hockey town, i feel baseball could catch on a hell of a lot better in vancouver than calgary. maybe it's just me

[Jordan]

also the climate is much more baseball oriented just think seattle obviously.

exactly, its basically Seattle, we already have a team there.

If we do add Vancouver, I believe it should go to the NL west then do to the close proximity to Seattle, and then move like Colorado to the NL Central.

[Peter]

also the climate is much more baseball oriented just think seattle obviously.

exactly, its basically Seattle, we already have a team there.

If we do add Vancouver, I believe it should go to the NL west then do to the close proximity to Seattle, and then move like Colorado to the NL Central.

you would have to figure closer cities (such as boston new york) being in the same league would be a good rivalry so i wouldn't jump to the conclusion that they need to be in seperate leagues. i think most people want the league to stay the same as much as possible if expansion were to happen which means moving as little as possible. it seems like the most that could happen would be one team switching from nl to al but i dont think anybody wants a lot of real life teams changing divisions