Sim Dynasty Game Guide

From Sim Dynasty Rulebook

Revision as of 00:34, 12 March 2009

Sim Dynasty Rulebook

This is the wiki rulebook for Sim Dynasty baseball. Please feel free to make any changes or additions you see fit.

If you are trying out Sim Dynasty for the first time, you may want to first check out the Beginners Guide and Frequently Asked Questions.

Introduction

Objective of the Game

The objective of Sim Dynasty is to build a team from the ground up and compete against other owners for the chance to become a baseball dynasty. You, as owner and General Manager of your franchise, draft your team starting in 1950 and must develop your prospects in your minor leagues, nurture your veterans on the major league roster, set your rotation and lineup, make blockbuster trades, and much more, all in hopes of developing your dynasty. Three times a day our custom designed Artificial Baseball Engine (affectionately named ABE) simulates the games and compiles complete box scores, play-by-play, and year-to-date statistics.

Why the 1950s

Baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. It can be argued that the 1950s were when baseball was at its greatest. It was a time before free agency, before modern expansion, and before owners held cities hostage in seeking tax-funded stadiums. It was a time when all that mattered was what happened on the playing field, where baseball players spent most of their careers with one team, and where fans everywhere knew the starting lineups of even their staunchest rivals in the 16-team major leagues. It was a time when the game was more pure, and we have captured that here at SimDynasty.com.

It should be noted that, while SD begins in the 1950s, it's really a melding of the game as it has evolved during the past 60 years, with its heart in the fifties but with some parts, such as five-man rotations and bullpen usage, coming from later eras. The fifties are the basis of the game, but as we all know, baseball is not static and has evolved, and Sim Dynasty attempts to embrace some of those changes while holding true to the core elements of the game as it appeared in the fifties.

How Sim Dynasty Is Different From the 1950s

Sim Dynasty is modeled after the 1950s in regard to General Manager activities and Free Agency. Many of the in-game features more closely resemble how baseball is played today. A few major differences include:

162-Game Schedule

A 162-game schedule has been chosen over the 154-game schedule to assist with three-game-per-day scheduling. An added benefit is that this allows players to challenge some of baseball's magic numbers, such as 50 home runs, 20 wins or 300 strikeouts.

Situational Pitching

Most teams in 1950 used four-man starting pitcher rotations. Many of these pitchers pitched well into the game, minimizing the reliance on a quality or deep relief corps and talented pinch hitting specialists. Today, as in Sim Dynasty, a team may use six different pitchers in a game.

Having to use five starters and multiple relievers makes it necessary to have at least eight quality pitchers to have a good team. This challenges you, as the owner and general manager, to remain active to develop the talent within your organization, scour the waiver wire, or trade for that phenom that will put your team in contention for the World Series.

A five-man rotation with a deep bullpen also requires you to carefully manage your player substitutions during each game. Pitching changes are made based on match-ups with hitters, and therefore pitching changes, and pinch hitters, occur more frequently. The maturation of the closer role also tests the dominance and endurance of certain pitchers. This allows more players to get into each game and allows you to groom that budding closer or rookie pinch-hitter who is going to be your starting third baseman next season.

The Playoffs

If Sim Dynasty were to model the playoff format of 1950, only two of 16 teams would get into the playoffs. As Major League Baseball has found since adding the Wild Card to each league, we have also found that there is more competition, interest, and downright fun with the Wild Card format. In Sim Dynasty, the top two teams from each league (American and National) will advance to the playoffs. The playoffs consist of a seven game League Championship Series, with the winners advancing to the World Series.

Who is ABE?

ABE stands for Artificial Baseball Engine. ABE is our unique and reliable software program that determines the outcome of every pitch of every game. ABE also performs each owner'€™s customized managerial preferences, such as when to call in a relief pitcher or pinch hitter. ABE does many other things for Sim Dynasty to make the ownership experience fun and interesting. These include compiling all the statistics, selecting the All-Star Team and Cy Young winners, and deciding whether your MVP front-runner gets injured. It can truly be said that ABE makes the game fun and unpredictable.

League Information

League Names and Structure

League Types

There are four different types of leagues: Trial, Dynasty, Private, and Speed Leagues.

Trial Leagues

Trial Leagues are free leagues that conduct an initial draft and play three 81-game seasons of baseball, with an offseason running between the seasons. Trial Leagues were created for new owners to test out Sim Dynasty before jumping into a pay league or to just gain more experience. The game play is the same as the pay leagues, except that teams are not carried over after the third season.

Trial League owners have the same trade options available to them as Dynasty owners, including the ability to trade picks before the 1951 and 1952 amateur drafts. League message boards are available for each league, and there is a Sim Dynasty message board available for all owners to post questions, share ideas or just ask questions.

Dynasty Leagues

Dynasty Leagues are ongoing leagues that began in 1950, sim three games per day, and run indefinitely. Teams keep their players from season to season, unless the General Manager waives or trades them -- or if ABE chooses to retire them. Developing your players from year to year, orchestrating trades, and putting a competitive team on the field each year is very challenging and is what makes Sim Dynasty so much fun.

The Dynasty Leagues are designed with the hardcore baseball fan in mind. Dynasty team owners tend to be very active general managers and managers and participate in frequent, if not daily, message board discussions in their league's message board.

Private and Speed Leagues

You can also join Private and Speed Leagues; these are similar to Dynasty Leagues but with a few changes. These leagues typically play more than 3 games per day. Private Leagues are customized leagues that have different rules of play than the Dynasty Leagues. Speed Leagues are very similar to Dynasty leagues, except that they typically play more than three games per day. Speed Leagues are also very similar to Private Leagues, except we don't allow special rules in Speed Leagues. Each League also has a commissioner, whose role is to ensure fair play among the owners and to ensure the wellbeing of the league. Commissioners should be experienced Sim Dynasty players.

For more information about pay leagues, or to be notified when there are openings in pay leagues, please visit the Pay League information page.

Game Schedule

Regular Season

ABE simulates games three times a day for Trial and Dynasty Leagues. Each calendar day a team plays a three-game series with an opponent in its league (American or National). There is no inter-league play.

Trial Leagues

Trial League games are typically simulated at 4 a.m., 3 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. Eastern every day. It usually takes a few hours to run games for all the Trial Leagues. To get an idea of when your games are typically completed, take a look at your team's home page after your game has run; you will see the current time and the time the last game was completed.

Dynasty Leagues

Each Dynasty League starts and finishes each season on the same real-life day. The entire season runs about two months, starting and ending in the middle of the odd months (January, March, May, etc.). You can view the entire schedule for your team by going to Team Results.

Each team plays a 162-game schedule. With eight teams in each league, 54 three-game series comprise the season. Each team plays five teams in its league 24 times (eight three-game series) and plays the other 2 teams 21 times (seven three-game series).

Dynasty League games are simulated at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 5 p.m. Eastern every day. It usually takes an hour or two to run games for all leagues. To get an idea of when your games are typically completed, take a look at your team's home page after your game has run; you will see the current time and the time the last game was completed.

Private and Speed Leagues

Each of these leagues runs a unique schedule. To view your league's schedule, please check your league message board or use the link to League Schedule, located on the League Info page.

Playoffs

At the end of the 162-game season, the top two teams from each league will advance to the playoffs. There will be a seven game League Championship Series, with the winners advancing to the World Series. The team with the better record will have home field advantage. In the unlikely scenario of a three team tie for the division lead, each team will play the other two teams once. If they are still tied, then ABE will use run differential to determine the playoff teams. The playoff series are all a best of seven series and use a 2-3-2 home team format, meaning that the team with the best record will play games 1, 2, 6 and 7 at home. Home teams enjoy the same home field advantage in the playoffs that they do in the regular season.

Playoff series are simulated over the course of two calendar days, one for the League Championship Series (LCS) and one for the World Series. Each series simulates 10 Sim Dynasty days. Day 1 is an off day and reserved for division tiebreakers, if required. LCS games are played on Days 2 and 3. Day 4 is an off day. LCS games are continued on Days 5, 6, and 7, if necessary. Day 8 is an off day. The final 2 games, if necessary are played on Days 9 and 10. This sequence is repeated for the World Series. The times for the games in Trial and Dynasty Leagues are as follows (all times Eastern): 8:15 a.m. (Day 1 for tiebreakers), 9 a.m., 10 a.m., off day (11 a.m.), noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., off day (3 p.m.), 4 p.m., and 4:55 p.m.

Roster changes -- minor league promotions and activations from rest or the disabled list -- are not permitted during a series but are allowed between the LCS and World Series. Playoff ineligible players are noted in orange and, if left on the roster, will be ignored (as if they were injured) during playoff games.

Team Information

Roster Size

Your roster must have at least 40 players but no more than 50 at all times. You must also have 25 players on your major league roster. You must have at least nine pitchers (five starters) but no more than 12. There are generally no other restrictions, but most leagues do have some sort of catcher requirement.

Minor Leagues

Your minor league team is used for two purposes: to develop young talent and to hold a few veterans that can help out your major league team if needed. Players can be transferred between your major and minor league rosters an unlimited number of times, provided that they are not out of options. If a player is out of options, you must designate him for assignment, meaning that he must pass through the waiver wire first. Minor leaguers cannot receive improvement chances for the first five games after his last major league appearance. (Being on the roster alone does not count. He must play and show up in a box score.) The easiest ways to move players between these two squads are via the Depth Chart or the Promote/Demote page.

Drafts

All 16 teams participate in a combined League draft. There are three different types of drafts: Initial, Amateur, and Expansion.

The Initial Draft

The Initial Draft occurs before the start of any Trial, Private, or Speed League, which is always in 1950. Every general manager ranks the draft as he sees fit, and then ABE drafts for all 16 teams, based on the rankings. You are able to view the entire draft class, which is sorted by fielding position. You have 10 draft lists to rank: the eight fielding positions, one for starting pitchers, and one for relief pitchers).

Each position drafts separately. The draft order within each position is chosen randomly by ABE. The draft will wind in a serpentine manner, so whomever has the first pick will also have the 32nd pick at that position. The draft sequence for the first two rounds is as follows: 1/32, 2/31, 3/30, 4/29, 5/28, 6/27, 7/26, 8/25, 9/24, 10/23, 11/22, 12/21, 13/20, 14/19, 15/18 and 16/17. To help all teams with building their dynasty, the draft order also snakes across all positions, meaning that if you have the 16th and 17th picks at one position, you will have the first and 32nd pick at another. Positions are logically grouped in pairs for assigning the draft order. These pairs are C/SS, 2B/3B, 1B/LF, CF/RF, and SP/RP. So if you have the first pick for second base, you will have the 16th pick for third base. Catcher and shortstop are paired because they are the hardest positions to convert someone to, as well as being the most important defensive positions.

You can see where you will draft for each position by clicking the Draft Order link next to Initial Draft in the Draft Center. Once your league has filled up for that season, you will typically have at least 48 hours to view the draft class and set your draft preferences before the draft is run.

The Amateur Draft

Starting in 1951, your team will participate in an Amateur Draft before the season starts. The amateur draft lasts five rounds, and each round goes in the same order; among the 12 teams that missed the playoffs, the team with the worst record the previous year picks first, followed by the team with the second-worst record, etc. The LCS loser with the worse regular season record will draft 13th, the other LCS loser 14th, the World Series loser 15th, and the World Series winner 16th. Any ties will be broken by an ABE-generated coin flip. You can set your draft preferences on the Amateur Draft page. This page can also be found under the GM menu. When the amateur draft shows up depends on the league, but it usually shows up at 11 p.m. Eastern on the day when the league hits either August 15 or September 1. Make sure you check your league rules for this.

There are a variety of ways to rank the draft class. We recommend that you use the auto-ranking feature at the top of the page to get started; this will save you some time. You can then individually rank the players from 1 to 100. The players will initially be ordered based on your saved auto-ranking settings.

In the Amateur Draft you are able to indicate the maximum number of players for ABE to draft at any one position using the Maximum Players Per Position feature. This can help you so you don't, for example, end up drafting a catcher in all five rounds.

If you would like to see the draft pools from our pay leagues to see what they typically look like, check here: http://www.simdynasty.com/draftbyleague.jsp.

The Expansion Draft

An Expansion Draft only occurs in Private or Speed Leagues when two or more owners from the prior term do not return to their team, and new owners join the league to take their place. All the players from the old teams are placed into a draft pool, and an Expansion Draft occurs to re-allocate those players.

The Expansion Draft is run by ABE using the draft strategy selected by each owner in the Draft Preferences page for his team. The draft consists of 50 rounds (the first 25 will determine your major league roster, the remaining 25 rounds will fill your minor league roster). The draft order is selected randomly and the rounds proceed in a serpentine manner (if you pick first in the first round, you'll pick last in the 2nd round). Your choices for overall draft strategy are Best Available, Well Rounded, or Totally Balanced. For a detailed description of each preference -- and to set your draft preferences -- visit the Draft Center.

The Expansion draft is run after the off-season runs but before the Amateur Draft. For the Amateur Draft, Expansion teams will draft in the average spot of the teams leaving the league. For example, let's say there are 5 teams leaving the league and they were set to draft in these slots based on the prior year's standings: 4, 9, 10, 13, 14. The average of those numbers is 10. Therefore, the teams entering the league would draft 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, in the reverse order that they drafted in the Expansion Draft. Renewing teams will be slotted around the 8-12 range and draft 1-7 and 13-16.

Off-Season

In multiple season Dynasty and Private Leagues, various activities occur to close out the previous season and prepare each team and league for the next season. Some players may retire because of a combination of age, deteriorating skills, number of World Series rings, and lack of playing time. Players that were on a major league roster, as well as those on the Waiver Wire, generally will improve their abilities as well, as shown on their player card.

Player Information

Player Abilities and Numerical Values

All players are created by ABE with skills assigned randomly between a value of A through F in the following areas: Contact (vs. LHP and RHP), Power (vs. LHP and RHP), Speed, Bunt, Range, Arm, Control, Velocity, Endurance and Health.

Each letter is assigned a numerical range of eight points (see chart below). Each point represents one improvement (see Improvement Chances). In most leagues, the numerical values are only visible to ABE so that he can use them to simulate each game. In some leagues, general managers have the option to see the number ratings instead, but otherwise these ratings are presented only with the colored letter value of each skill because it is easier to evaluate and read online. (A's are red, B's are blue, C's are green, D's are yellow, and F's are black.) The higher the letter grade, the better that player is in that skill area.

To move a full letter grade a player must convert between 17 and 24 ICs, depending on what the original value was. For example, if Player X has the lowest possible B- Control (a 52 numerical value), he must convert 24 ICs to obtain an A- rating (which ranges from 76 to 83). If Player Y has the highest possible B- Control (59), he only needs to convert 17 ICs to obtain that same A- rating. This information proves useful when evaluating talent during drafts, trades, and the skills of your own players.

Player Cards

Player skills, Improvement Chance history, career statistics, and transactions of each player are just a few examples of what is listed on each player card. You can see a player's card by clicking on his name. These links appear everywhere you can see the player's name, including your Depth Chart, the Waiver Wire and Box Scores.

Improvement Chances (ICs)

Improvement Chances are the means by which players improve (i.e., increase their numerical value) in each individual skill area. The higher the value, the better that player is in that skill area. An IC is an opportunity for that player to improve. A player who receives an IC must also convert that IC to receive an improvement in that skill. As each player accumulates and converts ICs, his skill levels increase. Each player will improve at a different rate, based on age, current skill, and other factors. Major League ICs are accumulated differently than Minor League ICs.

Earning Major League ICs

Batters

ICs are calculated after every game and presented as a cumulative total on the Player Card and Improvement Report on the Stats Page. Major League ICs are earned during the season but are not converted until the off-season. Before accounting for mentoring, a major league position player will earn Improvement Chances for achieving different targets in a game. They are: 0.1 ICs for being on the roster, 0.075 for starting the game, 0.075 for batting at least once, 0.075 for playing at least 6 defensive innings, and 0.075 for finishing the game. If a player plays out of position, he will receive a 10 percent penalty in ICs accrued during that game. In addition, these will be adjusted for player health so that a player with poor health will get slightly more ICs. The goal is for a batter who plays every game to receive 64.8 ICs, before mentoring.

The result of these initial Batter IC calculations are then multiplied by that games mentoring factor to get the players' final Improvement Chances for the game.

Pitchers

Pitchers will receive ICs differently and convert ICs less frequently than batters because there are fewer categories for pitchers to improve in (Endurance, Velocity, and Control). Pitchers receive Improvement Chances based on a formula (Pitcher ICs = [0.31 * Games Played] + [Innings Pitched / 10]).

Pitchers on the major league team also earn a roster bonus if they have pitched recently. They get 0.16 ICs per game if they have appeared during the past eight days, 0.1 ICs if they have pitched during the past 10 days, 0.05 ICs if they have pitched during the past 12 days, or 0.02 ICs if they have pitched during the past 15 days. To be clear, only one roster bonus (the greatest) will be applied to a pitcher.

The result of these initial Pitcher IC calculations are then multiplied by that games mentoring factor to get the players' final Improvement Chances for the game.

To prevent pitcher abuse, a soft cap has been imposed on IC accumulation, whether from roster bonuses or actually appearing in a game. This means a pitcher typically will not receive more than 55 major league ICs in a season, regardless of how much he pitches. In addition, pitching an OS27 (meaning the player's age is 27 on December 31 of the year in question) or younger starter more than 200 innings or reliever more than 100 innings will cause his health to drop five points (out of 100) when the off-season runs.

Converting Major League ICs

Major League ICs are converted into skill improvements during the off-season. A players skill remains constant during the year while on the Major League roster. The IC conversion rate is primarily based on age and current skill level. For player age, there is a "sweet spot" of about 23-25 where players will convert the highest percentage of ICs in the Major Leagues. Players younger (and older) than this will convert fewer ICs. Bringing up a younger player into the Major Leagues might jeopardize his potential. Minor League IC conversion rates are generally better for younger players (22 and below).

The better a player is in a skill, the less chance he has of converting an improvement chance. Skills are grouped together for this calculation, which is sometimes referred to as "Bundling." The following skills are bundled for improvement conversions: Control & Velocity, Contact vs. RHP & Power vs. RHP, Contact vs. LHP & Power vs. LHP, and Arm & Range. One effect bundling has is that it allows for a wider variety of player types. If a player is a much better power hitter than contact hitter, he will remain that way for his career.

Earning Minor League ICs

Minor League ICs are the means by which minor league players develop and improve. There are three different minor league IC systems used in Sim Dynasty, the most common being System 2.

The Three Types of Minor League CP Systems

System 1

Because minor league games are not simulated in Sim Dynasty, each team is eligible to receive four minor league ICs per major league game played. These ICs are randomly assigned to a minor league player's skill in a particular area (e.g., Contact vs. RHP or Range). Unlike major league improvements, Minor League skill improvements are reflected immediately on a player's card. Batters and pitchers have an equal chance of receiving ICs; however, the probability of receiving ICs can be increased by assigning Coach Points (CPs) to a specific minor league player.

If your minor league roster has less than the minimum 15 players, you might find that only one (or even no) Improvement Chances were earned during a game. This is because ABE looks to assign a random IC based on a minimum of 15 players. If there are only 14 players, there is a "hole" in one of the player spots, and ABE may assign an IC to this hole. If this occurs, no player earned that IC, and that IC went to waste. Of the four possible ICs available per game, the first two ICs are available for all players in the minors; the third is only for players with one or no CPs assigned; the fourth is for position changes only. You can convert players' positions in the minor leagues without suffering the penalty a player would receive for playing in the majors out of position. If you select at least one player for position training (using the drop-down next to his name on the minor league page), ABE will randomly select one of the players you've selected for a defensive position change every game. If you are only trying to change 1 player's position, he will get all 162 chances for that season. If you have two selected for the entire season, both should receive around 81 chances (but not exactly 81).

CPs tell the minor league coaches how serious you are about developing a player and whether your minor league coaching staff should focus on one player over another. The more CPs assigned to a player, the more ICs that player is likely to receive. Each team has 15 CPs that can be assigned to players on its minor league roster, with a maximum of five points on any one player. The most common distribution is 5-5-5, meaning five CPs are put on the three best prospects. There is also a single CP automatically assigned by ABE to each player on the minor league roster. This means that although it looks as if your minor leaguers all have between zero and five CPs, every minor leaguer technically has between one and six.

System 2

System 2 is used in most Sim Dynasty leagues and is a lot like System 1, except each team gets 20 CPs, and there are a few restrictions. You can only put four or five CPs on a maximum of three players. In addition, you must put at least four CPs on pitchers and four on batters. The most commonly used schemes will likely be 5-5-5-3-2 or 5-5-5-2-2-1, so that your three best prospects can still be developed fully, and then two or more others can also be given a good chance to improve.

In System 2, there are three ICs per game, and in every third game you will get a fourth IC. In other words you will get 3.33 ICs per game.

Mathematically, the expected value of the CP distributions will roughly relate to the following IC amounts per season (the actual value may be more or less):

System 3

This system will have 6 ICs per game, and there are no CPs individually assigned. All players will have an equal chance of being selected for an IC. For a 15-man minor league squad, each player will get roughly 64 ICs per season. In other words, all prospects are developed as fully as possible.

Converting Minor League ICs

Minor League ICs are converted into skill improvements after each game. Minor League ICs and conversions are not affected by Mentoring. You can see which player(s) improved and in which skill they improved in the Game Notes section of the box score. It will also tell you which players were considered for improvement and in what category, but did not improve. This is denoted by a "Cory Snyder did not respond to coaching in Contact_vs_Righty" message. You should not read anything into a single lack of improvement, just as you would not read anything into a batter's single strikeout. However, you may want to read something into a continued pattern of non-improvement; that player may either be too old or too good to get much better, and Coach Points may be better spent elsewhere.

If a player advances a skill level, his Player Card will be updated with the correct color code and letter immediately following the game. As in the Major Leagues, the Minor League IC conversion rate is based on many things but is primarily based on age and current skill level. Minor League IC conversion rates are generally better for younger players (22 and below). See the message boards for additional details.

Mentoring

In the Major Leagues, your team will get three Mentoring scores after each game: Batters, Starting Pitchers and Relief Pitchers. You can see what your score was for each game by reviewing the Game Notes in the box score of each game. Each player on your team who is 28 years or older raises your team's Mentoring score. An individual player's Mentor Value is calculated using 3 components: Age, Skill, and Leadership. Having high values in each of these will give a player a high Mentor Score.

For position players, a player will increase your team's mentoring score more if he is in your starting lineup versus on the bench. A veteran catcher has an effect on pitchers as well, with his Range being a big component. A player's in-game overall rating is used in the calculation, so if he hits lefties better than righties, he will count for a bit more when you're facing a LHP. And if you're playing a catcher at shortstop, you're not fooling ABE; he will be treated as a shortstop, complete with his out-of-position defensive penalty.

If your team wins the game and the team you beat is ahead of you in the standings, your mentor values for that game will get a slight bump across the board, depending on how many games ahead of you the other team is. This gives you an incentive to try to beat teams that are better than you, especially teams that are really far ahead of you in the standings.

Younger players need mentoring more than older players do. An 18-year-old player will get more out of mentoring than a 26 year old will, although that teenager is likely better served if it is in the minors.

Name Changes

If it is early in the season, you are permitted to change the name of the player by clicking on the player's name and going to his card. Note that you can only do this during the first 30 days of the season, and offensive player names WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! If you find another team's player names offensive, please report that team so the issue can be resolved. Duplicate names in a league are not permitted, and names must be between three and 30 characters long.

Rest & Tired Players

On the Roster Page, you will see color-coded status bars indicating how tired a player is.

Starting Pitchers

Starting pitchers generally cannot start games more than once every five days. Starting pitchers can only start games when they have five green energy bars (barring unusual circumstances, as explained below). They will gain one energy bar for every day they don't pitch. It should be noted that if you don't have any pitchers that are fully rested, it is somewhat unpredictable who ABE will select to start the next game, and it is recommended that you bring up a minor league pitcher to make a spot start to help get the rotation back in order. Pitchers with at least a C- Endurance Rating may be placed in the starting rotation.

Relief Pitchers

Relief pitchers can pitch in a game as long as they have more than one energy bar. However, relievers with less than five energy bars will experience diminished skills. The more tired a relief pitcher is, the less effective he will be. The amount of energy a relief pitcher has depends on three factors: his Endurance rating, how many days out of the past five he has pitched, and how many batters he has faced in those outings. You can see how much each pitcher has faced during the past 5 days by clicking on the energy bar for a relief pitcher.

Position Players

Position players work a little differently. A player's health determines how many days in a row that he can play. A player with an A+ health rating might be able to play 50 consecutive games without a game off, meaning he'll miss just a few games in an entire season. A player with an F health rating can only play about 4 games in a row without needing a game off. Note that players actually need to sit out a game to become rested -- off days do not affect rest. When a player's rest bar becomes one red bar, he will sit out the next game. If you do not make a substitution, ABE will make the substitution for you (he normally does a pretty decent job of this) and will base his decisions on your preferences in the backup menus, provided you have filled them out.

Injured Players

At some point in the season, your team is sure to experience the occasional injury. This is where the disabled list comes into play. There are four ways to find out whether a player is injured. The first way is in the Game Notes section of the box score, which appears on the right side of the game summary page directly below the home team's pitching stats. The second spot you can look is on the Depth Chart. If a player is injured, there will be a red "+" next to his name. Another place you can look is on the player card. Just click on the link of the player's name, and it will tell you how many days the player is injured for. The last way is through the Injury News Page. This page will also indicate the approximate return date for that player. You can also get notification about injuries through e-mail. If you go to the Edit Profile link under the Owner menu, you can indicate whether you want to receive an e-mail whenever one of your players is injured.

ABE uses a player's health to determine his chances of being injured in the game. The length of the injury is random. The way the math works is that about half of the injuries are between 1 and 21 days in length. The other half are between 22 and 64 days in length.

There are four different injury systems leagues use. All Dynasty and Trial Leagues use Injury System 2. Injury Systems 1 and 2 are harsher on batters than on pitchers. The difference between these two is that overworked pitchers are more susceptible to injury under Injury System 2, for the purpose of preventing blatant abuse by owners. Injury System 3 is the same for hitters as Systems 1 and 2, but pitchers are now just as likely to be injured as batters are. Injury System 4 is the same as Injury System 3, except there are about twice as many injuries (which is still far less than you see in MLB).

Playing Players out of Position

There may come a time in the course of playing Sim Dynasty when you wish to play one (or more) of your players out of position. When you do so, please keep in mind that players will be "penalized" in their Arm and Range ratings. Because of this, they will experience a reduction in playing ability. The penalty is not very great for logical moves in position, such as LF to RF, but is very high for illogical moves, such as SS to CF.

You can train players to play a second position. On each player card, you will see three fields for "Alt Pos," which show the player's ability at his top three alternate positions. You can also click the "Positions" tab on a player's card to see his ability at every position he knows. Every time a player plays in a new position, he will improve his skills in that new position. Eventually, when he reaches 100% at the new position that will become his primary position. Logical position changes (e.g., SS to 2B) will happen faster than illogical ones (CF to C). This chart lists the difficulties of the various position changes. Note that most leagues have special rules for catchers, meaning that a player cannot be listed as a starter or backup at catcher unless he is rated at a certain percentage at the position. For dynasty leagues, the minimum is 50%. For private and speed leagues, the catcher rule is listed on the league's message board.

To fully convert to a new position, a player must play more games at that position during the current season than at any other. Also, he must play a minimum of 25 games during the season at the new position. These rules are in place to prevent unwanted position changes. If you have a player that tries to go from 99.9% to 100% in skill at that position, but has not met both of these criteria, he will go back to 99.0% ability.

Players will also *forget* how to play positions as well. The SS you converted to a 3B will eventually not remember how to play SS after a few seasons at 3B.

Pinch Hitters

ABE will attempt to pinch hit for position players according to your Manager Preferences. See the section below for more info on pinch hitters.

Managing your Team

Sim Dynasty offers you a large assortment of ways to manage your team.

Lineup

It is up to you to set your starting lineup for play against left-handed starting pitchers and right-handed starting pitchers. If for any reason your starting lineup isn't set properly (for example, because a player is injured or only has one bar of energy left), ABE will fill in the gaps in your lineup just before game time. You won't see what he did until the game has been simmed and the box score is available.

Backups

You can also select up to three backup players per position should ABE ever need to find a substitute for one of your starters.

Rotation/Bullpen

You can set the order of your starting rotation and designate roles for your bullpen (Long Relief A and B, Middle Relief A and B, Setup Man, Setup/Closer, and Closer) from the Rotation/Bullpen link.

Manager Preferences

Sim Dynasty offers many ways to manage your team during games.

Manager Mode

There are two modes to choose from, Advanced and Regular.

Regular Mode

This mode allows you to have general control over the manager preferences. Every specific control isn't covered in this mode, but you will have some control over how the game is managed by setting eight different controls. If you move to Advanced Mode, your settings will move over with you in the categories that match up.

Advanced Mode

Gives you specific control over 60 different game situations. It is recommended that you use this mode only after you have become comfortable using the Regular Mode. Note that, if you move to Advanced Mode and then go back to Regular Mode, your settings in Advanced mode will be lost.

All the Gory Details

If you want more information about how to use the preferences and what each one does, please see the Manager Prefs page.

General Manager Information

Trades

Through the GM menu, you can propose a trade to any other team in your league. If the other team accepts, the trade will be executed immediately, and the players will change teams. The trading deadline for Dynasty and Trial Leagues is September 1; players can be traded after that date in Dynasty Leagues, but they won't be eligible to play in the playoffs. Remember when proposing or accepting a trade that you must have a valid roster before and after the trade goes through. This means 9-12 pitchers, with the rest being position players. You may have to promote, demote, or waive players as part of the trade. You can also trade draft picks using this screen. In Dynasty, Private and Speed Leagues, you can only trade future picks for seasons that you have paid for.

Promote/Demote

You can promote players from your minor league team or demote players from your major league team at any time. The only requirement is that you have 25 players on your major league roster at all times, of which 9-12 are pitchers. You may have up to 25 minor leaguers, made up of any combination of pitchers and position players (although in System 2 IC leagues you can only put up to 16 CPs out of your 20 on pitching or hitting). Note that you can only promote and demote one player at a time. For example, if Player A and Player B are on your Major League team and Player C and Player D are on your Minor League team, you can demote Player A and promote Player C at the same time, but you cannot demote both Player A and Player B and promote Player C and Player D at the same time. You would need to make two separate transactions. It would be easier to use the Depth Chart.

Waiver Wire

You may claim players by visiting the Waiver Wire. On the waiver wire, you will see three different types of players -- Free Agents (Claim), Optioned Players (Options), and Waived Players (Waivers).

Free Agents

Free Agents (denoted with the word "Claim" next to their name). Players who go undrafted and those players who have been unconditionally released will immediately become Free Agents. Free Agents can be picked up immediately and will be placed on your Minor League roster.

Waived Players

Waived Players (denoted with the word "Waivers" next to their name). Players that have been waived by a general manager will show up on the Waiver Wire with a "Waivers" designation. Depending on the league, but usually for about 24 real life hours, a player will be listed as such on the Waiver Wire. In a three-game-per-day Dynasty League, for example, this designation lasts four sim days. In an 18-game-per-day speed league, this designation lasts for 19 sim days. During this time, any team can put in a Waiver Claim on the player. Immediately following the game on that last day, ABE checks to see whether anyone has claimed the player. If more than one team has claimed the player, he will go to the team with the worst record. If it is the first 30 days of the season, it will be based off of the most recent draft order. The team that wins the claim gets the player placed on its Minor League roster. Unclaimed players become Free Agents and can then be picked up immediately.

Optioned Players

Optioned Players (denoted with the word "Options" next to their name). A player is out of Options in the seventh season after he is drafted. He can no longer pass freely from the Major League roster to the Minor League roster. If a player on the major league roster is out of options and you would like to send him to the minors, he must be designated for assignment. A player that has been designated for assignment passes through the Waiver Wire just like a waived player with a couple exceptions. First, the team that gets the claim has the player placed on his Major League roster. The other component is that a team may withdraw waivers on the player once a season by clicking on the word "Options" when viewing the Waiver Wire. So if you demote a guy by mistake, or realize you can't sneak him back to the minors, you can cancel the move and keep him in the majors.

When using the Promote/Demote or Depth Chart screens, you will get a warning message if you try to demote a player that is out of options. Waiver claims are processed as part of the regular season game code. So any players waived between the beginning of the Playoffs and before the next season's Amateur Draft runs will be processed when the amateur draft runs on April 1. If you designate a player for assignment and he passes through waivers he will end up on your Minor League roster. If you didn't want him at all, you will need to waive him. You cannot waive players directly from your Major League roster. You must designate him for assignment first, and then unconditionally release him after he clears waivers and ends up on your Minor League roster. An exception to this rule is if you are proposing or accepting a Trade Offer. When you settle your roster while proposing or accepting a trade, you can waive players outright from your Major League roster.

Disabled List

Injured players can be placed on the Disabled List. Players must be placed on the DL for a minimum of 15 days if they are injured. By doing so, you can call up a replacement from the minors, but remember that any player called up will be subject to the Option rules if he is demoted when the injured player is taken off the DL. When a player's injury has healed, you can remove him from the Disabled List by unchecking the box next to his name on the Disabled List page, provided he has been on the DL for 15 days. Any player left on the DL (injured or not) when the offseason runs is automatically taken off the DL. If no one on your team retires during the offseason, you will have more than 25 players as a result on your Major League roster, and you will be unable to set your lineups/pitching rotation until you have fixed this.

Resting Players

Beginning on September 1st, you can designate players you want to rest by going to the Rest Players Page. For every player you rest, you can call up a replacement to your team. This was done mainly so that teams can position their starting rotations for the playoffs, but it can also be used to take advantage of September callups. Any players that are still resting during the offseason will be taken off of resting status. If no one on your team retires during the offseason, you will have more than 25 players as a result on your Major League roster, and you will be unable to set your lineups/pitching rotation until you have fixed this.

League Information

League News

Sim Dynasty has a news page that will show you what has been going on in your league in the way of player transactions, such as trades, promotions and demotions, injuries, and retiring players.

Standings

To see how your team is doing in the league overall, you should go to the Standings page. This will show you the standings for all of the teams in your league.

Results

The best way to find out how your team did in its most recent games is to go the Results page or to the Schedule page. These pages will have a link to each of your team's past 9 games. The difference between the two is that the Schedule page reveals the game score and the winning and losing pitcher. The Results page lists the games scheduled and gives you a link to the box score/Dynasty Vision. The Results page should be used by owners who want to follow the game action on Dynasty Vision without knowing the result of the game ahead of time.

Schedule

On this page you can also see how your team has done during the past nine games, as well as see all 162 games. You can also see other team's schedules from these pages. This will also show the current record for each of the pitchers that received a decision in each game.

League Info

Sim Dynasty also has a League Info page that allows you to see who is in your league. It also displays their e-mail address, if they have chosen to let it be shown in their Profile. You can also U2U them from here by clicking their name. When you do this, the u2u screen will pop up, and you can U2U them right from there. You can also see when your opponents last checked into the site. This way you can know who has been actively managing their teams, and which teams belong to "dead" owners.

Team Statistics

You can view your team pitching and batting statistics from the Team Stats page. These are actual cumulative stats from the current season. If you traded for a player during the season, only his accrued stats from when he was on your team will show up. If you traded a player away, only the stats he accrued while on your team will show up here.

Individual Statistics

You can view your players individual pitching and batting statistics from the Individual Stats page. You can only see players here that are currently on your major or minor league rosters.

League Leaders

To see who leads the league in various statistical categories, check out the League Leaders page. It will show you the top 20 players in each category. You can view Single Season leaders and All Time leaders of various categories.

Player Rankings

The Rankings page serves two purposes. The first is to show all players ranked according to their statistics, and the other is to show all players ranked according to their abilities.

Player Statistics

The benefit of using this page as opposed to the Leaders page is that this page will show all of the players in your league, which is more comprehensive. On this page you can choose to sort by every category that is kept on the player cards.

Player Abilities

This part of the Rankings page will show all of the players in your league according to their abilities. As with the other page, this page can be sorted by all player abilities displayed on the player cards. This page is especially useful for scouting around your league to find the players on other teams that you would like to trade for.

All Star Page

The All Star page will display the top players for both the American and National Leagues at each position, in addition to a backup for each position as well as the rest of the pitchers. It also will show "voting" for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and the Fireman Award. They are not actual "votes," per se, but points that are awarded to players based on a formula. There is no real All-Star game that is scheduled to be played between the players of the American and National Leagues at this time.

For position players, all star votes are calculated using this formula: RBIs + Total Bases + Runs + Walks + SBs - (SO *.25) - (CS * 2) - Errors - (AB / 8)

Miscellaneous

PayPal and Payments

For our pay leagues, we use PayPal as the method to receive payments. If you have a credit card, checking account, or any other type of banking account, you can use PayPal to send in a payment.

If you only have a checking account, the payment will be sent to us by a PayPal e-check. E-checks can take up to 4 business days to clear, and you will not see the credits hit your Sim Dynasty account until then. If you are signing up for a new team and send in an e-check, please post a message in the Support Message Board letting Admin know, and we can hold the team for you until it clears. (You can post a message in Support privately if you prefer.) If you are renewing a team using an e-check, you will have to wait the four days to get credit. We have considered removing e-checks as a payment option, because of the confusion they cause, but many of our players only have checking accounts, and we don't want to prevent them from playing.

Finally, if you don't have any kind of bank account or credit card, you can mail in a personal check or money order to us. Please write your screen name and/or league name on the check or money order, and add $2 for handling. (For example, if a league costs $20, the payment would be for $22.) Please make your payment out to the site owner, Tyson Lowery. Allow up to three weeks for the credits to be posted to your account. Our address is:

Sim Dynasty
PO Box 8586
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Why No DH?

There wasn't a DH in the 1950s, and there isn't one in Sim Dynasty either. This allows more pinch hitters and pitchers to see action during a game, which we feel makes the games more interesting.

Dynasty Dollars and Wagering

For owners that have verified their e-mail address, Trial League owners will earn 1 Dynasty Dollar (D$) for each game that they win. Dynasty owners will earn D$3 for each win. Because of the variable speed of play, this feature is not enabled for Private or Speed Leagues. You can also wager D$ against other owners in your league. You set the maximum number of dollars to wager in your profile area. When two teams meet, the lesser of the two betting amounts is used as a wager for the game. So if I have wagered D$5 and you have wagered D$3, the bet for the game will be D$3. If I win, your account is deducted D$3 and mine is credited with D$3. Management reserves the right to revoke this for Trial Leagues if it is abused by cheaters. You can redeem D$1000 for one season of Dynasty League play. Dynasty Dollars can also be earned by making purchases through our sponsors. For more information about Dynasty Dollars and how to earn them see the Sim Dynasty Dynasty Dollars page.

Reporting Problems & Suggesting Enhancements

Have you noticed something about the game that isn't quite right? Are you having problems accessing your team or logging in? Or is there something about the game that you would like to see improved? We encourage you to sound off on the Message Boards.

Using this Wiki

We use the same software as Wikipedia for maintaining this page. We encourage you to make additions and corrections where you see fit. We found the following links to be helpful when learning the syntax of editing a page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page

Working with Tables:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table

Related Pages

Site Rules

Joining Leagues

Frequently Asked Questions

Managerial Preferences

Improvements

Beginners Guide

Independent, User-Created Strategy Guides for New Players