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 11 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 OOTP11 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, voting, contracts, amateur draft). If there’s a chronic problem, remediation is up to the commissioner. That could include fines of AHIBA dollars, players suspensions, 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 and AHIBA dollars (participation rewards outside the game). 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. . 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 25 million. So you lose anything over this amount. Again, this can be adjusted by the commissioner for the benefit if the league. 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.

Rule V
There is no rule V draft

Waivers
Waivers set to 15 days (2 sims)

DL List
The DL list is set for 14 days (changed from 15 for 2012 season)

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.

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.

Playoffs
Division winners plus wildcard

Sims
We will sim 7 games at a time. Sims will be done Monday-Wed-Friday nights. All exports are due 7:30PM the day of the sim.

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.

Ballpark Renovation



Teams selecting this reward will receive a Fan Interest increase = (cash cost) / 1,000,000 / 2, rounded up (e.g. adding a retractable roof would confer a +8 Fan Interest bonus) (max 85).

• Additional Seating – Construction Costs (see below). Must be purchased in blocks of 100 seats using AHIBA Bucks. No more than 5,000 seats may be added during one offseason and no ballpark may exceed 65,000 seats. Construction costs per 100 seats are as follows:

  • 35,100-45,000: $50,000 AHIBA Bucks
  • 45,100-55,000: $75,000 AHIBA Bucks
  • 55,100-65,000: $100,000 AHIBA Bucks
• Grass – Convert field to grass turf for $2,000,000 AHIBA Bucks
• Artificial Turf – Install artificial turn for $4,000,000 AHIBA Bucks
• Permanent Roof – Convert your ballpark into a dome for $10,000,000 AHIBA Bucks. This renovation cannot be undone once selected.
• Retractable Roof – Add a retractable roof for $15,000,000 AHIBA Bucks. This renovation cannot be undone once selected.
• Move Fences – Alter your ballpark’s dimensions by raising/lowering or bringing in/pushing out your outfield fences. The cost is $1,000,000 AHIBA Bucks + $50,000 AHIBA Bucks per foot of change. Moving the fences will alter your ballpark’s factors (exact changes to be determined by the Commissioner). Final dimensions must be approved by the Commissioner.

Ballpark Construction
Constructing a new 35,000 seat ballpark in your current city costs 75,000,000 AHIBA Bucks. At the time this reward is selected you may elect to increase the new ballpark’s capacity to 45,000 for an additional $10,000,000 AHIBA Bucks or to 55,000 for an additional $25,000,000 AHIBA Bucks above the base cost. Ballpark construction costs are due upfront and in the off season only.


There are a number of benefits to constructing a new ballpark:
Fan interes increase by 15
Fan loyalty increases by 1


Relocation



Any owner may elect to relocate his team (the Commissioner must approve your team’s new location). Details are essentially the same as the Ballpark Construction reward. Certain teams may have extra incentive to relocate, however, while others may have incentive to stay put. There are 6 criteria that are checked when you elect to relocate:

Owners who meet 3 of the 6 criteria qualify for double the Ballpark Construction reward (+30 Fan Interest, +2 Fan Loyalty). The Market size will be reset to 5. Owners who meet 1 of the 6 criteria will receive the same benefit as the Ballpark Construction award. Owners who don’t meet any of the criteria will still have Market Size reset to 5 but will receive only a +5 bonus to Fan Interest and will actually take a penalty of -1 to Fan Loyalty.

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. But you can earn AHIBA Bucks based on extra particiaption.

How to earn AHIBA Bucks
1 ) Team articles - 25,000 each any article at least 1 or more paragraphs consisting of at least 100 words about your team, players, or events. Anything like game or sim updates, prospect/pick reports, player analysis, free agent signings, contract extensions, team trades, events (in game or made up), accomplishments, or records.

2 ) AHIBA News - 35,000 each article about AHIBA that doesn't include your team or player. Examples could be a analysis on another teams trade, draft pick, the allstar game, HOF player write up (posted with player pic in the AHIBA HOF), regular season game write up, league event, accomplishment, or record.

3 ) Preview/Analysis - 100,000 , examples consist of Team Preseason previews (at least 1 division), Draft analysis (at least 1 full round), Playoff coverage (write up at least 1 series).

4 ) Voting - Allstar game voting ( 10,000 ), EOY Awards ( 50,000 ), and HOF Vote ( 75,000 )

5) Year long show- consisting of 10+ articles in 1 season posted under a common thread in the AHIBA News Network

     Team coverage/Articles - 500,000 AHIBA Bucks, reward given after 10 article is posted and no award if you don't have 10+ in one season.

     League coverage - 750,000 AHIBA Bucks, must be 10+ articles in the same season to receive the reward.

5 ) League referral - 25,000 to any GM that fills an open AHIBA team. Will earn the cash after the new GM completes a full AHIBA season and will receive it the next time cash rewards are paid out.
6) Winning Titles
AHIBA World Series - 750,000 AHIBA Bucks
AHIBA League Championship - 500,000 AHIBA Bucks
Win AHIBA Division - 250,000 AHIBA Bucks
Minor League World Series - 500,000 AHIBA Bucks
Minor League Championship - 250,000 AHIBA Bucks
Minor League Division - 100,000 AHIBA Bucks
Platinum Arm winner - 50,000 AHIBA Bucks
Silver Slugger winner - 50,000 AHIBA Bucks
Rookie of the Year - 50,000 AHIBA Bucks
Triple Crown winner - 75,000 AHIBA Bucks

***AHIBA Bucks will be generated from this day forward and balances will be posted on the forum.

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.

Trading
Trading will be allowed by all teams during the playoffs (after the final regular season game) but will not be processed in game until after the World Series is completed.

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 and the player will require at the end of the season. For 50,000 AHIBA Bucks (earned by outside participation) you may get the CEI wiped out. 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.

Roster corrections - All roster correction will no longer be free. By this I mean if you make a trade or sign a free agent and forget to take them out of DFA and put them on a roster the game will release them to proceed with the sim. In the past, I have put them back on for free. Going forward this will cost 50,00 AHIBA Bucks to put the player back on your team with the same salary. This must be done after the sim they are released. If a second sim is done, you must resign them and take the salary hit and any teams may also sign them. Its the GMs responsibility to maintain their teams and export regulary.

Logos/Uniforms 

If you want to change your logo it will cost you $1,000 AHIBA Bucks.  New Uniforms will cost $5,000 AHIBA Bucks.  You can change this as often as you like for all levels throughout your organization.  New GMs are allowed to change there logos and uniforms free during the first season they take over the team. 

Fines - currently fines for going over the cap or not having enough players on the 25 man roster come from your cash. I'm also changing this- But basically the cash fines will come from the AHIBA Bucks and not the in game money. If your a team that doesn't write, then a top player (up to the commish) will be suspended for each sim they are over.

The new fines procedures-
1st sim over the cap/under 25 men - Warning by league president or commish
2nd sim over the cap - 25,000 AHIBA Bucks fine
3rd sim - 50, 000 AHIBA Bucks fine and a 1 game suspension to the teams top player (commish picks)
4+ sims - 50, 000 AHIBA Bucks fine each sim and a 7 game suspension to the top player for each sim until its corrected.

I don't think it will get this far but again, it will stop me from having to edit the actual in game cash. The player suspensions will be the real impact. Everyone has been real good and correcting the occassional over the cap mistakes quickly in the past.