THE MONTY PLAN

Team Salary Cap/Auction format for the Winter Legends of Cooperstown League

1]-------$250 dollar team salary cap for beginning the 2004 season only. From there, team salary caps are based on the $250 beginning max plus any bonus money accrued.During the season, teams may trade and go to whatever dollar value they want. However, before the beginning of next season, they need to get back down to their team cap max or lower. This means that during a season, teams may trade for players that put them over the cap limit, but must release players prior to the next season that bring their team value down to their team cap max or less.

2]-------For the 2004 season, all of the current reserve list players
that each team designates, 10 for each team, will be considered
Restricted Free Agents. For future seasons, that number will be
determined by the owner based on available funds and to a maximum of 15 HoF/Created players. All unprotected HOF/Created Players are released into the draft pool and considered Unrestricted Free Agents. The difference in type of Free Agent will be outlined shortly.

3]------In the off-season, a Restricted Free Agent Bidding Period will
begin, in which teams may make bids to in a sense, try and lure
players away from their current team. In the form of a bid to the
league, they will stipulate the amount that they wish to spend on a
particular player. If you want Ruth, make a bid. The team with the
highest bid at the end of the free agency period gains the services
of that player. Since it is a loose form of auction, teams may
continue to make bids on a player if they are out-bid by another
team, up to the end of the Restricted Free Agent Bidding Period.
However, the team who owned the rights to that player has topper
rights to keep him with a final $1 higher bid. That decision is made
after the Restricted Free Agent Bidding Period ends. For example:
Team A bids $50 to sign Cool Papa Bell...Team B then bids $60...I bid
$65...Team A comes back with $70...Team C bids $80...the Bidding
period ends. I now have the option to 'sign' Bell for $81 dollars or
he is a member of Team C. If Team C had not bid, I would have that
same option at $71 or he becomes a member of Team A. Remember
though...If you make a bid and you win, that player is yours!

4]-----The bidding process will be handled by the Commissioner and the
League Presidents. All bids are made public to all league members via
the E-Groups mailing list.

5]-----For each signing period , each team will put forward a list of players for bid each week. The number of players each team will submit in a given week is detailed below in the Auction Guidelines section and is based on draft order for the upcoming season. They will not bid on them at this time, nor are they required to bid on a player they put forward. The player may be a Restricted Free Agent or an Unrestricted Free Agent and may be one of their own players or any other player from the 2 pool types. There will be 20 players in Bidding periods 1 and 2, and 40 players in periods 3 thru 6 for the 2004 season. Subsequent seasons will be determined by the number of teams participating in the auction process. The players nominated by each team are that weeks auction available players.

6]-----Bidding will start on the available players each period as
soon as the list is submitted by the Commissioner. At end of each
day, a posting will be made with the current high bids for each
available player and that process will continue until the end of the
period.

7]-----There will be 6 auction periods for a total of 200 players for
the initial auction in 2004. From this season forward, the size and length of the auction period will vary, depending on who decides to enter the auction, who is released, who has salary cap money available, etc.

8]----A team may bid on as many of the auction available players as he
has roster spots or salary cap money available, up to a max of 12 players in total, or they may pass and not bid on any of that weeks' players as they see fit.

9]-----A team may not bid on a player if they are over the pre-season
salary cap of $250, nor may they bid more funds than they have
available. A team may not top on one of their own Restricted Free Agents if they do not have the funds available as well.

10]-----All players 'signed' from the Restricted Free Agents pool are
for 3 year contracts, but may be released after their 1st or 2nd
season where they would enter the Unrestricted Free Agent Pool for
that season, or extended to an additional 4th or 5th year. Details
will follow shortly.

11]-----Once all teams have completed the signing/bidding process, then
a regular round by round draft including the past season set and the
remaining undrafted HoF/Created teams players is conducted, using the
same draft order method we have in the past.

12]-----All HoF/Created players drafted as Unrestricted Free Agents cost $1 towards your $250 team salary cap. All past season players do not have a cost. For example, after the end of the Restricted Free Agency period, if a team has 10 HoFers that add up to $250, then they are limited to only drafting past season players who have no cost. The
Commissioner will keep, update and distribute a spreadsheet detailing
each team's salary situation after each round, similar to the
distribution of league files.

13]-----At the end of the next season, ALL HoF/Created players they have on their roster, whether they were won at bid, or drafted for $1 can be protected up to and within the guidelines of Salary Cap maximum of $250 and roster size maximum of 15 players. However, should a team choose to keep a drafted $1 player, then they must exercise an option on the player of an additional $10, making him an $11 player counting towards Salary Cap.

14]-----How teams spend their money is up to them. If they want to spend $250 on Ruth to get him and then just draft season set players, or if they don't want to bid on anyone and then draft $1 Unrestricted Free Agents or free season set players, that is totally up to them.

15]-----All players bid on, or drafted players who have an option
exercised on them have a 3 year contract at the price they were
purchased at. In the off season of their 2nd contract year and before
their 3rd contract year begins, they can be extended for $10 per
season up to a max of 2 additional seasons. So, a player bid on and
purchased at $25 is kept at that price for 3 seasons. Before his 3rd
year begins, he may be kept at option for a 4th season at $35, and or
a 5th at $45. The number of years must be negotiated prior to his 3rd
season. A team cannot make a 1 year decision after each year. A
player who is extended 2 years costs the 2 year extended salary for
both his 4th and 5th years, which in the above scenario, the $25
dollar player is at $25 for each of his first 3 years, and $45 for
his 4th and 5th years.

16]-----At the end of a player's final contract year, he becomes a Restricted Free Agent again, where he may be purchased for 3 years+ by any team, including his original team who has topper rights. If a player has played thru the end of his contract and is not bid on during the Restricted Free Agent Bidding period, he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent and enters that season's draft. If a player is released after the 1st or 2nd season and becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent and then is not bid on by any team, he also enters that season's draft.

17]-----A player in the 1st year of his contract if purchased at
auction, or a $1 drafted player who has an option taken on him at
$11, is considered in the A year of his contract. A player in the 2nd
year a B, a player in the final year of his contract a C player. So,
if a player is extended 2 years beyond his 3rd, he is a D for his
3rd, an E for his 4th and a C for his 5th year, or if not extended,
and A for his 1st, a B for 2nd and a C for his 3rd. That is for ease
of recognizing what year of their contract a player is and who is in
the final year of their contract.

18]-----You are not forced to keep a player in their 1st or 2nd year of
their contract. All players in their A or B season may be released
prior to the next season, but become Unrestricted Free Agents and the teams loses their topper rights.

19]-----All players who are in their C year automatically become Restricted Free Agents at the end of that season.

20]-----All players who are D or E may not be released, but must be kept until they finish out the length of their contracts. They may however be traded, but the team picking them up must also keep them until they finish their C year.

21]-----A team trading for an A or B player has the option to extend
their contract beyond a 3rd year at the $10 plus per season, or may
release them after a season as normal. A player in the C year of
their contract can not be extended, even if picked up in a trade.

22]-----As a final note, teams may have and in all probability will have different roster sizes heading into the draft. Based on the size of the available player pool, and this may be determined by the season
set we are using since pre-expansion has less available players to
draft, we will draft to either 30 or 35. As teams reach these limits,
their draft is complete.

23]-----The Monty Bonus Plan

Several of you over the past few months of discussions, have
asked if there was going to be any carry over of cap money from year
to year if it wasn't spent. I don't think that is feasible, since
someone could not spend any money in 1 or 2 years, finish last and
then have $500 to spend in a given year when free agents are on the
market. I hate to reward tanking, which is why I stayed away from the
trading of draft picks in the WLOC.

So as an incentive plan for those of us that meet deadlines and play
our games, there will be a bonus plan involving additional money to
spend in the following year. Here's the way it would work:

If a team meets all deadlines of game results and computer managers,
they will receive an additional $15 to their team salary cap. If a
team is late 1 or 2 times over the course of the season, they will
receive $10. If they are late 3-4 times, they will receive $5. Teams
late 5 or more times will not receive a bonus.

This will reward teams that are punctual and active with at least
the potential to sign an additional player each year. The money will
be cumulative, so meet your deadlines for 2 straight seasons and for
the 3rd you'd have $280 to spend. I'd love to see us all make our
deadlines and as long as someone knows they're going to be late lets
me know and makes other provisions, such as having their opponent or
myself play their games or send out a manager, it won't count as a
violation.

AUCTION PROCESS GENERAL GUIDELINES:

1]-----Alleviating everyone waiting until the last second to post a
bid...not an easy task, but these caveats may help with some of the
congestion, especially after rounds 1 thru 3 or so.

----The going once, going twice, sold rule.

In the event that a player brought up for auction is bid on, and then
not bid on for 2 consecutive days, on the third day, that will be
considered the high bid and he is taken off auction. That will
represent a going once...day 1 after his bid with no bids on that
day, a going twice...day 2 after his initial bid with no bids for 2
consecutive days...sold on the third consecutive day of no bids.

The owner with current Restricted Free Agent rights would then have
to decide whether or not to retain that player with the topper bid or
not. If so, that player is retained. If not, then he is bought by the
current high bidder at the going price.

2]-----In the event a player nominated for auction is not bid on.

----Similar to the going once, twice, sold rule but in regards to a
player that is not bid on initially. If there are 3 consecutive days
of no bids on a player brought up for auction, that player is either
sold the team who has his Restricted rights for $1, or is granted
Unrestricted status and returned to the draft pool if that team does
not wish to sign him. In the event he is returned to the draft pool,
he may not be brought up again for auction in a later bidding period.

3]-----Topper priority, concerning the issue of the topper decision
making order, in the event that there are several topper issues to be
resolved simultaneously.

This can and probably will occur at the end of bidding periods, when
teams may be waiting to decide whether or not to top the high bid on
one of their own players, while still holding the high bid on another
player of similar position or ability. Example: I have the ending
high bid on Lou Gehrig of $45. The bid on my own RFA at 1B, Buck
Leonard, is currently $40. I don't want to top on Leonard before I
find out if I've won Gehrig with the high bid.

Resolution: All topper decisions will be made in the order of highest
to lowest bid player in each bidding period. In the above example,
Larry would decide whether or not to top at $46 on Gehrig and then I
would decide to top on Leonard at $41. If Larry tops my high bid, I
would then decide whether or not to top and keep Leonard. I would
still have that same decision, even if Larry decides not to, or is
unable to top due to cap restraints. However, if he decides not to
top, I have won Gehrig at $45 irregardless of my decision on Leonard.

4]-----Trading of Team Salary Cap money is forbidden

This is an official notice that by under no circumstances may team salary cap money be traded or otherwise negotiated for. I know that teams trade draft picks without officially trading draft picks...and you know who you are... ;) but I can't really do anything to prevent that other than to mention it to them and ask them not to do it again,
which I have. The same will go for cap $, and while I'm sure trades
will be made where a team bids for a player on behalf of someone else
and then trades that player to another team in some kind of package
deal, there's not much I can do about it if I suspect it, other than
to ask them not to do it again. This is a gentleman's league and
we're not playing for money or any other kind of glory, so please
abide by the rules we lay out.

5]----- Determining who is brought up for bidding each period and limiting or
avoiding duplication of names each week.

----So that we don't have constant duplication of the player names
brought up each week for bidding, I think the best way to do it is to
have everyone send me a list of players names in the order that they
would want them brought up. I'm then going to go down the draft list
and pick the top name from everyone's list. If that name hasn't been
brought up yet, then that player goes into the auction for that
period. We would then reverse the order for the next period and
continue to serpentine each period until the auction is complete.

Example:
Based on the draft order, Yorktown's list would be first, so Mark
would only have to send me 1 name to start with. Mark sends me
1. Babe Ruth

John sends me his list for Chicago, 2 names only since he's 2nd
1. Babe Ruth
2. Willie Mays

Steve sends me his list for Hannibal, 3 names since he's 3rd
1. Babe Ruth
2. Willie Mays
3. Rogers Hornsby

Jonathan sends me his list for Atlanta, 4 names since he's 4th
1. Babe Ruth
2. Rogers Hornsby
3. Mickey Mantle
4. Willie Mays

And so on thru the 20 teams. In bidding period 2, when we reverse, it
would be Chuck and Virginia only having to send me 1 name...and so on.

I start our bidding period with Ruth, Mays, Hornsby, Mantle and then
continue thru everyone's lists to come up with our first 20 for
bidding period 1. If I'm missing a list, I'll consult with Larry and Tim as league presidents to fill in the blanks as needed, but I think this method should work fairly well.

6]-----Since any HOF/Created player can be brought up for bidding, whether they be a Restricted Free Agent...already on a team roster...or an Unrestricted Free Agent...in the Free Agent Pool, we may run over 200 players brought up. In that event, here's how we will resolve it.

---The final bidding period will include the 40 names brought up for
bidding, along with any other Retricted Free Agents that have not yet
been brought up. I think this number will be small, since most of the
top players will already be on rosters, but to make sure that all
RFA's are brought up at some point, the final period may include more
players. This should be offset by periods where perhaps a player goes
unbid on and then not topped, which would then place him as an
Unrestricted Free Agent and eligible to be drafted.

Example: Spotswood Poles from KC has not been nominated for bidding
in any period up to the final bidding period. Lloyd Waner was brought
up as a player to be bid on in period 5, but was then not bid on by
any team. Waner goes into the draft at the conclusion of period 5,
and Poles is added as a 41st player in period 6.

7]-----What will the size of rosters be at the conclusion of the auction?

I've thought long and hard as to having any minimums and maximums.
There will be no minimum, since it's entirely up to the team owner if
they want to bid all of their cap money on 1 or 2 players and then
draft only season set players. The maximum is more of a dilemma,
since many of you have mentioned that 10 is just an arbitrary number,
but more importantly, we don't want to purge the draft of all
HoF/Created players thru the auction either.

I feel that 12 should be the maximum number of players you can
acquire thru the auction and then 15 be the maximum number that you
can protect at the conclusion of a season, providing you are under
the $250 team salary cap. I would like to prevent a team from being
able to scarf up 15 $1 players and bring his roster to 25 HoF/Created
players, just because they have the cap room dollars available. If a
team has $ available going into a season or a draft, it is still to
their advantage, since they can then make trades for players without
having to cut anyone at the end of the season.

As teams reach the max number of signed players thru the auction
periods, they would then be finished until the regular draft started.
This would also greatly help speed up the later bidding periods,
since teams could theoretically be finished signing players after a
few bidding periods, if they were fortunate to be able to sign more
than 1 player per period.

Teams with more than the norm would draft to 35 and their roster
would be complete. Teams with less would continue to draft until they
reached the roster max of 35.