Dear Distinguished Members of the SPB Rules Committee, I would like to formally submit the following proposal for consideration before the 1950 Draft Rules Committee. While I have been giving much thought to these issues, the recent stats from both 1929 and 1949 have led me to urge the passage of these items. For some time now, SPB has seen the impact of pitching diminish. In some cases that is related to the flaws in DMB itself and in other cases I belive it is related to some rules we have adopted over the years. At any rate, with offensive rates approaching APBA levels, I believe that there is a need to make some adjustments to restore the impact of pitching in SPB leagues. So here are my proposals. 1. Rookie Draft Order Selections: I now believe that our logic here is being used to incourage managers to stock up on unlimited pitchers with the hopes of having a losing season and obtaining a higher draft pick. We have covered this ground before and I don't want to re-hash the issue. To compensate for any manuvering of unlimited pitchers, I propose that all teams have a chance to land one of the first 4 draft spots in Round One and Round Two. The team with the worst won-loss record would have 14 chances in a 14 team league and the team with the best won-loss record would have one chance. The remaining teams would be assigned chances based upon there records, 13 chances, 12 chances, 11 chances, etc. In leagues where there are more than 14 teams, the total nukber of chances would be adjusted accordingly. The random number program would be used to conduct the drawings. In a 14 team league the team with the worst record would have 14 of 105 chances (13%) to obtain the #1 draft pick, the best team would have 1 chance of 105 ( less than 1%). This should reduce the temptation of playing to lose yet still give the poorer teams decent draft picks but not necessarily one of the first four spots. The process would be reversed for Round Two's top four picks, with the best teams having the most chances to win a high draft pick. 2. Fine Tune the Unlimited Pitching Rule: Let's settle this once and for all. Other leagues have been very successfull in preventing unlimited pitching abuse by controlling the number of unlimited appearences. We currently have no limits which made sense with the completely random draft order. It no longer makes sense now and should be modified. Lets go with any pitcher with an ERA of 5.25 or higher can make 150% of his appearences for starts and/or reliefs. For example a pitcher who meets the unlimited ERA and has made 15 real life starts would be permitted 22 starts. A relief pitcher with 40 reliefs would be allowed 60. This should help to encourage an more realistic approach to using unlimited pitchers. 3. Available Rookies: Let's make all rookies available for the Rookie draft. Beginning with the 1951, 1962, 1930, and 1972 drafts, all the rookies would be available for drafting. I have excluded 1950 since many trades have been made involving draft picks. 4. Reduce League Base Stats: We all realize that DMB does a questionable job of replicating pitchers stats. Any league/game where Lefty Grove is reduced to a below average pitcher must have some certain shortcomings. So until we are convinced that DMB has done something internally to adjust for the difference in pitching across the seasons, we should help our pitchers out by adjusting the base AVG, OBP, and SLG rates. I suggest that each of these rates be reduced by a maximum of 10 points or a minimum of 5 points. This should help some of the pitchers to be more realistic in performance. I welcome your thoughts on these issues be it pro or con. Also in line with the league constitution, I request that formal action be taken for consideration of these proposals. RULES COMMITTEE 5. The SPB Rules Committee will caucus as needed to discuss and vote on any changes to the League Constitution, when so directed by Commissioner. If the proposal is tie-voted by the Rules Committee, the Commissioner will decide if the initiative will be adopted/rejected or be voted on by all the appropriate league members. In any general league vote, a SIMPLE MAJORITY is required for passage. Any league member may initiate a change to the League Constitution by submitting a WRITTEN PROPOSAL to the Commissioner. Best-Jim Talked to Falduto and he came up with some interesting points in regard to Jim's rule proposals. I think the idea that "unlimited" means 150% of real life is OK for starters, but we will have a real problem in the old seasons (especially 1930) for relievers. Unless and until the CM can handle old time pitching stategies we will be woefully short of relief appearances if we adopt the idea that unlimited equals 150% for relievers. In a recent series against the Knights I had all tendencies set to least frequent in regard to pitchers and pinchhitting but the CM used 18 relief appearances including 5 for Yerkes, a guy who was listed only as a setup man. Granted several of the games were close, but my bullpen would be devastated for a month if we had the 150% rule in place. John, You have a valid point. Maybe we should allow relief pitchers to continue to be unlimited. We could also allow relief pitchers to double their appearences. Best-Jim