1. General Overview
                    2. Schedule and Playoffs
                    3. Sim Schedule
                    4. Submitting Your Roster
                    5. Roster Limits
                    6. Payroll Caps
                    7. Contract Renewals
                    8. Free Agency Period
                    9. Rookie Draft
                  10. Releasing Players
                  11. Low Minors / Free Agents During the Season
                  12. Trades
                  13. Contract Extensions
                  14. Fair Play

1. General Overview
The United League is an alternate history baseball simulation using Out of the Park Baseball 10.  Owners manage teams composed of historical major league players on fictional teams. The premise of the league is the major leagues went bankrupt in 1950 and a smaller league emerged in its place (see league background). The league began with eight teams in 1951, expanded to 10 in 1955 and to 12 in 1962.

The Commissioner is responsible for:
* Simulating games, maintaining rosters, completing transactions, and updating the website
* Keeping owners informed of general league news
* Clarifying, modifying, and enforcing league rules
* Ensuring all trades are in the interest of league fairness
* Acting as final arbiter in all disputes and rule interpretations
* Recruiting new managers as needed

Owners are responsible for:
* trying to field a competitive team in good faith
* submitting lineups and rosters regularly
* participating in contract extensions and drafts
* writing a brief year-end summary each season

Owners who miss several sims without notification will be considered inactive and may be replaced.
* Teams with inactive owners may fall temporarily into league control. The commissioner may run the team on an interim basis or appoint another manager to do so.
* Interim-managed teams may not initiate any trades, but during the free agency period the commissioner will manage or delegate their free agent bidding.
* During the amateur draft, the computer will make selections for the inactive team.

2. Schedule and Playoffs
* The league consists of two six-team divisions and plays a 160- game schedule. Each team plays divisional opponents 20 times and non-divisional opponents 10 times.
* World Series: The two division champions will meet in a best-of-seven World Series. Home field advantage will go to the team with a) the best regular season record, or if tied, b) the best head-to-head record or c) the best head-to-head run differential, or d) the better overall run differential. The venue will shift 2-3-2, as it did historically.

3. Sim Schedule
* The league simulates a half month at a time, to the 1st and 16th of each month. In close pennant races, September may be played in three sims.
* The sim schedule varies based on the time commitments of the commissioner and owners. Check the league website for the current sim schedule.
* The sim sometimes takes two nights to complete, due to the large number of files to be uploaded and the time required to update Circuit Clouts. The commissioner will notify the league if the sim is delayed.

4. Submitting Your Roster
* Make sure you are using the most current league file by checking the league home page.
* If you do not wish to make any changes, send an email to the commissioner with “no changes” in the subject or body. to avoid the risk of appearing to be an inactive owner.
* Lineups vs. left-handed and right-handed pitching should be completed by the owner. The DH lineups do not need to be complete since the DH rule is not in effect.
* Depth charts should be completed to instruct the game's AI how to handle substitutions during the course of the sim.
* Active rosters are limited to 25 players, expanding to 40 in September.
* The league default is 5-man rotations.
* Players may play only positions where they have position ratings, except in extreme circumstances, such as injuries to all players rated at a position. The exceptions are outfielders, which may play all three outfield positions, and leftward moves along the defensive spectrum, from more skilled to less skilled positions.
*Defensive Spectrum (1B-LF-RF-3B-CF-2B-SS) - Players may play a position for which they have no rating, provided the new position is to the left of a position where they have a position rating.

Managing Your Team
Management of your roster consists of six phases throughout the year: payroll cap calculation (mid October), contract renewals (October/November), free agency period (February), rookie draft (March), trades (through Aug. 1), and contract extensions (throughout season).

5. Roster Limits
During the season (April 1 to October 1), your roster must meet the following requirements:
* Payroll must be below your payroll cap.
* Roster must contain between 50 and 58 players.  If you are over/under this range on Opening Day, the Commissioner reserves the right to add/subtract players.
 
6. Payroll Caps
* Payroll caps are calculated each October after the World Series. Each team's payroll cap is determined by the formula (Revenue + cash + $5 million), where revenue is calculated as a three-year average.
* The Contracts page is the authoritative source for payroll caps. The "Current Budget" listed on your Front Office page should be the same number, but when they differ go by the one listed on the Contracts page.
* The maximum salary cap is $80 million.
* A team's payroll cap may not change, up or down, by more than $5 million each year.
* The league minimum salary is $300k. There are no minor league contracts.
* No team may execute any transaction (including contract renewal or trade) that pushes their payroll above their payroll cap, unless the overage is eliminated on the same sim day with another transaction.
* The Cash Maximum for each club is $10 million. At the end of each season, any cash holdings above this amount will be distributed through revenue sharing.

7. Contract Renewals
* GMs may negotiate player contracts at any time during the season. Only players in the final year of a contract are eligible for renewal.

Players whose contracts end fall into three categories
* AUTO extension (+) --- Players with less than 5 years of major league service time (MLST) can be renewed for one year at the same salary or released.
* ARB eligible (Arb) --- Players with 5-9 years of MLST are eligible for salary arbitration. You have the right to retain these players on a one-year contract, but an arbitration panel will determine the salary.
* FREE AGENT (FA) -- Players with more than 9 years of MLST are eligible for free agency. If you do not renew the contracts of these players, they will go into the pool of free agents.

Sequence of decisions
* After new payroll caps are released, you will be asked to decide which ARB eligible players you would like to take to arbitration. All other players will drop into the free agent pool.
* Arbitartion panels will make their salary decisions, which are final and irreversible.
* If arbitration decisions push your payroll over your cap, you must take appropriate measures before Opening Day (including releasing AUTO renewals, making trades, opting out of FA) to get it under the cap.
* After arbitration hearings, you will be asked to decide which AUTO renewal players you wish to keep. These players are signed to one-year contacts at the same salary. All other players drop into the pool of free agents.

8. Free Agency Period
* The Free Agency period is February. There will be three rounds of normal bidding, (through Feb. 7, Feb. 14, Feb. 21) plus two additional auction round(s).
* Clubs over their payroll cap may not participate in free agency bidding.
* The minimum bid for a player is $300k.
* Any free agent signing that puts a team over its payroll cap will be immediately disallowed, and the player involved will return to the free agent pool.
* FA auction rounds
     * After the third round of FA bidding, GMs may bid on the remaining unsigned players.
     * GMs will email a list of players and salary offers to the Commissioner. All bids are for one year. 
     * Bids are resolved in descending order, with ties broken in favor of the club with the worse record in the previous season.
These signings will occur outside the game, so greedy players who were not signed during the FA period will be forced to accept smaller salaries. This is a good way for teams to fill out their rosters on the cheap to meet the minimum 48 player roster requirement, so GMs should budget some funds for this. This rule will also prevent greedy players from becoming perpetual holdouts by forcing them to accept smaller contracts.

9. Rookie Draft
* All major league players with at least 1,000 career at-bats or 300 career innings pitched are eligible for the United League, as well as selected players who narrowly miss these thresholds.  Players will enter the draft the same year as their real-life major league debut.
* Rookie Draft occurs on March 1.
* Rookie class will be published in mid-January, but rookie ratings are subject to change until just before the rookie draft.
* Draft order is determined by reverse order of finish.  Ties will be broken by head-to-head record, then head-to-head runs.
* Draft order will be Straight, 1-12, 1-12, etc. and will last no more than 5 rounds.
* Teams may not pass a round, but may switch to computer picks at any time.
* Draft picks may be traded.
* All rookies are signed to one-year contracts at fixed salaries.
     * 1^st round picks: top 5 draft picks will earn salaries of $2500, $2400, $2300, $2200, and $2100 (in thousands) respectively.  All other 1st round picks will earn $2000
     * 2nd round picks will earn $1500 (first six) and $1000 (last six)
     * 3rd round picks will earn $750 (first six) and $500 (last six)
     * 4th and 5th round picks will earn $300.
     * At the end of their first year, players may either sign a new contract, extended for one year at the current salary, or be released.
* Undrafted rookies will become free agents and will be assigned to teams in the Double-A American Association.

10. Releasing Players
* The only time of the year you can release players for free is when they are out of contract between Oct. 16 and Jan. 1.
* There are two specific sim cycles devoted to releasing players: one just before Arbitration hearings, and one just after.
* You may release a player under contract at any time, but you must buy out the remainder of his contract.
* Any player released may not be signed by the same team for at least 30 days.

11. Low Minors / Free Agents During the Season
* On Opening Day, all unsigned free agents and undrafted rookies will be assigned to teams in the independent, Double-A level American Association.
* AA players are treated the same as free agents may be signed to a league minimum contract (300k/1 year) at any time after the first sim of the season.
* Beginning March 1 (after Free Agency), teams may claim any unsigned free agents or undrafted rookies on a first-come basis, to 300k/1 year contracts.
* To claim a player email the Commissioner and the player will be added to your roster.  If you sign the player in-game, please notify the Commissioner so he can update the Contracts page.
* If multiple teams claim the same AA player during the same sim, the team with the worst record from the previous season gets the player.
* Players will remain in AA until they either retire or sign a contract with a UL team.

12. Trades
* Teams may trade players, draft picks, and cash.
* Trade deadline is August 1.
* Teams must honor the remaining terms of all player contract, both salary and remaining years.
* Teams may not execute any trade that causes them to exceed their payroll cap.
* A team already over its payroll cap may not execute a trade that increase its payroll.
* Executing a trade:
     - Both parties must send a confirmation email to the commissioner.
     - All trades will be processed as soon as possible.
     - The Commissioner reserves the right to disallow any trade deemed grossly unbalanced or harmful to the league.

13. Contract Extensions
* You may offer extensions at any time during the season.
* Veterans with at least 9 years of major league service time (MLST) will be lost to free agency unless they sign a contract extension.

14. Fair Play
* All owners should in good faith try to be competitive and field their best team. No team should deliberately lose games for any reason or engage in behavior that could be harmful to the league or its players.