Senior League of Offseason Play (SLOP) (OOTP13)
 

SLOP is a fast-sim experience hosted here at FOFC comprised of twenty teams. We're now in our 30th season.

The difference between SLOP and your granddad's OOTP league include:

SLOP is fast-sim OOTP for the player who wants to play without being forced to turn his online league into a second job. We sim the season every other week, with the off-season simmed in the "off" week, but sims only occur about 4 days a week, making it a lot easier to keep up with your team. Since June, we've been using Out of the Park Baseball 13 simulation engine. (We started with OOTP12)

Like always with fast-sim, it's possible to set your team up and not check in everyday. It's great for people who enjoy the solo experience, but want a bit more of a challenge playing against live people.

The basics of SLOP:

Two leagues (one DH, one non-DH) of eight teams each playing in a single table. The top 3 teams from each league qualifies for the playoffs. The 2nd and 3rd place teams play in a best-of-five game Elimination Series, with the winner taking on the top seed in the LCS (best-of-seven) with the pennant winners taking on each other in a (best-of-nine) tilt called the Sunset Series.

Mid-season break. SLOP took fast-sim and made it better. Teams now get a chance in the middle of the season to stop, make deals, sign FAs and draft players.

Financials are static. The salary cap is an even $100 million. For the past few years, it's been legal now to trade cap space for the current season, as well as draft picks for the current year. This adds a layer of gamesmanship and keeps teams who might be out of the playoff hunt engaged in the race by dangling an asset that free-spending teams might be able to use for their chance at a title.

Restricted free agents. SLOP is at the core, still a concept league. We were the first league to give owners a chance to create a player from birth to retirement in the LEGACY player rule. We retired that rule in favor of a FRANCHISE player that could be designated from any home-grown player on your roster who could spend an uncapped career with one team. The FRANCHISE rule is being phased out in favor of the new Restricted Free Agent designation. Each year, owners can designate one would-be upcoming free agent as their RFA and have the right to match any offer that player receives on the open market.

Draftees from in-house feeder league SLOP has its own feeder leader, STREP which houses all of our future draftees. So you can follow a guy from the time he's 13 all the way through retirement. See a guy you like before he's 17 and want to sign him early like an international scout? Our Future Franchise Player auction gives you the chance to offer him a huge signing bonus and pluck him out of the draft pool 2-3 years early.

Draft Lottery. Tired of tanking teams tanking to gain draft picks? Looking for an exciting way to end the year when you're team is on the skids? In SLOP, we've got a draft lottery that keeps it interesting for all non-playoff teams.

Three teams are over the cap: New York, Regina and San Diego. I need to adjust the tv revenues so that teams have the right amount, but...the cap is set to $100m regardless of that.

Luckily, there are lots of teams under..and Milwaukee is at just over $68m and Montreal at $71m. So scour those rosters and let's get it together. I'll post the schedule for next week by Friday.

jesus mary and joseph - who wants to trade? can we have some contact info - so I can begin wheelin' and dealin'. I have 4 guys making over $20m.

I think a few of them will be over here in the next day or so. Shoeless Joe (
ShoelessJ03) is already over here (Milwaukee). The rest of them should be posting or registering if they haven't already.

toronto is here and Open for business sir!!!

Hey gang, here's the new league forum.

Any openings? Would love to get in on this.

It's evolved to a 18-team league (AL & NL) with fictional players, modern financials and where three teams in each league makes the playoffs. We use OOTP13, have a feeder league that comprises the entirety of our draft and a newly implemented NBA-style draft lottery for non-playoff qualifiers.

It's a fun, low-key league that sims a season every other week. If you're interested, please feel free to hit me up via PM. We have no openings currently,but will expand for the right owner.

Here's an update to that first post:

DIVISIONAL PLAY When we added 20 teams, we went to a divisional schedule that's balanced. Now we have two leagues of two divisions each with five teams. Gives teams a shot at getting to the playoffs by just beating 4 other clubs. We still have a 3rd spot for the wild card team in each league too.

EXPANDED PLAYOFFS? SOMETIMES.. One of the side effects of divisional play, is sometimes one division has a weak champ and qualifies for the post-season despite not being one of the best teams in their league. We fixed that problem in SLOP by expanded the playoffs ONLY in the years where a division champ finishes 4th or 5th best in their league. When it happens, we allow 5 teams per league. Makes it more fun for all, but top seeds still get a bye all the way to the LCS.

Cap space trading: We continue to turn unused cap space into an asset through the ability to deal cap space for the current season. It helps those teams at mid-season thinking they'll go for it, as well as others who want to make a run at the start of a year.

Long story short, as we head into 2013 and our 30th season, SLOP is alive and kicking. Interested in fast-sim? Hit me up.

Next season, SLOP will switch to 3 sims rather than 2, so we'll sim the season in thirds rather than in just half.

The Portland Thorns are in their 3rd year as an expansion club, in SLOP's Nationwide League (no-DH) and we're looking for an owner for them. If you're interested, drop me a note.