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Diamond Legends Rules
Once your draft has been run and you know who your players are, the next step is to modify your batting lineup, pitching rotations, bullpen assignments and fielding tendencies.
- You can submit a lineup against left-handed starters, a lineup against right-handed starters, or a lineup for the next three games.
- Pay no attention to the lineup that we gave you by default. It was almost pulled out of a hat - it wasn't even a baseball hat. Come up with your own lineup.
- Your lineup against left-handed starters will be used when a lefty starts against your team.
- Your lineup against right-handed starters will be used when a righty starts against your team. (The different lineups against lefties and righties allows you to platoon players.)
- The lineup for the next three games allows you to set up your lineup for the next three-game series.
- When a catcher has used up his starts in an 18-game week, your backup catchers will begin making starts.
- When setting a lineup, you must have all of your eight defensive positions covered, and a DH.
- You can specify roles for bench players.
- You can specify which catcher should go in the game when your starting catcher needs a rest. You can specify an alternate catcher against left-handed pitchers and an alternate against right-handed pitchers.
- You can specify pinch-hitters against left-handed or right-handed pitchers.
- You can also list for whom you want the pinch-hitters to pinch-hit.
- Again, pay no attention to the rotation we gave you. We're sure you could come up with a better rotation by throwing darts. Come up with your own rotation.
- List your starters for each of the next 18 games.
- A starter can start only once in a three-game series.
- You cannot list a pitcher to start more games than his start rating. For example, if Dolf Luque has a start rating of "4," you cannot list him five times.
- You can list up to four backup starters. These guys will start when one of your regular starters get hurt.
- You also will setup a bullpen.
- Whoever you list as your closer, setup men and long relief probably will come in when you have the lead.
- If you have pitchers not listed in your bullpen, they probably will come in when you're losing.
- A mop-up man may come in when you're far behind.
If you set a tendency to "1," it means you'll be very aggressive in this category. If you set it to "5," it means you won't be as aggressive. You can set offensive and defensive tendencies.
- Offensive tendencies:
- Base Running: 1 means you always will try to take the extra base even at the risk of being thrown out. 5 means you want to advance your runners one base at a time. Like Earl Weaver used to say, "Make outs only at home plate."
- Bunting: 1 means you like to bunt often and play for one run. Move the runner over. 5 means you like to swing away and go for the big inning.
- Hit and Run: 1 means you want to hit and run as often as possible. You have a bunch of pure hitters in the lineup who can put wood on the ball at will. 5 means that you hardly ever want to hit and run. So, if you have a bunch of whiffers, don't hit and run.
- Base Stealing: 1 means try to steal all the time. Get the opposition nervous. Get the pitcher tired throwing to first. Make the catcher throw the ball into center field. 5 means hardly ever try to steal. With Jim Hegan catching for the opposition, the only thing you're going to steal is a piece of bench in your dugout, so let's play it safe.
- Pinch-Hit for Hitter: 1 means that you want to pinch-hit for weak hitters in your lineup to gain a run late in the game. 5 means that you hardly ever want to do it because your bench is weak, and you don't want to jeopardize your defense if the game goes into extra innings.
- Pinch-Hit in Blowout: 1 means that you don't want to risk injury and will take out your regular players in a blowout. 5 means that you don't like taking out your regulars because you believe your high-powered offense can come back from any deficit any time, or you don't trust your bullpen and you have to keep on scoring.
- Defensive tendencies:
- Reliever: 1 means that you want your middle relievers to come in as soon as your starter gets in real trouble. Forget about your starters working through their own jams. You have a strong bullpen and you want to use it. 5 means that you trust your starters to get out of their own jams. Your bullpen also may be weak and your starters, even when tired, are better than your rested relievers.
- Closer: 1 means that you want your closer to finish just about every close game that your team is leading. 5 means that you should give your starters or middle relievers every possible chance to finish the game. Perhaps you don't have a dominant closer that is better than your middle relievers. Perhaps your starters, even when tired, are still better than your closer.
- Pitch-Around: 1 means that you want your staff to pitch around strong hitters whenever possible. 5 means that you should challenge every hitter. You can do this with good pitchers (Bob Gibson didn't have to pitch around anyone), and in deep parks (let them hit the ball 500 feet because it's over 500 to center field and my outfielders can fly).
- Intentional Walks: 1 means that you're willing to walk the tying or leading run if it means facing a weaker hitter. 5 means that you want the opposition to earn everything.
- Infield In: 1 means it's never too early to bring the infield in if you're facing a quality starter. 5 means that you really don't want to do it before the Ninth Inning. Maybe you're playing at Coors Field and big innings, not single runs, will beat you.
- Guarding the Lines: 1 means you want to guard the lines early. 5 means that guarding the lines is a bunch of baloney and only results in cheap hits skipping through where your corner men normally would be.
- Hold Runners: 1 means that you want to hold them all the time. We had a 0.5 in this category, which meant spiking the base runner whenever possible, but we decided to be a non-violent game. We also had to take out the Beaning Tendency. 5 means that you'd rather concentrate on the man with the bat and not open up a hole on the right side of the infield. In other words, hardly ever hold the runner.
Perhaps your team is more like the Cardinals of the mid-1980s: steal bases all the time, except with Jack Clark. So you would want to list team stealing at 1, but Jack Clark's stealing at 5.
There are two additional ratings for the individual tendencies. If you give an individual player a tendency of "0," it means that you want to use your team's tendencies for that player. If you give a player a tendency of "6," it means "never." "1" means most aggressive. "5" means least aggressive.
- Hitting: The individual tendencies are:
- Baserunning
- Bunting
- Hit and Run
- Stealing
- Pull for Pinch-hitter
- Pinch-hit in Blowout
- Pitching: The individual tendencies are:
- Relief Pitching: how aggressive do you want to take out this pitcher for a new reliever.
- Closer: how aggressive do you want to be with your closer when this pitcher is in the ballgame.
- Pitch Around: how frequent do you want to pitch around. "1" whenever there's a weaker hitter next and you have a base to spare. "5" you want to hardly pitch around. "6" means you never want to pitch around.
- Intentional Walks: "1" means give intentional walks frequently. "5" means hardly ever. "6" means never.
- You can list one defensive substitution for each player in your lineups.
- If you have chosen to set batting lineups for left handed and right handed starters, you will be able to set defensive subs for both of these batting lineups. If you have chosen to set a batting lineup for a three game series, you can set defensive subs for each game of the series.
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