TML Hi-Lo Welcome Letter

WELCOME TO THE LATEST TML PROJECT!

December 21, 2012

Fellow TMLers

Mike and I have been talking for years about starting a league based on the Hi Low concept with very few rules.

We were both in Jack Kohn's National Hi-Lo League (NHL) in the mid 70's using APBA. The whole HiLo concept was Jack (and brother Bob's) idea and, if you know Jack, had his touches all over it.

Essentially HiLo is this....

1) It is not a continuous ownership league. We have continuous owners, but not continuous teams.. It is structured to be a league with relaxed rules, limits and a chance for you to manage your favorite team or player for a season with no continuous ownership.

2) The Major League team with the Highest real life winning percentage is coupled with the Major League team with the Lowest winning percentage, working toward the middle until there are 15 such pairings.

3) We will have a lottery for the first year draft order to select team combinations (with Pat, Mike and myself picking last). In succeeding years the combination drafting order will be in order of finish. This will be done via eMail with a 2 hour time limit for selection.

4) Since there will be 14 paired teams (and 15 original combinations) there will be a one round draft allowing each team to pick one player from the unselected combination. That draft will be in the reverse order of the team selection and be called the Orphan Pair Draft. This draft will also be done via eMail.

5) At the conclusion of this phase, there will be a 24 hour period when owners may trade full franchise combinations. Once that period concludes, trading will be open until the roster cutdown date of February 23, 2013.

5) The Diamond Mind rosters for each of the two teams will have been reduced using criteria listed in the Constitution on the TML HiLo web site located at:

TML Hi-Lo Web Page

(The Web site is still under construction but the constitution and a complete listing of the available pairings for the 2012 Baseball season is located there)

6) All limits for both players and pitchers are detailed in the constitution, but here are some..

Players with over 300 at bats are unlimited

Pitchers with an ERA of over 4.40 are unlimited

7) There will be two 7 team divisions and the season will consist of 2 "halves". The first half will consist of games outside your division and the second half will consist of games within the division. The winners of the division titles for each half will play for the division title with the winners advancing to the Hi-Lo Championship. (If a team wins both halves, then they automatically advance to the Hi-Lo Championship.)

8) The season will consist of 7 months with 2 series home and away each month, except for the first month when there will be 3 series home and away. The season will be 154 games.

For our first season, based on the 2012 Major League season, the combinations will be as follows:

Washington Nationals/Houston Astros

Cincinnati Reds/Chicago Cubs

New York Yankees/Colorado Rockies

Oakland A's/Minnesota Twins

Atlanta Braves/Cleveland Indians

San Francisco Giants/Miami Marlins

Baltimore Orioles/Boston Red Sox

Texas Rangers/Kansas City Royals

Tampa Bay Rays/Toronto Blue Jays

LA Angels/New York Mets

Detroit Tigers/Seattle Mariners

St. Louis Cardinals/San Diego Padres

LA Dodgers/Pittsburgh Pirates

Chicago White Sox/Arizona D-Backs

Milwaukee Brewers/Philadelphia Phillies

I am attaching an Excel spreadsheet with the rosters and limitations for each team as well as the database containing only the qualifying players on the existing Major League teams. We have not combined the franchises yet, but will once the Orphan Franchise draft is concluded. The Excel spreadsheet does have the combinations combined with each player's associated limits. You will see that the limits are very liberal.

If this sounds like fun to you, we would love to have you. Simply drop either Mike or myself an eMail no later than January 3rd. The combination dispersal draft will be held on January 15th.

First come, first served. Currently, Mike, Pat Barry and myself have signed up for the ride.

Best/Jim