DYNASTY League Baseball Powered by Pursue the Pennant is available in the original board version format as well as the new online format for Apple Mac, Windows, iOS and Android OS.

The most similar seasons to the 2020 season are the 1981 and 1994 seasons. In 1981, teams played anywhere from 103 to 110 games. It created quite a few memorable player cards such as Andre Dawson 1981 great offensive production (.918 OPS) coupled with stellar defense (A+/65/-2) and speed BR (9), Steal (8/4/1). Then there is Tony Gywnn’s 1994 player card that flirted with .400 (.394). 2020 promises more of the same small sample size theatre.

Here’s whats new for the 2020 season player card release:

The end of Use: (Minor League callup %)
September 40 man roster expansion ended in 2019 so the Use % rule which was designed for September call-ups is no longer needed. Players will no longer have Use % ratings going forward.

No Durability F/Major rated players
MLB replaced the 60 Day IL with the 45 Day IL in 2020. The 45 Day IL doesn’t match with the F/Major Injury chart so there will not be any F/Major injury ratings assigned on the 2020 season player cards.

New expired Use AB rule
Use AB players will be able to continue playing vs. LH or RH once they have reached their AB limit. However, once they have reached their AB limit the player will be assigned Pitcher Batting Card #5 along with a two grade reduction of his Power rating. This will simplify the Use AB rule and allow players like backup catchers to play even though they have Use AB limitations.

Revised Use 10 AB rule for starting
Use: (Utility AB vs. LH, AB vs. RH) Indicates player wasn’t a full-time player and was used in a utility or platoon role. A player with a utility “Use” rating can only be used for the number of AB listed. For example, a player with utility (vs. LH 55, vs. RH 114) can be used for 55 AB vs. LH pitchers and 114 AB vs. RH pitchers.

In order for a hitter with a utility “Use” rating to start he must have at least 10 AB vs. the type of pitcher (LH or RH) starting against.

In order for a hitter with a utility “Use” rating to pinch hit he must have at least 20 AB vs. the type of pitcher (LH or RH) starting against.

Overworked Pitchers REM IP calculation
If you have played with the 1994 season, you may have realized the Overworked Pitchers REM IP are already being prorated based on a shorter season. Here is the calculation formula: REM IP = IP x (Your season length)/60 x 1.5

Abundance of Rookie player cards
Because so many players are being used during the 2020 season there will be an abundance of Rookie player cards highlighted by top rookies Luis Robert, Casey Mize, Kyle Lewis, Jake Cronenworth, James Karinchak, Dylan Carlson and Devin Williams.

How to handle contracts for players opting out of 2020 season
If your league is using the Official League rules, players who are still under contract may be released without a buyout if they opted out of the 2020 season. You also may choose to keep that player under contract if you wish instead of releasing him into free agency.

Texas new Globe Life Field and Sahlen Field in Buffalo
Globe Life Field and Sahlen Field will be included in the 2020 season ball park charts along with updates to Oracle Park and Marlins Park dimensions.

The new ball park update differentiates between “turf” (from the 70’s 80’s and 90’s) and “fieldturf” (the new stuff used this century). The old turf will use the turf values on the charts as before. FieldTurf will be viewed as “grass” for the purposes of the results charts, since it plays mostly like grass and doesn’t play excessively fast like the old AstroTurf did. Ball Parks affected by this will be:
Tropicana: Went to FieldTurf in 2000.
Rogers Centre/Syydome Went to FieldTurf in 2005
Chase Field: Went to FieldTurf in 2019
Marlins Park: Went to FieldTurf in 2020
Global Life Park: FieldTurf is new in 2020

New MLB rules
New three batters faced for pitchers MLB rule is now an option for Private Draft Leagues and the default for 2020 Season Replay Leagues.

New 26 man Rosters and 28 man September Rosters are now an option for Private Draft Leagues and the default for Season Replay Leagues.

New iPad and iPhone iOS App v1.16 now available at Test Flight App as well as Android at Google Play
v1.16 includes the new 2020 season player cards and new game rules.

Order your 2020 season player card set at the Ticket Window today!

Play on Apple Mac, Windows, iPad and iPhone on iOS and Android with the new DYNASTY League Baseball Powered by Pursue the Pennant Online version!

The new 2020v3 Official Rulebook has just been released and can be downloaded in PDF format at the DYNASTY League Baseball Powered By Pursue the Pennant site or in the Facebook Group file section. The new sections are highlighted with my capsule comments below:

NEW! Super Tough JAM + rating
JAM+ pitchers have additional situation ability in that
they use the RR grey situation STRIKEOUTS results
instead of blue normal situation 1B and 2B results on
those two result lines in jam situations.

MC: Bringing back the Pursue the Pennant Super Tough JAM rating.
Future project is to rate published past seasons for JAM + ratings.

NEW! Batter HOME RUN result indexed by
Pitcher HR per 9 IP for Pitchers with ZERO Deep
Drive? result # vs. that Left/Right side
Batter card HOME RUN result on line #9 AND Pitcher
with ZERO Deep Drive? # vs. that Left/Right side:
Roll one die… if number >= (HR per 9 IP) x 10 = Deep
Drive?.
EXAMPLES: If pitcher has 0.1 HR per 9 IP, dice roll of
#1-9 is Deep Drive? result (#0 HOME RUN result).
If pitcher has 0.4 HR per 9 IP, dice roll of # 4-9 is Deep
Drive? result (#0-3 HOME RUN result).

MC: Low HR/9 pitchers are better replicated especially pitchers with low sample size IP.

NEW! Clutch: Red
Occurs whenever tying or go-ahead run is on base or
at bat from 8th inning on, or at anytime when there
are runners in scoring position with two outs.

MC: Game balancing reversion to original 8th inning Pursue the Pennant rule.

NEW! Jam: Orange
Occurs whenever tying or go ahead run is on base or
at bat from 8th inning on, or at anytime when there
are runners in scoring position with two outs.

MC: Game balancing reversion to original 8th inning Pursue the Pennant rule.

Umpire?
Tired Situation result injury check: If you roll 514-540
and pitcher is tired, use yellow situation walk result
and check for injury to pitcher.

NEW! NOTE: Pitcher with NO STUFF Tired Situation result
injury check for rolls of #514-540 goes into effect
when pitcher reaches 0 Endurance.

MC: The reason why there is a potential injury with NO STUFF is that often that is a signal that the pitchers mechanics are out of sync and anytime mechanics are out of sync you are more injury prone. The change to 0 Endurance before Tired Situation result injury check goes into effect, is to prevent Managers from getting “ambushed” by a quick offensive explosion vs. the starting pitcher and not being able to get a pitcher warmed up soon enough to get him out of the game before he is injured.

Pitcher Batting
NEW! Pitchers must have at least 45 AB to be used as
a pinch hitter. When facing a pitcher batting, who
has less than 45 ABs, pitcher on mound uses the JAM
situation in all situations even if the pitcher on the
mound does not have a JAM situation rating.

MC: With starting pitchers pitching fewer IP and therefore getting fewer AB, wanted to open up the opportunity for good hitting pitchers like Silver Slugger Adam Wainwright and Michael Lorenzen to pinch hit who might fall short of AB cut-off.

REMOVED: CONTROL chart injury check: Check for injury to
pitcher if pitching with Low ‘reduced” Endurance
(Starters on 3 days rest or Relievers pitching in 2nd or
3rd consecutive day of work).

MC: The CONTROL chart injury check was put in before the new OVERWORKED rule and is no longer needed to regulate IP because the OVERWORKED rule caps IP.  Also with the new Season Replay play mode, wanted to give past season teams with smaller pitching staffs more flexibility.

We are celebrating 35 years of DYNASTY League Baseball and Pursue the Pennant September 13-15 with two important Pennant Race games between the Brewers and Cardinals at Busch Stadium!

On our last Busch Stadium Tour/Tournament in 2014, we received VIP treatment with Batting Practice Field Passes and a guided tour of the Cardinals press box from Cardinals Director of Communications Brian Bartow where we were introduced to the media. We are hoping for the same access this year.

On Friday morning, September 13 we depart from Chicago (connections from Milwaukee) on Amtrak’s Lincoln service arriving in St. Louis for the game that night vs. Milwaukee Brewers.

On Saturday morning, we will continue our Tournament from our Marriott Renaissance hotel and then visit the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in Ball Park Village across from Busch Stadium.  Later that night we will be going to the Brewers at Cardinals game.

Sunday morning our tournament finishes up on the long distance Amtrak Texas Eagle train as we head to Chicago Union Station.

We have had several Busch Stadium Tour/Tournaments and they have all been tremendous fun.  Hope to see you there!

For reservations call 561-494-2711 or email orders@designdepot.com

Reservations include:
– round trip rail fare from Chicago to St. Louis
– two nights hotel
– two tickets to Brewers at Cardinals games

Double occupancy $377
Triple occupancy $336
Single occupancy $499

Deadline for reservations is Wednesday, July 31.  Space is limited so make your reservation early.

– Mike

NEW! OVERWORKED status
All MLB teams have season IP cap ranges that they use for two reasons:

1) injury prevention
2) decreased performance

Stephen Strasburg’s shutdown in 2012 is the most memorable example. The other reason for the new “Overworked” status is to more realistically replicate volume vs. rate performance.  If two pitchers have the same ERA and one pitcher pitches 225 IP and the other pitches 150 IP the pitcher pitching 225 IP is more valuable.

Pitchers will be able to pitch up to x1.5 their actual MLB IP.

If a pitcher starts a game over the IP limit, they will be designated
as “Overworked” that will be indicated by some color on the roster.

Overworked pitchers will be degraded by having them always be “tired” and use the tired situation results, which removes all situation modifiers (on, off, jam) and includes
the UMPIRE chart result extra chances of injury from the injury chart.  In addition, “Overworked” pitchers will have their Durability rating reduced by two grades (i.e. a pitcher with “B” Durability will be downgraded to “D” Durability).

NEW! 10 Day DL
Past seasons that included the 15 Day DL will have that option.  Current seasons will have the new 10 Day DL exclusively.

NEW! Bringing reliever into the game not warmed up injury risk
If you bring a reliever into a game who is not warmed up,”tired” situation status will include UMPIRE result injury check up until the pitcher is warmed up properly.

NEW! The Opener
The rule preventing removal of a pitcher prior to 4 IP with 0 ER will be reduced to 1 IP with 0 ER.  Short relievers will need to have a GS to be an opener and will be restricted by SPOT ratings as well if they had <10 GS.  You will see openers marked in the Endurance rating with “Short/7” and also SPOT start rating.

NEW! 2018 season player card set size and release date
Once again the new season player card set will be 1,080 player cards averaging 36 players per team. First pre-orders for 2018 season player card sets will begin shipping in late November and continue with all pre-orders shipped before Christmas.  You can place your order now at the Ticket Window.

2018 season player card set will be available for DYNASTY League Baseball Online in early to mid December.

NEW! 2018 season World Series pre-play
This is the 10th season that you will be able to pre-play the World Series with the Board version player cards and with DYNASTY League Baseball Online.  Last year Blue Jays radio broadcaster Mike Wilner pre-played the 2017 World Series and EACH game had the winner correct as well as Springer as MVP.

You can follow some of the more interesting 2018 season player ratings that I come across and tweet by following @PursuePennant and @MikeCieslinski on Twitter.

Shohei Ohtani
Plans are to include separate 2018 season  hitting and pitching player cards for Shohei Ohtani.  Not 100% sure yet that separate player cards can be built until the 2018 player card database is built.  If for some reason it turns out separate player cards can’t be built, Ohtani would have a pitcher player card and pitcher batting card # and power rating assignments.

NEW! 2018 Ball Park charts
Angel Stadium will reflect a new lower wall height in right field.

DYNASTY League Baseball Online Windows and Mac OS browsers and Silverlight

In July of 1988, the very first Pursue the Pennant Tour Tournament took place as the Metrodome Express rolled out of Milwaukee’s Amtrak station.  Thirty years later we return to Minneapolis on the Target Field Express!

If you have never been on one of the Tour/Tournaments you are missing out.  We have made new lifetime friends that have gone on to join leagues with us or participate in other Tour Tournaments together.  Of course, I will be there to lead our Tour and organize the Tournament.

The Greatest Team tourney will be held on the Empire Builder observation car, Minneapolis beautifully restored Union Station and Marriott City Center hotel (Brewers have used this as their official hotel in the past so you may end up riding the hotel elevator with Ryan Braun and Lorenzo Cain) just a few blocks from Target Field.

We hope to have several of the original 1988 group on this Tour Tournament and a huge turn out that will include DYNASTY League Baseball fans in Minnesota that can attend the game with us.

We also hope to have Twins 2017 Manager of the Year and Brewers Hall of Famer Paul Molitor meet our group before the game and get a group photo with “The Ignitor”.  Back in 1988, Brewers and now Cubs Broadcaster Pat Hughes greeted our group.  Paul Molitor helped start Pursue the Pennant when he appeared in a feature story on the cover of the Milwaukee Business Journal playing the prototype for Pursue the Pennant and DYNASTY League Baseball on the dugout of Milwaukee County Stadium.

Itinerary:
Friday, May 18
Dp Chi, IL Union Station 2:15
Dp Milwaukee, WI Amtrak station  3:52 PM   Empire Builder
Note: If you are coming from Chicago, IL you can connect on our same Empire Builder train at 2:15P
Ar Minneapolis, MN Union station 10:03 PM

Saturday, May 19
Tour of Target Field
Brewers at Twins Target Field  6:10 P

Sunday, May 20
Dp Minneapolis, MN Union station 8:00 AM
Ar Milwaukee, WI Amtrak station 2:07 PM
Ar Chi, IL Union Station 3:55 PM

Can’t wait to meet and see you all there!

Mike Cieslinski

Reservations:
Round trip fare on Empire Builder
Ticket to Brewers at Twins game May 19
Target Field tour
Marriott City Center Hotel

Double: $367
Single: $494
Triple: $325

Minnesota fans: Ticket to game and tour only $60

Call 561-494-2711
or email: orders@designdepot.com to make reservations.

Space is limited: Deadline for reservations is Monday, February 26