The following is from the Manual

PB Value Limitation: Starting after the Rookie Draft in the spring of 1999, Traditional Perpetual teams will be limited by PB value (20-team leagues limit= 120.0, 24-team leagues limit= 115.0) after cutting to 27 players subsequent to the Rookie Draft. This limit will only be enforced at the time teams are required to cut to 27. After that point, the limit may be exceeded. There are not PB limits in REAL TIME leagues.

The limitations will affect roughly 3-5% of perpetual teams every spring.

NOTE: MLB teams can't afford to spend more than a certain level before having to trade higher paid players for lower paid and generally younger players. The PB Value limitations will mimic that situation in our PB Traditional Leagues. The Limits will increase parity and make some pennant races more interesting. We understand that certain successful managers will be coerced into trading away talent to meet the limitations, and regret any inconvenience or pain.


I did some research and found the following source that lists the 2002 Opening Day Payroll for each team

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/2002mlbpayrolls.html

I threw the numbers into Excel and found that the AVERAGE Opening day payroll in 2002 was $67.48 Million.

1.3*67.48 = $87.72 million -- Number of Teams over = 7
1.4*67.48 = $94.47 million -- Number of Teams over = 6
1.5*67.48 = $101.22 million -- Number of Teams over = 4.

If MLB is the model, and if the rules say that the target is to affect only the top percentage of teams then the threshold should be set at 130% or above.

A Threshold of 150% would have affected 4 of the 30 teams in MLB (13%) which is far greater than the target of 3-5%. Based on this new research I think that maybe the number should be (140 or 150%). 130% may be a compromise.... but anything lower than 130% would affect too many teams.