Thanks Leon! Hi Phil!
The teams that are still available are the tigers, reds, phillies, white sox, senators, beaneaters. When we started in 1901, the managers got the exact 1901 team. As we progress you can trade the players you got and draft the rookies for that year. so if you want the Phillies for example, there are currently only 14 players on that team (most of which were with them in '01 in real life). So after you join we will hold a one round draft for the best rookies and the order is decided based on where each team finished last year. Most of the open manager teams did really bad last year so new managers will most likely get top rookie picks this year. Once that one round is over, I announce a time that the supplemental draft will occur. At that time you go in and pick between all the remaining 1904 rookies and all the 19th century players. Its sort of a free for all so you have to act quick. You keep your 1904 rookie draftee and any other '04 rookies you draft until you trade them or they retire. you only get the 19th century players for one season.
Regarding time, it is not time consuming at all. It will take you maybe 20 minutes to set up your team once you have drafted. Then I sym three games a day which gives you plenty of time to adjust rosters. After the first ten games or so I personally only check my teams progress once a day or so. PLUS, there are an infinite amount of other leagues you can join (At one time I was in 10 leagues at once!). I would recommend going there, signing up and doing some random public league to get the feel of it. they have deadball era leagues, ruth era, modern, etc.
Hopefully that clears a bit up. try a random league and if you like it, email me and ill get you a team
