Preamble
We the people,
in order to form an enjoyable league; to prove once and for all that we all in
fact need to get a life; to secure the blessing of the fantasy gods and not be
advanced upon in H2H playoffs; and to establish an endless set of rules to
give crafty owners new and innovative loopholes to discover, hereby ordain and
establish this league constitution.
I. Object and
Purpose
The object of this league will be to assemble 27 players
(plus up to 2 players on the DL) regardless of position, whose cumulative
statistics, compiled and measured by the methods described in the
constitution, are superior to those of all the other league teams.
II. Teams
A. The
league will consist of 12 teams for each season.
B. League
teams are permitted to have multiple owners.
How these owners handle the duties is entirely up to them, and is not
the responsibility of the Commissioner.
C. Each
team’s name, color scheme, motto, hiring policies, dress code, end of year
bonuses, sexual harassment policies, waiver wire practices and corporate
philosophies are left to the owners.
D. League
Teams shall remain active during the entire season.
III. Major
League Rosters
A. Each team roster will consist of up to 29 active major league
players (2 DL spots) and 6 minor league players (no DL slots).
B. A
team’s active roster will consist of the following positions:
1 Catcher
1 First Baseman
1 Second Baseman
1 Shortstop
1 Third Baseman
1 Middle Infielder (2B or SS)
1 Corner Infielder (1B or 3B
5 Outfielders
1 Utility player (any offensive position)
3 Starting Pitchers
3 Relief Pitchers
3 Pitchers (either SP or RP)
C. The
remaining players (up to 5) on the active major league roster not included in
a given day’s lineup will be considered “on the bench” and will not
accumulate any statistics.
D. Each team
may place up to two disabled players on its active roster in the designated DL
spot and an additional player can be added from the Free Agent pool.
E. Position
eligibility will be determined by the league host site.
Currently the league will be hosted by Yahoo, which constitutes 5 games
started or 10 games played as the bench mark for position eligibility.
IV. Minor
League Rosters
A. A
team’s supplemental roster consists of 6 minor league players currently
playing for any minor league club. These players can be acquired through the
minor league draft, free agency, or trades. At no time may this roster exceed
6, including disabled players. Additionally, this roster may not contain any
players included on the 25-man major league roster on opening day.
B. When a
player is promoted to the major league from a minor league roster, that owner
can add him to his active roster (assuming he has been added to Yahoo's player
list). These players can be promoted at the manager's discretion or remain on
the minor league roster until he is no longer eligible to remain there (e.g.,
at the beginning of the following season he is now on the major league
roster). In order to allow for this move an active player must be waived to
allow for the new player's addition. The
vacated minor league roster spot may be filled with a minor league free agent.
C. If an owner chooses not to promote a minor league player,
even though he was added to the Yahoo player listing, that player shall remain
on the free agent list in Yahoo. It is the responsibility of all league owners
to not add players to their rosters that are on another owner’s minor league
roster.
D. There is no roster requirement for minor league rosters.
All six players may consist of any position desired by the owner.
E. All minor league rosters will be able to be viewed and
maintained on the league webpage.
F. Demoted
major league players may not be moved to a minor league roster.
V.
League Settings
A. League
teams will accumulate statistics of its active major league roster in the
following categories:
Offense – Runs, Home Runs, RBI, Stolen Bases, Walks, Batting Average
Pitching
– Wins, Saves, Holds, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP
B. League
teams are ranked from first to last place in each of the scoring categories
and assigned a point value for each place.
Therefore, in a 12-team league, first place in a category nets 12
points; second place 11 points, and so on down to 1 point for 12th
place.
C. The
League Team with the most points at the end of the season across all twelve
categories will be the Chumpion. Oops,
I meant Champion. The hosting
site will handle any tiebreakers.
D. Waiver
order will be determined following the draft and will reflect the reverse
order of the draft. For example,
the team with the first pick in the major league draft will get the top waiver
wire priority. Waiver priority
will be adjusted throughout the year as successful claims are made.
Any successful waiver wire claims will result in the team’s waiver
priority be moved to last.
E. Waiver
priority for minor league players will be determined by reversed league
standings.
F. Waivers
shall last 2 days. Any players
that are dropped during the season will retain their draft round value.
G. There
will be an innings pitched cap, for both relievers and starters, of 1750
innings.
VI.
Major League Draft
A. The
league shall conduct a live draft within 4 weeks of the beginning of each
major league season. Draft dates
are negotiable by league members. Owners
that cannot attend the draft on the designated date are permitted to use
substitute drafters.
B. In the
first season of the league, there will be 27 rounds in the draft.
The draft order will be selected by my impartial 3 year-old son as soon
as the league has a full allotment of owners.
The draft order for the following years will be the reverse of the
previous year’s standings.
C. In each
subsequent year, the draft will also consist of 27 rounds.
Owners will select their keepers in the appropriate rounds based from a
3 round inflation from the players round selection from the previous year.
For example, if an owner selects a player in the 13th round of the
draft, that player will cost the owner a 10th round pick the
following year. That same player
will cost the owner a 7th round pick the next year, and so forth.
Any player traded during the season will carry their draft round
valuation from that season to the new owner.
D. Any
players that went undrafted the previous year (both major league and minor
league drafts), and are being retained as a major league keeper, will be
selected in the next draft beginning with the 20th round.
E. Any
retained minor league player that is being selected in the following year’s
major league draft will need to be selected starting in the 22nd
round of the draft. If more then
one minor league player is being promoted from one season to the next, they
will be selected in the 23rd and 24th rounds.
F. Any
players selected during the first three rounds are ineligible to be retained
for the following year.
G. If a team
drops out of the league, a new owner will be found as quickly as possible.
They will begin the draft as if they are starting in the league from
the beginning. The new owner(s)
will have the ability to draft any player in the draft, except players being
retained by returning owners.
VII. Minor
League Draft
A. The
supplemental minor league draft will be conducted the day after opening day of
the MLB season, and consist of six rounds.
B. A player
must not be on the 25-man active major league team roster on opening day in
order to be eligible. For
example, if Clayton Kershaw makes the Dodger’s opening day roster he is not
eligible to be drafted. If
Kershaw starts the year in Triple-A, or any other minor league level, he is
eligible to be drafted.
C. The draft
will be conducted via e-mail, and each selection will be posted to the league
web page. Owners will be
contacted when it is their time to select a player.
That owner will then respond to the e-mail with the player’s name,
position, and organization they play for.
D. Owners
are not required to select players by position. They may select all
pitchers, all position players, or a mix. The order of selection for each of
the 6 rounds is determined by reverse order of the major league draft or
finish in the previous season.
E. In
successive seasons, minor league drafts will be up to six rounds in length.
The number of keepers that are still eligible for the minor league
roster will determine the number of picks in the minor league draft.
After all teams conclude three rounds of the minor league draft, all
additional picks will be done to fill out minor league rosters for the start
of the year.
VIII. Keepers
A. A team
owner will keep 5 major league players and 3 minor league players for the
following season.
B. At the
end of the MLB season, league rosters will be frozen.
Owners will not be able to drop or add players.
However, trades of any players are permissible, and as discussed in the
“trades” section.
C. All
keepers must be submitted by March 1st of the following season.
Once they are received, they will be posted on the league site along
with the corresponding draft pick that will be used to retain them.
Also, all off-season trading is suspended at that point.
D. Three
Minor League players may be retained and kept on the minor league roster each
year until they can no longer be classified as minor leaguers or rookies, once
a player passes his rookie status, he must be retained to the active roster
and his draft value will be assigned for the next season. According to MLB: “A player shall be considered a
rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130
at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more
than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the
period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on
the disabled list).”
E. Any Minor
league player that is being assigned to the major league roster the following
season will have a 22nd round value assigned to him.
Each successive minor league players will have the sequential round
assigned. For example, when
keeping three minor league players, and all are being promoted to the major
league roster at the start of the year, they will require to be drafted in the
22nd, 23rd, and 24th rounds of the major
league draft. They will also need
to be selected in the order that they were selected the previous year.
F. Any minor
league keepers that are promoted to the major league rosters during the
off-season will not count against the total of major league keepers for that
season. For example, if a
designated minor league keeper is going to be on MLB 25-man roster he will
still count as a minor league keeper. In
the following year’s draft the owner will select their five major league
keepers and their one minor league keeper in the major league draft. That owner will then get four minor league picks in that same
year to fill out their minor league roster.
IX. Trades
A. Trading
players is a valuable part of fantasy Baseball, and it is strongly encouraged.
B. Vetoing a
trade shall be a matter of last resort and reserved for instances of
Collusion. Owners are encouraged to raise concerns about a trade and
inquire further about the motivation behind a trade. Do not veto trades
just because it is a “stupid” trade.
A veto will consist of a league vote through Yahoo.
C. Collusion
between Owners is prohibited. This prohibition is to prevent trades or
acts that attempt to fix the League standings, and shall be measured by
whether a League Team receives no measurable compensation in exchange for
unduly enriching the other League Team.
D. An Owner
may not trade a player for cash, future considerations, first born children,
wide screen TVs, or draft picks.
E. No owner
may cancel a pending agreed upon trade based on a claim of mistake.
F. Trades do
not affect the round values that are attached to the players being traded.
G. Off-Season
trading is allowed. All players
on major league and minor league rosters are eligible to be traded, except for
players that were selected in the first three rounds of the previous year’s
draft.
H. All
off-season trades must be submitted to the league commissioner for approval.
Once the commissioner approves the trade, all team owners will be
notified of the pending trade via e-mail.
All owners have one week to submit a formal protest of the trade.
Once the trade is finalized, the league website will be updated with
the roster changes.
X. Discipline
A. Any owner that willfully breaks the rules, as
set forth by this league constitution, will be punished by banishment to the
Island of Perpetual Tickling.
B. Any owner that does not remain active until the
end of the season will be forced to watch 24 hours of Thomas the Tank engine
episodes. Seriously, please do
all of the other owners a favor, and remain active during the entire season.
C. Collusion will not be tolerated, and will be
dealt with swiftly and harshly.
XI. Governance
A. Governance
is performed by one commissioner whose decisions should always be made in the
best interest of the League as a whole, regardless of which individual team(s)
may disagree or be damaged by the decisions he renders. That point
aside, any and all decisions made by the commissioner may be appealed with a
2/3 majority of league owners (one team = one vote). The owners carry
the burden of organizing such support and must make their request for
reconsideration to the commissioner within one week of the decision in
question. The commissioner may, at that point, choose to overturn his
previous decision, or stand by the original decision. If the
commissioner agrees to overturn, all steps, where necessary, will be made in
an expeditious manner to bring the situation to it’s agreed upon position.
B. The commissioner may request
assistance from other owners in the running of the League by accepting certain
responsibilities within the League structure (i.e., Secretary, Treasurer,
Rules Advisory, etc.).
C. The rules and regulations
listed here and will undergo change season by season to meet the needs and
vision of the league and its members.
Hope you enjoy the league.
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