1) Basics of the Game
A) We will have a Draft instead of Auction. No player salaries will be used.
B) We will use 23 man teams with the positions as follows == Two Catcher, One 1B, One 2B, One 3B, One SS, One CM, One MF, One UT, Five OF, Nine Pitchers.
C) The scoring stat catagories will be a 5 X 5. The hitting catagories are Batting Average, Home Runs, RBI's, Steals and Runs Scored. The pitching catagories are Wins, Saves, ERA, Ratio, Strikeouts.
2) Picking Players at the Draft
A) The draft order will be determined by the Forward Sliding Method, with every even number round inverse of the
previous odd round and every odd number round will be the same as the previous odd round with the exception of the first pick being moved to the bottom of the round and everyone else moving up a position.
B) We will also have a supplementary draft at the end of the regular draft to fill any spots for injured players that are drafted. The draft order will continue in the same rotation. Any player drafted in the Supplemental Rounds will receive stats starting at the beginning of the season as do the first 23 players.
C) A player may only be drafted if he is on a NL team active roster or injury list on Draft Day.
3) Roster Moves During Season
A) The cutoff for changing rosters each day will be 5 minutes before the first MLB game that day. An unlimited number of substitutions
may be made for injuries, but the substitutions for poor performance will be limited to two players each transaction week (From 11 PM Sunday to 10:59 PM the next Sunday).
B) If a player on your team shows on one of our Official Websites transaction pages ESPN = CBS
C) In order to claim a player, he must be bid on him using the FAAB. All players must be bid on. The procedure for using the FAAB is at this link FAAB Procedure
4) Trades
A) Trades may be done at anytime after the Draft until 11 PM CT
August 31. A veto procedure is in place if an Owner
believes an unfair trade has been made. Within 48 hours
after a trade, if an Owner believes it is unfair, he
can request a vote. After 48 hours the trade is final.
When a request is made, all Owners will have 48 hours to vote. It will take a
majority vote of the uninvolved Owners to Veto a trade.
B) Any trade that is made must leave both teams with 23 active players, with the required positions, at its completion or it is VOID.
5) Position Eligibility
A) Players are eligible for any position in which they played
20 games last season or one game this season. If a
player did not play 20 games at any position last season,
he is eligible for the position in which he played
the most games.
B) Any player that did not play in the majors last season,
may be drafted at a position he has played during Spring
Training. Once the season starts, he must play at that
position by April 15 or he is no longer eligible.
C) When a player is picked up in mid-season who has not played in the Majors before, his position can be the one he played in the Minors until he has established a position in the NL.
6) Fantasy Inactive List
A) Each team will have an Injury and Minor List for NL inactive players (this also applies to suspended players).
When a player is put on this list he can be replaced on your team and
you still retain the rights to the inactive player. When
the DL/ML players NL team actives him, he MUST be activated
by the Fantasy Owner by the Second Monday at 8 PM (If a NL player is activated on a Monday, this counts as the First Monday). If he remains on
the Fantasy Inactive List after that time, the inactive player may be claimed by any other Owner by posting a message and claiming the player and stating who you are dropping. Claiming the player, known as "Poaching", is counted as a Weekly Move.
B) A player may be taken off the Fantasy Inactive List prior to him being taken off of the NL Inactive List.
C) A player picked up as a DL/ML replacement must be on the NL active roster.
D) If a player is "Designated for Assignment", the Owner has the option of putting him on the ML List or dropping the player. The option of dropping the player is eliminated as soon as the player is assigned to a ML team. If the Owner chooses to drop the player, a free move can be used to pickup another player.
E) During September, injured players are often not put on the NL DL due to roster expansion. For our purposes, a player may qualify for the DL during September if he has an injury and has missed six consecutive games. He may then have a replacement as in a normal DL transaction. Also if one of our sites list the player as "Out for the Season", but not on the DL, he may be replaced immediately. There is no limit on these type of special DL transactions and they may not be claimed from the DL by other owners. To use this rule, you bid on a player and not put any player in the Drop/DL space in the FAAB. When you win the player, you can then ask the Commish to put your player on the DL.
7) Hitting and Pitching Minimums
A) Each team must pitch a minimum of 1100 innings or they will not receive any points in ERA and Ratio. The minimum at bats is 4250 or that team will not receive any points in BA.
8) Changing Rules in Mid-Season
A) After the Fantasy Season has started (after Draft Day),
if any Rule Change is voted on, it must receive YES
votes from at least 75% of the league in order to
become a new rule.
9) Players Released from their NL Team
A) If any Player should be released from his NL Team, the
Fantasy Owner will retain rights to that Player, as
long as the Player is on the Active Roster of the
Fantasy Team.
10) Players Traded to the AL
A) If a player is traded to the AL, the Owner continues to get stats on that player for the rest of the season. The player coming to the NL is free to be bid on by any Owner.
11) Requirements for a Player to be Bid On
A) Only players on the active 25 man roster may be bid on. For a bid to be legal, the player must appear on one of our four Official Websites before the FAAB runs. If the player does not show on one of these sites but appears in a box score, he is considered activated. If an Owner wins a bid before a player is eligible, it counts as a Move, his money is lost and the Owner may not make a bid on the same player in the next FAAB run that player would be eligible.
12) Owner Voting Eligibility
A) Any Owner who has not participated in our league in a
previous season, may not vote on rule changes.
13) Owner Vacations
A) If an Owner is going to be out of town and unable to make transactions on his players, he may state
in a message that he will be away and this freezes his roster. The Owner will have until 8 PM on the
day after his return to make all moves. If an Owner chooses to use this rule, no transactions may be posted by him. If he chooses to prematurely end the roster freeze by stating this and making a transaction, this will be allowed, but the freeze may not be started again.
14) Computer Use During Draft
A) Computer use during the Draft is permitted, provided the software only serves database functions and does not function as a management program which recalculates standings and values as the Draft proceeds. This would give the user an unfair calculation advantage. John Benson's software is an example, but others of the same type are also covered by this rule.
15) Breaking Ties in the Standings
A) The tied teams are ranked in each stat category as in the normal standings (In a three-way
tie, the top team gets 3 points - second, 2 points and last, 1 point). The points are totaled
for each category and the most points gets the higher place in the standings.
B) If a tie still exists after the first tie-breaker, the tied teams will take their total innings
pitched and multiply by three. To this number they will add the total at bats. The higher
of this composite number will determine the higher place in the standings.
16) Determining League Champion
A) Our Fantasy League Champion will be determined by Regular Season stats as put out by the National League. This includes any extra games that are played to determine the four NL playoff teams.