Post by Darin (Cardinals) on Apr 2, 2016 11:12:42 GMT
Anything in the rules that is underlined is a change.
*Salary Penalty rule is being voted on for approval.
Basics
The main goal of this league is to have to think more like a GM than you do in a standard online fantasy league by adding player contracts, salary caps, minor leagues, free agency, etc.
It will be more challenging and more time-consuming than a standard league, and most importantly, more fun!
As a GM in this league, you will be mirroring many of the decisions that real life GM's have to make. We won't be mirroring MLB exactly, but enough to make us think and appreciate what a real GM really does. I still want to keep the league simple enough so that someone who has never done one of these leagues can join and be able to pick up on what's going on without feeling too overwhelmed, as that is not the goal. So we won't be incorporating things like arbitration, Rule 5 Draft, August waiver deadlines or anything like that.
The league will be run on ESPN and all of our information will be stored on this website.
It will be a 12 team Dynasty that will run for many years.
The League will be a Head-to-Head Category league. For those of you not familiar with this, it basically means you get 1 win for each category you beat your opponent in each week. There are 12 categories, 6 hitting, 6 pitching which means there will be a 12 wins and 12 losses for each matchup each week.
Scoring
Hits, Runs, Home Runs, RBI, SB, Walks, Wins, ERA, WHIP,Strikeouts, Holds, Saves
Roster
Beginning in the 2017 season..each team will have a 40-man major league roster and the starting lineup each will feature....(2016 will feature 3 OT and 3 UTL)
C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF, OF, OF, OF, UTL, UTL, UTL. (12 offensive players)
SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, P, P, P (12 pitchers)
*the other 16 players can be used during the week as a sub. There are no limits to subs each week.
*3 DL Spots
*the 40-man roster can be used throughout the week to form your starting lineup.
Setting Lineup
- During the season, the only time a move can be made to your MLB 40 man roster is Sunday. At that time you can place bids on In-Season Free Agents. For the transaction to be valid, a transaction that will make your roster 40 must be listed as well. If a team wins a bid on a player and that puts their roster at 41 or more and no players were cut / sent to minors...then the transaction is void and the team does not win the rights to the player. They will have to bid on that player again next week and win the bid to acquire the player.
- Sunday is also the day you can move or send down players between your MLB 40-man roster and your minor league system.
- If a player goes on the disabled list during the week, a team may place that player in one of their three disabled list spots. A team CAN NOT pick up a free agent or call up a player at that time to fill the spot on the 40-man roster. The reason is we expanded MLB rosters to 40 at the beginning of the 2016 season to cut down on transactions/commissioner work.
Schedule
ESPN will assign a weekly schedule
Owners
Managers: Each Team has a General Manager with a single vote in league matters. Co-Managers are not allowed. The Commissioner can call league votes for rule changes and matters that require manager removal.
Inactive Managers: In the unlikely event a manager is deemed to be inactive, the team will be managed by the commissioner until a replacement is found. Inactive is defined as not updating your starting lineup for longer than 3 weeks without a valid reason or notifying the commissioner as to why you were not updating your starting lineup.
a Commissioner Managed Teams: Teams managed by the commissioner are ineligible to be traded with and no roster moves will be made.
Collusion: Any actions that upset the competitive balance of the league, including collusion, will result in the manager(s) involved being removed and replaced. Collusion is defined as actions that cause an unfair advantage, including attempting to combine rosters, or ‘borrowing’ players (trading, then trading back).
Team Name
Each team will initially choose a professional teams nickname. I.E. Yankees, Dodgers, Padres, etc...
Your team name will be a city and the professional teams nickname. I.E. Columbus Indians, Buffalo Yankees, Sacramento Dodgers, etc...
- If a manager leaves the league and a new manager takes that team over, the new manager is allowed to relocate not only the city, but also the professional teams nickname.
- You are required to have your email address shown on the league page for all owners to see.
Building Your Team
Off-Season: The “Off-Season Period” begins immediately after the Fantasy World Series has concluded.
Off-Season Cut Date: February 1st of each year.
- All players cut prior to this date will no longer count against the roster total or salary cap and the team will not receive a salary cap penalty.
- once February 1st passes, no players can be cut until we reach "in-season" status which marks the end of the auction draft. The ONLY exception is if a trade is made prior to "in-season" status, a player(s) can and must be dropped or if there is a retirement. When a player retires, the player can be cut at anytime with no penalty. Also in the event of a death, the player is dropped from the team's roster without penalty.
- All players whose contracts have expired (at “0” remaining years) are not eligible for any off-season trades. The moment the Fantasy World Series has concluded, that player is a Free Agent and cannot be picked up until the Free Agent Auction Draft.
Free Agent Auction Draft
A Free Agent Auction Draft, consisting of all available Free Agents will be held during each offseason. The Draft is auction style where players may bid up to their remaining available salary on any available players but also must remain below the total salary cap. Only players who have a total of 250 MLB AB or 100 MLB IP can be bid on during the Free Agent Auction Draft.
The day before the draft begins, each team must lock in their 40 man roster. You do not have to/need to fill up all 40 players. This is to allow you to move up or move down a players from the minors. Once the draft starts...NO movement will be allowed between the major and minor league roster.
Each teams salary cap will be $1160.
*The league minimum salary that you can pay a player is $1
* There is no league maximum salary.
Each "wave," owners with spots open on their roster must submit 3 free agent players to go up for bid on the Pro Boards website under the folder Free Agent Auction.
*each owner has THREE bids on each player. Once they use their 3rd bid and are outbid, they can no longer bid on the player.
*All contracts have to be at $1 intervals. Examples: $1, $2, $3, etc.. we are not going to deal with $1.50 contracts etc...
*The FIRST bid by the owner who placed the player up for bid....does not count toward the three bids for each player.
*Each eligible team will have 12 hours to bid on each player. Once 12 hours passes, the bidding is over and the winning team gets the rights to the player.
*We go by the time stamping of the website. If there is confusion on whether the bid occurred within the 12 hours, then the commissioner has the right to award the player to the owner who had the bid for 12 hours. Every avenue necessary will go into the decision on if the bid occurred on time.
*Teams are allowed to trade picks, players for auction money. Even if a team has its 40 major league roster, that team can trade left over free agent auction money for picks or players. Free agent in-season cash CAN NOT be traded during the free agent auction draft.
*Once a team has a complete 40-man major league roster, their free agent bidding is over. Teams can not move players to and/or from their minors until the free agent auction draft is complete.
MLB Player contracts can be anywhere from 1-5 years.
*Following Free Agent Draft, all players on rosters must be assigned a Contract length. The salary for the Free Agents will be the winning auction price. That will be the players salary each and every season under contract. Each manager will be required to email the commissioner so they can update the proboards page with the length of contract for each player. A player may be signed for a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 5 years.
*Failure to notify the commissioner of how long you are signing a player for will result in all players contract being for 1 year.
Minor League Draft
Each year's Minor League Draft will feature 8 rounds. Each teams begins each year with a pick in each round.
*order of the draft will be as followed...
-the six teams that did not qualify for the previous year's post season will have the first six picks in each round. Last place record picks 1st, next to last 2nd and so on...
-the six playoff teams will have the next 6 picks in each round. The playoff champion will pick 12th, 2nd place will pick 11th. The losing teams in the semifinal will pick 9th and 10th (team with the WORST regular season record picks 9th). The losing teams in the wildcard game will pick 7th and 8th (team with the WORST regular season record will pick 7th).
-If there is a tie in the regular season standings..a coin flip will take place to decide each team's draft position.
Players taken in the minor league draft can be kept for an unlimited amount of years as long as they are in the minor leagues and have not reached the 250/100 rule. When they are called up to the majors and have reached the 250/100 rule, they will receive a tiered contract which a GM can sign anywhere from 1-5 years with the contract being this: Year 1 - $1, Year 2 - $3, Year 3 - $5, Year 4 - $10, Year 5 - $15.
*International players will have to have been signed by the start of that year's Minor League Draft. No un-signed international players, college or high school players, little league stars, etc can be taken.
*There is no limit to the number of times a team can move up or down a minor league player..as long as they have not went over the 250AB/100 inning pitched threshold. Once a player reaches 250AB, 75 innings pitched, the team must decide to keep the player on their 40-man major league roster or release them into free agency.
In-Season Free Agency
When a player is picked up during the season, the player can only be picked up for the remainder of the season. Players are not considered under contract. They are only "loan" players. These players are eligible for trades and their salary will not count against you as there is a separate FAAB budget used for free agent pickups.
a. Each team will receive $100 Free Agent Acquisition Budget.
b. Cutting a player will not free up cap space for you to pick up an available player. Only unused FAAB can be used to pick up additional free agents in-season.
When a player is cut, that player will be considered a Free Agent, their contract is voided and they will go to the highest FAAB bidder.
c. All free agents in-season will be given to the highest bidder on SUNDAY NIGHT/MONDAY MORNING. You place your bid during the day on SUNDAY and then overnight the team that has the highest bid will win the player. In the event of a tie, the team who is lower in the standings will win that player.
d. Each free agent bid win MUST include a transaction if this bid win means the teams has more than the 40 player MLB roster limit.
Restricted Free Agency
Each Offseason, each GM will be entitled to keep players that were picked up during the season using FAAB with the following stipulation:
- Only the players that were on the final roster at the end of the season are eligible.
- Each GM can chose 1 player from the Restricted Free Agent List to keep with no penalty (players that were picked up in-season and finished on the teams final roster when the fantasy world series completed are eligible to become Restricted Free Agents). GM's will be able to keep this player and sign for up to 4 years with the following structured salary: Year 1 - $10, Year 2 - $15, Year 3 - $20, Year 4 - $30.
You are not requited to use your restricted tag. You can not trade the tag. If you do not use it, it does not carry over to next season.
Franchise Tag (from 2013-15 seasons)
Each off-season every GM will have 1 Franchise type player.
*Before free agency you will have the option to use your franchise tag on one of your players that is about to hit free agency.
*You are not obligated to use your franchise tag, BUT they cannot be saved for the following season. You either use it or you lose it.
*Players who have been designated a franchise tag will be labeled so that everyone knows who these players are. Bidding on the franchise players will take place first in the Free Agent auction process. Once the franchise tag bidding is complete, the remaining free agent bidding will begin.
*Once the bidding is done on a player that has been designated a franchise tag, the team that designated it gets the CHOICE to match the winning bid so that they can keep the player. The team will be given 24 hours to make a decision. If no decision is made within the 24 hours, the team with the winning bid will own that player.
*You will have the option to match and you may decline if you'd like.
Cutting Players
Starting on Opening Day 2018, we will install penalties for cutting players.
*Any player who has 1 year left on his contract can be cut at anytime without penalty.
*Any player who has 2, 3, or 4 years left on their contract can be cut but a penalty will occur. There will be a one time penalty that will effect next year's salary cap. The penalty is a one time fee that is 50% of the players current salary.
- For Example...a player with a salary of 36 dollars with 3 years remaining...the penalty on the next year's salary cap is 18 dollars.
- For Example...a player with a salary of 100 dollars with 2 years remaining...the penalty on next year's salary cap is 50 dollars.
Position Eligibility
Since we will use ESPN, we will follow ESPN fantasy baseball position eligibility rules and requirements.
It is each GM's responsibility to know and understand this prior to making any bids on any players and know that not all information on this site or other sites may reflect actual position eligibility on the yahoo site. Bottom line, we use what the ESPN site says.
Trades
Teams acquiring a player in trade will assume the player’s previous contact. Contracts cannot be extended when trading. A team can go over the salary cap when trading as long as this is done in-season, however they must be below the salary cap by the final cut date during the offseason.
Trades can include players that were picked up in-season. They will still be only under contract for the remainder of the season and can only be resigned if they are the highest bidder in the following seasons Free Agent Auction Draft.
The trade deadline is a choice set by ESPN. In 2016 it's August 19th.
You can trade MLB Players, Minor League Players, Draft Picks, FAAB (not during free agent auction draft), and/or Cash.
If you are trading a draft pick, you must specify for which season you are trading a draft pick for.
If you are trading cash, it must be for the current season.
The Commissioner Approves Trades; Protests allowed. The commissioner approves/vetoes trades. Trades viewed to be grossly unbalanced (or indicative of collusion) will be overturned by the Commissioner. The Commissioner may call a league vote to determine validity of the trade if he deems it necessary or if any protests are made from the League. Because this is a salary cap league, trading to dump a players salary is allowed, and those trades may be more unbalanced than other trades. With that said, each trade will be fairly looked at. I am personally of the belief that you should all be able to manage your team the way you see is best fit and will allow 99% of trades to go through.
No trade is final until there is an offer made, accepted, and approved by the Commissioner, or posted on ESPN site or proboards site during the offseason.
Playoffs
The top six finishers in the regular season standings earn playoff births.
*The 1st and 2nd place finishers in the regular season standings qualify for the playoffs and receive first round byes.
*3rd place faces 6th / 4th place faces 5th.
*Each week of the playoffs is one week in length
Omissions
*Any rule that was accidentally left off the rules has the right to be added at a later date.