Most up to date rules draft:
Basic Administrative Issues
1. Commissioner has the final decision on all major league rule changes. He can be overruled by an absolute majority of the league.
2. All major league rule changes must be initially approved by a vote of a simple majority of the league and then signed off by the commissioner.
3. Anyone can propose a rule change for a league vote.
4. Commissioner retains the ability to unilaterally make minor rule changes, although he will, obviously, discuss them with the league first and they can be overruled by a simple majority of the league.
Rosters
• 40 man total roster
o 30 man active roster
o 10 man minor league roster
Positions
C
1B
2B
3B
SS
Util
CI
MI
5x OF
3x SP
2x RP
4x P
A minor league player is any player that qualifies as a rookie or begins the season in the minor leagues IRL.
A rookie is defined by the official MLB rules:
"A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues"
Once you option the player up, you may not option him down for the rest of the season. He can only be placed back on the minor league roster if he breaks camp at the beginning of the next season in the minor leagues or as a free agent IRL.
If a player is optioned up in real life, a team in the league with him on its minor league roster may opt to keep him there for the remainder of the season. If he is traded to another team during the season, however, he must be placed on the new team’s major league roster. If the player is optioned down in real life 10 days or fewer after the trade is finalized, the new team may exercise a one-time option to send him down. This team may recall him if he is ever called back up for the rest of the season.
Player Auction and Salary Cap
There will be two initial drafts, a free agent draft and a rookie draft. Any player who meets the eligibility requirements for a rookie (defined infra) will be in the rookie draft. Any other player will be in the free agent draft.
• Minimum Salary is $400,000.
• Each team must acquire 30 players at a total cost not to exceed $96,000,000. $4,000,000 is reserved for 10 minor leaguers @ minimum salary. A team need not spend the maximum.
• Every owner can nominate three (subject to change) players at a time for auction. A nomination counts as a minimum bid of $400,000.
• There is no minimum bid increment requirement, however teams are encouraged to use the hidden “max bid” function for efficiency’s sake. This is a suggestion and not a mandate.
• There will be numerous players in the bidding process at all times until every team is filled with players.
• The bidding on a player ends when 24 hours have passed since the last bid on him.
• No team may make a bid for a player it cannot afford.
• Any non-rookie player is eligible to be drafted.
Each bid price is a one-year contract for the player. At the end of the season, each player may be retained for a 5% (subject to minor tweaking) increase in salary. So if you pay A-Rod 10 million for year one, you can keep him for 10.5 million for year two and so on.
You can keep a player drafted in the initial free agent draft for a maximum of 5 years. After 5 years, he re-enters the FA draft.
Acquiring a player from waivers starts the five year clock as well. Acquiring a player in a trade does NOT restart the clock.
Rookie Draft
The rookie draft will take place every off-season and will include recently MLB drafted players as well as international signings. If any of the international signees or drafted players are called up to the majors AFTER the year’s rookie draft, they will still be ineligible to be added onto a roster until the next year’s rookie draft. The rookie draft will go in reverse order of the previous year’s standings, with the order of the spots finishing out of the money determined by a lottery like the NBA. For the first year, it will be random. It will operate as a double reverse snake draft. After the initial rookie draft, a team will NOT be required (and CANNOT) to add players from subsequent rookie drafts until the next rookie draft begins.
The salary of a rookie is $400,000 for the first year and every year thereafter until he loses his rookie eligibility (see requirements above) or after 4 years have passed, whichever is sooner. Once promoted to active roster he would use the following pay schedule:
Year 1 (rookie year): 400k
Year 2: 400k
Year 3: 400k
Year 4: 1M
Year 5: 3M
Year 6: 5M
Cap Hits, Waivers and Free Agents
All contracts will be fully guaranteed. Any $$ bid on them in the waiver process (at ANY point in the season until the player signs with another team) will be pro-rated and that pro-rated portion will be taken off of whatever is left on the contract.
Example of rule: I sign Jon Lester for 20 million a year. Halfway through the year he's sucking a lot, so I cut him. No one wants to take him in a trade, even though I offer to take on half of his remaining salary. Since 81 games have gone by, I owe 10 mil on Letser for the rest of the year. I cut him to waivers. Through the waiver bidding process, Pecota signs him for 5 mil. This means that Lester's annual salary is now 5 MILLION. Pecota only needs to be 2.5 mil under the cap to do this, as he simply needs to pay him 1/2 of his annual salary. I, accordingly, get to shave 2.5 mil off of my cap for the rest of the year and only owe lester 7.5 mil.
If you are over the cap, your entire team roster is locked out until you get back under the cap. You can cut players, trade, etc. You should keep in mind that trades take time, so if you want to execute a 3-way deal to shed salary to one team while taking on increased salary for another, make sure it's all a go before you execute it. There will be a one-time 3 day grace period each year to adjust cap space. This exemption expires after the trade deadline.
After the initial draft, all remaining players will be placed on waivers. Waiver process works just like the FA draft. You place a bid of 400k and the bidding continues until 24 hours after the last bid. Every Sunday there will be a check on waiver claims, and the bidding process will begin.
All players on your 40-man roster count against your cap. This includes minor league players.
Trades
All trades must be posted PUBLICLY for 48 hours before they are official. During this 48 hour period, ANY team may make an offer to either team involved in the trade, and either team can feel free to take it. This counter-offer must be posted for a subsequent 48 hour period if it is accepted. If neither team accepts a counter-offer, after 48 hours the trade becomes official, pending commissioner and/or league approval.
If you acquire a player via trade, you acquire that player’s remaining salary and must pay it. Likewise, the team trading the player away will no longer have to pay that salary, unless there is an agreement. The same rules apply to renewing the contracts as they did to the original team. It is acceptable for teams to “take on” salary when trading a player, just like real life, with no one taking an extra cap hit.
Rookie draft picks may be traded for players.
All trades must be approved by the commissioner. There are two reasons a trade will be vetoed:
1. High suspicion of collusion.
2. An owner clearly doesn’t care and while he may not be colluding, he’s clearly dumping his team off.
Any trades involving the commissioner are subject to approval by the assistant commissioner. Any commissioner veto or non-veto can be overruled by a majority vote from the league. The reason the commissioner retains the power is that most people either a) forget to vote or b) vote for stupid reasons because it’s anonymous. The voting will not be anonymous should you choose to override, and you must post publicly your reason for vetoing any trade. I will publicly ask for opinions on any trade before I approve or veto it, so this really should never be a problem.
Scoring
5x5 Roto scoring:
OBP, SLG, HR, SB, R x W, SV, K, WHIP, ERA
13 teams… 1300 dollar total prize pool.
Proposed payout:
1st – 600
2nd – 350
3rd – 175
4th – 125
5th – 50
A 50 dollar LAST PLACE penalty will be paid by the loser. This penalty will go towards paying any league fees for the next year (if we use CBS), thus reducing the cost for everyone. If we do not have any league fees, then it will be split between first and second place: 35 to first, 15 to second. If the loser does not pay this fee, he forfeits his buy-in for next year and is out of the league.
Other basic rules:
-Only 96 million will be available during the initial FA auction. 4 million will be reserved for the 10 spots on the rookie draft.
-You must have only active major league players on your roster at all times. Thus, you cannot hide a rookie or minor leaguer on your 30-man roster unless they are called up IRL. If they are called up IRL (even briefly) and you add them to your active roster during this time, they must stay there for the rest of the season, but if they are starting the next season in the minors, they have to revert back to your minor league roster.
-DL. Each team will have 4 DL spots. You may keep a player on the DL as long as he is on the IRL DL. As soon as he comes off the IRL DL, he must be either cut or placed on your active roster. You must continue to pay his salary while on the DL. If you cut him while on the DL, you still take the cap hit. DL players may be traded. There is a 3 day grace period after a player is pulled off the DL IRL to add him to your active roster.
-You may sell your team or a portion of it to an owner outside the league. ALL sales (whether it is the full team or simply part of it) must be approved by the commissioner and a majority of the league. The commissioner can be overruled by an absolute majority of the league.
-To continue to be in the league next year, you must continually be paid a year in advance. Thus each year before the draft a new payment of 100 dollars is required. The league can be dissolved by a vote of an absolute majority of the league.
-By joining the league, you agree to play fair and ethically. If you are found to be exploiting a gap in the rules unfairly or participating in unethical practices, you subject yourself to discipline by the league (decided by an absolute majority vote). This will likely never be an issue and simply serves as a “catch-all” clause for any type of cheating that may go on.
Last edited by Karak; 03-02-2010 at 08:07 PM.
