COMMISSIONER:
1.0 The league shall have 1 acting commissioner.
1.1 The commissioner's duties will include:
A. Interpretation of the provisions of this constitution.
B. Publishing of schedules, newsletters, instructions, and statistics or delegation of said duties.
C. Acceptance or denial concerning inclusion or deletion of coaches.
D. Initiating changes in league policy as voted on by league owners.
E. Oversight of player transactions.
F. Initiating disciplinary action against owners failing to meet the league requirements.
G. Inquiries into reports or suspected irregularities in league play.
H. Appointment of other league officers as necessary.
1.2 Assignment of teams to specific divisions shall originally be determined by the commissioner prior to the commencement of league play. Strong consideration will be given to geographic location to facilitate possible face to face play. Agreement from all moving teams is required prior to any divisional realignment.
1.3 Expansion or consolidation of league franchises will require a 2/3 majority of all existing franchises.
1.4 Decisions of the commissioner may be overturned by a 2/3 majority vote of the league owners.
LEAGUE MEMBERSHIP:
2.0 Membership responsibilities include:
A. $20 league fee paid prior to start of free agent/rookie draft. If an owner joins after the all-star break, the fee will be $10.
B. Completion of all games on or ahead of schedule.
C. Reporting of all instructions, results, statistics or other required information on or ahead of schedule.
D. Compliance with all instructions from a visiting manager.
E. Playing to win, no matter how bad your team is.
2.1 To remain a manager in good standing the following conditions must be maintained:
A. Successful completion of the season and performing tasks in a timely manner.
B. Resignation from the league while in good standing. (To resign in good standing adequate notice must be given concerning your resignation and all paperwork up until the date of your resignation must be completed.
ROSTERS:
3.0 A 26 man major league roster will be utilized for each block.
A. All of a teams other players are in the 'minors'.
B. You must have at least one back-up player for each position on your major league roster at all times in case of injury. (a player may be a backup at more than one position if he has more than one defensive rating on his card)
C. The minor league roster will consist of players not on the major league roster. All players 'without' cards (i.e. computer-only, or no card at all) can only be in the minors.
D. Roster changes may be made from one block to the next.
E. From the beginning of whatever block begins with approximately 30 games left in the regular season until the end of the season, the major league roster will have no limit.
F. If a player has a card and then loses it the next season, his manager may hold on to his rights as long as he uses one of his rosters spots to do so.
G. All teams must cut down to a minimum of 37 players at the cut date in February.
H. Between then, and the Free Agent Draft in March, teams cannot have more than 37 players on thier team. After the FA Draft and until the cut date next year, there are no limits to how many players a team can have.
3.1 Player Limitations:
A. All position players will be limited to 110% of their plate appearances. To determine plate appearances, use 110% of real life at-bats, walk, HBP, sac-hits and sac-flys. During the season subtract at-bats and walks from this number to keep track of usuage.
B. All starting pitchers will be limited to 110% of their number of starts.
C. Pitchers that start and relieve may use 110% of their starts, but their limiting factor if they both start and relieve will be 110% of their innings pitched.
1. Pitchers with a starting rating less than 5 are limited to 110% of innings whether they relieve or not.
D. Pitchers that start and relieve may only do one or the other in any series, not both.
E. All other pitchers (releivers) will be limited to 110% of their innings pitched.
F. If a player receives a combined card, that must be used.
G. All players with 600+ plate appearances BEFORE adding 10% will be allowed unlimited use. However they may still be injured just like any other players.
3.2 Trades:
A. Free trading is allowed of players on your roster.
B. You may trade draft picks for the next season only.
1. Picks lower than a #9 pick cannot be traded.
C. For a trade to be valid, both managers must report it to the league Yahoo Group.
D. A trade deadline for each Block will be announced along with the schedule each season.
E. Trades must be reported by the trade deadline of a block to take affect for the next Block.
F. Trades of a 'player to be named later' are not allowed.
G. Trades that will take place in a future date past the next block will not be allowed.
3.3 Any player who is grossly overplayed by a manager may be suspended by the commisioner. (see Section 10)
3.4 Owners may name their own teams.
A. Once the season has started, team names cannot be changed until after the current season ends.
PLAY-OFFS (also see section 10.7)
4.0 The four divisional winners and the teams with the 4 best records out of the non division winners will make the playoffs.
A. The division winners will play the wild card teams in this matrix:
Bracket 1:
#1 Division Winner (Best Record) vs #4 Wild Card (4th best record)
#3 Division Winner (3rd best record) vs #2 Wild Card (2nd best record)
Bracket 2
#4 Division winner (4th best record) vs #1 Wild Card (best record)
#2 Division Winner (2nd best record) vs #3 Wild Card (3rd best record)
4.1 Each playoff series will be a best of 7, 2-3-2.
4.2 Home field advantage:
A. Division winners will have the home field advantage over wild card teams.
B. If 2 division winners or 2 wild card teams play in the playoffs the home team will be based firstly on overall record and secondly on head to head play.
C. All playoff series will be in 2-3-2 format with 1 day off between the 2 or 3 game blocks. format.
D. Ties will be broken by head to head record, divisional record and if still tied, a 1-game playoff.
4.3 All players will be limited to 10% of their plate appearances or 10% of their starts or 10% of their innings pitched for each playoff series.
A. Starting pitchers will be limited to 3 starts for those with 25 or more starts, 2 for 15 or more starts, 1 for all other pitchers with a starting rating.
B. Pitchers may not start and releive in the same 2 or 3 game block. Starters must have 1 day rest before and 3 days rest after a Start.
C. Starting pitchers without relief ratings may be used in relief as a (1) tired inning releiver.
C. Pitchers rest resets at the end of each playoff round.
D. Players may lose adittional at bats/innings/starts if they are penalised for overusage. (see Section 10.7)
E. Injuries are only for the rest of the game they occur in.
F. Otherwise, all rules during the postseason are the same as during the regular season.
ROOKIE DRAFT
5.0 Rookies will be any carded player who is not currently on a league franchise roster.
A. A carded player is one who receives an actual, i.e. PAPER card.
B. Computer only, or category 4 cards are not carded players.
5.1 Drafting order will be determined by a teams record. The team with the worst regular season record will draft first, the best regular season record last, etc.
5.2 In case of a tie, draft order will be determined first by head to head records, second by division record, last by coin toss.
5.3 Managers will be awarded 1 draft pick for each roster cut made below the 37 man limit. The deadline for draft cuts will be published at least 1 month ahead of draft date.
5.4 Prior to the rookie draft, all teams must cut to a maximum of 37 players.
5.5 If you trade for a draft pick and the other team does not cut down to that pick, you will pick in the spot that you would have picked at if that team had cut down that far. (ex. tigers trade for yankees 6th round draft pick but yankees cut only four players. In round 6 tigers pick where the yankees 6th pick would have been if they were still drafting.
LEAGUE PLAY
6.0 Computer Managers for each block are due on the first day of the block. Post them to the league IO.Group.
6.1 Computer manager restrictions
A. The following settings are not allowed on HAL:
MANAGER TENDANCIES Using Relief-'Deadball Era'
INDIVIDUAL PITCHERS 'Do not let HAL Remove'
B. Teams may not get around these rules by telling other managers not to remove starting pitchers until the '# inning'. Teams may leave them in as long as they want at home, but on the road they will have to live with HAL.
6.2 Before each game played managers will hit the 'rest all' button to reset injuries and Pitchers Tired.
6.3 Computer managers will be posted on the YAHOO group.
A. If the visiting manager supplies supplimental written instructions to go with his computer manager, the home manager is obliged to follow them the best he can, within reason. Manager is not obligated to follow any instructions that break the rules of section 6.
6.4 if you do not provide a computer manager, the league will make one and send it out.
A. If the league has to make a manager for an individual team three times in one season, that teams owner will be kicked out of the league.
6.5 Upon completion of a home series you are responsible to post the game files and box scores (prefferably zipped) to the league YAHOO group.
A. If for whatever reason you cannot email your stats to the Yahoo group then email them to the league statistician directly.
B. It is the resonsibility of each manager to get his results sent in.
6.6 All results must be reported by the end of the block.
A. Any results not received by the League Statistician by the end of the block will be auto-played.
SCHEDULE
7.0 The season will be divided up into a number of 'blocks' of either 15 or 18 games based on the number of teams and schedule arrangements.
7.1 The current schedule used calls for each team to play 90 games against the 5 teams in their division, 36 games against the 6 other teams in their 'league', and 36 games against the 12 teams in the other 'league'.
A. All series are 3 games long.
B. Each team plays an equal amount of home and road games against the teams in it's league.
C. Each team plays thier 3 game series against the teams in the other league at home one year, and on the road the next. (ex. tm6 plays a 3 game series AT tm4 this year. Next year tm4 plays AT tm6)
7.2 the 'Leagues' are...
Eastern League: East & Mid-East Divisions
Western League: West & Mid-West Divisions
RULES
8.0 Rules will be set in the league files by the commisioner.
A. Teams will not change the rules settings during the season.
8.1 The current settings for the computer game are:
Main Rules: Super Advanced with BK/WP/PB Stealing: Super Advanced Miscellaneous: Use Injuries: Use Groundball A: Allow GBA on Pitchers card BP: Yes Weather: No Clutch: Yes Strategy: Super Advanced Closer: No Pitcher Fatigue: Use SADV Fatigue Rules
8.2 All starters may start on 3 days rest.
8.3 Starting Pitchers without a relief rating may appear in relief.
A. They will be treated as having a (1) tired inning.
B. They will then be limited to 110% of innings.
C. Pitchers may not start and relieve in the same series.
8.4 A position player may only start at a position not at his card a total of 10 times in a season (not counting DH).
A. Players may play out of position after a game has started as much as needed do to substitution/injury.
B. Outfielders can play any outfield position with no restrictions, other than the computer games possible degrading of their defensive rating.
8.5 All games will be played with the DH rule.
A. A pitcher used to pinvh hit, or at DH (or any other position) is limited by his actual at-bats the same as a position player.
B. Pitchers will use the 1-8 pitchers hitting cards.
8.6 Teams will use the ballpark ratings supplied by Strat-O-Matic for the current season.
A. Any number of teams can use the same ballpark.
B. Teams must pick their ballpark on the weekend of the Free Agent Draft.
STRUGGLING FRANCHISES
9.1 A team will be declared a struggling franchise if they lose 100 games for two consecutive years. Struggling franchises will be accorded the following benefits to help in the rebuilding process.
A. A Struggling Teams Draft (STD) will be held after the cut date and before the Free Agent Draft.
B. All Players cut by the teams in the league (including the STD teams) will be in the STD draft whether they get a card that year or not.
2. All players who received a card in the previous season who WILL get a (paper) card in the upcoming season are in the STD.
3. STD teams cannot cut players after the STD draft.
B. A struggling franchise will be given a supplemental, untradeable draft pick at the beginning of each round (beginning with round 3) in the free agent/rookie draft.
C. A struggling franchise will be allowed to draft to 40 players at the Free Agent draft instead of 37.
9.2 A team can only be a 'struggling team' 2 seasons in a row. After that, it canot be a struggling team for two seasons.
A. Example: Team loses 100 games in 2001 & 2002. Team is a Struggling Team in 2003.
B. Example: Team is a struggling Team in 2001 & 2002, team cannot be considered Struggling until 2005, and then only if it lost 100 games in 2003 & 2004.
PLAYER OVERUSAGE
10.1 At the end of the season, all players on all teams will have their stats checked. Any player that goes over his limits, will earn points, for his team.
POINTS
Plate appearances (at-bats & walks) = 1point Innings = 2 points Starts = 10 points
Starter/Relievers will earn both types of points Pitchers who only start will not be checked on innings. Pure Starters will be forgiven 2 relief appearances before they will be checked on their innings to cover HAL goof ups and the occasional 20 inning game. After that though, they will be checked and penalised if they are over 110% of innings.
10.2 These points will be totaled, and if a team has 50 points or more, they will be penalised as follows.
PENALTIES
1-49 points: No penalty 50-99 points: Lose 5th Round Pick 100-149 points: Lose 4th Round Pick 150-199 points: Lose 3rd Round Pick 200-249 points: Lose 2nd Round Pick 250-300 points: Lose 1st Round Pick 300+ Suspended from league.*
*A suspended owner can appeal his suspension to the league membership. If 13 managers vote not to kick him out, suspension will be lifted.
10.3 Penalties will be announced as soon as the final stats are compiled and the player stats have been checked.
A. Picks will be the the teams own picks in the next season's free agent draft
B. If they do not have their own pick, the next highest pick they have will be lost.
C. If a team has no qualifying picks to lose, the team loses a roster spot for the next season.
Example: A team has earned 68 penalty points. Their penalty is to lose a 5th round pick. However, they have no 5th round pick. They will then lose their lowest 4th round pick, i.e. next highest pick they have.
10.4 SENTENCE OF DEATH:
If an individual player's card is excessively over used, He will receive a Death Sentence. His team will have that player released, and lose a roster spot fof the next season.
The player will go into next years FA draft, NOT the STD.
Any player who goes over his limits by the following amounts will receive the death sentence.
Batters: 50 Plate appearances Reliever: 25 innings Starter: 4 starts
Players that receive the death sentence cannot be traded. They are immediately released at the end of the season.
In the rare case that a player receiving the death penalty is traded before the season ends, but after the final in season deadline, that trade is voided as well as any other trades involving the items in the first trade.
10.5 TRADED PLAYERS:
A player's penalty points are applied to the team whose roster he ends the season on. Regardless of how long or short he is with that team, or how little or how much he is used by that team. Penalties up to and including the Death Sentence. Players traded after the final in season trade deadline will have their points counted for the team whose roster they finish the year on, even if another team owns the rights, so to speak.
Example: tmA trades Bob to tmB after the final trade deadline. Bob's points will go on tmA, since even though tmB now owns Bob, tmA had him on his roster and could use/not use him in the final block.
EXCEPTION: If a player is overused before he is traded, and his new team NEVER uses him, the points will be applied to the team he was on before the trade. NEVER means NEVER. If you have him on your active roster, you get the points. If you use him in the playoffs, you get the points, and he must serve any playoff suspensions he earned.
B. Post season trades:
Post season trades will not affect penalty points, since the points are already earned. What draft pick a team loses may be affected if the team trades away particular picks.
10.6 NEW OWNERSHIP:
A. If an owner quits BEFORE the half way point, any new owner will be liable for any penalties the team earns over the season.
B. If a team gets a new owner AFTER the half way point, the team will be forgiven 50 penalty points at the end of the season. The team will still be subject to any playoff penalties.
C. Teams that end the season without owners will not receive penalties.
D. If a teams owner quits before the 30 day period after the final stats are reported, there will be no penalties for the team.
E. If an owner quits after the penalties have been assigned, picks have been lost and players have been cut, then the team will be not lose any roster spots, but no picks/players will be returned to the team.
10.7 POST SEASON PENALTIES:
Teams who make the playoffs will be penalised for overused players as follows.
1st round:
The player in question will be suspended for 1 game for every 10 PAs (batters) over 5 innings (relievers) over.
Starting pitchers will be supended 1 game for every start over his limit. So if he is 1 start over-he misses one game, 2 starts-2 games, etc.
Starter/Relievers: Whichever method is worse.
A player may be suspended for the entire first round.
All rounds (including the first):
Batters/Relievers will figure the 10% allowed in each round after subtracting the ABs/Inn the player went over during the season. Starting pitchers: Starters will be limited to the Starts they can make during a round as follows.
0-1 extra starts during the season = Start 3 times in a playoff round 2-3 extra = Start 2 times 4 or more extra = Start once
S/R: If they only start, use starter rules. If they relieve, subtract 5 innings for each start they are over.
Example: PLay-UH went over by 7 innings during the season. He has 80 innings. Subtract 7 from 80 = 73. he gets 10%-7.3 innings during each playoff round.
If a player on a team is overused enough to be suspended 1 or more games in the first round, and is not on the post season roster, an equivilant player will be selected by the commisioner to serve the suspension.
Example: TmA has one reliever with 6 extra innings and one with 4 extra. Both relievers are left off the post-season roster. Since the first reliver would be suspended a game, one reliever will be selected to miss a game. The team would not have to have anyone suspended for the second pitcher's overusage.
DEATH PENALTY in Postseason:
If a player on a playoff team receives the death sentence, that player cannot be used in the playoffs and the team loses a roster spot for the duration of the playoffs.