RULES OF OPERATION OF THE LEAGUE O' AMERICAN CHEESE Last updated 15 April 1998 OBJECT: The League O' American Cheese will consist of 10 teams assembled from American League players. The object is to accumulate players with the best year-long performance. ROSTERS: Each roster will consist of 25 players: 2 catchers 1 first baseman 1 second baseman 1 shortstop 1 third baseman 1 corner infielder (1b or 3b) 1 middle infielder (2b or ss) 5 outfielders (no distinction between lf/cf/rf) 1 designated hitter 1 utility player (any position) 10 pitchers (no distinction between starters / relievers) plus a 10-player reserve roster. The reserved players may be any position, any league, any species, living or dead, with the limitation that no more than 5 reserve players at any one time may be active on an American League roster (disabled or suspended players do not count, but players merely sitting on the bench do). Only the statistics accumulated by the active players count toward the year-end totals. DRAFT DAY: The distribution of players will be done through an auction. Each owner will have $14.00 available to complete the entire roster (not including reserve roster). Starting with the commissioner, the owners will, in turn, nominate a player for auction, along with an opening price of at least $0.05. Bidding will then proceed in the form of an open auction, with successive bids also being at least $0.05. All bids must be in amounts divisible by five cents. Owners need not bid exactly five cents above the previous bid; they may bid more (still in amounts divisible by 5, though). No owner may make a bid that would leave him with less that the amount necessary to complete his roster. Also, no owner may bid on a player who does not fit onto his roster. Players must be on a major league roster to be eligible for the draft. Players on the major league disabled or suspended list are also eligible, and may be reserved in the usual way immediately following the draft. If a player is eligible at more than one position, the winning owner should announce the roster position the player will fill. Players may be moved during the draft. Immediately after the rosters have been completed, the reserve rosters will be filled by a draft. Order for this draft will be determined by the order of finish at the end of the previous season, with the last-place team picking first. Drafting will proceed as: Round 1: 1 - 10 Round 2: 10 - 1 and so forth for ten rounds. No fee will be charged for these players, and an owner may choose to carry fewer than the full 10 reserved players. POSITION ELIGIBILITY: A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 or more major league games in the 1997 season. A player who did not appear at any position for at least 20 games will be eligible only at the position at which he appeared most frequently. If the player did not play at all in the major leagues, the position will be determined from the league he played in most recently. During the season, a player may be moved to any position at which he has appeared during 5 or more 1998 games, in addition to his draft day position eligibility as described above. FEES: Player acquisition: no more than $14.00 Reserving a player: $.50 Activating a player from the reserve roster: $.50 Inter-team trades: $.50, regardless of the number of teams or players involved. Payment should be negotiated in the trade and reported. Free agent acquisition: $1.00 before the All-Star Break, $2.00 thereafter. Releasing a player: free September roster expansion: $2.50 Special reserve: $1.50 If the league continues beyond this 1998 season, then each team may hold over up to eight players for the 1999 season. All kept players will begin the 1999 season on the active (i.e., not reserve) roster of their team. The salary of such players will be: Their 1999 salary for players acquired during the auction, or a flat 50 cents for players acquired at any time after the auction (including the reserve draft). Clarification: A player who is acquired in the auction, then released, then picked up later by any team, is still worth his auction price. Therefore, the last-place team can't release Frank Thomas, then pick him up next week and keep him for 1999 at 50 cents. ROSTER MOVES: All roster moves must be reported to the league secretary / commissioner. All moves will take effect at noon on Tuesday, no matter when they are reported. Transactions reported after noon on Tuesday will take effect the following week. Conflicts (more than one owner claiming the same free agent) will be resolved in favor of the owner who is lowest in the standings. Any conflicts before the first stats report will be resolved first come, first served. At the end of each week's transactions, the rosters must still reflect the correct position distribution. Players can only be reserved (ie, moved from the active to the reserve roster) if they are no longer on the active roster of their major league team. This includes players who have been a) placed on the injured reserve list of their AL team b) sent to the minors c) traded to the NL d) suspended or released. The only exception to this is the Special Reserve (or Mike Marshall Rule). This allows a team may move an active player to the reserve roster, say an injured player who is not on the DL or a pitcher in a slump. Each team may use only two special reserves in a season. Any active or reserved player may be traded with any other team from the completion of the draft until the Tuesday of the All-Star Break. From then until September 1, only owners who are contiguous in the standings may trade players. No trades are allowed following the first transaction reporting date after September 1 until the close of the season. Players from the active and reserve rosters may be waived (released outright into the free agent pool) without restriction. Any time on or after September 1, one extra player of any position may be added to the active roster. The last transaction day is the Tuesday of or last Tuesday before the last day of the season. After that date, players may not be waived and free agents may not be bought. However, off-season trades *are* permitted. STANDINGS The following categories will be tabulated: Hitters: Cumulative batting average Total HR Total RBI Total stolen bases Total runs scored Pitchers: Cumulative ERA Cumulative (hits allowed + walks allowed) / innings pitched (known as Ratio or WHIP) Total wins Total saves Total strikeouts The teams will be ranked in each of these categories, with first place being worth 10 points, second place 9, etc. Only year-end standings are used to determine the winners. If more than one team has the same number of points, position is determined by counting the number of categories in which one team leads the other(s). PAYOFF: All of the money collected will be payed out as follows: 1st place: 50% 2nd place: 25% 3rd place: 15% 4th place: 10% GOVERNANCE: Interpretation of these rules and resolution of issues not covered by the rules will be the responsibility of the commissioner. Any such decisions are subject to approval of all the owners and may be overturned by a majority vote. A league treasurer will be elected to collect and distribute all money. A third owner will be responsible for compiling and distributing the statistics on a weekly basis. The service used by the statistics person (presently STATS Inc.) will be considered the official database of all player statistics. The final team statistics will be considered official one week after the end of the season, so keep track of your team's numbers and report any discrepancies.