Rules of the "Out Of Our League" Fantasy Baseball League Copyright 1993-2002 by Keith Woolner. Outline of Rules ================ I. Administration of the league A. Definitions B. Deadlines C. Scoring D. Fees E. Prizes II. Rules for roster management A. Definitions B. Draft C. Trades, Waivers, and Claims D. Injuries E. Minor League Player Eligibility F. Holdovers G. Off-season rosters III. Scoring Rules A. Offense B. Pitching C. Tabulating weekly scores D. Substitution rules - offense E. Substitution rules - pitching IV. Sportsmanship History ======= 2.6 - 29-MAR-2002 Added several rules clarification and rulings. 2.5 - 26-MAR-2000 Incorporated rule changes passed by league vote increasing size of league to 16 teams, removing the cap of 10 keepers, and allowing trades of keeper-years. 2.4 - 10-APR-99 Incorporated rule changes passed by league vote affecting size of league (increased to 15), length of time a free agent must be on an active roster (1 week), and included an option for first week signings to be handled in a post-draft special selection. 2.3 - 22-MAR-97 Revised rules for expansion teams, correction of scoring errors, and position eligibility 2.2 - 16-MAR-96 Added or revised rules for position eligibility, trading guidelines,league costs, holdovers, expansion, prize pool, phase in of new rules, costs of free agent signings. 2.1 - 24-APR-95 Added rules for holdovers, expansion, and inter-season manager replacement. Added inter-season roster size rules. 2.02 - 31-MAR-94 Rule changes for minor league acquisitions, indicate change to consider carryover of players to following year. General cleanup of rules for new season. 2.01 - 16-FEB-94 Rule clarifications in swing start usage, official game guidelines, and doubleheaders. Included automated scoring system in scoring deadline definition. 2.0 - 12-FEB-94 Revised proposed rules for '94 season Altered batting scoring to include walks Altered pitching score usage Altered use of backups rules Expanded rosters to 25 Introduced swing staff rules Revised eligibility rules 1.2 - 01-MAY-93 Changed default score for no appearance back to 0 due to protests. 1.1 - 26-APR-93 Changed default score for no appearance from 0 to -5 to discourage dishonest strategies (playing an injured player). Affects both pitching and offense. Changed award from last place team to 2nd to last place team to discourage poor play. Clarified DH eligibility rule. 1.0 - 24-APR-93 Created Initial Draft (KHW) I. Administration of the league A. Definitions The league shall be known as the "Out of Our League", established in 1993 for the entertainment of its participants. The league uses the achievements of selected Major League Baseball players as the basis for competition among members of the league. The results of the competition determine a league champion, and other awards on an annual basis. This set of rules is adapted from the League-Without-A-Name Baseball League, which was in turn adapted from the Robert Hoffman Baseball League. An "owner" or "manager" interchangibly refer to the actual human participants in the league. The "commissioner" refers to the chief administrator of the league and is final arbiter of disputes between owners. The league currently has spots for no more than 16 owners, with the actual number of teams depending on the availability of sufficiently many interested participants. The commissioner will have the authority to qualify prospective new owners. A "player" refers to a major league baseball professional. The results of major league baseball games are the basis for weekly competition in the league. "Player" may refer specifically to a batting/fielding player, or more generally to include pitchers as well. The "roster" is an owner's list of players who comprise his team. The roster is limited to 25 players at any one time. The manner in which a roster is created and maintained is set for under part II. Only players on a roster can be used in the weekly competition. B. Deadlines The "roster deadline" refers to the latest time changes for a given week may be submitted to the commissioner or his designates for that week's tabulation. If changes are submitted after the roster deadline, the previous week's roster is in effect for the current week, and any changes take place the following week (unless overridden by the owner). The roster deadline for a week will be Noon on Monday, Pacific Time. The "scoring deadline" refers to the latest time that the total point tabulations assigned to an owner can be submitted without penalty. Owners are expected to submit scoresheets weekly tabulating both their own and one other owner's scores in a timely fashion. The scoring deadline for a week is Noon Tuesday, Pacific Time of the following week. Scoresheets must be submitted in readable form -- either email, fax, or in person. Note that the league is currently using an automatic scoring system which eliminates the need for the scoring deadline. However, should the system fail, the responsibility for submitting scores will again return to the owners. The "correction deadline" refers to the latest time an error in roster entry can be reported to the commissioner and corrected. The correction deadline is three weeks after the publication by the commissioner of the scoring for any given week. If errors are not brought to the attention of the commissioner by the correction deadline, no adjustment to scores will be made. Note: the correction deadline refers to errors in roster entry, or player identification only. If a software bug or processing error unrelated to data entry leads to inaccuracies in scoring then the commissioner will have the authority to correct scores from any previous weeks as he deems appropriate. Penalties for failing to meet the scoring deadline without prior arrangement with the commissioner will be 10 points per day late. Repeated failures may also result in $2 fine per occurence. C. Scoring The league's game week runs from Monday through Sunday, including all games completed during that period. Each week the scores are computed and sent to the commissioner, unless an automated scoring system is in use. The ranking of teams is based solely on points accumulated in the weekly tabulations. As detailed in part III below, the two parts of a weekly score are offense and defense, as contributed by the lineup chosen by the owner from the roster. At the end of the season, final standings are determined by point total. In the unlikely event of a tie, the tiebreakers would be: 1) Total offense 2) Highest weekly total 3) Number of weeks scores were submitted on time 4) Coin flip/Random drawing D. Fees The entry fee is $25 per team. In addition, each waiver acquisition (claim) in excess of the number of players put on IR in a given week will cost $2. Signings that are made to replace a player who is injured or demoted (placed on IR during the same roster period) do not incur this fee. Note that IR signings do not "carry over" from week to week -- each week is assessed separately. Other penalties, such as repeated failure to call in roster changes or scoring, may also be assessed. These funds will be combined to cover league expenses and to form the prize pool. League expenses are expenses incurred that apply to the league as a whole. Ten dollars per team of the league fees will be set aside to cover the cost of acquiring box scores used for automated scoring tabulation. Currently, the only other major expense is believed to be the cost of the draft-day phone calls between the east and west coast participants. The prize pool consists of all money collected during the course of the season, less the league expenses. The prize pool will be divided into individual prizes, to be awarded to the owners based on the criteria listed in section E. below. E. Prizes The prize pool will be awarded at the end of the season as follows: 30% League Champion (First Place Team) 20% Runner Up (Second Place Team) 10% "Wildcard" Prize (Third Place Team) 10% Highest Season Offense (total season points) 10% Highest Season Pitching (total season points) 10% Single week highest overall total points 10% Most Improved Team (biggest point increase in average weekly score from weeks before the All-Star Break to average weekly score for weeks after the All-Star Break. (The ASB week itself is not included in either group). In order to maximize the number of recipients, no owner will be awarded more than one prize. II. Rules for roster management A. Definitions There are 6 ways rosters can be altered: Draft - season-opening selection of players by owners Trade - an exchange of players between or among owners Waiver - the release of a player by an owner to an unassigned pool Claim - the addition of an unassigned player to an owner's roster Reserve - the protection of an injured or ineligible non-roster player by an owner Holdover - the designation of a player as remaining on a team's roster between seasons without being exposed to the annual draft B. Draft The draft consists of up to 25 rounds, with each owner getting one pick during round. Any player not previously selected may be chosen during an owner's turn. An owner can opt not to choose a player, though he forfeits the pick for the remainder of the draft. The draft will be conducted in S-formation, that is, the owner who picked last in a given round will have the first pick in the subsequent round. The initial order will be determined by the reverse order of finish during the previous year. All teams will have 25 players at the end of the draft. Players chosen in the draft must be either placed on the roster, on reserve, or waived immediately. Owners who control or inherit teams from previous years may protect certain players from the draft, as detailed in II. F. For such teams, the number of players selected in the draft will be reduced accordingly. Similarly, an owner who has traded draft picks to other teams will be allowed to select players after the 25th round to get to a fully stocked roster. If the league expands the number of teams over the total in the previous year, the owners of the new teams will be entitled to special picks during the draft to assist in the building of a team. The expansion draft is 5 rounds in length, one round following each of the first 5 rounds of the regular draft. Draft order is determined randomly by the commissioner. Any unowned player is eligible to be selected in this draft. In all other respects, the draft proceeds like the regular draft. The intent of this rule is to allow expansion teams to stock their rosters with good available talent, making them quickly competitive. The expansion teams will be assigned a regular draft position following the existing teams, with a draft position reversed from the expansion draft order. For teams that played during the previous season, but whose owners will not be returning to participate the following year, any new participant in the league may be choose to assume control of the existing team. If s/he does so, the owner is treated exactly as if the teams had not gone through a change in ownership -- the same rules pertaining to holdovers, draft position, and player rights apply. However, the owner may choose to pass on the team, and if no other owner is found prior to the draft, all of the team's players will be considered eligible for the draft, and any new owners will be treated like expansion teams. Note that the new owner's decision must be made very shortly after viewing the team's roster -- in practice within 24 hours of joining the league and viewing available teams. The owner may not later choose to relinquish the team, and become an expansion franchise -- the value of the option to protect players after entering the league distinguishes between owners of expansion teams, and owners of existing teams who choose not to protect anyone. C. Trades, Waivers, and Claims Trade - Any number of owners may agree to exchange any number of currently owned players, draft picks for the next immediate draft, or years of eligibility for holdovers in the next league season. Draft picks for other than the next occuring draft are not permitted to be part of trades. Years of eligibility for other than the next league season are not permitted to be part of trades. The commissioner must be notified of the trade by both/all owners by the roster deadline in order for traded players to be eligible. Trading of players on reserve is permissible. If an acquisition puts a team above the limit of 25 players, the owner must make roster changes to bring his team within the limit by the roster deadline. NOTE: A trade must be completed within a single week, and is assumed to be permanent. The commissioner will have authority to rule against unfair or collusive trades. RULING: Offseason trades are complete as soon as both parties have notified the commissioner or roster admin. Trades are then nonreversable without mutual consent. Waiver - An owner may be released any player on his roster at any time. Waived players go into a pool of unassigned players or "free agents" that may be claimed by other owners. Claim - An owner may request the addition of an unassigned player to his roster. The cost of the transaction is $2 (unless the claim is to replace an reserved player) which goes into the prize pool. If two owners wish to claim the same player, the owner who has least recently claimed a player signs the player. If both owners signed a player at the same tie (within the same week), then the team with the worse record signs the player. An owner may claim a player he previously waived. RULING: Players are claimed in round-robin fashion. That is, once an owner has signed a player, his priority is immediately recomputed such that he is now the most recent signer. This takes place before any other players are signed in the same week. It is not the case that the highest priority owner claims everyone he wants before anyone else can claim anyone. CLARIFICATION: Signing priority for the first two weeks of the season are the same as the draft order. Note: A claimed player must spend at least one week on a team's active 25 man roster before being eligible to be placed on the injured/reserved list. The intent of this rule is to prevent teams from signing an eligible player who is currently on the DL or in the minors, and transferring him to IR incurring while only the signing fee as a cost of doing so. Such a player must still spend a week as one of the 25 active players (even if he doesn't play or earn points), before being assigned to IR status. D. Injured Reserve - If a player is placed on the disabled list by a major league club, is demoted to a minor league club, or is suspended or declared ineligible for more than 7 days, the owner can opt to place the player on injured reserve. Players on reserve do not count towards the 25 player roster limit, nor are they eligible to accumulate points for the team. When the player is reactivated, the owner must add him to his roster, or waive him by the next roster deadline. Players on reserve may be traded, but their status must be disclosed to the other owners involved in the trade. RULING: Players suspended for exactly seven days may be placed on injured reserve. RULING: Players released by their major league club, or otherwise no longer employed by any major league team may be placed on IR until they again appear in the majors. E. Prospect/Minor league player eligibility A player who has not yet appeared for a major league team in the current season may not be claimed by a manager. However, any player, including any minor leaguer, may be drafted by a manager during the spring draft. If that player is not currently on a major league roster, he may be placed on the reserve list until promoted to the majors. The intent of this rule is to prevent stockpiling of minor league talent through preemptive claims, while still allowing managers to gamble on prospective stars. The commissioner will have the authority to rule on any player's status. F. Holdovers Prior to the start of each season, an owner who participated the previous year is entitled to retain any number of players who were present on his/her final roster from the previous season, subject to a combined experience level of no more than 30 player-years. The experience level of a player is found by taking the year in which the player first amassed a career total of 150 AB or 50 IP in the majors, subtracting that year from the year of the current season, and adding one. For example, if John Doe had 100 at bats in each of 1991 and 1992, his career total of 150 AB was reached during 1992. For the 1996 season, his experience "cost" would be 1996-1992+1, or 5 years of experience. Note that players who have not reached 150 AB or 50 IP in the majors cost 1 year under this scheme, and will cost 1 year every season until they reach the career totals that starts the clock ticking. This is similar to the major league rules for rookie eligibility, with some differences -- most notably the lack of a provision for days spent on a ML roster. Owner's may trade years of eligiblility to other owners prior to the submission of keeper lists. Only years for the immediately following league season may be included in trades. A manager who does not use all of his years of eligibility in his holdovers must discard the rest. Eligibility years do not carry over from season to season, and gain no other special priority during the draft. The unused years are simply forfeited. Players who are protected can not be claimed be another team, and are automatically placed on the owner's roster at the start of the new draft. The owner's total number of picks in the draft will be reduced by the number of players s/he chooses to protect. The owner will draft until his/her roster is full, essentially losing the late round picks in accordance with the number of players protected. The list of players so reserved will be due approximately 1 week prior to the draft date, at the commissioner's discretion. A list of protected players will be made available to all owners prior to the start of the draft. A player may be protected in subsequent years indefinitely, though his cost will increase by 1 year in accordance with the experience rules explained above. A protected player who has still not attained 150 AB or 50 IP at the end of the season can continue to be protected at a cost of one year, however. G. Off-season Rosters One week following the end of the season, a final roster list is due from each owner, listing 25 players who the owner reserves the rights to at the beginning of the off-season. Trading may occur during the off-season (for players currently owned and draft picks for the spring draft) prior to the deadline for submitting holdover lists. Currently, the owner is not required to submit a list of players that would meet the eligibility requirements of a regular season lineup. Note that for the purposes of the off-season roster, players on the injured/reserved list *do* count against the limit of 25 players (in other words, there is no reserved list during the off-season). All off-season trades are considered to be part of a single roster period, ending with the submission of the holdover lists prior to the draft. No trades may occur between the deadline for holdover submissions and the end of the draft. H. Initial post-draft roster submission - special signing draft Background: The first roster submission period following the draft has historically been a very complicated week, with multiple players on each team being placed on IR, and intense competition for available free agents. To ease the administrative burden on the league, the following process has been adopted. Immediately following the regular draft, owners will declare any players they intend to place on IR for the first week. Any player known to be eligible for placement on the Injured/Reserved list that the owner wishes to place on IR must be declared immediately following the draft. Free agent signings (for the first roster period only) will take the form of an extension of the draft on draft day. Only players who have already appeared in a major league game during the current season are eligible to be selected in this special draft (consistent with current signing rules). Owners get one pick for every player they place on IR, retaining the same order as during the draft. The special draft will not be S-formation, it will be straight draft order picks (consistent with current signing rules). If a player was eligible to be placed on IR on draft day, but the owner chose not to do so, that player is not eligible to be placed on IR until the second week of the season. If a player was not eligible for IR on draft day, but between draft day and the roster submission deadline, the player becomes eligible (e.g. getting sent down to the minors, or placed on the disabled list), then the owner will be entitled to sign a replacement. The intent of this process is to simplify the free-agent claim process for the initial week. Other than as specifically noted above, this special draft resembles in all ways the regular free agent claim process, and any rules or interpretations applicable to it will apply to this special draft also. Note: Draft picks in the special free-agent claim draft may not be exchanged as parts of trades. III. Scoring Rules A. Offense Each week, the manager must designate a lineup. If not submitted by the roster deadline, the lineup is assumed to be the same as the previous week. The manager selects 9 regulars - 8 fielders and 1 designated hitter (DH). Each fielder must be eligible for the position they are assigned to (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, and 3 OF). Note that no distinction is made between LF, CF, and RF. The manager may also submit a substitution roster, as described in part D. A player's one game batting total is defined as follow: Batting Points = ToB + TB + (SB-CS) + (R+RBI) - OUTS = 2*H + W + TB + R + RBI + SB - CS - AB R = Runs scored RBI = Runs batted In H = Hits W = Walks (also known as Base on Balls) TB = Total Bases = H + 2B + 2*3B + 3*HR SB = Stolen bases CS = Caught stealing ToB = Times on Base = Hits + Walks = H + W OUTS = Batting Outs = AB - H A player is eligible to play a position during a week if: a) he has appeared at the position in 20 games or more during the current year (majors & minors combined) b) he has appeared at the position in 20 games or more during the previous year (majors & minors combined) c) it was the position with the most appearances during the previous year combining majors and minors (for players that don't meet the 20 G requirement at any position) d) he played the position in the majors during the previous week The commissioner has the right to request proof of eligibility from the player's owner in any week. Special case: If the previous season was shortened due to strike, lockout, or other factors, the 20 games requirement will be prorated to the fraction of the standard season actually played. Any non-pitcher is eligible as a DH. Note that no "unused" scores carry over from week-to-week. B. Pitching The 2nd part of the lineup submitted by each manager weekly is the pitching rotation, consisting of 5 starting pitchers (the "rotation") and 3 relievers (the "bullpen"). Any additional pitchers comprise a "swing staff" who's scores can be used in certain circumstances. A pitcher's one game pitching total is defined as follows: Pitching = 3*IP + K - BB - 2*(H+R+ER) + Bonus Bonus = +5 recorded Win -3 recorded Loss +2 recorded Save +2 per inning starter completes starting with the 5th inning IP = Inning Pitched (including fractions of innings) K = Strikeouts BB = Walks (but not hit batsmen, HBP) H = Hits allowed R = Runs allowed ER = Earned runs allowed Note that no "unused" scores carry over from week-to-week. C. Tabulating weekly scores Only official major-league games are used for score-keeping. If a game is called (due to rain or other reason) before reaching the required number of innings, any scores resulting from it do not count. Games are considered to be belong to the week in which it is completed, and the box score published. Note that it is possible to have more than one game in a single day, due to doubleheaders. Each game is scored separately. Offense - for each regular position, the top 5 of 7 single game scores are added together. If the designated starter played fewer than 7 games, then the substitution roster, if any, is consulted to make up the difference. The sum of the best 5 scores is the position total for the week. The sum of the 9 position totals for the week is the offense, or batting score for the week. Pitching - For each of the 5 members of the rotation, the pitcher's single best start during the week is that pitcher's score for the week. If a rotation pitcher did not start a game during the week, and there is no swing start that can be used in its place, then the score is considered to be zero. If any of the scores are nonpositive, it is possible to use scores from the swing staff, as detailed later. Relief appearances by starting pitchers are discarded, and can not be used towards the bullpen score. The rotation score consists of the sum of 5 scores achieved by the rotation (possibly including swing staff substitutions). For the bullpen score, all relief appearances by the bullpen and swing staff are considered without restriction. Note that starting appearances by bullpen pitchers are discarded. Between 5 and 10 scores are taken to sum to the bullpen score. If after taking the best 5 scores from the bullpen, there are still positive relief scores remaining, up to an additional 5 scores may be added into the bullpen total. Under no circumstances may more than 10 relief scores be used in any given week. If five or more relief appearances were made in a given week, a minimum of five relief scores *must* be used. If fewer than 5 relief appearances were made during the week, than all scores are used, and the remaining scores are assumed to be zero. The sum of the 5- 10 relief scores is the bullpen score for the week. The sum of the rotation and bullpen pitching scores is the total pitching score. The sum of the pitching and batting scores for the week yields the total points scored for the week by that team. This total is added to the team's previous total to determine its place among the other teams. D. Substitution rules - offense Each manager may elect to submit a substitution list along with his lineup to cover the case where his regular position players do not appear in 7 games during the week. The substitution list is optional, but managers who use it will benefit from the extra points it generates for his team. If a substitution list is submitted and in effect for a given week, the manager must use its results, even it results in a lower score due to poor performances by his bench players. For each position, the manager lists the remaining non-regulars on the roster who are eligible to play the position, in order of preference. The manager submits this list as part of his roster. If a regular did not play 7 games during the week, the substitution roster is consulted to make up the difference. Pinch-hitting and defensive replacement appearances do count against the 7 game criteria. No substitute can be play in more games than he actually appeared in during the week. Substituted games scores are done by taking the best games first for each sub. Note that one sub's scores must be completely used up before using a 2nd backup's scores (with one exception - outfield backups). Outfield subs - One list of subs is submitted for all three outfield positions. Unlike the backups at other positions, the scores for all listed backup outfielders are considered together, rather than individually. The best scores from among all the subs are taken first. Starting outfielders are substituted for in the order in which they are listed in the roster submission. Substitutions are done in positional order (e.g. C-1B-2B-3B-SS-OF) This is explained further in the example below. If there are no eligible players with games available to make up missed time, then no additional scores can be used (e.g. if the starter and backups combine for only 6 games, then we pick the best five of six scores). If fewer than 5 games are played, the balance of 5 are assumed to be zero. e.g. Regular catcher is Fisk, and regular 1B is Thomas. Starter Substitution list (partial) ------- --------------------------- C - Fisk - Karkovice, LaValliere 1B - Thomas - Pasqua, Karkovice ... Fisk played 4 games, and Thomas played 5 during the week. Suppose Karkovice played in 4 games during the week, and Pasqua played in 1. We start with catcher (C), and we need to make up 3 games (7 games needed minus 4 games played by starter). Karkovice has played 4, so we use his best 3 games of the week to make up the C deficit. This fulfills the C position. LaValliere isn't used and thus is available for substitution at other positions he's eligible to play. Moving on to first base, we need to make up 2 games. Pasqua is our first substitute, and he played a game, so we count that game. Now we're up to 4 games for 1B. Our second substitute is Karkovice, who has one game remaining for the week (4 he actually played minus 3 we counted for Catcher). We use his last score of the week at 1B. We now have 5 scores for the 1B position. Since we are short two games (can have up to 7 scores), we must use the five scores we have, without dropping any. E. Substitution rules - pitching Any pitchers on the roster beyond the required 5 members of the rotation and 3 members of the bullpen can optionally be designated as "swing pitchers" or the "swing staff." These pitchers can, in certain circumstances, be used in place of rotation pitchers, and can augment the bullpen. If any starting pitcher has a weekly score less than or equal to zero, then a start by a swing pitcher may be used. All starts by all swing pitchers are considered, and the best one selected. Naturally, the swing pitcher's score would have to be better than the start being substituted for. If a second rotation start is non-positive, another start may be substituted for by the swing staff. Note that, as with the rotation, each swing staff pitcher may contribute only his best start for the week towards the pitching total. Note that if a rotation pitcher fails to make a start during the week, and a swing pitcher does make a start, then the substitution must occur, even if the swing start is negative. Any relief appearances made by members of the swing staff are counted along with the bullpen scores toward the minimum of 5 and the maximum of 10. IV. Sportsmanship The league relies upon the integrity of its participants to be successful. Though prizes are awarded, the league is governed by sportsmanship, not greed. It is assumed that all managers will report scores accurately and truthfully. Additionally, unethical roster moves, such as trades between teams that intentionally bolster one team at the expense of the other (trading a last-place team's good players to a contender in return for scrubs) damage the league's integrity, and may be nullified. However, owners involved in a trade are not obliged to disclose information relating to a player's playing time, demotion to the minors, or status except for his presence on the MLB injured reserve list. Intentional violations of this tenet may result in expulsion from the league. The commissioner will have the authority to rule on sportsmanship issues.