| Ultimate Fantasy Baseball By-Laws 1. League Admission Requirements/Basics: 1.1 - Fill out the Application located at UFB Application and email it to JP Sheehan at jpsheehan@yahoo.com 1.2 - If asked to join, you will need Yahoo Instant messenger 1.3 - You may be kicked out if you do any of the following: *Cheat in any way *Have more than one team in the league *Are NOT an active manager 2. League Basics/Scoring: 2.1 - The league will be played H2H on Yahoo, but it is imperative to check the league's official page regularly. 2.2 - We will use 6 x 6 scoring (Traditional 5 x 5 plus OPS and Holds) The categories are: Runs, Home Runs, Stolen Bases, RBIs, Batting Avg, OPS (On Base % + Slugging %),Wins, Saves, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP, Holds (for middle relievers and set up men) 2.3 - The lineup we will use is as follows: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, UTIL, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, P, P, P. 2.4 - There is a 15 game positional eligibility requirement for positional players and a 5 game requirement for pitchers. They must have appeared in that capacity the season prior or during the current season to be eligible at a position. If a player misses an entire season due to injury their eligibility goes back to the last season played. Any rookie is eligible at the first position they play until they gain enough games at a position. At that time they will be eligible at the position they met the requirement in. 2.5 - We will have a 40 player major league roster and a maximum of 10 players on the rookie roster. 2.6 - Each owner must keep a minimum of 38 players on their UFB roster at all times during the season. This is not required during the off season, but must be re-established at 38 by opening day. 2.7 - There is a minimum IP of 17 during the season in order to score pitching points. 3. Salary rules / Free Agency / Draft: 3.1 - There is a strict $300 salary cap, no team may be over $300 at ANY time. 3.2 - After this season, "Pay day" will occur on (or around) Dec.1. On payday, a player must pay for all contracts for the following year, and as such all contracts are lessened by 1 year. All players previously on one year contracts become restricted free agents at this point and longer count against the cap. 3.3 - All players on the major league roster must be signed to a contract (usually around March 1st for those signed in the off season free agent auction). 3.4 - A player picked in the off-season free agent auction may be signed from 1 to 5 years (note the rookie exception). 3.5 - A player added during in-season free agent bidding is only signed for the remainder of the season. After the season they become a restricted free agent (note rule 3.7). 3.6 - Once a player's contract expires, they become a restricted free agent for the current owner (RFA). These players are eligible to be bid on by any team in the free agent auction, but the current owner has the right to beat the highest bid by $1 to resign the player (note rule 3.7). Unless current owner also has high bid, in which case they are kept at that price. 3.7 - Only two in-season signings may be designated per team as restricted free agents. All others will be classified as unrestricted free-agents and will go to the highest bidder. 3.8 - Off-Season free agent bidding will be conducted on the league message board in several rounds. The rounds will proceed as follows: *For the first rounds of bidding each owner nominates 4 players who will be bid upon. The following round(s) will consist of all remaining restricted free agents. *There will be several days of open bidding, where any team can bid upon any player. *No bids can be withdrawn for any reason after they have been posted (even if the player is acquired in a trade during the auction). *If a manager bids on a RFA from their own team, that player immediately becomes a UFA. Any such bids must also be announced by a manager at the trime of the bid. *There will be a day for sealed bids. *High bids will are announced, and the owner of restricted free agent rights will have an alloted time to decide whether to keep a player or release them (generally one day). *No players can ever be kept or released "contingent" on another transaction. A firm decision must be made to keep or release a Restricted Free Agent. *The winning owner immediately pays the player for the first year of service. *Deadlines set for bidding time are at the discretion of the commissioner. Failure to meet the deadlines could result in forfeiture of RFAs or other penalties. *If a manager goes over the cap in FA bidding the following procedure will rectify the situation: 1) The offending manager's own FAs will be released starting from higest bid. If this does not fix the situation and put the manager back under the cap 2) The offending manager's bids starting with the highest will be removed. In this scenerio, players will go to the next higest bidder that does not throw them over the cap. Any intentional overbidding will be dealt with at the discretion of the commisioner. 3.9 - After all restricted free agents are bid upon, there will be an open period of bidding, during which any team can bid upon any unrestricted free agents (UFA). When the high bid is unbeaten for 3 days the bidding is considered closed and the player goes to the highest bidder. 3.10 - Other Auction considerations: *An owner can never bid more money than they have available in cap on any individual player. *Owners must keep $1 available for each open spot on their roster. For example: If an owner has $15 available for 15 open spots, they can not bid more than $1 on any player. 3.11 - In-season FA bidding, is conducted on a weekly basis in the same fashion described rule 3.9. Players are added the first Sunday (for the following Monday's games) after bidding closes. It isn't required that $1 per open spot be kept during in-season bidding. Teams should however either maintain the 38 player minimum or be able to meet it with $1 per open roster spot. 4. Waivers/ Release: 4.1 - Owners may waive any salaried player, by posting that they wish to do so in the transactions area of the web site. Waived players can be seen by visiting the On Waivers link on the main page. 4.2 - Any team wishing to claim a waived player may make a bid for him during any week they are on waivers. The team then inherits the players original contract and the waiving team is then relieved of any future responsibility towards that player. If a player is not claimed, his contract continues to be paid by the original owner 4.3 - All players will be removed from the waiver list at the end of each season. 4.4 - While on the waiver list the player can not be activated on your roster and can not participate in games for your team. They will be designated on your roster as "on waivers" until you inform the commissioner otherwise. They can also not be traded unless all managers involved are officially informed of the waiver status of a player (seeing as how they can simply take them for free). 4.5 - Players will only be able to be taken off waivers if there is not currently a waiver claim on them. They can be withdrawn from the list at anytime and will return to their team for activation on the following Monday. 4.6 - Once a player has been removed from the waiver list by his original team he can not be placed back on the list during that season. 4.7- Players will go to the team who bids on them during the week that is currently the lowest in the standings. Thus, if the 18th place and the 12th place team both make a bid on the same player during a week, he would go to the team in 18th place. Obviously, in order to pick up a contract of a waived player you must have sufficient cap room to make the addition. 4.8 - Owners may also release players by posting that they wish to buy out their contract. You must pay 1/2 the balance (rounded up) of the balance of the contract to buy it out plus the base salary already figured into the cap. You never save money by releasing a player since their contracts are at least partially guaranteed. For example: $5/1 (salary) = $0 (plus the base salary already paid) $5/2 = $3 (plus the base salary of $5 already paid) $5/4 = $8 (plus the base salary of $5 already paid) $5/5 = $10 (plus the base salary of $5 already paid) 4.9 - A player who is released immediately becomes an unrestricted free agent (UFA). They can be bid on like any other unowned player starting at $1 regardless of what their previous salary was. 4.10 - Special circumstances: *If a player dies, his contract is immediately terminated. *If a player is forced to retire because of an off field tragedy (such as being shot or getting a life-threatening disease) his contract is immediately terminated. *If a player retires, you still have to pay out (or buy out) the remainder of the contract so sign older players wisely! 5. Trades: 5.1 - All trades must be posted and confirmed by all involved owners on the message board in the transactions section. 5.2 - Format posts as follows: SF Giants get: Mickey Mantle $13/2 & Whitey Ford $10/3; Giants release: Willie Mays $10/1 NY Yankees get: Gaylord Perry $8/1 5.3 - No trades can involve "future considerations" or rookie draft picks beyond the next years rookie draft. 5.4 - The trade deadline for the league is the same as the MLB trade deadline (July 31st at midnight) 5.5 - Any active player, minor leaguer or rookie draft pick on the roster can be traded by a team. 5.6 - See waiver rule 4.4 for restrictions on trading players on waivers. 6. Rookie Rules: 6.1 - There will be a rookie draft shortly after the World Series each year. 6.2 - Each team receives 5 picks. Picks can be traded. Picks will be made in 5 rounds with the last place team from the year picking first in each round. 6.3 - Players selected in the rookie draft will have no salary. 6.4 - Rookie status is determined by MLB. A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the major leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a major league club or clubs during the period of a 25-player limit (excluding time in military service). Starting with the 2007 rookie draft, any rookie will be given an option season at $5 on the active roster after their rookie season. After that 2nd season they become an RFA just as the had before. 6.5 - No owner may have more than 10 un-salaried rookies on their team at any time. 6.6 - Teams can call rookies on their minor league list up to play players as if they were on their active roster at any time. 6.7 - At the end of a season, any un-salaried rookie who passes the thresholds set in 6.4, becomes a restricted free agent for his current team (designated in red on the rookie roster after the season). 6.8 - Rookies not on a team may be bid upon during off-season, or in-season, bidding and paid a salary, but if that player fails to pass the thresholds set in 6.4, they become an unrestricted free agent and are eligible for the rookie draft except for players who qualify as per 6.9 (a rule which is no longer applicable to the league). 6.9 - The exception to rookie draft eligibility are players who were already on original team rosters who were not bid obtained as unrestricted FA during a season. These players are never eligible for the rookie draft unless released at some point from their contract and re-signed. A list of grandfathered players is at: 2003 Rookie Draft page in the orange box on the left. This rule is no longer applicable as the players have all lost their eligibility or been released by 2006 7. Illegal Players: 7.1 - Anyone caught attempting to play with a player not on their roster will be penalized by forfeiting their games for the week the ineligible player was used. 7.2 - Because the league is free flowing in terms of who can be picked up, released, etc. you should never pick up a player not listed on your official UFB page roster regardless if you believe you have added them in a trade or as a FA. 7.3 - Any player involved in a trade made during the season will be allowed to be picked up after the trade is agreed to and the official rosters are UPDATED. So make sure to notify the commissioner as soon as possible about any trades and they will make it to your team quicker. |
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