Active roster - The 23 player roster whose stats are used to add to your season total. Your season opening roster is acquired through an open auction of all Major League players. (The auction process is described later.) Each active roster has the following positional requirements:
Reserve roster - Other players you have reserved to your team. Each team will be allowed to draft up to 6 players after the auction has finished. Each team's bench can hold up to 8 players during the season. Additional players are acquired by free agent bidding.
Auction - The bidding part of picking teams.
Draft - The process of picking reserve roster players, no money and no
bidding involved.
Salaried player - Player that was on one of the rotis active rosters
after the auction. Either kept from the year before, or bid on during the auction.
Free Agents - All and any players that are not on any owner's team.
SCORING
Ten categories of information will be used to determine league standings. 5 are batting
stats, 5 are pitching. These are:
Data is collected each week for the current 23 man active roster. The data is based on
the real life performances of your active players for each week. This data is added to the
year-to-date totals for each of the above categories.
Each team earns a point for every owner they are better than plus 1. For a
15 owner
league, 1st place would get 15 points, last place would get 1. Each team's points are
added together to see where the team is in the overall standings. So, the team with the
highest number of points at the end of the season is the winner. Ties can occur in
positions, but averages (AVG, ERA, and RATIO) are calculated all the way out and a tie can
only occur in the rare case of being precisely (exactly) tied.
Each team's pitching staff must accumulate 1200 innings pitched else that team will not be entitled to any winnings! Only the top 7 teams whose staff has pitched 1200 innings can win payouts (see below).
FREE AGENTS
Any player currently on a Major League roster and not on some league team
(active or bench) is considered a free agent. Player valuation reports
on the web indicate players who are free agents with an "A" to the
right of his statistics.
Each owner starts with $100 free agent acquisition budget (FAAB). Each week one can make bids on free agents as long as they have funds to cover the bid left in their FAAB. Bidding closes each week at 7:00pm CDT on Sunday. The highest bid for a player gets the player added to their bench. If there is a tie for the highest bid, the owner lower in the standings (at end of week), wins the bid. If still tied, lowest at the end of the previous week (and so on), will break the tie.
The transaction fee for an acquisition is $8 (regardless of the bid value). Results of each week's free agent bidding will be recorded and posted on the web each Sunday evening.
Bids can be made by:
Bids made in any other manner may be considered null and void.
QUALIFYING FOR A POSITION
During the auction, for a player to qualify for a position, he must have played that
position at least 20 times last year. For rookies or players who have not played
20 games
last year at any position, either the predominant position (based on current expectations),
the position played by the player last year in the minors, or what owners agree to at auction time will determine his eligibility.
During the season, a player may become eligible for other positions if he plays at least
10 times at the position.
Some players may be eligible for several positions, others for only one.
THE AUCTION, DRAFT, AND ROSTERS
Any player is eligible to be brought up for bidding. Injured players and
even minor league players may be bid upon if the owner feels it to their best interest to
acquire that player for his bid.
Each owner has $260 (rotisserie dollars) with which to fill their 23 man roster. Some players may have been kept from the previous year and their salaries deducted from the $260 limit appropriately.
The auction process is to go in a set order (usually based on where everyone is seated) and bring up a player for bidding. The player should be announced with his real team and position noted and your opening bid ($1 assumed if otherwise not mentioned). Any position ambiguity should be determined at this time (e.g. rookies). Bidding proceeds in auction style with the highest bid acquiring that player. Final bid becomes that player's salary. Bid amount is deducted from that owner's limit. No bid may be made if an owner has insufficient funds to acquire that player and have at least $1 for each position left to fill his roster. And the owner must have a roster position available for which that player is eligible based on his position qualifications. If an owner has filled his roster, he no longer brings up a player for bidding.
After the auction has finished (all owners have filled their 23 man rosters), there will be a 6 round reserve draft. The picking order will start with the team that finished in last place the previous year and work its way up to the previous year's winner who picks last. Each subsequent round will go in that same order.
WEEKLY TRANSACTIONS
Only the 23 active players on a team accumulate statistics. Once a week, you may
make transactions to change the makeup of your 23 active players. The rotisserie
week is Monday through Sunday's games. Monday is transaction day. Transactions
should be made before any games are played on Monday and by 7:00pm at the
latest, but tolerance is granted if the
action clearly has not been based on actual results. Transactions are entered and
recorded Monday evening and will be posted to the web then.
Transactions that can be made are:
No new free agents can be acquired for a Monday transaction. If no player is specified to be dropped for a just-acquired free agent after your bench reaches 8, the free agent will be dropped.
Note. A player can ONLY be dropped if a free agent is acquired. (One can't just drop players to stay under the salary cap.)
TRADES
Two teams can trade players. Players involved can be active or bench but must have
the same number of players traded by each. All teams must remain 23 active and 8
bench players at all times. Both teams must remain within salary cap
requirements (see below).
There are two trading deadlines. The first deadline is the last Monday in July. Any players traded before this deadline may be kept the following year. The second deadline is the second Monday in August. Any player traded between deadlines may not be kept. No trading may occur after the second trading deadline.
Transaction fees for any trade are $8 for each owner no matter how many players are traded. The owners involved can determine which side is paying how much (usually split evenly).
Off-season trades can occur and incur no fee. There is little record keeping involved with any such trades. All players involved in off-season trades in the last week before keepers are due, must be kept.
Any trade can be nullified by a majority vote of the other owners, if they feel there may be some form of collusion involved. If an owner feels collusion is occurring, he notifies the commissioner and the commissioner will see to it that both sides are presented and take the vote.
SALARY CAP
All teams must make sure their team always remains within salary cap
limitations. The sum of the salaries of all 31 players on a team
determines your team's total salary. This includes all 23 active players
and the (up to) 8 bench players.
Reserve players (those acquired at the draft after the auction and indicated by an R on the reports) count $5 towards a teams total salary.
Free Agent acquisitions, no matter what the bid was, also count $5 toward the total salary.
Unfilled bench positions count $5 toward the total salary (these represent future free agent pick-ups.)
A team must at all times total at least $240.
A team may never exceed $360 in total salary.
Typical teams will start at $300 ($260 in auction plus 6 reserve players at $5 each, plus 2 empty bench slots at $5 each). Some may start a little bit less if they didn't spend all $260. Additional free agent acquisitions throughout the season will add to a team's total salary if the player dropped had a smaller salary, or decrease the team's total salary if a player with a salary more than $5 is dropped.
Each team's current total salary is shown on their team's report page from the current standings on the pitching totals line in parenthesis.
SEPTEMBER CALL-UP
Any team so desiring, can add an additional active roster spot for a $20
fee. This can be either an offensive position (no position requirement)
and will be indicated with a U (for utility player) in the lineup, or as
an additional pitcher. On subsequent Mondays in September, this player
could be swapped pitcher for utility player or vice-versa, if desired, without
additional fee. This additional player counts as an additional slot on
your team. Thus if this option is taken, your team will have 24 active players
and still 8 bench players. Salary cap requirements must still be met.
(NOTE: Maybe the salary cap should not matter at this point in the season???)
KEEPERS
All teams are allowed to keep up to 6 players from the previous year before going into the
auction. The salaries of those players will be deducted from the $260 bidding money each
team has.
In general, keepers are due the weekend before the auction. Precise date will be announced each year during Spring training.
A player can be dropped from the keeper list (week before the auction) only if that player goes on the DL. Another player can (if desired) be added to the keeper list in this case.
Players can only be kept for 1 extra year.
Any player kept must have his salary raised $5.
If you decide to keep a player that was drafted to a reserve roster (and never
dropped throughout the season) he can be kept for a salary of $10. Once he is released
by a
team, he loses his eligibility to be a keeper.
Free agent acquisition players can not be kept.
Salaried players on their first year are indicated by just their salary. They may be kept (with a $5 raise).
Reserve draft players are indicated with an "R". They may be kept the next year at $10 salary.
Salaried players on their last year are indicated with a "+" after their salary. They can not be kept the next year.
Players traded after the first trading deadline will be indicated with a "*" after their salary. Such traded players can not be kept the following year.
Players acquired as free agents will be indicated by an "f" after the amount of the bid.
ADDITIONAL RULES
Transactions can be made by sending e-mail to stowe@budmans.com
or voice-mail to (515)270-3216 (an 800 number is available).
Statistics for your original active teams accumulate from the beginning of the season
(even if the auction occurs (as is most likely) after the season has begun.)
Free transactions may be made after the auction and draft. This would be to set your original 23 man active lineup (which may not coincide exactly with your 23 salaried players due to injuries or known poor performance.) Free agents may NOT be taken at this time (so make your reserve picks with such replacements in mind!)
There will be a $20 (real dollars) fee for statistics and record keeping by each owner.
All rotisserie salaries and fees are 'rotisserie dollars'. The actual STAKES are 25 cents per rotis dollar.
A pre-payment on auction day is to be made to the treasurer. Settlement is due immediately upon completion of the regular season. A settlement sheet will be produced.
End of year payoffs will consist of the money spent in the auction, plus transaction fees, minus the record keeping fee. This money will be split among the owners based on their final position in the standings.
Payout schedule is:
The owners are responsible for maintaining the league and seeing to its best interests.
If ever a situation arises where it is felt one owner is a detriment to the league and its
operation, for whatever reason, that owner can be removed from the league by a majority
vote of the owners. (I doubt this would ever happen, but rules should be in place for any
contingency. Ask Marge Schott!)
DISCLAIMER:
We do want to make one point clear, it is the responsibility of the manager to know his
team and to make his transaction intentions clear. The transaction keeper will attempt to
catch errors, but makes no guarantees. If we catch an error before the transaction
deadline, we will attempt to contact the owner and clarify the situation. If an error is detected after the deadline, the transaction can be
voided or corrected (as the case may be). Reports (standings) can and will be
altered to correct errors.
Items in red indicate rule changes new for the 2001 season.