League Layout and Overview
14 team fantasy baseball league based on actual MLB games (not a simulation league)
Auction draft, keeper system league
Head-to-head style with a 19-week regular season and a 6-week, 8-team playoff based on 12 categories (6 hitter, 6 pitcher)
23 active players, 6 reserve spot, 3 injured reserve spots and 2 Minor League spots
Weekly lineups (Monday-Sunday)
Internet-based, using CBS Sportsline
Commissioner is Brian Kreklau ([email protected])
Prize league with a league fee of $125 per season per team
No league transaction fees
Owners/Teams
There shall be a maximum of 14 teams in the league. Teams may have multiple owners, but for the purposes of voting on league issues, each franchise is considered equal to all other franchises. Each owner is required to meet the basic guidelines of ownership in this league:
Attendance at the online league auction in the spring
Required to turn in a keeper list due one week before the auction
Required to pay league fees on or before one week prior to the draft
Required to adhere to the rules of the league
Required to participate in all league-wide constitutional amendment votes
Required to maintain a team and keep up-to-date with a starting lineup
Failure to comply with the above basic guidelines of ownership will result in possible expulsion from the league.
Rosters
Each team’s active roster consists of the following players:
2 catchers
1 second baseman
1 shortstop
1 middle infielder (either second baseman or shortstop)
1 first baseman
1 third baseman
1 corner infielder (either first or third baseman)
5 outfielders
1 DH (any hitter, regardless of position)
3 SP’s
2 RP’s
4 Pitchers
All teams will have 6 bench spots 3 DL spots and 2 Minor League Slots. To be eligible to be placed in a DL slot, the player must have achieved the status of being on one of MLB’s injured lists and posted as DL on the CBS Sportsline site. Once the player is removed from the MLB injured list, he must be activated from injured reserve before the following week’s lineup deadline. To be eligible to be placed in a Minor League slot, the player must have his status listed as ML on the CBS Sportsline site. Once a player is no longer Minor League eligible he must be moved into active or bench slots or waived.
Each team must have their lineups set 5 minutes prior to the first game of the week of each week according to CBS lineup deadlines.
Teams are not allowed to start players in their starting lineups with a status of Minor Leaguers as determined by the league software, unless approved to do so by the commissioner. If owners are continually having problems with injured or non-roster players in there starting lineups the commissioner reserves the right to adjust lineups for the the owner for the integrity of the rest of the league.
Position Eligibility
A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared at least 10 times in the major leagues in the preceding season. If a player did not appear in 10 games at any position, he may be drafted only at the position at which he appeared most frequently. A player becomes eligible for an additional position once he appears in the major leagues at that position at least 10 times. For Starting/Relief Pitchers the setting is 5 Games Appeared the Previous Year or 3 Games Appeared the Current Year.
MLB players that only qualify as a DH can only be put in the DH spot, no other. Players that qualify as both hitters and pitchers are only eligible to be used in either a hitter or pitcher slot for each week’s lineup.
If a player did not appear the prior season in the majors, he qualifies at the position he played most frequently the prior season in any league(s) he played in. If a player sat out the previous year for any reason, his eligibility will be determined by the last season in which he played professional baseball in the United States. This league follows strict CBS Sportsline position and status qualifications.
Standings
The following statistical categories will be used to determine team performance and league standings:
Hitting
Batting Average
Home Runs
RBI’s
Runs Scored
Stolen Bases
OPS
Pitching
WHIP ((Walks plus hits) divided by innings pitched)
ERA
Wins
Saves
Strikeouts
Innings pitched
All 14 teams are placed in two 7-team divisions. Teams will play a weekly head-to-head schedule to be determined before the season by the commissioner. The regular season schedule will span the first 19-weeks of the MLB season, including the week of the All-Star game. The week of the All-Star game will not be omitted. Each team will play each intra-division team twice and each inter-division team once. Each category that a team wins will count as 1 victory, each category a team loses will count as 1 loss. Each category a team ties will count as a tie.
The standings for each team will be determined by winning %. The formula to determine winning % shall be [wins + (.5 * ties)] divided by (wins + loses + ties).
Ties: If there is a tie in the standings for two teams the following formula will be used:
Head to Head record with opponent
Record over the last 4 weeks
Post-All Star Break record
Playoffs
At the conclusion of the regular season, the two division winners and the following six teams with the best record, regardless of division, would advance to the 6-week playoff round. The playoffs are an eight team tournament where each matchup is a two-week matchup between the teams. In the case of a tie in the matchup after two weeks, the team with the higher seed wins the tie-breaker. The playoff tournament is as follows:
#1 vs #8
#2 vs #7
#3 vs #6
#4 vs #5
Each round of the playoffs the highest seed plays the lowest remaining seed.
All other teams that do not qualify for the playoffs would be finished for the season. Once the playoffs are set, only playoff teams are allowed to make waiver wire moves for the remainder of the year.
Statistics
All statistics are determined by the league software (CBS Sportsline) and are final unless a dispute is brought to the attention of the commissioner and an adjustment is made.
Salary Cap
At the conclusion of the auction/draft, each team will have a total salary of no more than $266 which includes the 23 players on the roster after the auction and the 6 reserve slots. At no time during the season shall a team’s roster (including DL players and minor league players) exceed the salary cap of $322. Any transaction that will cause a team’s salary to exceed the salary cap will be rejected.
Trades
Trades may be made at any time from the conclusion of the draft until July 31.
Trades made after the league draft through July 1st are restricted to trades that have a $10 total salary difference. If a trade is made that is beyond the $10 salary difference during this time period the trade processed by the commissioner, but can put up for a league vote for veto purposes. 5 veto votes and the trade is vetoed. Owners have 24 hours to veto the trade after the commissioner posts the veto poll. After July 1st the following trade process is in place:
Teams are not allowed to make trades involving future considerations, players-to-be-named later, auction dollars, or draft picks.
Trades must be approved by the commissioner to ensure that teams do not exceed the salary cap. This approval process has nothing to do with the merit of the trade, just to make sure that teams are within the cap. If the commissioner determines that a trade may have the intent of malice towards the league, he can determine to not approve the trade and take necessary action, up to and including vetoing the trade.
Free Agency
Beginning with the first transaction period following the conclusion of the draft, through the end of the season, free agents in the free agent pool may be signed, without limit, in the following manner:
Starting on the 1st period of the week teams submit waiver claims for waivers based on the current waiver wire order (the reverse of the draft order). The waiver process runs nightly at around 2 AM (CBS Sportsline). Once a team picks up a player from the waiver wire, they will be placed at the bottom of the order for any future waiver wire pickups, with all teams below moving up 1 spot. All free agents go through this waiver process. Teams need to use proper judgement regarding late week waiver claims to make sure that they have a legal roster for the upcoming week.
Free Agency continues all the way through the regular season and into the playoffs. Once the playoffs begin, only playoff teams are allowed to make roster moves. All players picked up on waivers throughout the season carry a salary value of $5. Players maintain their auction or reserve draft salary throughout the season, even if they pass through free agency. The final regular season rosters are frozen at the conclusion of the regular season. The commissioner captures a final roster report prior to the playoffs. Once the playoffs are complete, the commissioner will roll back rosters to their final regular season rosters for the purposes of the off-season rosters. There is no free agency during the off-season.
Auction and Reserve Draft
A major league player draft in the form of an open auction is conducted on dates as near as possible to Opening Day as is practical. These dates will be set by the commissioner well in advance.
Each team must acquire 23 players at a total cost not to exceed 260 dollars. This list of 23 players includes the dollar values and slot of the players that each team elects to keep for the upcoming season. Each team must auction its starting lineup of players, based on position eligibility in the CBS Sportsline draft room. For the purposes of the auction, the commissioner will relax the SP/RP eligibility requirements and allow teams to draft 9 pitchers.
The league software is the auctioneer and all auction functions of that are final unless determined by the league commissioner.
No team may make a bid for a player that it cannot afford.
The player pool is determined the players in the league software, this may include minor league players and DL players at the time of the auction. No player not in the league software is eligible to be auctioned or picked in the reserve draft.
Immediately following the auction, a reserve player draft shall be conducted. This draft will be 6 rounds and will be the inverse of the previous season’s winning %. Drafting will be conducted in a serpentine fashion. All reserve players selected carry a contract value of $1.
Keeper System
One week before the auction as determined by the commissioner, each team will mark it’s keepers on the CBS Sportsline lineup screen. Each team is able to keep from 0 to 8 players at $5 over their previous season’s dollar value. You are not required to keep any players, but you can only keep a maximum of 8 players. The dollar values of your keeper players will be deducted from your $260 auction payroll.
League Schedule of Events
League Auction/Reserve Draft held prior to the upcoming baseball season (March)
EOBL League season (April-September)
July 31st – Trade Deadline (This date will be moved to the Saturday prior to the trade deadline week if this date falls on a Sunday)
Keepers turned in prior to the draft as determined by the commissioner
League Fees/Prizes
The cost of the EOBL is $125 per team. This must be paid to the commissioner one week prior to the league draft. $200 and odd dollars are allotted to the league software and for Paypal fees, etc.
The league prizes will be paid out as follows:
#1 seed: $150
#2 seed: $150
#3 seed: $100
#4 seed: $100
#5 seed: $50
#6 seed: $50
League Champion: $500
League Runner-Up: $300
3rd Place Winner: $150
Responsibility and Governance
The commissioner is empowered to interpret the rules.
All illegal player moves made by a league member will be nullified. For an illegal draft pick, the player will be immediately released back into the free agent pool. For an illegal roster move, the transaction will be nullified and any affected statistics will be recalculated back to the date of the offense.
Approval for participation in the Ed Ott Baseball League will be determined by the commissioner. Three recorded complaints received by the commissioner against any participant, for rule violations or behavior not in the best interest of the league, will be grounds for termination from the league either immediately or at the conclusion of the season. No fees reimbursement will be required for expulsion from the league.
Any issues not covered by this constitution will be determined by the commissioner in the best interests of the league, until a suitable amendment can be ratified by the league in the offseason. League amendments must be agreed upon by a minimum of 8 teams before they are ratified and included in the league constitution.