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LEAGUE OFFICIALS 1) Commissioner (Carlos Quintana)-League decision committee (Patrick Teoli, Jim Stars, John Lamontagne) a) The decision of the Commissioner supersedes the rules and is final in any disputes. He also has authority on all of the following aspects: rules, contracts, transactions, drafts, schedules, reports and expansion. b) The Commissioner is obligated to inquire of his fellow owners on all of the aforementioned aspects prior to any decision or change. c) The Commissioner has the right to veto any of the league’s proposals. LEAGUE SETUP
2) The United Fantasy Baseball League (UFBL) is a rotisserie-based, head-to-head league. Each club will square off in a weekly matchup against another club to see which can compile the best statistics across a number of different categories.
3) The UFBL is a dynasty league. Therefore, clubs may begin each year with a core of players from the previous year given that they are signed through multi-year contracts. Also, players on the minor league roster remain under the property of their parent clubs.
4) The UFBL selects its players from both the American League and the National League talent pool.
5) The UFBL will have 12 franchises for the beginning of the 2010 season.
SCORING SYSTEM
6) The UFBL utilizes a category-based scoring system in which each statistical category counts as one “run”, with the score being credited to the club that finishes the week with the highest total in that category (the cumulative total after each Sunday’s games). So, if in a given week, a club hits more home runs than other club, the latter would be credited with a run. But, if the other club ended the week with more saves, it would be given a run. If the two clubs end up tied in a given category, neither receives credit for the run. At the conclusion of each week, whichever club has scored the most runs will get credit for a win, while the other is charged with a loss. If the two clubs end up tied in runs, the game goes into extra innings to break the tie (please see Extra Innings for details). This weekly win-loss total will be added to a cumulative season record, which will be used to determine standings and playoff seedings.
a) The statistics are calculated for a seven-day period starting with Monday’s games.
7) The UFBL utilizes the following 11 categories:
a) Batting Categories - Batting Average (AVG)=Hits/At Bats - On-Base Percentage (OBP)=(Hits + Walks + Hit By Pitch)/(At Bats + Walks + Hit By Pitch + Sacrifice Flies) - Runs Scored (R) - Home Runs (HR) - Runs Batted In (RBI) - Stolen Bases (SB)
b) Pitching Categories - Wins (W) - Saves (SV) - Earned Run Average (ERA)=(Earned Runs*9)/Innings Pitched - Strike Outs (SO) - WHIP Ratio (WHIP)=(Walks + Hits)/Innings Pitched
8) Extra Innings
a) Tie-Breakers in extra innings are in the following order: - A club’s pinch hitter (reserve player) is compared to its opponent’s pinch hitter in all the aforementioned batting categories. The player’s comparisons are separated from the team. The players would be compared in all batting categories (runs, HR’s, HR, SB, AVG, and OBP). If one pinch hitter wins more categories, the player’s team will gain the extra point for the tie breaker. If tied, no extra runs are scored. - Highest amount of Home runs + Wins scores one run for the better club. If the clubs come out even in that category, then no run is scored. The same procedure is followed afterwards. - Highest amount of runs batted in + Strikeouts. - Highest amount of runs scored + Saves.
ROSTERS
9) All clubs in the UFBL shall have Active Rosters of 26 players at the start of the season. In-season Active Rosters shall never be below 20 players and never exceed 26 players. Playoff Active Rosters shall be 26 players. Clubs may carry up to 3 Disabled List (DL) players which do not count towards the Active Roster minimum/maximum requirements.
a) Position Players (Minimum 10) - At least 1 catcher - At least 1 first baseman - At least 1 second baseman - At least 1 third baseman - At least 1 shortstop - At least 3 outfielders - Any 1 player - Any extra reserve players
b) Pitchers (9) - At least 5 starting pitchers - At least 1 closers - Any 1 reserve pitcher - Any extra reserve pitchers
10) Any player is eligible to be placed on the DL as long as he is on the real-life disabled list. Clubs may carry up to 3 Disabled List (DL) players which do not count towards the Active Roster minimum/maximum requirements. 11) All clubs in the UFBL may have a Minor League Roster of up to 14 players. In doing so, clubs are able to draft talented players, wait for their development, protect the rights to these players and build for the future. Players on your minor league Roster may stay on that roster for up to 6 years. After 6 years, players become free agents and are added to the Major League Free Agent Pool. The Minor League Roster shall never be used for moving players on and off a club’s Active Roster. Once a player is called up, he remains on the Active Roster or has to be released. Players on a club’s Minor League Roster count towards a club’s budget. Starting in 2008 and for the following years, players’ salaries on a club’s Minor League Roster will be pre-determined by his draft status. See DRAFT page for details on salary structure.
WEEKLY LINEUPS
12) Weekly lineups in the UFBL consists of the following players:
a) Batting - 1 catcher - 1 first baseman - 1 second baseman - 1 third baseman - 1 shortstop - 3 outfielders - 1 designated hitter from any position.
b) Pitching - 5 starting pitchers - 1 closer - Any 1 pitcher
c) Reserve Player - 1 pinch hitter from any position.
13) Weekly lineups in the UFBL are due Mondays before the first game of the day. UFBL GM’s are responsible to monitor player injuries. Players on the MLB DL list or in the MLB minor leagues should not be inserted in lineups. The commish shall punish such infractions for inserting a DL’d player on MLB.com injury report or not on a current MLB roster. First infraction also is an official warning to GM. Infraction number 2 will carry a 3 Million dollars penalty on franchises Salary cap for following year. Infraction number 3 is a 10 Million dollars penalty on following year’s cap and/or a loss of draft pick.
PLAYER SALARIES AND CONTRACTS
14) Free Agent Signing Period (Auction) in which clubs will be able to bid on available free agents and sign them to contracts. Contracts are due 2 weeks before the UFBL schedule.
15) All Major League multi-year contracts shall never exceed 3 years in length. Each club may use a Franchise Tag to protect any player (1 player only) that is a Free Agent. This Franchise Tag gives the team a chance to match the highest bidder. If the team is unable to match the contract offer, it will be awarded compensation (highest 1st round pick before free agency begins) from the bidding team that claims the free agent. *Teams MUST HAVE a first round pick (same year before the free agency period) to bid on a franchise player. Minimum salary for a franchise tagged player is $5,000,000. If no bid is placed on the tagged player he will receive the minimum.
16) Only players drafted may be placed on a club’s Minor League Roster.
17) Players drafted and placed on a club’s Minor League Roster (AA) may be kept up to 6 years given that they remain on that roster. When a player is drafted, the length of his contract is calculated the following way:
a) After one, two, or three years on the Minor League Roster, his contract length would then be 3 years on the Active Roster.
b) After four years on the Minor League Roster, his contract length would then be 2 years on the Active Roster.
c) After five years on the Minor League Roster, his contract length would then be 1 year on the Active Roster.
18) Once a player is activated from AA by his club, he loses his minor league status and can not return to the minors.
19) There will be no more contract buyouts. All contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the contract.
20) Players are paid on a “per-year” basis. So, if a player is acquired at mid-season for, say, $3 millions, his new club takes on his $3 millions on the teams salary cap.
21) All clubs have a salary cap. The cap will be $100 million dollars. If a franchise goes over the cap at any point they will be punished with a 3 million dollar cap hit for the following year. A second infraction is a 10 million dollar cap hit and/or a loss of draft pick. If the GM goes to a third infraction the commish will evaluate case and decide on the recourse.
TRADES
22) The trading period begins a month before the Annual Draft and finishes at set date to be later determined by the commissioner.
23) All kinds of transactions are permitted, such as multiple-player trades, three-way trades, draft picks. Money cannot be traded. 23) Future draft picks can be traded. The year of the draft pick maximum eligible is plus 2 years of the current season. Meaning the next year and the year after that.
24) All trades must be confirmed, either by phone or e-mail, to the Commissioner’s Office by all clubs involved.
25) In order to be effective for the following week, trades always have to be confirmed by Friday at Midnight by both teams involved. In addition both teams must adhere to cap (roster and salary) at all times. Should trade cause a team or teams to their exceed cap, the player(s) traded to the non-complaint team, is not eligible for play until infraction is corrected. If not corrected, players will continue to be ineligible and team will be subject to penalty. First infraction also is an official warning to GM. Infraction number 2 will carry a 3 Million dollars penalty on franchises Salary cap for following year. Infraction number 3 is a 10 Million dollars penalty on following year’s cap and/or a loss of draft pick.
26) Trade protests. Please note there will be no trade protests. All trades will be evaluated by the Commissioner`s Office and action will be taken if the Commissioner feels the trade was lob sided or unfair by consulting the committee.
WAIVERS
27) All players on the Free Agent Pool are available on Waivers.
28) If a player is dropped on, say, a Wednesday afternoon, he will be made available the next waiver period (following week).
29) In order to be effective the following week, Waiver claims have to be made no later than Fridays midnight.
30) If more than one club claims the same player and offer the same salary, the club with the current worst winning record will have priority.
DRAFTS 31) Draft orders will be based on the previous year’s standings. The worst three clubs will have a lottery to determine which club will pick first with the worst club getting three chances, the next worst club getting two chances and the other one chance.
POSITION ELIGIBILITY
32) A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in at least 5 or more games in the preceding season. If a player did not appear in 5 games at a single position, he may be played only at the position(s) at which he appeared most frequently
33) Once the current season is underway, a player becomes eligible for any position at which he appears at least 5 times. If said player plays 5 times to be eligible for another position the player’s status will change for multiple positions beginning the next season.
34) The position eligibility of minor leaguers who have no major league experience will be determined by their projecting fielding position from a trust/common source for the upcoming season. Infractions and punishments 35) If a GM gets caught with an infraction, the commissioner will send out a warning by e-mail. The members of the rules committee will also be advised. 36) A warning will be issued to GM’s for each rule infraction. In the case of a 2 different rule infractions a warning will be sent for each rule infraction. If in the case of 4 rule infractions of 2 separate rules, the warning per rule is the 1st course of action. A combined 3rd infraction occurs for which the rule which was already warned by the commissioner, a 3 million dollar cap hit the following year. With a 4th infraction for which minimum a warning was already issued the 10 million dollar and loss of draft pick will be issued. STANDINGS
35) Standings will be based on a club’s overall winning percentage, which is calculated by taking the win total and dividing the sum by the total number of games played.
36) The following tie-breakers will be used in order to separate two or more clubs in the standings:
a) Head-to-Head (if it involves two teams)
b) Record within the division (involving more than 2 teams)
c) A club’s season statistic totals vs. another club’s season stat totals in a showdown game.
d) Record against the other divisions.
PLAYOFFS
37) No more than 6 clubs participate in the playoffs, regardless of league size. Beginning in 2010, the top 3 teams from each division will make the playoffs, along with 3 other clubs, regardless of division, based on best regular season standing.
38) The two division champions with the best record get a bye for the first week worth of playoffs.
39) In the first round, the third-best Wild card club plays the 3rd best Division winner while the best Wild Card club will play the second-best Wild Card club in a best of 3 series.
40) In the second round, the wildcard winner with the worst record will play the Division winner with the best record while the wildcard winner with the best record will play the Division Winner with the 2nd best record, in a best of 3 series.
41) In the third round, the American Division winner plays the National Division winner in a best of 3 Supreme Series.
LEAGUE FEES
42) The basic entrance fee for 2010 is $40 dollars payable on draft day by cash or cheque. $35 towards prize money and $5 league fee (trophy maintenance, etc…)
PRIZE MONEY
43) As of 2010, 1st place regular season receives $40 (entry fee), championship finalist receives $80, UFBL Champion receives $300 and championship trophy. |
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