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 National 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 8 players after the auction has finished.
There may be no player desirable in late rounds of the reserve draft, but 8 slots are
reserved on each owner's team for maneuvers during the season.
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 AND are currently on an official NL roster.
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 13 owner
league, 1st place would get 13 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.
Beginning with the 2001 season, all teams must have at least 900 innings pitched. Any team failing to have 900 innings pitched will fall to last place in both the ERA and RATIO categories.
FREE AGENTS
Any player currently on a National League roster and not on some league team
(active or bench) is considered a free agent. Player
ownership and free agents are clearly indicated by a variety of player valuation
and team analysis reports for the league. The only thing not certain is if
an unowned player is currently on an NL roster.
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 6:00pm 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 the end of the previous week, wins the bid. If still tied, lowest at the end of the previous week (and so on), will break the tie.
A transaction fee for an acquisition is the amount bid or $5, whichever is higher. Results of each week's free agent bidding will be recorded and posted on the web each Sunday evening.
Bids can be made by:
Players probably have to be dropped on your Monday transactions to keep your bench within allowed limits.
QUALIFYING FOR A POSITION
During the auction, for a player to qualify for a position, he must have played that
position at least 15 times last year. For rookies or players who have not played 15 games
last year at any position, either the predominant position (based on current expectations)
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
5
times at the position.
During the auction a player may be agreed to be eligible for a position that he is apparently playing for the current season but is otherwise ineligible.
Some players may be eligible for several positions, others for only one.
League player valuation and team analysis reports now show
player position eligibility.
THE AUCTION, DRAFT, AND ROSTERS
Only players in a National League organization are 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 7th place the previous year followed by 8th through last place. Then 6th place through 1st. Each subsequent round will go in that same order. Every owners' bench may expand 2 more players (to 8) as the season progresses (by his first 2 free agent acquisitions).
AL roster players can not be taken in the reserve draft either.
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, but tolerance is granted if the
action clearly has not been based on actual results. 6:00pm
Monday evening is the transaction deadline. On the week of the All-Star
game, transactions are not due till Thursday evening. 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.
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.
The trading deadline is the second Monday in August. Any players traded before this deadline may be kept the following year. However, no more than TWO players may be kept that were acquired via trades. No trading may occur after the trading deadline.
Transaction fees for a trade are $2 for each player involved ($1 per player per owner). 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 no record keeping involved with any such trades and they do not need to be reported. Just report keeper lists by the weekend before the season starts. (Of course, if our auction occurs earlier in a particular year, keepers will have to be entered earlier.)
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.
KEEPERS
All teams are allowed to keep up to 6 players from the previous year before going into the
auction. No more than 2 of these, may be acquired via trades from other
owners. The salaries of those players will be deducted from the $260 bidding money each
team has.
Players can only be kept for 2 extra years.
Any player kept must have his salary raised $5. A player kept in his third
year would therefore have had his salary raised $10 from his original salary ($5 each
year).
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 acquisitions and players on their third year can not be kept.
Salaried players on their first year are indicated by just their salary. They may be kept (with a $5 raise).
Salaried players on their second year are indicated with a "." after their salary. They may be kept one more year with a $5 salary boost.
Reserve draft players are indicated with an "R". They may be kept the next year at $10 salary.
Salaried players on their third year are indicated with a "+" after their salary. They can not be kept the next 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!)
The Monday after the auction (after the season has begun) is the first transaction day. Free agents can be bid on for the first time for the next week.
There will be a $10 (real dollars) fee for statistics and record keeping by each owner (deducted at settlement time).
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.