Lords of Baseball League Constitution
A) Major League contracts are 1 year with owner option for the
second year at the same price.
Trades do not alter the contract status of a a player.
B) Players are considered to have surpassed the minor league limits once one of the following conditions has been met:
1) A hitter has 150 or more major league at bats
2) A pitcher appears in 25 or more games, or pitches 50 or more innings in the majors
C) Entering the draft players on the minor league roster can fall in to one of three categories:
1) Minor Leaguers are those players that have not surpassed the minor league limits
2) Rookies are those players that surpassed the minor league limits the previous season
3) Veterans are those players that surpassed the minor league limits more than one year ago
D) Minor Leaguers are under contract indefinitely
E) Rookies may be protected as minor leaguers, but directly after the draft they change to veteran status
F) Veterans may not be protected as minor leaguers. They may, instead, be protected as the equivalent of a Major Leaguer in the option year of their contract. The salary shall be considered $10 for such players.
G) Free agents are under contract for the current season only and may never be protected.
The major league roster consists of 23 players: 2 catchers, 1 first baseman, 1 second baseman, 1 shortstop, 1 third baseman, 5 outfielders, 1 middle infielder, 1 corner infielder, 1 other player from any position, and 9 pitchers.
The minor league roster is made up of 10 players who may play any position.
Only 33 players may be on your roster at any time, extra players who cause the roster to exceed 33 players must replace a player who is released. If no player is specified by the beginning of the next stat period, the last player occupying the last minor league slot will be automatically released.
Players may move between rosters at the decision of the owner. Moves are announced at the end of each stat period, which falls on Sunday.
Major league players demoted to the minors have their salaries set to the greater of $10 or their current salary. Players in the minor leagues promoted to the major leagues have their salary set to the greater of $10 or their current salary.
Players removed from the active roster and placed on the disabled list keep their salary as drafted. Players who take the place of those moved to the DL from the minor leagues have their salary set to the greater of $10 or their current salary.
Players acquired as Free Agents may be moved between the major and minor league roster.
At the beginning of a season, each owner may choose to exercise his contract option on up to 8 major league players. Any such protected players are retained at their salary from the end of the previous season.
At the beginning of a season, each owner may choose to protect up to 5 minor league players, divided into 2 categories:
A) 3 players that are treated as regular minor league players and can be promoted to the major league roster normally.
B) 2 players designated as long term prospects that cannot be used on the major league roster at any time during that season.
Both Minor Leaguers and Rookies are eligible to be protected as part of the 5 minor league player limit, as described in the Contracts section of the Constitution.
Players acquired in the major league draft are acquired via auction. The Champion of the previous year announces the first player, and successive players for auction are announced by the owner who acquired the last player. If the person who is scheduled to announce the next player up for auction has a full roster, this task goes to the last owner to place a winning bid that still has an incomplete roster. This continues until the 23 man major league rosters are complete for all participating teams.
Following this is the minor league draft. The order of selection for the first round is in reverse order of finish from the previous season. The second round is in order of finish from the previous season. The third round is in reverse order, and this pattern continues until all owners have 10 players on their minor league rosters. Once an owner has filled out their minor league roster with 10 players they are skipped for all future rounds.
Each owner has $260 to spend on players at each draft.
There are 4 offensive categories and 4 pitching categories for scoring. The offensive categories are Batting Average, Home Runs, Runs Produced, and Stolen Bases. The pitching categories are Earned Run Average, Base runners to Innings Pitched Ratio, Wins, and Saves.
Points are received based on order of place. First place receives points equal to the number of owners, second place one point less, third two points less than the number of owners, all the way down to the last place team, which receives 1 point for that category.
In the event of a tie in a category, points are split evenly among all tied owners. Thus, if there was a three way tie for last place, all owners would receive 2 points in that category.
Place in the league is determined by total number of points found by summing the individual totals from each category.
For the categories of Earned Run Average and Ratio, each team must meet the minimum innings requirement of 950 team innings pitched. Teams not meeting the minimum will automatically be put in last place in these categories. If more than one team does not qualify, the team with the better rating in each category will be ranked above teams with worse ratings.
Each owner has $40 to spend on free agents at the beginning of each season. They receive additional money to spend for each player they own on their major league roster traded out of the league. No additional money is given if a player is released out of the league, or if a player who began the season on the minor league roster is traded. If a player is placed on the 60 day disabled list the owner has the option to either retain the player or release the player and receive additional free agent money. Additional money is awarded on a 1 to 1 basis, based on the drafted salary of the player lost.
Free agents must be nominated for bidding by Wednesday in order to be eligible for the current stat period. Bids for nominated free agents must be submitted by the end of the stat period. Nominated free agents are added to a list in order of nomination.
All bids are submitted to a separate email address such that bidding is done in a silent manner. Bids may be made on a conditional basis, as long as the condition is based on a free agent higher on the nomination list. For example, a bid may be placed for the 3rd player on the list with the condition that the bid is only valid if the owner did not win the bidding on either the 1st or 2nd player on the list.
The winner of the bidding process is determined for each free agent in the same order in which they were nominated. If bidding results in a tie for a player, the owner ranked lowest in the latest standings is considered to be the winner.
Free agents must be placed on the major league roster for the stat period following the one in which they were acquired. After this stat period they may be moved between rosters. If the acquisition of a free agent results in the owner exceeded the combined major and minor league roster limit a player must be released to make room.
There is no limit to the number of free agents that can be acquired.
At the beginning of each season, a player is eligible to play at any position where he played 20 or more games the previous season.
During the season, a player can become eligible at a new position following the stat period when he plays his 15th game at a position.
Players who did not play 20 or more games at any position are eligible at the position(s) where they played most frequently.
Players who played 20 or more games as the designated hitter but at no other position many only play the “X” position.
Players who did not play any games in the major leagues use their minor league games played to determine position eligibility.
The first place owner receives timely payment of money from all owners finishing third and lower, though by league tradition this money goes to buy the winning owner a new baseball cap. The second place owner owes nothing. They payout for the rest of the league varies based on number of other owners, but equates generally to the current price of a baseball cap. It is paid on a sliding scale based on order of finish. This can change over time as the league membership changes.
In the case that the league needs to hold an expansion draft, the procedure is as follows:
A) Each current owner announces their list of players protected from the expansion draft. This list consists of up to 5 major league players and up to 2 minor league players.
B) Players who have just completed the first year of their major league contracts and players with minor league or rookie contract status are eligible for the expansion draft. Each expansion owner can select 0 or 1 players, at their discretion, from the available players on each current team. Each current owner can lose at most 1 player to each new team in the expansion draft.
C) If more than one expansion team exists, the first pick of the expansion draft will be decided based on a coin flip by the commissioner. The expansion teams will then pick from available players in alternating order. But they still may not pick more than one player each from any current team.
D) The expansion draft will, of course, precede the major league draft.
There is not now, nor will there ever be, an expansion fee to join the league.
Speculation is not allowed in the league. Any player drafted, traded for, or acquired as a free agent must actually be in the league at the time of their acquisition. If it is discovered that speculation has occurred, the offending owner must release the player immediately, with no compensation.
The deadline for trades in the league is the end of the first stat period that ends after August 10.
The league commissioner has the final ruling on any rules not covered in this Constitution. Any such situations that arise will be put to vote by all owners during the winter break following the season in which the situation arose, if not sooner.
The commissioner also has the power to veto trades that he or she feels will have an extremely negative effect on the competitive balance in the league.