League Rules

For 2011:

Lineups may be set daily up to 5 minutes before gametime, as per ESPN settings. If ESPN allows other features, this can be reviewed.

Owners may set lineups and change players' positions from a list of their eligible positions.

Position eligibility will be determined by a minimum of 10 games at a position. If a player is being promoted from the MILB before the season begins, their MILB stats from the prior year will be used to determine eligibility. ESPN's database will be the final determinant of player eligibility, if there are conflicts.

The draft will go for 28 rounds, to fill the 23 roster spots and 5 bench spots. If you draft a player who is on the DL, you cannot replace them until AFTER the draft.

A max of 125 games played at each position is in effect for the Rotisserie league regular season. A total of 1200 IP maximum will be in place for the Rotisserie league regular season.

For the H2H playoffs, an add-drop limit of 5 transactions per week will be put in place for 2011..

Only players who are on the disabled list may be placed into Injured status.

Add/drops are handled by a waivers process. The waiver process will be randomly generated the same way as the draft order was prior to the season.

Dropped players remain on waivers for at least 2 day(s).

Trades must be approved by one the commissioners. The commissioners will be the only ones who decide if a trade is vetoed or not, and will NOT be reversed without convincing argument of collusion and/or owner absenteeism/tanking. If you have a problem with a trade that has been accepted or processed, privately contact a commissioner regarding your issue with the trade.

Trades will re open immediately. Picks can be traded, but since we do not have a league the amount of picks traded will need to remain even and each team will need to receive the same amount of picks. You may complete trades, but there will be no adds during the offseason. Trades involving 2 commissioners will be approved by 2 other league members, and the commissioner not involved, we appoint to approve our trades.

If you accidently drop a player, the commissioners will not add that player for you and you are out of luck. Keep note of this, as it happens quite a bit.

The draft order will be randomly determined from an online generator.

Any collusion will result in an immediate expulsion of the league and neither team will get their entry fee back or any prize money they have won.

Any league changes during the offseason will be decided based on a poll and majority vote.

The league fee will be $65. The league pool will be $780, and any incidental fees if using services such as PayPal. For 2011, given there are 2 owners exempted, the PayPal fees are waived, and the total prize pool will be $650.

EDIT June 1/2011: All fees paid, thanks to all the owners!

As ESPN won't allow position eligibility changes, the requirements for eligibility change as follows, as per ESPN's site:

20 games played last year
10 games played during current year

Players who don't meet any of the criteria assume UTIL status. TO BE CLEAR - YOU DO NOT NEED TO HAVE PLAYED 20 GAMES AT UTIL TO PLAY UTIL SPOT - ANY POSITION PLAYER CAN PLAY THE UTIL SPOT.

Rookies - as Fantrax assigns position status eligibility for rookies based on above criteria and from their own database of MILB stats, Fantrax eligibility will be used...Fantrax decides.

Rule changes adopted in 2012:

1. The 2-C, 1B, 3B, CI, 2B, SS, MI, UTIL, 5-OF, 9 P, 5 bench setup & 3-DL limits stay (the 2-C/1 UTIL was what discussed).
2. Position eligibility goes by 10 games played (not started) for the prior or current year! Please note that the UTIL spot means ANY player can be slotted there (and not just DH-eligible players).
3. Owners CANNOT use a DL spot for a suspended (Braun), bereavement-list or restricted list (Carmona/Oviedo) list player. So whoever drafts Ryan Braun - you are using 1 of your 5 bench spots during his suspension.
4. Season IP limit - A 1200 IP limit is set for the entire regular season, which ends on Sunday, Aug. 26th. The last day in which an owner goes over the 1200 IP limit will counts stats-wise - but after that, the team stats are locked for the rest of the year.
5. Playoff SP weekly GS limit - a limit of 12 starts per week is in effect during the H2H playoffs. Teams that hit the 12 start max are unable to start more SP's for the rest of the week.
6. Draft Roster Completion - as per February e-mail discussion, the league will NOT force owners to complete rosters by the regular season requirements (14 bats starter maximum, must fit by position - 2 C, 1B, 3B, CI, 2B, SS, MI, 5 OF, UTIL <which any bat qualifies for>; 9 pitcher starter maximum, 7 bench maximum, and 3 DL spot maximum <and player must be on MLB DL and recognized by Fantrax as on DL to qualify>). What this means - owners can leave a spot open and be above the 7 bench player max during & after the draft. HOWEVER, ALL OWNERS MUST HAVE LEGAL LINEUPS AS OUTLINED ABOVE FOR OPENING DAY!

NOT a rule change, but a reminder - we will use Forumotion as our rule/payment database, and our place to post OTC notices - but we will use Rob's Google Doc's sheet as the draft tool - thanks again for doing this!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aid89dvjc40pdGdicnJsSjktQno4ZUNZVDU3azJwRkE#gid=0

Rule changes adopted for 2013:

1.  A 9-pitcher minimum and 14-bat minimum will be enforced all season long.  This is aimed at preventing teams from exceeding the 5-reserve limit.
2.  The season will end on a Friday, in order to allow for a 2-day tiebreaker in case there is a tie for the last bye position (2nd place) or tie for the last playoff position (6th place).   Prize $ will be split evenly for ties from the regular season, regardless of tiebreaker results.   Ties that do not involve last bye positions or playoff positions will have prize $ split evenly, with no tiebreaker.   In the unlikely event of a tie after the 2-day tiebreaker, .AVG will be the tiebreaker used.   In the event that a tie exists and an identical tie in .AVG exists, ERA will be the 2nd tiebreaker.  In the event a tie exists, John's head will explode (and WHIP will be used).
3.  Draft will be held on Fantrax, instead of Google Docs (many thanks Rob)!
4.  To accomodate the PST drafters, but for greater clarity on draft expectations after our UK experience in 2012 - our draft days start at 9 AM ET (unless we have all EST/CST drafters, then it's by agreement), unless it's a predraft start, which is often the night before for antsy owners.  Our draft days extends into 10-11 PM ET, to also take advantage of night owls and PST owners (works both ways).

The remainder of the rules will remain the same for 2013.  Good luck everyone!

The basic ruleset is now housed on Fantrax, and any discrepancies there supersede any rules here. If a ruleset here is not addressed in Fantrax, this serves as established precedent, subject to future league review.

Rule Changes for 2015:

1. Adoption of daily FAAB over WW/FA for reg. season (playoff WW/FA, with top seeds given WW priority in descending order)
2. Increase in season IP max in regular season from 1250 to 1300 IP.

Thread here - http://www.fantrax.com/thread.go?threadId=4png7zxii6f4xo97&leagueId=hw1ibqwri58b6sdp