Robot League Baseball (RLB) (v1.1)

RLB is a Fantasy Baseball League, founded in 2002, which is a Mixed (AL&NL), Head-to-Head, Keeper League with 12 teams.  It will be run by a single commissioner (me - Eric Burns) with the assistance of an assistant commissioner (Jamie Stultz) on Yahoo Fantasy Sports.  Since Yahoo does not automatically support keeper leagues, the keeper properties of the league will be kludged by recreating the league every year and manually assigning keeper players.  I (Eric) will participate as both commissioner and player, but since there is no real way for me to cheat, you shouldn't worry about that.

The Rules:

Important - If you agree to join this league, then you agree to these rules!

I. Team Names - All team names need to consist of a location (city, state, county, whatever) and a fight name (e.g. "red sox", "yankees", "badgers", etc).  No dirty, vulgar, racist, or otherwise inappropriate names will be allowed.  Names like "Bob's Team" or "cyb3rd00dz" are not allowed because I want the teams to have real-sounding names.  I have final say about whether a name is allowed.

II. Annual Draft - The first year draft was in random order, with draft order reversed in every other round (aka "snaking").  It was held over Yahoo's live draft system on Sunday March 24, 2002 at 7:25pm EST.  Future drafts will be non-snaking and will exclude keeper players. It may be live or automated, depending on league consensus and practical considerations.  Draft order for future auctions will be from least success (last place) to most success (league champions).  Success is measured by meaningful playoff results for championship bracket teams (top 6), and by season record for consolation bracket teams (bottom 6). Meaningful playoff results include playoff games which include non-eliminated teams, but disregard so-called "consolation games";. Playoff result ties (i.e. teams eliminated in the same round) are broken by season records. Trading for draft picks is allowed, but having extra draft picks does not allow a team to exceed it's maximum roster size (22 spots). Also, only draft picks in the next draft are tradeable, future drafts beyond that are not.   Post-draft waiver priority will be randomized.

III. Keepers - Preliminary Keepers for each year must be determined by October 1.  If I don't get a list from you in time, I will determine the list based on Yahoo's player rankings.  You can designate 7 players as keepers, and at least two of these must be pitchers, and at least two must be hitters.  The remaining three slots can be any combination of hitters/pitchers.  The keeper list becomes final at the end of the day on January 31, and cannot be changed afterwards because of injury, retirement, or anything like that (but an owner can revise his list up until that deadline).

IV. Off-Season - No trading is allowed after the in-season trade deadline until after the final championship series is completed. On the first day of the championship series, each team's roster freezes and no more adds or drops are allowed. The current rosters (including players on the DL list) become the "off-season rosters";. Teams have control over their off-season rosters for the purposes of trading until end-of-day January 31. After that, all players not on a keeper least return to the draft pool and are not controlled by any player.

V. Owner Quits - If an owner quits, his franchise will be given to a new owner as soon as possible. If an owner is unresponsive or inactive for an extended period of time he may be removed as an AWOL owner.

VI. Player Dumping, Collusion, and Other Unpleasantness - If an owner is guilty of player dumping (dumping all of his best players to the waiver wire), collusion (willful participation in lopsided trades designed to help one owner win and the expense of another), or other inappropriate behavior (e.g. repeated vulgar posts to the message board) he has forfeited his place in the RLB, and his team slot will be filled with an expansion team (see Expansion Draft).  Whether this is happening is ultimately determined by me, the commissioner, but I probably won't exercise this unless most of the players agree that there is a problem. I also reserve the right to veto any trade which is obviously and dramatically lopsided (this will only be exercised in very extreme cases).

VII. Expansion Draft - This may never happen but here are the rules: All current owners must expose 1 hitter and 1 pitcher from their keeper lists to the expansion draft.  The new owners then take turns picking players (in randomly determined draft order) and can pick from the exposed players and any player in the draft pool. This takes place before the main Annual Draft.  For the purposes of the Annual Draft , the expansion teams are considered to be last in place. (These rules will be fleshed out if an expansion draft ever happens). 

VIII. Expansion Compensation Draft - After the Expansion Draft but before the Annual Draft for non-keepers, each owner that lost a player to the Expansion Draft gets to claim one player from the draft pool for each player they lost (this is called the Compensation Draft).  Teams that lost two players go first, each picking one, then teams that lost one or more each get to select a player. (These rules will be fleshed out is an expansion draft ever happens).

IX. Rules Changes - The commissioner ultimately has final say over what the rules are. Having said that, major rules changes will only be made with the approval of the majority of the league owners. Owners can also propose rules changes and these will generally be implemented if 2/3 of the league (8 out of 12 owners) expresses support. I say "generally" because I reserve the right to veto any rules change which I believe will dramatically harm the league.

Summary:

Jan 31 - Keeper Lists freeze, off-season rosters return to draft pool.

Mar 1 (on or around) - Annual Draft begins.

On or around Mar 31 - Regular Season begins.

Baseball Trade Deadline (Usually around July 31): No Trade Period begins

October 1: Preliminary Keeper Lists declared by this date.

First Day of Championship Series: Rosters freeze, current rosters will become off-season rosters.

First Day after Championship series: No Trade Period ends, off-season begins.