FBBL League Constitution

The league will be managed on Yahoo! Fantasy Sports. Any rules not explicitly stated on this document will use to the Yahoo! Defaults.

Format

The league draft format will be an auction. At the start of the draft each owner will be given a budget of $260 to spend as they see fit to fill out their roster. Draft nomination order will be determined by the reverse standings from the season prior. From there, that order will be followed as owners will nominate players with an initial dollar amount and the rest of the league will bid on the players until the high vote has been settled on and that owner now "owns" the nominated player.

This process will continue with each owner nominating players in the order that was predetermined as teams fill out their rosters.

When an owner has filled their roster, they will no longer be eligible to nominate players and their draft will be over.

Draft Date

The draft date will be at a time decided by league vote prior to the draft happening. League members will be contacted by email and the date of the draft will be decided upon by league vote.

Draft Dues

The league entry fee is $50.

Draft Punishment

The team who has finished in last place the year previous will be responsible for bringing 2000g of chips, 100 beer, and 1000g of dip for the rest of the league members to enjoy during the draft. The dip must be of “Philly” or “Helluva Good” brand. Homemade dips will also be accepted, but must be proposed and accepted prior to the draft.

Beginning after the 2025 season, the other teams who miss the playoffs will each be responsible for a pizza at the following years draft.

The league will follow the Head to Head (H2H) 5X5 format.

Playoffs

Playoffs will include the top 8 teams from the regular season and will last for 4 weeks. The finals will be set up to coincide with the penultimate week of the regular season.

Tie Breakers

Tie Breakers in the playoffs will be determined by regular season standing. In this case, the league commissioner will be responsible for adjusting the schedule going forward.

Scoring will follow the 5x5 format, 5 hitting categories and 5 pitching categories.

Hitters will have Home Runs (HR), Runs (R), Runs Batted In (RBI), Batting Average (Avg), and Stolen Bases (SB).

Pitchers will score with Net Wins (W - L), Net Saves + Holds (SV + HLD - BSV), Strikeouts per 9 (K/9), Earned Runs Average (ERA), and Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched (WHIP)

Each week 2 teams will matchup against each other. The team with the better point value for each stat category will receive 1 win per category. The team with the worse point value for each category will receive 1 loss per category. If the scores are tied, each team will receive a tie for each category.

A team roster will consist of 22 players. The positions are as follows:

• 1 1B
• 1 2B
• 1 3B
• 1 SS
• 3 OF
• 2 Util
• 4 SP
• 2 RP
• 1 P
• 5 Bench

The bench slots can be used to hold pitchers or hitters.

Each team will also have 4 Injured List spots to hold injured players. Injured List designations will be managed by Yahoo!

Team Salary Cap / Floor

Team values may not exceed $400 of draft day player value at any point in the season. That is, the sum of the costs on draft day of all the players on a team may never be in excess of $400. That said, teams may never exceed the minimum amount of $125. The league commissioner will automatically veto any trades that will lead to this rule being broken.

Doug “Anti-Slime” Roster Rule

Teams must always be able to field a valid team. That is, teams active rosters MUST have a player who can start at C, whether or not they are starting. They must have 3 players who can start in the OF, whether or not they are starting. Players who are designated at 1 position cannot be designated at a second position. That is, if you have a player who is C/OF eligible, they may only be counted towards one of those positions, not both. Players on IR do NOT count as players on the active roster.

If a team goes without a valid lineup for more than 2 days in a row, they will be penalized $5 at the next draft immediately, and $5 for each subsequent day that an invalid roster is set. If a manager attempts to skirt this rule by getting creative with how they add / drop players, the league can vote on whether or not that manager will immediately be penalized $5 at the next draft.

When a trade is accepted there will be a two-day review period at which point the trade will enter a revision state. During this period the league commissioner will review the trade to ensure it follows all of the rules and does not meet the league requirement that would be considered “collusion”, or unfair.

Teams may trade FAAB dollars during the league's regular season prior to the trade deadline. You cannot trade FAAB dollars for future years.

Offseason Trades

Offseason trades will not follow the review period. Once both parties confirm an off-season trade has happened it will be updated in the league spreadsheet. Offseason trades may include “draft dollars” in their trades.

Teams are allow to trade up to and for $20 of their draft day budget. Trading of draft day dollars may only be traded for the upcoming draft.

Doug “Anti-Trade Slime” Rule

If a player is traded during the season, the next trade involving that player cannot occur between the two teams that just traded that player unless a draft has occurred between those trades. As an example: If team A trades a Pitcher to team B, team B cannot trade that same pitcher back to team A. If this is a trade deadline deal, that player cannot be dealt back to team A until after the following years draft.

Owners must keep a minimum of three and no more than five players from their team the previous year. Players will be kept at the price they were drafted at for a maximum of two extra years, unless they have been signed to a contract.

After 3 years of being kept at the same price, they will automatically be placed back into the player pool for the next year’s draft.

Keeper Contract Rules

As stated, players can be kept for more than the 3 years after they have been drafted if they are signed to extensions. Players must be signed to an extension before their third year of keeper eligibility. The player’s keeper price will be increased immediately by $5 per year for the number of years they have been extended for.

Once the extension has come to an end, the player will be re-entered into the player pool for the next year’s draft.

As an example, if a player is drafted this year for $12, they will cost $12 the following year. If the owner chooses not to extend that player, they may keep them for a third year at $12.

If, however, the owner decides to extend the player, then they will sign the player to a contract at which his salary will be increased by the number of years of the extension multiplied by 5. Therefore, contracted players will always be paid their draft price plus five times the number of years of the extension. So if the extension was for 3 years, the players salary will be:

Draft Year - $12 Next Year - $12 Year 3 - $27 Year 4 - $27 Year 5 - $27 Year 6 – $27 Year 7 - The player is back into the player pool and can be redrafted.

Keeper Rules

If an owner chooses to drop a player who they have signed to an extension before their contract has expired, they will forfeit half of that contracts value at the start of the next seasons draft if that player is not being kept.

As an example, if a player was signed to an extension for four years and is costing $25 and is dropped in the second year of the extension, then at the next auction that owner will start with $248, rather than $260.

In the case of half of the contract value costing 50 cents, we will always round down.

Upon the end of the season, league members will have trim their roster to 22 players. Players who are on your DL at this point will count, and if the proper adjustments are not made, the league commissioner will drop the players on team DL’s to ensure that all teams have 22 eligible keepers for the next season.

Keeper Announcements

Keepers will preferably be announced at a mandatory league meeting at a designated meeting spot. Beginning with the previous years winner, they will announce their first keeper and value, followed by that years runner up, and so on until the previous years loser has announced their first keeper. This process will be repeated for 5 rounds whereby all keepers will be then be announced and known.

All undrafted players, as well as players who are on teams and then dropped, are then subject to 2 day waivers, at which point any owner can put a claim in on the player(s) and the team with the highest waiver priority will be awarded the player. Once the 2 day waiver period has elapsed, players will be free agents and can be picked up during the daily transaction cycle.

All players picked up via waivers / free agency must be picked up for a minimum of $1. Failure to properly spend on pickups will incurr a punishment of a homemade dip at the next year's draft.

Roster Locking

Rosters will be locked for teams that have been eliminated from winning the league title. That is, you will be able to update your starters, but unable to add / drop any players.

Keeping Free Agents

Free agents may be kept by owners at a cost of whataever the winning FAAB bid was for when they were acquired and enter the contract system. However, the difference between keeping a drafted player and a free agent is that if you do not sign the one time free agent to a contract they cannot be kept for the extra year at their FAAB price.

Free Agent Keeper Specific Rules

Players who are dropped who are drafted or under contract retain the value they had coming into the year. That is, if a player is drafted for $20 and dropped, then picked up by a different owner for the rest of the year, they can choose to keep that player for the same price he was drafted for in the previous year. Because the player was originally drafted, they can be kept at that $20 for the third year.

If the player is dropped in the second year (a year in which he was kept), and picked up by a different team, they may only keep that player for 1 year at $20 or can sign that player to a contract following the normal contract rules.

If a player is dropped in the final year of a contract, and picked up by a different owner, the owner who picked up that player may not keep that player the following year.

Rule changes can only occur in the offseason. Rules will not be implemented until the year following when they are agreed upon.

Therefore, if a decision is made that an extra keeper will be kept in the middle of the 2013 season, the rule will not come into effect until the 2015 season, as teams will then be given a full season notice to prepare for the change.

All rules will be passed by majority vote. In the event of a tie, a neutral third party will be presented with the league options and the suggested rule change and he/she will make the final decision.

There is an exception to the rule having to wait one full season is that rules can be implemented as soon as possible, be that in season or the start of the next season, if all league members, minus one, vote for the rule to pass.

Fernandez Clause

If a player suffers a career ending injury, retires or is killed while under contract, that contract may be terminated without having to pay the half salary when he is dropped.