| Nice Guys Rotisserie League |
This describes the rotisserie league rules for the Nice Guys Rotisserie League. These are an adaptation of the basic rotisserie rules that many other leagues use. These rules have evolved over the years and are still too vague for a league where there is a least one person who is not a "Nice Guy".
Rotisserie Baseball consists of a number of members, in competition, constructing (somewhat) fictional teams comprised of current Major League Baseball players. The rotisserie league teams are assembled at or near the start of the Major League Baseball season. The performance of the rotisserie teams will be based upon what the players on these teams do in their actual major league games for their actual major league teams. Each rotisserie team owner will put up a fixed amount of money at the beginning of the year. These franchise fees will be the pool of prize money for which the members will play for. In addition, there are usually extra fees for processing the statistics, administration, postage, etc.
The teams are created through an open bidding auction of a subset of the players in the Major Leagues. Usually, the players that are eligible to be bid upon are restricted to some subset of the Major League teams. Each Major League player can be on one and only one rotisserie team at any given time. The auction price (or salary) of the player is totally determined by the members of the league by the open auction. Each team will have an equal and fixed salary cap of the amount of money to spend on players (not necessarily based upon the actual money paid). There is a minimum number of players that each owner must get to fill their team. Each owner must weigh many factors to determine how much they think each player is worth. Determining these values is one of the more important aspects of the game.
The rotisserie team rosters that are established at the beginning of the season do not have to, and usually will not, consist of the same players at the end of the year. During the baseball season, rotisserie team owners may dispose or acquire players much like real baseball teams do. These changes to the teams are not necessary, but are usually desired as players get injured, lose their jobs, become unproductive or if a rotisserie owner wants to build up weak areas of their team. To help teams fill weak areas, which can result from poor initial drafts, injured or non-productive players, there will be closed bid auction of players not currently on any of the rotisserie rosters at the beginning of each month.
Although there is usually plenty of activity during the season, the only time that members need to all convene in the same location is for the initial auction draft of the teams. This can even be circumvented if someone has connections with the telephone company. All the other activity can be done through the mail, via phone calls or electronically to a designated league secretary.
Rotisserie teams will accumulate statistics each week of the baseball season and the final rotisserie league standings are based upon the sum of all the statistics gathered throughout the weeks of the season. Which statistical categories are used depends upon the league and its members. The details of the scoring are given in a subsequent section.
The players acquired during the course of a baseball season will never be carried over to the following season. Each season, entirely new teams will be drafted from scratch. Therefore, drafting a double-A prospect who will be the next Mickey Mantle in 2 years is not a winning move (if you define winning as actually taking some money home).
Rotisserie teams accumulate statistics by the week (not by the day or by the game). Only those players you declare to be among your 23 active players will accumulate stats for your team. These 23 active players must, at all times be able to fulfill the following criteria of quantity and position (see the section on Position Eligibility):
** The utility/DH can be any non-pitcher regardless of position. A player who is only eligible for DH can only be put into this position. (see section on Position Eligibility).
The active rosters for each team are declared before any games of the coming week commence. Therefore all roster changes will be based upon the team owner's speculation of what they think the players will do in the coming week and not on what the players have accomplished in the previous week. The exact deadline for when active rosters are due for the week will be set by the league secretary (see League Organization and Roster Deadline sections). These deadlines depend upon the source of statistics used.
Typically, an owner doesn't have to specify the entire roster every week. The active players are carried over from one week to the next week unless explicit moves are made to change the active roster.
A player is defined as active if his stats will count toward your
team totals. Inactive means that the player is on your team, but is
on your reserves. Anything an inactive player might happen to do
during a week in which they are inactive (i.e. hit a home-run) will not
be added toward your team totals. You may have anywhere from zero to
7 inactive players. The inactive roster is typically populated with
back-up players you can insert into the active roster in case of
injuries. Sometimes the inactive roster will contain injured players
who are not currently productive, but will probably be when they
return from the injury. There are no positional requirements on
inactive players while they are inactive.
Each week the rotisserie teams will accumulate statistics
based upon what their active players have done during that week.
The current official source for the league is the Baseball Weekly
newspaper. This dictates the deadlines for roster moves. The
newspaper currently comes out on Wednesdays and the statistics it
contains are for games through the previous Sunday. The categories
that will be counted can vary from year to year but under no
circumstances can they change during the middle of a season. The
categories will be agreed upon by a majority of the owners a minimum
of one month before the draft day. If the Baseball Weekly becomes
unavailable for any reason, a new source will be determined by the
rotisserie statistician in consultation with the owners. The
statistician will have the final say in the matter.
Currently, there are eight important categories that a Rotisserie
owner needs worry about. All other statistics are irrelevant.
** Ratio is define as hits plus walks divided by innings
pitched.
All that matters is what totals the teams have acquired in these
categories. The totals will accumulate each week for a team and the
final tally will be the sum of all the weeks. Since these are the
only categories that matter for the rotisserie league, there can be a
contrast between a players real value to his major league club and his
value to a rotisserie team. Defense, runs scored, strike-outs, losses;
who cares!
The team with the highest total (lowest for ERA and Ratio) for a
category will be given points for that category equal to the total
number of teams in the league. The second highest total in a category
will be given one point less than the team with the highest total.
Each successive team in descending order will be given one point less
than the previous team so that the team with the lowest total for a
category will receive one point.
If there are ties in a category each team tied will be given the same
amount of points equal to the sum total number of points for those
positions, divided by the total number of teams tied at this total.
For example: Three teams are tied for first place in home-runs in a ten
team league. Since the top three spots are worth a total of 27 points
(10 for first, 9 for second, and 8 for third) each team will receive 9
points in the home-run category (27 points divide by three teams)
A team will therefore have point totals for each of the eight
categories individually. The overall point total of a team will be
the sum of all the individual category points. The order of finish
will be determined by this overall point total. Should there be a tie
at the end of the season, the team who finished first in the most
categories will be declared the winner. If these are equal than the
most second place finishes in a category will decide it, and so on.
This same tie breaking procedure applies in determining order of
finish whenever it is needed.
Stats are accumulated each week by the players on the active roster.
A teams totals will be an accumulation of stats by active players over
the course of an entire season. If a player hits five home-runs on
opening day and he is on your active list, and if you decide to trade
him (probably a good move) while his value is up, those home-runs are
still included in your team totals for the remainder of the season,
because they we acquired by a player on your team while he was active.
Stats are never lost, once an active player on your team gets them,
they are yours. Additionally, stats can never be bought (with the
possible exception of the existing stats you might get on the initial
draft day when it is held after the season begins). If a player is
not on your active roster when he acquires some particular stats, then
there is no way you can get these stats included in your team totals
(aside from cheating).
As a possibly obvious formality, a special note on how to keep the
batting average, ERA and Ratio stats is here given. For those
categories it is not enough to keep track of a single number for a
player as can be done with home-runs or wins. The stats that
accumulate for a team is actually the underlying stats that comprise
these statistics: Batting average - at bats and hits; ERA - earned
runs, innings pitched; Ratio - hits, walks, innings pitched. The
teams are ranked based on the calculation of the stats from the sum of
these base stats for all their players. For example, it is incorrect
to just take an average of all your players' batting averages to
calculate your team's average. You must sum your tema's hits and
divide it by your teams total at bats to arrive at your team's true
batting average.
Early Rotisserie Leagues found that if you drafted nine relief
pitchers you could do very well in the RATIO and ERA and SAVES
categories. Since a true baseball team requires of both starters and
relievers the following rule has been instituted:
This rule with its severe penalty should force owners to make
sure to pick up a few starting pitchers.
One month before draft day, the league should have established which
Major League teams players can be selected from. Currently, all
owners vote for 10 teams in preference order. The teams are assigned
point values from 10, for the first choice, to 1 for the least
preferred of the 10 teams. All these point totals as added and the
teams with the highest point totals are used in the league.
Note that the number of teams used in the league is not set in stone.
You want enough teams to have some talent pool, but you also do not
want so many teams that everyone just drafts the super-stars and waits
until the end of the year. There should be approximately 30% to 40%
more Major League teams than rotisserie teams.
The only players that are allowed to be drafted (the initial draft and
all subsequent monthly drafts) must be on a Major League or minor
league roster of one of the associated teams. Players not in any of
the selected organizations (e.g., players in major or minor leagues of
the other teams) are not eligible to be drafted at any time. Note
that minor leaguers of the teams being used are eligible to be
drafted.
During the course of a season it is possible for a player on a
rotisserie team to be traded (in real life) to a Major League team
that is not among those selected at the beginning of the year. In
this case, the player may remain on the rotisserie team and could be
traded to another rotisserie team. However, should this player ever
be waived, then no other team may claim the player off of waivers nor
may any team draft the player in a subsequent draft (unless the player
has been traded back to one of the associated teams in the meanwhile.)
When a previously unobtainable player gets traded (in real life) from
a non-eligible team to one of the selected teams, then that player
will be available to be drafted during the next monthly draft.
As has been discussed, there are specific positions that
must be filled at all times. A player is eligible to be placed
at a certain position if any one of the following conditions have
been met:
In all cases, if the Roster Manager doubts the legality of any
position qualification of a player, the burden of proof will rest with
the owner making the move.
A rotisserie team is usually a dynamic thing (except when instituting
the famous "Doodles' Strategy", AL '90) There are many ways a team's
roster can change and they are discussed in this section.
This is the simplest maneuver and can only be done if a team has
players on reserves, that is, more than 23 players on their team. It
involves replacing one of your players on your active roster with a
player who is on your reserves (inactive roster). The player must be
able to go into the position vacated unless some other active player
can move into that position and the player to be activated can, in
turn, replace the relocated player. This transaction can be made at
intervals defined by the rotisserie league (typically one week) for
fees to be decided upon by the owners. (see the section on Fees and Scheduling)
The most elusive of all transactions. Everybody wants to trade
their trash for your gold. There are two distinct trading periods.
The one before the All Star break and the one after the All Star
Break.
Before the All-Star break any team may trade with any other team.
However, after the All Star Break a team may trade only with another
team if they are within two positions in the last published
standings. (i.e. third place team can only trade with the 1st, 2nd,
4th and 5th place teams) This rule is provided to keep last place
teams from making any questionable deals with contenders during the
pennant stretch. It is advisable during this period not to work on a
trade Monday through Thursday because the teams you are eligible to
trade with might have changed. This would be the time from when the
standings are calculated and the time they are actually received.
Even though the owners might not have the latest standings, if they
have been mailed out (or fax-ed/email-ed out as it may be) then they are
official.
Trades can consist of any number of players and can also include some
salary cap provided that after all transaction for the team that week
have been completed, the team is under their salary cap, and with the
proper number of players at the proper positions. Note that a trade
does not have to have a balance of players, provided that before the
next roster deadline the team has drafted/traded for the players to
fill all his empty roster spots or traded/waived players to get them
below the maximum player limit. This means that a player can trade
away a shortstop on Thursday (vacating the shortstop position) as long
as they have acquired another shortstop to fill this position by the
weekly roster deadline (usually Sunday). This works because the trade
made on Thursday will not take effect until the next roster deadline
anyway.
You cannot trade salary cap alone. There must be at least
one player from each team involved in a deal.
The Eckersley Clause (AL '91): Any trade that a majority of the
owners feels is extremely unbalanced, can be sent to the arbitration
committee (see section on League
Organization) for review. Unbalanced trades can be made for a
number of reasons, some of them legitimate and some of them due to
peculiar circumstances and under-the-table deals. The committee will
either approve or disapprove the deal. The teams involved will
present their justifications for the trade to the committee. The
committee will rule based on whether there is reasonable exchange of
talent. The evaluation of the talent is always subjective but the
committee's judgment will be final. Special circumstances must also
be taken into account.
There are many circumstances why a team might want to waive a
player. It could be to lower their salary, to acquire another player,
or to make room on their roster after a trade. When a team wants to
waive a player he notifies the league secretary (or statistician).
The player will be on waivers the following week and up until the week
before the next monthly draft. These deadlines are subject to the
discretion of the league secretary and/or statistician since there
might be circumstances for which these are inconvenient.
In order to claim a person that has been put on waivers the team must
notify the statistician during the period the player is on waivers.
At the end of each week, the team lowest in the current standings (of
all the teams that have put a claim on a player) will receive the
player. By claiming the player on waivers you agree to pay the same
salary to that player as the previous owner did. There is no
advantage to claiming a player off waivers as soon as possible because
it is not the first to claim him but the lowest in the standings
(within the waiver period.) The team that puts a player on waivers
cannot claim that player off waivers in the following week. Once he
is waived, sayonara! (Bert Blyleven included, AL '90) However, if the
player goes unclaimed after the first week, and assuming he is still
on waivers (i.e., no one picked him up and it isn't a monthly draft
week), then the original team that waived him can put a waiver claim
for him.
In all cases the team who waives a player has his total team salary
decremented by the amount the waived players salary was, thereby
creating extra money for a team.
If a player is waived the week before a monthly draft, then that
player will not be available for that draft . The player must spend
at least one week on waivers to ensure that all owners have had a
chance to claim that player. However, the organization of the league
may make it possible for the player to become available. For this to
happen all of the following must occur: Once the player is put on
waivers all owners must be notified and be given at least two days to
decide if they would like to claim that player at his current salary.
Once this is done then all the owners must be notified both who was
and was not claimed. This notification must be at least 24 hrs. prior
to the start of the monthly draft. If all this is possible within the
existing league framework, then it is permissible for the player to be
drafted upon the week after they are waived since all owners have had
a chance to claim and the chance to structure their bids based upon
the available talent. Note that in this situation the team that
waived the player will never get a chance to re-claim the player off
of waivers.
This is where the most in-season work will be for the Rotisserie
owner. Who came up from the minors? Were there any new players
traded into one of the league's selected teams? Who has moved their
way into the starting lineup? This is where the winners are separated
from the losers. This section describes how it works.
Once a month as determined by the league schedule, all players on an
active major or minor league roster (in the league's associated teams
only) and not on a rotisserie league roster are eligible to be
drafted. This is a closed draft. The owner must decide how much to
spend to acquire a player, and they only get one shot. They team does
not need to immediately have the amount of money that is bid for a
player(s) so long as after everything has been resolved (after the
draft) by shuffling your team around (waiving players, deactivating
players or whatever you need to do) you fulfill all the position and
salary cap requirements. You must be below your salary cap with all
23 required positions filled and be below the 30 player maximum. An
important rule about players you draft each month is that each of
these players must appear on an active roster the week following the
acquisition of the player.
Example: You have a team salary of 289, salary cap of 293
and a full 30 players on your roster (23 active and 7 inactive).
During the draft you can bid on any number of players for any
amount of money even though you don't presently have the money or
space on your roster. Once you have been notified of the players
you did receive in the draft (if any), then you must waive, trade
or somehow get rid of existing players to make room for your new
acquisitions on your roster and within your salary cap.
This gets a bit tricky because all the players you acquire in a draft
must go onto your active roster for the next roster
period. Under no circumstances can a player acquired in a draft be
waived that week. You may trade a player you acquire in the draft
that week so long as that player appears on someone's active roster
the following week.
The monthly bids can either be mailed to the league secretary or
phoned in. The league secretary will set the deadlines. If mailed,
write Monthly Bids Enclosed on the envelope so that the
league secretary will know not to open it until the appropriate time
has come. If phoned in, call on the monthly draft day(s) indicated in
your schedule, so that that the secretary has time to make out their
bids (assuming they are part of the league). The statistician can
mail his bids out to another owner before other bids come in, if the
statistician's integrity is in question. The monthly bid results will
be in the newsletter following the draft.
Any player who comes up from the minors, comes over from teams not
among those chosen for the rotisserie league or comes off the DL on
the day of the draft will not be available for that draft. This
ensures that the secretary (who must submit his bids prior to anyone
else) does not miss out on players who become available after his bids
are in (since the secretary typically needs his bids prepared before
everyone else's).
The owner may have two choices with how they handle the players they
acquire in the bidding. The first, and most preferred choice is that
in addition to submitting their bids they submit where this player
will go should they get him (and any other necessary roster moves).
The second choice is the owner waits to see who he has got in the
draft and decides by the following roster deadline how he wants to
arrange his roster. This is usually necessary when the moves are
heavily depended on the outcomes of the draft. The league secretary
can dictate which of these two options (or both) will be available to
the owners.
A team's salary cap is the maximum amount that all his players
salaries can add up to. The salary cap starts out at $300 but usually
does not stay there.
It is possible and commonly necessary to trade part of your salary
cap. The exact amount (if any) would depend on the logistics of the
trade. Two players of comparable ability will often have
disproportionate salaries due to the peculiar activities that occur on
draft day and throughout the year. Without the possibility of trading
salary caps these two players could not easily be traded. For example
Andre Dawson gets drafted early and has a salary of $38 but Tim Raines
goes late in the draft and has a $7 salary (See Mike Dayan, NL '88).
Assuming the two owners want to traded Raines for Dawson even up and
also assuming that both teams had total salaries at their salary cap,
the team with Andre Dawson must trade $31 of his salary cap in order
for the trade to work. That teams salary cap is now $31 lower and the
team that acquired Dawson now has a cap that is $31 higher.
In no case shall salary cap be the sole element of a trade. You
cannot trade just salary cap for a player or players. All parties of
a trade must include at least one player.
A convenient date, location and time will be selected. This usually
will be on the weekend before, or the weekend after opening day. The
draft date should be set within three to four weeks before the draft
is to be held in order to give the owners time to research the
players. Note that the teams the league will choose to use (select
players from) should also be set during this time.
The first order of business, prior to actually drafting players is to
settle any outstanding administration issues. Among the typical
business that needs to be taken care of: The league schedules and
deadlines should be handed out; The arbitration committee should be
elected; Decide if existing stats will count if draft is after start
of season; Vote on players who might be granted exceptions to the
position eligibility rules; Review all rule changes and settle any
outstanding rule questions.
Regardless of the league fees involved, each team will start with a
fictitious sum of $300 to spend on players at the draft. This
corresponds to the teams' initial salary cap. All the players drafted
on draft day must have salaries that total to no more than $300
(unless you adopt the Addison Strategy of '94). No trades are allowed
while the draft is occurring.
Determine the order in which the owners will draft (it is easiest to
go by seating arrangement) and select someone to go first (usually the
last place finisher from the previous year). The first owner will
call out a name and a salary he bids for that player. The next owner
(in order) either passes or bids higher for the player. Once an owner
passes on a player he is out of the bidding for that player and cannot
re-enter the bidding on that player. Bidding proceeds in order with
the owners either passing or bidding higher until no one is left to
make a higher bid. The highest bidder gets that player. Bids can
jump to any value and need not be incremented by a single dollar at a
time. Bids cannot be retracted.
All bids (and thus, all players' salaries) must be at least one dollar
and every bid must be whole multiples of one dollar (i.e. you can't
bid $0.50 even if the player is only worth that much). An owner may
not bid an amount on a player so that it leaves him without enough
money to complete his team (minimum of 23 players, see Rotisserie Team Makeup). For example, a team
needs four more players to complete his 23 man roster during the draft
and he only has $5 left to spend. Suppose he attempts to bid $3 on a
player. If they get the player, they will now only have $2 with which
to get three players. Since they must spend at least $1 on a player
and they must carry 23 players, they cannot bid $3 on any player.
After the draft each owner must have a complete 23 player team,
fulfilling all position requirements as discussed in a previous
section.
Usually after the draft an owner might be a little uncertain as to
whom he would like to have at all positions. The owners usually will
be granted a grace period to decide who to activate (if they need it).
The opening roster for a team shall be due before the end of this
grace period. This grace period will vary from year to year depending
on factors such as when the draft was held or the limitations of the
stat service or league secretary.
When the draft is held after the season has started (usually a good
idea), the owners will already be aware of some of the player's major
league stats for that year. It shall be agreed upon before the draft
whether or not these existing stats will count toward the teams
totals. Typically they will count when the draft is the weekend after
opening day. When a draft is held later than this, a majority of the
owners' votes will determine if the existing stats should be counted.
O.K. Suppose you are in a Rotisserie league and it is the end of
August. You have a shot at first place (Tom Addison and Dave Ott are
not in your league) but could use just a bit more help. This is the
rule for you, but it costs real cash. You can activate an extra
player (24 total) for the final month of the season to help put your
team over the top. This player can be from your reserves or he could
have been picked up in the last monthly draft or acquired via trade.
The cost of this transaction will be fixed by the commissioner at the
beginning of the year (typically $10) and is real hard cold cash. The
money will be added to the prize money pool. Note that the total team
size of 30 players does not change, only the number of active players
changes.
Once this option has been taken, the owner is free to decide if this
extra man will be a pitcher or batter. The owner can even switch
between the two during the month if desired.
A variation of this rule goes like this: You are way out in front, the
second place team doesn't have a chance to catch you. You call
yourself Tom Addison, send in the extra money, activate a player and
belittle the rest of the owners even more than you already have
done.
There is much work to be done to keep the league running
smoothly. This work can be divided up into a number of jobs.
This committee should consist of three people each of whom is
nominated by at least a majority of the owners. If this is not
possible, then each member will vote in a 5-3-1 point system for three
people and the highest three in points will be on the committee. The
people on the committee do not necessarily have to be participating in
the league, but they should be familiar with the rules of the league.
The committee should be selected each year prior to the draft on draft
day.
1.2 Inactive Roster
2.0 Statistics
* For these two categories the team with the lowest value
will receive the most points.
Special Pitching Note
3.0 Eligibility
3.1 Player Eligibility
3.2 Position Eligibility
4.0 Types of Transactions
4.1 Activate/Deactivate
4.2 Trades
4.3 Waivers
4.4 Monthly Draft
5.0 Salary Cap
6.0 The Draft
6.1 Draft Day
7.0 September Call-Up
8.0 Rotisserie League Organization
As was stated earlier, the Day the official Statistics come out influence the weekly roster deadlines with the league secretary having the final say. In keeping with the spirit of the rotisserie league, all roster changes must be made prior to the start of the next statistic period as defined by the Baseball Weekly newspaper. In order to keep the Rotisserie Statistician out of the loony bin, no transaction will be effective mid week. You can make a transaction in the middle of the week but it will not become effective until the start of the next stat period. Statistics will always be accumulated in increments of a week.
The monthly drafts will be conducted on the first Sunday of every month instead of the last week of every month. It has been observed that many major league clubs like to call players from the minors up around the first of the month. Therefore, the old rule of having the drafts on the last weekend of the month was just missing being able to acquire these new players.
When a player is waived he will be on waivers for the following week through Saturday. If all owners are not notified on time, the waiver period can be extended at the discretion of the league secretary. (see Waivers for other details)
After the All Star break (but still during the season) owners can only trade with other owners within two positions in the standings. (see Trades for other details)
The final statistics will become final and official one week after all the owners have received them. This gives each owner one week to review them so that they can bring errors to the attention of the league officials. No changes to the final standings or stats will be made after they become official regardless of the legitimacy of the claim.
The statistician and secretary will be responsible for correcting any mistakes made, but a freezing period exists whereby any mistake not brought to their attention (one month after the published report is received by the owners) will be declared official.
This freezing period applies only to typographic errors that are against a team. For example: If you receive the stats and you find a player is listed as having only 8 HRs when he should have 10, you must notify the statistician within one month of the date you receive the stats or else your team may forever be without those two home-runs. This is at the discretion of the statistician. However, if the player who really has 10 HRs is listed as having 19 and someone else spots it at anytime during the season or upon review of the final standings, your team will have those 9 HRs deducted. Since it is hard for every owner to keep track of all the stats for the other owners, they should not be penalized for the statistician's typographic error.
The above rule is established to serve two purposes. First, correcting mistakes can be quite cumbersome, especially when the mistakes happened a long time ago. This will relieve the statistician of some labor. Secondly, and more importantly, is to prevent any team from surprising another team at the end of the season. Example: Early in the season a mistake of 10 HRs is made against a team. This team keeps quiet about it all year. Come September a team is 7 HR ahead of this team so he decides to trade a power hitter for more stolen bases figuring the other team will not catch him. When the end of the year comes by the former team surprises the latter with these 10 HRs. Since concealed knowledge could affect another team's decision, these types of surprises have been disallowed.
The initial fee paid by each owner will be determined before the season starts (currently $100). The deadline for full or partial payments will be dictated by the league treasurer. These monies will comprise the major portion of the prize money.
Because of the labor involved the owners will decide on what compensation the league officials will receive. (secretary, statistician, treasurer, etc.) Usually a charge will be required for copying and mailing stats, rosters, newsletters, etc. This will be set by the league secretary. Currently, there is a $10 labor fee for the league statistician and a $10 material fee for stamps, paper, envelopes, etc.
Each transaction can (depending upon the secretary and statistician) incur a real money cost for the owner. Half of the transaction fees goes to the prize money pot and half to the tireless, accurate, trustworthy, punctual, secretary and statistician. As agreed by the league officials, there might be free transaction weeks or a certain amount of free moves per year. Currently, each team gets 20 free transactions and is charged $1 for every transaction over 20.
A transaction is a basic unit of player movement. Each of the following constitutes a transaction:
The cost of this optional move is typically $10 but can be changed by a majority vote of the owners prior to the start of the season.
All of the franchise, September call-up and one half of the transaction fees will comprise the total amount of prize money to be distributed to the winner(s). The number of teams that get prize money depends upon the number of teams in the league and should be voted on by the owners prior to the draft. Regardless of the number of teams for which there will be prizes, the amount of prize money for each position should be established such that each position lower in the standings is worth one-half as much as the position above it.
Currently, the top three place finishers receive a share of the prize money. Each place is worth a percentage of the total prize fund as follows:
By spirit we mean the basic intentions of this rotisserie league. As with any set of rules or laws, these rules will forever be incomplete and ambiguous. These following paragraphs are provided to serve as a guide whenever the rules do not cover a particular circumstance and for developing or refining rules.
No transaction shall be made expo-facto. That is, the spirit of a rotisserie league is such that any decision to trade, drop, activate, deactivate, or acquire a player shall be based on what statistics an owner feels will be accumulated and not what has already happened. More precisely, an owner cannot watch a player hit four home-runs and then decide to acquire or activated that player and expect to have those stats count for his team totals.
Another touchy rotisserie subject is the circumstance of an owner trading a player they know is injured when the receiving party does not (ala "The Jim Rice Episode", AL '89). The official line on this type of behavior is that its tough luck on the receiving owner. It is the owners responsibility to make sure he acquires undamaged merchandise. But unofficially, that type of transaction is frowned upon by the league office as well as by other owners. Hey, lets try to keep this league on the friendly side. But also remember, nice guys finish last (believe me, I know).
Let's say you are at the draft and an owner bids on a player that got traded to the other league or ineligible team in the off season (or maybe he went to Japan). Do you inform the owner or let him suffer through the blunder? Established teams might be informed as a courtesy from sympathetic veteran owners. However, in no case shall an expansion team be given this courtesy. Some things must be learned the hard way.
| © 2000-2004, Anthony R. Cassandra |