Orenthal Baseball Association
Rule Book 2000
DISCLAIMER
This season of the Orenthal Baseball Association (OBA) is being played strictly for the fun and enjoyment of its participants.
It is in no way to be construed as gambling of
any sort. DUH!
Table Of Contents
II. FRANCHISE FEE
III. LEAGUE STRUCTURES
IV. ROSTERS
d. SALARY CAP
V. THE DRAFT
a. MINIMUM BID
b. BIDDING TIES
c. ROUND ONE
2. PLAYOFFS
b. PLAYING WEEK
VII. POINTS & SCORING
VIII. PLAYER TRANSACTIONS
a. DEFINITION
1. TRADES
c. RESTRICTIONS
d. TRADES
e. FREE AGENTS
a. TEAM NAMES
c. INTERVENTION OF THE NET GODS
d. PROFANITY
In a nutshell, you will be the owner, manager, coach, trainer, waterboy and cheerleader of your own fantasy baseball team. You will draft your team from the major leagues and then, each week, match your best starting line-up against another fantasy team in a head-to-head contest.
Points will be awarded based upon how the actual major league player performed in certain statistical categories. The Fantasy Team with the most fantasy points accumulated during that one-week period, will win that week's contest.
We will play a 17-week regular season. Then 2 weeks of elimination playoffs to determine the two teams who will meet in the OBA World Series, a two-week championship fantasy game.
Each week you will have the chance to better
your team through trades with the other owners and the signing of
free agents.
The franchise fee to own a team in the 2000 season of OBA $20.00 US.
There are no other direct charges involved with OBA. However, you presence is requested for the annual winter meeting (aka Football-a-Thon ) to be held a yet to be determined Damons coiciding with the college football’s rivalry weekend and the Ohio State-Michigan football game for trophy presentation and to discuss rule-changes and/or your concerns.
This fee is to help offset the operating costs and expenses incurred (software, stat downloading, trophies, prizes, etc).
Franchise fees must be paid prior to
Valentine’s Day so that we can make the necessary purchases
or other arrangements must be made.
During the 2000 OBA season, we will be operating a league with the following structure.
The Combined AL/NL Leagues will be allowed to sign MLB players currently playing in the either the American League or the National League.
If your fantasy team is playing in a designated Keeper League, you will be able to retain the contracts of some of your players from one season to the next. The exact number of players eligible to be retained is dependent upon your team's finish at the end of the regular season and playoffs.
Any player retained on a fantasy team into the
next season will automatically receive a 20% salary increase for
the following season rounded to the nearest dollar (4/5).
The fantasy team roster will consist of two segments:
ACTIVE ROSTER
The Active Roster will comprise of 25 players. The Active Roster players are the only players available for insertion into a team's starting line-up.
This is not an additional part of the fantasy team roster to "stash" players. The purpose of the Protected List is to allow a fantasy team owner to retain the services of players while they are away from the MLB active roster while on the MLB Disabled List or in the minor leagues.
P/L REQUIREMENTS
- If the fantasy team receiving the P/L'd player in the trade wants to activate him, they must use a separate transaction.
- While on the P/L, the salary of the fantasy player is suspended and does not count against the Fantasy Team's salary cap.
At no time may a player be on the Protected List that does not qualify under these guidelines. If a currently protected player is removed from the MLB Disabled List or brought up from the minor leagues, the fantasy team owner must remove that player from his Protected List at the next available opportunity (transaction day). This move will count as one of his transactions for the week and is not automatic. It must be submitted via the transactions form on the OBA website.
Failure to remove this ineligible player from the protected list will result in the Commissioner's Office arbitrarily removing the player and placing him back into the free agent pool upon report of the violation by another team in the league. This will count against your transaction count.
OPENING DAY ROSTER STRUCTURE
On opening day, all rosters must comply with a set position structure (listed below). After opening day, you are free to utilize your managerial skills to the best of your ability and structure your team as you desire. The only restrictions after opening day are:
On Opening Day, Each Team Must Meet The Following Position Requirements:
SALARY CAP
Each Fantasy Team in OBA will have a $300 salary cap. At no time, may the total of a team's salary exceed this cap.
Note: The salaries of players on the Protected List do not go against the fantasy team's salary cap while that player is on the Protected List.
CUT, WAIVED, OR RETIRED PLAYERS
In the event a player signed to a fantasy team ceases employment on a MLB team due to being cut, waived, retiring or playing in Japan, the fantasy team owner is simply out of luck. The vacant roster spot can be filled at the next available free agent transaction date.
POSITION ELIGIBILITY REQUIRMENTS
For both drafting purposes and starting line-up purposes, a minimum appearance requirement is set for a player to be qualified for a position.
In order to qualify at a position, the player must have played that position, at the major league level, a minimum of 20 games (10 games for pitchers). If a player did not play a single position for 20 major league games (10 games for pitchers) last season, then the position he played the most will be his qualifying position.
If a player did not play in the major leagues last season, but played all of his games in the minor leagues, then the Commissioner will set his initial position.
If a player did not play in the major leagues or the minor leagues last season, then the Commissioner will set his initial position.
If a player played more than one position at least 20 games (10 games for pitchers) during the 1999 season, he will qualify for all those same positions in OBA.
A player can only qualify for a maximum of 3 positions.
If a player changes to a new position in 2000, he must play that position for 10 games prior to being eligible for use at the new position.
For a pitcher's position, the qualification level is 5 games.
A new position is defined as one that the player did not qualify for based upon the 20 game requirement for games played in 1999.
If a player is going to begin the season at a completely new position, he will not be allowed to play that position until he has met the 10 game requirement. After he has played the new position for 10 games, he will be allowed to be played at that position.
It is the fantasy team owner's responsibility to notify the Commissioner's Office of all position qualification changes.
LOSING POSITION ELIGIBILITY
A fantasy player can lose his position eligibility during the season and you need to plan for this possibility during the draft and during the season.
Position eligibility will be lost in the following instances:
If the player switches to a new position in 2000 (not one that he qualified for based upon the number of 1999 games played at that position) and he has played that new 2000 position for 10 games in 2000 (5 games for a pitcher) and has not played any games in 2000 at the position he qualified for based upon his 1999 stats, the 1999 position will be removed from his eligible positions.
If a pitcher begins the season qualifying as
both a starting pitcher and a relief pitcher based upon their
1999 appearances and they pitch 10 games in only one of those
positions without pitching any games in the other position, they
will lose eligibility in the unplayed position.
A "Blind Auction Style Draft" will be utilized. That simply means that owners will not know what the other owners have bid upon a certain player until the end of the round.
Owners will submit a salary bid for the players that they want on their team. Once a bid has been submitted to the Commissioner's office, it may not be changed unless the Commissioner deems the bid to be in error.
All the fantasy team owners will be bidding against all the other owners for the services of the same players. The owner that submits the highest salary bid for the player, will be awarded that player for their team, at that salary.
There will be a form on the OBA website for submitting the draft bids. NO EMAILED DRAFTS WILL BE ACCEPTED (unless I don’t get the form posted).
DRAFT ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible to be drafted, a player must have prior Major League Experience. Minor League players, players from Japan and players from your local slow pitch softball league. If they have not played in a Major League Game will not be eligible for the draft.
Once these players have made the big club and have played in a Major League Game, they will be included in the following week's list of available free agents and will be available for signing at that time.
The minimum salary is $1.
TOTAL OF BIDS
The total of a fantasy team's bids cannot exceed the salary cap.
In the event of a tie in the high-bid for a player, a "monitored" coin toss will take place at the Commissioner's office.
For Round One of the draft, the fantasy team owner will submit the names of 25 players for their team and the salaries bid for those players. (Next season because OBA will be a returning Keeper League, your roster will already have some players on it. The number of players already on your roster plus the number of new players being bid upon shall not exceed 25).
The total of all your bids may not exceed the salary cap. Should you submit bids in excess of the salary cap, the entire round of bids for your team will not be allowed.
FIRST ROUND BIDS MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS:
Bids must be rounded off to the nearest dollars. A bid for $11 is acceptable. A bid for $11.31 is not acceptable and will be disallowed.
YOU CAN'T OVERESTIMATE HOW IMPORTANT THIS NOTE IS
Operational Note: We keep track of the players in our leagues by first and last names and MLB team. For the draft you will be required to manually type in the first and last names and MLB team for the players you are bidding on. If you should make a typographical error in your data entry and enter in the wrong player information, WE WILL NOT GO BACK AND RETROACTIVELY CORRECT YOUR MISTAKE. If it is close enough to decipher, you may be alright, otherwise you are simply out of luck.
SUBSEQUENT DRAFT ROUNDS
Subsequent draft rounds will be held to fill any roster openings a team may have. There will be a currently unknown interval between draft rounds. (Hopefully around 48 hours).
For the subsequent rounds, the fantasy team owner only need submit bids on the positions that are still open on their roster. For example, if you get both of your catchers in the first round there is no need to submit a bid on another catcher in round two.
The total of a fantasy owner's bids in Round Two plus the salaries of players already obtained in Round One may not exceed the salary cap. IF YOU EXCEED THE SALARY CAP, ALL OF YOUR BIDS FOR THAT ROUND ARE VOIDED.
The fantasy team owner must completely fill their 25-man roster via the draft.
In the event a fantasy team is not filled at the end of the draft, that team will be at a handicap during the first week of the season and may possibly not be able to field a complete starting line-up until those players needed can be obtained via free agency.
However, to avoid the possibility of an owner "sand-bagging" his available salary to pick up free agents missed during the draft, any fantasy team that has not completely filled their roster via the draft will have their team filled arbitrarily and alphabetically by the Commissioner's Office (Say hello to your new Second Baseman, Kurt Abbott).
Once a player has been successfully bid upon by
a fantasy team, the player is deemed signed by that fantasy team
and may only be removed from that team via the normal transaction
process. (See Trades or Free Agent).
The season schedule will be randomly set by the Commissioner’s Office. Fantasy teams will play teams in their own division more than they will play teams outside of the division.
The regular season will consist of 17 weeks of competition.
The actual fantasy game is played on a week to week basis. The fantasy game weeks will run from Monday through Sunday. This is the time frame by which all the stats will be computed. Only games played during this frame will count for a given week.
1. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION
Starting line-ups may be submitted up until the first pitch being thrown in the first Major League game of the week.
2. STARTING LINEUP POSITION REQUIREMENTS
STARTING LINEUPS MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS:
- 1 - Catcher
- 1 - 1st Baseman
- 1 - 2nd Baseman
- 1 - Shortstop
- 1 - 3rd Baseman
- 3 - Outfielders
- 1 - Utility Player (Any Non-P)
- 4 - Starting Pitchers
- 3 - Relief Pitchers
In the event a starting line-up is not submitted to the Commissioner's Office or is not sent prior to the starting lineup deadline, the previous week's line-up will be used. If any players in the previous week's line-up are no longer on the fantasy team, that position will be empty and no fantasy points will be accumulated for that position.
If a fantasy team owner has submitted a line-up with a player in a position that the player does not qualify for, the owner will have until the line-up submission deadline to correct his error. If the error is not corrected the fantasy points accumulated by this player during that week are voided. The responsibility for insuring the accuracy of a starting lineup at game-time rests solely with the fantasy team owner.
It is not the responsiblity of the Commissioner's Office to scrutinize every line-up that is submitted. Each lineup will be made available to the league during the week's games and it is the responsiblity of the team owners to verify the accuracy of the lineups.
If for any reason, a team does not have a player on their roster that will fill a particular position (i.e. you don't have a Second Baseman) the fantasy team owner may not substitute another player for that position unless he qualifies at that position. (See Position Requirements).
Those players not on a starting line-up are
considered Reserve Players and their fantasy stats will not count
towards the fantasy team's total for that week. Only active
player’s stats will count.
The players on the starting line-up will accumulate fantasy points based upon what the actual Major League Player does each week. Fantasy teams will be pitted against another fantasy team each week and the fantasy team that accumulates the most fantasy points will win that week's contest.
| Hitters | Pitchers | ||
| Stats | Pts. | Stats | Pts. |
| SINGLE | 3 pts. | WINS | 3 pts. |
| DOUBLE | 4 pts. | LOSES | - 3 pts. |
| TRIPLE | 5 pts. | COMPLETE GAMES | 1 pts. |
| HOMERUN | 6 pts. | SAVES | 3 pts. |
| RBI | 1 pts. | STRIKEOUTS | 1 pts. |
| BASE ON BALLS | 1 ½ pts. | INNINGS PITCHED | 1 ½ per 1/3 inn. |
| STOLEN BASES | 1 pts. | HITS ALLOWED | - 2 pts. |
| CAUGHT STEALING | - 2 pts. | WALKS ALLOWED | - 1 pts. |
| AT BATS | - ½ pts. | HR’S ALLOWED | - 3 pts. |
| RUNS SCORED | 1 pts. | EARNED RUNS | - 1 pts. |
TIES & TIE-BREAKERS
In the event of a fantasy game tie in the fantasy point totals of the two team's active players, during the regular season, a tie is a tie. During the playoffs, the point totals of the two team's reserve players will be used as the tie-breaker.
If the totals of the reserve players also equal, then the game will be declared a tie and the team with the highest regular season YTD fantasy point total will be declared the winner of the playoff game.
Eight fantasy teams will qualify for the playoffs. The teams will be:
The Wildcard Teams will be the non-divisional winner team with:
OBA WORLD SERIES
The OBA World Series will consist of a two-week
playoff between the two finalist teams. At the end of the first
week (or first half) of the World Series each team will be
allowed to adjust their starting line-ups.
During the season, owners are allowed to change the structure and personnel of their team through both trades with other owners and through free agent acquisitions.
There is no transaction fee.
Operational Note: We keep track of the players in our leagues through the use of first and last name and MLB team. For transactions you will be required to manually type in the first and last name and MLB team for the players you are bidding on. If you should make a typographical error in your data entry and enter in the wrong Player ID number, WE WILL NOT GO BACK AND RETROACTIVELY CORRECT YOUR MISTAKE. If it is close enough to decipher, you may be alright, otherwise you ou are simply out of luck. NO EXCEPTIONS!
TRANSACTION EXAMPLES
DEADLINE FOR PLAYER TRANSACTIONS
Transactions are handled on a weekly basis. The deadline for submitting transactions is 8pm (EST) on Tuesdays. Any transactions submitted to the Commissioner's office after that time will not be evaluated until the following Tuesday.
The first date for transactions is the Tuesday prior to Opening Day.
You can submit your transactions any time prior to Tuesday at 8pm.
The fantasy teams will be able to make a maximum of five player transactions per week.
Any player released from a fantasy team may not be resigned by that same fantasy team for 14 days.
During the course of the season, you can better your fantasy team through trades with the other fantasy team owners. Negotiate between yourselves and work out a deal agreed upon by both sides and submit it to the Commissioner. Make sure that both teams will still remain under the salary cap after the trade. If either one of the fantasy teams exceed the cap, the entire trade will be voided.
If you need to release a player in order to free up salary money to fit the trade, the releasing of that player constitutes a transaction for the week.
Salaries and "Players To Be Named Later" may not be involved in a trade.
Trades may be of multiple players and do not have to be of equal numbers. For example, a fantasy team could trade 1 player for 3 players.
The maximum number of players involved in a trade is 5 players per team.
If a trade causes one or both of the teams to exceed the salary cap, the trade will be voided.
If, in an owner’s opinion, a trade is made that is heavily one-sided, or deemed to not be in the best interest of the league (i.e. owner collusion is suspected) and owner may submit a written protest to the commissioners office. If 3 protests are received by the Commissioner’s Office before Friday 8pm, the trade will be vetoed.
In the event of a veto, one or both of the teams involved may appeal the veto and the circumstances of the trade will be put out to the owners not involved in the trade for a vote on whether to allow the trade or not.
If the majority of the owners deem the trade was not in the best interest of the league, the trade will be officially voided.
The Trading Deadline will be the end of the transaction period for the 13th week of the season.
All trading will be stopped for the remainder of the season. Free agent transactions will continue through the end of the regular season.
As a point of courtesy, even if you are not interested in a trade, please acknowledge another owner's inquiry with a reply email.
If there is an unsigned player that you would like to acquire, you can do this through a free agent signing. Free agent signings are handled very similarly to the draft.
You submit a bid for the free agent using any additional salary you may have available. The salary of the player being released may also be used in your free agent bidding).
Other owners may be bidding on the same players.
Highest bidder receives the player.
Normally a free agent transactions will consist of:
Note: If you are releasing a player for a free agent transaction and you are outbid for that player, the player you released reverts back to your team.
All transactions must be submitted via the Transactions Form on the OBA website.
NO EMAILED TRANSACTIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
AN IMPORTANT POINT ABOUT TRANSACTIONS:
If you anticipate receiving salary from the releasing of a player, you must be aware that if you're bidding upon a player in that same transaction, you may get outbid and that player you were releasing will revert back to your team along with his salary.
This could cause the sum total of your transactions to exceed the salary cap and that would void ALL of your transactions.
There are no contingent bids allowed. (i.e. no
bids like If this, then do this)
You are encouraged to be creative with your team names, however, let's keep it out of the gutter and we do not allow the use of any names of any professional sports franchises.
Franchise fees must be paid prior to the first round of the draft if special arrangements are made (See Franchis Fee above). With your franchise fee, we request you us with a User ID, your team name, your email address, and your telephone number. This information is to make it possible for us and others in the league to contact you and will not be able to be viewed by anyone but those in our league. You will recieve a password via email to access this information on the website as well as other areas of the website.
Sometimes the Net Gods just jump up and slap you! We have given up trying to control the Net. Should a correspondence from you just simply disappear and be eaten by the Net Gods, you're just going to have to chalk it up and go on. If it doesn't show up here and we can't find it, then there's nothing we can do to change it and will not retroactively act on your correspondence.
OBA strives to operate in a first class manner. We also wish to respect individuals rights to not have to put up with profanity in their correspondence with other members of the league.
Should the Commissioner's Office be made aware of an OBA fantasy team owner using profanity in their dealings with the other owners, corrective measures will be taken up to and including expulsion from our leagues.
OBA will issue a refund to any team owner prior
to the draft beginning. Once the draft has begun, NO refunds will
be issued.
Final Notes
One thing I've learned from running these leagues, is that unfortunately, surprises do happen! I'm going to apologize up front for any screw-ups that I might make and do my best to keep them at a minimum.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL AND LET'S PLAY BALL....