O-Pee-Chee League RULES

**The O-PEE-CHEE Fantasy Baseball League Rules - 2007**

I. Teams and Rosters


1. There will be 16 teams in The O-Pee-Chee League, comprised of a mix of AL and NL players. Each team will consist of 25 active Major League Players (22 Starters, 3 Reserves), 3 Injury Slots and 0-10 Minor League Players.


2. A team’s roster will consist of:

· 4 OFs

· 1 C

· 1 1B

· 1 2B

· 1 3B

· 1 SS

· 1 MI (Middle Infielder)

· 1 CI (Corner Infielder)

· 2 Utility (any non-pitcher)

· 9 Ps (any combination of SPs and RPs)

· 3 Reserves (any combination of positions)

· 0-10 Minor Leaguers (any position - see rules on qualifications)

. 3 Injury Slots



3. There is a minimum innings requirement for all pitching staffs of 1000 innings pitched. Any team that does not achieve 1000 innings of work will be prohibited from post-season consideration and replaced by the team with the next-best record.


4. There is a maximum innings limit for all pitching staffs of 1800 IP. After a team reaches 1800 innings any additional innings will not count toward any pitching categories.



II. Auction


1. The auction date is Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 6:00am (PST), through fantasyauctioneer.com.


2. Each team must fill its roster with 25 major league players (combining any pre-season keepers with players acquired at this season’s auction) at a cost not to exceed the $225 salary cap. A team need not spend the maximum. After the auction the salary cap expands to $300 for the remainder of the season (to account for additional salaries of traded-for players and signed free agents). The 0-10 minor league players' salaries will come out of this expanded cap.


3. MLB & minor league players are eligible for the auction. All come out of the $225 cap. Minor league players acquired via the blind-bidding process that will occur between the auction’s conclusion and Opening Day will come out of the expanded $300 cap.


4. The team bidding first opens the auction with a bid of any amount, and all bids must be in whole dollar increments, no cents. Bidding continues until only one bidder is left and then the full time runs out. Run the "Try It Now" function ahead of time at fantasyauctioneer.com to get a feel for the format.


5. No team may bid more on a player than he has left.
- Example: Team A has 3 slots left to fill on his roster and $3 left. He may not bid more than $1 on a player since it wouldn't leave any $ for remaining slots.


6. A player who was purchased at the auction and later dropped becomes a free agent whose salary remains that of his original auction price. The team that drops him cannot regain his salary in their team payroll *until* he is purchased as a FA (Free Agent). At that time, his salary is wiped off the books of the team who dropped him and is added to the new team that claimed him. Any player who was not purchased at the auction will have a minimum FA salary of $1 and can be claimed weekly via the waiver wire claims process (see rule 10.4).


7. Following the MLB auction there'll be silent bid sessions (via email) to fill the 0-10 Minor League slots, with the cost coming out of the expanded $300 cap. (See 12.1)



III. Position Eligibility


1. A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 games the previous season. If a player did not appear in 20 games at a single position, he may be drafted only at the position(s) at which he appeared most frequently.


2. Once the season is underway, a player becomes eligible for any position at which he appears at least 10 times.


3. The position eligibility of minor-leaguers who have no MLB experience will be determined by their projected fielding position for the upcoming season. If there is any objection raised, this position must be confirmed by a minimum of 5 owners.


4. During the season, a minor league call-up who is signed by an owner as a FA and has no prior MLB experience will qualify at: (a) the position he most often played in the minors, and (b) the first position he plays in the field in the majors. After 10 games at one position, normal position eligibility rules take effect.



IV. Fees


1. The entrance fee is $75 per team this season.


2. All fees must be paid (via PayPal) no later than February, 15, 2007. The Commissioner will freeze rosters until fees are paid, and if not received by February 15, 2007, will award that team to another prospective owner.


3. PayPal charges a fee (2.9% + $0.30) for receiving funds from credit cards. So every $50 paid fee is immediately reduced by $2.48 to $72.52. Also, when winnings are paid out at season's end, another 2.9% + $0.30 comes out of that amount on your receiving end. Either way, it's not much of a fee, but it's something to be aware of.


4. All transactions throughout the season are free.



V. Player Salaries


1. The salary of a player (even if dropped) remains on a team’s budget the entire season. The only times player salaries are removed from team budgets are when a player is traded (his salary goes w/ him to his new team’s budget) and when a dropped player is claimed.


2. Minor league players acquired through the preseason blind bid auction count against the *expanded* salary cap of $300.


3. The salary of a player pulled from the FA pool who was previously dropped by another owner is his original salary. The salary of a player pulled from the FA pool who has not been on a roster this season is determined on a sliding scale as described in Rule 10.1. The salary of the player counts against the expanded cap ($300) and is used for calculating future contracts.



VI. Prize Money


1. All fees shall be paid promptly (via PayPal), collected and maintained by the Commissioner.


2. The CBSSportsline.com fee of $130 and FantasyAuctioneer.com fee of $30 will be subtracted from the entry fees before the prize money is distributed.


3. The money shall be divided among the top eight teams at the end of the season as follows:


16 teams x $75 entry fee = $1200 - $130 Sportsline.com fee = $1070

$1070 - $20 PayPal fees on receiving league payments = $1050

$1050 - $30 FantasyAuctioneer.com fee = $1020

Two League winners $110 each ($1020 - $220 = $800)

Six Wildcard winners $75 each ($800 - $300 = $500)

Four Round 1 Playoff winners $50 each ($500 - $200 = $300)

Two Round 2 Playoff winners $75 each ($300 - $150 = $150)

One Round 3 Playoff winner $150 ($150 - $150 = $0)

-- Make the playoffs, you win anywhere from $75 to $385 --

Bottom line: half the league will get at least its entry fee back.



VII. Playoffs


1. The two league (National & American) winners earn an automatic playoff berth. Three wildcard berths in each league will fill the remaining six playoff spots.


2. Wildcard teams are those in each league which have the three highest winning %s among non-division-winners.


3. Each league's playoff teams will be seeded and matched up according to winning %. In the first round of playoffs, the best record is the #1 seed and will play the #4 seed in its league. Thereafter the match-ups are simply the remaining teams.


4. Tie-breakers for determining first round seeds and for each round's match-ups will be head-to-head records between the teams that are tied. If still tied, the next tie-breaker is each team's intra-division record, then intra-league record. If still tied after that point we'll go to the pick-3 lotto system using the tied teams' states.



5. Playoff week tie-breakers... TBD



VIII. Standings


1. The following criteria are used to determine team performance:

· OPS (On-Base % Plus Slugging %)

· Runs Scored

· Runs Batted In

· Stolen Bases

· Home Runs

· Quality Starts (starts of 6 or more IP, 3 or less ER)

· Saves

· Earned Run Average

· WHIP (Walks + Hits divided by Innings Pitched)

· Strikeouts


You'll notice the more common stats of AVG and Wins are omitted. The Commissioner has replaced them with the more production-reflective stats of OPS and Quality Starts, respectively.


2. Teams meet Head-to-Head each week as per a pre-determined schedule. At the end of the week stat totals in each category are tallied. For every category a team wins in its matchup, a W is awarded. For every category lost, the team gets an L. Ties are counted as a TIE. Each week every team's W-L-T record will add up to 10 (the total # of statistical categories). W-L records will be reflected in the league standings (divided into 2 leagues).


3. To assure fairness, leagues will be determined randomly using the 3-digit lottery game some states employ. Returning owners will use the same states chosen the previous year. New owners will inherit the state previously assigned to their team. Using lotto results from March 1st, the teams with the eight lowest results will be grouped into one league and teams with the eight highest results will be grouped into the other league.



IX. Stats


1. CBSSportsline.com will be the site that handles stats. A fee of $130 is charged against the league entry fees to pay for this.


2. Any problems with statistics or player movements must be brought forth within 7 days of the occurrence. After that, any challenges will fall under the discretion of the commissioner.


3. Performance stats of a player only apply while he is on an ACTIVE roster.


4. Standings and Transactions will be tabulated daily on-line and available on the Web.


5. Our Regular Season ends with the MLB games of Sunday September 2, 2007. Four weeks of head-to-head playoffs begin Monday September 3, 2003, with teams seeded 1 through 8 based on final Regular Season standings (ties broken by head-to-head records).

5a. The final head-to-head match-up (aka "Championship", aka "World Series") will span the final 2 weeks of the MLB regular season. Stats will be accrued in 2 separate 1-week sessions, w/ roster adjustments allowed for the 2nd of the 2 weeks just as they're allowed for all other weeks of the year.



X. Trades


1. From February 16th until midnight (PDT) the night of Thursday August 31, 2007, teams are free to make trades of any kind without limit (w/ a temporary trading freeze while the auction is in progress).


2. Teams making trades must stay within the expanded ($300) salary cap.


3. No trades will take place from September 1, 2007 through Feb 15, 2008.


4. Trades after this season will resume (between teams paid in full) from Feb 16, 2008 to Auction Day in March/April 2008.


5. There are no limits to the number of trades a team may make.


6. Once a trade has been agreed upon by both parties, an email will be sent out by Sportsline.com to the league with the details of the trade.


7. Trades will not be vetoed/reversed solely for reasons of their being “unfair” or “unbalanced”. However, if a trade appears suspicious, if there appears no logical reason for one of the two teams to have made the deal, then the review process can begin.


8. The trade review process begins when concerned owners raise their concerns privately with the commissioner. Thereafter the commissioner will discuss the trade privately with the teams involved. At the commissioner's discretion, if the rationales given by the teams involved outweigh the concerns of the concerned owners, the trade will go through unhindered. However, if the opposite is true, if the concerns outweigh the rationales given by the owners involved, the issue will be brought to the league for public discussion on the message board.


9. After 24 hours of league discussion the trade will be publicly voted on over the following 24 hours, needing 75% of *participating* voters to cast a veto vote in order for it for it to be reversed. All owners' votes are eligible (including those involved in the trade). It is the commissioner’s philosophy that a trade is consummated by two knowledgeable, independent adults who made the informed decision to trade the players involved. Anything short of suspicions of cheating is insufficient reason to reverse an owner’s decision to make a trade.



XI. Free-Agent Eligibility


1. Any player who is on an MLB 25 man roster or on the DL and not owned by another fantasy team may be acquired as a free agent at any time at the league site. The salary of FAs not previously owned starts at $1. Any dropped player may be acquired via a weekly FAAB waiver claiming process (see 10.4, below). Foreign players not on an MLB roster on Opening Day are NOT eligible to be acquired as free agents until it is announced that it okay to do so by the Commish. Players on an MLB club's minor league roster may be acquired via the weekly FAAB process.


2. No free agents may be acquired between the end of the season and the auction.


3. Waiver wire claims may be placed any time at the league site but they will only be processed and corresponding free agents awarded (via CBS's automated FAAB system) on Thursdays, around 10:00pm PST, starting the first Thursday of the season, through the end of the MLB season. FAAB add/drops may be made during the playoffs.


4. Each team is limited to the $300 expanded salary cap during the season. All winning waiver claims will count against the team's expanded salary cap. Any interested team must place its claim by the weekly deadline, Thursday around 10:00 pm PST. CBS processes waivers a few minutes after 10:00 pm PST and awards players accordingly. This Thursday deadline will allow owners to set their lineups as early as Friday for the following week (should they be away from a computer over the weekend). There is no limit to free agent pickups as long as each team stays within the expanded salary cap.


5. The waiver claiming list is perpetual, meaning it simply drops to the bottom of the list any team that’s awarded a successful claim (and that team has to slowly work its way back up the list as the teams above it make future claims).



XII. The Reserve and Injured Lists


1. Rosters will include 3 Injury slots. A team may replace any player on its 25-man roster who has been placed on the MLB DL by placing him in one of the 3 allotted Injury slots, and picking up a free agent from the FA pool (subject to normal free agent rules). A team is required to remove the injured player when he is taken off the MLB DL (either by activating or dropping him). Only injured players may occupy Injury slots.


2. If you choose to not place an injured player in an Injury slot, you may place him on the reserve list and start one of your reserves.


3. Each team has a 3-man reserve list comprised of players from a position of the owner's choosing (hitter or pitcher).


4. Players who begin the season on an MLB roster but are later sent to the minors may be placed on the minors list if the owner so chooses. The maximum number of players on the minor league roster is 10.


5. There is no limit to the number of active to reserve moves a team can make during the season.


6. Lineups must be set weekly each Monday, no later than 30 min before the first scheduled game of the day.



XIII. Minor Leagues


1. Soon after the MLB auction blind-bid sessions will take place via email (with the bids coming out of the post-auction expanded cap of $300). Each session has a 24 hour time limit to submit bids. Owners will send the PLAYER NAME, POSITION, MLB TEAM and BID AMOUNT via email to the Commissioner. Each minor leaguer bid on will go to the highest bidder (up to 10 per owner).

1A. Should the Commissioner have any minor league bids of his own, to ensure fairness the Commissioner will post online at random blog sites his time-stamped bids *before* each 24-hour session begins (aka *before* he receives any private bids from any owners). Links to his posted bids at the various sites will be revealed after each session concludes.

1B. Minor leaguers *can* be acquired during the MLB auction, at the discretion of each owner. The drawback is that these bids come out of the $225 MLB auction cap (whereas waiting until the post-auction silent bidding will provide for those bids to come out of the expanded $300 cap).


2. Only players who qualify as a rookie in MLB (<131 class="MsoNormal" style="">