2009 BASEBALL LEAGUE RULES

All questions, disputes and interpretations of these rules subject to commissioner’s rulings. All commissioner rulings will be final.

Rule changes for the 2009 Season are in red

Rules Committee
 There will be an in-season rules committee. This will consist of the Commish and 1 owner from each of the four divisions. Members will be selected at the draft prior to each season, and will potentially change each year. The in-season committee will handle any in-season rule issues that arise. If any member of the rules committee is directly involved (i.e. their game or team is specifically affected, not just a general issue) they will be be replaced on the issue. A replacement owner from the same division or at large for the Commish will be selected on that issue only. Members will carefully evaluate any issue and render a timely decision to the league.

The Season
The season will consist of 18 weeks of regular season play beginning Monday April 6, 2009. The Sunday night game on Sunday April 5th will be used in the M-Th games for those teams playing. There will be no games played during the week of the All-Star Game, July 13th-19th. There will be a All-Star Weekend Pool during the break. The participants in the playoffs will be the 4 division winners along with 4 wild card teams from any division for a total of 8 teams that will participate in post season play. There will be 3 rounds of playoffs to determine the league champion. The weekly team point totals will be ranked 1-16, with the top 8 receiving a bonus win. In the event of a tie for the 8th and final spot in the top 8, both teams will receive the bonus win.

The schedule will consist of playing each non-divisional team in the league once and each team in your division twice. There is 5 games played each week, as well a top 8 bonus win awarded each week. Each team has a possibility of winning six (6) games each week. The week is broken down as follows: 
GAME 1: Monday thru Thursday, BEST AVERAGE GAME
GAME 2: Friday
GAME 3: Saturday
GAME 4: Sunday
GAME 5: Total points scored during the week.
BONUS WIN/LOSS: Top 8 team point totals receive a win, bottom 8 team point totals receive a loss.

Game 1 will be the average game by each player on the team during the Monday thru Thursday games. There is a 2 game minimum for a player's scores to be used, with a few exceptions. If a starter only plays one game during the M-Th games, no games or average will be used for the starter and the sub's weekday average will be used. If the sub plays no games, the starters one game will be used. If both the starter and sub only play one game, the starters one game will be used. If the starter and sub do not play M-Th a zero will be taken. Pitching staffs do not have subs, if they only play one game that will be their weekday average. If a pitching staff plays no games M-Th a zero will be taken. The weekday average score will be rounded off to even number. Averages ending in .1 thru .4 will be rounded down, while averages ending in .5 thru .9 will be rounded up.

Games 2-4 will be a single game for each day and Game 5 will be the highest cumulative point total from Games 1-4. Each week the team point totals will be ranked 1-16, with the top 8 receiving an additional win. In the event of a tie for the 8th and final spot in the top 8, both teams will receive the bonus win. If there are Sunday games prior to week one, those games will be eligible to be used as part of the M-Th games. This is ONLY prior to the opening week of the season.

All-Star Weekend Pool:    During the weekend of the All-Star Game (F-Su games only), there will be a daily pool for the top 3 scoring teams. The daily payout will be 1st Place-$50, 2nd Place $20 and 3rd place $10. These prizes will be paid out at year end along with the rest of the prize fund. Player high game and team high game scores are eligible for sidepot awards.

Scoring
The scoring system is available on the main page of the league website. This scoring system will be used to determine the winner in each game played. Players reaching base on catcher's interference will receive 1pt. Players that ground into a triple play (GITP) will receive a -1. The Commish  will track all league scores each week. Each owner will be responsible for confirming the scores of not only his team, but also for his opponents team by 9pm Tuesday. Teams not confirming scores by Tuesday at 9pm will receive a mulligan on the first offense and $10 fine for all subsequent offenses. In the event of a discrepancy in the scores, the commissioner will verify the scores through the MLB.com website. (If a score discrepancy occurs on the results posted on the internet, the Commish will review multiple websites to determine the most consistent and accurate score) During the regular season, a game or total points that ends in a tie will result in each team winning a 1/2 point. In the playoffs the same rule will apply, but if the series ends in a 2.5-2.5 tie the higher seeded team will win the series based on the better regular season record.

If any owner notices a discrepancy in something that was updated on the website, they will have one week in which to notify the league of the problem. This applies to scores of games, scores of players, game results or side pot issues. After a period of one week, the updated results becomes OFFICIAL unless an official scoring change was made by MLB.

Rosters
Team rosters will consist of 14 players, distributed as follows: 1B, 3B, CI, 2B, SS, MI, OF(4), C(2), Optional Sub and Pitching Staff. Starting in 2009 teams will draft two catchers. These catchers can be from any MLB team. The Optional Sub player may be from any player position, pitching staffs are not allowed as the optional sub player. The corner infielder (CI) must qualify at either 1B or 3B. The middle infielder (MI) must qualify at either 2B or SS. Players may be drafted from both the American and National Leagues of Major League Baseball, and on an active roster. Owners must keep a full and active roster at all times during the season.

Teams are permitted to draft players that are on the DL. Teams will select DL replacements in order of the DL players drafted. Once the draft is completed, you will not be permitted to acquire a player on the DL. A player must come off the DL and then will be available as a free agent.

Position Qualifications
For a complete list of games played by each player, follow the links on the main page of the baseball website. To qualify for a position a player must have played in 20 games at that position in 2008 or 10 games at that position in 2009. If a player did not play 20 games at any position the prior year, they are eligible at the position the played the most at the prior year. In the event of "common knowledge" that a player is changing positions for 2009, he will be allowed to be drafted at his new position. The player must start at their new position on opening day, or a roster change must be made to return the player to an eligible position. Available free agents who made a position change for 2009 will be allowed to be claimed at their new position, provided they started at the new position on opening day. Players may qualify at more than one position, but will only accumulate points for a specific position side pot on weeks they play that position. For example, Lance Berkman qualifies at 1B and OF. Weeks 1-4 he is started at OF. Then in weeks 5-7 he is started at 1B. Only the points scored on weeks 1-4 will go towards the High OF sidepot. The stats from weeks 5-7 will go towards the High 1B sidepot. If a player is a rookie, he will be eligible at the position he plays in first MLB game, where he played in the minors doesn't matter. If a rookie plays multiple positions, they would need to play 10 games at an additional position to gain eligibility there as well. Any player that is only eligible at DH must qualify at a position in order to be placed on a roster. See below for the list of DH's and positions that they will qualify at. If a DH qualifies at another position during the year he will increase his qualifications.

DH ELIGIBILITY:
1B    David Ortiz Bos    Jim Thome CWS    Travis Hafner Cle    Mike Sweeney Sea    Jose Vidro Sea    Frank Thomas Oak
OF    Gary Sheffield Det    Craig Monroe Pit    Rocco Baldelli Bos    Cliff Floyd SD    Matt Stairs Phi

The Draft
 The draft will consist of 14 rounds of 16 picks with teams picking in reverse order in even numbered rounds. Example: If you have the first pick in the first round, you will have the 16th pick in the 2nd round. Draft position has been determined and is posted on the website. You are permitted to make trades of your draft positions.

Line-ups
Lineup changes are due to the Commish by 12:00pm mtn Monday. If a MLB game starts before 12pm mtn on Monday, lineup changes for players involved must be submitted before the game starts. Absolutely no late changes will be allowed once the 12pm deadline has passed. The "default lineup" for teams each week will be the previous week's lineup. (The only exception to this rule is week #1, if no lineup is submitted the starting lineup will be the order of players drafted) Changes must be made to that default lineup by the required deadline or the default lineup will be used for the week. No non-DL lineup changes are permitted once the week's games begin. If a player goes on the DL between Monday and Friday, you will be allowed to replace him for the weekend games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) prior to the Friday lineup deadline. Once the weekend games start, you are not allowed to replace any DL player in your active lineup. You can replace a DL player on your roster over the weekend, but the new player will not be available to use until the following weeks games. If the DL player replaced is a sub, the newly acquired replacement or other active sub player can not be moved into the starting lineup for the weekend games. If a player is activated off the DL prior to the weekend, they can be placed into the starting lineup for the weekend. A starter may not be benched for the weekend and replaced by an active sub for the weekend games in any scenario.

 Starting line ups will consist of:    1B    3B    2B    SS    OF(3)    C    PS. Only points scored by these players will be tabulated into the game results.

 In the event that a starting player does not play on a weekend game, due to injury, managers decision, postponement, or the lack of a scheduled game, the back up player at his position will be used for that day ONLY. Example: Team "A" starts Albert Pujols at 1st base and David Wright at 3rd Base for the weekend, and they have Ryan Howard as their corner infielder. If Pujols or Wright do not play in the game on Saturday, for any reason, Howard will be used for that day only and his scores will be tabulated along with the rest of the starting team. This applies to each position and its respective back up players. Rosters in 2009 will now included a Optional Sub position. Any position player may be put in the Optional Sub position. The Optional sub will be used in the event that a starter and immediate sub do not play on a given day. The immediate sub is as follows: 1B/3B use the CI, 2B/SS use the MI, OF's use the 4th OF and C uses the back up catcher. For example, a team started Pujols at 1B and Howard as the CI. They both do not play on a given day. The Optional Sub will be used for Pujols. The Optional Sub can only be used once on a given day. For example, a team's 1B, 3B and CI are all dnp on a given day. The Optional Sub can only be used for either the 1B or 3B, not for both. If a starter has at least 2 plate appearances (PA), his stats will be used for that game. If neither the starter or back-up makes an appearance in a weekend game, the position will get a zero for that game.  In the event that a starter only has 1PA, and the sub does not play that day or only has 1 PA, the starters 1 PA will count for that day. In the event that 2 starting OF's both only get one PA, the sub OF will be used for one player, and the team will use which ever of the 2 starting OF's that had the highest score for the day for the second score. In the event that multiple positions have DNP's or 1PA only and the Optional player is used, but one or more starting positions still have 2 players with 1AB only, the player with 1AB and the highest score will be used. For example, your starting 2B and SS both have just 1PA, the Mid Inf is used for one. The optional player was used to cover another position, you would get whichever score is higher between your starting 2B or SS's 1PA.

In the event that a pitching staff is rained out and does not play on a weekend game, the score from the most recent available game on the Mon-Thu games will be used.  Example: Team B has Florida's pitching staff, the Marlins are rained out on Saturday and they played on Thursday. The score from Thursday's game will be used for Saturday. If a pitching staff has multiple rain outs on the weekend, will keep going backwards on the weekday games and use the first available weekday game to use in place of the rainout. Example: A pitching staff is rained out on Saturday and Sunday. They played on Mon, Tue and Wed during the week. The Wed game would be used for Sat, and the Tue game would used for Sun. While going backwards to find the most recent available game and it comes to a day that the pitching staff played a doubleheader, game 1 will be used first and then game 2 if necessary.

In the event of a double header in MLB on any weekend games, the highest game of the two games will be used for a starter. If a starter only plays one game of the doubleheader, that one game will be used. If a starter is dnp for a weekend game, and the back up has a doubleheader, the same rule will apply as it does for a starter.

If a suspended game is completed within the same fantasy week, the stats will count for the day the game was originally played. There would be one exception: if a suspended game is completed on the Monday following the week, the stats would still count for the original day. (For example a Sunday game suspended and completed the next day on Monday). We would just have to delay the stats for the week by one day. For any game that is suspended and completed on a later date (later than the Monday following that week) we will count the stats for the suspended game on the day the game is suspended. When the game is finished weeks or months later any additional stats accumulated during the completion of the suspended game will not be used.

Entry Fees
 There will be an entry fee of $215, a minimum of $100 is by Sunday April 12, 2009. The balance will be due no later than May 17, 2009. In the event that the minimum entry fee is not paid by either deadline, your team will be restricted from making any transactions until the minimum entry fee is paid.

-Entry Fee Breakdown:    $3440 Entry Fees Collected
-$300 Commish Fee
-$60 Website/Server
-$20 Trophy/Trophy Engraving
-$25 Draft Boards
-$20 Draft Monitor
-$100 Draft Room
-$2000 Playoff Team Breakdown (8 Teams)
-$100 Division Winners (4 Teams)
-$575 Side-Pots
-$240 All-Star Weekend Pool

There will not be any charges for transactions during the year. This should help owners in keeping the best team on the field during the entire season, especially when the playoff spots may be in jeopardy.

Prize Money
 The total of all eligible fees collected will be returned to the league in the form of prize money. All Eight (8) of the playoff teams that qualify for the post season will share in the prize money. The league prize fund breakdown is available on the league website. All sidepots will conclude at the end of the regular season. The weekday average and Fri-Sun games will be eligible for the high team game sidepot. All individual player games Mon-Sun are eligible for the player high game sidepot. Team pitching staffs are not eligible for player high game or high series sidepots.
                    
Weekly Points Pool
 The top 3 teams scores each week will receive the following prize: 1st $9         2nd $6       3rd $3
The bottom 3 teams will have to pay the following amounts: 16th $9    15th $6       14th $3
This will be a running total throughout the year and will be available on the website. Team entry fees will be adjusted by money won or loss in the weekly points pool the following season. Any winnings or losses from the prior year, would be the responsibility of the owner that incurred them. If a team chooses not to come back to the league the following year, they would receive any winnings they may have won, as well as must pay any losses they may have had. If a team does not pay off any losses, they would not be permitted to participate in ANY UAL Fantasy League until their debt is settled.

Post Season Play
 Each Division Winner and 4 wild card teams from any division qualify for the playoffs.  The 4 division winners would be seeded 1-4, and the 4 wildcard teams seeded 5-8. In Round One the #1 seed will play the #8, the #2 seed will play the #7 seed and so on. In Round Two, the highest seed remaining will play the lowest seed remaining, and the two remaining teams will play each other. In Round Three, the two remaining teams play for the league championship. Each playoff series will be the best of 5, with the winner moving on to the next round. When determining final order of finish, a wildcard team can never be ranked higher then a divisional winner, regardless of the teams final record. "Home-field advantage" will apply in the playoffs ONLY, with the higher seeded team receiving the advantage in a tie series. Rosters are frozen once the playoffs begin, only DL moves will be allowed during the playoffs.

Tie Breakers
 If at any time during the season a tie occurs with respect to records, the league will use the same formula through out:
1) total team points (wins + top 8 finishes)
2) winning percentage ((wins + 1/2 point for ties)/games played)
3) head to head
4) record within division (*only in the event of a tie between two teams in the same division)
5) most points scored
6) most points scored against
7) coin flip

Transactions

****All transactions should be e-mailed to the commissioner at ualcommish@comcast.net. If necessary, transactions may be called in to the commissioner at 303-868-7039.****

Free Agents
After the draft, any players un-drafted are considered free agents. Any team may acquire a free agent at any time during the year, provided they release a player to maintain a legal roster. All free agent acquisitions are on a daily basis. The cut off time for free agent moves is 9:00 PM each day, with the exception of Monday when moves are permitted until the roster/lineup deadline at 12noon on Monday. Any transactions sent in after 12noon on Monday will be processed as part of the following week. In the event that more than one team wishes to acquire the same free agent during the same period, the team with the lower ranking will be awarded the player. If a team wishes to place a bid on more than one free agent or waiver wire player during any given claim period, the owner must rank the players in an order of preference. The league will then award the players in a draft like manner, with the lowest ranked bidding team getting their first choice of players then the next lowest ranked team getting their choice, and so on. During week #1, priority will be determined by reverse order of drafting positions. Players must be on an active roster in order to be claimed as a free agent. DL players are not eligible to be claimed as a Free Agent until they have been activated from the DL. When you acquire a player through free agency, you must retain him on your roster until they are used in a lineup and can drop them only after the new week they are used in a lineup has started. A free agent may be claimed as a DL move and used for the weekend games, and then dropped for the next week (i.e. they have been used in a lineup). A free agent can be placed on the DL in the same week they were claimed, provided they went on the DL after they were claimed. There will a limit of 5 transactions (free agent or waiver claims combined) that may be made involving a team Pitching Staff during the season. 

Waiver Wire
When a player is released by a team he will be considered "on waivers". The weekly waiver period will end at 9pm Thursday. All players on waivers for the week will be processed at 9pm Saturday. Players claimed from waivers on Saturday will be eligible for line-ups that Monday. The same rule for multiple claims applies for the waiver wire as for free agents. If a player goes unclaimed during the waiver period he will then be classified as a free agent. A player claimed off waivers MUST be retained for the week following the waiver claim, which is the first week they are eligible for. A player may be claimed and then traded during the same week.

Disabled List
When a player on an active roster is placed on the DL by his major league team, the fantasy team is also required to place the player on our DL. This is a mandatory transaction. There is no limit to the number of players that you can have on the DL. When a player of yours is activated from the major league DL, you also must activate him off your DL. If a player is sent to the minors, or released by his team, that player is eligible to be placed on the DL. Teams will retain rights to the player if they resurface on another MLB team. No team will be permitted to acquire a player that is on the DL of his major league team once the draft has been completed.

Any player that goes on the DL or is activated from the DL and appeared in a game, must be replaced or activated. Teams will be given ONE transaction date (transaction dates are Friday before 1st game played, and Monday at 12pm) as a grace period. On the second transaction date, if a player is not replaced or activated, the following penalties will be enforced:
1) If a player is on the DL and listed as a starter, the back-up at that position will be ineligible for any scheduled games until the player is replaced. 
2) If a player has been activated from the DL and appeared in a game, the player will be forfeited and placed on the waiver wire.
*Consideration will be given in determining when a player should be replaced. For example, a player goes on the DL late Thursday. An owner will be given a chance to catch the DL move and the first transaction date would be Sunday.
**If a suspended player is placed on the DL and will be activated in the middle of the week or weekend, teams will not be penalized for starting a DL player for a missed game. For example, a player is suspended 4 games and has no game on Monday, he will sit out Tue-Fri and return Saturday. Teams can activate that player for the weekend and not be penalized for the missed Friday game. If the suspended player is started and sits out an entire M-Th or F-Su period for any reason then the no sub penalty will apply.
***Roster deadlines will still apply to any move. If a DL player is replaced after the roster deadline has passed, it will not take effect until the next deadline.***

 Trades
 Trades are permitted at anytime until the trading deadline. Owners must have a complete and balanced roster at the conclusion of a trade. In the event of a "2 for 1" trade, owners must release and/or acquire free agents to fill any roster voids. The trading deadline for our league will be 12:00PM on the Monday of week #14 (July 6, 2009). There is maximum of 5 trades per team during the season.

Draft Day Tidbits
 During the course of the draft, if a team attempts to draft a player that has already been drafted by another team, they will get a mulligan for the first offense, and will forfeit the pick on any subsequent offenses.

Fines
 Fines will be issued for not reporting scores on time or for an incomplete lineup. An incomplete lineup occurs when a player on the DL for more than one lineup deadline is started. A mulligan will be issued for the first offense and a $10 fine for all subsequent offenses. There will be a running total of fines listed on the standings page on the website. These fines will be deducted from any winnings a team may have, or must be paid prior to the draft if a team has no winnings. These fines will go to draft food, meeting room cost or will be added to the prize fund if necessary.