I. OBJECT
To assemble a lineup of 23 American League baseball players whose cumulative statistics during the regular season, compiled and measured by the methods described in these rules, exceed those of all other teams in the league.
II. TEAMS
There are 12 teams composed of American League baseball players.
III. ROSTER
A team’s active roster consists of the following players:
- 1 First Baseman
- 1 Third Baseman
- 1 First / Third Baseman / Corner Infielder
- 1 Second Baseman
- 1 Shortstop
- 1 Second Baseman / Shortstop / Middle Infielder
- 2 Catchers
- 5 Outfielders
- 1 Utility Player (Any Player)
- 9 Pitchers
An American League player auction is conducted on the earliest convenient day after Opening Day of the baseball season, at a place and time determined at the league’s winter meeting. Each team must acquire 23 players at a total cost not to exceed $2.60. A team need not spend the maximum. Team owners nominate players from opening day American League rosters for acquisition in reverse order of the rotisserie teams’ finish the year before. The team bidding first opens with a minimum salary bid of $.01 for any eligible player, and the bidding proceeds around the room at minimum increments of $.01 until only one bidder is left. That team acquires the player for that amount and announces the roster position the player will fill. The process is repeated until every team has a squad of 23 players by requisite position.
Players eligible at more than one position may be shifted during the course of the draft. No team may make a bid for a player it cannot afford. No team may bid for a player who qualifies only at a position that the team has already filled. Players who commence the season on an American League team’s disabled list are eligible to be drafted. If selected, they may be reserved and replaced upon completion of the draft.
A minor league player draft is conducted immediately before the major league auction. Each team may acquire players who are not on any American League team’s active roster and who still have official rookie status. A Rookie is defined as a player with fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the major leagues or less than 45 days on the active roster of a major league team.
The draft consists of two rounds, and the draft order is the reverse order of finish from the season before.
Effective 2001 Season - Minor League Draft order:
- 6th place
- 7th place
- 8th place
- 9th place
- 10th place
- 11th place
- 12th place
- 5th place
- 4th place
- 3rd place
- 2nd place
- 1st place
A representative for each team in the league must attend the player auction. If a team owner cannot make it to the auction, he/she is responsible for finding a substitute. The substitute cannot be another owner in the league.
V. POSITION ELIGIBILITY
A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 or more games in the preceding season. If a player did not appear in 20 games at a single position, he may be drafted only at the position at which he appeared most frequently. Once the season is underway, a player becomes eligible for assignment to any position at which he has appeared at least once. Players selected as DHs may qualify at any position. It is incumbent on the team owner to provide proof of eligibility in any dispute.
If a player is inactive and reserved, his replacement becomes the active player. It is permissible to move the active player to a position for which they are eligible but the inactive player is not. However, in this scenario, when the inactive player becomes active, he must either be waived or the roster must again be manipulated to place the formerly inactive player into a position they are eligible.
VI. PLAYER SALARIES
The salary of a player is determined by the time and means of his acquisition and does not change unless the player becomes a free agent or is signed to a guaranteed long-term contract. The salary of a player acquired in the draft is the auction price. The salary of a player called up from the free agent pool, farm system, or claimed on waivers during the season is $.10. The salary of a player called up during September roster expansion is $.25 if he is drawn from the free agent pool.
The $2.60 salary limit pertains to Auction Draft Day only. After Auction Draft Day, free agent signings and acquisitions of high-priced players in trades may well drive a team’s payroll above $2.60.
VII. STANDINGS
The following criteria are used to determine team performance
- Field Players
- Batting Average (Total Hits/Total At Bats)
- Home Runs (Total Home Runs)
- Runs Batted In (Total RBI’s)
- Runs Scored (Total Runs Scored)
- Stolen Bases (Total Stolen Bases)
- Pitchers
- Earned Run Average (Earned Runs x 9/Innings Pitched)
- Ratio (Walks + Hits/Innings Pitched)
- Wins (Total Wins)
- Saves (Total Saves)
- Strikeouts (Total Strikeouts)
VIII. STATS
Every week the league statistician will submit to the league commissioner a list of everyone’s roster as s/he has it to make sure all moves were properly recorded and the statistics are as accurate as possible.
The effective date of any transaction is the Monday before the start of play on that day. The reporting deadline is Noon on Mondays.
Transactions recorded on Auction Draft Day, including trades and call-ups to replace disabled players, are effective retroactive to Opening Day. Transactions occurring after Auction Draft Day but before the following Monday are effective the following week.
IX. TRADES
From the completion of the draft until August 31, teams are free to make trades so long as the active rosters of both teams involved in a trade reflect the required position distribution upon completion of the transaction. Trades must be position for position. No trades are permitted from September 1 through the end of the season. Trades made from the day after the season ends until rosters are frozen on April 1 are not bound by the position distribution requirement.
Trades do not affect the salaries or contract status of players. No trades may be made for cash, players to be named later, or future considerations. The league commissioner reserves the right to void trades, at the time they are reported, which appear to be unbalanced and not in the best interests of the league.
X. THE RESERVE LIST
A team may replace any player on its 23-man roster who is placed on the disabled list, released, traded to the National League, or sent down to the minors. A player suspended for anything other than substance abuse may not be reserved, released, or replaced.
A reserved player is removed from a team’s active roster at the end of the stat week -- when formal notification is given -- and placed on the team’s reserve list. There is no limit to the number of players a team may have on its reserve list. Reserving a player protects a team’s rights to that player.
Once a player is reserved, a team is free to select any eligible player from the free agent pool of unowned players on active American League rosters. The salary assigned to the player is $.10. If the same player is claimed by more than one team in a given week, he goes to the team ranking lowest in the most recent standings.
A team has two weeks to take action once a player, in real life, is placed on the disabled list, released, traded to the National League, or sent to the minors. If no action is taken during the two weeks, the team is placed last in order to replace the player regardless of its standing.
A team may not reserve a player without replacing him. A player on a reserve list may not be traded unless the replacement player linked to him is also traded.
When a player on a reserve list returns to active major league duty, he must be reinstated to the active 23-man roster of his team within two full reporting weeks after his activation or be waived. Failure to notify the league commissioner -- after being made aware of the move and the deadline -- shall be considered a waiver of the player on the reserve list. A player may not be reinstated or waived until he has been activated by his major league team.
When a player is reinstated to the active 23-man roster from a team’s reserve list, the player originally called up to replace him must be waived, unless the replacement player or the original player can be shifted to another natural opening on the roster for which he qualifies. A player reinstated from the reserve list may not displace any active player on the team’s 23-man roster other than his original replacement (or his successor).
XI. FARM SYSTEM
If a farm system player is promoted to the active roster of an American League team at any time prior to September 1, a team has two full reporting weeks after his promotion to activate him (at any position for which he qualifies) or waive him. If a farm system player is activated, the player displaced from the 23-man roster to make room for him must be placed on waivers, unless the farm system player can be activated into a natural opening, in which case no waiver is required.
If a farm system player is promoted after September 1, the team with his rights may elect not to activate him.
Once brought up from its farm system by a team, a player may not be returned to it during that season, although he may be placed on a team’s reserve list in the event he is returned to the minor leagues by his major league club.
A team may have no more than four players in its farm system. Minor league players whom a team wishes to retain must be submitted on the final rosters due by April 1 or another prescribed due date. The players may be draft picks from previous seasons who have yet to make the major leagues or players on a team’s roster who will begin the current season in the minor leagues. Such players who have been previously activated retain the salary and option year from their original call-up.
All players in a team’s farm system must not be on any major league team’s active roster and must still have official rookie status. A Rookie is defined as a player with fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the major leagues. In other words, you can draft anyone who qualifies as a rookie and is not on a major league roster).
A farm system player may be traded during authorized trading periods as may a team’s selection rights in the minor league draft.
XII. WAIVERS
Under certain conditions, a Rotisserie League player may be waived. When a player on a team’s reserve list is activated by his major league team, either he or the player called up earlier to replace him must be placed on waivers. When a team activates a player from its farm system, except into a natural opening, the player dropped from the 23-man roster to make room for him must be placed on waivers. A player no longer on the active roster of any American League team and whose Rotisserie League position is taken by a player activated from the reserve list or farm system may not be placed on waivers but must be released outright.
The waiver period begins at Noon on the Monday after the commissioner has been notified that a player has been waived and lasts one week, at the end of which time the player shall become the property of the lowest-ranked team to have claimed him. To make room on its roster, the team acquiring a player on waivers must assign the player to a natural opening or waive a player at the same position played by the newly acquired player.
Waiver claims take precedence over the replacement of an injured, released, or demoted player who has been put on reserve. A team may acquire on waivers no more than one player in a given week and no more than three players during the season. When a claim is made, the team claiming the player must in turn waive all players in the position in which they plan on placing the claimed player.Players who are claimed must be on an active American League roster. No team may claim a player who was waived by the same team.
A player who clears waivers returns to the free agent pool. The salary of a player claimed on waivers shall be $.10 or that player’s salary as it appeared on his previous team, whichever is higher. However, he may be released and replaced if he is traded to the National League.
XIII. SEPTEMBER ROSTER EXPANSION
If it chooses, a team may expand its roster for the pennant drive by calling up one additional player after September 1 from the free agent pool, its own reserve list, or its own farm system.
If the player to be added is already part of your roster this will be treated as a regular move. If the player to be acquired is unowned the players’ salary will be $.25.
The order in which players may be acquired will be as follows:
September 1: Players may be acquired starting this date from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. During this time the lowest team in the standings wishing to acquire an unowned player will receive that player if a conflict arises.
September 2 on: After 10:00 a.m. Sept. 1 player acquisition will once again be first come, first served.
XIV. OCTOBER ROSTER CONTRACTION
After the season is complete, teams must trim their rosters to 27 players by the start of the 4th game of the World Series. Teams need not distinguish between major and minor league players as the number 27 was derived by adding the total players on the active roster (23) to the total number of minor leaguers allowed (4).
If a team does not submit a list by the deadline, the commissioner will levy a fine on the non-compliant team of .10 per player they are over the limit. The fine will be added to the pool. In addition, for every week a team remains non-compliant, their highest seeded minor league pick will be moved backward by one space.
XV. THE OPTION YEAR AND GUARANTEED LONG-TERM CONTRACTS
A player who has been under contract at the same salary during two consecutive seasons and whose service has been uninterrupted must, prior to the freezing of rosters in his third season, be released; signed at the same salary for his option year; or signed to a guaranteed long-term contract.
If released, the player returns to the free agent pool and becomes available to the highest bidder at the next auction draft. If signed at the same salary for an option year, the player must be released back into the free agent pool at the end of that season. If signed to a guaranteed long-term contract, the player’s salary in each year covered by the new contract shall be the sum of his current salary plus $.03 for each additional year beyond the option year. A team may sign a player to only one long-term contract, for no more than three years, at the end of which he becomes a free agent.
Option-year and long-term contracts are entirely transferable, both in rights and obligations; the trade of a player in no way affects his contract status. In all cases, except for the trade of a player to the National League, a team must honor the terms of a long-term contract.
XVI. ROSTER PROTECTION
Each team must retain, from one season to the next, no fewer than 7 but no more than 15 of the players on its 23-man roster. The names of players being retained must be recorded with the Commissioner by Midnight, Opening Day (or by another day and time to be determined at the league’s winter meeting). Specific notice must also be made at that time of any guaranteed long-term contract signings and farm system renewals. The protected players must either have been on the owner’s final roster at the end of the season or be acquired via trade before the list is submitted. Owners do not need to specify which position a player will occupy.
Players not protected will be placed back into the pool of unowned talent and will be draft eligible.
A farm system player whose minor league contract is renewed and who subsequently makes his major league team’s active roster may be added to the protected list of players on Auction Draft Day (and another player dropped if necessary to meet the 15-player limit), or he may be dropped and made available in the auction draft. He may not be retained in his Rotisserie League team’s farm system. The player’s salary will be $.10.
Protected players who fail to make an opening day American League roster may be dropped from the roster before the auction draft, held and reserved after the draft is complete, or returned to an owner’s farm system if s/he has a farm system opening and the player meets rookie qualification.
Before the draft each owner must decide which positions his/her protected players will play. To qualify for a position, a player must have played a minimum of 20 games at that position, or, if the draft takes place after the season has started, only one game at that position.
XVII. FRANCHISE OWNERSHIP
When a team owner decides to leave the league, ownership of the team reverts back to the league. New prospective owners will be sought by the league for any unowned teams. New owners must be sponsored by a current team owner and approved by a 2/3 vote of the owners present at the time of voting.
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