We, the People of the Rotisserie League, in order to spin a more perfect game, drive Justice home, kiss domestic Tranquility good-bye, promote the general Welfare in Tidewater -- where it’s been tearing up the International League -- and secure the Blessings of Puberty to ourselves and those we’ve left on Base, do ordain and establish this Constitution for Rotisserie League Baseball, and also finish this run-on sentence.
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.
There are 12 teams in a duly constituted Rotisserie League composed of American League players.
1996 AMENDMENT: American League expansion in 1997 will increase the number of Rotisserie teams to 13. The expansion franchise will be able to claim up to 15 players dropped from frozen rosters before the 1997 draft.
A teams’s active roster consists of the following players:
Five outfielders, two catchers, one second baseman, one shortstop, one middle infielder (either second baseman or shortstop), one first baseman, one third baseman, one corner man (either first baseman or third baseman), one designated hitter (consistent with the AL's insistence on perpetuating that perversion of the game), and nine pitchers.
1996 AMENDMENT: With the advent of inter-league play in 1997, the designated hitter will be re-classified as a utility player and can be any player including pitcher.
A Major League Player Auction is conducted on the first weekend after Opening Day of the baseball season. Each team must acquire 23 players at a total cost not to exceed $26. A team need not spend the maximum. The League by general agreement determines the order in which teams may nominate players for acquisition. The team bidding first opens with a minimum salary bid of $1 for any eligible plaayer, and the bidding proceeds around the room at minimum increments of $1 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, with successive team owners introducing players to be bid on, until every team has a squad of 23 players, by requisite position.
1996 AMENDMENT: The draft date shall be the first Saturday following the start of the regular season except when this is Easter weekend when it shall be the following weekend.
NOTE: Final Opening Day rosters for all National League or American League teams will be needed on Auction Draft Day. Because some teams don’t make their final roster moves until the last minute, even USA Today’s rosters, published on Opening Day, have holes. The best way to get the most complete, updated rosters is with membership in the Rotisserie League Baseball Association.
NOTE: The official source for the Dallas based leagues is USA Today (the daily newspaper) and USA Today Baseball Weekly because these publications are available nationally.
A Minor League Player Draft is conducted immediately following the major league auction, in which each Rotisserie League team may acquire players (a) who are not on any National/American League team’s active roster; and (b) who still have official rookie status, as defined by major league baseball.
NOTE: The order of selection stated above represents a change from early years of Rotisserie baseball, when teams selected in reverse order of the final standings of the preceeding season’s pennant race. By awarding the first selection to the highest finisher among second-division teams instead of the last-place team, we seek to offer an incentive to teams to keep plugging and a disincentive to finish last (i.e., in the past, a last place finish would be "rewarded" with the first farm system draft pick).
A Player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 or more games in the preceeding 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. The 20 games/most games measure is used only to determine the position(s) at which a player may be drafted. Once the season is under way (but after Auction Draft Day), 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 (i.e., they need not have appeared in 20 games as DH the preceeding season).
NOTE: This rule was amended by the American League in 1991 so that the DH position can only be filled by a player who appeared at DH in 20 or more games the preceeding season (this note is superceeded by the 1996 amendment above regarding composition of rosters).
NOTE: Two official major league sources for determining player eligibility are the National League’s Green Book and the American League’s Red Book. Both list appearances by position under fielding averages. The Red Book lists all players who appeared as designated hitters the preceeding season. Circulating an eligibility list by position before Auction Draft Day saves a lot of time. Prepare one yourself in March, when the Green Book and Red Book are published. Or obtain it with membership in the Rotisserie League Baseball Association -- our list is available at least five months earlier, so you’ll be able to spend the winter doing something worthwhile. Spend a few minutes before your auction to settle eligibility questions and assign eligibility to rookies. When in doubt, use common sense (instead of knives) to resolve disputes.
The Rotisserie League has a schedule of fees covering all player personnel moves. No money passes directly from team to team. No bets are made on the outcome of any game. All fees are payable into the prize pool and are subsequently distributed to the top four teams in the final standings. (See Article VIII and IX.)
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. (See Article XVII.)
NOTE: Because you can commit only $26 for salaries on Auction Draft Day, and because you will keep some of your players from one season to the next, salaries are extremely important, particularly after the first season ends and trading begins. Would you trade Juan Gonzalez for Paul O’Neill? The Rangers wouldn’t, not even if Blowhard George threw in Yankee Stadium (which he would be only too happy to do, outfield monuments and all). But a smart Rotisserie League owner just might make such a deal in the off-season, because the $20-plus difference between Gonzalez’s and O’Neill’s auction price is enough to buy a front-line starter.
Maintaining accurate, centralized player-personnel records of salary and contract status is the most important task of the League Secretary, who deserves hosannas from the other owners for all the work he does.
NOTE: The $26 salary limit pertains to Auction Draft Day only. After Auction Draft Day, free agent signings and acquisition of high-priced players in trades may well drive a team’s payroll above $26.
All fees shall be promptly collected by the League Treasurer, who is empowered to subject owners to public humiliation and assess fines as needed to ensure that payments are made to the League in a timely fashion. The interest income from this investment can be used to defray the cost of a gala postseason awards ceremony and banquet. The principal shall be divided among the first five teams in the final standings as follows:
The following criteria are used to determine team performance:
Teams are ranked from first to last in each of the eight categories and given points for each place. For example, in a 12-team league, the first-place team in a category receives 12 points, the second-place team 11, and so on down to 1 point for last place. The team with the most total points wins the pennant.
THE FENOKEE IP REQUIREMENT. A team must pitch a total of 900 innings to receive points in ERA and ratio. A team that does not pitch 900 innings maintains its place in ERA and ratio ranking but receives one point in both of these categories with all teams below shifting up one point. (Thus, a team that finished third in ERA but did not have 900 IP would receive no points in that category. The fourth-place team in ERA would now receive 10 points.) This rule was passed in 1988 in response to an "all-relief" strategy attempted by the Okrent Fenokees in the 1987 season. The strategy was not successful because Swampmaster Dan Okrent abandoned it after six weeks or so. But it might have worked, in more disciplined hands. Hence the new rule.
THE FENOKEE AB REQUIREMENT. A team must have 4250 at bats in the season. A team that does not have 4250 at bats maintains its place in the batting average ranking but receives one point in that category with all teams below shifting up one point. This rule was passed in 1991 in response to an "all-pitching" strategy attempted by the Okrent Fenokees in 1990. This time, the Beloved Founder and Former Commissioner-for-Life assembled an all-star pitching staff, Tony Gwynn, and 13 Ken Oberkfells (i.e., guys who didn’t play enough to bring down Gwynn’s "team" BA). The BFFCL hoped to amass 40 pitching points, 10 BA points, and 3 points in the other offensive categories to squeeze into the first division. The strategy was not successful because the Swampmaster abandoned it after six weeks or so. But it might have worked, in more disciplined hands. Hence the new rule.
The weekly player-performance summaries published in USA Today beginning in late April constitue the official data base for the computation of standings in Rotisserie League Baseball.
1995 ADMENDMENT: Since the advent of computer scoring, USA Today Information Center became the official source of stats. Before the beginning of 1995, USA Today became lured by the World Wide Web and changed their service to force their subscribers to use their software. An executive decision by the League Secretary was made to change suppliers to Stats, Inc., which is not only cheaper but also provides data to USA Today.
NOTE: When we first started out, we used The Sporting News. That was when TSN cared more about baseball than about all the Stanley Cup skate-offs, NBA playoffs, and NFL summer camping rolled into one (which, by the way, is what the Rotisserie League’s Founding Fathers believe should be done with them). Not for nothing was the Holy Bible known to baseball people as The Sporting News of religion. But that was then, and this is now. The Sporting News has passed from the last Spink to new owners who seem intent on taking the "Sporting" part seriously -- that is, covering other sports at the expense of baseball. A pity.
The effective date of any transaction for purposes of statistical calculation is the Monday (AL) or Tuesday (NL) before the commencement of play on those days. This is because weekly stats appear in USA Today on Tuesday for AL games through the preceeding Sunday and on Wednesday for NL games through the preceeding Monday.
1992 ADMENDMENT: With the advent of computers, statistical compilation could take place any day of the week. Since the Commissioner and Statistician was taking Master’s level classes at night while working full-time, noon Central on Sunday became the weekly deadline for both leagues. Once those classes finished, it was decided to keep the Sunday deadline because it was convenient for the Statistician and chances of postal mail getting interrupted by holidays would be diminished.
1990 ADMENDMENT: Retroactive transactions are due before the owner or the Commissioner leaves the Auction Draft room. If a draft is being conducted on the phone, any retroactive transactions must be phoned to the Commissioner’s home within 30 minutes of the conclusion of the draft.
NOTE: Stats are available weekly by WWW, e-mail, fax, and postal mail. Only recipients by ftp or e-mail are eligible to receive the raw data file.
NOTE: Keeping score is the only part of Rotisserie League Baseball that isn’t any fun. Unless you’re computerized, it’s tedious and time-consuming. And even if your league does have a computer wonk on board, it still means he or she can’t take a vacation between Opening Day and early October. (God forbid your league should go a week without standings!) The best solution: Let the official stat service authorized by the Founding Fathers do all the heavy lifting for you.
1990 ADMENDMENT: The league elected to withdraw $52 ($2 per week) from the prize pool to be donated to the Statistician for costs incurred in compiling and downloading the weekly statistics. Delivery costs are: by WWW are shared by the league statistician for the cost of the web space and the owner accessing their ISP; by e-mail is free; by fax is computed at the end of the season; and, by postal mail is subject to negotiation (whether stamped envelopes are supplied or estimated costs are pre-paid).
From the completion of the auction draft until August 31, Rotisserie League teams are free to make trades of any kind without limit, except as stipulated below, so long as the active rosters of both teams involved in a trade reflect the required position distribution upon completion of the transaction. 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 2 prior to Auction Draft Day are not bound by the position distribution requirement.
NOTE: This means that if Team A wants to swap David Justice to Team B for Jose Rijo anytime between Auction Draft Day and the trade deadline, Team A will have to throw in a bum pitcher and Team B a duff outfielder to make the deal. During the off-season, the two could be dealt even-up.
NOTE ON DUMPING: "Dumping" is the inelegant but scientifically precise term used to descibe what happens when a team out of contention gives up on the season and trades to a contending team its most expensive talent and its players who will be lost to free agency at the end of the year, typically for inexpensive players who can be kept the following season. A "dumping" trade is always unbalanced, sometimes egregiously so, with the contending team giving up far less than it gets, and the noncontending team giving up much more in order to acquire a nucleus for the following season. While this strategy makes sense for both clubs, extreme cases can potentially undermine the results of the auction draft, which should always be the primary indicator of an owner’s ability to put together a successful team.
To guard against this, we have in the past employed rigid and restrictive Anti-Dumping measures to control trades between contenders and noncontenders. But in light of major shifts in international politics and economics in recent years, we decided in 1993 that these restrictive measures tended in inhibit rather than enhance the playing of the game.
Accordingly, we swept away all Anti-Dumping legislation in 1993. We did so with some trepidation, but we felt the benefits of a free market would outweigh the potential for abuses. We were right. Let freedom ring.
A team may replace any player on its 23-man roster who is:
To replace such a player, a Rotisserie League team must first release him outright or place him on its reserve list. A team reserves a player by notifying the League Secretary and paying the $1 transaction fee. A reserved player is removed from the team’s active roster at the end of the stat week (on Sunday) -- 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.
A team has two weeks to take action once a player is placed on the disabled list, released, traded to the other league, or sent to the minors by his major league team. If no action is taken, the position is frozen open until the original player’s return, and no replacement may be made.
1992 ADMENDMENT: This paragraph was not adopted by the American League using regular Rotisserie rules.
NOTE: When we first wrote that, we were thinking about the old-fashioned things players might do to get themselves suspended -- Bill Madlock hitting an umpire (1980), say, or Gaylord Perry throwing a spitter (1962 to 1983), although he was suspended for doing it only once (1982). Then came the drug suspensions of 1984 and afterward. We have decided to consider players suspended for substance abuse as if they were on the disabled list, and allow teams to replace them.
1992 ADMENDMENT: The call-up fee was not adopted by the American League under regular Rotisserie rules.
1992 ADMENDMENT: This bullet was not adopted by the American League under regular Rotisserie rules and free agents are selected on a first-come, first-served basis.
NOTE: Intended to prevent stockpiling of players, this rule is tricky to monitor. Daily newspaper transaction columns and telephone sports-information lines don’t always catch every single major league roster move. The clock starts ticking when the League Secretary is made aware of a player being reactivated. By the way, "two weeks" means two full reporting periods and may actually be as much as two weeks plus six days (as in the case of a player reactivated the day after a reporting deadline). In fairness, and because this is not full-contact karate by a game played among friends, an owner should be given warning by the League Secretary that time is up and he will lose a player if he doesn’t make a move. Especially if there are extenuating circumstances (i.e., anything from retracing Livingston’s steps in Africa to just plain laziness).
NOTE: The intent of all this is to minimize the benefit a team might derive from an injury. Say Andres Galarraga is injured (again!) and you call up the inevitable Gerald Perry to replace him. Galarraga comes back. What you’d like to do is activate Galarraga, keep Perry, and waive your other corner man, Frank Bolick, who hasn’t had a hit in six weeks. Our rules say you can’t, on the premise that a team is not ordinarily helped by an injury to a key player. We know the big leagues don’t handle it this way, but art doesn’t imitate life. Without some restriction, an owner might never have to pay the price for his bad judgment in drafting Frank Bolick in the first place.
If a farm system player is promoted to the active roster of a major league team at any time during the regular season prior to September 1 (when major league rosters may expand to 40), his Rotisserie League team has two weeks after his promotion to activate him (at any position for which he qualifies) or waives him.
1990 ADMENDMENT: This bullet was not enacted by the American League under regular Rotisserie rules.
NOTE: This means that a team could acquire and exercise as many as four farm system draft picks, providing that it does not exceed the maximum of four players in its farm system at any given time.
Active major league players not on any Rotisserie League team’s roster at the conclusion of the auction draft become free agents. During the course of the season the pool of free agents may also include minor league players not in any Rotisserie League’s farm system (see Article XIII) who are promoted to an active major league roster; waived players who are not claimed; and players traded from the "other" major league. Such players may be signed in the following manner.
From Opening Day Until the All-Star Game. Free agents may be called up to replace players placed on a Rotisserie League team’s reserve list as outlined in Article XII. The only exception to Article XII’s provisions for signing free agents during this period is that players traded into the league from the "other" major league may be signed by a Rotisserie League team with its Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB), as described below.
After the All-Star Game. From the All-Star Game until the last weekly transaction deadline before September 1, free agents may be signed, without limit in number, but within limitations of a Rotisserie League team’s Free Agent Acquisition Budget:
1993 ADMENDMENT: The American League, following regular Rotisserie rules, elected not to enact the minimum bid rule.
1991 ADMENDMENT: This provision was not enacted by the American League which follows regular Rotisserie rules.
1996 AMENDMENT: A player not in the same league as his Rotisserie team is not eligible to be traded, e.g., a player traded from the American League to the National League cannot be traded by his Rotisserie owner.
NOTE: The provision regarding players acquired for a sum in excess of the customary $1 call-up fee is intended to discourage frivolous bidding for free agents. It is also intended to make teams who are most likely to benefit from signing costly free agents -- that is, teams still in the race for the first division -- pay for it dearly, by making such players expensive to dump the following season.
NOTE: Set up a simple, common-sense mechanism for handling the "sealed bid" part of the FAAB process. Nothing eleborate is needed. Price, Waterhouse need not be called in. Don’t permit bidders to make contingency bids (e.g., "If I don’t get Ruth at $2.9, then I’ll bid $2.5 on Gehrig, and if I don’t get Gehrig...") unless your League Secretary doesn’t have a day job.
1991 ADMENDMENT: All bids are to be phoned to the League Secretary. It is deicded that the League Secretary may not bid on a player after another owner has bid on that player. Contingency bids are allowed if the League Secretary personally takes the phone call or it is sent via email.
Under certain conditions, a Rotisserie League player may be waived.
NOTE: This is to prevent a team from picking up a disabled list player on waivers merely for the purpose of releasing him and replacing him with a player of higher quality from the free agent pool.
If it chooses, a team may expand its roster for the pennant drive by calling up additional players after September 1 from the free agent pool, its own reserve list, or its own farm system. A team may call up as many players as it wishes, subject to payment of appropriate fees as outlined below, except that at no time may the number of active players on its roster exceed 40.
NOTE: A device for heightening the excitement for contending teams and for sweetening the kitty at their expense, September Roster Expansion will generally not appeal to second-division clubs (who should, however, continue to watch the waiver wire in the hope of acquiring "keepers" for next season at a $1 salary).
A player who has been under contract at the same salary during two consecutive seasons and whose service has been uninterrupted (that is, he has not been waived or released, although he may have been traded) 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 (which commences with the option year) shall be the sum of his current salary plus $0.5 for each additional year beyond the option year. In addition, a signing bonus, equal to one half the total value of the long-term contract, but not less than $0.5, shall also be paid.
NOTE: This rule is to prevent blue-chippers, low-priced rookies who blossom into superstars, and undervalued players from being tied up for the duration of their careers by the teams who origianlly drafted them. It guarantees periodic transfusions of top-flight talent for Auction Draft Day and provides rebuilding teams something to rebuild with. And it makes for some interesting decisions at roster-freeze time two years down the pike.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say you drafted Neon Deion Sanders of the Atlanta Braves for $0.2 in 1992, a fair price then for a football player with a strikeout swing, a questionable attitude, and too much jewelry. It’s now the spring of 1994 and Sanders, whose maturity has caught up with his raw talent, has become a power threat and a team player. You could let Sanders play one more season for you and get a tremendous return on your twenty cents, but that would be almost as foolish as Sanders risking his knees in the NFL. Taking a longer view, you daydream about Sanders’s power and speed numbers, assess your needs, project what’s likely to be available in the upcoming draft, cross your fingers against football injury -- and sign him to a three-year guaranteed contract. Sander’s salary zooms to $1.2 ($0.2 + $0.5 + $0.5), but he’s yours through the 1996 season. His signing bonus, which does not count against your $26 Auction Draft Day limit, is $1.8 (one half of 3 X $1.2). If he continues to mature as a ballplayer, you’ve got a bargain.
NOTE: This is an escape hatch for the owner who buys a dog, but can’t stand fleas. It’s costly, but it’s fair.
For the first three seasons of the League’s existence, 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. After three seasons, this minimum requirement is eliminated, the maximum retained. The minimum is removed because, after three seasons, a team might find it impossible to retain a specific minimum because too many players have played out their option.
1996 AMENDMENT: Roster freeze shall be the Friday before Opening Day at 6 p.m. central time.
NOTE: The April 1 roster-protection deadline was originally set to correspond with the end of the major leagues’ spring interleague trading period, a rite of spring that no longer exists. We’ve stuck to April 1 anyway, because it gives us a week or so to fine-tune draft strategies. Until you know who the other teams are going to keep, you won’t know for sure who’s going to be available. And until you know how much they will have to spend on Auction Draft Day, you won’t be able to complete your own pre-draft budget. So April 1 it is; don’t fool with it.
The Rotisserie League is governed by a Committee of the Whole consisting of all team owners. The Committee of the Whole may designate as many league officials as from time to time it deems appropriate, although only two -- the League Secretary and the League Treasurer -- ever do any work. The Committee of the Whole also designates annually an Executive Committee composed of three team owners in good standing. The Executive Committee has the authority to interpret playing rules and to handle all necessary and routine League business. All decisions, rulings, and interpretations by the Executive Committee are subject to veto by the Committee of the Whole. Rule changes, pronouncements, and acts of whimsy are determined by majority vote of the Committee of the Whole. Member leagues of the Rotisserie League Baseball Association may appeal to the RLBA for adjudication of disputes and interpretation of rules. The Rotisserie League has three official meetings each year: Auction Draft Day (the first weekend after Opening Day), the Midsummer Trade Meeting (at the All-Star break), and the Gala Postseason Banquet and Awards Ceremony. Failure to attend at least two official meetings is punishable by trade to the Cleveland Indians.
To consecrate the bond of friendship that unites all Rotisserie League owners in their pursuit of the penant, to symbolize the eternal verities and values of the Greatest Game for Baseball Fans Since Baseball, and to soak the head of the League champion with a sticky brown substance before colleagues and friends duly assembled, the Yoo-Hoo Ceremony is hereby ordained as the culminating event of the baseball season. Each year, at the awards ceremony and banquet, the owner of the championship team shall have a bottle of Yoo-Hoo poured over his or her head by the preceeding year’s pennant winner. The Yoo-Hoo Ceremony shall be performed with the dignity and solemnity appropriate to the occasion.
NOTE: If Yoo-Hoo, the chocolate-flavored beverage once endorsed by soft-drink connoisseur Yogi Berra, is not available in your part of the country, you have two options: (a) send up an alternative beverage, one chosen in the Yoo-Hoo spirit, as a pinch-hitter, or (b) move.