Post by Chicago Cub Sox (Scott) on Aug 27, 2015 21:29:18 GMT -5
Google Drive at goo.gl/Wys4YU
DIAMOND DUOS III DYNASTY BASEBALL League Rules – as of 5/14/21
(please appreciate that this is a fluid, working document)
Welcome to Diamond Duos III dynasty fantasy baseball league. It is intended to test GM's skills in prospecting and scouting talent, managing player contracts and overall knowledge of the game. GM's will be expected to improve their respective franchises through the draft, trade and free agency with the hopes of improving each year, and earning the title of League Champion and all the glory (and some winnings) that come with that title. Our main goal here is to provide a great fantasy baseball experience while promoting sportsmanship and respect among GM's. We're excited to have you and hope you enjoy the experience.
LEAGUE FEE
Inaugural season ($55 per team): To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer by January 15, 2016, otherwise team will be disqualified from the league. $50 will go towards League winnings pot, and $5 per team will go toward Premium Fantrax Commissioner service (currently $80 per year). If we secure a better cost for the Premium Commissioner service, then less will need to go towards the site fee and more can go towards our winnings pot.
Each subsequent season: To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer (or whichever service is being used by the league Commissioner’s Office) by February 1.
The League will be run in-season on Fantrax.com. This Premium service will be renewed each season. The Commissioner pays for this service up front and each owner's responsibility for the site fee will be taken care of with the $55 league payment.
WINNERS' PAYOUTS 2016-beyond
1st place Roto - 65% of pot
2nd place Roto - 25% of pot
3rd place Roto - 10% of pot
Winnings Pot should be somewhere around $750 (15 teams x $50). So 1st place should be around $487.50, 2nd place would be about $187.50, and 3rd should be in the ballpark of $75. These amounts could change should our league fee change and/or the site fee changes for whichever website we’re using.
LEAGUE SCORING
This is a 12-category (6x6) Roto league. This format has been created to optimize the activity and chatter in the league and to promote trading between teams.
The statistical categories that will be tabulated to determine the League Champion each year are split into two major areas – Pitching and Hitting. The categories are as follows:
* Pitching: Quality Starts, Saves, Holds, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP
* Hitting: Runs, HRs, RBIs, Stolen Bases, On Base Percentage, Total Bases
Diamond Duos III will carry an 850 Innings Pitched minimum for the season. If your team of pitchers do not cumulatively reach 850 IP during the season, all averaged pitching stats (ERA & WHIP) are lost for the entire season and team will place last in those roto categories.
OWNERS & TEAM SELECTION
Diamonds Duos III is comprised of 15 owners. This League is unique in the fact that each owner will combine two (2) Major League Baseball franchises. At the launch of our Inaugural season (2016), each owner will select the franchise of their choice based on a randomly generated draft order. This will occur on our Diamond Duos III ProBoards site under MLB Franchise Selection. This may be a franchise in either the AL or NL. Once 15 owners have selected their first franchise, each owner will select a second franchise based on reverse order of the 1st franchise selection order. The second franchise must be in the opposite league (AL or NL) from their first franchise.
Select your franchises wisely. Trading of an entire MLB franchise is not allowed.
KEEPER SELECTION
Entering the inaugural season, the following keeper process shall be followed. Each owner will have the opportunity to keep up to a maximum of 15 players from each of their owned MLB franchises. Each keeper's salary and contract status will be based on his real-life MLB salary and contract (entering 2016), including number of years. We will use Cot's Baseball Contracts website (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots) as our reference tool. Therefore each team may keep up to maximum of 30 total major league players (with a minimum of 20 total major leaguers initially kept). These players' salaries must fit within the Diamond Duos Salary Cap designated below. Keepers must be selected by Sunday night January 17th 11:59pm EST.
Any player currently signed to a contract with one of your two franchises may be deemed one of your 15 (maximum) keepers per franchise, and his real-life salary and contract years will be used and incorporated into your Diamond Duos team salary. This includes any player that may have been a MLB free agent this pre-2016 offseason but has either signed with a new team or resigned with his previous team.
*Diamond Duos III will not be recognizing player signing bonuses for the sake of keeping some semblance of simplicity. If Cot’s shows a player’s contracts as 3 years, $35M, then that’s what we’re using, regardless if there was a $4.75M signing bonus added onto the first year of the contract.
**Special Note (entering 2016 Inaugural Season ONLY) - Any Major League Free Agent that resigns with the same team following our deadline to name keepers, may be added back to the Diamond Duos roster of that owned franchise. In order to do so, there must be a roster opening, which may mean said player has to replace a previously deemed keeper if 15 MLB'ers for that franchise have already been named.
Each Diamond Duos owner will also control and manage its Minor League Farm system. Minor League keepers will be from both of the owner's MLB franchises' minor league system. All minor league prospects signed and affiliated with the MLB franchise shall be eligible to be kept as part of a Diamond Duos roster. Up to a maximum of 25 minor leaguers (minimum of 15) from each MLB franchise can be named as keepers, which in turn allows each Diamond Duos owner to keep up to a maximum of 50 minor leaguers entering the inaugural season. Any player with less than 130 AB, 50 IP, or 20 pitching appearances carry Minor League status.
Minor leaguers do not take up any salary space while in a Diamond Duos Minor League Farm system. A $500,000 salary kicks in the year after surpassing either 130 AB, 50 IP or 20 pitching appearances and does count against an owner's salary cap. OR, if any minor leaguer is promoted to the 40-man Majors roster AND spends any time in an Active 25-man lineup, then the $500,000 salary will kick in the following season, regardless if the player surpasses 130 AB, 50 IP or 20 pitching appearances. There is no salary cap hit for any prospect that's promoted until he reaches those thresholds. (See Banuelos example near the end under Prospects)
INITIAL YEAR FREE AGENT DRAFT TO COMPLETE 40-MAN ROSTER:
This will be done on the board in a dedicated thread. Each owner must have 2 Free Agents nominated and offered an initial contract. You may not offer any contract if you don't have 2 players that you nominated/offered initial contracts to on the board. The only exception here is when you only have a minimum of 3 roster spots remaining out of 40. If this does happen, and is caught, those offers will be deleted and the time stamp will revert back to the previous offer. A player will be signed by your team if an offer stands on the board for 12 hours and does not receive a higher offer.
Example of a contract offer:
Boston Padres offer Jake Lamb 3B ATL 3 years, $12M (AAS $4M) 21-23: $4m
Any increase in offers should following the minimum AAS increase guidelines:
AAS up to $3m - $50k ($0.050m)
AAS $3.01m to $10m - $250k ($0.25m)
AAS $10.01m and above - $500k ($0.5m)
Please follow this format. This initial free agent draft will tentatively begin at 8:00pm EST on Monday, February 2nd (following the Super Bowl).
**IMPORTANT NOTE - Each team MUST fill at least 37 out of the 40 major league roster spots coming out of the Initial FA draft. Up to a maximum of 3 roster spots may be left open for prospects that are anticipated to be activated to Majors.
MAJOR LEAGUE ROSTER CONFIGURATION
40-man roster, comprised of 25 active players in lineup and 15 bench reserves
C, C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CI, MI, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF, U, U
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, P, P
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Diamond Duos III is a Weekly Lineup league. Lineups on the Fantrax league site will lock 5 minutes before the first game is played on a Monday. It is each owner's responsibility to edit his own lineup as needed. Lineups will not be modified by the Commissioner following the lineup deadline each Monday (unless dire extenuating circumstances and there is proof of communication prior to the deadline).
On a team's ProBoards Roster page, each of these positions must have salaries next to the name of each player with years following for the life of the contract. Format to follow is (for example a 3 year, $39M contract from 2013-15 could be listed as) 13:$12M, 14:$13M, 15:$14M
This 40-man roster list must remain updated on ProBoards throughout the season, taking into consideration all add/drops, trades, promotions/demotions.
Team total salary MUST be tabulated at the top of each team's Roster page, in addition to how much cap space is available as compared to the team's Salary Cap.
The Following is only an example of what is required at the top of your Team Roster thread.
Salary Cap: $170,000,000
MLB Payroll: $130,000,000
Responsible For: $5,000,000 (If you've dropped players signed to multi-year contracts, your team is responsible for a percentage of that contract)
Cap Space Available: $35,000,000
MINOR LEAGUE FARM SYSTEM
However you want to break it down your Minor League prospects list is up to you. It may be one big list or broken down into Triple A, Double A, Advanced A, etc. It doesn't matter as long as it remains updated and contains every minor leaguer you own the rights to. This list must be updated as prospects are traded away, acquired in trades or claimed in season. Maximum number of Minor Leaguers in one farm system is 60 (NOTE: Per league vote of approval will increase to 80 after 2021 season).
MILB PLAYER DRAFT:
Each offseason, usually at the beginning of February, an MILB Player Draft will be held which includes draft picks from the previous year’s MLB draft, international signings since the previous year’s draft, and any other unowned minor leaguers signed to contracts with MLB teams (players who have not exceeded the 50 career IP or 130 career AB thresholds). The draft order is determined in reverse order of the previous year’s standings and will be non-snake. The draft consists of 12 rounds plus a Parent Franchise Protection (or "PFP") round after round 2 of the draft, which allows each team to protect up to 2 (total) eligible players from their 2 parent franchises. Draft picks, including PFP, may be traded.
SALARY CAP BREAKDOWN:
The salary cap for each team shall be $170 million for the 2016 Inaugural season, and will increase to $175 million for 2017 and each season thereafter. Keep in mind that each team is a combination of talent from two MLB franchises (one AL and one NL) and there is a high probability of multiple high-end salaries/contracts.
Each team will be allowed one (1) Franchise Tag option and two (2) Restricted Free Agent options following each season. Definitions of Franchise and Restricted Free Agent (RFA) are detailed below.
Please note: This Dynasty league is designed to create challenge and so that ongoing management of your team is imperative. As an example, some teams may need to waive a player or players to free agency to make sure their team remains under the salary cap maximums. The same can be accomplished by trading high salaried players to teams with cap room on their teams. On the flip side, other teams will have to work to sign players to longer term deals at lower annual salaries to remain both competitive and efficient. They will most likely have to focus their time on prospecting to create their dynasty. These are just a couple of the issues that will eventually create a demand for trade negotiations and other league discussion items.
*As an incentive for team owners to remain active and return, each team will receive an increase of $5M to their total salary cap for the 2017 season bringing the total cap per team to $175M.
TRADE DEADLINE AND FA DATES:
The trade deadline for Diamond Duos Dynasty league will be August 7th, 11:59 PM EST. This is one week after MLB's non-waiver trade deadline. Trading of all players (Majors and Minors) is permitted. Trading of Salary Cap space ($$$) is not permitted. All trading can resume the day following the last regular season game and may continue throughout the off season.
After the trade deadline Free Agents may not be traded until the offseason. Once the season is over Free Agents are exactly that, "free" to be bid on. These players will enter the Free Agent market and may be bid on by any GM once bidding reopens unless Franchised or Restricted. What this means is that the trade deadline should have a lot of activity as one team may want to move potential Free Agents to another team that can protect him or to a team that has a chance to win. Only Free Agents protected by Franchise tags can be traded with their tag. These may be assigned to the player the day after the last game in the league has been completed and must stay assigned to that player only and cannot be transferred to any other player.
JUST THE BASICS (FA)
These are guidelines, not set in stone, and per league discussion and potential voting/polls, may be amended.
In Season - A Free Agent is any player not listed on any franchise's roster following the Initial keeper selection and player draft that sets each team's 40-man roster. A free agent can be any professional baseball player, major league or minor league that has already signed a real-life professional MLB contract, which includes contracts with MLB team affiliates (minor league teams). International players signing with a MLB team have different rules outlined below.
Specific rules for International free agent signees:
1) International signees are eligible to be drafted in our offseason Minor League draft IF player has signed with a team BEFORE we begin the draft. In the case of 2014, Masahiro Tanaka had not signed with the Yankees prior to beginning the Diamond Duos Minors draft so he was NOT eligible for being selected in that draft. Players such as Tanaka who sign after our Minors draft has begun ARE eligible to be signed as a Diamond Duos free agent during our FA contract period before the season begins.
2) International signees are eligible to be drafted in the following season's Minor League draft if player signs with MLB franchise after we've begun our Minor League draft, still has less than 130 AB, 50 IP, or 20 pitching appearance in the Majors, AND is still unowned by any Diamond Duos II team.
3) If an International player signs with an MLB franchise AND makes the Major League team's 25-man roster during the season, said player CAN be offered a free agent contract in-season via our blind bidding offer system. This will only be allowed if a player makes the Majors during his first season (i.e. Rusney Castillo BOS in 2014).
When you decide there is a player you wish to add to your 40-man roster from free agency, you will need to sign that player to a contract. This process will be done via a blind bidding system. The league's minimum salary requirement is $500,000 per year. The longest you may sign a player to contract at the league minimum is two years. The longest you can sign a player to a contract with an average annual salary of more than $500,000 but less than $750,000 per year is three years. The longest you can offer ANY contract is 6 years.
**Note - Players who have been selected as keepers prior to the inaugural season that have real-life contracts greater than 6 years will be allowed.
As in real-life, sometimes players receive numerous contract offers. The player will ultimately choose the team that has offered them the most lucrative contract. "General Free Agent Process" provides rulings on determining "most lucrative" with a description of the Diamond Duos tie-breaking system.
Reminders:
A GM CANNOT make a contract offer to a player who has not signed a contract with a real life Major League franchise.
Also, any time your franchise makes a transaction (trade, free agent acquisition, dropping a player to free agency, draft pick, etc.) it MUST be posted in a transaction log which every GM will keep under his own team's board. There is simply too much to see to unless each GM keeps track of all of his own acquisitions and posts them for all to see. This should eliminate any discrepancies over players or contract information.
GENERAL FREE AGENT BID PROCESS (IN-SEASON):
IN GENERAL:
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE, bid per MLB FA player in which they are interested. These bids (assuming a GM bids on multiple players) will be submitted via an email to fablindbids3@gmail.com. Only the league office has access to this account. This bid must include the following to be considered valid:
*Number of years of the contract offer
*Total amount of the contract offer
*Average Annual Salary ("AAS")
*a breakdown of the contract per year or note that it will be evenly spread.
Example:
Boston Padres offer Player XXX:
5 year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2013 - $7M
2014 - $9M
2015 - $11M
2016 - $11M
2017 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the 4 criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he submits a proper bid.
No single year can deviate more than 40% from AAS. So a contract with 5 million dollars AAS can only range between 3 million and 7 million for any one year.
ANNUAL SALARY ALLOCATION LIMITS WITHIN A CONTRACT:
Back-end loading of contracts is a concern of the league. Those contracts sure feel good to the bid winner since those latter years can get loaded up, allowing current year salary to stay lower and manageable and help prop up AAS. To avoid back-end loading of contracts, the total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
A bid submitted is permanent. Once a bid is made, it MAY NOT be withdrawn, so make sure of your bid before you make an offer. You are obligated to that offer. If you decide that you are adamant about pulling your offer from the table, then you must request this in writing from the Commissioner's Office. If approved the Commissioner's Office will delete your offer. This will only happen in the rarest of cases.
OFFSEASON:
Salary cap and roster (# of players) limits will be handled differently in the off-season and in season. Please refer to each section below for the specifics.
Starting after the winter meetings in mid-to-late December, Free Agent bidding will be held each year.
During the off-season bidding, we will begin with contract offers to all Restricted Free Agents, and then we'll move on to all Unrestricted Free Agents. All bidding will take place on the Free Agents board (same bid post and minimum increase guidelines as listed in Initial Free Agency will apply here as well).
All Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs") will be bid on in the first week of the auctions in the off season. Please carefully review all rules for bidding on RFA's as they are significantly different from Unrestricted FAs.
For RFAs, there is a further process as prior owner will have a chance to match the winning bid within 48 hours. For Unrestricted FAs, the winning GM must update his roster and team salary information within 72 hours.
With regard to adherence to salary cap and roster size, Diamond Duos will relax the general rule during the off-season only to allow some flexibility in light of free agent contract offers. During this off-season exercise, each franchise will be able to exceed their salary cap by up to $10M, however, you must be cap compliant FOR ALL SEASONS, CURRENT AND FUTURE, before the regular season starts. You can utilize trading to free up roster and salary cap space. **A word to the wise...bid prudently.
All salary caps and rosters must be in full compliance by each season's Opening Day (first MLB game of season). Failure to be in compliance will mean no stat accumulation on Fantrax.
IN SEASON:
Once the regular season begins, the process of FA bidding changes slightly since there will be no weekly randomly drawn batches of players on which to bid.
There will be, however, weekly bidding deadlines to help create an environment of fairness and promote GM activity.
Blind Bidding - In season, any GM may submit a blind bid to fablindbids3@gmail.com. Bids may be submitted until the weekly deadline of Friday 11:59PM EST. Any bid received after the deadline will be invalidated. No exceptions.
PRIORITY LISTS
In some situations there may be more players up for bid in which your roster/cap does not allow you to have, but would like to take a stab at all of them in hopes of landing one player. In that case you may send a priority list to fablindbids3@gmail.com.
Example- You want 1 of Player A, Player B, and Player C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 or 2 of these players. Send a list in the order you want to win them, and this will avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A
Winning bids will be posted under that week's thread in "FA Blind Bid Results" by Sunday evenings, in time for GMs to add player to their roster on Fantrax.
Be careful to not exceed your salary cap. If this occurs, the commissioner's office will send you an email mandating that your team make arrangements to waive players in order to bring the current salary within your team's salary cap. You will have only 72-hours to do this. If you fail to comply, the League Office will automatically drop your most recently signed player to free agency in order to bring your team under the required salary cap maximum. Or if you sign someone and you don't place him on your 40-man roster within 72 hours, he becomes a free agent again. At this point the League Office will notify the league of the player who has recently become a free agent and list them under the area titled "Player Releases." The League Office will review each 40-man roster often to make sure you are complying with your team's assigned salary cap. Remember that players' salaries may change if signed to new contracts with new teams following a release.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (off-season):
Each season a GM may designate player(s) as "Restricted", making those players Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs"). These players must be publicly announced and displayed in the designated area "Restricted FA's" as Restricted by January 5th. Please note that FAILURE to publicly declare said players as "Restricted" shall forfeit the right of that GM to restrict that player(s) for that season. Any and all unrestricted Free Agents shall be subject to regular (unrestricted) FA bidding as outlined previously.
Once a GM uses the designated amount of Restricted options at his disposal (2 per team following Inaugural season), those players will be eligible for Restricted free agency bidding. All free agent bidding, whether restricted or unrestricted, shall be conducted pursuant to the league's FA bidding procedures in place at that time. Off-season restricted and unrestricted free agent bidding happens on our league’s ProBoards site. Only in-season FA bidding occurs via blind bid and fablindbids3@gmail.com.
Any GM may initiate bidding on a RFA agent at scheduled times during the period specifically noted for RFAs.
**NOTE - In the event no bids are received on a RFA, that player will be available to his team at his real life MLB contract.
RESTRICTED PLAYER BIDDING CRITERIA - Restricting a player provides a semi protective measure to help a GM retain that player, while not assuring that GM will retain said player. In order to provide some, but not absolute, assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that offer must cover to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
RFA BIDDING GUIDELINES
AAS = up to $6M, then MINIMUM 1, MAXIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $6.01M to $10M, then MINIMUM 2, MAXIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = $10.01M to $14M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $14.01M to $18M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = 18.01M+, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal
The Maximum contract length that can be offered by a team is 6 years.
Jamie Moyer Rule for bidding on older players
A GM may offer a player a contract that keeps an older player under contract until the season that the player turns 39 years old. So although an $18+ million contract normally requires at least 5 years, one could offer a player that is 36 a three year deal at $18 million. Or a 38 year old player could receive a one year deal at over $18 million if that makes more sense.
As in all FA bidding, the bidder must clearly state the
1.) contract term (number of years)
2.) total contract amount
3.) AAS
The Breakdown may be decided after as long as they follow the above parameters and the aforementioned guidelines for contract structure.
Since the bidding is for a RFA, the GM who held the restricted player has 48 hours to match the winning bid, and may restructure that bid for a total contract amount no less and a term no longer than that of the "winning" bid. If the restricting GM chooses not to match the offer, then the winning bidder is obligated to sign the player - there is NO option to remove or renege on any bid placed.
The 48 hour acceptance "clock" will commence with the winning bid being posted of the last player of the RFA batch by the League Office.
The discussion above applies ONLY TO RESTRICTED free agent bidding. Normal, or Unrestricted, free agent bidding is covered under General FA bidding guidelines.
OWNER COMPENSATION FOR RESTRICTED FREE AGENT SIGNING (effective 2023 season)
If an owner's RFA is signed by another team, he will receive a compensatory minors draft pick in the following season's minor league draft.
AAS = 18.01M+, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal – owner gets an additional first round pick at end of First Round.
AAS = $14.01M to $18M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal – owner gets an additional second round pick at end of Second Round.
AAS = $10.01M to $14M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal – owner gets an additional third round pick at end of Third Round.
AAS = $6.01M to $10M, then MINIMUM 2, MAXIMUM 4 yr deal – owner gets an additional fourth round pick at end of Fourth Round.
AAS = up to $6M, then MINIMUM 1, MAXIMUM 3 yr deal – owner gets an additional fifth round pick at end of Fifth Round.
If compensatory picks are awarded to multiple owners for a same round, order will be determined by following season's final standings.
FA RULINGS:
There maybe instances in which free agents receive several offers from multiple teams. Questions arise as to which franchise will be declared the winner and awarded the right to sign a player to their team. The primary criteria in determining a winner is the average annual salary ("AAS") of the contract.
AAS is determined as follows: You simply take the average
08: $1,000,000
09: $2,000,000
AAS= $1,500,000
In the rare event two bids have the same average annual salary, below are the tie-breakers that will be utilized in determining which team will win the right to sign a player. Only proceed to the second tie-breaker in cases where the first tiebreaker ends in a tie.
Tiebreaker #1:
If the average annual salary for two contract offers is the same, then the GM who offered the contract with the most number of years shall win the right to sign the player.
Tiebreaker #2:
The only way this second tie-breaker can be utilized is if there are two contract offers with the same average annual salary over the life of the contract AND the two contract offers are to pay the player over the same period of time. In this particular case, the tie-breaker will go to the GM who made their offer FIRST.
The commissioner's office will post the winning team at the end of the auctioned player's bid thread. It is solely your responsibility to monitor the board and add any player you won to your roster. At this point, the player is ready to sign with your team and you may officially add the player to your 40-man roster and deduct his salary from your salary cap.
Keep in mind that your 40-man major league roster may not exceed 40 players at any time, your minor league system may have up to 60 players in it at anytime (maximum of 50 allowed entering Inaugural season but it's possible to acquire additional minor leaguers via trade and claiming one per calendar month), and you may not exceed your salary cap except in the offseason.
When you sign a player and your current roster is full or the new player causes you to exceed your salary cap, you will need to take corrective action (waive or trade player(s)) within 72 hours.
The new player may not be added to your Fantrax roster until your roster is legal.
PLAN AHEAD. Failure to resolve your illegal roster within the 72 hour time period will result in your newly added player to be dropped back into Free Agency.
Once a contract is signed, it cannot be reworked or revoked. In essence, it is etched in stone. You are responsible for paying that contract until such time as the player is traded or dropped to free agency.
ROSTER MOVES DURING FREE AGENCY (IFA, RFA, or UFA)
During any of the aforementioned free agency periods, roster moves (promoting, demoting, waiving, releasing, etc.) are NOT ALLOWED (i.e. roster moves will be locked). You can, however, utilize trading to free up roster slots and/or cap space. Players can be moved to IR, however, the opened roster slot cannot be filled during whatever form of free agency taking place.
RELEASING PLAYERS:
A GM has the right to waive any player to free agency. To waive a player and drop him to free agency, you must post him in a new thread under the section titled "Player Releases". This will make permanent the decision to waive a player to free agency. Once posted, there is no turning back. A GM will be responsible for 50% of a player’s salary (during the 1st year under contract) and 25% of that player's salary for any remaining years for the duration of the contract (UNLESS that player is signed to a contract by another franchise). In which case, continued responsibility for that player's salary may be further limited or negated in full. However, if said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count 25% of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.
If the player is signed by another franchise after being dropped to free agency, then the previous owner will only be required to pay the difference between the player's old contract and the player's new contract (on a year-to-year basis for multi-year contracts), not to exceed 25% of the old contract. If the player's contract with his new team is higher than his contract was with the old team, the previous owner will no longer be obligated to pay any further for the player and thus no further penalty on that franchise's salary cap.
If the player is signed to a new contract after being waived and the new contract pays the player less than 25% of the original contract, then the previous owner's liability maximum is still only 25% of the old contract. Only in the event that the new contract pays the player more than 25% of his old contract will the previous owner be able to count less than 25% of the old contract against his salary cap.
Note: When reference is made to "old contract" and "new contract", the contract salary comparisons are made on a YEAR-TO-YEAR basis rather than on the total dollar amounts of the contracts. i.e. A player is dropped who had a 2013 (only) $8M contract and is later picked up through free agency with a 3 year $8M deal (broken down 2013 - $6M, 2014 - $1M, 2015 - $1M). The previous owner is responsible in 2013 for $2M, the difference between the "old" $8M and the "new" $6M, not exceeding 25% of the old contract. Since the old contract did not cover 2014 and 2015, the previous owner has no salary responsibility for those 2 years.
If you release a player with a PP (prospect player) contract, you will only pay 25% of that contract until the end of the current season. IE: you cut a player that has a PP 2016 contract in the 2014 season, you will pay $125K (out of $500K) until the end of the 2014 season and will be free of the salary for 2015 and 2016.
If a GM waives a player to free agency and then re-signs the same player in the same year, the above rule will be voided and the team must pay the full salary.
*Note - the GM who previously waived said player and now wants to pick that player back up through FA, MUST initially bid an amount (and term, if applicable) equal to or greater than the amount and term at the time said player was dropped to FA. Any lesser bid by that GM will be invalid and immediately voided.
If the player is waived and not re-signed until the following season, then the rule applies only if the player's contract at the time of his waiver was multi-year.
Dropping Minor Leaguers and Prospects
If you drop a defined Minor Leaguer or a defined Prospect, you are responsible for nothing at anytime. You have no more financial responsibility to that player the following year.
To "waive" a player, please post their name to the league bulletin board under the section "Player Releases & Waivers".
WAIVING TO MINORS (similar to Designating For Assignment)
Players with a salary can also be waived off the 40-man roster, for purposes of sending to minors, but the player must pass through irrevocable waivers (meaning the owner cannot pull back the waiver claim for purposes of keeping said player). To do this an owner must post the move in the Player Releases & Waivers thread on ProBoards. A waived player will be on waivers for 48 hours from the time of the post. IN SEASON - the waiver claim priority would be based on the current worst to first Roto standings at the time when 48 hour period is up. OFF-SEASON - the waiver claim priority will be initially based off of reverse standings of prior year, but will be rolling waiver order (after successful claim team will go to bottom of waiver order). See Releasing Players section of the Constitution for a claiming team's salary cap responsibility. If a player is successfully passed through waivers and fills a spot in your Minor League system, his major league salary still counts against the cap and he must be back on your 40-man roster by the deadline that player options can be exercised during the offseason.
When a waived player is traded, he loses that waiver designation on the new team (i.e. he would go back up to the 40-man roster on the team that acquired him).
NOTE: During that 48-hour waiver period, the owner can trade the waived player, which will take priority over any waiver claims.
Remember, you can never have more than 80 players in your Minor League system. If you have 80 spots filled and waive a player in hopes of moving him to your Minor League system, the move would be invalid since there's not an open spot for him. In that case the player will have become an unrestricted free agent, open for any team to offer a contract to.
This may be an option for a team that has two DL spots already filled but is looking to open up a spot on the 40-man roster for whatever reason. This ability to release a player in hopes of him clearing waivers and being "demoted" to the farm can give you that flexibility.
TRADING:
Trading between teams can be accomplished in many ways. Three of the most efficient ways to begin negotiating a trade with another team are: (1) Go to the message board to the section entitled "Trade Block." In this section, you can post the players you wish to trade and/or what types of players you are interested in trading for. (2) Each GM provided an email to the Commissioner's Office to act as a point of contact for their team; (3) The ProBoards PM system also works well.
Effective communication is essential to maintain interest and activity in the league, so any and all communication channels are recommended.
Note- Trading can include Major League Players, Minor League Players, Prospects, and/or Minor League draft picks, however, neither cash nor franchise/restricted options may be exchanged in any transaction.
Any trade negotiations that conclude in an agreement must be posted to the message board under the section entitled "Trades." All terms of the trade must be listed here. It is required that one team involved in the trade post the agreement, terms and a short reasoning and thoughts on the trade, while the other team formally posts his confirmation/acceptance of the trade as listed and his thoughts and reasoning for the trade.
Please review the terms carefully. Once the trade is formally accepted, the rest of the league has an opportunity to voice any disapproval they may feel, the commissioner's office will then review it and either approve or reject the trade within 48 hours. Once the deal has been approved, there will be no recourse and the deal is finalized. A Co-Commissioner will review and trade that involves The Commissioner and either approve or reject the deal.
Whether a GM is signing a free agent, waiving a player to free agency or trading with another franchise, you as the GM will have 48 hours to update your franchise's roster. This will avoid confusion as to which players belong to which franchises. You, at all times, must adhere to a 40 player roster and remain under your salary cap- except in the offseason. If a GM fails to update their roster in a timely manner, the GM will be prohibited from engaging in free agent contract offers or trades with other teams for a period of one week.
As with free agent bidding, PLAN AHEAD!
If the GM exceeds his roster limit and/or exceeds the salary cap during the season (or if he exceeds either offseason limitation), there will be a 72 hour remedy period. Until the illegality is remedied, the newly acquired players will not be added to team's Fantrax roster. Failure to remedy the illegality within 72 hours will result in suspension of scoring in Fantrax and all free agent bidding.
Remedy includes ONLY 1.) waiving of players to meet the 40-man roster limit and/or meet salary cap limitation or 2.) having posted and confirmed trade(s) that allow the team to fully adhere to a 40-man roster and salary cap limits.
CONTRACT EXPIRATION AND TAGS (Prospect Rules)
Each off-season, there are always a number of players who have had their contracts expire. These players naturally become free agents and, as such, are available to accept contract offers being made by other GMs in the league.
There are essentially three types of "contracts" for the purposes of Diamond Duos
A.) a real life contract transacted ON or BEFORE the unspecified roster lock date, OR a real life contract resulting from a franchised (kept) player from the inaugural season.
B.) a Diamond Duos contract won in the free agent bidding process
C.) a "prospect contract (PP)", which is a form of protection for players qualifying as "prospect" players (see below).
*Diamond Duos only recognizes Club Options, not Player Options. We currently use Cot's Baseball Contracts as the official source for contract and salary information.
Cot's-Baseball Contracts: www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/
To protect against the loss of all free agents in a particular calendar year, a GM will be granted to ability to name Franchise and Restricted Players. Please refer to the "Salary Cap" section to know how many of these tags your team owns. You will also be able to protect all qualified "minor league" players and also be allowed to protect your qualified "prospect" players as well. Prospect players are defined as players who are engaged in the 4 year Prospect status.
Franchise Tag:
You will have the ability; at the end of the year to "Franchise Tag" one of your free agents. This player, although having his Diamond Duos contract expire, will not be eligible for free agency within our league and will be forced to sign with the same team. In this specific case ONLY, the franchise player will assume a Diamond Duos salary of $15M per season. An owner may only use a Franchise tag on a player once. Said player may be retained at $15M per season for 1 to 5 additional years.
Prospect Tag:
Teams will have the ability to use their franchise tags as something we are calling a prospect tag. This tag only applies to players that are just wrapping up their 4 years of prospect protection that were originally in a team’s minor league system and has been promoted to the Majors. This gives teams a chance to hold onto players that are still eligible for arbitration each season and are consistently going to be receiving 1 year contract offers. The tag will allow the player to be locked down for $3M in the first year after tag is applied followed by $5M in the second season. This can be applied to a player one time only. After this two years awarded by the prospect tag is used up, the team will have to either franchise the player or restrict the player if they hope to hold onto him.
For the purposes of Diamond Duos III there shouldn’t be any Prospect Tags until at least prior to the 2021 season. A player in the minors could be promoted to Majors in 2016 and has a $0 salary that season. Then the 4 years of prospect protection at $500,000 league minimum salary would be from 2017-2020. Then the owner would have the option to apply this Prospect Tag for the 2021/2022 seasons for $3M and $5M.
Players designated with a Franchise Tag or Prospect Tag may be traded once they are designated with that tag. The tag is considered stuck to that player and it may not be traded or used on any other player. The league will be keeping track of the tags that are used on players so that teams will not be able to use 1 tag on multiple players. A player must be designated with the franchise tag before the trade is posted. You cannot post a trade and then designate a player with the tag afterwards.
Restricted Free Agent Tag:
A team will also have the ability to use the Restricted Free Agent Tag on up to 2 of your free agents each season. Restricted Free Agents will, in effect, be treated just like free agents with one BIG difference. Once Restricted Free Agency starts Restricted Players can be made contract offers like every other free agent. However, at the end of the contract offering period, the team who restricted the player will have 48 hours to match the winning offer. If a GM chooses to match the winning contract offer, then he/she will be allowed to restructure the "matching" contract so that it best fits their team's salary structure and then re-sign the player. The "restructured" contract must, however, still have the same average annual salary (AAS), but may not add additional years to the contract. If a GM fails to respond or chooses not to match the best contract offer made to their player, then the auctioned player will be required to sign with the highest bidder, whose bid then becomes that team's obligation.
Free Agents can be traded for the purposes of the acquiring owner to place the Restricted Free Agent tag on said player.
Prospects:
In Diamond Duos, certain Major League players may be deemed "Prospects" and are not a hit on the team's salary.
A prospect is a player who has lost his "minor league" status (see below) by surpassing his ML AB or IP threshold. You may keep a prospect at his status until the season following the player exceeding the threshold.
Career Number Threshold
130 AB, 50 IP, 20 Pitching Appearances
After said player has played in four (4) ML qualifying seasons (does NOT have to be consecutive- (injury/sent down), that player will have exhausted his prospect status and, if not under a Diamond Duos contract, will be a FA.
Hypothetical Example:
Manny Banuelos
2013: 23.2 IP - Still minor league status and costs nothing for the following season
2014: 121 IP - Still costs nothing for that season but has surpassed his threshold and will no longer be considered a minor leaguer
2015: DNP - Injury made him miss all of 2015 season but still got paid and lost 1 season of protection - $500K (1/4)
2016: 76 IP - $500K (2/4)
2017: 136.2 IP - $500K (3/4)
2018: 186 IP - $500K and is the 4th and final year of his protection. He will be a FA following 2018 season OR could be given a prospect tag and be kept for 2019 ($3M) and 2010 ($5M).
To clarify - A prospect starts his major league contract the year after he exceeds the 130 AB/50 IP/20 APP threshold.
NOTE: A player with zero as a salary can be optioned off the 40-man roster and back in to the minors only once before crossing the AB/IPP/APP minimum and only once after crossing the minimum. This needs to be monitored as closely as possible by the League Commissioner, co-Commissioners and all owners for integrity of the league and holding up the rules.
FINAL NOTE FROM COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE:
Our goal here is to create a long-lasting dynasty league. Please adhere to common decency. Any questions or complaints may be sent via email to the Head Commissioner. Please allow at least 24 hours for a response. Everyone's concerns will be dealt with as promptly as possible. Thanks, enjoy, and let's have some fun!
Commissioner Brent Philmon
DIAMOND DUOS III DYNASTY BASEBALL League Rules – as of 5/14/21
(please appreciate that this is a fluid, working document)
Welcome to Diamond Duos III dynasty fantasy baseball league. It is intended to test GM's skills in prospecting and scouting talent, managing player contracts and overall knowledge of the game. GM's will be expected to improve their respective franchises through the draft, trade and free agency with the hopes of improving each year, and earning the title of League Champion and all the glory (and some winnings) that come with that title. Our main goal here is to provide a great fantasy baseball experience while promoting sportsmanship and respect among GM's. We're excited to have you and hope you enjoy the experience.
LEAGUE FEE
Inaugural season ($55 per team): To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer by January 15, 2016, otherwise team will be disqualified from the league. $50 will go towards League winnings pot, and $5 per team will go toward Premium Fantrax Commissioner service (currently $80 per year). If we secure a better cost for the Premium Commissioner service, then less will need to go towards the site fee and more can go towards our winnings pot.
Each subsequent season: To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer (or whichever service is being used by the league Commissioner’s Office) by February 1.
The League will be run in-season on Fantrax.com. This Premium service will be renewed each season. The Commissioner pays for this service up front and each owner's responsibility for the site fee will be taken care of with the $55 league payment.
WINNERS' PAYOUTS 2016-beyond
1st place Roto - 65% of pot
2nd place Roto - 25% of pot
3rd place Roto - 10% of pot
Winnings Pot should be somewhere around $750 (15 teams x $50). So 1st place should be around $487.50, 2nd place would be about $187.50, and 3rd should be in the ballpark of $75. These amounts could change should our league fee change and/or the site fee changes for whichever website we’re using.
LEAGUE SCORING
This is a 12-category (6x6) Roto league. This format has been created to optimize the activity and chatter in the league and to promote trading between teams.
The statistical categories that will be tabulated to determine the League Champion each year are split into two major areas – Pitching and Hitting. The categories are as follows:
* Pitching: Quality Starts, Saves, Holds, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP
* Hitting: Runs, HRs, RBIs, Stolen Bases, On Base Percentage, Total Bases
Diamond Duos III will carry an 850 Innings Pitched minimum for the season. If your team of pitchers do not cumulatively reach 850 IP during the season, all averaged pitching stats (ERA & WHIP) are lost for the entire season and team will place last in those roto categories.
OWNERS & TEAM SELECTION
Diamonds Duos III is comprised of 15 owners. This League is unique in the fact that each owner will combine two (2) Major League Baseball franchises. At the launch of our Inaugural season (2016), each owner will select the franchise of their choice based on a randomly generated draft order. This will occur on our Diamond Duos III ProBoards site under MLB Franchise Selection. This may be a franchise in either the AL or NL. Once 15 owners have selected their first franchise, each owner will select a second franchise based on reverse order of the 1st franchise selection order. The second franchise must be in the opposite league (AL or NL) from their first franchise.
Select your franchises wisely. Trading of an entire MLB franchise is not allowed.
KEEPER SELECTION
Entering the inaugural season, the following keeper process shall be followed. Each owner will have the opportunity to keep up to a maximum of 15 players from each of their owned MLB franchises. Each keeper's salary and contract status will be based on his real-life MLB salary and contract (entering 2016), including number of years. We will use Cot's Baseball Contracts website (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots) as our reference tool. Therefore each team may keep up to maximum of 30 total major league players (with a minimum of 20 total major leaguers initially kept). These players' salaries must fit within the Diamond Duos Salary Cap designated below. Keepers must be selected by Sunday night January 17th 11:59pm EST.
Any player currently signed to a contract with one of your two franchises may be deemed one of your 15 (maximum) keepers per franchise, and his real-life salary and contract years will be used and incorporated into your Diamond Duos team salary. This includes any player that may have been a MLB free agent this pre-2016 offseason but has either signed with a new team or resigned with his previous team.
*Diamond Duos III will not be recognizing player signing bonuses for the sake of keeping some semblance of simplicity. If Cot’s shows a player’s contracts as 3 years, $35M, then that’s what we’re using, regardless if there was a $4.75M signing bonus added onto the first year of the contract.
**Special Note (entering 2016 Inaugural Season ONLY) - Any Major League Free Agent that resigns with the same team following our deadline to name keepers, may be added back to the Diamond Duos roster of that owned franchise. In order to do so, there must be a roster opening, which may mean said player has to replace a previously deemed keeper if 15 MLB'ers for that franchise have already been named.
Each Diamond Duos owner will also control and manage its Minor League Farm system. Minor League keepers will be from both of the owner's MLB franchises' minor league system. All minor league prospects signed and affiliated with the MLB franchise shall be eligible to be kept as part of a Diamond Duos roster. Up to a maximum of 25 minor leaguers (minimum of 15) from each MLB franchise can be named as keepers, which in turn allows each Diamond Duos owner to keep up to a maximum of 50 minor leaguers entering the inaugural season. Any player with less than 130 AB, 50 IP, or 20 pitching appearances carry Minor League status.
Minor leaguers do not take up any salary space while in a Diamond Duos Minor League Farm system. A $500,000 salary kicks in the year after surpassing either 130 AB, 50 IP or 20 pitching appearances and does count against an owner's salary cap. OR, if any minor leaguer is promoted to the 40-man Majors roster AND spends any time in an Active 25-man lineup, then the $500,000 salary will kick in the following season, regardless if the player surpasses 130 AB, 50 IP or 20 pitching appearances. There is no salary cap hit for any prospect that's promoted until he reaches those thresholds. (See Banuelos example near the end under Prospects)
INITIAL YEAR FREE AGENT DRAFT TO COMPLETE 40-MAN ROSTER:
This will be done on the board in a dedicated thread. Each owner must have 2 Free Agents nominated and offered an initial contract. You may not offer any contract if you don't have 2 players that you nominated/offered initial contracts to on the board. The only exception here is when you only have a minimum of 3 roster spots remaining out of 40. If this does happen, and is caught, those offers will be deleted and the time stamp will revert back to the previous offer. A player will be signed by your team if an offer stands on the board for 12 hours and does not receive a higher offer.
Example of a contract offer:
Boston Padres offer Jake Lamb 3B ATL 3 years, $12M (AAS $4M) 21-23: $4m
Any increase in offers should following the minimum AAS increase guidelines:
AAS up to $3m - $50k ($0.050m)
AAS $3.01m to $10m - $250k ($0.25m)
AAS $10.01m and above - $500k ($0.5m)
Please follow this format. This initial free agent draft will tentatively begin at 8:00pm EST on Monday, February 2nd (following the Super Bowl).
**IMPORTANT NOTE - Each team MUST fill at least 37 out of the 40 major league roster spots coming out of the Initial FA draft. Up to a maximum of 3 roster spots may be left open for prospects that are anticipated to be activated to Majors.
MAJOR LEAGUE ROSTER CONFIGURATION
40-man roster, comprised of 25 active players in lineup and 15 bench reserves
C, C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CI, MI, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF, U, U
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, P, P
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Diamond Duos III is a Weekly Lineup league. Lineups on the Fantrax league site will lock 5 minutes before the first game is played on a Monday. It is each owner's responsibility to edit his own lineup as needed. Lineups will not be modified by the Commissioner following the lineup deadline each Monday (unless dire extenuating circumstances and there is proof of communication prior to the deadline).
On a team's ProBoards Roster page, each of these positions must have salaries next to the name of each player with years following for the life of the contract. Format to follow is (for example a 3 year, $39M contract from 2013-15 could be listed as) 13:$12M, 14:$13M, 15:$14M
This 40-man roster list must remain updated on ProBoards throughout the season, taking into consideration all add/drops, trades, promotions/demotions.
Team total salary MUST be tabulated at the top of each team's Roster page, in addition to how much cap space is available as compared to the team's Salary Cap.
The Following is only an example of what is required at the top of your Team Roster thread.
Salary Cap: $170,000,000
MLB Payroll: $130,000,000
Responsible For: $5,000,000 (If you've dropped players signed to multi-year contracts, your team is responsible for a percentage of that contract)
Cap Space Available: $35,000,000
MINOR LEAGUE FARM SYSTEM
However you want to break it down your Minor League prospects list is up to you. It may be one big list or broken down into Triple A, Double A, Advanced A, etc. It doesn't matter as long as it remains updated and contains every minor leaguer you own the rights to. This list must be updated as prospects are traded away, acquired in trades or claimed in season. Maximum number of Minor Leaguers in one farm system is 60 (NOTE: Per league vote of approval will increase to 80 after 2021 season).
- Owners were allowed to initially keep up to 25 minor leaguers per MLB franchise (50 maximum players).
- 3-round mini Minors draft following initial keepers allowed owners to add minor league players to their farm system.
- Beginning in February or March each year owners are allowed to claim one unowned minor leaguer per calendar month (through the end of the MLB regular season). The monthly claim thread will open at 10a EST on the first day of the month. If regular season games extend into October, the October thread will only be open until the completion of the last regular season game.
MILB PLAYER DRAFT:
Each offseason, usually at the beginning of February, an MILB Player Draft will be held which includes draft picks from the previous year’s MLB draft, international signings since the previous year’s draft, and any other unowned minor leaguers signed to contracts with MLB teams (players who have not exceeded the 50 career IP or 130 career AB thresholds). The draft order is determined in reverse order of the previous year’s standings and will be non-snake. The draft consists of 12 rounds plus a Parent Franchise Protection (or "PFP") round after round 2 of the draft, which allows each team to protect up to 2 (total) eligible players from their 2 parent franchises. Draft picks, including PFP, may be traded.
The salary cap for each team shall be $170 million for the 2016 Inaugural season, and will increase to $175 million for 2017 and each season thereafter. Keep in mind that each team is a combination of talent from two MLB franchises (one AL and one NL) and there is a high probability of multiple high-end salaries/contracts.
Each team will be allowed one (1) Franchise Tag option and two (2) Restricted Free Agent options following each season. Definitions of Franchise and Restricted Free Agent (RFA) are detailed below.
Please note: This Dynasty league is designed to create challenge and so that ongoing management of your team is imperative. As an example, some teams may need to waive a player or players to free agency to make sure their team remains under the salary cap maximums. The same can be accomplished by trading high salaried players to teams with cap room on their teams. On the flip side, other teams will have to work to sign players to longer term deals at lower annual salaries to remain both competitive and efficient. They will most likely have to focus their time on prospecting to create their dynasty. These are just a couple of the issues that will eventually create a demand for trade negotiations and other league discussion items.
*As an incentive for team owners to remain active and return, each team will receive an increase of $5M to their total salary cap for the 2017 season bringing the total cap per team to $175M.
TRADE DEADLINE AND FA DATES:
The trade deadline for Diamond Duos Dynasty league will be August 7th, 11:59 PM EST. This is one week after MLB's non-waiver trade deadline. Trading of all players (Majors and Minors) is permitted. Trading of Salary Cap space ($$$) is not permitted. All trading can resume the day following the last regular season game and may continue throughout the off season.
After the trade deadline Free Agents may not be traded until the offseason. Once the season is over Free Agents are exactly that, "free" to be bid on. These players will enter the Free Agent market and may be bid on by any GM once bidding reopens unless Franchised or Restricted. What this means is that the trade deadline should have a lot of activity as one team may want to move potential Free Agents to another team that can protect him or to a team that has a chance to win. Only Free Agents protected by Franchise tags can be traded with their tag. These may be assigned to the player the day after the last game in the league has been completed and must stay assigned to that player only and cannot be transferred to any other player.
JUST THE BASICS (FA)
These are guidelines, not set in stone, and per league discussion and potential voting/polls, may be amended.
In Season - A Free Agent is any player not listed on any franchise's roster following the Initial keeper selection and player draft that sets each team's 40-man roster. A free agent can be any professional baseball player, major league or minor league that has already signed a real-life professional MLB contract, which includes contracts with MLB team affiliates (minor league teams). International players signing with a MLB team have different rules outlined below.
Specific rules for International free agent signees:
1) International signees are eligible to be drafted in our offseason Minor League draft IF player has signed with a team BEFORE we begin the draft. In the case of 2014, Masahiro Tanaka had not signed with the Yankees prior to beginning the Diamond Duos Minors draft so he was NOT eligible for being selected in that draft. Players such as Tanaka who sign after our Minors draft has begun ARE eligible to be signed as a Diamond Duos free agent during our FA contract period before the season begins.
2) International signees are eligible to be drafted in the following season's Minor League draft if player signs with MLB franchise after we've begun our Minor League draft, still has less than 130 AB, 50 IP, or 20 pitching appearance in the Majors, AND is still unowned by any Diamond Duos II team.
3) If an International player signs with an MLB franchise AND makes the Major League team's 25-man roster during the season, said player CAN be offered a free agent contract in-season via our blind bidding offer system. This will only be allowed if a player makes the Majors during his first season (i.e. Rusney Castillo BOS in 2014).
When you decide there is a player you wish to add to your 40-man roster from free agency, you will need to sign that player to a contract. This process will be done via a blind bidding system. The league's minimum salary requirement is $500,000 per year. The longest you may sign a player to contract at the league minimum is two years. The longest you can sign a player to a contract with an average annual salary of more than $500,000 but less than $750,000 per year is three years. The longest you can offer ANY contract is 6 years.
**Note - Players who have been selected as keepers prior to the inaugural season that have real-life contracts greater than 6 years will be allowed.
As in real-life, sometimes players receive numerous contract offers. The player will ultimately choose the team that has offered them the most lucrative contract. "General Free Agent Process" provides rulings on determining "most lucrative" with a description of the Diamond Duos tie-breaking system.
Reminders:
A GM CANNOT make a contract offer to a player who has not signed a contract with a real life Major League franchise.
Also, any time your franchise makes a transaction (trade, free agent acquisition, dropping a player to free agency, draft pick, etc.) it MUST be posted in a transaction log which every GM will keep under his own team's board. There is simply too much to see to unless each GM keeps track of all of his own acquisitions and posts them for all to see. This should eliminate any discrepancies over players or contract information.
GENERAL FREE AGENT BID PROCESS (IN-SEASON):
IN GENERAL:
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE, bid per MLB FA player in which they are interested. These bids (assuming a GM bids on multiple players) will be submitted via an email to fablindbids3@gmail.com. Only the league office has access to this account. This bid must include the following to be considered valid:
*Number of years of the contract offer
*Total amount of the contract offer
*Average Annual Salary ("AAS")
*a breakdown of the contract per year or note that it will be evenly spread.
Example:
Boston Padres offer Player XXX:
5 year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2013 - $7M
2014 - $9M
2015 - $11M
2016 - $11M
2017 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the 4 criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he submits a proper bid.
No single year can deviate more than 40% from AAS. So a contract with 5 million dollars AAS can only range between 3 million and 7 million for any one year.
ANNUAL SALARY ALLOCATION LIMITS WITHIN A CONTRACT:
Back-end loading of contracts is a concern of the league. Those contracts sure feel good to the bid winner since those latter years can get loaded up, allowing current year salary to stay lower and manageable and help prop up AAS. To avoid back-end loading of contracts, the total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
A bid submitted is permanent. Once a bid is made, it MAY NOT be withdrawn, so make sure of your bid before you make an offer. You are obligated to that offer. If you decide that you are adamant about pulling your offer from the table, then you must request this in writing from the Commissioner's Office. If approved the Commissioner's Office will delete your offer. This will only happen in the rarest of cases.
OFFSEASON:
Salary cap and roster (# of players) limits will be handled differently in the off-season and in season. Please refer to each section below for the specifics.
Starting after the winter meetings in mid-to-late December, Free Agent bidding will be held each year.
During the off-season bidding, we will begin with contract offers to all Restricted Free Agents, and then we'll move on to all Unrestricted Free Agents. All bidding will take place on the Free Agents board (same bid post and minimum increase guidelines as listed in Initial Free Agency will apply here as well).
All Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs") will be bid on in the first week of the auctions in the off season. Please carefully review all rules for bidding on RFA's as they are significantly different from Unrestricted FAs.
For RFAs, there is a further process as prior owner will have a chance to match the winning bid within 48 hours. For Unrestricted FAs, the winning GM must update his roster and team salary information within 72 hours.
With regard to adherence to salary cap and roster size, Diamond Duos will relax the general rule during the off-season only to allow some flexibility in light of free agent contract offers. During this off-season exercise, each franchise will be able to exceed their salary cap by up to $10M, however, you must be cap compliant FOR ALL SEASONS, CURRENT AND FUTURE, before the regular season starts. You can utilize trading to free up roster and salary cap space. **A word to the wise...bid prudently.
All salary caps and rosters must be in full compliance by each season's Opening Day (first MLB game of season). Failure to be in compliance will mean no stat accumulation on Fantrax.
IN SEASON:
Once the regular season begins, the process of FA bidding changes slightly since there will be no weekly randomly drawn batches of players on which to bid.
There will be, however, weekly bidding deadlines to help create an environment of fairness and promote GM activity.
Blind Bidding - In season, any GM may submit a blind bid to fablindbids3@gmail.com. Bids may be submitted until the weekly deadline of Friday 11:59PM EST. Any bid received after the deadline will be invalidated. No exceptions.
PRIORITY LISTS
In some situations there may be more players up for bid in which your roster/cap does not allow you to have, but would like to take a stab at all of them in hopes of landing one player. In that case you may send a priority list to fablindbids3@gmail.com.
Example- You want 1 of Player A, Player B, and Player C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 or 2 of these players. Send a list in the order you want to win them, and this will avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A
Winning bids will be posted under that week's thread in "FA Blind Bid Results" by Sunday evenings, in time for GMs to add player to their roster on Fantrax.
Be careful to not exceed your salary cap. If this occurs, the commissioner's office will send you an email mandating that your team make arrangements to waive players in order to bring the current salary within your team's salary cap. You will have only 72-hours to do this. If you fail to comply, the League Office will automatically drop your most recently signed player to free agency in order to bring your team under the required salary cap maximum. Or if you sign someone and you don't place him on your 40-man roster within 72 hours, he becomes a free agent again. At this point the League Office will notify the league of the player who has recently become a free agent and list them under the area titled "Player Releases." The League Office will review each 40-man roster often to make sure you are complying with your team's assigned salary cap. Remember that players' salaries may change if signed to new contracts with new teams following a release.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (off-season):
Each season a GM may designate player(s) as "Restricted", making those players Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs"). These players must be publicly announced and displayed in the designated area "Restricted FA's" as Restricted by January 5th. Please note that FAILURE to publicly declare said players as "Restricted" shall forfeit the right of that GM to restrict that player(s) for that season. Any and all unrestricted Free Agents shall be subject to regular (unrestricted) FA bidding as outlined previously.
Once a GM uses the designated amount of Restricted options at his disposal (2 per team following Inaugural season), those players will be eligible for Restricted free agency bidding. All free agent bidding, whether restricted or unrestricted, shall be conducted pursuant to the league's FA bidding procedures in place at that time. Off-season restricted and unrestricted free agent bidding happens on our league’s ProBoards site. Only in-season FA bidding occurs via blind bid and fablindbids3@gmail.com.
Any GM may initiate bidding on a RFA agent at scheduled times during the period specifically noted for RFAs.
**NOTE - In the event no bids are received on a RFA, that player will be available to his team at his real life MLB contract.
RESTRICTED PLAYER BIDDING CRITERIA - Restricting a player provides a semi protective measure to help a GM retain that player, while not assuring that GM will retain said player. In order to provide some, but not absolute, assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that offer must cover to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
RFA BIDDING GUIDELINES
AAS = up to $6M, then MINIMUM 1, MAXIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $6.01M to $10M, then MINIMUM 2, MAXIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = $10.01M to $14M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $14.01M to $18M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = 18.01M+, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal
The Maximum contract length that can be offered by a team is 6 years.
Jamie Moyer Rule for bidding on older players
A GM may offer a player a contract that keeps an older player under contract until the season that the player turns 39 years old. So although an $18+ million contract normally requires at least 5 years, one could offer a player that is 36 a three year deal at $18 million. Or a 38 year old player could receive a one year deal at over $18 million if that makes more sense.
As in all FA bidding, the bidder must clearly state the
1.) contract term (number of years)
2.) total contract amount
3.) AAS
The Breakdown may be decided after as long as they follow the above parameters and the aforementioned guidelines for contract structure.
Since the bidding is for a RFA, the GM who held the restricted player has 48 hours to match the winning bid, and may restructure that bid for a total contract amount no less and a term no longer than that of the "winning" bid. If the restricting GM chooses not to match the offer, then the winning bidder is obligated to sign the player - there is NO option to remove or renege on any bid placed.
The 48 hour acceptance "clock" will commence with the winning bid being posted of the last player of the RFA batch by the League Office.
The discussion above applies ONLY TO RESTRICTED free agent bidding. Normal, or Unrestricted, free agent bidding is covered under General FA bidding guidelines.
OWNER COMPENSATION FOR RESTRICTED FREE AGENT SIGNING (effective 2023 season)
If an owner's RFA is signed by another team, he will receive a compensatory minors draft pick in the following season's minor league draft.
AAS = 18.01M+, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal – owner gets an additional first round pick at end of First Round.
AAS = $14.01M to $18M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal – owner gets an additional second round pick at end of Second Round.
AAS = $10.01M to $14M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal – owner gets an additional third round pick at end of Third Round.
AAS = $6.01M to $10M, then MINIMUM 2, MAXIMUM 4 yr deal – owner gets an additional fourth round pick at end of Fourth Round.
AAS = up to $6M, then MINIMUM 1, MAXIMUM 3 yr deal – owner gets an additional fifth round pick at end of Fifth Round.
If compensatory picks are awarded to multiple owners for a same round, order will be determined by following season's final standings.
FA RULINGS:
There maybe instances in which free agents receive several offers from multiple teams. Questions arise as to which franchise will be declared the winner and awarded the right to sign a player to their team. The primary criteria in determining a winner is the average annual salary ("AAS") of the contract.
AAS is determined as follows: You simply take the average
08: $1,000,000
09: $2,000,000
AAS= $1,500,000
In the rare event two bids have the same average annual salary, below are the tie-breakers that will be utilized in determining which team will win the right to sign a player. Only proceed to the second tie-breaker in cases where the first tiebreaker ends in a tie.
Tiebreaker #1:
If the average annual salary for two contract offers is the same, then the GM who offered the contract with the most number of years shall win the right to sign the player.
Tiebreaker #2:
The only way this second tie-breaker can be utilized is if there are two contract offers with the same average annual salary over the life of the contract AND the two contract offers are to pay the player over the same period of time. In this particular case, the tie-breaker will go to the GM who made their offer FIRST.
The commissioner's office will post the winning team at the end of the auctioned player's bid thread. It is solely your responsibility to monitor the board and add any player you won to your roster. At this point, the player is ready to sign with your team and you may officially add the player to your 40-man roster and deduct his salary from your salary cap.
Keep in mind that your 40-man major league roster may not exceed 40 players at any time, your minor league system may have up to 60 players in it at anytime (maximum of 50 allowed entering Inaugural season but it's possible to acquire additional minor leaguers via trade and claiming one per calendar month), and you may not exceed your salary cap except in the offseason.
When you sign a player and your current roster is full or the new player causes you to exceed your salary cap, you will need to take corrective action (waive or trade player(s)) within 72 hours.
The new player may not be added to your Fantrax roster until your roster is legal.
PLAN AHEAD. Failure to resolve your illegal roster within the 72 hour time period will result in your newly added player to be dropped back into Free Agency.
Once a contract is signed, it cannot be reworked or revoked. In essence, it is etched in stone. You are responsible for paying that contract until such time as the player is traded or dropped to free agency.
ROSTER MOVES DURING FREE AGENCY (IFA, RFA, or UFA)
During any of the aforementioned free agency periods, roster moves (promoting, demoting, waiving, releasing, etc.) are NOT ALLOWED (i.e. roster moves will be locked). You can, however, utilize trading to free up roster slots and/or cap space. Players can be moved to IR, however, the opened roster slot cannot be filled during whatever form of free agency taking place.
RELEASING PLAYERS:
A GM has the right to waive any player to free agency. To waive a player and drop him to free agency, you must post him in a new thread under the section titled "Player Releases". This will make permanent the decision to waive a player to free agency. Once posted, there is no turning back. A GM will be responsible for 50% of a player’s salary (during the 1st year under contract) and 25% of that player's salary for any remaining years for the duration of the contract (UNLESS that player is signed to a contract by another franchise). In which case, continued responsibility for that player's salary may be further limited or negated in full. However, if said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count 25% of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.
If the player is signed by another franchise after being dropped to free agency, then the previous owner will only be required to pay the difference between the player's old contract and the player's new contract (on a year-to-year basis for multi-year contracts), not to exceed 25% of the old contract. If the player's contract with his new team is higher than his contract was with the old team, the previous owner will no longer be obligated to pay any further for the player and thus no further penalty on that franchise's salary cap.
If the player is signed to a new contract after being waived and the new contract pays the player less than 25% of the original contract, then the previous owner's liability maximum is still only 25% of the old contract. Only in the event that the new contract pays the player more than 25% of his old contract will the previous owner be able to count less than 25% of the old contract against his salary cap.
Note: When reference is made to "old contract" and "new contract", the contract salary comparisons are made on a YEAR-TO-YEAR basis rather than on the total dollar amounts of the contracts. i.e. A player is dropped who had a 2013 (only) $8M contract and is later picked up through free agency with a 3 year $8M deal (broken down 2013 - $6M, 2014 - $1M, 2015 - $1M). The previous owner is responsible in 2013 for $2M, the difference between the "old" $8M and the "new" $6M, not exceeding 25% of the old contract. Since the old contract did not cover 2014 and 2015, the previous owner has no salary responsibility for those 2 years.
If you release a player with a PP (prospect player) contract, you will only pay 25% of that contract until the end of the current season. IE: you cut a player that has a PP 2016 contract in the 2014 season, you will pay $125K (out of $500K) until the end of the 2014 season and will be free of the salary for 2015 and 2016.
If a GM waives a player to free agency and then re-signs the same player in the same year, the above rule will be voided and the team must pay the full salary.
*Note - the GM who previously waived said player and now wants to pick that player back up through FA, MUST initially bid an amount (and term, if applicable) equal to or greater than the amount and term at the time said player was dropped to FA. Any lesser bid by that GM will be invalid and immediately voided.
If the player is waived and not re-signed until the following season, then the rule applies only if the player's contract at the time of his waiver was multi-year.
Dropping Minor Leaguers and Prospects
If you drop a defined Minor Leaguer or a defined Prospect, you are responsible for nothing at anytime. You have no more financial responsibility to that player the following year.
To "waive" a player, please post their name to the league bulletin board under the section "Player Releases & Waivers".
WAIVING TO MINORS (similar to Designating For Assignment)
Players with a salary can also be waived off the 40-man roster, for purposes of sending to minors, but the player must pass through irrevocable waivers (meaning the owner cannot pull back the waiver claim for purposes of keeping said player). To do this an owner must post the move in the Player Releases & Waivers thread on ProBoards. A waived player will be on waivers for 48 hours from the time of the post. IN SEASON - the waiver claim priority would be based on the current worst to first Roto standings at the time when 48 hour period is up. OFF-SEASON - the waiver claim priority will be initially based off of reverse standings of prior year, but will be rolling waiver order (after successful claim team will go to bottom of waiver order). See Releasing Players section of the Constitution for a claiming team's salary cap responsibility. If a player is successfully passed through waivers and fills a spot in your Minor League system, his major league salary still counts against the cap and he must be back on your 40-man roster by the deadline that player options can be exercised during the offseason.
When a waived player is traded, he loses that waiver designation on the new team (i.e. he would go back up to the 40-man roster on the team that acquired him).
NOTE: During that 48-hour waiver period, the owner can trade the waived player, which will take priority over any waiver claims.
Remember, you can never have more than 80 players in your Minor League system. If you have 80 spots filled and waive a player in hopes of moving him to your Minor League system, the move would be invalid since there's not an open spot for him. In that case the player will have become an unrestricted free agent, open for any team to offer a contract to.
This may be an option for a team that has two DL spots already filled but is looking to open up a spot on the 40-man roster for whatever reason. This ability to release a player in hopes of him clearing waivers and being "demoted" to the farm can give you that flexibility.
TRADING:
Trading between teams can be accomplished in many ways. Three of the most efficient ways to begin negotiating a trade with another team are: (1) Go to the message board to the section entitled "Trade Block." In this section, you can post the players you wish to trade and/or what types of players you are interested in trading for. (2) Each GM provided an email to the Commissioner's Office to act as a point of contact for their team; (3) The ProBoards PM system also works well.
Effective communication is essential to maintain interest and activity in the league, so any and all communication channels are recommended.
Note- Trading can include Major League Players, Minor League Players, Prospects, and/or Minor League draft picks, however, neither cash nor franchise/restricted options may be exchanged in any transaction.
Any trade negotiations that conclude in an agreement must be posted to the message board under the section entitled "Trades." All terms of the trade must be listed here. It is required that one team involved in the trade post the agreement, terms and a short reasoning and thoughts on the trade, while the other team formally posts his confirmation/acceptance of the trade as listed and his thoughts and reasoning for the trade.
Please review the terms carefully. Once the trade is formally accepted, the rest of the league has an opportunity to voice any disapproval they may feel, the commissioner's office will then review it and either approve or reject the trade within 48 hours. Once the deal has been approved, there will be no recourse and the deal is finalized. A Co-Commissioner will review and trade that involves The Commissioner and either approve or reject the deal.
Whether a GM is signing a free agent, waiving a player to free agency or trading with another franchise, you as the GM will have 48 hours to update your franchise's roster. This will avoid confusion as to which players belong to which franchises. You, at all times, must adhere to a 40 player roster and remain under your salary cap- except in the offseason. If a GM fails to update their roster in a timely manner, the GM will be prohibited from engaging in free agent contract offers or trades with other teams for a period of one week.
As with free agent bidding, PLAN AHEAD!
If the GM exceeds his roster limit and/or exceeds the salary cap during the season (or if he exceeds either offseason limitation), there will be a 72 hour remedy period. Until the illegality is remedied, the newly acquired players will not be added to team's Fantrax roster. Failure to remedy the illegality within 72 hours will result in suspension of scoring in Fantrax and all free agent bidding.
Remedy includes ONLY 1.) waiving of players to meet the 40-man roster limit and/or meet salary cap limitation or 2.) having posted and confirmed trade(s) that allow the team to fully adhere to a 40-man roster and salary cap limits.
CONTRACT EXPIRATION AND TAGS (Prospect Rules)
Each off-season, there are always a number of players who have had their contracts expire. These players naturally become free agents and, as such, are available to accept contract offers being made by other GMs in the league.
There are essentially three types of "contracts" for the purposes of Diamond Duos
A.) a real life contract transacted ON or BEFORE the unspecified roster lock date, OR a real life contract resulting from a franchised (kept) player from the inaugural season.
B.) a Diamond Duos contract won in the free agent bidding process
C.) a "prospect contract (PP)", which is a form of protection for players qualifying as "prospect" players (see below).
*Diamond Duos only recognizes Club Options, not Player Options. We currently use Cot's Baseball Contracts as the official source for contract and salary information.
Cot's-Baseball Contracts: www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/
To protect against the loss of all free agents in a particular calendar year, a GM will be granted to ability to name Franchise and Restricted Players. Please refer to the "Salary Cap" section to know how many of these tags your team owns. You will also be able to protect all qualified "minor league" players and also be allowed to protect your qualified "prospect" players as well. Prospect players are defined as players who are engaged in the 4 year Prospect status.
Franchise Tag:
You will have the ability; at the end of the year to "Franchise Tag" one of your free agents. This player, although having his Diamond Duos contract expire, will not be eligible for free agency within our league and will be forced to sign with the same team. In this specific case ONLY, the franchise player will assume a Diamond Duos salary of $15M per season. An owner may only use a Franchise tag on a player once. Said player may be retained at $15M per season for 1 to 5 additional years.
Prospect Tag:
Teams will have the ability to use their franchise tags as something we are calling a prospect tag. This tag only applies to players that are just wrapping up their 4 years of prospect protection that were originally in a team’s minor league system and has been promoted to the Majors. This gives teams a chance to hold onto players that are still eligible for arbitration each season and are consistently going to be receiving 1 year contract offers. The tag will allow the player to be locked down for $3M in the first year after tag is applied followed by $5M in the second season. This can be applied to a player one time only. After this two years awarded by the prospect tag is used up, the team will have to either franchise the player or restrict the player if they hope to hold onto him.
For the purposes of Diamond Duos III there shouldn’t be any Prospect Tags until at least prior to the 2021 season. A player in the minors could be promoted to Majors in 2016 and has a $0 salary that season. Then the 4 years of prospect protection at $500,000 league minimum salary would be from 2017-2020. Then the owner would have the option to apply this Prospect Tag for the 2021/2022 seasons for $3M and $5M.
Players designated with a Franchise Tag or Prospect Tag may be traded once they are designated with that tag. The tag is considered stuck to that player and it may not be traded or used on any other player. The league will be keeping track of the tags that are used on players so that teams will not be able to use 1 tag on multiple players. A player must be designated with the franchise tag before the trade is posted. You cannot post a trade and then designate a player with the tag afterwards.
Restricted Free Agent Tag:
A team will also have the ability to use the Restricted Free Agent Tag on up to 2 of your free agents each season. Restricted Free Agents will, in effect, be treated just like free agents with one BIG difference. Once Restricted Free Agency starts Restricted Players can be made contract offers like every other free agent. However, at the end of the contract offering period, the team who restricted the player will have 48 hours to match the winning offer. If a GM chooses to match the winning contract offer, then he/she will be allowed to restructure the "matching" contract so that it best fits their team's salary structure and then re-sign the player. The "restructured" contract must, however, still have the same average annual salary (AAS), but may not add additional years to the contract. If a GM fails to respond or chooses not to match the best contract offer made to their player, then the auctioned player will be required to sign with the highest bidder, whose bid then becomes that team's obligation.
Free Agents can be traded for the purposes of the acquiring owner to place the Restricted Free Agent tag on said player.
Prospects:
In Diamond Duos, certain Major League players may be deemed "Prospects" and are not a hit on the team's salary.
A prospect is a player who has lost his "minor league" status (see below) by surpassing his ML AB or IP threshold. You may keep a prospect at his status until the season following the player exceeding the threshold.
Career Number Threshold
130 AB, 50 IP, 20 Pitching Appearances
After said player has played in four (4) ML qualifying seasons (does NOT have to be consecutive- (injury/sent down), that player will have exhausted his prospect status and, if not under a Diamond Duos contract, will be a FA.
Hypothetical Example:
Manny Banuelos
2013: 23.2 IP - Still minor league status and costs nothing for the following season
2014: 121 IP - Still costs nothing for that season but has surpassed his threshold and will no longer be considered a minor leaguer
2015: DNP - Injury made him miss all of 2015 season but still got paid and lost 1 season of protection - $500K (1/4)
2016: 76 IP - $500K (2/4)
2017: 136.2 IP - $500K (3/4)
2018: 186 IP - $500K and is the 4th and final year of his protection. He will be a FA following 2018 season OR could be given a prospect tag and be kept for 2019 ($3M) and 2010 ($5M).
To clarify - A prospect starts his major league contract the year after he exceeds the 130 AB/50 IP/20 APP threshold.
NOTE: A player with zero as a salary can be optioned off the 40-man roster and back in to the minors only once before crossing the AB/IPP/APP minimum and only once after crossing the minimum. This needs to be monitored as closely as possible by the League Commissioner, co-Commissioners and all owners for integrity of the league and holding up the rules.
FINAL NOTE FROM COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE:
Our goal here is to create a long-lasting dynasty league. Please adhere to common decency. Any questions or complaints may be sent via email to the Head Commissioner. Please allow at least 24 hours for a response. Everyone's concerns will be dealt with as promptly as possible. Thanks, enjoy, and let's have some fun!
Commissioner Brent Philmon