EMOO Fantasy Baseball League Official Constitution
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To assemble a lineup of 23 National League baseball players whose cumulative statistics during the regular season, compiled and measured by the methods described in these rules, exceed those of all other teams in your division and the League.

There are twelve teams (three divisions with 4 teams in each division) composed of National League players. League expansion is at the discretion and agreement of the current league.

A team’s active roster consists of the following players:

Five (5) outfielders
Two (2) catchers
One (1) second baseman
One (1) shortstop
One (1) middle infielder (either second baseman, or shortstop)
One (1) first baseman
One (1) third baseman
One (1) corner man (either first baseman, or third baseman)
One (1) utility player (who may be a position player or a pitcher)
Nine (9) pitchers

A Major League Player Auction is conducted on the first weekend after Opening Day of the baseball season. Each must acquire 23 players an a total cost not to exceed $2.60. A team need not spend the maximum. The League nominates players for auction in reverse order of the previous year’s standings. The team bidding first opens with a minimum salary bid of $.01 for any eligible player, and the bidding proceeds around the room at minimum increments of $.01 until only one bidder is left. That team acquires the player for that amount and announces the roster position the player will fill. The process is repeated, with successive team owners introducing players to be bid on, until every team has a squad of 23 players, by requisite position. Each year ,on a rotating basis, a EMOO divison shall be responsible for providing the auctioneer for draft day.

• Players eligible at more than one position may be shifted during the course of the draft day.
• No team may make a bid for a player it cannot afford. For example, a team with 3 cents left and two openings on its roster is limited to a maximum bid of 2 cents for one player.
• No team may bid for a player who qualifies only at a position that the team has already filled.
• Players who commence the season on a major league team’s disabled list are eligible to drafted. If selected, they may be reserved and replaced upon completion of the auction draft. (see Article XII).

After the conclusion of the auction draft, in which teams acquire their 23 man active rosters for a sum no to exceed $2.60, owners successively draft up to 17 additional players in 17 separate rounds of selection. Initially, players acquired in this fashion are considered the team’s reserve roster.

• Any baseball player is eligible for this draft. Except players on the roster or minor league roster of an American League team. Eligible players include previously undrafted NL players, NL owned minor leaguers, unsigned players, Japanese players, high school or college players, and the kid down the block with the great arm.
• In the rotation draft, owners are not required to select players by position. They may select all pitchers, all position players, or a mix.
• The order of selection for each of the 17 rounds is determined by the order of finish in the previous season. The 6th team selects first proceeding in descending order to the 12^th place team, followed by the 5^th,4^th, 3^rd , 2^nd and 1^st place teams.

A team’s reserve roster consists of those players acquired through the rotation draft, through trades, through demotions from the active roster, or through waiver claims. Any transaction (e.g. trade, demotion, waiver claim) that increases the size of the reserve roster beyond 17 players must be accompanied by a concomitant transaction (e.g., trade, promotion, waiver) that simultaneously returns the reserve roster to its maximum 17.

Explained in Article VI. Fees.

ULTRA IV. PLAYER SALARIES

The salary of a player is determined by the time and means of his acquisition and does not change unless the player becomes a free agent by means of release or is signed to a guaranteed long-term contract.

• The salary of a player acquired in the auction draft is his auction price.
• The salary of a player acquired in the rotation draft is determined as follows: If the player was selected in the first round, $.15, rounds 2-6, $.10, rounds 7-12, $.05; rounds 13-17, $.02.
• The salary of a player claimed on waivers is $.10 or his previous salary, whichever is greater. His contract status remains the same.

A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 or more games in the preceding season. If a player did not appear in 20 games at a single position, he may be drafted only at the position at which he appeared most frequently. The 20 games/most games measure is used only to determine the position(s) at which a player may be drafted. Once the season is under way (but after Auction Draft Day), a player becomes eligible for assignment to any position at which he has appeared at least five times. Players selected for the utility slot may qualify at any position.

The EMOO League has a flat fee of $25.00 per team. League officers are not required to pay this yearly fee. No money passes directly from team to team. No bets are made on the outcome of any game. All fees are payable to the league coffers and are subsequently distributed to the top four teams in the final standings. Any remaining money after trophies are purchased are distributed to the top 4 teams as described in Article VIII.

The salary of a player is determined by the time and means of his acquisition and does not change unless the player becomes a free agent or is signed to a guaranteed long term contract (see Article XVII).

• The salary of a player acquired in the major league draft is his auction price.
• The salary of a player acquired in the Ultra Roster depends on what round he was selected.
• The salary of a player claimed on waivers is ten (10) cents or his current salary whichever is greater.

Note: The $2.60 salary limit pertains to Auction Draft Day only. After the day of the draft, free agent signings and acquisitions of high-priced players in trades may well drive a team’s payroll above $2.60 as long as a team is within the min/max cap limit (see Article XX Min/Max Cap).

All fees shall be promptly collected by the League, which is empowered to subject owners to public humiliation and assess fines as needed to ensure that payments are made to the League in a timely fashion. The principal shall be divided among the first four teams after the league costs have been subtracted from the league coffers as follows:

• 1^st place overall  –  Trophy (EMOO Champion and Division Champion if applicable) and 50% of remaining funds
• 2^nd place overall  (EMOO World Series runner up) – 25% of remaining funds
• 3^rd place overall  –  15% of remaining funds
• 4^th place overall  – 10% of remaining funds
• 1^st place Division - Trophy (Division Champion)
• 1^st place Division - Trophy (Division Champion)
• $75.00 will go towards the draft site for the season that fees are collected for
• The cost of the leagues CBS web site

The following criteria are used to determine a team’s performance:

• Composite Batting Average (BA)
• Total Home Runs (HR)
• Total Runs Batted In (RBI)
• Total Stolen Bases (SB)
• Total Runs Scored (R) * Beginning in 2004
• Composite Earned Run Average (ERA)
• Total Wins (W)
• Total Saves (S)
• Composite Ratio: walks (BB) + hits (H) / innings pitched (IP)
• Total Strikeouts (K) * Beginning in 2004

Teams are ranked from first to last in each of the categories and given points for each place. The first place team in a category receives twelve points, the second place team 11, and so on down to 1 point for last place.

THE GILL IP REQUIREMENT. A Team must pitch a total of 800 innings to receive points in ERA and ratio during the EMOO regular season. A team that does not pitch 800 innings maintains its place in ERA and ratio ranking but receives zero points (other teams do not gain points due to this) in both of these categories.

Tie breaker procedure:
Team that leads in total categories won wins the division or the wildcard. This procedure breaks all ties to resolve seeding for the head to head playoffs and to determine regular season standings.

if still a tie then

Team with highest number based on the formula: at bats + (innings pitched * 3)

Note: In the head to head EMOO playoffs the tie breaker is the teams' standing during the regular season.  The team with the highest regular season standing wins.

EMOO Head to Head Playoffs

The EMOO regular season ends 5 full stat periods before MLB's season end. The EMOO Commissioner will issue a schedule of the regular season and playoffs before the start of the season. At the conclusion of the EMOO regular season three division winners and one wildcard team advance to the playoffs. In case of a tie in the regular season rankings the traditional tie breaker procedure will be used:

Team that leads in total categories won wins the pennant and or the division

if still a tie then

Team with highest number based on the formula: at bats + (innings pitched * 3)

If for any reason the MLB regular season is not completed due to a work stoppage or any other reason (like the 1994 season) then an EMOO Champion will not be crowned. If the season is interrupted and then resumed it will be at the discretion of the EMOO commissioner to decide if the EMOO season can be completed and a champion crowned.

Immediately following the EMOO regular season the EMOO Championship Series begin. Seedings are based  on regular season finish. The first place team overall plays the 4th place team while the 2nd place team overall  plays 3rd overall. The EMOO Championship Series consist of two teams head to head for two full stat periods in each respective series. In case of a tie between the two teams the tie breaker will be best regular season ranking.

The winners of the EMOO Championship Series advance to the EMOO World Series. This series will consist of two head to head stat periods with the winner being crowned EMOO Champion. In case of a tie as in the League Championship Series the winner is the team with the best regular season ranking.

During the EMOO playoffs regular movement between a teams active and ultra roster are allowed. Stat periods are as they are in the regular season running from Monday through games on Sunday.

The weekly player-performance summaries published in USA TODAY beginning in April constitute the official data base for the computation of standings in EMOO League Baseball.

• The effective date of any transaction for purposes of statistical calculation is the Monday  before the commencement of play on that day. This is because weekly stats appear in USA TODAY on Tuesday for NL games through the preceding Sunday.
• Noon on Monday's is the established transaction deadline.
• Transactions recorded on Draft Day, including trades and call-ups to replace disabled players, are effective on the Monday immediately following Draft Day or the first cumulative summaries (NL stats) to appear in USA TODAY   following the draft.
• Performance stats of a player shall be assigned to a Rotisserie League team only when he is on the active 23-man roster of that team.
• Standings shall be tabulated and issued in a regular and timely fashion as determined by the Commissioner.
• Three weeks is the established deadline for standings. With a bi-weekly basis arriving towards the end of the season.

From the completion of the auction draft until midnight - the night of the MLB All Star Game - EMOO teams are free to make trades of any kind without limit, so long as the active roster of both teams involved in a trade reflect the required position distribution upon completion of the transaction. Trades made during the offseason are not bound by the position distribution requirement.

• Trades do not affect the salaries or contract status of players.

From the completion of the rotation draft until midnight CST on the night of the MLB All Star Game, teams are allowed to make trades of any kind without limit. However, at no time can any team have on its active roster more players at a particular position than allowed under the rules of the auction draft (see Article III). All trades must leave all teams' rosters
involved in that trade intact. For example if Team A trades Team B a shortstop for an outfielder then both teams must be able to fill these positions through shuffling their roster or calling up a player from their ultra roster. All trades must also adhere to the Min/Max restrictions (see Article XX).

• At no point may a team have more than 17 players on its reserve roster or more than 40 players on its active and reserve rosters combined.
• At no point may a team have more than 23 players on its active roster.
• A team may trade for a player from another team's active roster who is currently on the DL or in the minor leagues however the team acquiring that player must immediately reserve that player and replace him on their active roster with an active player (someone currently on a National League roster who is not on the DL or in the minor leagues).
• No trades of any kind may be made between midnight the night of the MLB All Star Game and the end of the season, nor between the cutdown date the week of the draft and the conclusion of the Rotation Draft on Auction Draft Day.

An owner may demote a player from the active roster to the reserve roster, or promote a player in the reverse direction, at any time and for any reason, such promotions to take effect with the subsequent stat deadline. However, no player may be demoted without being replaced on the active roster by an eligible player-that is, a player who fulfills position eligibility requirements (which may include shifting another active player into the demoted player’s position and the promoted player into the shifted player’s position) and who is currently on a major league roster and not on a major league disabled list.

• Exception, you may call up a player on the DL if you believe that player will be called up at some point during the stat period. However if that player does not get called up the transaction is voided. .
• Exception, if the acquisition of an active player in a trade places the acquiring team’s active roster above the positional limit, a player at that position may be sent down without the need for the recall of another player.
• A player acquired by a trade from another team’s active roster is considered active with the acquiring team on the effective date of the trade, unless the acquiring team chooses (or is compelled by roster restrictions) to demote him. Similarly, a player acquired in a trade from another team’s reserve roster is considered to be reserved with the acquiring team, unless the acquiring team promotes him.

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Players can only be cut or released from a teams roster during the league mandated cut down periods. This was a loophole closed so the cap can not be circumvented by simply waiving players in season.

A player who has been under contract at the same salary during two consecutive seasons, and whose service has been uninterrupted (that is, he has not been waived or released, although he may have been traded) must, prior to the freezing of rosters in his third season, be released; signed at the same salary for his option year; or signed to a guaranteed long-term contract.

If released, the player returns to the free agent pool and becomes available to the highest bidder at the next auction draft. If signed at the same salary for an option year, the player must be released back into the free agent pool at the end of the season. If signed to a guaranteed long-term contract, the player’s salary in each year covered by the new contract (which commences with the option year) shall be the sum of his current salary plus .05 cents for each additional year beyond the option year.

• In determining a player’s status, "season" is understood to be a full season or any fraction thereof.
• A team may sign a player to only one long-term contract, at the end of which he becomes a free agent.
• Option year and long-term contracts are entirely transferable, both in rights and obligations; the trade of a player in no way affects his contract status.
• If during the course of a long-term contract, a player is traded from the NL to the AL, the contract is rendered null and void.
• In all other cases-specifically including sudden loss of effectiveness-a team must honor the terms of a long term contract, as follows: A player with such a contract may be released back into the free agent pool (that is, not protected on a team’s roster prior to Auction Draft Day).

After the conclusion of the EMOO World Series each owner is required to submit to the League Secretary a list of 23 players, irrespective of position, taken from its combined active and reserve rosters, but one not including any players who have concluded their option year or the last year of a guaranteed long-term contract. This group of players becomes the winter roster.

• Once the winter roster process is completed the trading deadline ban is lifted and rosters may exceed or fall below 23 players through trading action.

A team may retain from one season to the next no more than 15 of the players on its 23 man active roster. There is no minimum to the number of players retained from one season to the next.

• The names of players being retained must be recorded with the League Secretary by midnight, April 1. Specific notice must also be made at that time of any guaranteed long-term contract signings and farm system renewals.
• The cumulative salaries of players protected prior to Auction Draft Day are deducted from a team’s $2.60 expenditure limit, and the balance is available for acquisition of the remaining players needed to complete the team’s 23 man roster.
• The League Commissioner should promptly notify all teams in the League of each team’s protected roster, including player salaries, contract status and amount available to spend on Auction Draft Day.
• Failure to give notice of a guaranteed long-term contract for a player in his option year will result in his being continued for one season at his prior year’s salary and then released into the free agent pool. Failure to renew a farm system player’s minor league contract will result in his becoming available to all other teams in the subsequent draft.

Roster protection in Rotisserie Ultra is identical (see Article XVIII), except as follows:

• The cumulative salaries of frozen players are deducted from a team’s $2.60 expenditure limit in the auction draft, and the balance is available for the acquisition of the remainder of a team’s active roster. However, salaries of players frozen on April 1 who are not on 25 man major league rosters do not count against the $2.60 limit.
• Frozen players not on 25 man major league rosters count against the limit of 17 players on draft day reserve rosters, and the salaries they carry must be paid into the league treasury on draft day.
• In addition to the 15 players that a team may protect from its winter roster of active and reserve roster players, a team may also protect an additional 3 players on its reserve roster, provided that such players have rookie status as determined by MLB.
• Players frozen may include players who have spent the entire previous season on a reserve roster-typically because they played only in the minor leagues. Even so, such players who are subsequently frozen are deemed to be in the second year of their contract with the EMOO team.

• Assignment of frozen players to a reserve roster position is at the owner’s discretion. An owner with a $.10 minor leaguer carried over from the preceding year might, for strategic reasons, assign that player to the 17^th position in the rotation draft, thus forgoing a $.02 pick. The assignment of frozen players by all teams will be made before the rotation draft commences.

ARTICLE XX. MIN/MAX CAP

A min/max cap is in place during the entire season. The min/max cap is not in place during the off season. The min/max cap includes the ultra roster.

• The max hard cap is $3.35 (an additional 21% of salary taking into account the 17 cents for the cap price of the ultra roster players).

• The minimum hard cap is $2.20 (a decrease of almost 21% taking into account the 17 cents for the cap price of the ultra roster players).

A team is not allowed to go above or below their cap restrictions. Any trade that results in a team violating their cap restriction will be voided. As part of the hard cap restriction trades involving more than two teams in the same transaction are not  allowed.

All players that are drafted in the ultra roster (or minor league players retained in the ultra roster) have a cap price of a penny. If a player is drafted during the regular auction draft or retained heading into the draft then the players cap price is his EMOO salary.
Except under the following circumstances:

• Any player in the final year of a long term contract (if traded) would have a cap price of his EMOO salary or 25 cents (which ever is greater).

• Any player who will no longer play for the remainder of the year due to injury, incarceration, or suspension (if traded) will have a cap value of 25 cents or their normal cap value (which ever is lower).

ARTICLE XXI. IN SEASON RETENTION OF AL PLAYERS

From the cut down date in April (when rosters are frozen)
until the end of the EMOO World Series if a player moves from the National
League to the American League their EMOO team continues to accumulate
statistics for that player while he plays in the AL. Upon moving to the AL
that player can not be traded during the season or retained for the upcoming season even if
the player subsequently returns to the NL or is released from his AL team.

The EMOO League is governed by a Committee of the Whole consisting of all team owners. The Committee of the Whole may designate as many League Officials as from time to time it deems appropriate although only the League Secretaries and the League Treasurer ever do any work. There is also to be established a League Commissioner whose job it is to interpret the above rules, and to handle all necessary and routine League business. All decisions, rulings, and interpretations by the Commissioner are subject to veto by the majority vote of the league. Any new rule proposals must be submitted in writing to the league no later than one week before the Winter Meeting. New rule proposals or amendments to this constitution will be voted on at the Winter Meeting. New rule proposals or amendments need a majority vote of the entire league not just of those present or remotely submitting ballots. Any league wide votes effecting scoring, standings, or playoffs, shall take effect one year from the time the vote was passed. The EMOO League has four official meetings each year: Auction Draft Day (the first weekend after opening day), the Midsummer Trade Meeting (during the All-Star Break) the Gala Post Season Awards Banquet and the Winter Meetings. Failure to attend at least two official league meetings is punishable by trade to the Milwaukee Brewers.

ARTICLE XXX. PROHIBITION

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The EMOO League believes that if first you don’t succeed….

The above constitution was based on the rules as written by Glen Waggoner and Daniel Okrent from the Official Rotisserie League Rulebook 1996 edition, copyright 1996 Bantam Books. To find out more about the current edition of this book click here.

Certain rules have been changed or omitted to comply with the EMOO League standards of play as voted on by the general ownership of the league.