The Meat Crew Fantasy
Baseball League
Official Rules and Charter
2007 Season
Introduction – History and Philosophy
The Meat Crew Fantasy
Baseball League (herein referred to as “The MCL” or simply, “MCL”) was born
during the late winter/early spring of 1996. Erwin Tonogbanua, founding father,
future Commissioner, and would-be self-proclaimed Tyrant and Dictator for Life,
anticipating yet another miserable season from his beloved New York Mets,
decided that he needed something to distract himself from another year of
frustration. Having been part of a Fantasy Basketball league the year before,
Erwin set out to establish a Fantasy Baseball league that would include several
of his good friends. Pretty soon, Dennis Mercado, Danny “J” Tham, Brian Lynch
and Frank Brunetti, agreed to join The MCL. With a bit of help from Fantasy
Baseball magazine, Erwin drew up the rules and regulations for The MCL, and
soon enough the league, as well as the 1996 baseball season, was underway.
Frank ended up winning the 1996 season (as well as a 50% share of the pot,
which reached $500 dollars), but due to personal reasons, decided not to
return. Expansion came in the 1997 season, and Frank’s team was split between
the two new members who were coming in: Jason Barone and Ray Asuncion. The pot
was done away with as well, and a new weekly head-to-head format was
introduced. With the onset of the 1998 baseball season, another expansion phase
set in on The MCL. Charlie D'Onofrio and Dan Wilski joined the party, bringing
the number of teams to 8.
The MCL was established with
the intent to serve as an outlet for a bunch of good friends to enjoy the
8-month long baseball season more than they usually would. Celebrating over and
agonizing with players whom they usually would not have a personal stake with
allowed The MCL owners to be part of more than just their favorite team’s
baseball season. It was, and still is, a pastime carried on for fun and healthy
competition. It is not a haven for those who do not hold those values in high
esteem. It is meant to foster camaraderie, not breed contempt. That will be The
MCL’s mission statement, as long as it exists.
IMPLIED RATIFICATION
The members of the Meat Crew
Fantasy Baseball League hereby acknowledge and ratify this charter and have
evidenced their agreement to be governed by it and to be subject to the rules
and provisions contained herein by accepting ownership of a franchise in The
MCL.
The Rules of the MCL
1. The Teams And Its Players
There will be eight teams in
the league. Each team will consist of 30 players. Of these 30 players, there
will be 15 position players, 10 pitchers and 5 inactive reserves. Inactive
reserves can be comprised of position players and pitchers. Only the statistics
(see Section 3) of the 15 position players and the 10 pitchers will be counted
for the week. At the end of the season, every season, each team will protect
twenty (20) players and expose the rest to the MCL draft, except for the 7th
and 8th place teams who get to protect twenty one (21) players each.
From the 15 position
players, a team must have one starter in First Base, Second Base, Shortstop,
Third Base and Catcher, and 3 starters in the Outfield.
The 7 remaining position
players can be of any position, except pitcher. Therefore, Designated Hitters
can be classified under this category, called “Active Reserves”.
A player qualifies as a
starter for a position if he: a) played at least 20 games in said position the
previous Major League Baseball season, or if he b) has played at least 15 games
in that position during the current Major League Baseball season at the start
of a new week. If at any time during the season the player breaks the 20
games-played barrier, he automatically qualifies for
that position the next season. The burden of proof in number of games played at
a position rests with the MCL owner, not with the office of the Commissioner,
although he is glad to be of assistance in such a case.
For example, if the
Of the team’s 10 active
pitchers, at least 5 must be a starting pitcher, at least 3 must be a reliever,
and the remaining two can either be a starter or a reliever, called
"Wildcards". A pitcher qualifies as a starting pitcher if he started
at least 4 games the previous season, or has started at least 3 games during
the current season by the start of the new week. A pitcher, in order to qualify
as a reliever, must have pitched at least 7 games out of the bullpen the
previous year, or 6 the current year by the start of the new week. If a pitcher
did not have IP's the previous year, he can be placed as a wildcard till he
fulfills either of this requirements.
Teams will be stocked with
players through the Annual MCL Regular Season Draft. There will be 12 rounds in
the draft. Order of the draft will be the last place team last season will have
the #1 overall pick, second worst #2, and so on. This is the basic order of the
draft, not taking into account trades involving draft picks. The basic order
will continue until Round #5 – starting that round, the team that had the last
pick the previous round will have the first pick in the next round, etc.
2. Qualified players
The following types of
players are the only ones who are eligible to be drafted, signed as a free
agent, and to ever appear on the roster
of an MCL franchise – whether it be among the 15 active position players, 10
active pitchers, and 5 inactive reserves – at any given time: Major League
players (from both the National and American Leagues) who are either on a major
League Roster or are Major League Free Agents, Minor League Players (all
levels, including independents), Japanese Baseball players (both Central and
Pacific Divisions), and any player under contract to a Major League Baseball
organization.
3. Statistics, Weekly Matchups, The
Season and The Championship
The M.C.L. will keep track
of 10 statistics: 5 offensive and 5 pitching. The 5 offensive statistics are:
Team Average, Team Home Runs, Team RBIs, Team Steals and Team Runs Scored. The
5 pitching statistics are: Team Wins, Team E.R.A., Team Saves, Team WHIP (Walks
plus Hits/IP) and Team K’s per 9 ratio.
The source of the official
statistics will be Stats Inc.
A head-to-head format will
be in effect. It works like this: a team will be matched up with another every
week. Each of a team’s 10 stats will be matched with his opponent’s for that
week. Therefore, within the head-to-head matchups, there will be 10 individual
team statistical matchups. A win in a category will earn a
team 2 points, a loss 0 points, and a tie 1 point.
In the event a team has a
tie in a category that involves decimals (Average, WHIP, E.R.A. and K’s per 9),
the decimals will be expanded to one more place from 2 decimal places (to a
maximum of 3). If still tied, then it will be a tie.
Each team’s point total will
then be added and compared to his opponent’s for that week. Winning a
head-to-head matchup will get a team 3 points, losing
0 points and ties 1 point.
Furthermore, every week, the
total points each team scores and the total points its opponent scores against it will be added
up. The difference between Points For and Points Against
(The Point Differential) will be the first basis for tie-breaks. For example:
Team A and Team B after 2 weeks are tied at 2-0. Team A
played Team C in Week 1 and won 16-2, and played Team D in Week 2 and won 16-2.
Team B on the other hand, played Team D in Week 1 and won 16-2, and played Team
C in Week 2 and won 18-0. Team A would have 32 points-for total, and 4 points
against for a differential of 28 points. Team B would have 34 points-for total
and 2 points-against for a differential of 32 points. Team B would win the
tie-break based on this.
The season will last 24
weeks. If at the end of the 24th week, two teams are tied, the order of tie breakers are as follows: a) Point differential
(points for - points against). b) If still tied after that, the winner is the
team which scored the most points for c) But it leads to reason that if it is
tied after a), it will still be tied after b), so the head-to-head records
between the tied teams will be reviewed and the one with the most wins will be
the winner d) If, God forbid, they are still tied, head-to-head points in the
matchups between the tied teams will be added and whoever has the highest one
wins.
Weeks 16 and 26 of the
Season will be Commissioner Cup’s weeks. This will be a Point Based
competition, with total points added up to determine the winner of the Commissioner’s
Cup.
4. Transactions
A team will have an
UNLIMITED number of transactions for the week. A transaction is defined as a
free agent signing or a trade. A signed
or traded player’s statistics will only start to count for his new team on the
first day of the new week after which he is traded or signed. Therefore, all
roster changes in order to count for the new cycle must be done before the
beginning of the new cycle. For example, Team A trades
Chipper Jones to Team B on Thursday evening. From Thursday to Sunday, Chipper
hits 5 Homeruns. Those homeruns still belong to Team A.
Anything Chipper hits from that Monday on belongs to Team B.
Signing a player often means
having to release another. A released player will go through the waiver wire,
meaning anybody who wants to sign him can. The waiver wire at the beginning of
the season will go in order of last place to first the previous season. This
order will last till the end of the 2nd week of the season. After
that, the order will be last place to first place after Week 2. However,
anybody who claims a player off the waiver wire and receives that player will
automatically move to the bottom of the waiver wire list, where he will remain
until some other team claims a player, is awarded his rights and is moved to
the bottom of the priority order. This will be known as “IF YOU WANT HIM BAD ENOUGH YOU’LL PAY FOR HIM” rule. A
player will be on the waiver wire for 24 hours, and if he goes unclaimed, he
will become a free agent, where anybody can sign him, regardless of position in
the standings.
A player who is claimed off
the waiver wire will remain there for the entire 24 hour claim period. At the
end of that 24 hour claim period, the team with the highest waiver-wire order
priority who claimed said player will be awarded his rights. Even if the team
with the highest priority on the waiver wire claims a player off said waiver
wire, he must still wait until the 24 hour claim period expires. This is to be
fair to those who are lower on the waiver-wire order, who after claiming a
player, often have to wait the entire 24 hours to see if anybody higher up in
the priority list claims the same player. This will be known as “QUID PRO QUO, EVEN IF YOUR
TEAM IS DOWN IN THE DUMPS” rule. Any claims on a player during the 24
hour claim period will be made public to the rest of the league.
A team who releases a player
to the waiver wire will have that same 24 hour window to recall that player off
the wire. This IS “THE RIGHT OF RECALL”
rule. Once that 24 hour window expires, the owner loses said right.
In order to sign a player,
or claim a player off waivers, an owner has to notify the commissioner and
assistant commissioners (that would be myself, Dennis Mercado and Daniel Wilski,
respectively) and tell us who you’re dropping and who you’re picking up. Any
claims without the name of the person to be released will not be processed.
Notifying the commissioner
and assistant commissioner means e-mailing all three of us about the
transaction. This is necessary to avoid confusion as to who claims or signs
who. In the event of multiple claims the same day, the time stamp on the e-mail
will be the judge of who gets priority. For those who do not have e-mail during
the workday, weekends or at night, an acceptable alternative will be leaving
The Commissioner a voice mail on his cell phone: 917-566-7124. IM’s, unfortunately,
are not acceptable, as I have found the time stamps on those things can be
rather iffy, and they have a habit of sometimes being closed out before they
are read, especially when I am at work. Besides, if you have access to IM then
you most probably have access to e-mail. If there is a claim on a player by
voice mail and another one on e-mail, then the time stamp on each will be the
judge of who gets priority.
Trades must be reported to
the commissioner and assistant commissioners in a similar manner as well.
The trading deadline for the
MCL will be September 5th. After that date, all players involved in any trades
must go through the waiver wire. If the players involve go through the waiver
wire without a claim, then the trade goes through. If there is a claim, the
owner of that player has a choice:
either exercise his Right of Recall, or choose not to exercise said
right and allow the player’s rights to be transferred to the claimee. All
trades involving “Player/s to be named later” and “future considerations” are
not allowed unless the specifics of the “future considerations” and/or
“Player/s to be named later”
are revealed a the time of the trade AND approved by the
Commissioner. All trades involving “future considerations” and “Players to be
named later” are not allowed after the September 5th deadline, even
if specifics are given.
The commissioner’s office
will send an e-mail, or several e-mails, every day, of all transactions that
have occurred, as well as any updates he finds interesting to share. This
e-mail will also be the official start of the 24 hour claim period of whomever has been placed on the waiver wire. So, for
example, Team A releases Player B at 12 noon, and sends proper correspondence
to the Commissioner’s Office saying so. The Commissioner’s Office gets said
e-mail, and
notifies rest of the league about the release at 5 P.M. The 24 hour claim
period will begin at 5 P.M., not at 12 noon.
If a player gets injured and
placed on the DL, he may be replaced by a free agent. Injured players will go
to the Team Disabled List, protected from the rest of the league. However, once
the player returns from the DL appropriate roster adjustments have to be made.
Once an owner is informed by the Commissioner or Asst. Commissioner that a player
is off the DL, that owner has 24 hours to make the required roster adjustment.
If not, that newly activated player will be placed on waivers, with the owner
having no right of recall. The commissioner’s office will be much stricter in
enforcing this rule this year, so please be aware of that.
On September 1st
of every year, the rosters of each MCL team will be expanded by 1 Inactive
Reserve. After September 1st, no teams will be allowed to place
players on the Disabled List, unless the Major League team they belong to does
so likewise (which they are not wont to do, therefore the expansion). But if a
player is said to be “Out for the Year”, the MCL will consider him placed on
the Disabled List and the MCL owner is free to treat him as such. Teams, however,
will be allowed to activate players off the disabled list. At least a few days
before September 1st, a special 1 round draft will be held to fill
this 1 additional roster spot, with the order going from worst place to first,
based on the standings the week before September 1st.
If a player does not play
the entire cycle due to injury, suspension, bad luck, because the manager hates
him, or for whatever reason, another player automatically moves up to fill that
position, provided of course he fulfills the requirement for that position. So,
if you have Roberto Alomar, and he doesn’t play for that week, and you don’t
have another second baseman on your roster, there’s nothing that can be done
about it.
If a player does not play
the entire cycle due to injury, suspension, etc., and all position requirements
are filled, the Commissioner will automatically move up to the starting lineup
a player in the inactive roster to take the deadbeat's place. In these
situations, the
Commissioner will move players up in alphabetical order.
The deadline to provide the
Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner with starting lineups is the first
pitch of the first game of the week.
The Office of the
Commissioner will send an e-mail by the weekend notifying everybody of what
time the first game starts that following Monday. I would like to emphasize however that the transaction deadline does
not mean a team is not encouraged to submit transactions well before it. Such
requests made mere moments before the deadline in a non-emergency situation
(i.e. waiting to hear if an injured player will be playing that week) can end
up being very messy. If a team knows what moves they want to make beforehand,
they are requested to not make the deadline a target to submit such moves. Whether the reason is indecisiveness, ignorance or whatever else,
waiting till the very last second to request routine roster moves is not
encouraged.
Any
new pick ups who are on the starting lineups for that
week cannot be released till after the last game of the week for his team. The
commissioner will be very flexible with this rule, as he understands that
sometimes certain moves are necessary. But if he perceives that an owner is
manipulating his roster using the waiver wire and what not, he will enforce this
rule.
The
last day any team can sign anybody is the first day of the start of Week 26/Commissioner’s
Cup Leg 2. To ensure there will be no mass dumpings and signings of players, a
maximum of 3 signings per team will be enforced.
5. A Special Note on Minor Leaguers and College Players
As explained previously in
Section 2, Minor Leaguers are eligible to be drafted. A player in the Minor
Leagues will count against a team’s 30 man roster. All minor league players are
also eligible for free agency signing at any time. The only limit to the number
of minor leaguers one can draft or sign is the number of spots in Inactive
Reserves an owner is willing to allocate, if any. The price, of course, of such
a decision, is the loss of flexibility in a team. This will be known as “PHENOMS DON’T COME CHEAP” rule.
All players drafted in that
year’s Major League Baseball entry draft have to wait until the next MCL draft
to be eligible, unless they are signed by a Major League team AND is called up.
The official source of
whether or not a player has been signed and/or been called up is ESPN.com’s
transaction page. An MCL owner wishing to sign someone must save said page as
an html and include it in the e-mail to the Commissioner. No other source will
be accepted as proof.
6. Injured Players and Protection
A team is
allowed to put injured players on the DL and thus exempt from the 20 man
protected roster list. The injured player must stay on the DL NO LESS than 60
days after the first game of the regular season. If the injured player is
activated from the DL less than 60 days after the first game of the regular
season, the team has to either a) put him through waivers where anybody
can claim him or b) forfeit their first round pick in the following year's
draft. No penalties if the player comes back 60 days after the first game of
the regular season.
If the team puts
more than one player on the 20 man exempt DL, and their first round pick was
forfeited already due to a player coming off the DL before the deadline, then
their 2nd round pick will be the penalty for the next player, and so on and so
forth. So if a team puts 3 guys on the 20 man exempt DL, and each one comes
back before the deadline, the first one will cost you a 1st rounder, the 2nd
one a 2nd rounder, the 3rd one a 3rd rounder.
If a team does
not have the required draft picks to place a player on the 20 man exempt DL,
they can still place players on that list, but if they come back before the
deadline, they MUST be put on waivers. If they clear waivers then the team
retains his rights, if they choose.
Teams cannot
trade players on the 20 man exempt DL until they come back.
7.
Transfer of
Ownership
Any owner who wishes to
dispose a franchise or who has been discharged must return their franchise back
to the MCL. Any subsequent transfer of ownership must be approved by the
Commissioner. A current franchise owner may not exchange their franchise for
the vacant one as such a move would disrupt continuity. (As one of the
strengths of any Fantasy Baseball league is the building of traditions, the
more stable the league in terms of having franchises with uninterrupted
ownership, the deeper the traditions will run.)
Once a franchise is without
ownership, the Commissioner will form a search committee to select a new owner
for the next season. For draft purposes, the new owner will be entitled to all
privileges as if the franchise had actually never changed or lost ownership.
Specifically, they will draft in the order based on where the franchise
actually finished at year end and will inherit any draft pick liabilities or
gains which were the result of trades made by the previous ownership before
their withdrawal or expulsion. Potential owners will be judged on knowledge of
baseball, enthusiasm, personality, cooperation, and (most importantly) an
understanding of exactly what they are about to undertake.
In years when a newly
admitted Owner inherits a previously existing franchise, the transfer of the
roster from the previous Owner to the new incoming Owner will be subject to the
terms outlined below.
A. Newly admitted Owner(s)
will be permitted to retain 20 players (no more, no less) from the MCL roster
that they inherit. Players may be of any position. Depending on the situation,
this number might be put up for a vote and be changed, all on a case by case
basis.
B. Returning Owners will be
permitted to retain their usual 20 players from their MCL roster (any
positions).
C. All players not retained
on any MCL roster after the implementation of these procedures will be returned
to the Free Agent Pool.
D. The regular draft will be
held. All teams, unless special circumstances were agreed upon beforehand, will only draft
till the 12th round.
8. Duties and powers of The Commissioner
The Commissioner is granted the power
and discretion to make any and all decisions regarding the league, including
but not limited to: conflict resolution, introduction of new rules during the
season, and interpretation of current
rules. The Commissioner reserves the rights to introduce minor rule changes or minor changes in
process during the season without having to seek approval of the majority of
the league, even though the Commissioner has always notified the rest of the
league whenever this has happened. Rest assured, that
if it is a major rule change, The Commissioner will bring this matter to a vote
with the rest of the league for approval. In the event that there is a
potential conflict of interest, The Commissioner must absolve himself from
decision making in the matter and allow the Assistant Commissioners to handle
the issue. If the Assistant Commissioner faces a potential conflict of interest
as well, then a vote will be brought to the rest of the league. The
Commissioner and Assistant Commissioners pledge that they will be as objective,
fair and honest as they have always been in regards to league matters. Should
there be a tie in this vote process, then Independent Arbitrator James
Calabrese will be called in.
Just as importantly, the
Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner reserve the right to make changes to
the schedule of games for the final week of the regular season. This right will
be exercised when the outcome of these final games will help determine the
final order of finish, or if the final order of finish is determined already , to settle rivalries.
9. The Meat Crew League Championship Plaque
Beginning with the 1997
season, the team who wins the MCL will be awarded the MCL Championship Plaque,
in honor of his achievement. The plaque will be transferred year to year from
the former champion to the new champion during the MCL Draft. This plaque MUST
be kept in pristine condition by the current holder. Damaging the plaque will
result in these penalties:
·
The offending
owner must pay for the repair or for the replacement of plaque. The offending
owner must also pay for food at the next MCL gathering.
·
The offending
team will be referred to in any and all league related matters as “The Man Who
Likes Little Boys” for an entire season.