Fantasy Baseball Overview
Drafts: Live online drafts will be Sunday, March 26, 2000.
Cost: $50 registration fee, $30 for entry fee, $20 deposit
on transaction fees, for 22-week season and playoffs.
Transactions: All owners will have the ability to make trades,
sign and release players.
Players: 28; 16 position players, 4 starting pitchers, 3
relief pitchers. 5 reserve players.
Leagues: 12 teams, two divisions.
Games: 154 (seven each week during 22-week season). Schedule
will be weighted, teams will play every team in own division 20 times, teams
in opposite division 9 times.
Starting Lineups: Eight position players (catcher, first
base, second base, shortstop, third base, three outfielders); one starting
pitcher; one relief pitcher.
Playoffs: The two division champions will play the wildcard
teams. The winners will meet in a world series.
Prizes: Champion 50%, Runnerup 30%, 3rd and 4th 10%.
Located on the home Fantasy Baseball page, there is a section titled
"Sign Up to Play." Click on this section and you will find a registration
form. Fill out the form and click on "Send" to register.
The Fantasy Baseball fee is $50 for the 2000 season. There is a $1 transaction
fee on all free agent pickups as well as a $1 fee on all traded players
received.
Registration will be accepted through March 19, 2000 if paying by check and
March 22, 2000 if paying by money order.
After sending in your registration, you will receive e-mail confirmation
within 48 hours. As soon as a league is filled (registration and fees are
processed for 12 owners), all owners will be notified by e-mail of draft
time on March 24, 2000. No draft will begin before 10 a.m. EST (New York
time).
Each team will draft 23 players 16 position players (two catchers,
two first basemen, two second basemen, two shortstops, two third basemen
and six outfielders); four starting pitchers and three relievers.
Each team's starting lineup will consist of one catcher, one first baseman,
one second baseman, one shortstop, one third baseman, three outfielders,
one starting pitcher and one reliever. The remaining position players will
be designated as backups.
Drafting order will be set by the commissioner before the draft. You will
be notified of draft position at the same time you are notified of draft
time. The draft order will be reversed after each round if you have the No.
1 pick in Round One, you will have the last pick in Round Two. This continues
through the entire draft. After 28 rounds are completed, the draft will continue
in order for owners who have drafted players currently on the injured list.
This process continues until all 12 teams have drafted 23 active players
and 5 reserve players. Injured players drafted will be placed on the fantasy
team's injured list until they are activated.
In order to keep draft time reasonable, the following rules will be
enforced:
1. One minute allowed per pick.
2. Teams selecting first and last will be given two minutes to make their
two picks as they are back-to-back throughout the draft.
3. If time expires, the team will forfeit its pick for that round. The team
may make up that pick by choosing two players in a later round.
4.Should a team, for any reason (including computer malfunction), not complete
the draft, the following guidelines will be in effect:
a. if an owner is present for the start of the draft and completes 12 rounds
of drafting, the team is officially his. Completion of the roster will be
done by the commissioner.
b. if an owner is present for the start of the draft and does not complete
12 rounds of drafting, he loses all rights to that team and a new owner will
be named. If that occurs, the owner has the option of drafting at a later
time in another league, if a vacancy exists, or receiving a refund, less
a $2 processing fee.
c. If an owner is not present by the time his turn to draft comes up, he
will be replaced. If that occurs, the owner has the option of drafting at
a later time in another league, if a vacancy exists, or receiving a refund,
less a $2 processing fee.
5. The draft will begin approximately 15 minutes after the scheduled draft
time. During the first 15 minutes, any final questions will be answered.
This league uses nine baseball statistics five offensive and four
pitching. The offensive statistics are hits, home runs, runs batted in, stolen
bases and batting average. Pitching stats are winning percentage, earned
run average, saves and strikeouts-minus-walks per nine innings. Averages
will be based on each week's real-life performance from Saturday through
Friday.
Each team plays eight position players, one starting pitcher and one relief
pitcher. All eight position players will have their offensive statistics
added together to create team totals or averages in the five categories.
The two pitchers will have their stats added together to create the team
totals in the pitching categories.
After team totals are figured, they are compared to the opponent's team totals.
Whichever team has the best numbers scores runs (offensive) or subtracts
runs (pitching) from the opponent.
To illustrate this, let's play a game with the following team totals:
Offensive Pitching
At-Bats Hits Avg. HRs RBI
SB W-L ERA Saves K-BB
Team A 120 30 .250 8
30 6 2-1 3.50 2
6
Team B 100 28 .280 10 27
9 2-0 2.67 1
3
And now, the scoring, which is 1 run for winning an offensive category and
a 1 run for winning a pitching category.
Hits Avg. HRs
RBI SB W-L ERA Saves K-BB Total
Team A 1 0 0
1 0 0 0
1 1 4
Team B 0 1 1
0 1 1 1
0 0
5
In our illustration, Team B posted a better batting average, had more homers
and stolen bases while Team A had better numbers of hits and RBI. In pitching,
the teams split, Team A having more saves and strikeouts-minus-walks, and
Team B taking winning percentage and ERA. When all the dust had cleared Team
B won by a 5-4 score.
Each week your fantasy team will play seven games against different opponents.
The season is 22 weeks for a 154-game schedule. Teams will play teams in
their own division 20 times and teams in the other division nine times.
Reserves: Your team's reserves will come into play after
a starter's eligibility is used up. A position player may play as many games
as he did in real life from Saturday through Friday. Hence, if Ken Griffey
Jr. plays in six games from Saturday through Friday, he may play six fantasy
games. One of your reserve's averages will be used to compute your team average
instead of Griffey's averages in the seventh fantasy game of the week. All
pitchers may play in one more fantasy game than they did in real life. Therefore,
if Jose Mesa makes three relief appearances during the week, he may pitch
in four fantasy games.
At the end of the season, the two divisional champions and two
wildcard teams from each the AL and NL with the best records, regardless
of division will advance to the playoffs.
Playoffs will be matched up as follows: Divisional champion with best record
vs. wildcard with second-best record; divisional champion with second-best
record vs. wildcard with best record.
Playoffs will be a best-of-seven format.
The two series winners will advance to the championship series, which also
will be a best-of-seven format.
Immediately following the draft, owners must e-mail starting lineups and
reserves to the commissioner.
After the draft, any lineup changes must be e-mailed by noon each Saturday.
Any lineup changes received after noon Saturday wil be delayed until the
following week.
Here's roughly the form you should use when e-mailing a lineup.
Starters Reserves
1B Thomas 1B Jaha
2B Alomar 2B Rolen
SS Ripken SS Fermin
3B Jones 3B Hayes
C Piazza C Manwaring
OF Bonds OF Kingery
OF Griffey OF Dye
OF Canseco OF Alou
Starting pitchers
1. Maddux
2. Pettitte
3. Brown
4. Clemens
Relievers
1. Smith
2. Mesa
3. Orlandini
Note: When setting a pitching rotation or relief rotation,
place your best pitchers in the higher slots. A No. 1 starter will pitch
twice every week for you; a No. 4 starter generally will see action only
once.
There is a $1 fee for every picked up player. There is also
a $1 fee for every player acquired in a trade.
Owners may trade players at any time before the trading deadline at Noon,
Sunday, date to be announced. If the commissioner deems a trade not to be
in the best interests of the league, all owners may be polled and if the
majority agrees, the trade will be vetoed.
There is no injured list since you will have a reserve list of 5 players.
If you pickup a player he must stay on your roster for 1 week. You
cannot pickup a player in midweek and release him before the start of the
next week unless he gets hurt.
In the event two teams attempt to claim the same player on the same day, the team with the worst record will get the player.
In the event two teams attempt to claim the same player who has been released
in the past day on the same day, the team with the worst record will get
the player. If a player is a free agent it is first come first serve.
Owners may decide to make their league continuous to next season.
In order for a league to become continuous, eight of 12 owners must agree
to do so.
If a league becomes continuous, owners will be able to protect up to 5 players
on their rosters. Also, owners in a continuous league may trade future draft
picks, but those picks are limited to the next year's draft. You must
make a $15 deposit on next years team to trade a draft pick.
The prize breakdown is as follows:
World Series Winner = 50%
Runner Up = 30%
Other 2 playoff teams = 10% each