Rules
1. The league consists of 12 teams of 24 players each. Only National League players are eligible to be drafted.
2. The active roster of each team consists of these positions:
1 First Baseman;
1 Third Baseman;
1 First or Third Baseman;
1 Second Baseman;
1 Shortstop;
1 Second Baseman or Shortstop;
2 Catchers;
5 Outfielders;
1 Utility Player (may be any position);
10 Pitchers (there are no requirements regarding starters, relievers, or innings).
3. Teams are assembled through an annual auction, which is usually held on the weekend after Opening Day
(usually the first full weekend in April). Each team owner has a maximum of $260 to assemble his team, with bidding taking
place at increments of $1. The defending champion nominates the first player for auction, and nominations proceed around
the room clockwise. Players who open the year on a National League 25-man roster or on the disabled list are eligible to
be drafted. Prior to each auction, each team owner may keep anywhere from 0 to 15 of the players currently on his roster,
but the salaries of any such players are counted against the $260 auction budget.
4. A player may be drafted at any position at which he appeared in at least 20 games during the previous season. Players
can thus be eligible at more than one position, and can be shifted between positions during the course of the auction. If a
player did not appear at any position in 20 games, that player may be drafted at the position at which he appeared in the
most games. The 20-game rule applies only during the auction.
5. Team owners may not make a bid that it cannot afford. For example, if a team still has 6 players to acquire and has
$18 left, the owner may make a maximum bid of $13. An owner also may not either nominate or bid on a player who is eligible
only at a position or positions which the owner has already filled.
6. Each player who is acquired during the auction has a salary of the bid at which he was acquired. Other potential
methods for determining a player's salary (all of which are explained below) include the following:
$10 for a free agent acquisition;
$10 or current salary, whichever is higher, for a player claimed off the waiver wire;
$25 for a player acquired as a free agent and placed in a team's September expansion roster spot, unless a bid is used
and it is greater than $25, then that price is used;
bid price for any player acquired through bidding.
7. Fees are as follows:
the basic fee is the amount of money spent at the auction divided by 10;
$.50 per team for each trade;
$2 for a free agent call-up prior to the All-Star game (this includes all players obtained through the bidding system);
$4 after the game;
$1 to place a player on a team's reserve list;
$1 to activate a player from a team's reserve list;
$1 to claim a player off the waiver wire;
$5 to create the September expansion roster spot.
Fees related to the the use of long-term contracts will be discussed below. In addition, each year the cost of
obtaining statistics will be divided equally among the league members.
8. All fees are paid out at season's end according to the following schedule:
first place: 50%;
second place: 25%;
third place: 15%;
fourth place: 10%.
9. Teams are ranked from first to twelfth in each of 10 statistical categories: batting average, home runs,
runs batted in, stolen bases, runs, wins, saves, strikeouts, earned run average, and ratio (hits and walks allowed
divided by innings pitched). The highest ranked team in a category earns 12 points, the second highest earns 11 points,
and this progression continues to the twelfth-ranked team, which earns 1 point. Each team's scores in the 10 categories
are added, and the teams are then ranked based upon the totals in those categories. If there are any ties for total points,
the only tie-breaker awards the higher ranking to the team which leads the other team or teams in the most categories. The
tie stands if this tie-breaker does not resolve it.
10. The deadline for reporting transactions is each Tuesday prior to the start of the day's first game. For example,
a transaction reported on Wednesday is official on that date, and any players obtained can be traded immediately, but
their statistics do not begin to accrue for their owner's team until the following Tuesday. The one exception to this
rule, however, applies in the case of players who are picked up as free agents on the day of the auction to replace drafted
players who are on the disabled list. A disabled player who is drafted may be reserved after the draft, and a free agent
picked up for him, and the new player's statistics apply retroactively to Opening Day.
11. During the off-season, trading is unlimited. One player may be traded for a team's entire roster. During the season,
each team must trade the same number of players, and the league's position requirement rule still must be satisfied at the
end of every trade. The first trade deadline is the end of the All-Star Break. From that point on until the end of August,
trades may be made only by teams that are adjacent to each other in the standings. No trades are allowed in September,
which is the second trade deadline.
12. A player may be placed on a team's reserve list and replaced if the player has been disabled, released, sent to
the minors, or traded to the American league. A player who fits any of the above criteria may also be released. The reserved
player may be replaced by a player picked up as a free agent or one acquired from the waiver wire. If a player who has been
reserved returns to the active roster of a National League team, the team which has reserved him has two full weeks, in
addition to the rest of the week during which the player returned to active duty, to activate him. If the player has not
been activated by the deadline he is waived. When a reserved player is activated, the player acquired for him (or any
subsequent player acquired in place of that player) must be waived. This rule does not apply if the player who was acquired
for the reserved player can be moved into another roster spot which has been opened as a result of any of the events listed
in the first sentence of this rule. A player can be reserved and activated only one time prior to his return to an active
NL roster. This provision outlaws the "double switch" move. A reserved player can be traded along with the player picked
up for him (an exception to the one-for-one trade rule), or the reserved player may be activated and then traded. In the
latter case, the new owner cannot reserve the player because of the one reserve/activate rule. A player that has been
reserved and then subsequently activated by his Rotisserie owner, may be dropped to pick up a new player. No free agent
is eligible to be picked up or bid on, whether appearing in the NL for the first time that season or returning from the
disabled list or minors, until he actually appears in a game.
13. The waiver wire will be posted each week on Tuesday. The wire will consist of those players who were picked up
for a reserved player and who have been displaced by that player's return, of players who were replaced by a waiver claim,
and by players who were replaced by a player obtained as a result of bidding. A player who is released from a Rotisserie
team and who does not appear on an active major league roster or on the disabled list will not appear on the waiver wire,
and any player on the wire will be dropped from it if he achieves either of those statuses during the week. Team owners
may claim one player off the wire each week, with the lowest-ranked team who claims a player prior to the Tuesday deadline
getting that player. A player claimed off the wire may be used to replace a player who is being reserved or to replace a
player who is currently on an active National League roster (the latter is an exception to the general rule that a player
may not be replaced unless he falls into one of the statuses listed in the first sentence of rule 12).
14. Beginning on September 1, and at any time from that point until the end of the season, a team owner may expand his
roster by one player (any position). This position may be filled by a waiver claim, a free agent, a player obtained through
the bidding system, or by a player currently on the team's roster who has been picked up to replace a reserved player. On
September 1 only, any free agent who is selected to expand a team's roster is awarded to the lowest-ranked team to make a
free agent claim on that player. After September 1, any such free agent pick ups are first-come, first-served.
15. When team owners turn in the list of players which they wish to keep heading into the auction each year, they must
make a decision for any player whose current contract was established two years prior to the current season. For example,
players with a contract status of 1999 fall into this rule at the beginning of the 2001 season. Such a player must be
released, signed to an option contract, or signed to a long-term contract. It costs nothing to use the option contract,
but the player is immediately released at the end of the season. If a player is signed to a long-term contract, his salary
increases by $5 for each year for which he is signed, excluding the current year. In addition, the team owner owes a fee
of one-half the total value of the contract (divided by 10, with a minimum of $.50). A player with a long-term contract
may not be released or waived during the season, except in the event of a trade to the American League. A team owner who
does not wish to keep a player with a long-term contract prior to the annual auction may release that player by paying a
fee of twice the remaining value of the contract (divided by ten).
16. During the week in which a player who was not eligible for the auction first reaches an active National League
roster during that season, that player may be acquired only through the use of the bidding system. If the player arrives
from the American League via a trade, any team owner may make a bid to acquire that player, using him to replace any player
on the owner's roster. If the player reaches the National League via any other route, that player may be bid on by a team
owner only if the player can be used to replace a player in one of the statuses listed in the first sentence of rule 12.
Each team owner begins the season with 100 bidding units. If a team owner has a player traded to the American League and
releases that player, he receives additional units equal to that player's salary. The minimum bid is $5, and all bids must
be submitted via email with a subject heading of "sealed bid for '???'" Along with the bid, the team owner must submit the
name of the player who will be replaced in the event of a winning bid. If the owner does not submit the winning bid, he may
not make an alternate move involving the player who was to be replaced during that week. The salary of a player obtained
via the bidding system is the amount of the bid at which that player was obtained. The fee for acquiring such a player is
the same as the free agent acquisition fee then in force. Any player who is obtained with a bid greater than $10 must be
kept heading into the auction the following year unless the team owner pays a fee equal to twice the player's salary
divided by 10, with a minimum fee of $10). In all situations in which an owner makes a successful bid, a player must be
dropped or waived. A player obtained by a bid cannot be used to replace a player who is being reserved. In the event of
tie bids, the lowest team in the standings will be awarded the player.
17. After the All-Star break, every free-agent player or player on the waiver wire may be obtained at any time via a bid.
A team thus may use a bid to replace a player who is still on an NL active roster. The order of preference for moves made
after the All-Star break is waiver claims, regular free-agent pickups, and then free-agent bids. Thus, a team that makes a
free agent pickup to replace a player no longer on an NL active roster will have precedence over a team using a bid to pickup
the same player as a free agent. The bidding system, however, will remain the only way to acquire a player during his first
week of eligibility in the NL. Finally, a team can make any number of bids during a week, but contingency bids are not
allowed. In addition, all bids made by an owner during a week will be disallowed if any portion of the bids, if successful,
would cause the team to exceed the salary cap discussed in Rule 18. The contract status of a player on the waiver wire who
is acquired by bid or free agent pickup remains the same. The salary of such a player acquired by bid is the greater of the
bid price or his current salary. The salary of such a player acquired by free agent pickup is the greater of $10 or his
current salary.
18. A salary cap of 360 may never be exceeded by any active Rotisserie roster (reserved players do not count against the
salary cap, but teams will need to be careful because moves made subsequent to reserving a player may prevent his later
activation if that would cause the team to exceed the salary cap). In addition, the extra player which teams may add
through September roster expansion does not count against the cap.