Rules
League Rules
Scoring Rules
Scoring Format
The scoring format for the league will be Rotisserie format.
Scoring Categories
The scoring categories will be close to Standard 5x5 Rottisserie, with one substitution. On Base Percentage (OBP) will replace Batting Average (AVG) to better reflect the overall offensive value of hitters. Saves plus Holds (SVH) will replace the standard Saves category to better reflect the overall value of relief pitchers.
So the total is:
- Hitters: R, HR, RBI, SB, OBP
- Pitchers: W, SVH, K, ERA, WHIP
Starting Lineup
The starting lineup is as follows: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CF, 3 OF, Util (aka DH) SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P (SP or RP)
Only players in the starting lineup accumulate statistics toward your team totals. Position eligibility will be determined by Fantrax’s eligibility rules.
Games Played / Innings Maximums
162 games at each position for hitters (1620 is the official value, 162*10). On the Fantrax league, this limit is not applied to individual positions, but instead any start is counted towards the grand total.
1256 max Innings Pitched for pitchers. If possible, a minimum IP of 600 Innings Pitched will also be used.
Once these limits are reached, any additional games or innings will not count toward team stats.
Roster Movement
Roster Change Deadlines
Due to a prior inability to set up weekly roster changes, with daily lineup changes, the league has switched to daily roster changes per the standard Fantrax rules.
Lineup Change Deadlines
The starting lineup will lock before the individual games, allowing owners to update their starting players daily.
Player Availability
During the regular season, only players that have appeared at the Major League level are available to be added as Free Agents. Specifically, the intention is that minor league players that have not appeared in the majors this year are not eligible for pickup during the season. For the purposes of Fantrax, a player without a ‘green flag’ is considered to be at the Major League level and thus eligible to be added as a Free Agent.
September Callups
As a special case, players that were not on a Major League roster prior to Sept. 1, are not eligible to be retained for the next season. They may be added and dropped as normal from Sept. 1 to the end of the season, but then must be returned to the Draft pool for the next season. Any players that were on the a Major League roster (including the Disabled List) prior to Sept. 1 are eligible to be retained, regardless of whether or not they were on the retaining team’s roster prior to Sept. 1.
Waiver Rules
Pickups can be made at any time. As such, any player removed from the 40 man roster will be subject to a waiver period of 1 days. At the end of this period, the team with the highest waiver priority that has made a claim on the player will add that player to their roster (with a corresponding drop if necessary to maintain a legal roster). Waiver Priority will be based on the reverse of the draft order, with priority being moved to Last after a claim.
Waiver priority will be reset at the beginning of the season based on the standings from the previous season (the last place team gets first waiver priority, second last gets second priority, etc.).
If possible in the future, waiver priority may be reset every Tuesday with the Last Place team receiving the highest priority.
Free Agent/Waiver Acquisition Limits
There will be no limit to the number of pickups allowed during the season. Due to the nature of this being a carryover league, roster churn tends to be minimized thus negating the need for a hard limit on moves.
Undroppable List
Assuming there is no abuse or collusion, there will be no Undroppable list. Since this is a carryover league, there really isn’t a ton of reason to drop a injured player from your roster anyway.
Roster Freeze Deadlines
These deadlines are in addition to the regular free-agent deadlines during the season.
There will be a roster freeze for some period prior to the annual draft (I suggest 2 weeks initially, adjusted in future years by league vote) . During this period, no free-agent adds/drops, waiver claims, or trades of any kind may be done. This freeze period is intended to lock in which players are available for the draft, what draft picks each team will have during the draft, and how many roster spots each team will also have available. Teams may make trades again during the live draft, if they wish.
From the end of the draft until Opening Day, no Adds will be allowed, only Trades and Drops.
There will be a league trading deadline approximately two weeks (mid-August) after the non-waiver trade deadline in Major League Baseball (usually July 31st). No trades will be allowed after this deadline, but Free Agent adds/drops and Waiver claims may still be made.
A final roster freeze will occur from the end of the regular season until the end of the Major League Baseball playoffs.
Important Dates for an individual season are recorded on the website.
Roster Limits
Active Roster Size
The active roster will be 26 spots. This means 10 spots for hitters, 8 spots for pitchers, 8 bench spots.
Reserve Roster Size
There will be a reserve roster of 14 players (bringing to the total roster to 40 players). This roster is non-active and is managed as Minor League Players on Fantrax.
Injured List
There will be four (4) Injured List roster spots that may be filled by players on the real world IL. A player on the Injured List does not count against your team’s 40 man roster.
During the offseason, players that are injured (surgery, longterm IL at the end of the season, etc) are eligible to be on the IL throughout, regardless of whether they are officially designated as such by their MLB team. We will be using a somewhat loose interpretation of IL status where if it can be acknowledged that the player is indeed injured or recovering from an injury during the offseason, they are eligible for the league IL.
Long-term Injured List
This rule was previously used to provide relief for retaining players with major injuries. It was dropped prior to the 2020 season, but the text below has been retained for posterity.
During the regular season, one (1) injured player (IL status on ESPN / real-life for minor leaguers) can be designated as “out for the year”. This player is removed from the Active Roster and added to the White List but does not count towards your Reserve space. This player cannot be added back to your roster for the rest of the season. To be eligible for the Long-term Disabled List, the player must be on your roster prior to being injured. This designation cannot be applied after the Trade Deadline has passed.
During the offseason, the “out for the year” player become part of your regular offseason 40+3 with no additional special status.
Trading Rules
Trade Review and Vetos
Within the league there will be a 3 person trade review panel rather than a single commissioner reviewing all trades. To pass a trade, a clear majority of the panel must vote to allow the trade. Any panel member participating in a the trade must abstain from voting on that trade (requiring both other panel members to pass the trade, or if two panel members are trading then the third is the deciding vote).
After a trade is accepted, there will be a 72 hour trade review window wherein league members may lodge concerns and/or complaints with the panelists. (This review window may be subject to extenuating circumstances for panel members such as vacations, funerals, etc). Panelists will be be expected to discuss with each other the merits of the trade. Owners may be asked to explain their reasoning behind the trade. All Panel decisions are final.
Rules clarifications/revisions and trade decisions should be reviewed by the entire league at season end to resolve any problems that may have arisen in-season. Panel positions should be reviewed/voted on after each season.
The current (2025) league council consists of Aaron, Mike V, and Sanka.
Veto Guidelines
The only reasons to veto a trade are collusion between owners, or other severe underhandedness (e.g. trading a player right after a major injury, before that information is widely known). Unless there is evidence of collusion, it’s rather unfair to penalize an owner that has managed to sell (or take advantage of) another owner with a lopsided deal – especially if the benefitting owner is high in the standings. [This section should be expanded by the league for rules clarification, but Rules Lawyering should not be tolerated]
Things that can be traded
Players that are on the active or reserve roster. There will be no restrictions on player movement through trade. Empty roster spots may be filled with Free Agents within the usual transaction period. Player roster status (active vs reserved) may be modified by the receiving team during the course of the trade, to comply with roster limits (26 active, 14 reserve). In the event of an uneven trade, players must be dropped to waivers to maintain proper roster limits.
Future draft picks. The receiving team picks during the sending team’s draft slot (potentially in addition to its own) during this round of the annual draft.
Annual Draft
The draft order for each round will be iterative, last place finishing team drafting first each round of the draft (so NOT a snake draft). During the draft, roster size limits will not be in effect. Before Opening day (by a date to be determined at the draft), all owners must submit a final roster + cuts conforming to the standard 40+4 roster size.
It is expected that owners will not tank a season (ignoring the possibility of trading for prospects) in order to acquire a high draft position in the following year’s draft. If this is abused, then there may be measures added in future drafts to mitigate some of the advantages afforded to last place teams in the draft.
Draft Order for the bottom 6 teams in the league is determined by a random lottery using the below percentages. These percentages are intended to roughly conform to those used by the Major sports leagues.
- Last 21%
- 2nd 21%
- 3rd 21%
- 4th 16%
- 5th 12%
- 6th 9%
In the case of a tie, the draft order and/or weighting will be determined at minimum one week prior to the Annual Draft by way of a coin flip conducted by the Commissioners.
With the abolishment of the Talent Redistribution Draft, its roster management purpose has been combined with the Annual Draft. Prior to February 1st, all teams must cut players from their roster down to a maximum of 28 players retained. The cut players will be available as part of the Annual Draft. Cut players are not returned to their former owners post-draft.
Eligible Players
The draft pool will be any player whose rights are owned by a major league club that is not already on a 40+4 man roster in our league. This includes players Posted by their Japanese clubs, Free Agents signed out of Latin America, and players selected in the previous June’s amateur draft. Players from the amateur draft are not eligible for roster addition during the season unless they reach the Major Leagues during the season, then they will be subject to the usual waiver procedure.
Talent Redistribution Draft
As of the 2024 season, the Talent Redistribution Draft has been abolished and combined with the Annual Draft. The text below is retained for posterity.
This draft is often referred to as the Rule 5 draft (our league’s equivalent to the Major League Rule V draft). In the weeks after an expansion draft but prior to the annual draft, teams will be required to submit a list of 30 protected players from their roster. All players require protection, including those that retain their rookie-eligibility. All unprotected players are compiled into a list, and the league drafts from this pool of players. Draft order is the same as that used in the annual draft: reverse order of finish. For expediency, this draft will be limited to a maximum of 5 rounds and is typically carried out over Slack. Expansion teams are excluded from the Rule 5 draft.
Expansion Draft
Replacement Teams
When replacing the owner of an existing team, only teams that finished in the bottom three can be assumed by a new owner. Should a non-bottom three team owner choose to leave the league, a dispersal draft will take place for his or her players. Draft order will be based on prior year standings.
Additional Teams
During an expansion year, each team in the league will protect 30 players from their 40+4 roster. Prior to the regular annual draft, an expansion draft will take place, participated in by the expansion teams entering the league. The expansion teams will draft from a player pool consisting of the unprotected players only – players on the Free Agent list are not available in the expansion draft. Unprotected players are only available for drafting by the expansion teams, not the rest of the teams in the league. Expansion teams may draft at most 30 players during the expansion draft, but may draft fewer if desired.
During the annual draft, the expansion teams will be slotted in ahead of the existing teams for each round.
A coin flip (or other form of fair determination) will be used to select the order of selection for the expansion draft, with the reverse order used for the annual draft. In the case of two teams, the winner of the coin flip has the choice of first pick in either the annual draft or the expansion draft.
League Finances
Treasurer
The league treasurer keeps track of who owes and is owed what monies from the results during the season, and holds the league monies in trust during the season. The current league treasurer is Aaron.
Annual Buy-In
The annual league buy-in is $75 per team (with a 12 team league, this is a $900 prize pool).
Year-end Payout
(This assumes a 12 team league)
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| First | $450 |
| Second | $250 |
| Third | $100 |
| Most Improved Second Half | $100 |
In the case of a tie, the tied teams will split their combined winnings evenly.
‘Most Improved Second Half’ Defined
- For the purposes of the league, ‘Second Half’ is defined as July 1st to the end of the season
- For the purposes of the league, ‘Most Improved’ is defined as the largest net improvement in standings points
- The standings on July 1st will be snapshotted for record purposes
- The Top 3 finishers in the league are ineligible for the Most Improved prize
Rule Change Proposals
These are to be reviewed at the post-season or pre-season meetings.