Rules for Super Sluggers Fantasy Baseball 2006

Teams

Each team is run by a GM. We have 10 teams, each with their own GM.
If needed, the commissioner will run any extra teams. While this situation is not desirable, it may be done if we have an odd number of teams, or if someone drops out. If that happens, the commissioner will run both teams, except trades may not be made between teams the commissioner runs.

Draft

After the teams have been identified, the next step is to have a draft so that players may be distributed to the teams. The draft is scheduled for ????????????????????.
Each team must keep a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 players from the previous year. The teams select their keepers via the Web site one week before the draft. Each GM selects his/her keepers blind, with no knowledge of who the other GMs are keeping. A GM keeping 3 players must keep at least 1 player eligible to play an up the middle (C, 2B, SS, CF) position.

A list of kept players will be available on the Web site the day after the deadline for declaring the keepers. Sometime between then and draft day, each GM must visit the site and mark the keepers off the cheat sheets. This saves a lot of time.

On draft day, the first round will be a supplemental round. Only the teams that kept just one keeper will be involved, in draft order.

The second round will also be a supplemental round. Only the teams that kept one or two keepers will be involved, in draft order.

At least 1 of each teams first three players must be eligible to play an up the middle (C, 2B, SS, CF) position. This is the case regardless of how many players you elected to keep. So, after the second supplemental round, all teams will have 3 players, at least 1 of whom will be an up the middle player.

After that there will be 15 rounds, and each team has an active roster of 18 players.

Given that the league is geographically diverse, it is unlikely we will all be in the same room. We will communicate by chat room, email or telephone, depending on what the GMs have available.

The team with the worst record will pick first in all rounds, the team with the second worst record will pick second in all rounds, etc. Should two or more teams tie, the tie breakers are, in this order: runs scored, divisional record, head to head play, and a coin flip.

For 2006, the draft order will be:

Vivien
Phil
Ron
Scott
Rick
Mike
Bob or Curt
Bob or Curt
Andrew
Deborah

Yes, Bob and Curt really did tie for that position in the draft. A coin flip will determine who picks when.

Lineups and Games

Super Sluggers Fantasy Baseball games occur on on days when every team in MLB is scheduled to play, starting sometime in late April. Each game pits two fantasy teams against one another, using a schedule that is determined before the season starts.
Sometime after the draft and before the season starts, you need to go to the web site and set your lineup. This lineup is the lineup you use until you go back to the web site and change it again. The deadline for submitting a lineup is noon, any lineup submitted after that will not take effect until the next day. For example, if you submit your lineup on 11 am on a Tuesday, that is the lineup you will use for Tuesday's game. If you submit it at 1 pm, the old lineup will be used for Tuesday's game, and the new one for Wednesday's game. All lineups keep in effect until you change them.
A lineup consists of a player at each defensive position (except pitcher) plus a designated hitter. You then rank the remaining players on your roster, based on the offensive production you expect from them.
A player can only play in a position he is eligible for. A player is eligible for a position if he played 10 or more games there last year, or 10 or more the current year. So, if you want to draft some hot rookie, he should be eligible for the position he will play by the time the SSFB season starts. Since the DH doesn't field, anyone on your roster may be a DH.
Scoring is based on the major league games played on that day.
If your player does not get at least 3 plate appearances, he is automatically taken out of your starting lineup, and the highest ranked reserve is used that can be inserted into the lineup to cover all eight defensive positions. Players are automatically moved into different positions they are eligible to play, in order to keep your projected best lineup on the field.
If after all that, you still don't have anyone to play a position that started a real major league game, a fictitious player will be inserted, who gets a score of -0.5. Hint: have backups everywhere, especially at catcher.
Should a real major league team play a double header on that day, only the first game a player gets 3 or more plate appearances counts towards fantasy baseball production.
Each player in your lineup is given fantasy runs, using a formula designed to give the average number of runs a player would produce on an average team. The formula is:

Result	Score
Single	0.5
Double	0.72
Triple	1.04
Home run	1.44
Walk, HBP	0.34
Sac Fly	0.37
Sac Hit	0.04
Stolen Base	0.18

this is very close to the scores we have used before, but we are only using positive numbers. Why? Because it seemed unfair that if one guys goes 1 for 4, but another guy only goes 1 for 1 because someone had to dig into their bench, the second guy has the better score. In other words, that manager is rewarded for only having a bench player.

To determine the number of runs a fantasy team scores, the individual runs produced of everyone in your lineup are added. That number is then rounded to the nearest whole number.

The winner is the team with more runs. If adding each teams starting lineup results in a whole number tie, then players from the bench are used, one by one, until there is no more tie (rounded).

In the extremely unlikely event that all of that does not produce a winner, the home team is declared the winner.

Fantasy box scores will be posted on the web site. Since the scoring will be done automatically (using software I am writing), please check the box scores for errors. Hint: computing the numbers wrong is very unlikely. Errors more likely to occur are extracting the data incorrectly from the real results. For example, sometimes they change how a player is identified, or a player gets traded and I don't know about it.

Bring corrections up to the commissioner within one week of the games, or within the end of the regular season, whichever comes first. After this the results are final.

Box score on the USA Today's web site are used. If you believe the USA Today site is in error, you must find two sources that contradict it.

Bottom line: SSFB is designed not to be too time consuming. You don't have to set your lineup everygame, as the last one will be used when you don't. If you start a someone who doesn't play, that won't hurt you, as long as you have a backup that does.

Transactions

Teams may of course make trades. Trades must be wholly contained within SFFB. That is, you can't trade Sammy Sosa for Marshall Faulk in the NFFL.
During the season, you are allowed to have 5 drop/adds, that is, you may freely drop one player and pick up another, provided that the other player isn't already on someone's roster.
Before the first day of SFFB, you may have as many drop/adds as you wish, as long as you only have 18 players.
If a trade leaves your roster with openings, you may pick up players without it costing you a drop/add. However, no trade can result in a team picking up more than two players.
You may also maintain a disable list. You can have one player on the 15 day DL, one player on the 30 day DL, and one player on the 60 day DL. If, after putting a player on the DL, you have less than 18 players, you may pick up an available player, without being charged a drop/add.
A player can only be put on your DL if he is on the real DL (even if he is hurt and not playing).
A player can only come off the DL after the indicated time has passed since you put him on the DL. If a player is then on a major league roster (and not on a real DL), he must come off at that time. If a player on the fantasy DL is still on the real DL after the time is up, you may leave him on the fantasy DL.
No trades may be made after August 15 and before the end of the SSFB World Series.

Season

The league will be broken into two divisions, the Nold division and the Everyone Else division.
After the regular season, there will be a post season. Four teams will make the playoffs. The teams with the two best records in their division will play each other in a best of seven series. The winner of these playoff series will play in the World Series. These will be played during the Major Leagues regular season, so you can still play your Indians players during the playoffs.