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MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL POOL |
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| 2002-2007 MLB RULES | PRE 2008 SEASON RECORDS | CURRENT SEASON |
The Major League Baseball Pool is undergone a number of changes over the years. When it began in 1999 we played two games a week (Friday's and Saturday's) with actual in game results for each player transferred to your team results (see 1999 rules below). A lottery draft took place with a pre-ranking of position players. Did not use fantasy points at this point
In 2002 we switched to Fantasy Points scoring system (similar to what we have in the current system), but still only played two games a week (Friday's and Saturday's). You can check out the 2002 rules that were used.
In 2008 we switched to the current format with full week long MLB games counting towards your team totals
In this section you will find the pre-2008 MLB Pool rules and season records that were established in those early seasons
Welcome to the Major League Baseball Pool. During the season there will be weekly updates on overall standings, stats and game results emailed to all participants. The sports pool format is Head-to-Head and runs for 10 weeks for our regular season followed by 2 weeks of playoff rounds to determine our champion
The pool will start with a draft of Major League Baseball players from both the American League and National League. The draft will go for 14 rounds, each team will draft 14 players to fill there roster
We use a multi-list draft process. This the easiest draft method to use and has been a successful way of drafting your team for those of you who are not that familiar with the individual players in baseball. This draft method divides all the available professional baseball players into 4 basic positions based on the previous year’s primary position for each individual. You as the owner decide in which order you would like to chose from according to position. You also have the option to rank all of the players in each position or you can simply leave the rankings as they are
The professional players on the draft lists are initially ranked in descending order from the best to the worst based on a combination of last year’s statistics. These default rankings can be customized in each of the 4 draft positions as you see fit
The four positional categories from which teams draft, the number of players taken per position is as follows:
Additional draft picks will be made if your team happens to pick up a player who appears on the disabled list
With four positions to choose from, each team in the fantasy league is given a random draft slot (picking names out of a hat). Once we have drawn names the draft will commence. The person drawn first in the draft will have their first selection taken. First we will look into which position you would like to choose from, once that is done the highest ranked player in that position will be chosen for your team. This process continues until all teams in the pool have 14 active players on their roster. The order of draft will be first to last and then last to first. For instance, if there are 10 people in the pool and you draft last then you will receive the 10th pick in the first round but you will receive the first pick in the second round
The roster for every team is 14 active players with a maximum of 20 included protected players on the disabled list. You must have a minimum of the following to submit for a game:
In addition to the bench, each team has six disabled list slots for a maximum of 20 players for the team. Players on the DL will be marked with an (*). A player can only be moved into these slots if he is designated as injured by the commissioner. These designations will coincide with the MLB disabled list. Once the players come off of the disabled list you must release a player onto the free agent list
If you have two catchers from the same team you will be able to platoon them. In other words if both catchers play that evening you can use both of them in your stats for the game. This can only happen if both catchers play for the same major league team
Each participant will submit a batting lineup before a set of games. Two games will be played on the weekend. The statistics for Friday and Saturday games will be taken for our fantasy games. How does this work? You will face another person in the pool with a lineup of their players. Actual batting statistics will be taken from actual games played on the weekend and entered into your lineup. Be careful on how you arrange your players in the nine batting positions, this could mean the difference between winning and losing
Here is a brief scenario on how the game is played. You have a batting order from 1-9. Your first batter in his actual game hits a single. On your fantasy game sheet he is now on first base. The second batter hits a double; the first batter advances to third base while the second batter goes to second base. Please note that we do not count stolen bases during the game and we do not have base runners advance more bases than what is gained by the batter. The third batter hits a home run and you have just scored three runs
What happens if a player hits into a double play during the real game?
If you have any players on base during your fantasy game then it is a double play no matter what base the base runner is on. If you do not have any base runners on when he hits into the double play then it is just considered a ground out to first
What happens if I have a base runner at first and the batter hits into a ground out?
The batter is out at first but the base runner advances to second. Whenever there is a base runner no matter what base he is on and there is a ground ball hit for an out by the batter then the base runner advances one base
What happens if I have a base runner on and the batter hits into a fly out? Is there any sacrifice fly’s?
For balls that are hit for a fly out the base runners do not advance, unless they are on third base and a deep fly ball is hit to the out field with one out or less in the inning
If I put a player in my batting lineup that ends up not playing that day, what happens?
If a player from your starting lineup does not play then the commissioner will substitute another player into the game as long as they are from the same position. Make sure your bench players are arranged as to whom you would like put into a game if one of your starters does not play. If your starting player only goes up to bat once in the game and is then injured or leaves the game for some other reason, you will have the one at bat for that player but the rest of the potential at bats for that player during the fantasy game will be considered automatic outs. The exception to this rule this year is if you are playing two catchers from the same team
The more at bats your player has in a game the less likely you will have automatic outs as the latter innings approach in your fantasy game. If your player goes up to bat 4 times in the real major league game then he will be eligible for 4 at bats in your fantasy game
What happens if none of my shortstops play during that day?
We take our stats from the major leagues every Friday and Saturday because every major league baseball team plays every Friday and Saturday. If non of your shortstops on your roster play on Friday because the game was rained out or some other natural phenomenon then the stats are taken from the Saturday and Sunday games for those players effected by the missed games. If your players do not play because of injuries or they were simply not put into the major league lineup that day then you will receive an automatic out every time your shortstop comes up to bat
You basically play a game against another pool member, whoever is winning after nine innings is the winner of that game. You will play two games against the same pool member for the weekend. Box scores will be released back to the contestants by Wednesday morning of the following week so participants can make changes to their roster for the next set of games on the following weekend
Throughout the season, you may want to improve your roster by adding free agent players and releasing players that aren't performing to your expectations. There is no limit to the number of transactions you can request
At the beginning of the season, the commissioner will deem certain superstar players “undroppable”. What this means is that they are ineligible to be dropped directly to the free agency list. The reason this is done is to prevent collusion so that a weaker team (such as one that will most likely not make the playoffs as the end of the season draws near) cannot simply drop their star players to free agency in order to be picked up by higher-ranked teams in the fantasy league
The status of undroppable players is determined and managed solely at the discretion of the Commissioner, and will be updated as necessary in the event of an injury, decrease in playing time, decreased performance, etc. Please note that the undroppable status does not effect your ability to trade him
Any player not on any other team's roster and not on Waivers is considered a Free Agent. Requests for free agents are effective for the following week's games
In order to provide an equal opportunity for all owners to add players that are new to the free agent pool, a Waivers process is used. Owners' request to add players on waivers are not executed immediately, but are put in a pending status for at least 24 hours. This allows multiple teams to request the same players. The team that will receive that player will be based on the Waiver Rank order
During the waiver process, pending transactions are processed in Waiver Rank order. The team with a waiver rank of 1, considered the highest, will get its first requested player. Teams will be arranged in waiver rank according to the standings. The team who is last place in the standings will be ranked number one for waivers while the first place team will be ranked last for waivers. The initial waiver rank of the season is based on the reverse order of the draft. The team that selected last in the first round of the draft will have waiver rank 1
If a team's highest pending transaction becomes invalid because another team received the requested player, the transaction gets deleted and the team's next transaction, if one exists, becomes that team's highest
In the Head-to-Head match up, the team with the most runs scored will be awarded a win. A win is worth 2 points in the season standings. If the two teams are tied at the end of the game then each team will be awarded 1 point. Final regular season standings will be determined by: Win/Tie Points, then by total runs scored
The final regular season standings will be broken down into Tiers based on the number of teams we have in the league. You will play against the other teams in the Tier you ended up in. The winner of the Tier will receive a cash prize. Most teams who end up in Tier #1 will receive cash prizes depending on how they finish. So no matter how bad you do during the regular season there is always a chance to redeem yourself in the post season
Please note: we do not have ties in playoff games. If there is a tie the team who was ranked higher in the regular season standings will be granted the win.