CONSTITUTION
I Structure
II League Office
III Morals Clause
IV Drafts and Team Rosters
V Draft and Player Acquisition
VI Playing the Game
VII Player Usage
VIII Penalties
IX Schedule
X Trades
XI Free Agent (FA) Pool
XII Post Season
XIII Playoff Usage and Eligibility
XIV Attrition
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I
The RMWL is a continuous ownership draft league and will consist of 10 individually owned teams.
All RMWL games will be played via the internet, using the most current version of Strat-O-Matic CD-ROM computer baseball game.
RMWL members are required to own the latest version of Strat-O-Matic CD-ROM computer baseball game, and have AOL Instant Messenger.
All super advanced options will be used.
All Max Rules will be used
EXCEPT the Statistical Accuracy and Home Field Advantage functions and Force
Daily Injuries.
Injuries will not be used; usage limitations should take care of that.
The RMWL will consist of 2 divisions, designated as the Semper Fi and Big Boot. Each division will consist of 5 teams.
The DH will be used in all ballparks.
Teams must pick a nickname prior to the draft. These names may not be changed during the season. If a team changes hands, the new owner can chose a new nickname for the beginning of the next season.
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II
The League Office shall consist of:
Commissioner – Responsible for the league running smoothly and fairly. The Commissioner will enforce the rules but the league office will address any decisions needed that are not spelled out in the constitution. The Commissioner will also help out or fill in whenever a League Officer is unable to perform his duties.
League President – Responsible for collecting rules proposals and overseeing the voting process, including updating the constitution.
Trade Committee Chairman- Responsible for keeping track of all transactions of the league. The Commissioner and the League President are the other two members of the Trade Committee.
Current League Officials:
Thomas A. Fischer-Commissioner
Ed Tallon-League President
To be determined-Trade Committee Chairman
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III
All members will treat each other with dignity and respect.
Under no circumstances will foul language used in a demeaning manner - whether via AIM or during any league communications - be tolerated.
Any owner violating this clause will be warned and fined a 2nd round draft choice. Any subsequent violations will result in AUTOMATIC termination of owner.
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IV
Each team shall consist of 35 players. A team may never have more than 35 active players at any time. These players may be obtained through the draft, free agency, or trades.
At the end of each block, free agents (FA) may be bid for, with a maximum of two per team per segment. Free agents will be awarded to teams in the reverse order of standings. I.e.: the team with the worst record will get first choice on a given player if more then one manager wants the same player. You MUST release a player from your roster for each FA taken, that player is immediately added to the free agent pool.
Once you pick up a FA, you may cut him later to pick up a different FA.
You can NOT trade a player that you picked up as a FA.
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V
All positions must have at least 600 AB rated at every position, you must have at least 1480 IP.
Draft-Eligible players are any players who played in MLB the previous season and received a player card for that season. IMAGE-ONLY players ARE NOT draft-eligible.
Prior to each season, a rookie free agent draft will be held. The order of the draft will be in reverse order of the final regular season standings, with three exceptions. The World Series champ will pick last and the World Series loser will pick second to last. The 1st pick of the draft will be decided by a lottery involving only the non playoff teams.
The draft shall consist of 10 rounds. Each team will have one pick per round. This pick may be traded or waived. Once a team reaches their roster limit, they may not continue to draft and they may not trade their remaining draft picks. Teams who have not reached their 35-man roster limit after 10 rounds will continue to draft until the roster limit is reached.
Prior to the draft, on a date named by the commissioner, each team will provide a list of players to be retained. There is no limit to the number of players that can be retained by a team, but said team may only draft until they have reached a 35-man roster.
You may not trade away late round draft picks that you would not have otherwise used. So if you trade your 10th round pick, be prepared to draft through 9 rounds, and arrange your roster accordingly prior to the draft. Trades and/or rosters will be subject to automatic rejection and restructuring if this happens.
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VI
Prior to the start of each block, teams are required to designate a number of players as Inactive, in order to bring their Active Roster to 25. Active rosters must have at least 2 players rated at each position and must contain a minimum of 5 pitchers who are eligible to START. (Must be rated as Starter or Starter/Reliever) If a team has 4 * starters, they may carry only 4 starters.
Teams must send their Computer Manager, with “STARTERS SCHEDULE” prior to the upcoming block The following schedule will be adhered to, with no exceptions:
All results, trades, FA requests must be sent in by the 13th day of the block.
New rosters/stats will be sent out on the 14th day of the block.
CMs are due on the 15th day of the block.(No lock codes)
New CM rosters will be sent out on the 16th day of the block
All players designated as inactive, prior to the start of a block, must remain in the inactive until the completion of the current month.
Active rosters expand to 35 players at approximately the 130 game mark in the season. The actual date will be determined when the schedule for the season is created.
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VII
Players are limited to 80% of actual usage (ABs or IPs). The limits will be added into the league rosters prior to the start of the season.
Pitchers, who are not rated as Starter, may not perform in that role, Pitchers who are rated as a Starter only may only pitch in relief under the following conditions:
All of the team's remaining available Relief rated pitchers are fatigued
The team has no remaining Relief rated pitchers available.
Starting Pitchers must have at least 3 days of rest, unless they have no *, then they must have 4. Any pitcher starting games with insufficient rest will be suspended for 1 Play Week. Any second offenses by an owner will result in a player suspension of 3 weeks. A third offense by an owner will result in that player being released into the free agent pool and the owner will lose a 1st round draft choice the following year.
A player may not field a position for which he is not rated. UNLESS the team has no more players rated at that position left.
If an ineligible player appears in a game, or an illegal move is made, and said infraction is caught by the opposing manager before the first At Bat is resolved in the next half inning, then the UNDO LAST PLAY function will be used to revert to the point in the game just prior to the infraction taking place and the infraction corrected.
If the infraction is caught after the first At Bat is resolved in the next half inning then the ineligible player shall immediately be removed from the game.
Any player who has exhausted his allowed usage will be manually flagged as “Injured” with the league files, by the Commissioner. Said players will remain “injured” for the remainder of the regular season.
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VIII
Penalties will be assessed for overuse, tardiness and any other behavior that infringes upon the spirit of the league, unless the league office grants specific permission to do so.
Player Overuse: Managers are expected to act in the spirit of fair competition, as such, if a player is overused by more that 1%, the penalty will be as follows:
Suspension of the player for the rest of the season, including the playoffs.
If steps are taken to stop further overuse and if the player is within 2% of overuse, (i.e. e-mail all managers to take player from the roster, stop further use of the player, notify league office, etc.) the team will lose a 3rd round pick the following year. If the player is overused by 3% or more, part 3 of this rule will apply. If more than one player is overused, the manager will lose the next highest pick as well. If four or more players are overused the manager will be expelled from the league.
If no steps are taken to prevent overuse, or the player is overused by 3% or more as listed on part 2, the manager will lose the player entirely plus draft picks as stated in part two of this rule. The manager will also be placed on probation for the following season. Any further overuse of players the following season, no matter how slight, will result in immediate expulsion from the league.
Penalties for teams that don’t finish games on time:
1st Offense - Loss of 2nd round draft choice
2nd Offense - Loss of 1st round draft choice
3rd Offense - Gone from League.
It is your responsibility to make sure your games are played. If an emergency arises notify the league and we will find someone to play your games. But this will not be tolerated on a consistent basis.
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IX
Each team will play a 108 game regular season schedule. Each team will play the other nine teams in the league a total of 12 times, with 6 at home and 6 on the road.
Each team will play 1 block on the schedule and the games must be completed during that “Play Block”. Deadline for Playing Games is the 13th day of each Play Block at 10pm Eastern Time. Approximately 12 games.
Once all games are finished the rosters will updated for trades.
Once the new rosters are sent out, each manager MUST send the computer manager, which will include the “Starter Schedules” for the upcoming play period. The league office will then send out Rosters containing all cms for the month and up to date stats.
League games will be scheduled within the CD Rom game itself, but the actual day/time that these games are actually played, during each “Play Block” is left to the opposing managers. If for some reason or another an owner has a dilemna with playing games within a given block he will be permitted to contact his opponents and offer to them the opportunity to play his cm. This is only for desperate circumstances, and the commissioner must be informed of a reason for the cm to be played.
Acceptable reasons for playing cm include but are not limited to the following:
1)Family issues of any kind
2)Work related issue
3)Computer issues such as hard drive problems, isp problems etc.**
** In the event of a computer related issue where you are unable to get online for various reasons you may contact the commissioner via telephone at (989)845-6832
ALL games, in each scheduled series, MUST be completed by the end of the current “Play Block”. League files for each successive “Play Block” cannot be released until all series from the previous block have been completed. Managers who are continually involved in late series will have their membership reviewed by the League Office, and may face expulsion from the league.
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X
Trades may be made freely until the Season trading deadline.
Trade deadlines for the Play Block is the same as the Game Deadline.
Teams may not make any trade that would place their current roster above the team roster limits. You may freely release players into the Free Agent Pool, in order to make room on your roster for a trade.
Once a player has been traded from a team, he will be ineligible to play for that team again for a period of one calendar year.
Draft picks may be included as part of a trade, but only 2 draft picks from the next years draft rounds 1 - 5 may be offered as part of any one trade. No Limit on draft rounds 6 - 10. You must have at least 3 picks between rounds 1 and 5 at all times for the upcoming draft. After a trade has been agreed upon, all parties involved must submit the trade proposal to the League Office. If the trade is approved by the league office, the trade will be listed on the website.
The Trade Committee must be unanimous in their approval of a trade, or it will go to a league-wide vote. If 1/3 of the league approves the trade, the trade will stand. If the league at large seems opposed to the trade as approved by the Trade Committee, it can still be voided if a league-wide vote of more than 2/3 opposes the deal.
At the conclusion of the current Play Block, all approved trades will become Official, with the League Office actually moving the players to their new teams prior to the release of the next block league files.
Trades which have been approved may only be rescinded if ALL managers involved agree to so prior to the roster update for that month. Teams will retain full rights to any player that they acquire through a trade, until that team either trades, or releases, the acquired player.
All trades that the League Office deems questionable will be put to league vote. All teams not involved in said trade will be allowed to vote. A trade may only be overturned when a 2/3 Majority of voters overturn it.
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XI
All carded players who are not on a RMWBL roster, at the conclusion of the Free Agent/Rookie draft will be placed in the Free Agent Pool.
Required menu option menu settings will be set by the League Office prior to league files being made available each Play Month. Managers are NOT to change any of these settings, unless requested to do so by the Commissioner.
Make sure, prior to the start of each game, that the “Create Game Files” option is turned on.
Managers are allowed to set the following options to his or her personal preferences: Offense and Defense color, Play by Play Color, Play by Play Background and Sound. (Sound is not recommended since it tends to cause lock-up problems during NetPlay games.) Card image on will be the default. Only if BOTH managers agree, will the card image be turned off. Also, if both managers agree, they can use the Quick Play feature. But BOTH must agree.
Upon completion of each series, the Home team manager is required to post the game files from the whole series on the yahoo group site under the files location. The game files must be zipped into one file and posted as soon as possible on the yahoo group site.
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XII
The team with the best record in each division will make the playoffs. The two teams with the best non division winning records in each league will be Wildcard teams and will advance to the Playoffs to play the Division winners. Worst wild card record vs. best division winner.
Each league’s playoff series will be a best-of-7 series, with the higher seeded teams having home field advantage, hosting games 1,2, 6 and 7. In the event that teams are tied, for purpose of determining home field advantage, tie breakers will be used in the following order: head to head record, division record, total runs scored minus total runs allowed. The World Series will be a best-of-7 series, with the winner being crowned RMWBL Champions. Home field for the World Series will be determined by the best overall record of the two teams in the world series. A separate league will be created for the play offs. Teams will begin each play off series with rest and days off imported to the subsequent series. Days off will be given between series'. A pitcher may not pitch on less than 3 days rest any time during the post season. Days off will be given between games 2 and 3 and games 5 and 6 for each post-season series. A pitcher who pitches game 7 of a series can not start game 1 of the next series.
Prior to the start of post-season play, each participating team must name a 25-man play-off roster. This roster will be used throughout the entire play-offs. No Roster moves will be permitted once the post season has begun.
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XIII
Playoff usage is limited to 10% of the AB/IP listed on the card (ignore the 5% buffer). Starters may only pitch on the days rest that would normally be allowed during the regular season. For this purpose, there is an off day scheduled between games 2 & 3, and games 5 & 6 of each playoff series. Pitchers that start a game 7 of one series may not start game 1 of the next series.
Playoff dates will be scheduled at the start of the season so that the playoffs don’t drag on for months. There will be a reasonable window of time in which to finish your playoff games, so if you are in contention, be prepared to schedule playoff games.
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XIV
If more than one manager needs to be replaced at the beginning of a new season, an attrition draft may be held prior to the rookie/free agent draft. Only new managers will participate in the actual draft. The new managers will draft from a combined pool made up of the players from the dissolved teams. No rookies or free agents are involved in this draft. New teams will draft after the non-playoff teams in the rookie/free agent draft. The commissioner reserves the right to forego the attrition draft if it is deemed unnecessary, and continuing teams will retain their draft positions.