lomg league

constitution

disclaimer:

this rendering of the constitution is not the official document, but has been edited for formatting and clarity from the official document. this interpretation of the official document exists as a guide for users and to bring certain outdated language up to speed. questions about the constitution and interpretations should be forwarded to the league commissioners.

Preamble

We, the Owners of The League of Mediocre Gentle(wo)men Fantasy Baseball, in order to form a more perfect game, establish justice, ensure fun and fair competition, provide for the common owner, promote general awesomeness, and secure the blessings of baseball to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for The League of Mediocre Gentle(wo)men Fantasy Baseball League (Hereto known as “The League).

I. Object

The format of this league is a head to head categories keeper league with 12 scoring categories: 6 hitting and 6 pitching. The winner of The League is the team which makes it to the playoffs and wins the championship playoff matchup.

II. Teams and Rosters

The League is composed of twelve teams, each with a roster of a maximum of 26 roster positions. The specific roster slots are listed below:

C: 1

1B: 1

2B: 1

SS: 1

3B: 1

1B/3B: 1

2B/SS: 1

OF: 5

UTIL: 1

P: 9

Bench: 4

IL: 3

The League may be filled with no less than ten teams, however The League may motion to expand/reduce the number of teams for an upcoming season as long as The League is expanded/reduced by an even number of teams.  i.e. The League may be expanded to include 12 teams, but it may not be expanded to include 11 teams. In order to expand The League, two-thirds of the active ownership must vote to increase/decrease the size of The League (rounding up). Should The League be expanded, an expansionary draft must be held for those new teams. Rules for Expansion Draft in article IV. 2 of the Draft Process.

III. Fees and Prizes

III. 1. There is no fee to participate in The League. The only currency that a league manager loses or gains is pride and time. There are, however, three main tenets of lively competition that result in prizes or rewards:

a. The Golden Belt. The physical trophy awarded to The League Champion after the conclusion of the fantasy baseball season will be a belt with a golden champion carved into it. Each year, the Belt will be transferred to the reigning champion from the previous champion. The previous champion must mail or present the belt in person to the current champion no later than the the start of the next season in order for the current champion to gloat and showcase the belt for the entirety of the season.

b. Gentle(wo)men’s Board Bets. Two or more owners may publicly participate in a bet/wager with a prize or outcome mutually agreed based on the outcome of the bet/wager. Once the agreement is finalized, it is figuratively put on the board until the bet/wager is resolved. All records of Board Bets can be referenced in the Discord chat of The League. Board Bets are affectionately identified when an owner states “PUT IT ON THE BOARD!” to finalize the bet/wager.

c. Pools. Fantasy owners may organize a pool at any time with prizes offered to the winner. Participation in pools is optional. Should a team not pay the fee, they will not be eligible to win the prize money at the end of the season. Since the fee is optional the distribution ratios of the prize money will be set at the discretion of the manager organizing the pool.

IV. Draft Process

IV. 1. This league uses a snake draft format, where the draft picks are randomly selected at the latest, one week prior to draft day. The draft may be conducted online or in person, depending on the needs of the owners. An owner may designate a person to conduct his/her picks for him/her or leave instructions for his/her picks should he/she not be able to attend in person, however that owner does so at his/her own risk. Owners may switch their draft positions with another owner. However these deals must be completed in writing, at least one hour prior to the start of the draft, and the written agreement must be presented to the commissioner so he may notify The League and alter the draft board. 

IV. 2. Rules for an expansion draft: 

1. Each team gets to mark three of their existing players as UNTOUCHABLE. 

a. Any player marked as UNTOUCHABLE must be kept.

2. There will be a six round expansion draft for the two new teams.

3. The new teams will select one player per round from the available players on the current teams in The League. No Free Agent players are available for the expansion draft. 

4. A team can only lose an existing player once per round. 

5. If a team loses an existing player, that team can mark an additional untouchable player at the end of the round (Up to 6). 

6. There are no other restrictions on selections. 

7. At the conclusion of the draft, all existing teams then mark their six keepers. 

a. Example of an expansion draft: 

1. Ian, Richard and Libby mark their top three players as untouchable.

2. Brooke chooses Ian's 4th best player. Patrick chooses Richard's 4th best player. 

3. Both Ian and Richard get an additional UNTOUCHABLE (Now at four players). They now have their First, Second, Third, and Fifth best players marked as UNTOUCHABLE. Libby does not get an additional UNTOUCHABLE at this round. 

4. The draft continues for 5 more rounds, in the same fashion as 1-3. 

IV. 3. Minor league draft: 

a. Roster. The existing roster will be expanded to include three (3) minor league roster spots.  These spots can only contain players currently on a minor league roster. The existing roster spots will be considered “major league roster spots” and will only be  able to contain players on a major league roster.  

a. 1. If a team’s roster is in violation of the above rule it will be considered an illegal roster and it will not be able to engage in transactions until the roster is altered so it is in compliance.

a. 2. Players may be freely moved from the minor league roster to the major league roster and back again in response to promotions and demotions, etc. 

a. 3. Players on minor league rehab assignments for injury are not eligible for minor league roster spots.

a. 4. Players on minor league rosters are eligible for trades.

b. Minor league player draft. In the 24 hours between when standard keepers lock and the standard annual  fantasy draft, the league shall engage in a minor league player draft. This  draft will be from a pool of all minor league players not currently rostered on any  team’s minor league player roster.

b. 1.  Players being posted from international baseball leagues are not eligible to be selected in the minor league player draft.

b. 2. The draft will be a three round snake draft where the order is determined by  reverse team regular season finishing standings. Following the start of the Minor League Draft, the status of all minor league keeper eligible players will lock in, and no eligibility changes in the time between the beginning of the draft and when the keepers lock will affect keeper eligibility.

b. 3. After the minor league player draft concludes, but no later than 1 hour prior to the  major league player draft, all teams will select three minor league players from their  potential total of 6 between their current minor league roster and drafted players to  keep as minor league keepers (see below). 

b. 4. Minor league draft picks are eligible for trades in the same rules governing standard draft picks.

b. 5. The format and client of the minor league player draft will be at the discretion of the Commissioners. 

c. Minor league keepers. Each team will have the option of three (3) minor league keepers. These keepers will be kept outside of any draft spots and will not accrue inflation. Minor league keepers must not have accrued any major league service time at the time that keepers lock. Minor league keepers may be kept multiple seasons in minor league keeper spots until they are eventually promoted to the majors. 

c. 1. If a player who has accrued major league service time (often a September call-up) is officially reassigned to a minor league camp during spring training prior to the draft, that player may be kept as a minor league keeper.  

c. 2. If a minor league keeper is promoted to the major league roster during the regular  season, and then is kept the next season as part of the core 6 standard keepers, that player is kept in the Free Agent (last round) keeper spot.  

c. 3. The three minor league keepers lock 1 hour prior to the Standard Major League  Draft. 

c. 4. Owners may trade minor league players in the time between the conclusion of the  minor league player draft and the lock of minor league keepers.  

V. Position Eligibility

V. 1. Position eligibility is determined as per the rules applying to standard leagues on ESPN’s fantasy website. A player will qualify for a position for the current year if they start 10 total games. To retain that position eligibility for next year, the player must start a total of 20 games in that current position. If The League were to move to a new fantasy website host, the standard position eligibility of that host site would be followed if the standard from ESPN’s cannot be incorporated.

VI. Scoring, Standings, and Playoffs 

VI. 1. Scoring: League scoring is based on a head to head categories template. There are twelve categories:

a. Hitting: Runs, RBI’s, Home Runs, Stolen Bases, Average, On base plus slugging 

b. Pitching: Strikeouts, Innings Pitched, Saves/Holds, ERA, WHIP, K/BB 

c. Each category is worth one win/loss. At the end of one week, the total categories won and lost determines the team’s record for the week, and that record is applied to the overall record of the team which determines position in the standings. NOTE: A minimum of seven innings must be pitched by a team’s pitcher(s) over the course of a week to qualify the team to win the pitching categories.

VI. 2. Standings: The League will take the top 4 positions based off of winning percentage at the end of the season In case of a tie, please see VI. D. for Tie Rules. 

VI. 3. Playoffs: Position within those standings are determined by winning percentage. At the end of the regular season the top 4 teams make the playoffs for 2 rounds. These playoff rounds are 2 weeks long. The #1 seed will play the #4 Seed. The #2 and #3 seeds will play in the other first round game. The winner of those two matchups will play each other, and the losers will play for 3rd and 4th place. The winners will play in the Championship game.

VI. 4. TIES: In the event of a tie in any of these playoff matchups, rotisserie points will determine who wins. Total points of the year thus far. (More than ideal, as stone circle death matches seemed impractical). 

a. Roto Rules: For those who are casual players and do not know, rotisserie (or Roto) points are determined by the ranking of each baseball statistic on a scale of 1-10. So if you are the best in The League in ERA, you will be awarded 10 points. If you are the second in The League, you get 9 points, and so on and so forth. The total points will determine the winner of the tie. 

b. oWAR: If there is still a tie, then the cumulative oWAR of the current rostered team will be totaled.

VII. Trades

VII.1.Trading of players is legal in this league. One trade will count as one of an owner’s weekly acquisitions regardless of how many players are dealt in the one trade. The League has the option to vote on the legality of a trade, with a vote of 8 owners against the trade being necessary to keep it from being approved. The League commissioner also has the ability to veto a trade, however he/she should exercise restraint and not veto any trade unless in the case of obvious collusion or destructive tanking. 

a. “Collusion” in this context means any act of deal making that involves outside bartering rather than purely in league trading. 

a.1 Examples include: “I’ll give you $50 if you trade me Rafeal Devers for Mike Zunino” or “If you let my client off with just a misdemeanor, I’ll give you Mike Trout for your Wade Miley.” 

b. “Destructive tanking” in this context means any act of selling off players with no intent to build for the future or win for today. An owner destructively tanks when they feel vindictive, spiteful, or trolly as they do not intend to return the following year. A self inflicting scorched Earth move. This uses the excuse “It’s my team and I can manage it as I want” in bad faith to inflict pain and competitive imbalance upon The League. 

b. 1. Example include: Owner A: “Screw this league, but if I’m going to leave, I want to leave a mark behind. I’ll trade Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Verlander, and Vinnie Pasquantino to Owner B for Mike Yastrzemski, Brad Miller, Franmil Reyes, and their 26th round pick.” 

The commissioner and league members should only veto a trade if there is beyond reasonable doubt of either offense taking place. If proof of such offenses exist, then the owner with said proof has a responsibility to submit it in The League’s current communication channel for immediate deliberation. 

VII. 2.The League will have a trade deadline set during each season, ideally set on the same date as the official MLB trade deadline. If that is not possible because of ESPN website’s need to have a trade deadline on a weekend day, then The League’s trade deadline will be after the MLB trade deadline, not before, but as close as possible. Pending that option, the trade deadline will be no less than two weeks before the end of the regular season. After this deadline passes all trading ceases until the conclusion of the postseason. 

VII. 3. Draft picks are legal tender for trades, however there shall be no trading of draft picks during the actual season. Only in the off-season can you trade a draft pick for another team's player. The trading of draft picks/positions must be submitted to The League in writing. 

VII. 4. All off season trades will be noted in the Big Board or equivalent document/excel sheet the day before draft day [see VIII. Keepers below].  

VIII. Keepers

VIII. 1. Each team has the option of keeping up to 6 players from their current roster for next year (you can of course keep less if you'd like). These players will be kept at the cost of their draft position from the previous season’s draft. 

a. Example: Zack Greinke was drafted in the 4th round in the 2012 draft. A team may keep him for the 2013 season at the cost of their 4th round pick. 

If a player is traded to another team, that player may be kept by his current owner at the draft position that he was drafted at by his original owner. If a player went undrafted in this season’s  draft (was picked up as a FA), that player may be kept at the last position of the draft. If two players are being kept who were undrafted, they will take up the last two positions in the draft, and so on and so forth.

b. A player that is dropped to Free Agency but was originally drafted by one of The League owners, does not have their value reset to the FA/last round value. That player will, for the rest of the season, remain at his original draft value. 

VIII. 2. CONFLICTS IN ROUNDS: If two players are being kept who were drafted in the same round of the previous year’s draft, one of the players moves up a round. A player cannot occupy the same round as another. The team owner with such a conflict may choose which of the players moves up to the round above.This includes the inflation rule, as explained below. 

a. Example: George Springer and Corey Kluber are both eligible to be kept in the 12th round. An owner must elevate one of them up to the 11th round in order to keep them both. This can continue until you get to the 1st round where a team must choose which of the players to throw back into the draft pool.

VIII. 3. INFLATION: A team may keep a player for multiple years in a row, however when keeping a player for more than one season in a row, the draft position that they are being kept at suffers from an inflation rate from an increasing round that is compounded by 1 from each year before, starting at -2. 

a. For example: A player drafted in Round 26 in 2015 who would look like this: 2016-Year 1 (-0 rds) = 26th round 

2017-Year 2 (-2 rds) = 24th round 

2018-Year 3 (-3 rds) = 21st round 

2019-Year 4 (-4 rds) = 17th round 

2020-Year 5 (-5 rds) = 12th round 

2021-Year 6 (-6 rds) = 6th round 

2022-Year 7 (-7 rds) = -1st round (but since there is no negative round or a round zero, it would just be the 1st round). 

b. THE BYRON BUXTON RULE: There can be immunity for players from the inflation rule if they have not served a month (31 days) in the majors during the previous season. “Immunity” in this context would entail a freeze on the player’s inflation status. This means a player’s value will remain in their current round and not be subjected to the increasing subtraction that the inflation would inflict. 31 days in this context means a player has been on a Major League Roster for 31 days total, regardless of years spent in the MLB.

This entails that a kept player would not be subjected to inflation until that player has accumulated 31 days in Major League Baseball. In accordance with VIII. 3. INFLATION, “when keeping a player for more than one season in a row, the draft position that they are being kept at suffers from an inflation rate.” The Byron Buxton Rule does not exempt players from being classified as a “keeper” or “kept” in this context. It merely freezes the inflation of rounds the player would meet during their time on an owner’s team. The Byron Buxton Rule also does not retroactively inflict any inflation the player was supposed to have accumulated during their time on an owner’s team.

This would allow owners to play Dynasty if they so choose and not be penalized for it by having a player suffer inflation rates despite offering nothing to their current or near future team. 

IX. Rule Administration

IX. 1. The commissioner is the de-facto rule interpreter throughout The League. If owners disagree with the commissioner’s rule interpretation, then a committee of no less than three and no more than five owners will be appointed to interpret the rule. The committee shall not include the commissioner. The committee is free to organize in any way they see fit, and the commissioner is bound by the decision issued.

IX. 2. No rule changes may be proposed or executed during the season. No rule may be executed in the off-season without the approval of 8 owners. Rule change proposals must follow a standardized procedure, timeline, and format.  The entire rule change process will take no longer than 9 days. Processed rule change proposal solicitations will be made available to owners via a centralized location in the Discord server.

Procedure:

1. The solicitor must submit a Rule Change Proposal Solicitation to the commissioner. 

2. The commissioner will have 48 hours to formally acknowledge receipt, process the form, create a temporary Discord channel for formalized discussion, and attempt to disperse rule change information. The Discord channel shall follow a Number-Title naming convention.

3. The solicitor will have 72 hours from channel creation to debate their proposed rule change. The solicitor may call for a vote at any time during the debate period, ending debate.

4. Voting will be open to owners for 48 hours. All submitted votes are final. If the rule change proposal receives 8 votes during the voting period, the proposal passes. If it does not, it fails.

1. Upon Passage: The commissioner will record official vote counts on the change proposal form and high level debate comments. The new rule will be inserted into the constitution with appropriate modifications to interconnected sections within 48 hours. The rule, unless otherwise specified, will go into effect at the start of the next season. The matter will then be considered closed.

2. Upon Failure: The commissioner will record official vote counts on the change proposal form and high level debate comments. The matter will then be considered closed.

Matters considered closed will not be eligible for further solicitations until 3 full seasons have passed. The commissioner shall have final interpretation on whether a new solicitation constitutes reconsideration of a closed matter.

IX. 3. Any league owner may be dismissed from The League at the discretion of the commissioner should he or she be inactive or inattentive to his or her team for a significant length of time in a way that unbalances The League. An owner may also be booted if they show extremely inappropriate conduct which detracts from the spirit of fun and friendly competition. Any league member may propose a vote of no confidence in the commissioner at any time. If 8 owners vote in favor of removing the commissioner then the commissioner will surrender the position to the new commissioner selected by the other league members. 

Appendix

Season: The period of time between the draft beginning and The League champion being crowned.

Off-season: The period of time between The League champion being crowned and the draft beginning

Commissioner: Party or parties that have been voted as administrative head of The League.

Solicitor: Team owner who takes ownership of a proposed rule change.

Owner: The person who controls a specific team in The League.