The design of AOF Baseball Keeper League (AOFBKL) allows maximum participation among Actuarial Outpost denizens in a free fantasy baseball keeper league.
Board: The power to amend rules and veto trades rests with the AOFBKL Board comprised of three individuals. The Board chooses an AOFBKL Observer. The Observer represents any unavailable Board member throughout the season. The Observer becomes a Board member the following season. The replaced board member becomes the AOFBKL Commissioner. The Commissioner creates and administers the league online. The Commissioner represents any second unavailable board member.
Structure and Scoring:
General – The league will be managed on the yahoo fantasy baseball system. The league competes head-to-head weekly with the top six teams reaching the championship tournament. The 7th – 12th ranked teams will enter into the consolation tournament. The 2016 MLB season begins on Sunday, April 3 and a full slate of games later in the week. April 3 stats will accumulate toward the full Week 1.
Stats - Scoring will be determined by 5x5 statistics (R, HR, RBI, SB, Avg; W, Sv, K ERA, WHIP). Pitching statistics will have a 9-inning weekly minimum.
Rosters – Teams will be limited to 19 players with 16 active and 3 bench positions. In addition, teams have 2 DL spots that do not count against the 19 limit; players must be on the real life MLB-DL, and identified as such by the yahoo system, to be moved to a DL spot. The active roster will be C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, and P.
Transactions – Lineup changes can be made daily. The trade deadline will be the soonest available option after the MLB non-waiver trade deadline. There is a limit of 50 adds allowed per season. A dropped player will be on waivers for 2 days before becoming a free agent. It is first come, first served on non-waiver free agents, however players have to clear the waiver process determined by waiver priority.
Keeper Rules:
Deadline - Participants must declare their keeper intentions privately to the Commissioner by Friday, February 26th (subject to change by new Commish or enough complaints from league members.
Costs, Drafted Players - To keep a player the following year, one must select that player in a round of half the previous year rounded up; such that a 15th round selection one year will cost an eighth round selection the next. Therefore the following year for your first round pick you have the option of keeping a first or second round pick from the previous year or selecting a player from free agency.
Costs, Non-Drafted Players - A non-drafted free agent acquisition will count as a 20th round draft pick toward the keeper rules, such that to keep him the following year you will be required to spend a 10th round draft pick on him. A drafted and dropped free agent acquisition will keep his current year draft round status, such that a sixth round draft pick later dropped and acquired by any team will require a third round pick to retain said player for keeper purposes.
Costs, Other - You may use an earlier round for keeper purposes; such that a 15th round selection one year may be taken in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, ... or 8th round the next year. Only one player may be kept per each pick you own in a given round. If you are keeping a player in the latest possible round (i.e., the 8th round for a 15th round keeper), and you have multiple picks in that round, the earliest pick in that round must be used for keeper purposes.
Limits - A player may not be kept for more than two consecutive seasons. Regardless of when you acquire the player, he may be kept for a second season and kept again for a third season. You may acquire this player again through the normal draft process in the fourth season. Keeper status follows the player even if he is traded and kept by a different owner.
End of Year Roster - The last day of the fantasy postseason is the deadline for adding a player for keeper purposes. The day after that, the commissioner will copy the team rosters from Yahoo and post them here. Players added on the final day of the season will not be eligible to be kept.
Draft:
General - There are 19 rounds to the draft. The draft will be completed in a singular thread on the Actuarial Outpost in a non-serpentine draft. When a team manager makes a selection, that manager should notify, via PM, the commissioner and the managers with the next three picks.
Timing – The draft thread will be posted Monday, February 22ish. The draft will begin no later than Monday, February 29. Each pick will be slotted to a deadline (during a business day) to draft one player. The draft will be scheduled to take place over 17 business days.
Note #1 About Draft Timing, Deadlines – The draft schedule simply lists the deadline for each pick to be made. A draft pick can be submitted prior to that deadline. In fact, the first draft pick is usually submitted shortly after keeper submissions have been published, days prior to the scheduled start of the draft. And deadlines rarely, if ever, come in to play. Please keep an eye on the progress of the draft and be prepared to make you selection with the flow of the draft.
Note #2 About Draft Timing, Weekends – While the draft schedule has deadlines only on weekdays, members of the league tend to check in on the weekends during the draft. Please keep an eye on the progress of the draft and be prepared to make you selection with the flow of the draft, even if your turn comes up on a weekend.
Note #3 About Draft Timing, Proxies - As the draft progresses, you may notice that you’ll be unavailable to log on to the AO during a stretch of time when your pick is likely to go on the clock (maybe you’ll be out of town or simply stuck in a meeting for a while). In such instances, please consider sending a list of players from which to make a proxy selection for you to one or more other team managers. This will allow the draft to continue in your absence. At a minimum, please communicate your planned absence to the league so that the rest of the league managers can plan accordingly.
Order - The consolation tournament (7th through 12th places) determines the first six draft picks for the next year: The 7th place team will be slotted into the first draft position, the 8th place team into the 2nd draft position and so on. Positions 8 - 14 are the 13th - 20th finishers in the previous regular season. The last 6 positions are determined by the championship bracket: Once a team falls into the loser's bracket of the non-consolation tourney ("5th place game" for first-round losers, "3rd place game" for losers in the semis), the winner of those two games gets the higher draft position. The Champion will pick 20th.
Members Leaving League - If someone leaves the league, the players on that person’s team become free agents and a new member will be admitted to the league. The new member is given the pick between the lowest finisher in the regular season and the lowest pick remaining from the championship bracket. All other picks are adjusted as necessary. If a returning owner has acquired a pick in round X from an owner who has now dropped out of the league - the returning owner will retain the pick in round X. The pick will be inserted at X.YY-a, where YY is the position it would have been had the owner not dropped out. All other picks in that round will move down one spot. Note: some rounds may have more than 20 picks and others fewer than 20 picks due to this rule.
Trades:
Off-season - Off-season trades are allowed January 1 through Monday, February 15. Players traded in the off-season must be kept.
During Draft - Trades are allowed during the beginning of the year draft but they should not slow down the draft. Any "shopping around" for your pick or the corresponding player should be done before it is your turn to draft.
Restrictions - Picks in the subsequent year draft are available for trade during the season (following the end of the draft and before the trade deadline), with the following 3 exceptions*:
An owner must at all times maintain at least 2 picks in rounds 1 - 3.
An owner must at all times maintain at least 4 picks in rounds 1 - 5.
An owner must at all times maintain at least 7 picks in rounds 1 - 10.
*NOTE: These rules do not apply to off-season draft pick trades between January 1 and February 15.
Waitlist: In late November, the previous season's Commissioner (or someone more vigilant) will create a poll that determines who is coming back for the next season. He will also send a pm to each waitlister to tell them to vote in the poll. If you are currently on the waitlist and respond in this poll by mid December, your place will be honored on the waitlist, if you fail to respond in the poll, your name will be removed.
FYI: A quick word about alt ids. Some people feel the need for whatever reason to maintain more than one ID on the AO. If you own a team with one ID and are migrating from one alt to another, make sure you let the commissioner know about your new ID or out yourself in some way in league thread so we know who you are for league purposes.
2015 AOF Baseball Keeper League