The Draft

The Draft is held on the Friday before the start of the baseball season.

Draft Order

  • Draft order and teams are finalized no later than March 1 of each year.
  • Draft order is determined by the reverse order of the previous year’s standings. Waiver priority is then determined by the reverse order of the Draft. 

 

New Managers

  • New managers (defined as rookies or managers who return after hiatus) assume the draft position and roster of the departing managers.
  • In the case of two or more new managers, the first manager to join receives the highest first round vacancy, the second manager receives the second highest vacancy and so on. 
  • New managers choose keepers from the inherited roster based on our Keepers rule. 2014

 

Breaking Ties
If there is a tie in the final standings, thus creating a tie in next year’s draft order, the tie breaker for draft position is determined by career trophy points (3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd place trophies in the managers’ trophy case). If the teams have the same number of trophy points, the tie is broken by the commissioner choosing one of the two teams and flipping a coin. 2011

Keepers

Keepers are due two weeks before the Draft.

Keeper Budget2020

Each team operates with a yearly $10 keeper budget to spend on players they wish to retain. 

  • The first time a team keeps a player from one year to the next, the fee is $1 for that player. The $1 is subtracted from that team’s keeper budget for that off-season.
  • The second time a team keeps a player, the fee is $5.
  • The third time a team keeps a player, the fee is $10.

 

Your first kept player is considered the Round 1 draft pick for the following draft. Your second kept player is the Round 2 draft pick and so on. 2011, 2014, 2016

Managers not keeping players receive draft picks.

The keeper deadline is two weeks before the draft. Failure to send in picks results in your team receiving draft picks for that round.2016

Players become free agents and return to the draft pool after they are kept three times (therefore on a team any part of four seasons) or when a manager chooses not to spend money from their keeper budget to retain them.

Leftover money in your keeper budget does not roll over to the next year. So if you only spend $1, you don’t have $19 ($10 + $9 leftover) for the next off-season to spend on keepers.

All of this is tracked within our Yahoo league page and on this site on the Draft page. Each team can see everyone’s keepers (as you can now) and cost.

Keeper Values2021

Keeper values follow the player through seasons, trades, and adds/drops. Values are not dependent upon the team the player is with.

Example: If Team A keeps a player for $5, then trades the player in July to Team B, the keeper value remains. Team B needs to pay $10 to keep the player the next season.

Example: Team A keeps a player for $5. The player is traded away in April, then Team A receives the player back via another trade in July. The cost to keep the player next season remains at $10.

Keeper values are listed on the Yahoo! page but are superseded by values listed on this site, should there be differences.

Previous rules: each team can keep one player once (2011–2015); each team can keep two players (2016–2018); each team can keep two players twice (2019)

Changes

Rule Modifications

  • There are no mid-season changes, whether they be rules suggested by managers or team name modifications.
  • The Commissioner reserves the right to rule changes at any time so long as the change fits the mission of the league and cannot wait until the off-season. This is rare.
  • The suggested rule must be submitted between the day after the season ends through next season’s August trade deadline. All rule changes are posted for a vote after the deadline. Managers have until August 31 to vote.
  • The suggested rule must enhance play across the league. You can’t know that for sure, but that’s a goal when deciding whether or not to implement it.
  • We do not make many changes per year, nor do we make stat category changes by this method (see Stat Categories below).

Items Not Up for Vote Until Further Notice

Stat categories
Keeper modifications

Team Names
Team names are locked on the day following the keeper deadline to prevent confusion from changing names throughout the year. Inappropriate (vulgar, politically-charged, etc.) names are not allowed. 2020

Trades

Approval or Disapproval

  • All trades are automatically approved after a one day2021 waiting period.
  • There are no public trade protests or approvals via the Yahoo discussion feature on our league page. Instead, all members of our league monitor trades and, if collusion (cheating) is suspected, they notify the Commissioner. In other words, all trades go through regardless of how bad or good they are unless cheating is suspected.

 

Trading Draft Picks
We do not trade draft picks.2017

Previous Rule (removed at the end of the 2017 season): Future draft picks may be involved in current player trades through the Yahoo trade system. We abide by Yahoo’s rules regarding trades involving draft picks.2012 All trades for future draft picks are kept by the new manager if the trading manager does not return for next year’s draft.2013

Injured Players
If a player is placed on the Injured List (IL) after a trade is accepted, it is up to the trading managers to work out a deal. This is the only way a trade can be cancelled after acceptance and the commissioner must be notified of the new arrangements before the approval period expires. However, the team trading away the now injured player is under no obligation to offer to cancel the trade.

Teams, Rosters & Stats

Open Teams

All current managers retain their spots for the next year. If they choose to drop out of the league, their spot is opened up to the first available person on the waiting list. (See The Draft for more on this). The waiting list is maintained by the Commissioner so if you know anyone who would like to join our league, contact him.

Expectations
By signing up to play in this league you agree to manage your team at least once a week.

Fair Play
We won’t tolerate cheating. Collusion, or cheating, involves trades or free agent drops and acqusitions or any other actions where one manager deliberately takes advantage of another manager, or works with another manager to create a “super team” or otherwise team up against another. Collusion also includes obvious violation of Yahoo Fantasy Sports rules on a consistent and/or manipulative basis. Such actions are not tolerated by our league, for obvious reasons, and such actions result in punishment from the league.

Roster Positions

  • Catcher, First Base, Second Base, Shortstop, Third Base, Outfield (3), Utility
  • Starting Pitcher (4), Relief Pitcher (3), Any Pitcher (1)
  • Bench (6)
  • Injured List (5)
  • NA (1) 2017

 

Stat Categories (5×5)

  • Runs, Homeruns, RBIs, Stolen Bases, On-base Percentage 2016
  • Wins, Saves, Strikeouts, Earned Run Average, Walks+Hits/Innings Pitched

 

For stat category changes, we follow ToutWars.com categories. We do not change our stat categories unless they change theirs and do so the season after their changes are implemented. 2016

Yahoo Standard Rules

  • Maximum Teams: 12
  • Scoring Type: Rotisserie
  • Player Universe: All baseball
  • Max Moves: 502014
  • Max Trades: No maximum
  • Trade Reject Time: 1 day2021
  • Waiver Time: 3 days
  • Trade Review: Commisioner
  • Post Draft Players: Follow Waiver Rules
  • Max Games Played: 162
  • Max Innings Pitched: 1350

Achievements

Achievements2016 are just for fun. They’re the stars you see by your name on the manager page. You gain achievements from accomplishing any of these items:

 

  • Attend a Live Draft (via Phone or in Person, 2011-Present)
  • Break/set a Record (2005-Present; best only)
  • Collect One of Each Trophy (1st, 2nd & 3rd)
  • Collect five trophies
  • Complete a Trade Involving Five or More Players
  • Manage a Team for 10 Years
  • Score 90+ Points in a Season (2008-Present)
  • Spend None of Your FAAB and get a trophy
  • Worst-to-First
  • Use less than 20 moves and get a trophy
  • Trade involving 5+ players
  • Win postseason awards prediction challenge
  • win postseason bracket prediction challenge

2011  2011 updates & clarifications
2012  2012 clarifications
2013  2013 clarifications
2014  2014 updates & clarifications
2016  2016 updates & clarifications
2017  2017 updates
2019  2019 updates
2020  2020 updates
2021  2021 updates