BLEACHER BUMS LEAGUE
2008 CONSTITUTION
Article II. Commissioner Duties
Article III. League Owner Duties
Article IV. Team Makeup
Article V. Rookie/Free Agent Draft
Article VI. Waivers
Article VII Free
Agents
Article VIII. Trading and Player
Rights
Article IX. Player Usage
Article X. File Transfer and Playing the
Games
Article XI. Post Season Play
(Crowning of the “Gordon Watson Memorial Trophy” Winner)
Article XII. Amending the
Constitution
We the People, constituting
the membership of the Bleacher Bums Baseball League (henceforth BBL) hereby
rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of our hobby, APBA baseball, and that this
pursuit in the BBL shall be fun, painless, free of unnecessary hassle, and
inexpensive, an escape from daily stress rather than a contributor to it, much
like a day in the bleachers at one's favorite ballpark.
A. The league is comprised of 16 teams.
1. There are two eight-team conferences, each comprised of two four-team divisions.
2. The playing schedule will commence in April and end in October.
3. The schedule will consist of 162 games.
a. 66 within the division-22 per team
b. 48 with teams in the other division-12 per team
c. 48 with teams in the other conference-6 per team.
B. The APBA Baseball for Windows game will be used. Minimum software requirements:
1. Baseball for Windows 5.5
C. Teams retain permanent ownership of players until cut or traded.
D. There will be an annual draft of Rookies/Free Agents. (See Article V.)
E. Designated Hitter will be used.
F. Full AIM injuries and fatigue will be used.
A. The commissioner is responsible for administering the league.
B. The commissioner is selected by majority vote of owned teams, or by successful challenge from another owner in the league.
C. The commissioner serves until he resigns, or is replaced by majority vote of owned teams or revolution.
D. Duties
1. Review all prospective members.
2. Establish league schedule.
3. Conduct all drafts, including compiling and communicating list of available players.
4. Maintain official player rosters of all teams, as communicated by team owners.
5. Review all trades and waiver claims.
6. Establish cut date to reduce rosters to 40.
7. Submit and conduct voting on all rule changes.
8. Assign divisional alignments of the league.
9. Settle all disputes over games and honesty.
10. Set and keep deadlines for file flow during season.
11. Produce and release to membership series highlights.
A. Each team will be owned and managed by one or more managers.
1. If more than one person is sharing responsibility for a team, both parties are fully responsible for the team.
2. If a team has two owners, the team only gets one vote in deciding league business.
B. Duties.
1. Send franchise files by deadlines set by commissioner.
a. An owner may inform the commissioner leave team as is if AWAY series.
b. An owner may inform the commissioner to sim the games in advance of the deadline, if HOME series.
1. Play all home games and send results by deadline (see above)
2. Vote on rule changes.
3. Maintain rosters in Advanced Draft.
4. Report all trades and waiver claims to league office.
A. Each team is comprised of 40 players, with a maximum of 26 players on active "Parent" roster.
B. Each team must be down to a maximum of 40 by the cut date as established by the commissioner.
C. There will be 2 cut dates. One before the draft and one after the draft but at least 10 days prior to the start of the season.
D. During the final month of the season, the entire 40-man roster can be brought up to the "Parent" club, at the manager's discretion. After this date, which is to be announced by the commissioner, the rosters are frozen for the remainder of the regular season.
A. Prior to each season, a draft of unaffiliated players on the current data disk will be conducted by the commissioner.
1. The draft will begin no later than the first weekend in March.
B. The draft will be comprised of 5 or more rounds. Additional rounds may be designated by the commissioner.
C. Each team's position in each round will be determined as follows-
1. Non-playoff teams will be ranked from best win-loss pct to worst win-loss pct. (i.e. – the team that finishes with the best record will get the first pick in the draft).
2. Playoff teams (who do not make the finals) will be ranked from worst won-loss pct to best win-loss pct
3. The league champion will draft last and the runner up next to last.
4. In the event of a tie, the commissioner will use the toss of a coin to determine draft rank.
5. The draft will be held online via the bleacher bums league website or via email.
6. Actual conduct of the draft, including website link and time limits, is left to the discretion of the commissioner.
A.
Any players being released by another team may be claimed off waivers
from the releasing team.
B.
Players may be claimed off waivers at any time during the regular season
or the off-season before or after the rookie draft.
C.
During the last month of the regular season when rosters must be frozen,
no waiver claims will be allowed.
D.
The waiver process is as follows:
1.
A team announces to the commissioner player or players that want to
release
2.
The commissioner will announce to the league waivers being asked on those
players.
3.
League managers have 48 hours to place a claim with the commissioner.
4.
After the 48 hour is up, if there is more then one team claiming a
player(s), the team with the lowest W\L Pct. will be awarded the
player(s). (W\L Pct. for the just
completed season for the off season period will be used for the first month of
play. After the first month of play is
complete, W\L Pct. will be based on the current Pct. as of the day waivers are
announced.)
5.
Please note teams have only that 48 hour period to place a claim on a
player.
6.
If a player(s) goes unclaimed in the 48 hour period, then the player(s)
becomes a Free Agent.
1.
The draft order will be the same of the initial draft order for the
rookie phase.
2.
Each team may select up to 3 players in each round when it is their turn,
so long as they do not exceed the roster limit.
3.
Once a team passes (does not choose a player) or reaches the league
roster limit, they are no longer eligible to draft anymore free agents. We keep
repeating with new rounds until all selections are completed. These
supplemental draft rounds for the free agents CAN NOT be
traded.
4.
Teams must make all cuts (waiver cuts) to any unwanted players before the
start of the rookie draft.
5.
All claims for any of these waiver players will be made and completed
before the rookie draft starts.
A. All players remain the property of a team until traded or cut.
B. The trading period will be defined by the commissioner.
1. There will be a trading deadline for players to be eligible for post-season play, approximately one month after the all-star game.
2. There will be an absolute trading deadline one month before the end of the season.
C. All trades will be subject to review.
1. All trades must be reported by all parties involved.
2. Commissioner reserves the right to void any trade "in the best interests of the league."
a. This veto power is to be used in extreme cases only. The commissioner must first interview the participants in the vetoed trade and determine their thought process in making the deal.
b. A vetoed trade can be overturned by a simple majority of non-involved league members, if one of the involved parties asks the league to overturn the veto. The commissioner and petitioning parties then present their cases to the league, and a vote is taken. The commissioner does not vote in a veto appeal vote.
3. A team may trade draft picks for the upcoming Rookie draft only.
4. Once a trade is approved by the commissioner and announced to the league, it is final.
A. No limitations on player or pitcher usage shall be made by the league, other than those imposed by AIM.
B. Managers are permitted to adjust a relief pitcher's saves to influence his micromanager in choosing a closer.
1. These changes are allowed three times during the course of the year.
2. All changes are done by the commissioner. It is the manager's responsibility to notify the commissioner of his intent to change closers. The commissioner will incorporate the changes into the "play games" C-file before the series in question.
3. Changing of closers is done by reducing non-closers saves rather than augmenting the closers save totals.
4. In the event a reliever with only 1 or 2 saves is made the closer, his save total may be increased to 5.
A. The commissioner, before the start of the season, will establish the file transfer schedule, including when pre- and post- series franchise files (FF) are due each week and when "Play game" and "results" C-files will be sent.
B. If a pre-game FF is not received by the deadline, the team goes out as is without regard for fatigue or injury. Likewise, if results are not received by the deadline, the commissioner will play the games in automatic mode. D. A pre-game FF will be sent by the visiting team in a series by a pre-determined day and time. This file will contain any roster changes, lineups, rotation, and desired micromanager.
C. Results FF will be sent by the home team after completing his games but before the deadline established by the commissioner. This file will contain league boxscores for the games just played.
D. All FF’s will be named beginning with the letter F and end with .alp. For the purposes of continuity, all FF’s sent to the commissioner should be labeled F-xxxyy where xxx is the three letter abbreviation used by league manager for the team creating the file and yy is the number of the series either to be or just played, depending on whether this is a pre or post game file. For each series then, each team should send one Franchise file. The VISITING teams send theirs before the PLAY GAMES C-file goes out, the HOME teams send their results after, by the results deadline established by the commissioner.
E. All Commissioner Files begin with the letter C and end with .alp. For each series, the Commissioner sends two C files, a PLAY GAMES C- file and a RESULTS C-file.
1. The Play Games C-file will contain the information from each visiting team's franchise file. It will be named C-BBPGxx where BB stands for Bleacher Bums league, and PG play games, and xx is the series number.
2. The GAME RESULTS C-file will contain the game results and boxscores for the series in question. These files will be named, C-BBGRxx where BB of course stands for Bleacher Bums and GR stands for game results, and xx is the series number.
F. Micromanagers may be used by home teams as well as road teams (automatic mode)
G. Teams may use any stadium backdrop and configuration they choose, i.e. they do not need to check the DOMED box on their home park. The commissioner at his discretion will reschedule rainouts. If a game is rained out late in the year, and it bears no impact on post- season play, it may not be rescheduled.
H. Bunting for hits and park effects features in BBW 5.5 must be turned off to play BBL games.
A. The four division winners and a wild card qualifier from each conference are eligible for post season.
B. All ties for playoff positions will be decided by head to head record. Second tiebreaker is road record.
C. The Division winner in each Conference with the best record receives a first round bye in the playoffs.
D. The first round of playoffs involve a best of 7 set between the Wild Card teams in each Conference against the Division winner in their respective Conference not eligible for the first round bye.
E. The Winner of the Wild Card playoff round advances to the Conference Finals, which is a best of 7 series against the Division winner, which received the first round bye.
F. The Conference Champions then meet in a best of 7 series to determine the “Gordon Watson Memorial Trophy” winner.
G. The Commissioner who will send out the CF’s to the participants will schedule playoff Series.
H. Post Season Rosters will be established at the start of the playoffs and cannot be changed, even for injury.
I. Full AIM fatigue and injuries still are enforced in the Post Season.
J. A team's AIM status, including injured players is carried over into the Playoffs. As each Playoff series is set up, League Manager makes adjustments to post season players rosters.
A. This constitution can be amended, changed, or replaced by a majority vote of owned teams.
1. A majority is defined as 1 greater than 50% of the owners that participate in the vote.
2. Any proposed action, such as a rule change, shall be submitted in writing to the commissioner, and within the document clearly state that a rule change is being proposed for a vote.
3. The commissioner will distribute the proposed action as received to the membership for voting and count the returns.
4. Any action approved in this way becomes effective the day immediately preceding the next Rookie/Free agent draft, unless otherwise specified in the proposal.