Scoresheet Fantasy Baseball Continuing League Rules
Here are the rules for continuing leagues. These are the rules that all the continuing leagues that we formed (find owners for) will follow. If you are in a private league (one that finds its own team owners) then you can change these rules as you see fit. Though if you follow our normal rules then we can help settle any rules questions that may come up.
1) Each year you will keep 13 players from your team. The remaining rounds of the draft will go in REVERSE order of the final standings in EVERY round (except that regardless of won-loss record, the league's playoff winner will pick last, and the other division winner(s) will pick 2nd to last.) Protected lists will be due right around Feb 7th (exact dates for each league will sent out with updated rosters the last week of January) and the 2012 player lists will come out right around January 24th. So you will have a couple of weeks to make trades after the player lists come out before the protected lists are due. And yes, you can make trades throughout the off-season. But please do send us a trade note as soon as you make a trade so that we can put it through.
Also, you have to use all your protected spots; you can not just protect 11 players and get the first 2 picks in the draft. (However, you CAN trade protected spots - more on that below.) Among tied teams, we use the team number as a tie-breaker. This upcoming year (for the 2012 draft for existing leagues), the tie-breaker is that the lower (smaller) numbered team among tied teams drafts first in round 14 (the first 'real' round of drafting after the 13 rounds of keepers.) The tie-breaking order does flip-flop each round, so the higher (larger) numbered team among tied teams drafts first in round 15, the lower numbered tied team picks first in round 16, etc. The tie-breaker also switches every year - in 2013 the higher numbered team among tied teams will draft first in round 14.
NOTE: Any players that come over to your major league will be available in the next year's draft, meaning your round 14 pick can be VERY valuable! (Round 14 is the first round of the second stage, which is the first round of 'real drafting', since the first 13 rounds are spent on protecting players.) For instance, since Albert Pujols signed with the Angels, that means that whomever gets to pick first in round 14 in an existing AL continuing draft in 2012 will get to pick Pujols! So do not trade away your round 14 picks without getting a lot of value in return!
2) In addition to your 13 regular players protected every year, you can also protect any 'Scoresheet minor leaguers' you have on your roster. A 'Scoresheet minor leaguer' is a player who at the end of the season still has less than 130 career major league at-bats, or less than 50 career major league innings pitched. Scoresheet 'minor leaguers' have an m next to their name on your league roster. Each minor leaguer costs you one of your draft picks - if you protect one you lose your 35th round pick, if you protect 2 you lose your 34th and 35th round picks, if you protect 3 you lose your 33rd, 34th and 35th round picks, etc. etc. (**NOTE: If you've traded away a late pick then you lose your next pick instead. Also, it is only your own team's picks you lose for protecting minor leaguers - if you have traded for other team's late picks they can not be used as the fee when you protect 'minor leaguers'.) You CAN also protect as many minor leaguers as you like with your 13 regular protected spots if for some reason you want to do that.
3) On your protected list at the start of each season you can keep a maximum of 2 players that show up on the other league's player list (players who have been traded to the other league during the year.) If some of your players are traded to the other league during the season that is OK, you can finish out the year with them. But at the start of each year you will only be allowed to protect a maximum of 2 players that have signed with the other league as part of your 13 protected players. If a player has switched major leagues, and is not protected by his owner, then he is out of your league. NOTE: Minor leaguers you keep do NOT count against the limit of 2 'other league' players if they are on the other league's Scoresheet player list. In future years, when they lose that status and you protect them as regular keepers they *do* count against that 2 crossover limit. But in years they are protected as minor leaguers they do not.
4) You can trade draft picks, and you can also trade protected spots. But draft picks and protected spots can be at most one year in the future when you trade them. For example, once your league has drafted round 18 in 2012, you can trade for a 2013 round 18 pick. But in 2012 you can not trade for year 2013 picks, and you can not trade for 2013 picks until that round of the draft has been held in 2012. Also, if you trade away one of your protected spots it simply means you get to only protect 12 players, and the team you traded the protected spot to gets to protect 14 players. Note - you can NOT make trades for players to be named later (they are too tough to review for fairness.) And finally, you can not 'rent' players. Deals such as: "I'll give you Lincecum for the rest of the season, and then you give him back, plus a draft pick" are definitely NOT allowed!
