SCORESHEET FANTASY BASEBALL: 2025 CONTINUING LEAGUE RULES
These rules apply to all public continuing leagues (public meaning that team owners are found by Scoresheet. All of our leagues designated with a number are public leagues.) If you are in a private league (one that finds its own owners), you may modify these rules as you see fit. However, following the Scoresheet standard rules in private leagues can help settle any rules questions that may arise.
- Each year, teams will keep 13 major league players. The
remaining rounds of the draft, beginning with Round 14, will go in reverse order of the
previous year's final league standings in every round (except the league's playoff winner will pick last
and other division winner(s) will pick 2nd to last, regardless of won-loss
records.)
The upcoming season's player lists (including player's positions for the new year and their new fielding ranges) will come out in late January, and then team's keeper lists will be due in mid/late February, with public keeper league web drafts, beginning with round 14, starting the 2nd week of March.
NOTE: You can make trades throughout the off-season. However, please send in your trade report from the 'trade report' link at the top of your league home page as soon as a trade is made so that we can process it.
All protected spots must be used; you can not only protect 11 players, for example, and get the first 2 picks in the draft. However, you CAN trade protected spots as described below.
Among tied teams, we use the team number as a tie-breaker for determining draft order. This upcoming year, for the 2025 draft for existing leagues, the higher (larger) numbered team among tied teams will draft first in Round 14 (the first "real" round of drafting after the 13 rounds of keepers.) The tie-breaking order alternates each round, so the lower numbered team among tied teams will draft first in Round 15, the higher numbered tied team picks first in Round 16, and so on. The tie-breaker also alternates every year - in 2026, the lower numbered team among tied teams will draft first in Round 14.
NOTE Players that moved from the AL to the NL (or vice versa) will be available in the next year's draft, making your Round 14 pick potentially VERY valuable! For instance, if Acuna is traded to an AL team this winter then Acuna will be available in ALs for the first time in 2025. Therefore, do not trade away your Round 14 picks without recieving a lot of value in return, especially if you have the first or second pick in the draft!
- In addition to the 13 players protected each
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 2024 season, does not have more
than 130 career major league at-bats, or have more than 50 career major
league innings pitched. "Scoresheet minor leaguers" have
an "m" next to their name on the league roster on your league's home page.
Each minor leaguer you protect costs you a draft pick. The last pre-season pick you own is used
for the 1st minor league player you protect, your 2nd to last pick is used for
the 2nd minor league player you protect, and so on, regardless of whether the pick
is your own or one you traded for.
NOTE: This was new in 2021. Before 2021 it was only your own team's picks that would be lost, but beginning in 2021 you can also use picks you have traded for. For example, if you have 3 round 35 picks, they will be be used for your first 3 protected minor league players. You can also protect "minor leaguers" with the 13 standard protected spots if you like. - Beginning in 2020, the crossover limit increased from two to three.
That means that on each year's keeper list you can keep a maximum of *three* players that
have signed with a team in the other league (and show up on the other league's
Scoresheet player list). If any of your players are traded to the
other league during the season, you can
finish out the year with them. If a player has switched leagues,
and is not protected by his owner, then he out of your league and not eligible to draft.
NOTE: "Scoresheet minor leaguers" that are kept DO NOT count against the limit of three
"other league" players if they are on the other league's
Scoresheet player list. In future years, if they are no longer "minor leaguers" and
you protect them as regular keepers, they do count against the three player
crossover limit.
Players that are not signed when the player lists are first posted will not count as crossovers (will not count against the 3 player limit from the other league) in 2025. Though they do (like all players other then Scoresheet minor leaguers) require the use of one of your 13 keeper spots to protect them. - 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 2025, you can trade for a 2026 Round 18 pick. But in 2025 you can not trade for year 2027 picks, and you can not trade for 2026 picks until that round of the draft has been held in 2025. Also, if you trade away one of your protected spots, it means you get to protect only 12 players, and the team to which you traded the protected spot gets to protect 14 players. NOTE: You can NOT make trades for players to be named later (they are too difficult to review for fairness.) Also, you can NOT "rent" players. Deals such as: "I'll give you Betts for the rest of the season, and then you give him back, plus a draft pick" are definitely NOT allowed!
