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SPONSOR
That's a total of 390 players you can rank. That's a lot of players, so if you wish to rank only the top 10 or 15 or even five at a position, you can, and we'll automatically fill in the rest by ranking the other players according to how well they did last year. If you get the number six pick at shortstop, that doesn't mean you'll get the shortstop you've ranked six. It means that five people will pick ahead of you, and that you'll get the shortstop you ranked highest (best) who hasn't already been picked. You may get the shortstop you ranked third or fourth. The draft reverses in the second round, so if you draft first at catcher in the first round, you will also draft 30th at catcher in the second round. If you drafted 15th at first base in the first round, then you'll draft first at first base in the second round (16th overall pick). The draft is arranged so that an owner's picks are not concentrated in similar categories. No owner will be able to, say, draft first at left-handed American League starter, second at right-handed AL starter, third at closer. We've also arranged the draft so that each owner gets some high picks at the higher pointing positions, and some at the lower-pointing positions. If you're drafting an entirely new fantasy team there's no way to tell at what position you'll draft first, second, etc. The order of draft in a new league should not affect the way you fill out your Draft Rankings. Live Draft The live draft option allows you to control every player that is placed on your 26-man roster. The draft will last 26 rounds and draft order will be randomly selected prior to the draft (1-12). The order in which team owners draft reverses in each successive round, so that the owner who drafts first in the first round, will draft 12th in the second round, and so on. You will have 90 seconds to draft a player in each of the 26 rounds. If you do not select a player within the time limit, a player will be chosen for you. If you can't participate in the live draft, you will have the option to rank all players in order of preference and have our auto-draft draft for you. The auto-draft will look at both a player's position and ranking before making a selection. The computer looks to see which starting positions you need to fill, then selects the highest-rated player to fill one of those positions. If you do not rank players, you will be provided a set of default rankings based on last season's point totals. So, if you are given a catcher in the first round, another will not be selected until all your other starting positions are filled. If you choose to rank players and not participate in the live draft, the positions from which you will be drafting and the number of players you will draft at each position are as follows:
E-mail Draft Like the live draft, the e-mail draft option allows you to control every player that is placed on your 26-man roster. The draft will last 26 rounds and draft order will be randomly selected prior to the draft (1-12). The order in which team owners draft reverses in each successive round, so that the owner who drafts first in the first round, will draft 12h in the second round, and so on. The draft will begin with an automated e-mail sent to all 12 contestants informing them that the team selected to pick first in the first round is on the clock. At that time the contestant on the clock can go to the web site provided in the e-mail to make his/her selection. A list of available players at each position will be provided. After the selection is made, an automated e-mail will be sent to all 12-league members to inform them of the player picked and what contestant picks next. This process will continue for all 26 rounds. Each contestant will have 24 hours to make their selection in each of the 26 rounds. A contestant does not have to take 24 hours to make a selection. If a contestant chooses a player before the 24 hour time limit has expired, the clock will start running for the next contestant as soon as the selection is made. If you do not select an player within the time limit, a player will be chosen for you. Because of the length of time allowed to make each pick, if a league's draft has not completed by Noon on Friday, March 28th, 2008, all remaining picks will be selected automatically. Automatic selections will award each contestant the available player with the highest number of fantasy points from last year. THE ROSTER When you get your 26-player roster following the league draft, 20 of those players will be assigned to your major league roster, and the remaining six will have been assigned to your minors. The players with the most SFBB points the previous season will automatically get assigned to the majors, making sure you have a valid roster. To meet minimum roster requirements, your major league roster must consist of 20 players and always contain at least: 1 player at each of the eight defensive positions (C,1B,2B,SS,3B,LF,CF,RF) 4 starting pitchers (any combination of lefties and/or righties, AL and/or NL) 3 relief pitchers, including at least one middle reliever 1 additional pitcher of any kind Starter or Reliever The other four roster spots in your majors can be filled by players from any positions. Statistics of players in your minors are not used in determining league results. The players in your minors remain the property of your team until they are traded or released; they cannot be claimed by other teams in the league. Your roster starts with 26 players. After the rosters are released, you may expand to a total of 28 players through trades or free agent acquisitions. A team may never have more than 20 players in its majors, but may have as few as 16 as long as minimum roster requirements are met. You earn the most points, of course, with 20. POSITION ELIGIBILITY Because of these minimum roster requirements, position eligibility is an important part of the game. Changes in position eligibility will be posted weekly, every Monday afternoon. We insist on actual playing time before we move guys. A player must play at least 5 games at a designated position for even being considered for a position switch. The Player List link serves as the official Position Eligibility List. The Position Eligibility List shows all players who are eligible for the preseason draft and the position at which they can be drafted. Players are eligible to play only at the position under which they are listed on the Player List until STATS makes official position eligibility changes. Position eligibility changes are announced weekly every Monday morning. Some position eligibility changes make certain players (those playing a significant amount of time at two or more positions) eligible to play two or more positions rather than one. However, These multi-position players play only one of those positions at a time, not both simultaneously. Your roster will display all of player's eligible positions, but that player is currently playing only the first position shown. You are free to decide which of the positions a multi-position player will play on any given day (see Position Changes). In the event of a trade, a multi-position player remains at the position he is playing at the time of the trade, provided he is still eligible at that position. The owner who acquires the player may, after s/he aqquires that player, change the player's position. There is also flexibility among your outfielders. If the Braves wanted their left fielder to play right, he could probably do it, although it may take him some time to master the fine points. For that reason, there are penalties for playing an outfielder out of position. If you wish to play an outfielder out of position, you can move him to a different outfield spot in accordance with the following:
Left fielders or right fielders cannot be switched to play center field. These are one-time penalties, meaning you only lose the points once, not daily or weekly. However, if you move Torii Hunter to left, then back to center, and then back to left, you will be penalized again for the second move. When a team trades away an outfielder playing out of position, the outfielder will revert to his original position. If the team that acquires him in the trade wishes to continue to play him out of position, the new owner must request a position change and also pay the point penalty. During the season, a player's eligible position can change if he stops playing his present position and starts playing a significant amount of time at a different position. In this situation, your player would actually lose his eligibility at his present position once you shifted him to his new position. But, you would have no obligation to move the player to his new position. Once he is moved to his new position, however, he may not be moved back to his old position. If a multi-position player has one of his positions changed, or removed, you may not subsequently play him at the old position unless you were playing him at that position on the Monday before his new position became effective; if, at any time thereafter, you move him out of that old position, you may not move him back. If you need to shift the player to his old position in order to preserve his eligibility there, you must submit the shift by the Sunday before his new position becomes effective. If a team signs a free agent after his position has been changed, the player will only be eligible at his new position. Similarly, if a team trades for a player whose position has been changed, the player will only be eligible at his new position. This rule also applies to position changes for multi-position players; if a multi-position player has his position changed from 2B/3B to 3B/SS, and is subsequently traded from a team that is still playing him at 2B, he will not be eligible to play 2B on his new team, but only 3B/SS, and the new team will receive him at either 3B or SS. A position player generally becomes eligible to play a new position after he has played there for at least 20% of his defensive innings in the past two weeks. Starting pitchers and middle relievers generally get switched if their last two appearances were in a different capacity. To get switched to closer, a pitcher generally must have earned a couple of saves in closer-type situations (one or less innings and a narrow lead) during the past two weeks. Players called up for the first time by a major league team are added to the Position Eligibility List the day after they make their first appearance in a major league game. Position eligibility will be determined by the player's most common position(s) in the minors and his expected position(s) in the majors. THE POINTS The points awarded for hitting, pitching and defense are balanced the same way your roster is balanced--approximately 50-55 percent hitting, 40 percent pitching and the rest defense. Offensive Categories
Pitching Categories
Defensive Categories
Bonus Points
THE ALL-STAR GAME These players must be on your team the day of the All-Star Game. Players who makes the All-Star Team earn you 10 bonus points. If a hitter homers in the game--and he's on your majors, you get an additional 10 points. If pitchers finish the All-Star Game with positive SFBB points--and he's on your majors, you'll get those points. ROSTER TRANSACTIONS There are five types of roster transactions:
Next day means the day following receipt of the transaction by STATS Fantasy Baseball. All transactions must be submitted online at www.stats.com. NO transactions will be accepted via phone. The daily deadline for all transactions is midnight, Central Time. An important concept of SFBB that all owners should understand before making transactions is the Major/Minor Rule. This rule states: If a player lands on your major or minor league roster via any means, he must stay there for three days if a non-pitcher, or 7 days if a pitcher except: (a) he can be traded at any time (b) he can be demoted to your minors if he was placed on the Official Disabled List If a player has been demoted to your minor league roster, he must stay there for three days if a non-pitcher, or 7 days if a pitcher except: (a) he can be traded at any time (b) he can be released at any time; and (c) he can be promoted to your majors as a replacement for another player that was placed on the Official Disabled List. Additionally, the injured player must be demoted within the disabled period (e.g., 15 days if the player was placed on the 15-day DL). This holds true even if the player has not been officially activated off of the DL by his major league team. The Major/Minor Rule is not triggered by transactions effective for Opening Day or earlier. Please note that a player coming off of the DL may not be promoted in violation of the Major/Minor Rule. If one of your players is retroactively placed on the DL by his major league team, and you choose to demote him at that time, he may appear in a major league game before your 7-day waiting period has expired. (For example: Kerry Wood is retroactively placed on the 15-day DL, effective eight days ago. If you demote him, he must stay in your minors for 7 days, even if he comes off the real DL in seven days.) So pay special attention to retroactive DL placements. Also, please note that a player being sent to the minors by his major league team does not permit you to demote that player in violation of the Major/Minor Rule. Please note: If a major league game is suspended, and the game is completed on a subsequent date, statistics from the completion of the game are considered to have been earned on the date the game began. Consequently, only players active on this original game date will earn SFBB points for your team. TRADES You may want to trade away some of your strengths to shore up your weaknesses during the course of the season. Trades with other teams in your league are allowed from the start of the season to the season trading deadline of Sunday, August 31, 2008. The number of trades you make during the season is unlimited. Trades do not necessarily need to include the same number of players, although each team must stay within the limits of their 28-player roster. To propose a trade, go to your team page and select "Propose Trade", which allows you to select the team with which you want to deal with and the players you wish to trade. An email will be sent to the other team you are offering your proposed trade. That team can then go to his team page to view the proposal, and accept or decline it. If your trade is rejected, you will receive an email notification. If the offer is accepted, the entire league will be notified so that each team can review the deal. During the review period, trades are marked as pending. This period will last 24 hours in which time other members can review the proposed trade and protest it if they deem the trade unfair to the rest of the league. Any protested trade will be sent to the commissioner for review. Once the trade has been accepted and the waiting period has finished, the trade will be processed and its results reflected on each team's roster. In order for a trade to be valid, all players involved must still be on the same team they were on when the deal was proposed. If they are not, the trade will automatically be rejected. Trades must be made in an attempt to benefit both teams. If a trade is discovered that appears to be collusive, or one-sided to the point that it cannot benefit one of the parties involved, league members may protest the trade and send it on to the commissioner for review. The commissioner reserves the right to handle all such situations to preserve the integrity of the game. In any situation where the commissioner believes that a proposed trade is collusive or will not fairly benefit both teams, the commissioner may, in its sole discretion, reject the trade. Decisions of the commissioner on all such matters shall be final. FREE AGENTS In addition to activating and benching players each Week, you'll be able to sign listed free agents during the course of the season. Once the preseason draft has been completed, all players on the Player List who have not been drafted onto a team become available free agents. Weekly Free Agent Draft The first weekly free agent draft for leagues that start on Opening Day (March 30th, 2008) will be on Monday April 7th, 2008. Results will be posted by Noon, with player requests due by 10AM. Leagues that start after Opening Day will have their first free agent draft on the first Monday following their first day of official play. Every Monday (requests due by 10AM-starting April 12th) free agents can be acquired by any team in the league in a draft that's run in reverse order of the standings through that Sunday's games (similar to the real life Waiver Rule). Drafted free agents become members of the drafting team on Monday, and can start earning points on Tuesday, following the draft. When you submit your free agent requests, you can list up to three choices for each open spot on your roster and each player to be conditionally released. That means you could, theoretically, name as many as 84 different free agent choices in your requests, and sign up to 28 of them, but you would have to release your whole team to do so. At the time of the first free agent draft, you will probably have at least two open spots on your roster because you're permitted to expand your total roster to 28 players. At the start of the season, every owner is trying to fill out his roster to the maximum of 28 with the best free agents, and teams lower than yours in the standings may name some of the same free agents you would like to sign. For this reason, it is vitally important for you to submit alternate (second and third) free agent choices and additional drafts or you stand a chance of getting no players. Whenever you submit a conditional release with a free agent draft, any free agent you sign from that draft will automatically take the roster spot of the conditional release; if the release was in your majors, your free agent will go to your majors, and if the release was in your minors, your free agent will go to your minors. POSITION CHANGES You have the option of shifting a player to a different position under any of the following circumstances: A multi-position player can be shifted to any of eligible positions; An outfielder can be shifted to another outfield position (other than center field) if the owner pays a penalty in SFBB points; or Any player whose eligible position has been changed (as posted every Monday) can be shifted to his new position, but may not thereafter be shifted back to his old position. RELEASES There are two types of releases: A conditional release can be made when drafting a free agent. In this case, the player to be conditionally released will actually be released or removed from your team only if a free agent replacement from that draft is successfully signed by your team (see Free Agents). An outright release can be made at any time, subject to the Major/Minor Rule. Here, a player from either your major or minor league roster will definitely be removed from your team effective the following day. Make sure that your minimum major league roster requirements will be met after the release. Also, you may not release a player from your major league roster, either in a free agent draft or outright, if it violates the Major/Minor Rule. THE PLAYOFFS AND WORLD SERIES The three division winners and one wild card team are eligible to play in your league's postseason. The division winner is the team with the most SFBB points in its division. The wild card is the team with the most SFBB points in the league, excluding the three division winners. Equivalent won/loss record has no bearing on eligibility for the postseason. Near the end of the regular season, SFBB will post on the website a list of Cimoli values (a unit of currency named after 1950s outfield immortal Gino Cimoli) for each major league player whose team can still qualify for the playoffs. Once the regular season ends, each division winner can spend 175 Cimolies and the wild card 150 Cimolies to form a roster for the first round of the major league playoffs. The roster must consist of exactly 15 players from any of the eight teams participating in the major league playoffs; six pitchers (starters or relievers) and nine position players (any positions) must be selected, and their total value may not exceed 175 Cimolies (150 for the wild card). In addition, the total value of your position players may not exceed 105 cimolies (90 for the wild card). All 15 players will be active at all times throughout the playoffs. Following the completion of first-round play, all four SFBB playoff participants again form a new 15-player roster for the second round of the major league playoffs. Players for your second round roster must play for one of the four major league teams that advanced to the second round. In all other respects, the rules governing your first round playoff roster also apply to the second round. Once second round play ends, the two playoff participants with the most points over the first two rounds combined advance to the World Series. Each World Series qualifier gets 125 Cimolies to form a new roster for the World Series. The roster must consist of exactly 10 players from teams participating in the World Series; four pitchers and six position players must be selected, and their total value may not exceed 125 Cimolies. In addition, the total value of your position players may not exceed 75 Cimolies. All 10 players will be active at all times throughout the World Series. When you purchase players for any of your postseason rosters, you will get a 50% discount on any player who was also on your regular season roster at the end of the season. For example, if Derek Jeter is on your team at the end of the regular season, and his value is 20 Cimolies, you can purchase him for 10 Cimolies. He does not have to be active on your regular season roster in order to get the discount. SFBB points are earned during the postseason in exactly the same manner as during the regular season, with the following two exceptions: 1. bonus points are not awarded during the postseason, and 2. points are awarded for RBI in excess of runs scored, and for saves in excess of pitcher wins. Once a postseason roster has been submitted, it may not be changed in any way. If you wish to know your opponents' rosters, please give them a call once the deadline for submission has passed. The World Series participant that earns the most SFBB points during the World Series wins his SFBB league's World Series. In the event of a tie after the second round or World Series, regular season SFBB points will serve as the tie-breaker. If only two teams participate in the postseason, the World Series champion will be the team with the most cumulative points over all three rounds of the postseason combined. All of the above postseason rules are subject to revision during the season. SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION OF WINNER League Winners Each league winner will receive a League prize. The eligible registered contestants that win the World Series Championship in their league will be deemed a League winner. The total number of league winners is dependant on the number of eligible entries received. The selected winners will be determined and notified by e-mail on or about November 1, 2008. Selected winner will be required to respond to the winner notification by e-mail within 72 hours and, in such response, must confirm his/her full name, age, and provide his/her residential mailing address and phone number to receive the prize. The failure to respond timely and completely to the winner notification will result in forfeiture of the prize and Sponsor will select an alternate winner from among those remaining eligible contestants in accordance with the selection process of this Section of the Official Rules. A prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner will be selected in accordance with the selection process of this Section of the Official Rules from among the remaining eligible entries if a selected winner: (i) cannot be reached; (ii) fails to obtain all signatures on any release or affidavit and to return the document(s) as required by Sponsor; or (iii) cannot accept or receive the prize for any reason. Sponsor reserve the right to modify the notification procedures in connection with the selection of alternate winners, if any. PRIZES League Prizes Each league winner will receive an engraved plaque stating that you were league champion in the year 2008. Approximate retail value ("ARV") of each league prize is $50. Total ARV of the League Prizes is dependant on the number of eligible entries received. Overall Prize The John McGraw award goes the World Series champion in his or her league who score the most combined points in regular season and postseason play. Only non-private league participants are eligible for the John McGraw award. The John McGraw award winner gets a free year subscription to our commercial STATS Pass product (Baseball) used by major league front office's, managers, and media outlets. TIE-BREAKERS Regular season tie-breakers are as follows: 1. Fewest total bonus points wins; 2. Lowest team ERA wins; 3. Owner with fully paid transactions wins; and 4. The never-failing coin flip. Postseason ties revert to regular season points as the tie-breaker.  
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REGISTRATION 
