Tom Tresh ‘They used to call me phenom’
Fantasy League Baseball
(original rules drafted March, 1989)
(Founding members: Eric Lyttle, Cliff Wiltshire, Pat Kane, Karl Kessler, Jeff Lyttle, John Milliken, Jeff Baird)
I’m writing these rules because my kid is taking an afternoon nap and I’ve got time. Besides, I want to stop talking about it and start playing. So let’s do it!
This league, hereafter referred to as the TTTUTCMPFLB for short, is designed like many other fantasy leagues. We draft real major league players and use their actual season statistics to determine our own league champion.
It’s going to cost some money to get in and its going to take some time to keep up. But heey, it’s challenging, it’s risky, it’s exciting and it’s baseball. Enough said!?
1. COST
Let’s put it right out front.
1.1. There will be, per a 2018 rule change, a $90 entry fee per franchise (limit, one franchise per owner), to be placed in a league kitty.
1.2. Certain charges will be levied for player moves throughout the season. Free-agent buys will cost $2 between the draft and our first lineup deadline (the first Tuesday at 7 p.m.) After that, free agent buys will cost $5 apiece. Per a 2018 rule change, it no longer will cost $2 each time a player is moved from an owner’s minor league roster to the active roster. (Since the active roster cannot exceed 24 players, a minor league promotion must also include an active player being moved to the minors.)
1.3. After the 1991 season, a rule was enacted that if an active owner leaves the league, a new owner will purchase the vacant franchise with his entry fee.
2. THE AUCTION (changed, in 1991, from THE DRAFT)
2.1. Come prepared. I like you guys, but I don’t want to spend a week in a room with you.
2.2. Names will be drawn from . . . oh, what the hell—a baseball cap to determine the order owners will nominate players for the auction.
2.3. Each franchise will have a draft-day salary cap of $30 to spend on his 24-man roster.
2.4. Once a player is nominated, anyone can bid on the player.
2.4.1. The player will go to the highest bidder; the minimum bid is five cents, there is no maximum bid.
2.4.2. Bid raises must be a minimum of nickel increments.
2.5. Though our entry fee is $50 per franchise, the salary cap on auction day is $30 per team.
2.5.1. Each owner must fill out his 24-man roster at the auction. Consequently, one’s roster spots to fill cannot be greater than his salary left. For instance, if an owner has five spots to fill, he must have at least 25 cents remaining, and his maximum bid on any remaining player is a nickel.
3. THE ROSTER
3.1. The 24-man roster will include 14 starters and 10 reserves.
3.1.1. Starters will include nine hitters and five pitchers (in league crossover games, active pitchers hitting stats will not count).
3.1.2. Starting hitters include one catcher, one first baseman, one second baseman, one shortstop, one third baseman, three outfielders and one designated hitter.
3.1.2.1. The designated hitter position is a wild card, and can be filled by any hitter.
3.1.3. Starting pitchers include three starter and two relievers.
3.1.4. The bench consists of 10 open spots. Fill the spots as you see fit.
3.2. Position eligibility
3.2.1. Players are eligible for a position if they played at least 10 games at that spot in the previous year (five for pitchers) or if they made at least two appearances at that position in the current season.
3.2.1.1. Rookies who have not achieved enough Major League experience to meet our position eligibility standards can be started in the first week at the position they played most often in that season’s spring training games.
3.2.1.2. As stated above, there is no position eligibility requirement for the designated hitter position. It’s a wild card slot, and can be filled by any hitter. However, an active player who does not qualify at any other position except designated hitter (think Jim Thome) must be used at the designated hitter slot.
3.3. Starting lineups
3.3.1. Weekly starting lineups must be turned in each Tuesday by 7 p.m.
3.3.1.1. Starting lineups must be comprised entirely of active players (active as of 7 p.m. Tuesday).
3.3.1.2. Owners who fail to turn in a weekly lineup by 7 p.m. on Tuesday are forced to use their lineup from the previous week.
3.3.1.3. The stats from any player on starting lineup who is not active—either a minor leaguer, on a National League roster, Bereavement List or on the Disabled List—will not count for that week. Additionally, since taking all zeroes could conceivably help a pitcher’s stats in two categories, any owner who starts a non-active pitcher must forfeit Earned Runs and WHIP for that week (more on scoring later.)
Per a 2018 owners rule change, an owner using an ineligible pitcher will have said pitcher replaced in the following manner:
3.4. Minor League
3.4.1. Each team will be entitled for a minor league squad of four players.
3.4.2. Unlike the 24-man roster, the minor leaguers will be selected in a draft, not an auction. Each minor leaguer’s salary will automatically be 50 cents.
3.4.3. The minor leaguers will selected following the conclusion of the auction. The reverse order of finish from the previous season will determine the order of the Minor League draft, with the previous year’s last place team taking the first pick, the next-to-last second, and so on.
3.4.4. Any player remaining undrafted at the conclusion of the auction is eligible to be selected as a minor league player. Some owners may choose to select future stars to stash away until they’re ready for Major League stardom. Other owners may choose to use the four minor-league slots to take the best remaining Major Leaguers, hoping for comebacks, to fill regular-roster holes, etc. Either option is valid.
3.4.5. Any Minor League player who remains untouched on the Minor League roster can be carried over the next year without charge.
3.4.6. If a Minor League player is promoted to the 24-man roster, as stated in section 1.2, there is a $2 charge each time.
3.5. Keepers/Sixth Man Draft
3.5.1. Beginning with the 1992 season, the TTTUTCMPFLB became a “Keeper League.”
3.5.2. Each owner is entitled, though not required, to keep up to five players from his previous year’s roster. The protected list will be announced each winter, on the weekend before the Super Bowl. Per a 2019 rule change, this became a soft deadline, which means owners are free to retract one of their keepers for any reason at all by the hard deadline of one week prior to the draft.
3.5.2.1. Beginning with the 1994 season, we instituted a 25-cent increase in salary for each protected player. There is no limit to the number of years an owner may keep a single player.
3.5.2.2. If the protected player is lost, either via trade, free agency, injury, release or retirement, between the protection announcement and the draft, the owner simply loses the player. No replacement can be made, though no salary penalty is assessed.
3.5.2.3 Beginning in 2025, a trade deadline was imposed at noon the Thursday before keepers are due, and it will run until the completion of the draft, at which point teams are free to trade until the in-season trade deadline.
3.5.3. Sixth Man: Beginning with the 1993 season, a sixth-man draft was instituted, whereby each franchise owner may take one unprotected player off his own or any other owner’s roster.
3.5.3.1. The sixth-man picks will take place immediately following the announcement of the protections, the weekend before the Super Bowl.
3.5.3.2. Unprotected players who were protected the previous year (including sixth-man picks and, as clarified in 2019, minor league keepers) are not eligible to be sixth-man picks the following season.
3.5.3.3. Order of the sixth-man pick shall be the reverse order of finish from the previous season; i.e. the last-place team from the prior year shall be entitled to the first sixth-man pick that winter.
3.5.3.4. The salary of the sixth-man picks will follow same rule as the protected players—their salary from the prior year, plus 25 cents.
3.5.3.5. Team owners will enter the auction having already spent the sum total of the salaries of their protected players and their sixth-man pick. For instance, if an owner spent $8 on five protections, plus another $2 on a sixth-man pick, he’ll enter the auction with $20 available to spend on his remaining 18 roster spots ($30 minus total salary of protected players.)
3.5.4. Offseason moves: Rosters remain frozen from Protection weekend until the auction. Trades may be made between owners over the winter, in the window between the conclusion of the prior season and the announcement of protections. However, no free agents may be purchased during this time.
3.5.4.1. Off-season rosters must remain at 24 players, so trades must one-for-one, two-for-two, etc., though winter rosters may have any combination of position players and pitchers.
3.5.4.2. Players lost to trade, free agency, injury, demotion or retirement may not be replaced during the offseason. Should an owner lose a player via trade to the National League, he will not be entitled to the former N.L. player involved in the trade. For instance, if the Indians trade Grady Sizemore to the Reds for Brandon Phillips during the offseason, Sizemore’s owner is not entitled to Phillips.
4. IN-SEASON PLAY
4.1. Scoring: (from the original rules) “This is important. Here’s where we took a good game (Rotisserie League Baseball) and improved upon it. This is what’s going to get us on “P.M. Magazine, and will get us publishing contracts from Bantam Books. Most fantasy leagues simply compile running stats and update standings from April through October. By doing that, the lifeblood of baseball, the pennant race, is watered down. Let’s face it—if Darryl Strawberry has a couple of bad games, they won’t necessarily be reflected in his final stats. But if Darryl is your Franchise Player, and you’re playing my team with the Big Prize on the line in late September, and the Straw man has a couple of bad games, well, I’ll try to console you as the cash flow pours into my wallet. Like real baseball, a player’s consistency will be as important as his ability.”
4.2. Each week of the season constitutes one game, except during weeks when a doubleheader is scheduled. The outcome of each game will be determined by six offensive categories—total runs, hits, rbi, home runs, total bases and stolen bases—and five pitching categories—wins, saves, strikeouts, earned runs and WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched.) One point is awarded for each category won.
4.2.1. In the event of a tie, the game tiebreaker will be determined as follows: a team’s earned run average for that week’s pitchers (without the decimal point) minus its batting average (again, without the decimal point). The lowest outcome wins the week.
4.3 Trades
4.3.1 Trades between owners are allowed, free of charge
4.3.1.1 There is no limit to the number of trades done, so long as the rosters remain intact at 24 players and position-by-position balance is maintained (except during the offseason, as stated above.)
4.3.1.2 Minor League players may also be traded, and the trade will no compromise the player’s Minor League status (unless, of course, the new owner decides to promote the player.) However, no more than four Minor League slots are allowed.
4.3.1.3 So as not to threaten competitiveness down the stretch, a trade deadline has been established. No trades shall be allowed between 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of August and the end of the season. (As stated above, trades will be allowed during the offseason, between the conclusion of the season and Protection Weekend)
4.3.1.4 All trades are to involve only team personnel; no cash involved, no players to be named later.
4.4 Other personnel moves
4.4.1 Should a player be traded to the American League, and the trade doesn’t involve a player from any Tresh roster, the incoming player becomes a free agent. All Tresh owners will be queried as to whether they’re interested in purchasing the new player. Should more than one owner express interest, the names of those interested owners will be placed in a hat, with the winner drawn in lottery fashion. This process should take no longer than three days.
4.4.2 Should a player be traded to the National League, the owner of the traded player has first rights any of the players named in the trade. For instance, if Manny Ramirez is traded to the National League for one player, Manny’s owner has first rights to that player. If Manny is traded to the National League for two or more players, Manny’s owner has first rights to any of the players he was traded for.
4.4.2.1 The salary of the lost player is applied to the new acquisition.
4.4.2.2 If rights are waived to the incoming player, the owner of the traded player may choose any free agent at the traded player’s salary. If other owners are then interested in acquiring the A.L. newcomer, follow the procedure spelled out in Rule 4.5.1.
4.4.2.3 A Tresh owner who loses a player via trade to the National League has three days (from the time the trade is brought to his attention) to announce his intentions. In addition to the options spelled out above, he may also choose to keep the rights to his original player, now in the National League. If the owner chooses to keep the rights to the player, he may replace him with a free free agent at any point before the season ends, however if the move is made more than 72 hours after the trade, that free agent will assume the standard $5.00 salary rather than the salary of the player traded to the National League.
4.4.3 If a multi-player trade is made involving players from more than one Tresh roster, per a 1998 Owners Rule Change, the owner who lost the player with the highest salary will have first choice of the group of players coming into the AL. For this purpose, free agents will be considered to have a salary of $0, making any drafted player the one with the higher salary and, therefore, dibs on the player coming into the AL.
4.4.4 If you lose a player for any other reason (injury, retirement, demotion to minors, etc.), tough luck. You can maintain rights to the player at his existing salary, or drop him and pay $5 for a free agent.
4.4.5 All moves must be reported to another owner (not involved in the deal) to become legal.
4.4.5.1 The first to claim any free agent (not counting the above scenario involving players traded into the American League) will have rights to the player. Times should be noted, either via email or voicemail, when claims are made.
5. AMENDMENTS
5.1. To amend current league rules listed in this constitution or to add new rules, a two-thirds “Yeah” vote is needed;
5.2. Per a 2019 rule change vote, the two-thirds rule applies to the number of owners who cast a vote and owners will have 72 hours to cast a vote from the time a rule change is proposed
6. THE CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION
6.1. League standings will be updated each week. The team with the best record at the end of the season with the championship.
6.1.1. In the event of a tie, the season tiebreaker for two tied teams will be head-to-head record;
6.1.1.1. If that doesn’t break the tie, the second criteria will be categories won in head-to-head matchups between the two tied teams
6.1.1.2. Third criteria will be categories won overall for the season
6.1.1.3. Fourth criteria will be final season stats for the tied teams; The two teams will play a tiebreaker game based on the final season stats for all players on the roster at the end of the season.
6.1.1.4. Fifth criteria will be a final tiebreaker game based only on the staring lineups from the final week
6.1.1.5. Sixth criteria: Karl decides—he’s bigger than all of us.
6.1.2. In the event of a tie involving more than two teams, the tiebreaker will be as follows:
6.1.2.1. Wins and losses in matches with all that are tied (if all played the same number of games)
6.1.2.2. Criteria two: Categories won and lost in matches involving all the tied teams (if all played the same number of games)
6.1.2.3. Third criteria, same as Criteria Four above, as stated in Rule 4.3.1.3
6.1.2.4. Once the number of tied teams is whittled to two, revert back to Section 4.3.1.
6.2. Dispersal of winnings: The league pool shall be divided to the top-four finishers at season’s end. The winner shall win 40 percent of the final pot; the runner-up shall win 30 percent; third place will get 20 percent and the fourth-place finisher will win 10 percent of the final pot.
6.3. Official Rotisserie League Baseball, the originator of this glorious game, recommends this final “Hail to the Victor” celebration that seems very baseballesque, a sort of right or passage to manhood. “The owner of the winning team receives a bottle of Yoo-Hoo poured over his head.” (Yoo-Hoo is a chocolate cola formerly endorsed by the infamous Yogi Berra.) “To consecrate the bond of friendship that unites all [TTTUTCMPFLB owners] in their pursuit of the pennant, to symbolize the eternal verities and values of the Greatest Game for Baseball Fans since Baseball and to soak the head of the league champion with sticky brown substance before colleagues and friends duly assembled, the Yoo-Hoo Ceremony is hereby ordained as the culminating event of the baseball season. The Yoo-Hoo Ceremony shall be performed with the dignity and solemnity appropriate to the occasion.”