League Constitution

c. An active roster must comprise two catchers, one player at each infield
position (first base, second base, third base, and shortstop), five outfielders,
one additional corner infielder (first or third base), one additional middle
infielder (second base or shortstop), one additional hitter from any position,
and nine pitchers.

i. To be eligible at a specific position, a hitter must have played at least
twenty (20) games there in the previous season, or ten (10) games there in
the current season.

ii. If a player did not play 20 or more games in the majors at any position,
but did play in the majors, he is eligible only at the position where he played
the most. This year�s noble example is Dean Palmer, who will only be UT-eligible
to start the season.

d. The player pool comprises all players in major league organizations, or
anyone that has once been in a major league organization.

i. Japanese or other league players � Players that have once played in the
majors and are now in Japan are eligible to be drafted. Players who have never
been in the majors and have gone to a non-affiliated league are not. E.G.,
Roberto Petagine is eligible, Al Martin is not. If Jose Canseco makes his next
comeback in the Northern League, or you think he might make his next comeback,
he�s eligible. If Peter Schoenke discovers a hidden power source and starts
tearing it up with the St. Paul Saints, he is *not eligible.

II. THE AUCTION

a. All owners will complete their rosters at the annual player auction to be
conducted during spring training each season.

b. Each owner receives $260 in auction money to fill his or her roster, including
money spent on players retained from the previous season.

c. Players are nominated by owners, using the previous season�s reverse order
of finish to determine the nomination order. For this initial season, we will
use a random draw to determine the nomination order.

d. Each owner must conclude the auction with a full roster of 23 players conforming
to the roster requirements set out in �Ib.

e. After the auction is completed, and all teams have completed their active
rosters, a 17-round reserve/minor league draft will be completed. Reserve/Minor
league players will be acquired in a regular draft format, as opposed to an
auction. The first year draft order will mirror the nomination order. I.E.,
If Chris Liss has the first nomination in the auction, he will have the first
pick in the reserve/minor league draft. This draft will be a �snake� draft,
in that the order will reverse in even numbered rounds, so that those who draft
last in the first round will draft first in the second round. In future years,
the order of the reserve draft will be the inverse of the previous year�s standings,
but will remain a �snake� draft.

f. All eligible players are eligible for reserve spots. In other words �
if, in the reserve portion of the draft, you draft 17 minor leaguers and wish
to classify 7 of those as reserve players, and 10 of those as �minor leaguers,�
bless you, you can do it.

g. The 10 Minor Leaguers for each team must be players with 20 or fewer games
of Major league experience. You may activate any player from your minor league
roster to your active roster at any point in the season. However, once you
take a player off the minor league roster, you cannot put them back, nor can
you replace them with another minor leaguer.

h. You may not trade your auction dollars during the draft.

i. You may not use your auction dollars to fill out your reserve or minor league
rosters. Note � this does not mean you may not spend your auction dollars on
players with no major league experience, only that those players must be on
your immediate (post-draft) active roster, and are not eligible for minor league
roster status.

III. SCORING

a. League standings shall be determined by category-based (rotisserie style)
scoring.

b. We shall use the following categories, beginning with the 2003 season:

i. Hitting: Composite batting average, total home runs, total RBI, total stolen
bases, total runs scored

ii. Pitching: Total wins, total saves, composite ERA, composite WHIP (walks
plus hits divided by innings pitched), total strikeouts

c. Any League team that fails to accumulate 900 innings pitched may not finish
ahead of any League team that reaches 900 innings pitched in either the ERA
or the WHIP categories.

IV. TRANSACTIONS

a. The weekly transaction time shall be Sunday, Midnight Pacific Time. Transaction
requests are due to the Commissioner by that time, sent to the following address:
jeff_rotonews@yahoo.com.

b. Transactions processed each Sunday become effective with games on Monday.

c. The final transaction period ends on the final Sunday before the conclusion
of the season. No further transactions will be processed until the trading
period opens in December of the next year, and no further waiver or free agent
claims will be processed until after the next player auction.

V. FREE AGENTS - FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget)

a. During each transaction period, bids may be made on free agents by means
of Free Agent Acquisition Budget dollars (FAAB $). Each team is given FAAB
$100.

b. For purposes of this Constitution the free agent pool is defined as the
set of players who, at the time of a Transaction Deadline, are on the active
roster of a major league team but who are not any Staff League team.

i. Players who are currently in the minors are not eligible to be picked
up in free agent bidding.

ii. Players who are on injured reserve are not eligible to be picked up in
free agent bidding.

iii. Players who are major league free agents (say, for example, if Chuck
Finley goes unsigned by a major league team *and undrafted in our league) are
not eligible to be picked up in free agent bidding.

c. To acquire a free agent, an owner may use his/her FAAB budget to bid on
that player. If s/he has the highest bid, then that owner�s FAAB budget is
decreased accordingly, and the player is acquired. If an owner is outbid for
a free agent, then no loss of FAAB budget is incurred, nor does s/he acquire
that player. A minimum bid of FAAB $1 is required for each player.

i. In the case of a tie, the team lower in the standings will win the bidding.
If the two teams are tied in the standings, the team who has spent less of
their FAAB budget so far wins the player. If that fails to break the tie, a
coin flip will be used. Unless the commissioner is involved in the bidding,
the commissioner will flip the coin.

d. FAAB bids may be conditional. Such cases must be made clearly to the commissioner.
An example of a conditional bid might be:

DROP: Albert Belle (OF; BAL)

ADD: Derek Bell (Utility; PIT) $65

If I don�t get D. Bell, then

ADD: Jay Bell (Utility; NY-N) $50

In this case, it should be clear that the bid on Jay Bell is predicated upon
failure to acquire Derek Bell. Note that the maximum total bid is only $65
as only one of the two bids can actually apply. There are many ways to be clear
about conditional bids; this clarity is the responsibility of the bidding owner.

e. For each free agent acquired, an owner must also release, trade, disable
or reserve a player from its active roster so as to properly conserve roster
composition. Each owner shall identify the players who are being replaced by
their bids and where more than one player could be replaced by acquired free
agents, the order in which their players shall be replaced. At the trade deadline
for each transaction period, each owner shall receive those free agents on
which s/he was the high bidder.

VI. TRADES

a. In-season

i. Trades shall be allowed during the Staff League season from the conclusion
of the annual player auction until midnight, Pacific Time, August 31st.

ii. In-season trades must result in balanced rosters for all participating
teams, using the roster requirements in �Ib.

iii. The Commissioner must receive confirmation from all participating teams
before he can process a trade.

iv. In-season trades become effective as of the next transaction deadline.

v. You may trade draft picks and FAAB dollars during the season. You may not,
however, trade auction dollars for the following season�s draft.

b. Offseason

i. Trades shall be allowed during the Staff League offseason from December
1st until one week prior to the player auction.

ii. No balancing of rosters is required for offseason trades.

iii. No player whose contract expired at the end of the previous season may
be traded during the subsequent offseason.

iv. You may trade draft picks during the offseason as well.

v. Teams that trade draft picks will receive draft pick compensation at the
end of the draft, in reverse order of standings.

c. The Commissioner has the power to veto any trade that may significantly
and unfairly alter competitive balance in the league or that appears to be
the result of collusion.

d. An overturned trade can be appealed by the owners, subject to a 2/3 majority
vote by the league. The owners involved in the trade receive a vote.

e. A league-vote to overturn a trade can be initiated by a minimum of eight
(8) owners of the league, subject to a 2/3 majority vote. The owners involved
in the specific trade receive a vote.

Generally speaking, I�m off the mindset that owners should be able to make
their own mistakes in trades. I want to believe that no one will collude, and
I think the dangers of dumping are vastly overstated. I�m vehemently opposed
to an in-season salary cap, and most other dump-trade measures.

VII. OFFSEASON

a. Rosters shall be frozen after the last transaction period of the season,
and may not be changed by any method other than a trade until the annual keeper
deadline.

b. Owners shall be permitted to retain up to fifteen (15) of their major league
players from one year to the next, plus any minor league players on their minor
league roster that have not accumulated more than 20 games of major league
experience. Owners may not keep players whose contracts have expired.

c. Players may be kept according to the following salary and contract guidelines:

i. A player may be retained for the year following the year he was purchased
(the player�s �A� year) in the auction at the same salary for which he was
purchased. This is the player�s �B� year.

1. Players acquired in the reserve draft shall have salaries of $5 if they
are kept the following year. They will be designated as �R� players.

2. Players acquired in the minor league draft shall have salaries of $3 if
they are kept the following year as major leaguers, or can fill a minor league
roster spot at no additional cost if they haven�t acquired more than 20 games
of career major league experience. Minor league players will be designated
as �M� players.

3. Players acquired as free agents can be retained at the price they were
acquired as a free agent. The year in which they were acquired is their �A�
year.

ii. If the owner wishes to retain the player for a third year and beyond, he
must either:

1. Renew the player�s contract for one more year at the same salary (the �C�
year), and then release the player back into the auction pool after the season;
OR

2. Sign the player to a long-term contract, awarding the player an annual salary
equal to his initial salary plus $5 for every additional year beyond the first
year in the contract.

3. If, for example, it�s before the 2005 season and Liss wants to give Sterling
Hitchcock (who is currently signed for $3) a three-year extension, Hitchcock�s
salary would then be �D07 $13� � �D� signifies the long-term deal, �07� represents
when the contract expires, and Hitchcock will count for $13 each season.

iii. An owner may not retain a player beyond his option year or beyond the
end of a long-term contract unless he purchases that player again in the open
auction.

iv. If you waive a player before the expiration of a long-term deal, unless
an opposing team claims that player at the subsequent free agent period, you
are responsible for 50% of that player�s salary for each year that he is under
contract. That cost is rounded up when a fraction amounts.

1. Using the example above, Liss discovers in May 2005 that Sterling Hitchcock
is the same crappy pitcher he�s always been and waives him. Nobody claims Hitchcock
in the next free agent period. Even if Schoenke picks up Hitchcock after he
gets traded to the Twins in August, Liss is on the hook for half of Hitchcock�s
salary (in this case, $7) in both 2006 and 2007. Thus, Liss really only has
$253 to use in each of those seasons.

d. The total of all salaries of retained players on a particular team may not
exceed $237 plus the number of players retained.

VIII. FINANCES

a. The entry fee to the league is $30.

b. The top 8 teams in the league will finish in the money.

c. The bottom five teams in the league will all pay a $30 penalty at the end
of season, to be paid out to those in the money.

d. Payouts are as follows:

1st Place � 35% of the total pot, plus a coveted spot in the RotoWire Ring
of Honor.

2nd - 20%

3rd - 15%

4th � 10%

5th � 8%

6th � 6%

7th � 4%

8th � 2%

IX. GOVERNANCE

a. The Commissioner makes all the rules. The sooner you understand that, the
easier this will all be.