Post by Commish Emeritus (Scott) on Dec 6, 2014 15:54:12 GMT -5
DIAMOND DUOS II DYNASTY BASEBALL League Rules – as of 11/12/18
Welcome to Diamond Duos II dynasty fantasy baseball league. It is intended to test GM's skills in prospecting and scouting talent, managing player contracts and overall knowledge of the game. GM's will be expected to improve their respective franchises through the draft, trade and free agency with the hopes of improving each year, and earning the title of League Champion and all the glory (and some winnings) that come with that title. Our main goal here is to provide a great fantasy baseball experience while promoting sportsmanship and respect among GM's. We're excited to have you and hope you enjoy the experience.
LEAGUE FEE
Inaugural season ($46 per team): To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer by January 15, 2015, otherwise team will be disqualified from the league. $40 will go towards League winnings pot, and $6 per team will go toward Premium Fantrax Commissioner service (currently $80 per year). If we secure a better cost for the Premium Commissioner service, then less will need to go towards the site fee and more can go towards our winnings pot.
Each subsequent season: To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer (or whichever service is being used by the league Commissioner’s Office) by February 1.
The League will be run in-season on Fantrax.com. This Premium service will be renewed each season. The Commissioner pays for this service up front and each owner's responsibility for the site fee will be taken care of with the $50 league payment.
WINNERS' PAYOUTS 2015-beyond
1st place Roto - 65% of pot
2nd place Roto - 25% of pot
3rd place Roto - 10% of pot
Winnings Pot should be somewhere around $600 (15 teams x $40). So 1st place should be around $390, 2nd place would be about $150, and 3rd should be in the ballpark of $60. These amounts could change should our league fee change and/or the site fee changes for whichever website we’re using.
LEAGUE SCORING
This is a 12-category (6x6) Roto league. This format has been created to optimize the activity and chatter in the league and to promote trading between teams.
The statistical categories that will be tabulated to determine the League Champion each year are split into two major areas – Pitching and Hitting. The categories are as follows:
* Pitching: Wins, Saves, Holds, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP
* Hitting: Runs, HRs, RBIs, Stolen Bases, Batting Average, OPS
Diamond Duos II will carry an 850 Innings Pitched minimum for the season. If your team of pitchers do not cumulatively reach 850 IP during the season, all averaged pitching stats (ERA & WHIP) are lost for the entire season and team will place last in those roto categories.
OWNERS & TEAM SELECTION
Diamonds Duos II is comprised of 15 owners. This League is unique in the fact that each owner will combine two (2) Major League Baseball franchises. At the launch of our Inaugural season (2015), each owner will select the franchise of their choice based on a randomly generated draft order. This will occur on our Diamond Duos II ProBoards site under Team Selection. This may be a franchise in either the AL or NL. Once 15 owners have selected their first franchise, each owner will select a second franchise based on reverse order of the 1st franchise selection order. The second franchise must be in the opposite league (AL or NL) from their first franchise.
Select your franchises wisely. Trading of an entire MLB franchise is not allowed.
KEEPER SELECTION
Entering the inaugural season, the following keeper process shall be followed. Each owner will have the opportunity to keep up to a maximum of 15 players from each of their owned MLB franchises. Each keeper's salary and contract status will be based on his real-life MLB salary and contract (entering 2015), including number of years. We will use Cot's Baseball Contracts website (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots) as our reference tool. Therefore each team may keep up to maximum of 30 total major league players (with a minimum of 20 total major leaguers initially kept). These players' salaries must fit within the Diamond Duos Salary Cap designated below. Keepers must be selected by Sunday night January 18th 11:59pm EST.
Any player currently signed to a contract with one of your two franchises may be deemed one of your 15 (maximum) keepers per franchise, and his real-life salary and contract years will be used and incorporated into your Diamond Duos team salary. This includes any player that may have been a MLB free agent this pre-2015 offseason but has either signed with a new team or resigned with his previous team.
*Diamond Duos II will not be recognizing player signing bonuses for the sake of keeping some semblance of simplicity. If Cot’s shows a player’s contracts as 3 years, $35M, then that’s what we’re using, regardless if there was a $4.75M signing bonus added onto the first year of the contract.
**Special Note (entering 2015 Inaugural Season ONLY) - Any Major League Free Agent that resigns with the same team following our deadline to name keepers, may be added back to the Diamond Duos roster of that owned franchise. In order to do so, there must be a roster opening, which may mean said player has to replace a previously deemed keeper if 15 MLB'ers for that franchise have already been named.
Each Diamond Duos owner will also control and manage its Minor League Farm system. Minor League keepers will be from both of the owner's MLB franchises' minor league system. All minor league prospects signed and affiliated with the MLB franchise shall be eligible to be kept as part of a Diamond Duos roster. Up to a maximum of 25 minor leaguers from each MLB franchise can be named as keepers, which in turn allows each Diamond Duos owner to keep up to a maximum of 50 minor leaguers entering the inaugural season. Any player with less than 130 AB or 50 IP carries Minor League status.
Minor leaguers do not take up any salary space while in a Diamond Duos Minor League Farm system. A $500,000 salary kicks in the year after surpassing either 130 AB, 50 IP, or being promoted by Diamond Duos owner and appearing in a lineup and does count against an owner's salary cap. There is no salary cap hit for any prospect that's promoted until he reaches those thresholds. (See Banuelos example near the end under Prospects)
INITIAL YEAR FREE AGENT DRAFT TO COMPLETE 40-MAN ROSTER:
This will be done on the board in a dedicated thread. Each owner must have 2 Free Agents nominated and offered an initial contract. You may not offer any contract if you don't have 2 players that you nominated/offered initial contracts to on the board. The only exception here is when you only have one roster spot remaining out of 37. If this does happen, and is caught, those offers will be deleted and the time stamp will revert back to the previous offer. A player will be signed by your team if an offer stands on the board for 12 hours and does not receive a higher offer.
Example of a contract offer:
Boston Padres offer C Bengie Molina TOR 3 years, $12M (AAS $4M)
Any increase in offers should be at least $25,000 (.25K) more than the previous offer if it's a contract with the same number of years.
Please follow this format. This initial free agent draft will tentatively begin at 8:00pm EST on February 4th (following the Super Bowl).
**IMPORTANT NOTE - Each team MUST fill at least 37 out of the 40 major league roster spots coming out of the Initial FA draft. Up to a maximum of 3 roster spots may be left open for prospects that are anticipated to be activated to Majors.
MAJOR LEAGUE ROSTER CONFIGURATION
40-man roster, comprised of 25 active players in lineup and 15 bench reserves
C, C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CI, MI, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF, U, U
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, P, P
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Diamond Duos is a Weekly Lineup league. Lineups on the Fantrax league site will lock 5 minutes before the first game is played on a Monday. It is each owner's responsibility to edit his own lineup as needed. Lineups will not be modified by the Commissioner following the lineup deadline each Monday (unless dire extenuating circumstances and there is proof of communication prior to the deadline).
On a team's ProBoards Roster page, each of these positions must have salaries next to the name of each player with years following for the life of the contract. Format to follow is: 3 years/$39M (2013-15) 13:$12M, 14:$13M, 15:$14M
This 40-man roster list must remain updated on ProBoards throughout the season, taking into consideration all add/drops, trades, promotions/demotions.
Team total salary MUST be tabulated at the top of each team's Roster page, in addition to how much cap space is available as compared to the team's Salary Cap.
The Following is only an example of what is required at the top of your Team Roster thread.
Salary Cap: $170,000,000
MLB Payroll: $130,000,000
Responsible For: $5,000,000 (If you've dropped players signed to multi-year contracts, your team is responsible for a percentage of that contract)
Cap Space Available: $35,000,000
MINOR LEAGUE FARM SYSTEM
How you want to break down your Minor League prospect list is up to you. It may be one big list or broken down into Triple A, Double A, Advanced A, etc or broken up by position. It doesn't matter as long as it remains updated and contains every minor leaguer you own the rights to. This list must be updated as prospects are traded away, acquired in trades, drafted, or claimed.
FIRST-YEAR PLAYER DRAFT (returning to non-snake for 2022-2023 offseason):
Each offseason, a first-year player draft will be held which includes draft picks from the previous year’s MLB draft, international signings since the previous year’s draft, and any other unowned minor leaguers signed to contracts with MLB teams. The draft order is determined in reverse order of the previous year’s standings and includes 12 rounds plus 2 Parent Franchise Protection rounds. These PFP rounds are held after round 2 of the draft and allow each team to protect 2 (total) eligible players from their 2 parent franchises. Draft picks may be traded, but PFP may not.
• Any player signed after the first-year player draft begins is not eligible to be selected.
• Rusney Rule: Franchises may offer a FA blind bid contract to an international signee signed after the draft if he is promoted to the Majors during the season. If he is not promoted, then he remains in the pool until the following season's Minors draft.
• MLB's policy on international free agents and the bonus pool will govern the way we operate. Any international signing will be eligible for our Minor League Draft if signed in time (even guys like Abreu, Tanaka, and Kang). If they sign after the minor league draft starts but before free agency, guys who are not subject to the international pool budget (Abreu, Tanaka, Kang, etc.) will be eligible for our Unrestricted Free Agency. If they do not sign until after free agency has started, they will be eligible for the first free agent period of the season via blind bid.
Guys like Moncada, Lopez, and others who fall into MLB's rules for international pool money may be selected only during the Minor League draft. They will be eligible for free agency via blind bid if they make their major league debut during their signing season (the Rusney Rule).
During the draft, an owner may not make selections or trade draft picks once they have selected their 60th player. Those picks will be forfeited at that time
MONTHLY MINOR LEAGUE CLAIM
Each month from after the minor league draft through the end of the MLB regular season (February through September or October depending on season schedule), each franchise will be allowed to claim one unowned minor league player. These claims will be made in a monthly thread on ProBoards. The threads for these claims will open at midnight on the first day of the month and be on a first-come, first-served basis. Players from the June draft and any international signings signed after our First-Year Player Draft are not eligible to be claimed. In the event that a Major League free agency blind bid is put in for a player who is also claimed, whichever claim came in first will be honored as the winning claim. Monthly minors claims may be traded in the same manner as draft picks.
SALARY CAP BREAKDOWN:
The salary cap for each team shall be $175 million per year (was $170M in inaugural season 2013). Keep in mind that each team is a combination of talent from two MLB franchises (one AL and one NL) and there is a high probability of multiple high-end salaries/contracts.
Each team will be allowed one (1) Franchise Tag option and (2) Restricted Free Agent options, and 1 Prospect Tag following the inaugural season.
Team Salary Caps and Franchise Tags/Restricted Options will be reassessed following the first year of Diamond Duos to determine if The League should move toward Tiered Salary Caps and different numbers of Franchise Tags/Restricted options.
Please note: This Dynasty league is designed to create challenge and so that ongoing management of your team is imperative. As an example, some teams may need to waive a player or players to free agency to make sure their team remains under the salary cap maximums. The same can be accomplished by trading high salaried players to teams with cap room on their teams. On the flip side, other teams will have to work to sign players to longer term deals at lower annual salaries to remain both competitive and efficient. They will most likely have to focus their time on prospecting to create their dynasty. These are just a couple of the issues that will eventually create a demand for trade negotiations and other league discussion items.
TRADE DEADLINE AND FA DATES:
The trade deadline for Diamond Duos Dynasty league will be August 7th, 11:59 PM EST. This is one week after MLB's non-waiver trade deadline. Trading of all players (Majors and Minors) is permitted. Trading of Salary Cap space ($$$) is not permitted. All trading can resume the day following the World Series and may continue throughout the off season.
What this means is that the trade deadline should have a lot of activity as one team may want to move potential Free Agents to another team that can protect him or to a team that has a chance to win. Only Free Agents protected by Franchise tags can be traded with their tag. These may be assigned to the player the day after the last game in the league has been completed and must stay assigned to that player only and cannot be transferred to any other player.
JUST THE BASICS (FA)
These are guidelines, not set in stone, and per league discussion and potential voting/polls, may be amended.
In Season - A Free Agent is any player not listed on any franchise's roster following the Initial keeper selection and player draft that sets each team's 40-man roster. A free agent can be any professional baseball player, major league or minor league that has already signed a real-life professional MLB contract, which includes contracts with MLB team affiliates (minor league teams). International players that have not signed with a MLB franchise are not considered Free Agents in this league and are not eligible to be bid on.
When you decide there is a player you wish to add to your 40-man roster from free agency, you will need to Sign that player to a contract. This process will be done via a blind bidding system. The league's minimum salary requirement is $500,000 per year. The longest you may sign a player to contract at the league minimum is two years. The longest you can sign a player to a contract with an average annual salary of more than $500,000 but less than $750,000 per year is three years. The longest you can offer ANY contract is 6 years.
**Note - Players who have been selected as keepers prior to the inaugural season that have real-life contracts greater than 6 years will be allowed.
As in real-life, sometimes players receive numerous contract offers. The player will ultimately choose the team that has offered them the most lucrative contract. "General Free Agent Process" provides rulings on determining "most lucrative" with a description of the Diamond Duos tie-breaking system.
Reminders:
A GM CANNOT make a contract offer to a player who has not signed a contract with a real life Major League franchise.
Also, any time your franchise makes a transaction (trade, free agent acquisition, dropping a player to free agency, draft pick, etc.) it MUST be posted in a transaction log which every GM will keep under his own team's board. There is simply too much to see to unless each GM keeps track of all of his own acquisitions and posts them for all to see. This should eliminate any discrepancies over players or contract information.
GENERAL FREE AGENT BID PROCESS (IN-SEASON):
IN GENERAL:
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE, bid per MLB FA player in which they are interested. These bids (assuming a GM bids on multiple players) will be submitted via an email to fablindbids2@gmail.com. Only the league office has access to this account. This bid must include the following to be considered valid:
*Number of years of the contract offer
*Total amount of the contract offer
*Average Annual Salary ("AAS")
*a breakdown of the contract per year or note that it will be evenly spread.
Example:
Boston Padres offer Player XXX:
5 year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2013 - $7M
2014 - $9M
2015 - $11M
2016 - $11M
2017 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the 4 criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he submits a proper bid.
No single year can deviate more than 40% from AAS. So a contract with 5 million dollars AAS can only range between 3 million and 7 million for any one year.
ANNUAL SALARY ALLOCATION LIMITS WITHIN A CONTRACT:
Back-end loading of contracts is a concern of the league. Those contracts sure feel good to the bid winner since those latter years can get loaded up, allowing current year salary to stay lower and manageable and help prop up AAS. To avoid back-end loading of contracts, the total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
A bid submitted is permanent. Once a bid is made, it MAY NOT be withdrawn, so make sure of your bid before you make an offer. You are obligated to that offer. If you decide that you are adamant about pulling your offer from the table, then you must request this in writing from the Commissioner's Office. If approved the Commissioner's Office will delete your offer. This will only happen in the rarest of cases.
OFFSEASON:
Salary cap and roster (# of players) limits will be handled differently in the off-season and in season. Please refer to each section below for the specifics.
Starting after the winter meetings in December, Free Agent bidding will be held each year.
During the off-season bidding, we will begin with contract offers to all Restricted Free Agents, and then we'll move on to all Unrestricted Free Agents. All bidding will take place on the Free Agents board.
All Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs") will be bid on in the first week of the auctions in the off season. Please carefully review all rules for bidding on RFA's as they are significantly different from Unrestricted FAs.
For RFAs, there is a further process as prior owner will have a chance to match the winning bid within 48 hours. For Unrestricted FAs, the winning GM must update his roster and team salary information within 72 hours.
With regard to adherence to salary cap and roster size, Diamond Duos will relax the general rule during the off-season only to allow some flexibility in light of free agent contract offers. During this off-season exercise, each franchise will be able to exceed their salary cap by up to $10M. You can utilize trading to free up roster and salary cap space. **A word to the wise...bid prudently.
All salary caps and rosters must be in full compliance by Opening Day (first MLB game of season). Failure to comply will mean no stat accumulation on Fantrax.
During the offseason RFA and UFA periods, teams may continue trading, waiving, and promoting players. Releasing of players is not allowed during free agency.
IN SEASON:
Once the regular season begins, the process of FA bidding changes slightly since there will be no weekly randomly drawn batches of players on which to bid.
There will be, however, weekly bidding deadlines to help create an environment of fairness and promote GM activity.
Blind Bidding - In season, any GM may submit a blind bid to fablindbids2@gmail.com. Bids may be submitted until the weekly deadline of Friday 11:59PM EST. Any bid received after the deadline will be invalidated. No exceptions.
PRIORITY LISTS
In some situations, you may be interested in bidding on multiple players with the hope of filling 1 roster spot. In that case, you may send a priority list to fablindbids2@gmail.com.
Example- You want 1 of Player A, Player B, and Player C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 or 2 of these players. Send a list in the order you want to win them, and this will avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A
Winning bids will be posted under that week's thread in "Winning FA Bids" by Sunday evenings, in time for GMs to add player to their roster on Fantrax.
Be careful to not exceed your salary cap. If this occurs, the commissioner's office will send you an email mandating that your team make arrangements to release players in order to bring the current salary within your team's salary cap. The League Office will review each 40-man roster often to make sure you are complying with your team's assigned salary cap. Remember that players' salaries may change if signed to new contracts with new teams following a release.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:
Each season a GM may designate player(s) as "Restricted", making those players Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs"). These players must be publicly announced and displayed in the designated area "Restricted FA's" as Restricted by January 5th. Please note that FAILURE to publicly declare said players as "Restricted" shall forfeit the right of that GM to restrict that player(s) for that season. Any and all unrestricted Free Agents shall be subject to regular (unrestricted) FA bidding as outlined previously. A GM may choose to trade for a pending free agent before this deadline and then place the RFA tag on that player.
Once a GM uses the designated amount of Restricted options at his disposal (2 per team following Inaugural season), those players will be eligible for Restricted free agency bidding. All free agent bidding, whether restricted or unrestricted, shall be conducted pursuant to the league's FA bidding procedures in place at that time.
Any GM may initiate bidding on a RFA agent at scheduled times during the period specifically noted for RFAs.
**NOTE - In the event no bids are received on a RFA, that player will be available to his team at his real life MLB contract.
**NOTE- A team may place a bid on their own RFA in order to avoid the above scenario.
Players will be on the board for 24 hours after the opening of RFA and 12 hours after any subsequent bid.
RESTRICTED PLAYER BIDDING CRITERIA - Restricting a player provides a semi protective measure to help a GM retain that player, while not assuring that GM will retain said player. In order to provide some, but not absolute, assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that offer must cover to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
RFA BIDDING GUIDELINES
AAS = up to $6M, then MINIMUM 1, MAXIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $6.01M to $10M, then MINIMUM 2, MAXIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = $10.01M to $14M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $14.01M to $18M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = 18.01M+, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal
The Maximum contract length that can be offered by a team is 6 years.
Jamie Moyer Rule for bidding on older players
A GM may offer a player a contract that keeps an older player under contract until the season that the player turns 39 years old. So although an $18+ million contract normally requires at least 5 years, one could offer a player that is 36 a three year deal at $18 million. Or a 38 year-old player could receive a one year deal at over $18 million if that makes more sense.
As in all FA bidding, the bidder must clearly state the
1.) contract term (number of years)
2.) total contract amount
3.) AAS
The Breakdown may be decided after as long as they follow the above parameters and the aforementioned guidelines for contract structure.
Since the bidding is for a RFA, the GM who held the restricted player has 48 hours to match the winning bid, and may restructure that bid for a total contract amount no less and a term no longer than that of the "winning" bid. If the restricting GM chooses not to match the offer, then the winning bidder is obligated to sign the player - there is NO option to remove or renig on any bid placed.
The 48 hour acceptance "clock" will commence with the winning bid being posted of the last player of the RFA batch by the League Office.
The discussion above applies ONLY TO RESTRICTED free agent bidding. Normal, or Unrestricted, free agent bidding is covered under General FA bidding guidelines.
FA RULINGS:
There maybe instances in which free agents receive several offers from multiple teams. Questions arise as to which franchise will be declared the winner and awarded the right to sign a player to their team. The primary criteria in determining a winner is the average annual salary ("AAS") of the contract.
AAS is determined as follows: You simply take the average
08: $1,000,000
09: $2,000,000
AAS= $1,500,000
In the rare event two bids have the same average annual salary, below are the tie-breakers that will be utilized in determining which team will win the right to sign a player. Only proceed to the second tie-breaker in cases where the first tie-breaker ends in a tie.
Tie-Breaker #1:
If the average annual salary for two contract offers is the same, then the GM who offered the contract with the most number of years shall win the right to sign the player.
Tie-Breaker #2:
The only way this second tie-breaker can be utilized is if there are two contract offers with the same average annual salary over the life of the contract AND the two contract offers are to pay the player over the same period of time. In this particular case, the tie-breaker will go to the GM who made their offer FIRST.
The commissioner's office will post the winning team at the end of the auctioned player's bid thread. It is solely your responsibility to monitor the board and add any player you won to your roster. At this point, the player is ready to sign with your team and you may officially add the player to your 40-man roster and deduct his salary from your salary cap.
Keep in mind that your 40-man major league roster may not exceed 40 players at any time, your minor league system may have up to 60 players in it at any time (maximum of 50 allowed entering Inaugural season but it's possible to acquire additional minor leaguers via trade), and you may not exceed your salary cap except in the offseason.
When you sign a player and your current roster is full or the new player causes you to exceed your salary cap, you will need to take corrective action (waive or trade player(s)) within 72 hours.
The new player may not be added to your Fantrax roster until your roster is legal.
PLAN AHEAD. Failure to resolve your illegal roster within the 72-hour time period will result in your newly added player to be dropped back into Free Agency.
Once a contract is signed, it cannot be reworked or revoked. In essence, it is etched in stone. You are responsible for paying that contract until such time as the player is traded or dropped to free agency.
RELEASING PLAYERS:
A GM has the right to release any player to free agency. To release a player and drop him to free agency, you must post him in a new thread under the section titled "Player Releases". This will make permanent the decision to release a player to free agency. Once posted, there is no turning back. A GM will be responsible for 50% of a player’s salary (during the 1st year under contract) and 25% of that player's salary for any remaining years for the duration of the contract (UNLESS that player is signed to a contract by another franchise). In which case, continued responsibility for that player's salary may be further limited or negated in full. However, if said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count 25% of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.
If the player is signed by another franchise after being dropped to free agency, then the previous owner will only be required to pay the difference between the player's old contract and the player's new contract (on a year-to-year basis for multi-year contracts), not to exceed 25% of the old contract. If the player's contract with his new team is higher than his contract was with the old team, the previous owner will no longer be obligated to pay any further for the player and thus no further penalty on that franchise's salary cap.
If the player is signed to a new contract after being released and the new contract pays the player less than 25% of the original contract, then the previous owner's liability maximum is still only 25% of the old contract. Only in the event that the new contract pays the player more than 25% of his old contract will the previous owner be able to count less than 25% of the old contract against his salary cap.
Note: When reference is made to "old contract" and "new contract", the contract salary comparisons are made on a YEAR-TO-YEAR basis rather than on the total dollar amounts of the contracts. i.e. A player is dropped who had a 2013 (only) $8M contract and is later picked up through free agency with a 3 year $8M deal (broken down 2013 - $6M, 2014 - $1M, 2015 - $1M). The previous owner is responsible in 2013 for $2M, the difference between the "old" $8M and the "new" $6M, not exceeding 25% of the old contract. Since the old contract did not cover 2014 and 2015, the previous owner has no salary responsibility for those 2 years.
If you release a player with a Prospect $500K contract, you will only pay 25% of that contract until the end of the current season. IE: you cut a player that has a Prospect 2016 contract in the 2014 season, you will pay $125K (out of $500K) until the end of the 2014 season and will be free of the salary for 2015 and 2016.
If a GM waives a player to free agency and then re-signs the same player in the same year, the above rule will be voided and the team must pay the full salary.
*Note - the GM who previously released said player and now wants to pick that player back up through FA, MUST initially bid an amount (and term, if applicable) equal to or greater than the amount and term at the time said player was dropped to FA. Any lesser bid by that GM will be invalid and immediately voided.
If the player is released and not re-signed until the following season, then the rule applies only if the player's contract at the time of his waiver was multi-year.
Dropping Minor Leaguers and Prospects
If you drop a defined Minor Leaguer or a defined Prospect, you are responsible for nothing at any time. You have no more financial responsibility to that player the following year.
To release a player, please post their name to the league bulletin board under the section "Player Releases" and include the original yearly salaries and the corresponding cap hits.
TRADING:
Trading between teams can be accomplished in many ways. Three of the most efficient ways to begin negotiating a trade with another team are: (1) Go to the message board to the section entitled "Trade Block." In this section, you can post the players you wish to trade and/or what types of players you are interested in trading for. (2) Each GM provided an email to the Commissioner's Office to act as a point of contact for their team; (3) The ProBoards PM system also works well.
Effective communication is essential to maintain interest and activity in the league, so any and all communication channels are recommended.
Note- Trading can include Major League Players, Minor League Players, Prospects, pending free agents, draft picks, and monthly minors claims however, neither cash nor franchise/restricted/prospect tags may be exchanged in any transaction.
Any trade negotiations that conclude in an agreement must be posted to the message board under the section entitled "Trades." All terms of the trade must be listed here. It is required that one team involved in the trade post the agreement and terms along with their rationale for the trade, while the other team formally posts his confirmation/acceptance of the trade as listed.
Please review the terms carefully. Once the trade is formally accepted, the rest of the league has an opportunity to voice any disapproval they may feel, the commissioner's office will then review it and either approve or reject the trade within 48 hours. Once the deal has been approved, there will be no recourse and the deal is finalized.
Whether a GM is signing a free agent, waiving a player to free agency or trading with another franchise, you as the GM will have 48 hours to update your franchise's roster. This will avoid confusion as to which players belong to which franchises. You, at all times, must adhere to a 40 player roster and remain under your salary cap- except in the offseason.
As with free agent bidding, PLAN AHEAD!
If the GM exceeds his roster limit and/or exceeds the salary cap during the season (or if he exceeds either offseason limitation), there will be a 72 hour remedy period. Until the illegality is remedied, the newly acquired players will not be added to team's Fantrax roster. Failure to remedy the illegality within 72 hours will result in suspension of scoring in Fantrax and all free agent bidding.
Remedy includes ONLY 1.) waiving or releasing of players to meet the 40-man roster limit and/or meet salary cap limitation or 2.) having posted and confirmed trade(s) that allow the team to fully adhere to a 40-man roster and salary cap limits.
CONTRACT EXPIRATION AND TAGS (Prospect Rules)
Each off-season, there are always a number of players who have had their contracts expire. These players naturally become free agents and, as such, are available to accept contract offers being made by other GMs in the league.
There are essentially three types of "contracts" for the purposes of Diamond Duos
A.) a real life contract transacted ON or BEFORE the unspecified roster lock date, OR a real life contract resulting from a franchised (kept) player from the inaugural season.
B.) a Diamond Duos contract won in the free agent bidding process
C.) a "prospect contract", which is a form of protection for players qualifying as "prospect" players (see below).
*Diamond Duos only recognizes Club Options. We currently use Cot's Baseball Contracts as the official source for contract and salary information.
Cot's-Baseball Contracts: mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/
To protect against the loss of all free agents in a particular calendar year, a GM will be granted to ability to name Franchise and Restricted Players. Each GM will have 1 Franchise Tag, 2 RFA Tags, and 1 Prospect Tag each offseason (once Prospect Tags are applicable). You will also be able to protect all qualified "minor league" players and also be allowed to protect your qualified "prospect" players as well. Prospect players are defined as players who are engaged in the 4-year Prospect status.
Franchise Player:
You will have the ability; at the end of the year to name a "franchise player(s)" (see below). This player, although having his Diamond Duos contract expire, will not be eligible for free agency within our league and will be forced to sign with the same team. In this specific case ONLY, the franchise player will assume a Diamond Duos salary of $15M per season. An owner may only use a Franchise tag on a player once. Said player may be retained at $15M per season for 1 to 5 additional years. Unlike RFA, a pending free agent may not be traded and then tagged as a Franchise player.
Teams will also have the ability to use a prospect tag. This tag only applies to players that are just wrapping up their 4 years of prospect protection. This gives teams a chance to hold onto players that are still eligible for arbitration each season and are consistently going to be receiving 1-year contract offers. The tag will allow the player to be locked down for 3 million dollars in the first year after tag is applied followed by 5 million dollars in the second season. This can be applied to a player one time only. After these two years awarded by the prospect tag are used up, the team will have to either franchise the player or restrict the player if they hope to hold onto him.
Players designated with a Franchise Tag may be traded once they are designated with that tag. The tag is considered stuck to that player and it may not be traded or used on any other player. The league will be keeping track of the tags that are used on players so that teams will not be able to use 1 tag on multiple players. A player must be designated with the franchise tag before the trade is posted. You cannot post a trade and then designate a player with the tag afterwards.
Restricted Player(s):
A team will also have the ability to name restricted players each season. Restricted players will, in effect, be treated just like free agents with one BIG difference. Once restricted free agency starts restricted players can be made contract offers like every other free agent. However, at the end of the contract offering period, the team who restricted the player will have 48 hours to match the winning offer. If a GM chooses to match the winning contract offer, then he/she will be allowed to restructure the "matching" contract so that it best fits their team's salary structure and then re-sign the player. The "restructured" contract must, however, still have the same average annual salary, but may not add additional years to the contract. If a GM fails to respond or chooses not to match the best contract offer made to their player, then the auctioned player will be required to sign with the highest bidder, whose bid then becomes that team's obligation.
*RFA tags may not be traded, even if assigned to a player, but a pending free agent may be traded and then tagged as an RFA.
Prospects:
In Diamond Duos, certain Major League players may be deemed "Prospects" and are not a hit on the team's salary.
A prospect is a player who has lost his "minor league" status (see below) by surpassing his ML AB or IP threshold or by appearing on a Diamond Duos major league roster. You may keep a prospect at his status until he has reached the threshold and received one AB or IP in 4 ML seasons after the qualifying season.
Career Number Threshold
130 AB
50 IP
20 Pitching Appearances- Eliminated Nov. 2016
After said player has played in four (4) ML qualifying seasons (does NOT have to be consecutive- (injury/sent down), that player will have exhausted his prospect status and, if not under a Diamond Duos contract, will be a FA.
Hypothetical Example:
Manny Banuelos
2013: 23.2 IP - Still minor league status and costs nothing for the following season
2014: 121 IP - Still costs nothing for that season but has surpassed his threshold and will no longer be considered a minor leaguer
2015: DNP - Injury made him miss all of 2015 season but still got paid and lost 1 season of protection (1/4)
2016: 76 IP - $500K (2/4)
2017: 136.2 IP - $500K (3/4)
2018: 186 IP - $500K and is the 4th and final year of his protection. He will be a FA following 2018 season
Furthermore:
1) A prospect starts his major league contract the year after he crosses the 130 AB/50 IP threshold. If a "prospect" ever appears on your 25 man roster, his major league contract starts the following year regardless of whether he surpassed the minimums.
2) A player with zero as a salary can be optioned off the 40-man roster and back in to the minors only once before crossing the AB/IPP/APP minimum and only once after crossing the minimum.
3) Players with a salary can also be waived off the 40-man roster, but this player must pass through irrevocable waivers. The waiver claim priority would be based on the current worst to first Roto standings at the time, which goes along with MLB's irrevocable waivers system. Claims on players waived to Minors must be posted on ProBoards in the same thread as the waiving. See League Constitution and Releasing Players section for a claiming team's salary cap responsibility. If a player is successfully passed through waivers and fills a spot in your Minor League system, his major league salary still counts against the cap and he must be back on your 40-man roster by the deadline that player options can be exercised near the beginning of the offseason.
4) Remember, you can never have more than 60 players in your Minor League system. If you have 60 spots filled and waive a player in hopes of moving him to your Minor League system, the move would be invalid since there's not an open spot for him and would require releasing a player from the minor league system.
5) This (#3 above) may be an option for a team that has two DL spots already filled but is looking to open up a spot on the 40-man roster for whatever reason. This ability to waive a player in hopes of him clearing waivers and being "demoted" to the farm can give you that flexibility.
NOTE FROM COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE:
Our goal here is to create a long-lasting dynasty league. Please adhere to common decency. Any questions or complaints may be sent via email to the Head Commissioner. Please allow at least 24 hours for a response. Everyone's concerns will be dealt with as promptly as possible. Over the course of the league I will probably have another GM or two to assist me in running the league. If you're interested in participating in that way, please notify me. Thanks, enjoy, and let's have some fun!
Commissioners Scott Greene and Drew Bonner
Welcome to Diamond Duos II dynasty fantasy baseball league. It is intended to test GM's skills in prospecting and scouting talent, managing player contracts and overall knowledge of the game. GM's will be expected to improve their respective franchises through the draft, trade and free agency with the hopes of improving each year, and earning the title of League Champion and all the glory (and some winnings) that come with that title. Our main goal here is to provide a great fantasy baseball experience while promoting sportsmanship and respect among GM's. We're excited to have you and hope you enjoy the experience.
LEAGUE FEE
Inaugural season ($46 per team): To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer by January 15, 2015, otherwise team will be disqualified from the league. $40 will go towards League winnings pot, and $6 per team will go toward Premium Fantrax Commissioner service (currently $80 per year). If we secure a better cost for the Premium Commissioner service, then less will need to go towards the site fee and more can go towards our winnings pot.
Each subsequent season: To be paid via Fantrax Treasurer (or whichever service is being used by the league Commissioner’s Office) by February 1.
The League will be run in-season on Fantrax.com. This Premium service will be renewed each season. The Commissioner pays for this service up front and each owner's responsibility for the site fee will be taken care of with the $50 league payment.
WINNERS' PAYOUTS 2015-beyond
1st place Roto - 65% of pot
2nd place Roto - 25% of pot
3rd place Roto - 10% of pot
Winnings Pot should be somewhere around $600 (15 teams x $40). So 1st place should be around $390, 2nd place would be about $150, and 3rd should be in the ballpark of $60. These amounts could change should our league fee change and/or the site fee changes for whichever website we’re using.
LEAGUE SCORING
This is a 12-category (6x6) Roto league. This format has been created to optimize the activity and chatter in the league and to promote trading between teams.
The statistical categories that will be tabulated to determine the League Champion each year are split into two major areas – Pitching and Hitting. The categories are as follows:
* Pitching: Wins, Saves, Holds, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP
* Hitting: Runs, HRs, RBIs, Stolen Bases, Batting Average, OPS
Diamond Duos II will carry an 850 Innings Pitched minimum for the season. If your team of pitchers do not cumulatively reach 850 IP during the season, all averaged pitching stats (ERA & WHIP) are lost for the entire season and team will place last in those roto categories.
OWNERS & TEAM SELECTION
Diamonds Duos II is comprised of 15 owners. This League is unique in the fact that each owner will combine two (2) Major League Baseball franchises. At the launch of our Inaugural season (2015), each owner will select the franchise of their choice based on a randomly generated draft order. This will occur on our Diamond Duos II ProBoards site under Team Selection. This may be a franchise in either the AL or NL. Once 15 owners have selected their first franchise, each owner will select a second franchise based on reverse order of the 1st franchise selection order. The second franchise must be in the opposite league (AL or NL) from their first franchise.
Select your franchises wisely. Trading of an entire MLB franchise is not allowed.
KEEPER SELECTION
Entering the inaugural season, the following keeper process shall be followed. Each owner will have the opportunity to keep up to a maximum of 15 players from each of their owned MLB franchises. Each keeper's salary and contract status will be based on his real-life MLB salary and contract (entering 2015), including number of years. We will use Cot's Baseball Contracts website (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots) as our reference tool. Therefore each team may keep up to maximum of 30 total major league players (with a minimum of 20 total major leaguers initially kept). These players' salaries must fit within the Diamond Duos Salary Cap designated below. Keepers must be selected by Sunday night January 18th 11:59pm EST.
Any player currently signed to a contract with one of your two franchises may be deemed one of your 15 (maximum) keepers per franchise, and his real-life salary and contract years will be used and incorporated into your Diamond Duos team salary. This includes any player that may have been a MLB free agent this pre-2015 offseason but has either signed with a new team or resigned with his previous team.
*Diamond Duos II will not be recognizing player signing bonuses for the sake of keeping some semblance of simplicity. If Cot’s shows a player’s contracts as 3 years, $35M, then that’s what we’re using, regardless if there was a $4.75M signing bonus added onto the first year of the contract.
**Special Note (entering 2015 Inaugural Season ONLY) - Any Major League Free Agent that resigns with the same team following our deadline to name keepers, may be added back to the Diamond Duos roster of that owned franchise. In order to do so, there must be a roster opening, which may mean said player has to replace a previously deemed keeper if 15 MLB'ers for that franchise have already been named.
Each Diamond Duos owner will also control and manage its Minor League Farm system. Minor League keepers will be from both of the owner's MLB franchises' minor league system. All minor league prospects signed and affiliated with the MLB franchise shall be eligible to be kept as part of a Diamond Duos roster. Up to a maximum of 25 minor leaguers from each MLB franchise can be named as keepers, which in turn allows each Diamond Duos owner to keep up to a maximum of 50 minor leaguers entering the inaugural season. Any player with less than 130 AB or 50 IP carries Minor League status.
Minor leaguers do not take up any salary space while in a Diamond Duos Minor League Farm system. A $500,000 salary kicks in the year after surpassing either 130 AB, 50 IP, or being promoted by Diamond Duos owner and appearing in a lineup and does count against an owner's salary cap. There is no salary cap hit for any prospect that's promoted until he reaches those thresholds. (See Banuelos example near the end under Prospects)
INITIAL YEAR FREE AGENT DRAFT TO COMPLETE 40-MAN ROSTER:
This will be done on the board in a dedicated thread. Each owner must have 2 Free Agents nominated and offered an initial contract. You may not offer any contract if you don't have 2 players that you nominated/offered initial contracts to on the board. The only exception here is when you only have one roster spot remaining out of 37. If this does happen, and is caught, those offers will be deleted and the time stamp will revert back to the previous offer. A player will be signed by your team if an offer stands on the board for 12 hours and does not receive a higher offer.
Example of a contract offer:
Boston Padres offer C Bengie Molina TOR 3 years, $12M (AAS $4M)
Any increase in offers should be at least $25,000 (.25K) more than the previous offer if it's a contract with the same number of years.
Please follow this format. This initial free agent draft will tentatively begin at 8:00pm EST on February 4th (following the Super Bowl).
**IMPORTANT NOTE - Each team MUST fill at least 37 out of the 40 major league roster spots coming out of the Initial FA draft. Up to a maximum of 3 roster spots may be left open for prospects that are anticipated to be activated to Majors.
MAJOR LEAGUE ROSTER CONFIGURATION
40-man roster, comprised of 25 active players in lineup and 15 bench reserves
C, C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CI, MI, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF, U, U
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, P, P
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Diamond Duos is a Weekly Lineup league. Lineups on the Fantrax league site will lock 5 minutes before the first game is played on a Monday. It is each owner's responsibility to edit his own lineup as needed. Lineups will not be modified by the Commissioner following the lineup deadline each Monday (unless dire extenuating circumstances and there is proof of communication prior to the deadline).
On a team's ProBoards Roster page, each of these positions must have salaries next to the name of each player with years following for the life of the contract. Format to follow is: 3 years/$39M (2013-15) 13:$12M, 14:$13M, 15:$14M
This 40-man roster list must remain updated on ProBoards throughout the season, taking into consideration all add/drops, trades, promotions/demotions.
Team total salary MUST be tabulated at the top of each team's Roster page, in addition to how much cap space is available as compared to the team's Salary Cap.
The Following is only an example of what is required at the top of your Team Roster thread.
Salary Cap: $170,000,000
MLB Payroll: $130,000,000
Responsible For: $5,000,000 (If you've dropped players signed to multi-year contracts, your team is responsible for a percentage of that contract)
Cap Space Available: $35,000,000
MINOR LEAGUE FARM SYSTEM
How you want to break down your Minor League prospect list is up to you. It may be one big list or broken down into Triple A, Double A, Advanced A, etc or broken up by position. It doesn't matter as long as it remains updated and contains every minor leaguer you own the rights to. This list must be updated as prospects are traded away, acquired in trades, drafted, or claimed.
FIRST-YEAR PLAYER DRAFT (returning to non-snake for 2022-2023 offseason):
Each offseason, a first-year player draft will be held which includes draft picks from the previous year’s MLB draft, international signings since the previous year’s draft, and any other unowned minor leaguers signed to contracts with MLB teams. The draft order is determined in reverse order of the previous year’s standings and includes 12 rounds plus 2 Parent Franchise Protection rounds. These PFP rounds are held after round 2 of the draft and allow each team to protect 2 (total) eligible players from their 2 parent franchises. Draft picks may be traded, but PFP may not.
• Any player signed after the first-year player draft begins is not eligible to be selected.
• Rusney Rule: Franchises may offer a FA blind bid contract to an international signee signed after the draft if he is promoted to the Majors during the season. If he is not promoted, then he remains in the pool until the following season's Minors draft.
• MLB's policy on international free agents and the bonus pool will govern the way we operate. Any international signing will be eligible for our Minor League Draft if signed in time (even guys like Abreu, Tanaka, and Kang). If they sign after the minor league draft starts but before free agency, guys who are not subject to the international pool budget (Abreu, Tanaka, Kang, etc.) will be eligible for our Unrestricted Free Agency. If they do not sign until after free agency has started, they will be eligible for the first free agent period of the season via blind bid.
Guys like Moncada, Lopez, and others who fall into MLB's rules for international pool money may be selected only during the Minor League draft. They will be eligible for free agency via blind bid if they make their major league debut during their signing season (the Rusney Rule).
During the draft, an owner may not make selections or trade draft picks once they have selected their 60th player. Those picks will be forfeited at that time
MONTHLY MINOR LEAGUE CLAIM
Each month from after the minor league draft through the end of the MLB regular season (February through September or October depending on season schedule), each franchise will be allowed to claim one unowned minor league player. These claims will be made in a monthly thread on ProBoards. The threads for these claims will open at midnight on the first day of the month and be on a first-come, first-served basis. Players from the June draft and any international signings signed after our First-Year Player Draft are not eligible to be claimed. In the event that a Major League free agency blind bid is put in for a player who is also claimed, whichever claim came in first will be honored as the winning claim. Monthly minors claims may be traded in the same manner as draft picks.
SALARY CAP BREAKDOWN:
The salary cap for each team shall be $175 million per year (was $170M in inaugural season 2013). Keep in mind that each team is a combination of talent from two MLB franchises (one AL and one NL) and there is a high probability of multiple high-end salaries/contracts.
Each team will be allowed one (1) Franchise Tag option and (2) Restricted Free Agent options, and 1 Prospect Tag following the inaugural season.
Team Salary Caps and Franchise Tags/Restricted Options will be reassessed following the first year of Diamond Duos to determine if The League should move toward Tiered Salary Caps and different numbers of Franchise Tags/Restricted options.
Please note: This Dynasty league is designed to create challenge and so that ongoing management of your team is imperative. As an example, some teams may need to waive a player or players to free agency to make sure their team remains under the salary cap maximums. The same can be accomplished by trading high salaried players to teams with cap room on their teams. On the flip side, other teams will have to work to sign players to longer term deals at lower annual salaries to remain both competitive and efficient. They will most likely have to focus their time on prospecting to create their dynasty. These are just a couple of the issues that will eventually create a demand for trade negotiations and other league discussion items.
TRADE DEADLINE AND FA DATES:
The trade deadline for Diamond Duos Dynasty league will be August 7th, 11:59 PM EST. This is one week after MLB's non-waiver trade deadline. Trading of all players (Majors and Minors) is permitted. Trading of Salary Cap space ($$$) is not permitted. All trading can resume the day following the World Series and may continue throughout the off season.
What this means is that the trade deadline should have a lot of activity as one team may want to move potential Free Agents to another team that can protect him or to a team that has a chance to win. Only Free Agents protected by Franchise tags can be traded with their tag. These may be assigned to the player the day after the last game in the league has been completed and must stay assigned to that player only and cannot be transferred to any other player.
JUST THE BASICS (FA)
These are guidelines, not set in stone, and per league discussion and potential voting/polls, may be amended.
In Season - A Free Agent is any player not listed on any franchise's roster following the Initial keeper selection and player draft that sets each team's 40-man roster. A free agent can be any professional baseball player, major league or minor league that has already signed a real-life professional MLB contract, which includes contracts with MLB team affiliates (minor league teams). International players that have not signed with a MLB franchise are not considered Free Agents in this league and are not eligible to be bid on.
When you decide there is a player you wish to add to your 40-man roster from free agency, you will need to Sign that player to a contract. This process will be done via a blind bidding system. The league's minimum salary requirement is $500,000 per year. The longest you may sign a player to contract at the league minimum is two years. The longest you can sign a player to a contract with an average annual salary of more than $500,000 but less than $750,000 per year is three years. The longest you can offer ANY contract is 6 years.
**Note - Players who have been selected as keepers prior to the inaugural season that have real-life contracts greater than 6 years will be allowed.
As in real-life, sometimes players receive numerous contract offers. The player will ultimately choose the team that has offered them the most lucrative contract. "General Free Agent Process" provides rulings on determining "most lucrative" with a description of the Diamond Duos tie-breaking system.
Reminders:
A GM CANNOT make a contract offer to a player who has not signed a contract with a real life Major League franchise.
Also, any time your franchise makes a transaction (trade, free agent acquisition, dropping a player to free agency, draft pick, etc.) it MUST be posted in a transaction log which every GM will keep under his own team's board. There is simply too much to see to unless each GM keeps track of all of his own acquisitions and posts them for all to see. This should eliminate any discrepancies over players or contract information.
GENERAL FREE AGENT BID PROCESS (IN-SEASON):
IN GENERAL:
A GM will submit one, and ONLY ONE, bid per MLB FA player in which they are interested. These bids (assuming a GM bids on multiple players) will be submitted via an email to fablindbids2@gmail.com. Only the league office has access to this account. This bid must include the following to be considered valid:
*Number of years of the contract offer
*Total amount of the contract offer
*Average Annual Salary ("AAS")
*a breakdown of the contract per year or note that it will be evenly spread.
Example:
Boston Padres offer Player XXX:
5 year contract worth $48.5M
AAS: $9.7M
2013 - $7M
2014 - $9M
2015 - $11M
2016 - $11M
2017 - $10.5M
Failure to use this format and include the 4 criteria listed above will result in an invalid and voided bid. It will be each GM's responsibility to be sure he submits a proper bid.
No single year can deviate more than 40% from AAS. So a contract with 5 million dollars AAS can only range between 3 million and 7 million for any one year.
ANNUAL SALARY ALLOCATION LIMITS WITHIN A CONTRACT:
Back-end loading of contracts is a concern of the league. Those contracts sure feel good to the bid winner since those latter years can get loaded up, allowing current year salary to stay lower and manageable and help prop up AAS. To avoid back-end loading of contracts, the total of salaries in the last 1/2 of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70% of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, 1/2 of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last 1/2 of the contract.
A bid submitted is permanent. Once a bid is made, it MAY NOT be withdrawn, so make sure of your bid before you make an offer. You are obligated to that offer. If you decide that you are adamant about pulling your offer from the table, then you must request this in writing from the Commissioner's Office. If approved the Commissioner's Office will delete your offer. This will only happen in the rarest of cases.
OFFSEASON:
Salary cap and roster (# of players) limits will be handled differently in the off-season and in season. Please refer to each section below for the specifics.
Starting after the winter meetings in December, Free Agent bidding will be held each year.
During the off-season bidding, we will begin with contract offers to all Restricted Free Agents, and then we'll move on to all Unrestricted Free Agents. All bidding will take place on the Free Agents board.
All Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs") will be bid on in the first week of the auctions in the off season. Please carefully review all rules for bidding on RFA's as they are significantly different from Unrestricted FAs.
For RFAs, there is a further process as prior owner will have a chance to match the winning bid within 48 hours. For Unrestricted FAs, the winning GM must update his roster and team salary information within 72 hours.
With regard to adherence to salary cap and roster size, Diamond Duos will relax the general rule during the off-season only to allow some flexibility in light of free agent contract offers. During this off-season exercise, each franchise will be able to exceed their salary cap by up to $10M. You can utilize trading to free up roster and salary cap space. **A word to the wise...bid prudently.
All salary caps and rosters must be in full compliance by Opening Day (first MLB game of season). Failure to comply will mean no stat accumulation on Fantrax.
During the offseason RFA and UFA periods, teams may continue trading, waiving, and promoting players. Releasing of players is not allowed during free agency.
IN SEASON:
Once the regular season begins, the process of FA bidding changes slightly since there will be no weekly randomly drawn batches of players on which to bid.
There will be, however, weekly bidding deadlines to help create an environment of fairness and promote GM activity.
Blind Bidding - In season, any GM may submit a blind bid to fablindbids2@gmail.com. Bids may be submitted until the weekly deadline of Friday 11:59PM EST. Any bid received after the deadline will be invalidated. No exceptions.
PRIORITY LISTS
In some situations, you may be interested in bidding on multiple players with the hope of filling 1 roster spot. In that case, you may send a priority list to fablindbids2@gmail.com.
Example- You want 1 of Player A, Player B, and Player C. You would make bids for all 3 with a message of your intent to win only 1 or 2 of these players. Send a list in the order you want to win them, and this will avoid going over roster limits, or your salary cap.
1. Player B
2. Player C
3. Player A
Winning bids will be posted under that week's thread in "Winning FA Bids" by Sunday evenings, in time for GMs to add player to their roster on Fantrax.
Be careful to not exceed your salary cap. If this occurs, the commissioner's office will send you an email mandating that your team make arrangements to release players in order to bring the current salary within your team's salary cap. The League Office will review each 40-man roster often to make sure you are complying with your team's assigned salary cap. Remember that players' salaries may change if signed to new contracts with new teams following a release.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS:
Each season a GM may designate player(s) as "Restricted", making those players Restricted Free Agents ("RFAs"). These players must be publicly announced and displayed in the designated area "Restricted FA's" as Restricted by January 5th. Please note that FAILURE to publicly declare said players as "Restricted" shall forfeit the right of that GM to restrict that player(s) for that season. Any and all unrestricted Free Agents shall be subject to regular (unrestricted) FA bidding as outlined previously. A GM may choose to trade for a pending free agent before this deadline and then place the RFA tag on that player.
Once a GM uses the designated amount of Restricted options at his disposal (2 per team following Inaugural season), those players will be eligible for Restricted free agency bidding. All free agent bidding, whether restricted or unrestricted, shall be conducted pursuant to the league's FA bidding procedures in place at that time.
Any GM may initiate bidding on a RFA agent at scheduled times during the period specifically noted for RFAs.
**NOTE - In the event no bids are received on a RFA, that player will be available to his team at his real life MLB contract.
**NOTE- A team may place a bid on their own RFA in order to avoid the above scenario.
Players will be on the board for 24 hours after the opening of RFA and 12 hours after any subsequent bid.
RESTRICTED PLAYER BIDDING CRITERIA - Restricting a player provides a semi protective measure to help a GM retain that player, while not assuring that GM will retain said player. In order to provide some, but not absolute, assistance in that retention, the following guidelines are placed on Restricted FA bidding:
The Average Annual Salary ("AAS") that a GM bids will require a certain minimum number of years that offer must cover to be a valid bid. The HIGHER the AAS, the LONGER the MINIMUM contract term you MUST offer in order to make a valid bid. The MINIMUM contract term is based solely on the offer's AAS, and is determined as follows:
RFA BIDDING GUIDELINES
AAS = up to $6M, then MINIMUM 1, MAXIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $6.01M to $10M, then MINIMUM 2, MAXIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = $10.01M to $14M, then MINIMUM 3 yr deal
AAS = $14.01M to $18M, then MINIMUM 4 yr deal
AAS = 18.01M+, then MINIMUM 5 yr deal
The Maximum contract length that can be offered by a team is 6 years.
Jamie Moyer Rule for bidding on older players
A GM may offer a player a contract that keeps an older player under contract until the season that the player turns 39 years old. So although an $18+ million contract normally requires at least 5 years, one could offer a player that is 36 a three year deal at $18 million. Or a 38 year-old player could receive a one year deal at over $18 million if that makes more sense.
As in all FA bidding, the bidder must clearly state the
1.) contract term (number of years)
2.) total contract amount
3.) AAS
The Breakdown may be decided after as long as they follow the above parameters and the aforementioned guidelines for contract structure.
Since the bidding is for a RFA, the GM who held the restricted player has 48 hours to match the winning bid, and may restructure that bid for a total contract amount no less and a term no longer than that of the "winning" bid. If the restricting GM chooses not to match the offer, then the winning bidder is obligated to sign the player - there is NO option to remove or renig on any bid placed.
The 48 hour acceptance "clock" will commence with the winning bid being posted of the last player of the RFA batch by the League Office.
The discussion above applies ONLY TO RESTRICTED free agent bidding. Normal, or Unrestricted, free agent bidding is covered under General FA bidding guidelines.
FA RULINGS:
There maybe instances in which free agents receive several offers from multiple teams. Questions arise as to which franchise will be declared the winner and awarded the right to sign a player to their team. The primary criteria in determining a winner is the average annual salary ("AAS") of the contract.
AAS is determined as follows: You simply take the average
08: $1,000,000
09: $2,000,000
AAS= $1,500,000
In the rare event two bids have the same average annual salary, below are the tie-breakers that will be utilized in determining which team will win the right to sign a player. Only proceed to the second tie-breaker in cases where the first tie-breaker ends in a tie.
Tie-Breaker #1:
If the average annual salary for two contract offers is the same, then the GM who offered the contract with the most number of years shall win the right to sign the player.
Tie-Breaker #2:
The only way this second tie-breaker can be utilized is if there are two contract offers with the same average annual salary over the life of the contract AND the two contract offers are to pay the player over the same period of time. In this particular case, the tie-breaker will go to the GM who made their offer FIRST.
The commissioner's office will post the winning team at the end of the auctioned player's bid thread. It is solely your responsibility to monitor the board and add any player you won to your roster. At this point, the player is ready to sign with your team and you may officially add the player to your 40-man roster and deduct his salary from your salary cap.
Keep in mind that your 40-man major league roster may not exceed 40 players at any time, your minor league system may have up to 60 players in it at any time (maximum of 50 allowed entering Inaugural season but it's possible to acquire additional minor leaguers via trade), and you may not exceed your salary cap except in the offseason.
When you sign a player and your current roster is full or the new player causes you to exceed your salary cap, you will need to take corrective action (waive or trade player(s)) within 72 hours.
The new player may not be added to your Fantrax roster until your roster is legal.
PLAN AHEAD. Failure to resolve your illegal roster within the 72-hour time period will result in your newly added player to be dropped back into Free Agency.
Once a contract is signed, it cannot be reworked or revoked. In essence, it is etched in stone. You are responsible for paying that contract until such time as the player is traded or dropped to free agency.
RELEASING PLAYERS:
A GM has the right to release any player to free agency. To release a player and drop him to free agency, you must post him in a new thread under the section titled "Player Releases". This will make permanent the decision to release a player to free agency. Once posted, there is no turning back. A GM will be responsible for 50% of a player’s salary (during the 1st year under contract) and 25% of that player's salary for any remaining years for the duration of the contract (UNLESS that player is signed to a contract by another franchise). In which case, continued responsibility for that player's salary may be further limited or negated in full. However, if said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count 25% of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.
If the player is signed by another franchise after being dropped to free agency, then the previous owner will only be required to pay the difference between the player's old contract and the player's new contract (on a year-to-year basis for multi-year contracts), not to exceed 25% of the old contract. If the player's contract with his new team is higher than his contract was with the old team, the previous owner will no longer be obligated to pay any further for the player and thus no further penalty on that franchise's salary cap.
If the player is signed to a new contract after being released and the new contract pays the player less than 25% of the original contract, then the previous owner's liability maximum is still only 25% of the old contract. Only in the event that the new contract pays the player more than 25% of his old contract will the previous owner be able to count less than 25% of the old contract against his salary cap.
Note: When reference is made to "old contract" and "new contract", the contract salary comparisons are made on a YEAR-TO-YEAR basis rather than on the total dollar amounts of the contracts. i.e. A player is dropped who had a 2013 (only) $8M contract and is later picked up through free agency with a 3 year $8M deal (broken down 2013 - $6M, 2014 - $1M, 2015 - $1M). The previous owner is responsible in 2013 for $2M, the difference between the "old" $8M and the "new" $6M, not exceeding 25% of the old contract. Since the old contract did not cover 2014 and 2015, the previous owner has no salary responsibility for those 2 years.
If you release a player with a Prospect $500K contract, you will only pay 25% of that contract until the end of the current season. IE: you cut a player that has a Prospect 2016 contract in the 2014 season, you will pay $125K (out of $500K) until the end of the 2014 season and will be free of the salary for 2015 and 2016.
If a GM waives a player to free agency and then re-signs the same player in the same year, the above rule will be voided and the team must pay the full salary.
*Note - the GM who previously released said player and now wants to pick that player back up through FA, MUST initially bid an amount (and term, if applicable) equal to or greater than the amount and term at the time said player was dropped to FA. Any lesser bid by that GM will be invalid and immediately voided.
If the player is released and not re-signed until the following season, then the rule applies only if the player's contract at the time of his waiver was multi-year.
Dropping Minor Leaguers and Prospects
If you drop a defined Minor Leaguer or a defined Prospect, you are responsible for nothing at any time. You have no more financial responsibility to that player the following year.
To release a player, please post their name to the league bulletin board under the section "Player Releases" and include the original yearly salaries and the corresponding cap hits.
TRADING:
Trading between teams can be accomplished in many ways. Three of the most efficient ways to begin negotiating a trade with another team are: (1) Go to the message board to the section entitled "Trade Block." In this section, you can post the players you wish to trade and/or what types of players you are interested in trading for. (2) Each GM provided an email to the Commissioner's Office to act as a point of contact for their team; (3) The ProBoards PM system also works well.
Effective communication is essential to maintain interest and activity in the league, so any and all communication channels are recommended.
Note- Trading can include Major League Players, Minor League Players, Prospects, pending free agents, draft picks, and monthly minors claims however, neither cash nor franchise/restricted/prospect tags may be exchanged in any transaction.
Any trade negotiations that conclude in an agreement must be posted to the message board under the section entitled "Trades." All terms of the trade must be listed here. It is required that one team involved in the trade post the agreement and terms along with their rationale for the trade, while the other team formally posts his confirmation/acceptance of the trade as listed.
Please review the terms carefully. Once the trade is formally accepted, the rest of the league has an opportunity to voice any disapproval they may feel, the commissioner's office will then review it and either approve or reject the trade within 48 hours. Once the deal has been approved, there will be no recourse and the deal is finalized.
Whether a GM is signing a free agent, waiving a player to free agency or trading with another franchise, you as the GM will have 48 hours to update your franchise's roster. This will avoid confusion as to which players belong to which franchises. You, at all times, must adhere to a 40 player roster and remain under your salary cap- except in the offseason.
As with free agent bidding, PLAN AHEAD!
If the GM exceeds his roster limit and/or exceeds the salary cap during the season (or if he exceeds either offseason limitation), there will be a 72 hour remedy period. Until the illegality is remedied, the newly acquired players will not be added to team's Fantrax roster. Failure to remedy the illegality within 72 hours will result in suspension of scoring in Fantrax and all free agent bidding.
Remedy includes ONLY 1.) waiving or releasing of players to meet the 40-man roster limit and/or meet salary cap limitation or 2.) having posted and confirmed trade(s) that allow the team to fully adhere to a 40-man roster and salary cap limits.
CONTRACT EXPIRATION AND TAGS (Prospect Rules)
Each off-season, there are always a number of players who have had their contracts expire. These players naturally become free agents and, as such, are available to accept contract offers being made by other GMs in the league.
There are essentially three types of "contracts" for the purposes of Diamond Duos
A.) a real life contract transacted ON or BEFORE the unspecified roster lock date, OR a real life contract resulting from a franchised (kept) player from the inaugural season.
B.) a Diamond Duos contract won in the free agent bidding process
C.) a "prospect contract", which is a form of protection for players qualifying as "prospect" players (see below).
*Diamond Duos only recognizes Club Options. We currently use Cot's Baseball Contracts as the official source for contract and salary information.
Cot's-Baseball Contracts: mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/
To protect against the loss of all free agents in a particular calendar year, a GM will be granted to ability to name Franchise and Restricted Players. Each GM will have 1 Franchise Tag, 2 RFA Tags, and 1 Prospect Tag each offseason (once Prospect Tags are applicable). You will also be able to protect all qualified "minor league" players and also be allowed to protect your qualified "prospect" players as well. Prospect players are defined as players who are engaged in the 4-year Prospect status.
Franchise Player:
You will have the ability; at the end of the year to name a "franchise player(s)" (see below). This player, although having his Diamond Duos contract expire, will not be eligible for free agency within our league and will be forced to sign with the same team. In this specific case ONLY, the franchise player will assume a Diamond Duos salary of $15M per season. An owner may only use a Franchise tag on a player once. Said player may be retained at $15M per season for 1 to 5 additional years. Unlike RFA, a pending free agent may not be traded and then tagged as a Franchise player.
Teams will also have the ability to use a prospect tag. This tag only applies to players that are just wrapping up their 4 years of prospect protection. This gives teams a chance to hold onto players that are still eligible for arbitration each season and are consistently going to be receiving 1-year contract offers. The tag will allow the player to be locked down for 3 million dollars in the first year after tag is applied followed by 5 million dollars in the second season. This can be applied to a player one time only. After these two years awarded by the prospect tag are used up, the team will have to either franchise the player or restrict the player if they hope to hold onto him.
Players designated with a Franchise Tag may be traded once they are designated with that tag. The tag is considered stuck to that player and it may not be traded or used on any other player. The league will be keeping track of the tags that are used on players so that teams will not be able to use 1 tag on multiple players. A player must be designated with the franchise tag before the trade is posted. You cannot post a trade and then designate a player with the tag afterwards.
Restricted Player(s):
A team will also have the ability to name restricted players each season. Restricted players will, in effect, be treated just like free agents with one BIG difference. Once restricted free agency starts restricted players can be made contract offers like every other free agent. However, at the end of the contract offering period, the team who restricted the player will have 48 hours to match the winning offer. If a GM chooses to match the winning contract offer, then he/she will be allowed to restructure the "matching" contract so that it best fits their team's salary structure and then re-sign the player. The "restructured" contract must, however, still have the same average annual salary, but may not add additional years to the contract. If a GM fails to respond or chooses not to match the best contract offer made to their player, then the auctioned player will be required to sign with the highest bidder, whose bid then becomes that team's obligation.
*RFA tags may not be traded, even if assigned to a player, but a pending free agent may be traded and then tagged as an RFA.
Prospects:
In Diamond Duos, certain Major League players may be deemed "Prospects" and are not a hit on the team's salary.
A prospect is a player who has lost his "minor league" status (see below) by surpassing his ML AB or IP threshold or by appearing on a Diamond Duos major league roster. You may keep a prospect at his status until he has reached the threshold and received one AB or IP in 4 ML seasons after the qualifying season.
Career Number Threshold
130 AB
50 IP
20 Pitching Appearances- Eliminated Nov. 2016
After said player has played in four (4) ML qualifying seasons (does NOT have to be consecutive- (injury/sent down), that player will have exhausted his prospect status and, if not under a Diamond Duos contract, will be a FA.
Hypothetical Example:
Manny Banuelos
2013: 23.2 IP - Still minor league status and costs nothing for the following season
2014: 121 IP - Still costs nothing for that season but has surpassed his threshold and will no longer be considered a minor leaguer
2015: DNP - Injury made him miss all of 2015 season but still got paid and lost 1 season of protection (1/4)
2016: 76 IP - $500K (2/4)
2017: 136.2 IP - $500K (3/4)
2018: 186 IP - $500K and is the 4th and final year of his protection. He will be a FA following 2018 season
Furthermore:
1) A prospect starts his major league contract the year after he crosses the 130 AB/50 IP threshold. If a "prospect" ever appears on your 25 man roster, his major league contract starts the following year regardless of whether he surpassed the minimums.
2) A player with zero as a salary can be optioned off the 40-man roster and back in to the minors only once before crossing the AB/IPP/APP minimum and only once after crossing the minimum.
3) Players with a salary can also be waived off the 40-man roster, but this player must pass through irrevocable waivers. The waiver claim priority would be based on the current worst to first Roto standings at the time, which goes along with MLB's irrevocable waivers system. Claims on players waived to Minors must be posted on ProBoards in the same thread as the waiving. See League Constitution and Releasing Players section for a claiming team's salary cap responsibility. If a player is successfully passed through waivers and fills a spot in your Minor League system, his major league salary still counts against the cap and he must be back on your 40-man roster by the deadline that player options can be exercised near the beginning of the offseason.
4) Remember, you can never have more than 60 players in your Minor League system. If you have 60 spots filled and waive a player in hopes of moving him to your Minor League system, the move would be invalid since there's not an open spot for him and would require releasing a player from the minor league system.
5) This (#3 above) may be an option for a team that has two DL spots already filled but is looking to open up a spot on the 40-man roster for whatever reason. This ability to waive a player in hopes of him clearing waivers and being "demoted" to the farm can give you that flexibility.
NOTE FROM COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE:
Our goal here is to create a long-lasting dynasty league. Please adhere to common decency. Any questions or complaints may be sent via email to the Head Commissioner. Please allow at least 24 hours for a response. Everyone's concerns will be dealt with as promptly as possible. Over the course of the league I will probably have another GM or two to assist me in running the league. If you're interested in participating in that way, please notify me. Thanks, enjoy, and let's have some fun!
Commissioners Scott Greene and Drew Bonner