1.13 Amendments

[Andy Barnes]

List of Amendments

#1: Free Agency and Tags - Passed by League Vote: 17 For, 2 Against

Any player who is on a roster as of 11:59 pm EST on March 11, will be considered to have been on a roster in the current season. This includes players on the DL, in the majors, and on the MiLB roster. Any player released from this group, signed or activated during the season and then released at a later date, will qualify as a player who has been on a roster that year.

Any player who is qualified as having been on a roster in the current season and then bought out is NOT eligible to be tagged in any way. This includes Restricted Free Agent (RFA) tags AND Franchise Tags (FRAN).

Any player who has not been on a roster since the end of the free agent auction and was added through in -season free agency IS eligible to be tagged as normal. These players will be able to be tagged under RFA tags and FRAN tags per usual players.

#2: WAIVERS - Passed by League Vote: 16 For, 3 Against

A player will go on ESPN waivers immediately after he is released. He will stay there for two days. Any team may put in a claim for the player on ESPN. The winning team will be the team with the highest waiver priority. The player will be awarded to that team, and that team will go to the bottom of the waiver priorities.

If a player passes through waivers unclaimed, he will be a free agent and able to be added by any team. When a team adds a player that has cleared waivers the adding team must make the appropriate post in the Free Agent section on Proboards. The restriction on him being tagged at the end of the season will remain, however (he cannot be RFA'd or FRAN'd).

Waiver priority will be set twice. Once, at the beginning of the season, where it will be the inverse of the previous year's final standings. It will be reset towards the middle of the season, on the Monday of the All-Star break. All waiver adds are as usual, $1 for 1 year signings.

We will use the ESPN system to moderate all waiver claims. Once a player is won using a waiver claim the claiming team must make the appropriate post on Proboards in the Waiver Claims section.

A team is ineligible to pick up on waivers a player that they previously dropped.

#3: Future Cap Restrictions - Passed by League Vote: 17 For, 1 Against

It is proposed that we set a limit for the future year's team salary of $225. This is to keep teams from overwhelming their finances and burying their team in debt in an attempt to buy a championship. Once a team makes a move that puts their team at the $225 mark, all other transactions that add future cap will not be processed. This is a hard cap and at no time can a team go over this amount, any moves that result in the overage will not be processed.

#4:Roster Change - Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 5 Against

To change one of the five RP slots to a P slot.

[Andy Barnes]

#5:Rookie Salary- Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 1 Against
To change starting salary for promoted prospects from the grading scale of A- $3, B- $2, C- $1, to a standard $1 across the board.

#6:Arbitration Raises- Passed by League Vote: 12 For, 0 Against
Every ARB contract will be sorted into 2 categories. The first is Category A, those that do not meet the minimum service time requirements of 150 AB or 50IP, within a given season. These Cat-A players are not eligible for contract advancement or an arbitration raise. The second is Category B, those that have fulfilled the service time requirements for a given season, and will have their contracts advanced forward one season, and will receive at $1 base raise to their contract.

Only those in Cat-B will be eligible for an arbitration raise through the WAIVR system what we run here in DLF. Following the previous protocol for arbitration raises, to qualify for an arbitration raise, the player must meet the three following criteria:

1) The player must have reached 150 AB or 50 IP during the season in question. ***accomplished by being Category B***

2) In order to use a position as his primary position, the hitter must have at least 35 games played at that position during the season in question. If more than one position qualifies, the position with the most games played will be his primary position. A pitcher must start 10 games to qualify at Starting Pitcher and must make at least 15 Relief Appearances to qualify at RP.

3)Hitters must have finished within the top 10 on the DLF WAIVR rater for the entire season, at that specific position. SP must finish within the top 50. RP must finish within the top 40. DH's with no other position eligibility must finish within the overall top 75.

If a Category B player meets these criteria, and finishes within the top tier of their position, they will receive an additional $1 raise, on top of the Cat-B raise.

[Andy Barnes]

#7. Trading Draft Picks- Passed by League Vote: 13 For, 0 Against

All draft picks can now be traded.

#8. 2021 Position Eligibility Adjustment- Passed by League Vote: 14 For, 0 Against

Since the 2020 season was shortened, there are concerns about position eligibility requirements going into the 2021 season. In normal seasons we would use the following criteria to assign eligibility.


Games needed from previous season for a player to qualify at a hitting position: 20

Proposed for 2021: 10 GP

Starts needed from a previous season for a player to qualify as a starter:
5

Proposed for 2021: 3 GS

Relief appearances needed from a previous season for a player to qualify as a reliever:
8

Proposed for 2021: 5 RA

The fantrax default setting was enabled because of issues with player positions going into 2020, where some were not correct. The default reads as such:
If checked, a player will be eligible at his default position(s), determined by Fantrax's data provider. This would be in addition to positions qualified at due to the minimum game requirements above


This is essentially an override to the eligibility that gives a player a default of 2B even if they played less than the minimums, but it was their most played position.

[Andy Barnes]

#9 Combined Prospect Draft- Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 6 Against

Starting with the 2022 season, the off-season draft and summer FYP draft will be combined into a 6 round draft to be held after the trade deadline. The first two rounds and the compensation round between rds 1 & 2 will have a restriction to only FYPD signees from that current season, eligible to be drafted. Rounds 3 through 6 will be open to all IFA, unowned FYPD signees and free agent MLB prospects.

With all draft picks being tradeable, Fantrax will be updated to contain 6 draft picks. They will be applied to the draft in the order they appear, with rds 1/2 representing the FYPD section and 3/4/5/6 representing the remainder. Compensation picks have never been tradeable and that will continue, as these will be penciled into our draft sheet to keep track of outside of FT.

All age restrictions for IFA players will remain, as described previously in the constitution.

[Andy Barnes]

#10: Injured Reserve- Passed by League Vote: 12 For, 1 Against

The proposal is to remove the $1 compensation that is attached to the IR designation, as well as remove the IR designation altogether.

This will improve the league a couple of ways. First, it will reduce the need for LMs to continually balance the ledgers by manually awarding $1 to each IR assignment. Second, tracking and monitoring valid rosters will be less cumbersome without having to worry about this designation. Additionally, it means that players you would normally deactivate for the entire season, can now be used later in the year if they return. Also, these players can now be traded or bought out, whereas previously, the IR designation basically locked them until the rollover.


Each team has 5 IR spots that they can use as they see fit, as long as the player is listed as either on the 15-Day DL or 60-Day DL by their MLB organization.

Once a player is removed from the DL in real life, there will be a grace period on Fantrax to make an appropriate roster move to activate them. If they are not moved after that grace period ends, then the roster will become illegal and gain no stats until it is made legal again. The grace period will be set for 5 lineup periods, so if the player becomes healthy before Wednesday's lineup period you will have through Sunday's lineup period to make your appropriate moves before an illegal roster is declared.

[Andy Barnes]

#11 C1/C2 Comp Pick System - Passed by League Vote: 12 For, 5 Against

This amendment adds an additional compensation round with a tiered system to determine where your comp pick would fall. We will have a C1 and C2 for comp picks. C1 would be placed between Round 1 and Round 2. C2 would be placed between R3 and R4. This means that players taken in C1 would be valued similarly to higher end R2 FYP players and players taken in C2 would be valued similarly to lower end R3 prospects, which includes possible IFA players.

If your RFA gets signed away with a salary of $20 or more, you would receive a C1 draft pick. If your RFA gets signed away with a salary lower than $20, you would receive a C2 draft pick.

#12 GS Limit for SP - Passed by League Vote: 12 For, 2 Against

We will increase the GS limit for SP from 8 to 9.

(these amendments are from 2022 Winter Meetings)

[Andy Barnes]

#13 Non-Tender Deadline - Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 1 Against

Beginning with the 2023 season, the previously named "Promotion Deadline" will be hence forth known as the "Non-Tender Deadline".

This means that all arbitration eligible players and any graduated prospects are subject to being released to free agency (non-tendered), if their contract, raise, or promotion is not agreed to by their franchise by the 1st day of February, annually.

If a team non-tenders an arbitration eligible player or graduated prospect, by choosing to refuse the terms of the contract, that player will be released into free agency, however there will be no financial buyout penalty associated with that release since the contract was technically still "in negotiation".

During the month of January trading will be open, as normal, and any of the players that fall into this arb/grad category can be traded, just like the current system. One week prior to the Non-Tender Deadline (NTD), there will be a forum created for teams to post their NTD releases.

On February 1st, any players that fall into the arb/grad category that were not released by their respective team will considered "signed". In the event of a manager having a VoC called for them, resulting in their removal, the incoming new general manager will be given 48 hours to retroactively agree to the terms of the released players from their franchise, if that GM replacement happens prior to Free Agency opening.

[Andy Barnes]

#14 Trade Deadline and Minors Draft Dates - Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 0 Against

The Minors Draft and Trade Deadline dates will be swapped, with the Draft occuring on 8/04 and the Trade Deadline on 8/11.

#15 RFA Eligibility - Passed by League Vote: 14 For, 2 Against

RFA eligiblity requirements will not impact those players tagged as RFA going into the 2023 Free Agency, but will take effect for the current and all future seasons.

RFA Eligibility Requirements
1) The player MUST NOT be below the 130/50 threshold for minor league status.
2) The player CANNOT have been released by any team during the season in question.
3) The player MUST have been continuously rostered by ANY team throughout the entire period starting with the All-Star Game through the end of the DLF World Series.
4) The player CANNOT have been tagged as an RFA at the beginning of the current season in question.
5) The player CANNOT have any available team options that can be exercised nor can they have any arbitration years left on their contract.
6) Teams CANNOT bid on their own RFA in an attempt to bypass the free agent process. The RFA is an automatic 1Y/$1 league minimum deal if no bid is received.

#16 Contract Points System - Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 9 Against

Each team will have 20 points which can be used to increase the contract length of the players signed via Free Agency (excluding in-season free agents). By default, players signed via FAAB Free Agency will be a 1Y contract. Teams can use this points system to increase the length of the contracts.

In this contract points system, each increase by 1 year would cost 1 point and each Team Option would cost 2 points.

Contract Upgrade Costs:
From 1Y to 2Y = 1pt
From 1Y to 2Y+ = 3pts
From 1Y to 2Y++ = 5pts
From 1Y to 3Y = 2pts
From 1Y to 3Y+ = 4pts
From 1Y to 4Y = 3pts

[Andy Barnes]

#17 League Realignment & Schedule Restructure - Passed by League Vote: 13 For, 0 Against

We will realign our league into 2 sub-leagues each with 2 divisions of 5 teams (AL East, AL West, NL East, NL West). There will be no interleague play outside of the Interleague Rivalry Game and the World Series. Each team will play every other team in their sub-league twice. The Top 3 in each division will make the playoffs.

The following example uses the 25 week season (playoffs included):

Matchup 1: Interleague Rivarly Game #1
Matchup 2: Interleague Rivarly Game #2
Matchup 3-20: Non-Interleague Play (2x vs each team in your sub-league)
Matchup 21: Wildcard Series (seeding by division with byes)
Matchup 22: Division Championship Series
Matchup 23: League Championship Series
Matchup 24-25: Combined 2-matchup World Series

When the real MLB schedule requires us to reduce the length of our season, which happens from time to time, we would simply remove one of the Interleague Rivalry Games.

The Wildcard Series would consist of Seeds #2 and #3 from EACH division playing against each other, while the #1 seed in that division has a bye week. The winner of this wildcard game would then face off against the #1 seed in their division for the Division Championship. The winner of the DCS would then play against the other DCS winner in their league in the LCS, with the winner of that game advancing to our World Series.

In order to determine who each team plays in the Interleague Rivalry Game we will use the final standings from the previous season, so that the #1 in one sub-league plays against the #1 in the other, and we just go down the list like that. When we need 2 Interleague Rivalry Games we can do the same thing but go by divisions so that the #1 in division 1A plays against the #1 in diivsion 2A and #1 in division 2B from the previous season.

For implementation this year though, since we don't have that sub-league split in place from 2022, we can use W% from last season and create the lists once the realignment is complete. This means that we'd establish the list of 10 teams in each of the sub-leagues and then use their 2022 W% to rank them, using divisional lists this season since we need 2 games.

#18 AL/NL Realignment Format - Passed by League Vote: 10 For, 2 Against, 2 Indifferent

American League
East
1. Rick (BOS)
2. Michael (NYY formerly TB)
3. Ray (CHW)
4. Rick (TB formerly SD)
5. Trent (BAL formerly WSH)

West
1. Will (SEA)
2. Zac (MIN)
3. Shelby (HOU)
4. Robbie (TEX)
5. Tim (KC formerly COL)

National League
East
1. Brett (ATL)
2. Andy (CHC)
3. Eric (MIL formerly KC)
4. Erik (PHI)
5. Tony (MIA formerly NYM)

West
1. Jim (LAD)
2. Josh (SF)
3. Kody (COL formerly MIL)
4. Trent (STL)
5. Joe (ARI formerly PIT)

[Andy Barnes]

#19: FAAB Auction Eligibility Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 16 For, 0 Against

Only players that are:
1) on an MLB 40-man roster, OR
2) Age 24 or older, OR
3) Over the 130/50 threshold

can be bid on during our Spring FAAB Auction.

#20: Championship Matchup Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 13 For, 3 Against

We structure the schedule in way, every season, that our World Series is a 1-week matchup instead of a 2-week matchup, and that it always falls during the second-to-last full week of the regular season, leaving a buffer between the end of our World Series and the end of the regular season

#21: Salary Retention Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 12 For (No Limit), 5 For (Limit), 1 Against

We need to change the way we look and talk about cap trades. When you send money to cover a player's salary it needs to be referred to as Salary Retention, not a cap cash trade. You will not be sending money from your available balance to the other team, like we have in the past. Instead, you will be retaining part of that player's salary for a duration that both teams agree upon.

What this could look like is this:
Team A trades Player X and agrees to cover 50% of his 3Y/$10 salary for the 2024 season.

After that player is traded to Team B, Team A will have a salary cap hit adjustment processed for their team. It will show up in the same area as buyout penalties, and prediction contest earnings. It will show that 50% retention rate for 2024, in this example that is $5, and be attached to that specific player. Team A will be charged that $5 this season, and it would apply to their finances just like a buyout penalty. Team B will get a salary cap hit adjustment for their finances as well, also attached to this player, which reduces their cap hit by that same $5 for this season.

This does not require you to have the $5 as available cap balance. That available cap balance is the big reason why the system won't allow certain trades that involve cap cash.

The 50% retention will remain on Team A's finances through the end of the 2024 season. The 50% coverage will follow that player to Team B, and also follow them should they be traded again to a new team.

Restrictions:
Salary Retention can be only for the current season.

If a player returns to a team, via trade, where he previously did not have salary retention associated with him, he will be ineligible for salary retention while on that same team.

#22: Cash Trades Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 12 For, 4 Against

If a team wants to trade cap cash for picks or players, which does not get processed as Salary Retention, that is allowed. However, it is fully determined by their available cap balance and would function as we are used to. This part of the proposal would be subject to Fantrax allowing it though. If it's a cash transaction where you send $X, you need to have those funds available in your balance, and if Fantrax doesn't allow it then you can't do it.

There will be no overriding these transactions and rectifying invalid rosters due to finances.

Fantrax will be the deciding factor on what is allowed or eligible in all cap cash for asset trades.

[Andy Barnes]

#23: Guaranteed Arbitration Contract Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 12 For, 5 Against

Arbitration contracts become fully guaranteed for the current season at the Nontender Deadline.

#24: Guaranteed In-Season Contract Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 11 For, 6 Against

We will create a new contract, using the current season YYYY as the identifier, which is a fully guaranteed single season contract. This YYYY will be the in-season free agency contract.

#25: Roster Expansion Proposal - Passed by League Vote: 15 For, 0 Against

Starting with the 2024 season, rosters will be expanded from 26 to 28 players, as the maximum.