League Constitution

[It's Turbo Time Somewhere]

		Code of Conduct
1.1		League members must never engage in conduct that violates the interests of the league. Collusion and cheating will not be tolerated under any circumstances and such behavior would be grounds for immediate removal from the league.
1.2		Behavior that is detrimental to the league or league members - such as losing on purpose, misrepresenting facts, or attempting to gain an advantage by circumventing the established rules of the Midwestern Dynasty League - are all examples of things that could lead to disciplinary action by the Commissioners.
1.3		This league is overseen by two commissioners (Aaron [It's Turbo Time Somewhere] and Kevin [Grace's Gamers]) who will vote on initial rules, conduct violation determinations, and will run the day-to-day operations. All decisions by the board will require unanimous commissioner agreement.
1.4		Upon becoming part of the Midwestern Dynasty League owners are expected to remain an active and positive member of the league. Inactivity, including not signing into this off-season site (Proboards forum), not signing into the in-season ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19] league page, not responding to trade offers (given sufficient time), or not updating your Proboards roster, is grounds for immediate removal.
1.5		All franchise owners have the right to be heard and to air any grievance. You may at any time post you grievance on the Grievances board on the Proboards site.
		League Fees
2.1		The league fee for the Midwestern Dynasty League is $25 per team.  100% of dues will paid out at the end of the year to the league champ and runners up as follows:
		1st: $250 $200
		2nd: $100
		3rd: $50
		Above edit made starting 2020 after the league contracted to 14-teams
2.2		League fees are due by December 15th January 7th of every season. Change starting in 2021
2.3		Access to the ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19] site will not be granted until league fees have been submitted.  Fees will be submitted and paid out through leaguesafe.com.
2.4		2020 Weirdness Rule: If the 60-game MLB season is not completed, the Midwestern Dynasty League (MDL) will not name a 2020 season champion and all league dues will be returned to owners. "Completed" means the MLB season is canceled due to covid-19 or for other reasons and is shut down with no MLB playoffs planned. There may be teams that due to a rain-out not being made up or other circumstance do not play the full 60, but that will not negate the MDL season.
		Game Play
		Major League Initial Draft (Completed in 2010)
3.1.1		Major league rosters will be filled through an auction draft hosted on this [Proboards] site.
3.1.2		Teams will have a maximum of $256 million for bidding, leaving $4 million for the minor league draft.
3.1.3		Any left over salary from the major league draft can then be used for mid-season pick-ups.
		Major League Free Agency
3.2.1		Begins annually on January 15 February 1st @ 7:00 P.M. Central Time Change starting in 2021
3.2.2		All auctioning for free agency will occur on the ProBoards site.
3.2.3		Each owner starts the off-season free agency by nominating two players.
3.2.4		The following bidding guidelines will be used:
		Minimum opening bid $1 million
		Minimum raise $1 million
		Clarification added 4/5/2019: Minimum bid and raise don't apply to resigning a graduated minor league contract (less than $1). They should be posted for the original contract amount and years. Any bid to raise should be to a round dollar amount ($1, $2, etc.)
3.2.5		Just like in the draft you can not bid money you do not have. So even if the player you will release to make roster room will free up extra money, you can't use that extra money until after the player is released. A player may be released mid season, leaving an open roster spot, to provide money if desired.
3.2.6		An auction on a player will be over when 24 hours has passed with no action.
3.2.7		The winning owner of a player will nominate the next player to enter bidding.
3.2.8		No player may be bid on in the major league free agency that is minor league eligible (under 120AB, 10 GS(sp), or 25 IP(rp)).
3.2.9		Free Agency will end annually on September 15.
3.2.10		Bidding on a player may only continue after this point IF the initial bid on said player occurred before September 15, 11:59 PM CST.
3.2.11		No player who has not passed the minimum threshold (120AB, 10 GS(SP), or 25 IP(RP)) may be bid on before MLB opening day or before they are on a MLB roster.
3.2.12		Owners may add new players to their rosters after 24 hours of no bidding.
		Major League In-season Contract Waiving
3.3.1		If an owner cuts a major league player mid-season the owner gets the contract years that were assigned to the waived player back, but remains responsible for 50% of the salary for the remainder of the contract unless another owner signs said player.
3.3.2		After being released a player will go on waivers for 4 days, during which time teams may claim the player and their current contract.
3.3.3		If a player goes unclaimed they will become a free agent.
3.3.4		AMENDMENT III: If a team waives a player they may only resign said player for the same contract value or more money a year than they waived him at. A team may not change the number of years when resigning. Example: If a team waives Rafeal Furcal with a contract of $9/2yrs they may only resign him for $9 or more at 2 years
		Major League In-Season Waiver Wire Claims
3.4.1		Multiple claims for a player on waivers (within 4 days of being dropped) will be addressed using a waiver order list. In the situation of multiple claims the team that is highest on the list will receive the player.
3.4.2		Upon claiming a player off waivers the team is dropped to the bottom of the waiver wire list.
3.4.3		Initially, the waiver wire list order will be reverse of the minor league draft order.  (Applied to 2010 – No Longer Relevant)
3.4.4		Waiver wire list will be reset each off-season (November 15) to the reverse of the previous season standings.
3.4.5		The commissioner's will keep an accurate waiver order.
3.4.6		If a major league player on your roster announces his retirement in real life then you may waive him from your roster at no penalty (you do not need to pay half the salary for the remainder of the contract).
		Major League Contracts
3.5.1		After winning bidding on a free agent owners will assign contract lengths to player through a post in their teams transaction thread PRIOR to posting a new player for bidding.
		Added 01-10-10 Example MLB contract
		Player C is signed to a 5yr, $20 contract
		2010: $20
		2011: $20
		2012: $20
		2013: $20
		2014: $20
3.5.2		Each team gets a maximum of 80 contract years
3.5.3		Maximum single contract length is 5 years
3.5.4		Franchise Tag
3.5.4.1		Each team has one Franchise Tag that may be applied before December 17 January 17th of each year to ONE FA eligible player. Change starting in 2021
3.5.4.2		This tag will award the player a contract up to five years in length (as determined by the owner) that is equal in value to the average contract that the top 5 players at that position (league contract values), but cannot be less than the player made the previous season.
3.5.4.3		Franchise tags can only be applied to a player once and then the player enters free agency.
3.5.4.4		No team may have more than one franchise player on their roster at a time.
3.5.4.5		A franchised player losses the title of franchise player upon being traded. This means the team trading the player receives its franchise player tag back. The team receiving the player is responsible for the contract.
		Added 01-10-10 Example Franchise Tag
		You want to give Player C your franchise tag for 3 yrs
		The Top 5 OF contracts are:
		Player V: $46/yr
		Player W: $46/yr
		Player X: $44/yr
		Player Y: $42/yr
		Player Z: $38/yr
		Average = $43.4 = $44 (We will always round up)
		These averages will be posted for each position by the commissioners at the end of each season.
		So Player C's contract would be
		2010: $44
		2011: $44
		2012: $44
		Major League Roster
3.6.1		Majors rosters will be comprised of:
		C
		1B
		2B
		3B
		SS
		MI
		CI
		LF
		RF
		CF
		OF
		OF
		UTIL
		SP
		SP
		SP
		P
		P
		P
		P
		RP
		RP
		RP
		7 BN
		2 3 DL
		1 '60-Day' DL
		8-13 minors
		Vote to convert IF and one BN spot to CI and MI (from 12/2018)
3.6.1a		AMENDMENT V: A 3rd 10-Day DL was added in the 2019 season.
3.6.1b		2020 Weirdness Rule: To deal with covid, for 2020 only max IL spots allowed on Fantrax (50). Owners will still be responsible for staying within cap limits.
3.6.1c		2020 Weirdness Rule: If a player already under contract opts-out of the 2020 season owner may waive in Fantrax to open the roster spot and move to a opt-out list in Proboards roster, to keep the player's contract for future seasons. Contract will still apply to team $/years caps. ex. David Price opted-out, so if you have him on $3/3yr contract you could put him on an opt-out list and fill his roster spot without losing his two future contract years.
3.6.2		Each team is responsible to keep a board with their roster and a separate board tracking team transactions (Free agent signings, player waives, DL assignments, and minor league promotions.)
3.6.3		The minors roster contains minor leagues who have not yet passed the leagues minimum service time (120AB, 10GS[SP], 25IP[RP]). By December 1 January 7th, after a player has passed this threshold they must be on the MLB roster or be released. Change starting in 2021
		For example:
		Matt Weiters was called up by Baltimore in 2009 and played his first MLB game on May 29th and passed the minors threshold on July 21, 2009. At any point the owner of Weiters COULD have called him up but they were not required to for all of the 2009 season. Since Weiters passed the threshold during the 2009 season, the owner would have been REQUIRED to call Weiters up to the MLB roster by Dec 1, 2009.
3.6.4		Filling Roster – As of Opening day every team's major league roster must contain 30 players with major league contracts
3.6.5		Amendment IV: 60-Day DL – Each team has one (1) '60-Day' DL spot
3.6.5.1		A team may only place a player on the 60-Day DL who was on THEIR roster (salary and years assigned) prior to the MLB team placing said player on the DL and ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19] making the player DL eligible.
3.6.5.2		Player can be on any MLB length DL (does not need to be 60-day).
3.6.5.3		Once placed on the 60-Day DL, a player may not be removed until after the major league season is over.
3.6.6		All in-season game play will occur on ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19].
3.6.6.1		There is a 162 game limit on each position
3.6.6.2		There is a 175 Games started limit for SP
3.6.6.3		Commissioners will assign all players to the correct team when the ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19] league page is launched each season, after that it is the responsibility of each owner to properly manage their own roster additions.
3.6.7		Players will be eligible at any position where they have accumulated 20 games played (games not games started) the previous season or 10 games during the current season. 2020 Weirdness: For the 2021 Season, previous season games played thresholds are 8 games played at a defensive position, 2 GS for SP, and 3 games for RP.
		For instance Mark Derosa (2009), despite being a super utility player, only got 20 games in at 3B, so he will begin the year with only 3B, IF, and UTIL eligibility. Once he plays 10 games THIS season in LF, he will then have 3B, IF, LF, OF, UTIL eligibility.
3.6.8		Position eligibility can be found through going to a player page on ESPN, go to stats, and select fielding or by finding the player on your team or in free agent lists on Fantrax.
3.6.9		For players on their first callup, with no minimums met the previous year, or any other case where eligibility is called into question we will default to what Fantrax has assigned.
		Major League Scoring
3.7.1		We will use Rotisserie scoring consisting of the following categories
		Hitting:
		AVG
		OBP
		RBI
		HR
		R
		SB
		Pitching:
		ERA
		WHIP
		K
		W
		SV
		HD
		Major League Trading
3.8.1		Trading will take place in two phases, In-season and off-season.
3.8.1.1		In-season trading is allowed from the start of the season until 11pm CST on July 31st.
3.8.1.1.1		Trades must be offered and accepted via ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19].
3.8.1.1.2		Minor league players may be a part of this trade but will not show up on ESPN, therefor a post on the ESPN message board must accompany an accepted trade stating the exact details of the trade. [edited 11/19]
3.8.1.1.3		At this point a trade will enter the review process. A trade will be in review for 48 hours.
3.8.1.1.4		At this time a team declaring the trade unfair or obscenely unbalanced may cast a veto vote via ESPN Fantrax [edited 11/19].
3.8.1.1.5		If 8 teams veto a trade the trade will be void.
3.8.1.2		Off-season trading will be allowed from December 1 January 7th Change starting in 2021 until the start of the next season.
3.8.1.2.1		Off-season trades must be posted on the ProBoards site in their entirety.
3.8.1.2.2		Along with the trade a poll must be added with the options Allow and Veto. (If you do not know how to do this don't worry, just set up your trade and a commissioner will add the poll).
3.8.1.2.3		If the Veto reaches 8 before the 48 hour review process is up the trade is void.
3.8.1.3		Teams may trade both major and minor league players and their contracts.
3.8.1.4		At no time may teams trade money or diminished contracts.
3.8.1.5		At no time may either team exceed their major league salary cap, minor league salary cap, or major league contract years limit.
3.8.1.6		All trades must be logged in team's transaction log.
		Minor League Draft
3.9.1		AMENDMENT I: The minor league draft will be a snake draft. Beginning with the 2013 draft we will switch to a straight draft
3.9.2		The order will be the reverse of the standings from the previous season.
3.9.3		Draft begins annually on February 15.
3.9.4		A minor leaguer is any player with less than 120AB, 10 GS(sp), or 25 IP(rp)
3.9.5		The minors draft will be held on a thread on the Proboards site.
3.9.5.1		Below is an example of formatting how minor league draft picks should be made.
		Year one minor league draft:
		Round one - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player J, 5 Years, $0.5
		Round two - pick 14: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 5 Years, $0.5
		Round three - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 5 Years, $0.5
		Round four - pick 14: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 5 Years, $0.5
		Round five - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 4 Years, $0.4
		Round six - pick 14: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 4 Years, $0.4
		Round seven - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 3 Years, $0.3
		Round eight - pick 14: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 3 Years, $0.3
		Round nine - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 3 Years, $0.3
		Round ten - pick 14: It's Turbo Time Somewhere selects Player d, 3 Years, $0.3
		Round eleven - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere PASSES
		Round twelve - pick 14: It's Turbo Time Somewhere PASSES
		Round thirteen - pick 3: It's Turbo Time Somewhere PASSES
		Minor League Contracts
3.10.1		Minors contracts are set when a player is drafted using the following matrix
		3 years $0.3
		4 years $0.4
		5 years $0.5
3.10.2		Minors contract years go into motion the first season after the player passes the minimum service time. UNLESS AMENDMENT II APPLIES (beginning with the 2012 season)
3.10.2.1		Amendment II: If a player who has not passed the minor league threshold (120 AB, 10 GS, or 25 Relief IP) prior to the current season is called up before September 1, the years on the players contract becomes active, losing a year for each of the following off-seasons.
3.10.3		Teams may roster as many minors players as will fit within the $4 million salary cap (mathematically 13 is the maximum).
3.10.3.1		Using the signing matrix and the $4 salary cap for minors players there are many ways your can structure your farm system:
		Ex 1: 10 minors players with various contract lengths.
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		4yrs = $0.4
		4yrs = $0.4
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		total = $4.0
		Ex 2: Sign everyone one to short contracts, getting the maximum number of minor leaguers (13), but have limited control of each player once they pass the threshold.
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		3yrs = $0.3
		total = $3.9
		Ex 3: Sign everyone one to long contracts, getting the minimum number of minor leaguer (8), but have maximum control of each player once they pass the threshold.
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		5yrs = $0.5
		total = $4.0
		These are just three examples of how contracts can be structured, it is up to each manager how they want to handle it. Each team will end up with 8-13 minor leaguers
3.10.4		Minor League Rosters
3.10.4.1		Due to separate salary caps, minor league rosters may only contain players drafted by team in minor league snake draft.
3.10.4.2		No in-season acquisitions may be added to fantasy teams minor league roster.
3.10.4.3		The only exception to this rule is when minor league players taken in the minor league snake draft are acquired via trade with another team. This player then may be added to team minor league roster.
3.10.4.4		Minor league players may be dropped at anytime with no penalty.
3.10.4.5		Minor league players may be promoted and sent back to the minors as much as the owner desires until the season in which they pass the minor league threshold (120AB, 10 GS(SP), or 25 IP(RP)) is complete.
		Example: Ronald Acuna passed 120AB in the 2018 season. During the 2018 season he could be promoted before September 1 and would lose 1 year off his contract. At any time after the promotion Acuna could be sent back to the minors by the owner until the deadline for promoting minor leaguers (December 1) after the 2018 season.