I. INTRODUCTION

The Rocky Mountain Salary League was formed in 2004 by Kevin Cain and Jerry Whitson and will be know as RMSL This will be a modern day salary league and will use AIM, and MBF for the league.

II. LEAGUE STRUCTURE

2.1-The league is composed of 2 Leagues Bartlett Giamatti League and Judge Mountain Landis League

2.2-The league is composed of 4 Divisions, Mickey Mantle Division, Reggie Jackson Division, Jimmie Foxx Division, and Johnny Bench Division

2.3-This is a full aim league with injuries and fatigue used in this league with AIM and MBF

2.4-Bartlett Giamatti League will be DH and Judge Mountain Landis will be Non DH leagues

2.5-The winners of each division will make the playoffs

2.6- The teams with the best 2 records in each league that doesn't win their division will make the playoffs as a “Wild Card” team.

2.7- In the event of a tie a ONE GAME playoff will determine the division winners. Wild card team that are tied will use Head to Head Record, Division Wins, Run Scored and if then still tied a coin toss.

2.8-Playoff series will be 2-3-2 series

2.9-The wild card teams will play the Division winner, best record for division winners plays the wild card team with the worst record in the same league, and the other division winner gets the other wild card team.

2.10-All players will be reset for the start of playoffs, any injury or fatigue that happen during the playoffs will stand.

2.11-Any games may be played live via Netmeeting or pcAnywhere

2.12-There will be no free agents picked up during the season

2.13-There will be no home park effects in RMSL

2.14-All owners are required to have MSN Messenger and Netmeetings on their computer.

2.15-All owners will be required to vote in all league polls at the Winter Meeting, if they aren't excused from a poll there will be a 25,000 fine place against their team for new rules and run offs If the poll is for a rule change and they don't vote it will then cost them 50,000. This fine will be taken out of their slush fund and if they don't have it there, it will be taken from their cap money.

2.16-All fines are due at the time they are received, if a team has the money they must pay it at that time. But if a team doesn't have the money to pay the fine they will be given up to the end of the season to come up with the money they owe to the league. They will also be made to pay double of what they owe the league when the new cap money is given to all teams. If a team doesn't have money open in the cap money and no cash in the slush fund the league will collect what is due when ever this team has money of any kind.




III LEAGUE REQUIREMENT


3.1-LEAGUE SIZE The league will be limited to 20 teams

3.2-FEES There are NO league fees.

3.3-OWNER REQUIREMENTS Franchise owners must have the following: BBW 4.0 or Higher BBW and buy APBA Season Data Disk

3.4-Franchise City Each franchise will select a name for their team

3.5-Stadiums will be set to Dome to cut out most rain outs

3.6-At the time the team is taken over, new managers to the league are allowed to drop unconditionally one player under contract. The player is dropped without any financial penalty. This is allowed so that a new manager is not unfairly hindered by many bad contracts from a previous manager. The dropped player will then enter the market as a free agent.

3.7 A new owner may terminate one contract with no financial penalties. The player will enter the Free Agent pool, eligible to be signed in the annual Free Agent Auction. The new owner may bid on the player, but he may not bid less than 75% of the terminated contract

IV. BEGINNING THE SEASON

4.1-The season will start at a time determined by the commissioner (generally between mid-March and April 1st.) The season will run for approximately 6 months. Prior to the season, all managers will send a roster file with lineups and rotations to the commissioner.

4.2-Each manager will have the opportunity to make changes to his active roster, rotation, and lineups before each series.

4.3-APBA Baseball for Windows (BBW) Version 5.0 (or 4.0) will be the program used by the RMSL. All mangers must have a copy of this program and League Manager, Advanced draft and Statmaster to participate in the RMSL

4.4-The commissioner will provide the initial Organization Disk prior to the season. Please do not set up your own organization disk.

4.5-All new rules will be voted in before the draft at our Winter Meeting, 51% of the owners will enact a new rule to the league constitution

4.6-All rule changes will take 3/4 of the owners to change, and will be voted in before the draft at the winter meeting..

V. PLAYING THE SEASON

5.1-The RMSL series will be 3 or 4 games in length vs. one opponent

5.2-Games will be played in a 3 day period.

5.3-Franchise files with game results will be due to the commissioner by 8 PM central time zone on the third day.

5.4-The commissioner will send results file out

5.5-Any manager desiring to make changes to his active roster, rotation or lineups can submit a new default file with in 24 hours, by 8 PM central time
.
5.6-The commissioner will send a new games file out within 24 hours after the results file are due in the commissioner's office.

5.7-Any trades that are made during a week must be reported to the commissioner by both teams before the commissioner file is sent out in order to use the players in that week’s games, and then the commissioner will approve or disapprove all trades.

5.8-All teams will send results to the commissioner via RMSL Group

5.9-All C-files and F-files will be sent via RMSL Egroup

5.10-Any team that doesn't put a micro-manager in for his team, the home team will use Felipe Hernandez as the default manager for the visiting team.

5.11-Rain Outs the commissioner will reschedule the game if needed.

5.12-Playoffs series will be played live. Set up date and time for the playoff series. If there is a problem, the commissioner will be notified and he will determined what will be done to solve the problem.

5.13-Scripts will be sent if requested by owner or the commissioners office.

5.14-If owner wants a copy of the scripts he is to notify the owner he is playing and the commissioners office.

5.15-Owners that don't get files in on time and don't will have the penalties
         3 missed results = $1,000,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's
         5 missed results = $2,000,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's
         7 missed results = $2,000,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll and your 1st round pick becomes the last of the round. (In the event such pick is not owned by an offending owner, the pick must be reacquired or a $4,000,000 fine will be assessed.)
         9 missed results= $2,000,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll. and all your picks will be moved to the end of the rounds. (This would apply to all picks owned at the time of the offense or any of your teams original picks not owned at time of offense but later reacquired.)
         10 missed results=EXPULSION from the league.

5.16-If picks are lost and a new owner takes over the team, the picks will be restored

5.17-If money is lost and a new owner takes over the team, the money will be restored.

VI. ROSTER RULE

6.1-Team rosters will be unlimited, including up to six (6) prospects. The big league roster will be 26 men and the balance on the farm team.
6.1.A roster size to 60 and to grandfather it in over 4 years. those numbers would be unlimited in 2007, 2008 you would have to get down to 70, 2009 down to 65 and then in 2010 all teams would have to be down to 60


6.2-Prospects are defined as minor league players, amateur players, or uncarded major league players. PROSPECT players are those who are not carded and have never been carded. If a player is ever carded he will never be known again as a prospect in RMSL.

6.3-Teams must have a minimal of 30 players on a roster at all times. You must make sure you have players to back all positions to make the 160 game season.

6.4-Teams are to have 4 starting pitchers on their big league team at all times that can be used. split grade pitchers are considered to be starting pitchers for this rule.

VII. ROSTER CLARIFICATIONS

7.1-As used in this league “Carded” means “played in the major leagues” APBA currently rates ALL players who appeared in the majors and all players appear on the data disk

7.2-Uncarded and PROSPECT players CANNOT appear in an RMSL league game.

7.3 During the final month of the season, a max of 40 carded players will be allowed on your big league team. Commissioner will notify the league of the date that this will take place.

7.4-Teams will carry on their rosters a max of 26 players on the Big League Team.

7.5-Teams roster for the playoffs will be 26 man roster. You will not be able to move men up or down unless their is an injury to a player, that will put him out for the rest of the playoff season. If that happens then you can bring up a player between series, but that player must be able to play the position of the player that he is replacing.

VIII. TRADING

8.1-Trading is open all year. However, in season trades must be completed by the end of 4 months of play to take effect for the rest of that season. The commissioner will announce the specific date for each season. Any trades made after that date will not take effect until the off-season

8.2-Trades made IN SEASON must adhere to salary cap.

8.3-Trades made in the OFF SEASON do have to adhere to salary cap. A team may not acquire more $100,000,000 in the off season prior to the start of the season all teams must not be over the $100,000,000 salary cap at start of the season. Commissioner will call for roster at some point.

8.4-IMPORTANT NOTE: Managers must be careful when trading for PROSPECTS. Teams may never have more than 6 prospects. If it is determined by the commissioner that the number of PROSPECTS the manager has who will not receive cards is six (6), then any trade involving an seventh PROSPECT will be voided

8.5-Draft picks may only be traded for the immediate upcoming pre-season draft. Trading of future draft picks (two or more years away) is not allowed. The conclusion of the pre-season draft marks the time that next year’s draft picks can be traded.

8.6-Cash may be used in a trade as well as one owner eating part of a players salary.

8.7-Trades are deemed complete when both managers notify the commissioner. Each owner is to send to the commissioner , via email, what the deal is and that they confirm this deal. Once that is done and I see that both owners have confirmed the same deal I will then announce the trade to the league.

8.8-Owners must confirm deal with 48 hours, the owner that sent me the trade may pull the trade off the table if other owner doesn't confirm in 48 hours.

8.9- A team may agrees to eat any part of a players contract he is not required to eat it each season for the duration of the contract. If that players is traded to another team the first team must still pay the portion he agreed to pay to the team which now owns the player. If an owner decides to buy out one of these contracts, the original owner is not required to pay any part of the buyout, and his obligation is complete.

 

IX. SALARIES & CONTRACTS

9.1-Each teams receives $100,000,000 per year for team operation

9.2-Managers are limited to a budget of $100,000,000 for players contracts extending beyond the current season.

9.3-Between seasons, managers may occasionally find themselves with salaries that temporarily exceed their available funds due to trading. This is acceptable. However, managers are NOT allowed to submit bids on players or draft players that would put them over the $100,000,000 barrier. When the final roster is turned in just prior to the season each manager MUST have the available funds to meet payroll. Managers are cautioned not to put themselves in a position where they must have a "fire sale" to raise needed funds.

9.4-When final rosters are turned in just prior to each season, some teams will find that they have some remaining funds available. Teams may carry forward any amount up to a maximum of $10,000,000 to the next year. It is therefore possible for a team to begin the next year with $110,000,000. Any funds remaining over $110,000,000 are lost.

9.5-Contracts are of duration from 1 to 7 years. The manager sets the length at the time the player is signed and cannot be changed, even if traded.

9.6-The minimum salary for players is $150,000 per year.

9.7-Any player whose annual salary is $630,000 or less is only allowed to be placed under a one, two, or three year contract. At the end of the contract, normal contract rules apply (see paragraphs 9.8 and 9.9 of this section below).

9.8-All contracts are guaranteed. A contract CAN be bought out by paying one half of the contract's remaining value. For example, if there are 4 years remaining on a contract with an annual salary of $500,000, then the contract can be bought out for $1,000,000 payable out of current funds. Managers indicate that they will buy out a contract upon submission of their final roster at the beginning of the season. Any player bought out is also cut from the roster.

9.9-When a manager has a player at the end of a multi-year contract (defined as any contract whose original length was from 2 to 7 years), a decision must be made as to what to do with the player. This decision is due to the commissioner within two weeks from the end of the regular season. The decision options are as follows:

9.10-Extend the contract for ONE year by doubling the previous contract's annual salary or offering $600,000, whichever is higher. If, for example, the player had an annual salary of $750,000, the contract can be extended for one additional year for $1,500,000. At the end of that year, the player is considered to still have been under a multi-year contract, and the manager again makes a decision, as described in this section, as to what to do with the player. The player in this example could then be kept for another year at a doubled salary of $3,000,000, and so on.

9.11-Allow the player to become a matchable free agent. Bids are taken from any other interested managers. The highest bid (defined elsewhere) is then reported back to the manager who currently owns the player. This owner has the option to let the player go to the opposing manager for the bid price and duration, or to keep the player at the term and annual salary bid by the other high bidding manager. If no other manager is willing to bid an amount higher than 75% of the player's previous annual salary, the original owner is required to retain the player at 75% of the old salary and at a length that is left up to the owning manager. If a player is offered as a matchable free agent, the player cannot be retained by his previous manager for less than 75% of his previous salary. Therefore, if you let the player become a matchable free agent and no one else bids on the player, you are required to keep him at this 75% previous salary level.

9.12-Release the player into the free agent draft. No further obligations or ownership rights would exist. You could still bid on the player along with the rest of the league but you would not have the option to match other offers.

9.13-When bidding on a player, the highest bid will win. A bid is equal to the total contract value which is the number of years being offered times the annual salary. Thus, $1,000,000 annually over 5 years ($5,000,000) would beat $2,000,000 annually over 2 years ($4,000,000).

9.14.1 For the formation of our teams, contracts for 7, 6, and 5 years will be limited to 5 for each. If you don't use all of your contracts in the 7 and 6 year limits you may convert them for a lesser length. Example if you used 3 of your 7 year contracts you could convert 2 of those to either 6 or 5 years contracts. This rule is to cover the formation of our teams during the bidding of players to form the league.

9.14-Because the Rookie Draft is not done by the bid system, the players drafted in it will have their salary set depending on where they are selected in the draft. Salaries are set as follows:

9.14.1- Players drafted in the first round: Annual Salary = $1,400,000 for the first player taken in the round, decreasing $20,000 per pick, down to $1020,000 for the 20th pick.

9.14.2- Players drafted in the second round: Annual Salary = $1,000,000 for the first pick in the round, decreasing $20,000 per pick down to $620,000 for the 40th pick

9.14.3- Players drafted in the third round: Annual Salary = $600,000 for the first pick in the round, decreasing $10,000 per pick down to $410,000 for the 60th pick

9.14.4- Players drafted in the fourth round: Annual Salary = $350,000

9.14.5- Players drafted in the fifth round or later: Annual Salary = $150,000

9.15-The maximum length of contract ANY player in the rookie draft can be offered is three years.

9.16-Waiver Draft: After final rosters have been submitted, any team with funds remaining from their original $100,000,000 can select players in the waiver draft. Any unowned player, such as players not taken in the draft or players whose contracts were bought out, is eligible in the waiver draft. He may be signed for up to two years. A team may not draft a player that he has cut during that same off season unless all other teams have had opportunity to draft the player. (In other words, the player may only be re-selected by his "cutting" team in the second round or later of the waiver draft). Draft order is the same order as the rookie draft. The draft will last three rounds, with each team allowed one pick per round.

9.17-If a player retires from MLB or dies then the team that owns that player is release from any contract that is remaining on that player.

9.17.1 Any player that is on a MLB team or in the minor league system is considered to be a MLB player and you must pay him in RMSL. If a player is not on any of these teams and is playing in another country, such as Japan they are not considered NOT to be in MLB and you aren't required to pay that player anymore if you want to give up all rights to him. If you want to retain the rights to a player that is out of MLB then you must still pay him his salary to retain all rights to him.

9.18 All teams monthly during the season and in the off season they will be paid from November threw April 1st on the 1st of April or start of the season.

X. PRE-SEASON DRAFT

10.1-The pre-season draft will be at a time determined by the commissioner

10.2-The draft will be via email and each owner will be given up to 24 hours to make their pick. The clock may need to be adjust and will be left to the commissioner.

10.3-1st miss they are put on a 12 hour clock and they make their pick up with their next pick
2nd miss they are put on a 6 hour clock and they can make up their pick when their turn comes up again
3rd miss, you then must submit a list to me and I will make your pick when it comes up

10.4-The draft will consist of:
   10.4.1-In reverse order of finish from the previous RMSL season
   10.4.2-The 8 playoff teams will draft 13-20, regardless of record
   10.4.3-The 2 LCS losers will draft 17 and 18
   10.4.4-The World Series Loser will draft 19
   10.4.5-The RMSL League Champion will draft 20

10.5-The order for ties will be determined by the season win/lost record, if tied then we will go to head to head games, if still tied we will use division record, and if still tied we will use runs scored in the season and if still tied the commissioner will flip a coin.

10-6-All players (professional or amateur) not currently on RMSL rosters will be eligible for drafting

10.7-The draft will be 8 rounds

XI. WAIVERS

11.1-All released players, as well as all carded players not drafted in Rookie Draft will be available for the waiver process

11.2-The order of selection of players is the same as Round 1 of the Rookie Draft.

11.3-There will be 3 rounds in the waiver draft.

11.4-This draft will be via email and each owner will have 24 hours to notify the commissioner on their pick, if no pick is made in that period, that pick will be lost and we move on to the next owner.

11.5-Waiver Draft: After final rosters have been submitted, any team with funds remaining from their original $100,000,000 can select players in the waiver draft. Any unowned player, such as players not taken in the draft or players whose contracts were bought out, is eligible in the waiver draft. He may be signed for up to two years. A team may not draft a player that he has cut during that same off season unless all other teams have had opportunity to draft the player. (In other words, the player may only be re-selected by his "cutting" team in the second round or later of the waiver draft). Draft order is the same order as the rookie draft. The draft will last three rounds, with each team allowed one pick per round.

11.6-Wavier Drafted players are given a salary of $150,000 and a 1 year contract.
11.7-If given a 1 year contract they must be release at the end of that season.

11.8-If given a 2 year contract they fall into multi-year contracts and have the same rights as any other player with a multi-year contract

XII. PLAYER MINIMUMS AND AIM

12.1-The RMSL uses full Advanced Injury Management (AIM) and (MBF)

 12.2-Players will be allowed to attempt 150% of their total steal attempts for the season, if a player goes over his allowed limit his STEAL RATING will be changed TO N-0
 12.2.1-First violation $250,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll.
 12.2.2-Second violation $500,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll.
 12.2.3-Third violation $500,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll and your 1st round pick becomes the last of the round. (In the event such pick is not owned by an offending owner, the pick must be reacquired or 1st round pick acquired or a $2,500,000 fine will be assessed.)
 12.2.4-Fourth violation $750,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll and all your picks will be moved to the end of the rounds. (This would apply to all picks owned at the time of the offense or any of your teams original picks not owned at time of offense but later reacquired.)
 12.2.5-Fifth violation $1,250,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll and all your picks will be moved to the end of the rounds. (This would apply to all picks owned at the time of the offense or any of your teams original picks not owned at time of offense but later reacquired.)
 12.2.6-Sixth violation $1,500,000 fine and if you don't have the cash, it will come off next year's payroll and all your picks will be moved to the end of the rounds. (This would apply to all picks owned at the time of the offense or any of your teams original picks not owned at time of offense but later reacquired.)

 12.3-If a micromanager goes over the limit there is no penalty. There is only a penalty if an owner playing with his team attempts more steals than allowed.

 12.4-If an owner quits the league and a new owner takes over he is given back all moneys and picks the former owner may have lost.

  12.5-All injuries incurred during RMSL playoffs will count.

12.6-Injuries WILL NOT carry over into the playoffs.

12.7-We will allow the 930 rule in RMSL

XIII. PLAYER RESTRICTIONS

13.1-AIM takes care of virtually all of our player restrictions. As long as a player is not injured you can keep using him, even if it is more than he was used in real life.

13.2-STEALING covered by rule 12.2 above

13.3-No Free Agents allowed to pickup during the season.

XIV. COMMISSIONER’S ROLE

14.1-The commissioner’s role is to best serve the interests of the RMSL

14.2-The commissioner has the right to appoint his Vice Commissioner

14.3-The commissioner shall have the authority to mediate disputes on organizational issues or between managers and make final decisions when all sides of an issue have been presented and are still unresolved.

14.4-The commissioner shall have the authority to assess penalties and or dismiss managers for habitually late stats or league correspondence, (this includes email to other owners), or other conduct detrimental to the RMSL. This specifically includes collusion or cheating of any type.

14.5-The commissioner, above all, shall strive to be accessible to league members and help promote communication and understanding among the members of the RMSL

14.6-If the commissioner ruling is taken to the board for review, he will send a report to the board members within 48 hours stating why the ruling was made in that manner.

XV. VICE COMMISSIONER’S ROLE

15.1-To help the commissioner and handle the Salaries and Contracts for players for the league.

15.2-To appoint a 5 man review board for the league he will not sit on this board.

15.3-The board will have final say on all matter during the season once the commissioner has ruled on it and if a owner is not happy with the ruling he may take it to the review board.

15.4-If any board member/members is part of a dispute between the commissioner and himself, he/they will not be allowed to sit for that review.

XVI. REVIEW BOARD MEMBERS

16.1-There will be 5 owner's appointed by the Vice Commissioner, will hold their seat as long as they want and they are a owner in RMSL

16.2-They will review any complaint by an owner in RMSL any time during the year, once the commissioner has made his ruling on a matter for him or his team. Only the owner of the team or the owner a ruling was made against can take it to the board.

16.3-Any member/members of this board can only be replaced if a owner ask the commissioner to hold a league vote to remove that board member/members.

16.4-If a vote is held to remove a board member/members it will take 3/4 of the owner's to have him/them replaced.

16.5-All reviews held by this board will give there vote to the Vice Commissioner, and he will report the results to the league, but the Vice Commissioner will be the only person that will know how each board member voted.

16.6-In the case that the board is dead locked, the Commissioner ruling will stand.

16.7-All owners that want a ruling to be reviewed by the review board must notify the commissioner within 48 hours of his ruling or the matter is closed.