Official
Constitution of the Continental Baseball Mail League
Updated 04
April 2009
Preamble
I. The
official name of the league is Continental Baseball Mail League (CBML)
II. The official game of the CBML is the current computer version of
Strat-O-Matic.
III. League dues shall be set at $25.00 per team.
IV. The CBML shall consist of two leagues, the American and the
National. The
NL shall consist of the Hodges and Rickey Divisions; the AL shall
consist of
the Mack and Veeck Divisions.
V. The season shall consist of 162 games. Teams will play 18 games
against
divisional opponents and 6 games against non-divisional opponents.
VI. Changes to the Constitution will be by majority vote of the owners.
Proposed changes will be discussed and voted on during the season
utilizing
e-mail and the message board function of the CBML web page. The
Commissioner
will notify league members of the proposed changes and set a date for
voting.
VII. In situations not covered by the Constitution or the Rules of
Strat-O-Matic,
the Commissioner has the right to resolve problems at his discretion.
Draft Rules
I. An
annual draft of unclaimed players will be held before the start of each
season
at a time and place to be determined by the league members.
II. All teams must have coverage with rated players at each position
for 162
games.
III. Players must have seen action in a minimum of 1 Major League game
to be
eligible for the draft.
IV. Draft order will be in reverse
order from the finish of the prior season. Ties shall be broken using
the
following criteria:
1. Record in head to head competition.
2. Record within division (if teams are in same division)
3. Record within league (if teams are in the same league, NL or AL)
4. Record against teams in the divisions those tied teams are not in.
5. Road record.
6. Coin flip.
V. Draft choices may be traded under the following conditions.
1. Draft choices for the upcoming draft may be traded at any time.
2. Draft choices for the following years draft may be traded after
January 1 of
the year prior to the year of the pick (i.e. a 2001 pick can't be
traded until
1-1-2000)
VI. Players may be traded at any time, under the following conditions:
1. Players traded prior to April 1st are eligible for use by their new
team at
the start of the season.
2. Players traded during April through August will become eligible for
their
new teams with the release of the new league file for the following
month. Example: A player traded in April
will
become eligible for his new team with the release of the May league
file.
3. Players traded after August 31st shall be ineligible for their new
teams
until the following season.
VII.
During any time at which the league has a dual team owner, the
following shall
apply:
1. Dual team owners may not make deals directly between their 2
respective
teams.
2. If an owner who runs 2 teams deals a specific player, that owner may
not
make any deals to acquire the player(s) for his 2nd team until the
following
season.
VIII.
The Commissioner may veto any trade that is
considered not in the best interest of the league.
Rosters
I. During
the course of the regular season, a team may carry an unlimited
number of players with a minimum of 10 pitchers on a roster.
II. For each specific series, including post season, a roster will
consist of
25 players with a minimum 9 pitchers. It is recommended a roster
contain at
least one backup at every position. Players must stay on the roster the
duration of the specific series.
III. Rosters must be reduced to 30 and will be frozen on November 1st
of each
year. 30 man rosters must be submitted to the Commissioner by November
15th at
which time he will compile and issue them to league members. The roster
freeze
will be lifted on December 1st allowing trades to resume.
Instructions/Stats/Penalties
I. Within
10 days of receipt of the updated game files from the league
statistician; the
visiting team must send a computer manager to all scheduled opponents.
Included
in the accompanying message should be the starting pitching rotation
and an
indication that Super HAL is to be used or not used.
II. If an owner fails to receive a computer manager from an opponent
within the
10-day period, he should notify the Commissioner AND the opponent via
telephone
or e-mail. A 5-day courtesy will then be extended to the owner to allow
for the
computer manager to be sent. If nothing is received after 5 days, the
owner
must notify the Commissioner and may then play the series using either
League
Contingency rules (penalties assessed) or Owner Contingency rules (no
penalties
assessed), provided an Owner Contingency CM is on file with the
commissioner.
(See item 7 under Playing Rules)
III. Upon completion of a series, the home team shall notify the
Commissioner
of the series results and send series stats for both teams to the
league
statistician. A copy of box scores along with the game files for both
teams
must also be sent to the visiting team's owner. The deadline for
reporting
stats is the 1st day of the month following the month in
which the
series was played.
IV. Failure to send instructions (Owners contingency rules are
considered
timely, League contingency rules are not), report results or send stats
in a
timely fashion (based on the above stated deadlines) will result in the
following
penalty: A team assessed a penalty will drop one spot in the draft
order per
round per violation. Example: team assessed 3 penalties will drop 3
spots in
the draft order for 3 rounds. (This only applies to picks owned by the
team
being penalized. If a pick has been traded it will not fall under that
penalty)
Playing Rules
I. The
following settings, under “Rules”, are to be used in the CBML:
Main Rules:
Maximum Level
Stealing: Super Advanced Steal
System
Miscellaneous: Use Miscellaneous rules
Injuries: Do not use injuries
Groundball
A: Allow GBA on pitcher cards
BP/Weather/Clutch: Ballpark Effects should be
checked.
Strategy: Super advanced strategy
charts
Closer: Use closer rules
Pitcher fatigue: Use SADV Fatigue +
pitch count
II. The following settings, under “Lineups
and usage”, are to be used in the CBML.
Visiting
Team Lineup:
Primary
Home
Team Lineup:
Primary
Scheduled
Days Off: No scheduled days
off
Auto
Swap: No Autoswap
Minor-Leaguers: Minor Leaguers –
INELIGIBLE.
Overuse: Ignore
Use ‘Super Hal’ Bullpen
Use
‘Super Hal” Lineup Subs
III.
Starters may pitch once in a regular season series.
IV. Designated Hitter will be used in all games.
V. Injury rule is not used.
VI. Fielders may not play at an un-rated position. When sending
instructions
all necessary precautions should be taken to avoid such a situation.
VII. There are two types of contingency rules established as follows:
1. Owner's Contingency
Rules: Owners may make up a set of lineups and instructions or CM and
forward
them to the Commissioner. These instructions will be used if an owner
has not
received instructions after the 5-day grace period (Item II under
Stats/Instructions/Penalties). These instructions will also be posted
on the
web page and shall not be considered as late when assessing penalties.
2. League Contingency Rules: If no instructions are received by the
5-day grace
period and no Owners Contingency Rules are on file with the
Commissioner, the
following shall be used. These instructions shall be considered
"late" and subject to penalty.
a. Use players with most AB at each position.
b. Use starters with most starts and remove at pitch count.
c. Use relievers with most innings and remove at pitch count.
d. Do not substitute batters or fielders.
e. No stealing, bunting or hit and run. Do not take extra base, throw
for
runners or move defense. Hold all * runners at 1st.
VIII. Prior to the first game of each series,
both teams should be given 15 days rest. Teams
should not be rested before any other games, except
in a five game
series when the teams should also be rested before game 5.
Player Usage
I. All batters will be
limited by 105% of the number of plate appearances (PA).
For this league, plate appearances will
follow the MLB definition of PA (AB+BB+SH+SF+HPB).
II. Pitchers will be divided into two categories: Starters and
Relievers. Starters may make up to
the
number of major league starts with no restriction on innings pitched.
Relief
pitchers will have no limit on number of appearances but will be
limited to 105% of the number of
major league innings pitched.
If
those with both starter and relief
ratings only start in the CBML there is no limit on innings. If they
start AND
relieve in the CBML they will be limited to major league starts AND to
105% of
the number of major league innings pitched.
III. When determining eligibility all fractional numbers will be
rounded up to
the next whole number.
Overuse Penalties
I.
FOR BATTERS EXCEEDING 105%
USAGE:
1-10
PA's over the limit drop one draft spot in the 4th round.
11-20
PA's over the limit drop one draft spot in 3rd round
21-30
PA's over the limit - drop one draft spot in 2nd round
31
or more PA's over the limit - drop one draft spot in 1st round
In
addition, this should be repeated for each player affected within the
lineup. Thus, if 2 players have 31
extra PA's, you would move down 2 spots in the first round.
II.
PITCHERS
Starting Pitchers:
1-2
starts over the limit - Team will drop one draft position in the first
round.
3-4
starts over the limit - Team will drop one draft position in the first
and
second rounds
5
plus starts over the limit - Team will drop one draft position in the
first,
second and third rounds
For each additional pitcher exceeding his
limit on starts, will result in a second drop for each round penalized. Since it is easy to control the number
of starts for a pitcher, the penalty is more severe than for batters
and relief
pitchers.
Relief pitchers exceeding the 105%
limit, the following
penalties will apply:
0-10 innings over the limit - Team will drop one spot in
the first round
11-20 innings over the limit - Team drops one spot in
first and second
rounds
21 or
more innings over - Team will drop one draft position in the
first, second and third rounds
In
addition, this should be repeated for each player affected within the
bullpen.
Thus, if 2 players have 0-10 extra innings you would move down 2 spots
in the
first round.
Pitchers who start and
relieve -
Pitchers who both start and relieve will be subject to the penalties
for
starters and relievers.
III.
In
addition to the above penalties, any player overused will
automatically be ineligible for post season play. Should
a player be overused and play in the post season
before the overusage is discovered, said player will be ineligible for
any
additional post season play and may not be cut or traded.
IV. In
the event that an owner does not have a pick in the round for which he
is to be
penalized, the penalty will take place the following year.
In addition, if an owner has overused a
player and still has the pick for his penalty round, that pick cannot
be
traded. If an owner has overused a
player and has traded that pick prior to the discovery of the overuse,
his pick
for that round in the next draft cannot be traded.
I.e. A team is penalized its 3rd round pick for the 2006
draft, but has already traded that pick, he may not trade his pick for
the 2007
draft. In the event that a team is
penalized and the owner drops out of the league, it will be the
commissioners
discretion to drop the penalty and restore the draft position for the
new owner.
V. In the event
it can be demonstrated that overuse of a player is due to HAL or an
opponents failure
to follow instructions or anything other than the negligence of the
owner, that
evidence may be submitted to the commissioner for review on a case by
case
basis and the penalty absolved at the commissioners discretion.
Post
Season Play
I. At the end of the regular season, the
four division
winners will make the playoffs. In addition, the teams in each league
with the
next best record make the playoffs as wild card. All playoff series are
best
of 7.
II. The wild card team in each league will play the division winner
with the
worse record in their respective league, the division winner getting
home field
regardless of record. In all other series home field advantage will be
determined by record. Teams with home field will host games 1,2,6 and 7.
III. Teams should be given the
15-day rest before the first, third and sixth games of the series. This is to allow for the normal day’s
rest when the series changes stadiums.
IV. All
playoff games will be played either
face-to-face or using NetPlay. Should
there be a technical problem using NetPlay, the
commissioner
should be contacted to see how the problem should be resolved. Technical problems shall mean computer
or ISP problems, not reluctance by one team to use it.
V. Ties for playoff matchups and seeds
will be settled
using the same criteria set up for draft order ties.
VI. When setting post season rosters, playoff eligibility will be
determined as
follows:
1. Regular position players must have a minimum of 250 major league
plate
appearances to be eligible to start unlimited post-season games. Those
position
player with less that 250 plate appearances, but at least 100 plate
appearances
will be considered role players and may be placed on the playoff roster
with a
limit of no more thant 14 PA’s in each series.
2. Starting pitching will use
a minimum
3-man rotation
during a post-season series. A pitcher with 1-9 major league starts may
start 1
game per series, 10-19 starts makes you eligible for 2 starts per
series, 20 +
starts are eligible for 3 starts per series.
3. Relief pitchers must have a minimum of 10 major league innings to
qualify
for post-season rosters. All relief pitchers may pitch 10 innings
maximum per
series. A pitcher eligible to start and relieve during the regular
season may
also do so in post season. If however he is used in BOTH capacities
during any
given series, he will be limited to the 10 total innings established
for relief
pitchers.
Commissioner’s
Responsibilities
The
commissioner will be responsible for enforcing all league rules.
In addition, the commissioner is
responsible for seeing that someone is assigned the duties of setting
up the
league, keeping league stats, playing the league all-star game, the
league web
site and the league encyclopedia. Should
the commissioner fail to communicate with league on a
regular basis, or otherwise fail to fulfill his assigned duties, he can
be
removed by a majority vote of those present at the annual draft.
In any problem not covered by the
constitution arises, it is the commissioner’s duty to resolve the
problem as he
deems appropriate.
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