League Rules

[Guardians GM (Nate)]

HOFBL Rules

Overview
Welcome to Home Office Fantasy Baseball League (HOFBL). The goal of this league is to simulate the experience of a MLB GM. This league has 30 teams. Each team has a GM that is responsible for all aspects of the team. The league was created in 2024.

Rosters
40 Man Roster
Min - 19 Players
Max - 40

Minors
Max - 150 players

Starting Lineups (19)
1 - Cather
1 - First Baseman
1 - Second Baseman
1 - Short Stop
1 - Third Baseman
3 - Outfielders
1 - DH (Any Position)
5 - Starting Pitchers
5 - Relief Pitchers

Bench (up to 21)
You may have up to 21 players (between fielders and hitters).  This is to be used as MLB teams use their 40 man roster.  Keep in mind that if you need to promote a player from the minors that you choose to promote or if the player crosses the 130/50 threshold you must have room on your 40 man.  If you do not have room you must DFA or trade players to make room.

Lineups & Weekly Schedule
- HOFBL will use daily lineups.  This will mimic the daily lineup card for a MLB team.
- HOFBL will use weekly scheduling and each team will face multiple teams each week. 

Points Scoring
Game day scoring includes points for each player on each team's starting lineup.  The team with the highest amount of total points, wins.  Fantrax does not score illegal rosters so they will not be allowed. If a team has an illegal roster, the BO team will make it legal.  Un-owned teams or inactive GMs will have their lineups set by the BO . Any GM who will be unavailable during the season should make arrangements with a BO member to set his lineup.

Hitters
Plate Appearances (PA) = -0.4
Single (1B) = 1
Double (2B) = 2
Triple (3B) = 3
Home Run (HR) = 4
Hit By Pitches (HBP) = 1
Walks (BB) = 1
Strikeouts (SO) = -0.1
Runs Batted In (RBI) = 1
Runs Scored (R) = 1
Stolen Bases (SB) = 1.5
Caught Stealing (CS) = -0.5
Sacrifice Hits + Sacrifice Flies (SH+SF) = 0.4
Fielding Points (FPT) =
- Default = .01
- Center Field = 0.15

Pitchers
Earned Runs Allowed (ER) - Default
- From 1 to 4, award -3 points for every 1ER
- From 5 to 100, award -1 points for every 1ER
Earned Runs Allowed (ER) - Relief Pitcher
- From 0 to 1, award -3 points for every 1ER
- From 2 to 3, award -2 pints for every 1ER
- From 4 to 99 award -1 points for every 1ER
Innings Pitched (IP) - Default = 3
Innings Pitched (IP) - Relief Pitchers =
- From 0 to 1, award 1.333 points for every 0.33 IP
- From 1 to 9, award 1 points for every 0.33IP
Games Started (GS) = -2
Hit Batsmen (HB) = -0.5
Holds (HLD) = 1
Quality Starts (QS) = 2
Saves (S) = 2
Strikeouts Pitched (K) = 0.2
Walks Allowed (BB) = 0.5
Total Bases Allowed (TB) = -0.5
Relief Appearances (RA) - Default = -0.5
Inherited Runners Stranded (IRS) = 0.5

Salary Cap
The league salary cap is $220,000,000.  Team salary includes the total of all players under contract (Active Roster, Minor Leaguers and Injured Reserve), plus any salary cap hits for unclaimed released players, plus any outstanding (leading) free agent bids.  The salary cap will remain in effect year-round. This includes pre-season so be careful while you may be temporarily over the roster limits, you may never exceed the salary cap.  The BO Team maintains all salaries, contracts, minor league bonus' and cap hits on Fantrax. You are encouraged to keep your own backup roster (in your team forum or on a spreadsheet) but it is not required.

HOFBL contracts are guaranteed like in MLB.  You can release players but the team will be responsible for their total contract length and salary unless they are claimed by another team. If a released player is unclaimed, the players salary will be entered as a cap hit on Fantrax for the length of the contract.

Salary Structure
Veteran League Minimum Salary = $770,000

Pre-ARB and ARB Salary Structure:
Pre-ARB1 = $700,000
Pre-ARB2 = $725,000
Pre-ARB3 = $750,000
ARB1 = MLB salary (per Spotrac)
ARB2 = MLB salary (per Spotrac)
ARB3 = MLB salary (per Spotrac)
ARB4 = MLB salary (per Spotrac)  **ARB4 only applies to Super 2 players**

Free Agent Contracts = Min is 1 year and Max is 5 years

Free Agency
There will be two types of free agency, MLB free agency and International free agency. 

MLB Free Agency:  This will start in the offseason and continue through the season.  Teams will bid on players with their available cap space.  You may not exceed your cap space during biding or signing of a free agent player.  Free agency will continue through the regular season and pause after the regular season until the next offseason.

MLB Free Agent Bidding
HOFBL uses a total contract value system.  Total years and yearly salary will be combined in the bid.  The highest total contract will be the highest bid.  A high bid that stands for 24 hours wins the player.

Example:
Jose Ramirez - 4 years @ $25.0M = $100.0M

Contract values of $770K  through $1.5M are only eligible for 1 year deals.

In free agency players can be offered a minimum of 1 year and a max of 5 years. Minimum raise must be at least 10% of total contract value or $500,000 (whichever is greater).

**For the most part players that are under the 130/50 threshold cannot be bid on in free agency if they available in HOFBL.  However, if a player that is under threshold is promoted to a MLB teams 26 man roster and given a MLB contract, they are then eligible to be bid in MLB Free Agency.  This is also how some international players (Ohtani, Yamamoto, etc..) are eligible to be bid on as these players are given MLB contracts to come over from their leagues. **

International Free Agency:  Each team will have a budget of international funds that can be used to sign international free agents.  You may only use this pool of funds to sign international players who have signed in that years international free agency pool.  You may also trade your international free agency funds or acquire more from other teams. Each team will have $4.75 million in international funds each season.

International Free Agent Bidding
Qualified IFAs can be bid on.  Teams will bid from their pool of IFA funds.  You may not exceed your funds and you may only roll over up to $250,000 to the next year.  You may not use any of your MLB salary cap for bidding.

Starting bids for an IFA players is $10,000.  Minimum raise is $10,000 or 10% of current high bid, whichever is greater.  IFA is only bonus bidding, so there are no years in the bid equation (like MLB).

Team Extension
Each team will be allowed to have 1 Team Extension on their roster at a time. When assigned this player will also not be able to be traded for the duration of the contract.  When the team extension is assigned a player can be given a 3, 4 or 5 year extension.  The salary will be calculated as the average of the top 5 salaries (from the previous year) for their position.  This contract will be labelled with an EXT prefix and then the year it expires (Example: EXT25 - expiring after the 2025 season) in Fantrax.  This extension essentially allows a team to resign a player of your choice that will not go to free agency.  You will not be able to assign another Team Extension to a player until the current Team Extension expires.  You can also sign the same player to anther Team Extension if you chose. The first Team Extensions can be applied after the 2024 season to an expiring contract (2024 or ARB3).

Qualifying Offers
In the offseason each team may offer 1 Qualifying Offer to a player.  The BO and TRB will vote if the offer would be accepted or declined by the player.  If accepted the player will resign for one year at a contract amount of $19.0 million for the next season.  If the QO is declined the player will enter free agency and a 2nd round FYPD will be attached to the player.  If the player signs with another team the previous team will receive the new signed teams 2nd round pick.  In order to qualify for a Qualifying Offer, the player must have been on your team all year and not offered a QO previously.


Designate for Assignment (DFA)
When you designate a player for assignment, this is a move to free up a spot on the 40 man roster.  You must post the players full name, team, position, salary and contract in the post.  When DFA'd the player will be removed from your roster immediately to make room on the 40 man roster for other moves (FA signing, promotion, waiver claim or trade).  You will have 7 days to trade, submit the player to waivers, demote to minors or outright release the player (which will include a cap hit for remaining salary). 

If the player is placed on waivers and claimed the player and current contract will be acquired by the new team.  If the player clears waivers, the player can be demoted to the minors or released from your team.  If you choose to release a player, the team will have the release options below  to apply the cap hit.  As a reminder, all contracts (excluding Pre-Arb and Arb) are guaranteed beyond the current year, so even though a players is released, the team is still required to payout the remainder of the contract.

Waiver Priority
Claiming priority is based on reverse winning percentage. So, if a player is placed on outright waivers and claimed by more than one team, the team with the worse winning percentage gets priority. If two or more claiming clubs are tied with the lowest percentage of games won, the priority goes to the club with the lowest percentage of games won in the previous season

Offseason Priority
In the offseason through April 30th the waiver priority will be based upon the reverse order of the previous season's final standings. On May 1, the order will change to current season standings (in reverse of winning %).

Releasing a Player
If you choose to release a player, you will have two options to handle their guaranteed salary. 

Cap Hit -  You can select to continue to pay the players contract each year if the player has been dropped. The player will be dropped from your roster but his contract will be entered a cap hit on Fantrax for the remaining years of the contract. 

Buyout - You can select to buyout the contract and use your current years cap to payout the rest of the contract.  Meaning, if a player is making $5.0M for 3 years (including the current year), you can release the player, and pay $15M in the current year.  This will mean there are no existing cap penalties beyond the current year.  You must have salary cap room in the current year to use this option. 


Drafts

First Year Player Draft (FYPD)
HOFBL will have a 15 round FYPD draft.  You may trade current and the next years picks.

There will be a 24 hour clock for each pick for rounds 1 through 5.  Round 6 through 15 will have a 12 hour clock.  The clock starts when the person a head of you picks. If you miss your pick, the commissioner team will pick for you based on next available drafted player.  Teams who miss their pick will be placed on auto-pick until the GM requests to be taken off.

Minor League Free Agent Draft (MLFAD)
HOFBL will have a 10 round MLFAD draft.  The draft picks will be time slotted based on draft order.  Teams may trade current and the next years picks.  There will be no auto pick or commissioner picks in this draft. If you don't plan to use these picks it's encouraged you trade them for FYPD picks or IFA funds.


Trades
Teams may trade MLB players, prospects, FYPD & MLFAD picks and international free agency funds.  Each trade will be voted on by the Baseball Operations and Trade Review Board teams.  A trade will be approved or vetoed if it receives 3 votes to approve or 3 votes to veto, which ever one comes first.


ARB and Contract Lengths
Like in MLB, HOFBL teams will have 6 years of team control after being called up from the minors.  Team control contracts are below:

Pre-Arb1
Pre-Arb2
Pre-Arb3
Arb1
Arb2
Arb3
Arb4 (only for Super 2 players)

Minor League Threshold
Players will be considered minor leaguers if they are under the 130/50 threshold (130 at bats and 50 innings pitched).  These players will qualify for the minors on Fantrax.  If a player crosses the threshold during a season, they will be an automatic call up that season and their Pre-Arb clock will start.  If there is a reason the player cannot be called up in the current season to the 40 man roster (salary cap issues, etc..) after they cross the 130/50 threshold, the players clock will still start and in the offseason the player will be forced up from the minors to the 40 man and their contract will start as Pre-Arb2.  The team will need to make offseason moves to get under the salary cap and also be at or under the 40 man roster limit.

Injured List
Players may be placed on the IL on Fantrax if they are placed on the 60 day IL in the MLB. 10 and 15 day IL stints still count against your 40 man roster.

Fantrax
HOFBL will use Fantrax for player scoring, player salaries, contracts, salary cap tracking, IL tracking, and all player recording.  We will not use Fantrax for free agent bidding, waivers or drafts.

Playoffs
HOFBL will model the playoffs after the current MLB format. 
- There will be 3 Division winners and 3 wild cards from the AL and NL leagues.

Seeding
The division winners will be ranked based on record 1, 2 and 3.  The Wild Cards will be ranked based on record 4, 5, 6.  Tie breakers will be head to head, and points scored.

Matchups
- The top 2 seeds (division winners) will get a first round bye.

Wild Card Round
3 vs 6
4 vs 5

Division Round
1 vs winner of (4 vs 5)
2 vs winner of (3 vs 6)

League Championship
Winner of 1 vs (4/5) vs Winner of 2 vs (3/6)

HOFBL World Series
AL Champion vs NL Champion

Division Champion Tiebreakers
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only - unless a team has beat or lost to all other teams involved twice each)
3. Division Record
4. Overall Points

Note: Head to head record may be used In a multi-way tie-breaker to remove a team from the tie-breaker if that team lost twice to ALL other teams involved. In that case the team is removed and the remaining teams are then compared.

Wild Card Tiebreakers
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only - unless a team has beat or lost to all other teams involved)
3. Overall Points
4. Points Against

Note: If 3 or more way tie for Wildcard, first apply Division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each division prior to proceeding.

Off-Season Activities
Each off-season GMs must perform the following activities in preparation for the upcoming season.

- Select one player to extend a qualifying offer to (optional)
- Post your Pre-Arb and ARB contract decisions (accept or decline)
- Participate in the offseason FYPD Draft and International Free agency
- Make your roster decisions

Replacement GMs
Occasionally we need to replace a GM who has retired or is no longer actively managing his team. The incoming GM will get one free drop of any player that was already on the roster. He will have 4 weeks to use this free drop. We will waive any cap hit penalties from the player being dropped.

Final Notes
These rules have attempted to cover every possible scenario, but occasionally something new comes up. In that case, the scenario will be discussed by the Baseball Operations team and if need be the Commissioners (Guardians GM and Braves GM) will make the final ruling.

This shouldn't have to be said, but GMs may own one and only one team, and must have their own unique home Internet Connection and IP address. If a member is caught with multiple IDs, they will immediately be banned from the league.

Good luck everyone.

[Guardians GM (Nate)]

Rules Clarification on Pitching Stats

It came to my attention recently there may be some confusion on how the pitching stats are calculated.  Specifically Games Started (GS).  Games Started is a HOFBL specific applied rule for the Starting Pitcher (SP) position.  Meaning, if you have a player with dual eligibility (RP and SP) and you play a RP in the SP spot, the player will be charged the -2 points for Games Started even though in real life MLB he will not be credited with a GS in his stat line.  So this does not make playing RPs in the SP position very valuable if the RP doesn't go more than one inning, so please keep this in mind when setting lineups.

I checked with Fantrax on this in regards to player profile scoring summaries.  The score a player gets in the league scoring section may conflict with what the score is showing on the player profile page.  Fantrax pulls MLB information and applies the HOFBL stats to make those stats.  However, it will not pull HOFBL position specific stats.  Meaning, if you started a RP in the SP position, the player profile scoring will not reflect the -2 even though the -2 will be reflected in the league scoring.  This will also be the case for Relief Appearances and some FPT (fielding points).  There is not a glitch but Fantrax doesn't pull league position specific scoring to their player profile pages.  Keep this in mind when evaluating players.  This is mainly only a situation that revolves around pitchers, and specifically RPs.