2025 League Rules Revised (Draft)
Oct 28, 2024 8:06:18 GMT -5
St. Louis Cardinals (Andrew), KeithTorGM, and 2 more like this
Post by yankees on Oct 28, 2024 8:06:18 GMT -5
1. League Overview
Triple Play Baseball is a 30 team MLB dynasty league with a weekly head-to-head scoring system and salary cap. The 30 teams are named after the 30 MLB teams and divisions will match real life divisions. All transactions, including but not limited to trades, free agency, and drafts will be completed on Proboards. Fantrax will be used for scoring and lineups will be set daily.
Fantrax site:
www.fantrax.com/fantasy/league/rtvq3vy7j8sb3ecc/home
Proboards site:
www.tripleplaybaseball.proboards.com/
1.1 League Administration
• Administrators: Cardinals (Andrew), Dodgers (Kris)
• TPB Execs: Cardinals (Andrew), White Sox (Tyler), Red Sox (Steven), Twins (Jason)
• Master List: Official Roster Thread: Astros (Cody)
• Draft Pick List: Reds (Chris)
• Trade Review Council:
• Boston (Kirby), White Sox (Tyler), Brewers (Dan), Cardinals (Andrew), Rockies (Brandon), Rangers (Josh)
• Transaction Processing: Astros (Cody)
• First Year Player Draft Reds (Chris)
2. Activity Requirements
League owners will be expected to be consistently active on the Proboards site and to set their lineups each day. Consistent activity on Proboards is defined as checking in multiple times per week, maintaining a legal roster, and taking part in free agency and the 1st year player draft. Owners are expected to keep their Fantrax rosters up to date and check in on Fantrax at least once a week.
While, under normal circumstances, owners will be held to this standard, the league office also understands that there may be circumstances in an owner's personal life where they will not be able to keep up with the league for a certain period. If this is the case the owner is requested to make a post stating how long they will be gone and set their daily lineups in advance. If an owner becomes inactive the commissioner will make three attempts to contact the owner via email over a two-week period. If the owner does not respond to any emails within that time, a decision may be made to replace you as a manager.
Owners are expected to read this constitution and be aware that lack of activity subjects them to forfeiture of their team.
3. Code of Conduct
Owners are expected to always treat one another respectfully. Debate is acceptable and even encouraged at times, but personal attacks on another owner will not be condoned. Political posts may be removed as we are here to play fantasy baseball. Violation of these policies will result in a warning and further violation/s can result in expulsion from the league and replacement of the violating owner(s).
4. Salaries & Contracts
4.1 Salary Cap
Each team carries a Salary for each spot on the 40-man roster and a salary cap
• The minimum amount of TPB Cap salary any team may have control of is $110M and the maximum amount of TPB CAP salary any team may have control of is $195M
• All player salaries are rounded down to the nearest million (i.e. $22,536,000 equals $22 million against cap.
• Any salary less than$1,000,000 is rounded down to $500k, the minimum salary.
• If there is not a player in one or more of the roster slots on your 40-man, it will still cost $500,000 against your cap
• DL slots only count against cap if there is a player in the slot
• All $1M TPB contracts and greater on your MILB roster will count against your cap. Otherwise, MILB players do not count against your cap.
• Any transaction that would put a team above their salary cap shall be automatically voided. It is the responsibility of each owner to insure they always remain under the salary cap.
• Each season beginning December 1st, no claims or trades will be allowed by any team that does not have their salaries updated to include those known for the upcoming season.
4.2 Salary Audit
A salary audit of every team in TPB must be done every spring, beginning February 1 each year, after arbitration salaries are known and most free agents have signed.
• Six individual managers will be responsible for auditing one Division's teams for the league. It's crucial in checking every player's base salary against what Cot's (https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/) has listed
• Each auditing manager must also make sure the combined team salaries do not exceed the manager's salary cap.
• At the end of the audit a PM must be sent to the League Administrators (Cardinals, White Sox, Red Sox, Twins, ) explaining any discrepancies.
• Once an auditing manager has completed their division and submitted their findings, they can post that, that division is complete.
4.3. Salaries & Contracts
• Player salaries from the 40-man roster count against the salary cap
• Players with minor league eligibility count against cap only when they are on the 40-man roster.
• The official source for MLB Salaries is Cot's Baseball Contracts (https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/)
• There are 3 types of contracts:
• League minimum
• Any player making league minimum according to COTS, reflects as $500k in the league and against salary cap when on the 40 man roster
• MLB Actual
• Any player who signs a new contract while on a TPB roster, reflects as the MLB actual salary (according to COTS) rounded down to the nearest million.
• TPB Contracts
• Any player won as free agent, is on a TPB Contract that reflects the winning bid for that player. He remains on that salary until he is a TPB Free Agent or he signs a new contract in real life.
• In general, if a player on a TPB contract accepts an option, his salary against cap does not change, since the option was part of the existing contract. If a player accepts an extension, that is considered a new contract, so the real-life salary would take over and count against cap.
• If a TPB contract is traded, the salary rules remain in place.
5.0 Rosters
Each team will have a full 40-man roster, a 70-man Minor League Roster and a 13-man FYPD roster and up to 5 players on the IL.
5.1 Active 40 Man MLB Roster
• The major league roster (Fantrax) is composed of 40 total slots.
• 20 starting slots (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P,)
• 20 Bench slots
• 5 IL slots.
• This roster must be kept updated and accurate on both ProBoards and Fantrax.
• Any player, regardless of MLB or MILB eligibility, may be kept on this 40-man roster.
• Empty 40-man roster slots (excluding DL) are charged $500K toward your total allotted TPB salary cap.
5.2 Minor League Rosters
Minor League eligibility is defined as any player with less than 130 career major league AB’s or 50 career major league IP
• Your minor league players can be placed onto any roster.
• A 70-player roster consisting of any players in the minor leagues
• A 13 player Rookie Roster consisting of players draft eligible in the TPB Amateur draft (drafted, UDFA from that year, or otherwise obtained)
• These rosters must be kept updated on ProBoards and Fantrax.
• On Fantrax, these 2 rosters are combined into one 83-man MILB roster
• Minor league eligible players may also be kept on the MLB 40-man roster. If that is the case, they will cost $500k against your cap. If you demote the back to a minor league roster, the salary cap hit for that player goes away until they go back to the 40-man.
5.3 Disabled List
The maximum number of DL slots you can have on your roster is 5 at all times.
• Only players that were on an actual MLB DL (7D, 15D, or 60D,) at the end of the season may be held in a DL slot during the off-season and may be carried over to the next season.
• If a player is a Free Agent in real life, but has an injury that is easily verifiable and would likely result in him being on the DL if he were on a MLB roster, he may be slotted in the DL.
6.0 Position Eligibility
Player position eligibility is based on the following settings in Fantrax.
• Games needed from previous season for a player to qualify at a specific hitting position: 20
• Games needed from current season for a player to qualify at a specific hitting position: 10
• Starts needed from previous season for a player to qualify as a Starting Pitcher: 5
• Starts needed from current season for a player to qualify as a Starting Pitcher: 2
• Relief appearances needed from previous season for a player to qualify as a Relief Pitcher: 8
• Relief appearances needed from current season for a player to qualify as a Relief Pitcher: 2
• Note: If a player does not qualify for any positions based on the above selections, he will qualify at the position(s) played most in the previous MLB season. If he did not play at all last season, then the default position(s) will be used.
7.0 Scoring
Triple Play Baseball will utilize a head-to-head scoring system.
7.1 Points System
Players will score points based upon the following scoring system
- Hitting: (Runs, HR, RBI, K, SB, AVG, OBP, and SLG%) with the minimum AB limit is 75 at bats
Pitching: (K, QS, W, L, SV, HD, ERA, and WHIP) with the minimum IP limit will be 25 innings pitched.
7.2 Team Minimum and Maximum Requirements per Scoring Period
• Minimum AB limit is 75 at bats per Scoring Period
• Minimum IP limit will be 25 innings pitched per Scoring Period
• If a minimum has not been met by end of scoring period, the team will get a loss for each averaged hitting (AVG, OBP, and SLG%.) or pitching stat (ERA and WHIP), depending on the scoring category whose minimum has not been met, for the scoring period.
• Min/Max will be prorated according to period length
8.0 Playoffs
The playoffs will start week 20 consisting of the 12 top teams, 6 each from each League. (3 division winners & 3 Wild Cards from each of the AL & NL).
• Playoff seeding will be determined by winning percentage within each league.
• Two Division winners with the best records (winning %) in each league will get first round byes. The remaining AL & NL Division winner will get the #3 seed and will face off against the 3 WC teams from their respective league.
• The first round will be one week.
• Round 2 of the playoffs will have the 1 & 2 seeds match-up against the winners of 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5 matchups. 1 seed will match up against highest seed/2 seed vs. lowest seed.
• Round 2 winners advance on to the ALCS & NLCS each lasting two weeks.
• ALCS & NLCS winners match-up for a two-week League Championship Series.
• Ties in the regular season standings will be broken with the following tiebreakers, in the order listed:
1. Best regular season winning %
2. Regular season head-to-head results
• If a tie occurs in a playoff matchup the higher seeded team will be awarded the win in the matchup.
9.0 Free Agency
9.1 Definitions:
MLB Free Agents:
• Major League Free Agents are defined as Free Agents with more than 130 career major league AB’s or 50 career major league IP
International Free Agents:
• International players that have played for a foreign professional league are deemed major league free agents, even if they have fewer than 130 career MLB AB’s or 50 career MLB IP
• Former MLB players that sign outside of the US (Asia, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, etc.) are treated as signing a minor-league contract and may be carried at 500k. If they re-sign with an MLB club, their new MLB contract will override the 500k salary.
• Former MLB players who sign internationally or in independent ball while on a TPB roster may continue to be carried on a TPB teams’ roster.
• However, such a player may not be added as a free agent / waiver claim until re-signing with an MLB organization. Internationally based players must be signed to an MLB/MiLB organization in order to be signed as a TPB FA
Minor League Free Agents
• Players with less than 130 career MLB AB’s or 50 career MLB IP and International players who have not yet played professionally
9.2 MLB & International FA Acquisition Process:
MLB & International Free Agents will be awarded to TPB team via a FA Bidding process
• All bidding takes place on ProBoards (https://tripleplaybaseball.proboards.com/board/3/bidding-on-players)
• The minimum TPB Cap bid for players is $500k and may be increased by 500k to $1M, but every bid after the initial $1M must be in $1M increments.
• For example: Initial bid - $500k; 2nd Bid - $1M; 3rd Bid – 2M; Etc.
• FA bidding on a particular player will continue until a period of 24 hours has passed without a bid being placed on that player.
• If you bid on a free agent and your bid exceeds the amount you have in cap space, you must conditionally drop a player that allows you to make a proper bid and have enough cap space to own that player. The conditional drop should be noted in your bid post.
• Use the “Search” function in Proboards to verify Free Agent eligibility. Proboards will serve as the source of record regarding player acquisition/ownership
9.3 MLB & International FA Acquisition Rules:
• FA bidding may occur any time during the offseason.
• During the season, FA bidding is open until the first game of the TPB Playoffs. FA bidding is frozen until the conclusion of the TPB Playoffs. FA bidding may begin again the Monday after TPB Playoffs End
• All Free Agents dropped during the TPB playoffs will be open for TPB Free Agency starting the Monday after TPB Playoffs End
• If you own a player who is a MLB free agent and the player doesn't sign with a team, the player will continue on with the contract he had the previous year. If the player remains without a MLB contract for a full season, he becomes a minimum salary player until he signs a new contract.
• During TPB Free Agency, an owner who dropped a player in the free agent pool may bid on that player, however, if the owner who initially released the player wins the player in free agency, the player will be rostered at either the original drop amount or the bid amount, whichever is higher.
9.4 Adding Players to Roster
• Free agents claimed or won through bids must be added to the Fantrax roster and the Proboards roster within 48 hours of the claim/bid being finalized or that player can be acquired by another team.
• The 48 hour period will not be in effect regarding players drafted during the TPB Amateur Draft as the draft limits Managers” ability to make roster moves. The draft Administrator will set a deadline for draft roster additions at the beginning of each draft.
• To protect the integrity of the MILB FA Waiver Priority order, post below any MLB Free Agent signings to the “MLB FA Adds” thread on Proboards. A member of the Executive Committee with Commissioner permissions iwill add the player to your roster in Fantrax. This is to ensure that MILB Waiver Priority order is not affected by MLB FA adds
• Commissioner will 'like' the post in “MLB FA Adds” thread to show the player has been added.
9.5. Minor League FA Acquisition Process
Free Agents with less than 130 career major league AB’s or 50 career major league IP should be claimed without submitting a bid.
• Claims should be made on Fantrax using the built in Waiver process
• Prospects will be won based on waiver wire priority order
• Once a claim is won, the claimant then rotates to the end of the priority order (i.e. if Team A has the highest claim priority (1), and claim a prospect, Team A would then rotate back to #30 until the next claim is made, same for every other team).
• Waiver wire order is based on reverse order of standings the prior season. Claim order resets once – at the end of the league year.
• MILB claims are processed daily at approximately 12:00AM EST each day.
• Pending and Failed Claims are visible only to owners, to ensure blind bidding.
• A maximum of two players with less than 130 career AB or 50 career IP may be claimed between 12:00AM EST & 11:59PM EST per day. (e.g. You could make two claims at 11:58 & 11:59PM EST and two more claims at 12:01 & 12:02AM EST the following day and be within the rules.)
• Bidding on MLB players is not included in this restriction of 2 per day
• Players eligible for the TPB Amateur Draft scheduled for the first Sunday in November may not have a claim or bid placed on them and may not be added to any roster until the TPB Amateur Draft is in process.
• All Undrafted players from the TPB Amateur Draft can be claimed (no bid) after the conclusion of the TPB Amateur Draft.
9.5. Releasing a player
When releasing a player, you must post the release in this thread on Proboards: (tripleplaybaseball.proboards.com/board/16/releasing-players)
• When releasing a player, you must post the player's first and last name (spelled correctly) in the Title and Body of the post to better enable the Proboards search function.
• You may release any player that you owned all season at the end of that season without incurring any penalty.
• If you release a player during the season, you will incur a penalty until the off-season at which time it will be removed from the record.
• When releasing a player with a salary or TPB contract of $1M or more during the season, a penalty of 50% of the salary (rounded down to the whole Million) will be added to your teams’ total salary against cap. For example, a $2M and $3M (50% of $3M = $1.5M rounded to $1M) salary will incur $1M penalty, and a $4M and $5M (50% of $5M = $2.5M rounded to $2M) salary will incur a $2M penalty and so on.
• Once the real MLB Regular Season schedule is completed the 50% penalty will disappear and you are no longer responsible for any of that player's salary
• Any player acquired during the season and plan to drop, must be dropped prior to the end of that season. Failure to drop such player prior to the season's end will result in the penalty being applied for the remainder of the off-season and entire next season.
• If a player is known to be retiring prior to the end of the regular season the same rules apply for release and penalty
• If a manager releases a player, the player becomes a free agent. If the player in question is not bid on or claimed within one week of becoming a free agent, the last owner of the player can bid or claim that player with no restriction. The claiming manager would still be responsible for the 50% penalty when the player was originally released until the end of the Regular Season.
9.6 Deceased Players
In the unfortunate event that a current player passes away their contract will be removed from their team's roster without any penalty to the team.
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10.0 TPB Amateur Draft/1st Year Player Draft
Each year a 10-round 1st year player draft will be held. Players eligible to be selected in this draft include players taken in the amateur draft, players signed as amateur international free agents, and all other minor league free agents.
• Draft order is determined by the reverse order of the prior year’s standings at the end of the TPB Regular Season
• Beginning at the end of our 2025 season (after our playoffs and before Free Agency is held), the League will move to a draft Draft lottery to ascertain the draft order for our bottom 10 teams. Last (30th) will get 10 balls, 29th will get 9 balls, etc. This will dictate the top 10 picks in our 2025 draft. No change to reverse order for those not in the draft lottery.
• International free agents who are not classified as amateurs are not eligible in this draft. Those players can be acquired during free agency.
• The TPB Amateur Draft is an annual 10 round draft that commences the first Sunday of November.
• Each team receives 10 picks following the completion of the previous year's season (i.e. 2025 picks will be available after the completion of the 2024 TPB season).
• Owner can make more than 10 picks if they acquire additional draft picks
• The first 13 selections by any team will go on their FYPD/Rookie Roster and any further picks must be applied to the MILB or MLB roster. Teams must have the available roster spot BEFORE making their selection.
• Draft picks for the current year's draft can be traded at any time prior to or during the draft. Draft picks for the following years draft can be traded at the earliest once the TPB season ends. Once there are two sets of draft picks floating around (after the end of the previous TPB season but before the end of the current year's FYP draft), please be very specific about which year when posting trades.
• Each Manager is given an exclusive 24-hour window to make their draft selection. The 24-hour window starts immediately following the previous pick or expiration of the previous pick’s 24-hour window.
• If a manager exceeds their 24-hour window at any stage of the draft, their future windows will expire immediately, and they will be auto-picked the next highest available player according to the order of players drafted in real life. A Manager can avoid the auto-pick by request, but their request MUST be prior to the auto-pick. They will then be permitted an additional 24 hours, but the next team in line can select when ready. If at the end of 48 hrs. a pick hasn't been made the auto-pick will be made.
• Prior to the TPB Amateur Draft or any time during the draft any manager may opt out of participating in the draft. They must also post or send a message to an Administrator that they will not be participating in drafting. From that point forward in the draft any pick that goes on the clock from a non-participating manager will be auto-picked as soon as possible. The auto-pick will be the earliest drafted and signed player from that years’ MLB Rule 4 draft, but not yet selected in the TPB draft.
• If a team has consecutive picks (2 or more), they will only have one 24-hour window to make those picks before their exclusive window expires.
11.0 International Free Agent (IFA) Draft
There will be a 2 round International Free Agent Draft each off season on the first Saturday in February, after the international signing period closes – typically mid/late January.
• IFA players drafted may be added to MLB 40-man, MiLB 70-man or FYPD 13-man roster
• The IFA Draft order is determined by the reverse order standing from the prior season based on winning %. The IFA draft will NOT be subject to draft lottery.
• IFA Picks are tradeable
• IFA Draft will take place on Proboards
12.0 Trading
Every trade in TPB must be posted in the “Reviewed Trades” Board.
tripleplaybaseball.proboards.com/board/22/reviewed-trades
• The trade must initially be posted by one of the managers involved, detailing the overall trade and his/her rationale for wanting to do the trade. Any players or prospects who have a salary for the current or future years must be detailed in the trade.
• The other manager(s) involved in the trade must ensure the trade is accurate and accept or confirm the trade as it is posted.
• When submitting your trade it is best to give the totality of your thoughts on the trade in the description. It will give the TRC a clearer snap shot of why the trade is happening.
• The trade will then go through the process of being approved, or scrutinized and vetoed by the Trade Review Council. The trade must receive 3 votes of approval or 3 votes of veto.
• The first TRC member to vote on a trade MUST
c) Check salaries of both teams to ensure cap works
d) Check roster numbers to ensure both teams have space for all acquired players
e) Check draft picks to ensure the proper teams own them.
• You must wait to process the trade on your Proboards team page or your Fantrax page until the TRC has voted 3 approvals.
• $TPB Cap may be traded but no team can have <$110M or >$180M at any time
• Trades resulting in a team exceeding their $TPB Cap limit will not be processed.
• Trades resulting in a team(s) exceeding the number of available roster spots will not be processed until situation is rectified.
• Trades involving teams in the playoffs will process at the conclusion of their playoff run
13.0 Promotions & Demotions
Promotions and demotions should be made on Fantrax.
• You may also post promotions and demotions here:
• tripleplaybaseball.proboards.com/board/4/call-send
• All players must be cleared from the FYPD Roster by the end of the all-star break.
• Any player who has equaled or exceeded 130 AB or 50 IP of play in their MLB career must be on your 40-man roster.
14.0 Key Dates:
Reset the MILB FA waiver priority order –
End of MLB Season
TPB Major League Free Agency Opens –
Monday after TPB Playoffs End
TPB Major League Free Agency Freeze –
First day of TPB Playoffs to TPB playoffs to Monday after TPB Playoffs End
Release Window with no penalty (if on roster for full season) –
Prior to the Opening Day next season
Release Window with no penalty (if not on roster for full season) –
Prior to Monday after TPB Playoffs End
Two teams in TPB Playoff finals get 7 additional days
FYPD Draft –
First Sunday in November
Team Roster Audits Begin – February 1
Team Roster Audits Complete – March 1
FYPD Rosters Expire –
First pitch of MLB All Star game
Trade Deadline –
Playoff teams: Last trade must be posted by midnight ET on the day prior to first game of playoffs. Playoff teams can trade but they will not be processed until they win or are eliminated.
Non-playoff teams: Teams not in playoffs can post a trade any time
IFA Draft –
First Monday in February