Outlaws League Constitution

Outlaws League Constitution

League Format

The league shall consist of 16 team divided into 2 Leagues with 2 Divisions each.
A 162 game season will be played, with playoffs.
The regular season shall commence on April 1 of each year, will break for the month of July (League All-Star break) and conclude on October 31, with the playoffs conducted in November.

Drafts and Trades

An "Annual Draft will take place in either February or march, dependant upon the season start date, disk availability, team owners, and the Commissioner; and will be formatted as follows:

All newly carded players, including XB’s and XC’s, and all carded players not currently on any team’s roster are eligible to be drafted.
The "Annual Draft" shall consist of 8 rounds per team.
The draft order is determined in the following manner:

Teams not making the playoffs will pick in reverse order of the previous season’s standings (win/loss percentage).
Teams making the playoffs will be ordered based on their playoff exit order with the teams exiting first drafting immediately following the non-playoff teams, and the World Series Champ picking last. Team exiting in the same round will pick in the reverse order of the previous season’s standings when compared to each other.

The "Annual Draft" may take place by phone, mail, internet or a combination thereof.
A list of all eligible players shall be posted on the Web-site by the Commissioner or their agent prior to the draft.
A draft "wish" list may be sent to the Commissioner in an owner’s absence, in order of players desired most to least.
No more that one week after the "Annual Draft", all team must release players to reduce their roster to a 40-man limit.

A "Free Agent Draft" will take place up to two weeks after the "Annual Draft", depending upon the season start date, team owners, and the Commissioner; and will be formatted as follows:

All players, including non-carded players, released by team or corded players not currently on any team’s roster are eligible to be drafted.
The "Free Agent Draft" length will not be limited in rounds.
Draft order is in the same order as the "Annual Draft".
The "Free Agent Draft" will take place by e-mail only.
A list of all eligible players shall be sent out by the Commissioner or their agent prior to the draft.
A draft "wish list" should be submitted to the Commissioner in order of players desired most to least.
No more than one week after the "Free Agent Draft", all teams must release players to reduce their roster to a 40-man limit.

Trades are subject to review by the league, and shall not be permitted after the end of month five of the regular season, with exceptions and restrictions below:

Players traded up to and including the 15^th of the month five are eligible for the post-season, the 16^th or later are not.
Trading shall re-open on December 1^st year.
Draft picks may be traded, but not beyond two year. For example a team’s 2004 draft pick may be traded immediately following the end of the 2002 regular season when trading is opened.
Each team may make one trade with players traded as "Players to be named later", only after the All-star break, and as long as the Commissioner is advised of all players involved in the trade. Players will be transitioned the following December 1^st.
The Commissioner or their agent must be notified by all parties involved, or the trade shall not be considered official.

Rosters

Team rosters shall be limited to 40 players, with a monthly active roster of 26 players.

Rosters are expanded to 28 for the final month only.

Team rosters may exceed 40 players after April 1^st due to trades.
Roster moves may only be made in between months, however a team may have a separate Road and Home roster as long as the Commissioner has been notified.
Playoff rosters shall be limited to 26 players, and are due immediately after the trading deadline (the end of month five of the regular season).

Rules of Play

All team will use APBA Baseball for Windows, using a "League Commissioner’s Disk" and the F-file system.
The league will utilize the Park Effects system in BBW.

Each team can choose whichever stadium they would like as their home Ballpark.
The lease for the home stadiums will be in two-year increments after which team may renew the lease on the same stadium or sign a new lease on a different stadium.
The effects in use for the two-year lease will be based on the 5-year average of the park effects for that stadium for the 5-years preceding the first year of the lease.
Only existing MLB stadiums may be selected, however a team that has a lease on a stadium that in the future is no longer a MLB stadium may continue to renew the lease indefinitely (at the last Ballpark ratings). Should they sign a new lease on a different stadium, they may never go back to that defunct MLB stadium.
More that one owner can own the same stadium.

Prior to the beginning of the season, each manager shall send to the Commissioner, or their agent, the following to post on the League Web Site and for the official league files:

Micromanager for use in road games, and any games that may be required to be "simmed" by the league office.
F-file containing active roster, farm team, batting lineups, micromanager, and pitching rotation.

Managers are expected to submit a new f-file for use in their road games on a monthly basis. However, in the event that no file has been received by the Commissioner, the Commissioner retains the right to make changes in the rosters, lineups, rotations, or micromanagers (to assist in preventing overuse issues)
Micromanager are required for use in all Road games.
All carded players, on the APBA BBW season disk, are eligible for play as long as they have played in 5 games or have 10 innings pitched.
AIM rules will not be used, and injuries will be only for the current game.
Rain outs will be handled as follows (BBW handles rainouts appropriately):

A rain out after 5 complete innings is an official game.
A rain out before 5 complete innings shall be treated as if the game had not been started at all and will be rescheduled by the Commissioner for replay in the next month of the schedule.

The DH rule is in effect, however, a pitcher may bat for himself if a Manager so chooses only in the event he has pich hit/ ran for the DH and opts to revoke the DH rule per BBW.
There will be no Hit & Run limitations.
At the end of each month each manager will submit an F-file to the Commissioner’s Office.

Pitchers Limitations

Starting Pitchers shall be limited to the actual number of starts they had in the preceding Major League season, as notated in their current APBA Season Disk profile.
Pitchers who are strictly starters in real life (Games = Games Started) can be used in relief if they are grade 10 or lower.

To allow more micromanagers to effectively select a qualifying starter meeting these conditions the commissioner or his agent will modify stats for selected pitchers prior to the beginning of the season. The stats will be modified to GS = 0 (and the pitchers role will be modified to Long Relief).
To take advantage of this, managers will designate selected starters for this to be applied to prior to the start of the season.
These starters are not be eligible to start games during the season.

Starting Pitchers who are eligible to make relief appearances (i.e.: they have more G than GS in their current APBA Season Disk profile) will be limited as if they were "Split Grade" pitchers as described below.
Relief Pitchers shall be limited to the actual number of innings pitched during the preceding Major League season, as notated in their current APBA Season Disk profile.
Pitchers with a "Split Grade" rating shall be limited to the number of starts and innings pitched during the preceding Major League season, as notated in their current APBA Season Disk profile. (Example: a 5/8* had 6 start and 112.1 IP. He may start 6 games, which say takes up to 42.0 IP, leaving him with 70.1 IP eligible to be used in relief appearances. In the reverse he may use up 80.0 IP in relief appearances and still may start 6 games, but he may not exceed 32.1 IP in those starts).

Position Player Limitations

All position players, non-pitches, are limited to the number of actual games they played in the preceding major League season, as notated in their current APBA Season Disk profile.
Position players are limited to the positions which they have been rated/carded for unless an emergency arises and no one remains to play a carded positions due to injury, etc., however a player may not be played at a position not eligible for more that 2 games during the course of the season.
Pitchers may not bat, unless the team is not using a DH as described int he "Rules of Play" section above, but are not eligible to steal.
All position players, non-pitcher, are limited to attempt 150% of the actual Stolen Base attempt made during the preceding Major League season, as notated in their current APBA Season Disk profile.

Note on implementation: At the end of each month; a utility is used to identify players exceeding the limit. For players who were identified, their steal allowance is changed to "N". The effect of this is so that the micromanagers will not attempt a straight steal with the affected player. However, the steal success number was not modified. This means that the player could still get steals on botched hit and run plays and would use their actual steal success number. Prior to the playoffs, the steal allowance is reset to its original value.

Official League Statistics

The League will report statistics via newsletter, League Web Site, or both.

Playing Month

The "Play" month shall run from the 1^st to the 25^th of each month, with F-files submitted to the Commissioner’s Office by the 26^th.
All games not played by the 25^th of each month will be played using a "Micromanager" by the Commissioners Office, unless other arrangements have been made an approved by the commissioner.

Playoffs

Each Division winner automatically makes the playoffs. Additional, in each league, the two teams with the next best records make the playoffs as Wild Card teams.
The playoff format shall be as follows:

Division Championship (each league) best of 7 (2-3-2):

1^st Place Best Record vs. Wild Card Least Record.
1^st Place Least Record vs. Wild Card Best Record.
1^st Places teams have home field advantage

League Championship (each league) best of 7 (2-3-2):

Division Championship series winners
Home field advantage to team with best regular season record.

World Series best of 7 games (2-3-2):

League Championship series winners.
Home field advantage to team with best regular season record.

The commissioner, or his agent will create a new playoff organization for use in each round of the playoffs.
Each team will be required to use a Micromanager for all Road Playoff games.
(Non-pitcher) Player limitations for the playoffs are as follows:

130-162 games actual, can play 7 games in a playoff series
110-129 games actual, can play 6 games in a playoff series
90-109 games actual, can play 5 games in a playoff series
70-89 games actual, can play 4 games in a playoff series
50-69 games actual, can play 3 games in a playoff series
30-49 games actual, can play 2 games in a playoff series
5-29 games actual, can play 1 game in a playoff series.

Relief Pitchers are limited to 20% of regular season IP per series.
Starting Pitchers must have 3-days rest between starts and are limited as follows:

25+ 3 Starts are allowed 3 starts in a series.
17-24 Starts are allowed 2 starts in a series.
11-16 Starts are allowed 1 starts in a series.
0-10 Starts cannot start.

All-Star Game

The annual All-Star Game shall be played during the "Mid-Season" break and/or after the playoffs at a location determined by the Commissioner’s Office.
The All-Start team for each league will be chosen by a membership vote, with results being published on the League Web Site.

Changes and Modifications

All changes and modifications to the Outlaws League Constitution shall be done at he Commissioner’s discretion, except where the rules below apply.

All change and modifications to the League Rules need to be ratified by a least a two-thirds majority of managers to be approved.

The Commissioner, or their agent, retain the power to make rule changes when the "Best interest of the League" are at hand, which shall supercede the rule above.

Penalties

It is the responsibility of each manager to complete his Home games, submit monthly F-files to the Commissioner’s Office, or make arrangements for these in a responsible and timely fashion. We all reply on each other to make this league enjoyable and for it to run smoothly.
For any manager, Commissioner included, who is consistently late with the aforementioned, his team shall be penalized one order in the Annual Draft the following season (for each occurrence).
This penalty shall be waived if the League approves a waiver, or under Emergency circumstances (such as: Death/Birth in family, Marriage, Divorce, Amputation, or Death of a manger). Note: Communication of situations to the Commissioner’s Office are greatly appreciated.
Should a different manager be in place at the time of the Annual Draft, no penalty shall be imposed.

Annual Contributions

The league is a not for profit, wholly for enjoyment entity, and accepts contributions submitted to the Commissioner in order to defray the costs of the Annual Draft, Newsletter/Web-site, Postage, and any other League Expenses.