National Fantasy Baseball Championship

2008 Satellite League Rules

Official Rules and Regulations of the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Satellite Leagues

1. Overview: The National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) Satellite League Contest will consist of individual leagues, each comprised of 15 teams/managers (there is no overall prize pool for satellite leagues). The NFBC Satellite League's regular season will extend from Opening Day 2008 through the final game of the regular season (including a season-ending tie-breaker if needed). Teams will compete for accumulative stats in five offensive and five pitching categories, with each category weighted equally. Categories include: (for hitters) Batting Average, Home Runs, RBIs, Stolen Bases and Runs; (for pitchers) Wins, Saves, Earned Run Average, Strikeouts and WHIP Ratio (Walks plus Hits divided by Innings Pitched). The team at the end of the year with the most cumulative points in each league wins the league title and we'll pay the top three spots in each individual league.

2. Draft: Drafts will take place online at www.mockdraftcentral.com from Tuesday, Feb. 21 through Thursday, March 29. Click on the Register link and scroll down to the bottom of the second page to see the whole list of available NFBC satellite leagues.

3. Roster Requirements: Maximum of 30 players at all times.

4. Starting Lineup Requirements: Starting lineups will consist of:

2 Catchers
1 First Baseman
1 Second Baseman
1 Shortstop
1 Third Baseman
1 Middle Infielder (2B/SS)
1 Corner Infielder (1B/3B)
1 Utility Player (any offensive position)
5 Outfielders
9 Pitchers

There is a 700 innings pitched minimum requirement for all NFBC leagues, including the auction leagues, but no minimum requirement for number of starting pitchers or relief pitchers on each roster. Should any team not reach the required limit of 700 innings pitched by the end of the season, the rankings will be altered to show that team getting 1 point in both ERA and WHIP. No other teams will switch positions in the standings, but the team that didn't reach the minimum IP will automatically earn 1 point in ERA and WHIP. All players must have played 20 games in 2007 or 10 games during the 2008 season to qualify at a certain position. Minor-leaguers who did not play 20 games at any position in 2007 but who still played at least one game in the majors last year, will qualify at the position they played the most at in the majors in 2007. Other eligibility guidelines can be found under Section 6 in the Rules. If a player returns from retirement or rehab after missing the previous year, his position eligibility will be his previous year's eligibility. If no Week One lineup is submitted, the NFBC will determine your starting lineup. After Week One, if no starting lineup is submitted, your starting lineup will be that of the previous week.

Owners DO NOT have to fill their 23 required starting spots with their first 23 draft picks; i.e. you can pick your second catcher with your 30th pick if you'd like. Those owners participating in the NFBC Satellite Auction League, however, must spend their $260 budget on their 23 required starters and a 7-round serpentine draft will be held after that for the reserve rounds.

A. League Management Web Address: You can access your league via the Internet by going to http://www.fantasybaseballchampionship.com/. You will need a username and a password to access the game site. Contact krause-fantasy@mail.stats.com if you are signed up for the contest and don't have a username and password.

B. Lineup Submission: The weekly NFBC deadline for setting starting lineups is 6:55 p.m. ET each Monday. Any game that occurs before that, NFBC owners are required to get those players involved in their starting lineups five minutes before the start of those games. Owners are also allowed to remove a player (or players) who is officially on the DL from their starting lineup with one of their players from their reserve roster before each Friday's first game as long as the position eligibility works out. Players must officially be on Major League Baseball's DL list according to STATS and the NFBC by 12:01 a.m. on Friday for this move (or moves) to take effect for the weekend games.

C. NFBC Phone In: STATS, one of the largest and most respected stat providers in the fantasy sports industry, will be handling all transactions via phone at 888-450-2730. Please acknowledge that you are calling in transactions for the NFBC Satellite League Contest when you call the toll-free number. You will need your username and password to submit transactions via phone.

5. Scoring: The National Fantasy Baseball Championship Satellite League Contest will use a 5x5 Rotisserie scoring setup. Cumulative totals will be used for the following categories:

Batting Average
Home Runs
RBIs
Runs
Stolen Bases
Wins
Saves
Earned Run Average
Strikeouts
WHIP Ratio (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched)

6. Position Eligibility: The NFBC will use the following position eligibility rules in 2008:
a) Players who played at least 20 games at any position in 2007 will qualify at that position for the entire 2008 NFBC season. Players who play 10 games at a new position in 2008 will be eligible at that position after they have played for the 10th time there this year.
b) Players who played less than 20 games total in the majors last year will be eligible at the position they played the most games at, not including DH or pinch-hitting.
c) Those players who only pinch-hit in the majors in 2007 will be position eligible according to their minor-league games played status in 2007. They would qualify at the position they played the most games in the minors.
d) Players who played all of 2007 in the minor leagues will be awarded position eligibility for 2008's NFBC season based on the most games played at all levels in the minors. STATS will determine that one eligible position before Draft Day and that will determine that players' status for 2008 once he is called up to the majors. Those players who only pinch-hit or DH in the minors will only be UT-eligible.
e) Players who played 20 or more games in the majors last year and didn't play 20 or more games at one position will be deemed UT-only eligible in 2008 unless otherwise designated by the NFBC Commissioner. The NFBC Commissioner will rule on player eligibility prior to the draft as he deems necessary. Those eligibility lists are final.
f) Additional position eligibility will be awarded during the season when a player has played a new position 10 times which he was not previously eligible.

7. Free Agents: Any player who is not on a team roster within your league and is on a major-league roster or once was on an NFBC team in your league is considered a free agent for that league. Even players on the MLB disabled list are eligible to be picked up during the FAAB bidding process. The player pool is deemed closed of new free agents each Sunday at 7 a.m. EST before the FAAB bidding deadline. Participants should note that MLB unsigned veteran free agents at the time of Draft Day are eligible to be picked up or bid on in the NFBC Satellite Leagues.

8. Free Agent Acquisitions: The free agent system will be a "blind bidding" process for each individual league. Each team will start with 1,000 free agent "dollars" for the season, and will be permitted to bid for free agents on a weekly basis with a minimum bid of $1 per player. No team will be informed of any other team's free agent bids. The team with the highest bid on any given player will be awarded that player. The amount of the winning bid will be deducted from the winning team's free agent dollars. For each winning bid, the winning team must drop a player to make roster room for the free agent acquisition. If a team's free agent dollars goes to zero, that team will no longer be allowed to bid for the rest of the season. No bid will be accepted that is larger than a team's free agent dollars. All bids must be in increments of dollars (no cents). The winning bids with owner's name will be shown after the FAAB bidding period for each NFBC Satellite League league along with the runner-up dollar amount that was offered for each player. The first FAAB period will be held on Sunday, March 30.

9. Bidding Time Frame: The bidding process starts the week of March 24 for Week 1 and ends at the completion of Week 26 (including any regular-season tie-breaker game). Bids will be accepted on the league web site from Monday at 3 p.m. ET until Sunday at 8 p.m. ET in each of these weeks. If you are submitting by phone, you must submit your bids by 5 p.m. on Friday. Rosters will be updated shortly after 8 p.m. ET on Sunday with the results of all successful bids and starting lineups for the upcoming week to be finalized five minutes before the first game every Monday.

10. Conditional Bids: Conditional bids can also be offered. In the event you may lose out on a player, you can place conditional bid(s) for other players during the bidding time frame. The first conditional bid will become relevant only if you lose out on your primary bid. Subsequent conditional bids will become relevant only if the previous conditional bid fails. Bids do not require conditional bids. Bids may have several sequential conditional bids. Participants should note that the computer takes the HIGHEST BIDS and processes each bid in that order if you have multiple FAAB acquisition bids. Putting a larger bid on a conditional bid than a primary bid also isn't allowed.

Example:
Acquire Ryan Freel, $19, cut Wes Helms
Acquire David Wright, $16, cut Wes Helms
Acquire Craig Counsell, $2, cut Wes Helms

11. Number of Bid Limits: There is no limit to the number of bids each week in which bids are permitted. The computer processes the bids in the order of highest dollar amounts, so make sure your highest bid is on the main player you want to acquire. A higher dollar amount for a lower priority bid will be processed first.

12. Tied Bids: If there is a tie bid, the team that receives the player will be determined in order by:

Worst league record.
Lowest standing the previous week.
Coin toss.

In the case of a tied bid during the first FAAB period (March 30), the player will be awarded to the team that had the lowest draft spot on Draft Day (i.e. should Team 4, Team 7 and Team 11 each bid $1 on Sam Smith, Team 11 would get him).

13. Trades between managers: To minimize the possibility of collusion, there will be no trading allowed. All drops are also subject to review by the commissioner of the NFBC and can be revoked if the dropped player is deemed too valuable to be offered to that league's free agent pool, thus damaging the credibility of the overall contest. The commissioner can also allow a cut of a star player and then keep that player out of that league's free agent pool for any length of time, including the rest of the season. All decisions by the NFBC commissioner will be final.

14. League Structure: Each league will consist of 15 teams competing in a Rotisserie style mixed-league format for the league championship. Points will be awarded in this order: 15 points for 1st place in each category, 14 points for 2nd place, 13 for 3rd and continue down to 1 point for 15th place. This will occur in all 10 scoring categories. Payoffs will be for the first three teams in each league.

15. Prize Breakdown: We are paying back 80 percent of all entry fees for each league in prizes. Check the web site for the prize breakdown for each league.

16. Time Limit For Draft: There will be a 90-second time limit for each owner to make his/her pick during each round of the NFBC Satellite League draft. If a participant does not make a selection in the allotted time, the computer will select for that owner using MDC's overall ranking system. If there is a computer failure, the draft moderator can stop the draft and correct the error and then resume the draft. That decision will be made by the NFBC moderator during the draft and will be final.

17. Commissioner Decisions: All decisions made by the Commissioner of the NFBC are final. Tough decisions sometimes must be made about eligibility rules, lineups, etc., and NFBC participants must accept the unbiased ruling of the NFBC Commissioner.

18. Refunds: Once a participant submits valid payment, no money will be refunded to participants or co-managers unless The National Fantasy Baseball Championship Satellite League Contest is canceled. A team spot is considered filled when the entire entry fee is paid. Krause Publications reserves the right to cancel any entries not comprising a full 15-team league. When a participant agrees to finish the registration form and submit payment, that participant has demonstrated his/her acceptance of the official rules and regulations for the NFBC Satellite League Contest.

At its sole discretion, Krause Publications also reserves the right to terminate The National Fantasy Baseball Championship Satellite League Contest in its entirety if there are an insufficient number of teams two days before each deadline. In this unlikely event, Krause Publications will refund all entry fees within 48 hours of cancellation notice and/or provide a new application form with the newly stated prize figures. All pre-registered applicants would have the right to a full refund or agree to play for the newly announced prize structure or in other leagues. Krause Publications is not responsible for any loss or liability incurred by any participant or co-managers due to cancellation of the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Satellite League Contest, including but not limited to travel or hotel expenses, time taken off from employment, etc.

19. Taxes: If the principal participant's prize winnings exceed $600.00, The National Fantasy Baseball Championship must file a Form 1099 with the IRS at the end of this calendar year. We will request your social security number and signature on this form and will pay the principal owner. The Form contains the amount paid to you and you will receive a copy of the Form for tax purposes. You are responsible for paying any taxes that result from your cash prize. Please consult your income tax advisor for filing advice.