Fantasy BAseball Leagues Rules


2022 Fantasy Baseball


League Types

We offer 2 options for leagues:
1) 5x5 Roto league
2) Head-to-head Points league

5x5 Roto (Rotisserie Scoring)
In a 12-team Rotisserie league, your team is awarded points according to its order of finish in each statistical category. Your team's point totals for each category are then added together for your team's overall score, and standings are based on these overall scores. The first-place team in a statistical category (e.g., Home Runs) gets 12 points, second-place 11 points, and so on with the last-place team in the category getting 1 point. If two teams are tied within a category, each team receives an average of the total points available; so if two teams tie for first place in a category, each team gets 11.5 points rather than 12 to the first-place team and 11 to the second-place team.

Batting Categories Pitching Categories
Team Batting Average                                    
Team Earned Run Average
Runs Wins
RBI's Saves
Home Runs Team WHIP (walks+hits)/innings pitched)         
Stolen Bases Strikeouts

Rosters - 5x5 Roto Leagues
During your league's Rotisserie draft, each owner will draft 30 MLB players. There are no minimums or maximums for each position but keep in mind the starting lineup when drafting:

Lineup settings - Rotisserie Leagues
PositionWeekly Lineup
Catcher (C)2
First Basemen (1B)1
Second Basemen (2B)1
Third Basemen (3B)1
Shortstops (SS)1
Outfielders (OF)5
Middle Infielder (MI)1
Corner Infielder (CI)1
Utility (U)1
Pitchers (P)9
Total starters
23

Rotisserie Notes:
  • You may elect to start any combination of pitchers (SP or RP) on any given week but your team's pitching staff must accumulate at least 1000 innings pitched over the course of the season or it will be placed in last place in the team ERA and WHIP categories.
  • Pitchers' hitting stats will not generate any hitting points, and batter's pitching stats will not generate pitching points.
  • In the event that there are any regular season tie-breaker playoff games, the statistics accumulated in such games will NOT be counted towards your overall Rotisserie score.
  • Utility (U) - any position except pitcher can be used
  • Middle Infielder (MI) - 2B or SS can be used
  • Corner Infielder (CI) - 1B or 3B can be used
  • Weekly lineup submissions - once a player's team begins their 1st game of scheduled week, the player will be locked. 

Position Eligibility
During the season, all MLB position players will remain eligible at their initial (pre-season) designated primary position, and will also be eligible at any position at which they played at least 20 games in the previous season (2021) or at least 5 games in current season (2022). Also, be aware that a player's primary position may change at any time.

Note: Categories that are based on percentages (e.g., Batting Average, Earned Run Average, etc.) are determined by adding the individual numbers of every player on your team, and then computing the average. We do NOT compute a percentage for each individual player and then compute a team average. For example, if you have two batters -- one goes 1-for-1 (1.000 BA) and the other 0-for-4 (.000 BA), then the team BA is .200 (1-for-5), NOT .500 (the average of 1.000 and .000.)

Payouts - Roto 5x5 (12 team leagues)

              $50               
         $100          
             $200              
             $500              
1st place
$250
$575
$1,200
$3,000
2nd place
$100
$225
$500
$1,500
3rd place
$50
$100
$200
$500

Head-to-Head Points Leagues
During each week (Monday-Sunday, with the exception of Week 1 which takes place from Opening Game to 2nd Sunday), two teams face each other in a Head-to-Head match-up. Each team earns points based on statistics accumulated by its players that week. Point values are listed below.

For each head-to-head matchup, the team with the greater number of points will earn a Win and the team with the lesser number will earn a Loss. In the event of tie, it will remain a tie in the standings for the regular season. 

Rosters - Head to Head Leagues
During your league's Head to Head draft, each owner will draft 22 MLB players.

Lineup and Roster Settings - Head to Head Leagues
PositionWeekly Lineup
Catcher (C)1
First Basemen (1B)1
Second Basemen (2B)1
Third Basemen (3B)1
Shortstops (SS)1
Outfielders (OF)3
Utility (U)1
Starting Pitchers (SP)5
Relief Pitchers (RP)2
Total starters16


Head to Head Point Values
Batting CategoryPoint ValuePitching CategoryPoint Value
Single1 pointWin6 points
Double2 pointsSave3 points
Triple3 pointsLoss
-3 points
Home Run4 pointsStrikeout1 point
RBI1 pointBase on Balls-1 point
Run1 pointInning Pitched1 point
Base on Balls1 pointEarned Runs
-1 point
Strikeout-1 point

Stolen Base
2 points

Caught Stealing-1 point



 
Head-to-Head Notes:
  • Pitchers' hitting stats will not generate any hitting points, and batter's pitching stats will not generate pitching points.
  • BFBL attempts to place correct designations for all players. Unfortunately, there may be an incorrect designation that won't be automatically corrected by our software, especially with SP and RP. BFBL reserves the right to change a player's designation AND to adjust a starting lineup accordingly when an owner chooses to start a player with an incorrect designation. ie. A SP as a RP
  • In the event that there are any regular season tie-breaker playoff games, the statistics accumulated in such games will NOT be counted towards your Head-to-Head score.
  • Utility (U) - any position except pitcher can be used
  • Weekly lineup submissions - once a player's TEAM begins their 1st game of scheduled week, the player will be locked for the week. 
  • Ohtani - there are two Ohtani's - one Ohtani is the Pitcher and can accumulate only pitcher stats and the other Ohtani is the DH and can only accumulate hitting stats.
  • NEW for 2021 - Stolen Bases are now worth 2 points.
  • 20 week regular season schedule will be used
  • 12 teams, 2 divisions, 6 teams per division
  • 6 teams make playoffs (2 division winners + 4 wildcard teams)
  • Regular Season tiebreaker is total points
  • 2 division winners receive a bye week 21, 4 wildcard teams play #3 vs. #6 seed, #4 vs. #5 seed
  • Week 22 - Semi-finals (#1 seed vs. lowest remaining seed)
  • Week 23 - Finals
  • Playoff Tiebreaker - in the event of a tie during a head-to-head match-up in the playoffs, the higher seed wins the tiebreak
Payouts - Head-to-Head Points Leagues (12 team leagues)

               $50               
               $100               
                 $200                  
                 $500                  
Champion
$250
$550
$1,150
$3,000
Runner-up
$100
$250
$550
$1,500
Total Points
$50
$100
$200 $500

Statistics Corrections

Stat corrections may occur up to seven days after the game has been completed. For example, for a Saturday game, the official scoring change would have to be made by the following Saturday to be included in our statistics. The final week of the regular season as well as throughout the playoffs, statistics will be final on Monday morning at 6am after the week of play has concluded.

Blind Bidding & Free Agency

BFBL uses Blind Bidding - the fairest and most intriguing method in fantasy sports. All teams receive $1,000 for the year in Bidding Bucks (not real money). Blind Bidding starts during the 1st week of games are played and continues throughout the season including playoffs - so you should spend wisely.

Blind Bidding starts Wednesday. Blind Bidding ends when games are complete on Sunday and the week has been updated (about 30 minutes after the last Sunday game is over). Once the Blind Bidding is over you still may pick up a player in what becomes a 1st come, 1st serve process that stays in effect until the first game starts on Monday.

NOTE: Any dropped players in the preseason will not become available until the first regular season week of blind bidding.

How Blind Bidding works:
- The team that bids the highest for a player will get him. Since this is a blind bidding process, no one knows what the others are bidding.    
- Bid minimum is $1.   
- If you win the bid at $55, and the next highest bid was $18, you still pay $55 for your player. 
- If there is a tie bid, the player is awarded to the team with the worst record. 2nd tie-breaker is lowest rank, final tie-break is whoever entered the league 1st. 
- The software will guide you through the process of bidding on players.   
- You are allowed to bid on multiple players for different bidding buck values for each player you would like to drop.
- To bid on multiple players for each player dropped, you will rank your preference of which players you most would like on your roster. Your 1st preference will be considered first. If someone outbids you, your 2nd preference is then considered and so on...
- You must have enough bidding bucks to bid on players.
- You will not be allowed to bid more than you have. 
- When a player is cut by an owner, that player will not become available again until the next Blind Bidding process. This will alleviate any problems with someone purposely dropping a player for a buddy who amazingly picks the player up that was just cut 5 minutes ago.

IMPORTANT - It is the owner's responsibility to reset your starting lineup once you acquire your new player(s).

1st come, 1st serve:
You may pick up as many free agent players that you would like once the Blind Bidding process is over and before the free agent's game is played that week.   

The cost is $10 bidding bucks for any free agent not picked up during the Blind Bidding process.


Trades


Weekly trading deadline is Saturday 9PM EST.
Season trading deadline is Saturday 9PM EST, July 9, 2022
All trades have a minimum 24 hour approval process (see below). Trades will not be approved until Sunday night. It is the owner's responsibility to reset your starting lineup once a trade has been approved.

Trades that have not been accepted or rejected before the deadline will be deleted. This will alleviate any issues of owners receiving offers but not responding and waiting until the opportunity to jump on the trade once they see it benefits them due to a players injury status changing.

If you proposed a trade to someone and it gets deleted at deadline, you could propose the same trade again the following week.
A trade will not be approved if any players involved in the trade are injured, suspended or any other reason that may keep them out a significant amount of time after the trade was proposed.
All trades will be reviewed and must be approved. An e-mail will be sent to all members of the league when a trade has been accepted. Any member of a league may protest the trade during a 24 hour period. If there is no protest and BFBL believes the trade is fair, the trade is allowed.

If a trade is protested, the owner protesting the trade MUST GIVE A VALID REASON why they think the trade cannot help one of the teams or show signs of collusion for the veto to be considered. A valid veto is a veto explained in detail how a trade cannot benefit one of the trading teams.If FFF agrees or is able to see the side of the protester, BFBL will then ask either both owners or just the owner perceived to be getting the lesser end of the deal their reasoning for the trade. If BFBL is satisfied that the trade is fair, the trade will stand. If BFBL is not satisfied with the answers, BFBL can reject the trade and will ask the parties to try and work another deal that would be fair.

INVALID VETO EXPLANATIONS & VETO PROCESS:

- One or two words how a trade is dumb is NOT a valid explanation.

- The number of vetoes for a trade does not matter. There could be one veto or 5 vetoes and the trade may or may not be approved.

- One team is getting the better of the deal is NOT a valid explanation.The purpose of a trade is to make your team better. If a team has surplus at one position - kudos to them, they drafted well and now have excess to trade in one position to improve another. That is THE key aspect in trading. You don't condemn a trade because someone had a good draft.

REASONS A TRADE IS DECLINED:

1) Collusion - an obvious attempt between 2 owners that know each other to improve one team at the expense of the other team.

2) The trade cannot in any way be beneficial to one of the trading teams.

3) There is a valid veto and when the owner who is perceived to be getting the short end of deal is asked to explain why they believe the trade helps their team, the owner replies that it doesn't or has an invalid explanation.

4) Dumping of players from a non-contender to a contending team. This typically would happen near the trading deadline.

5) Trading partners - 2 teams attempt to trade to help each other cover bye weeks & short-term injuries.

6) The trade will not improve one team because they are trading away significantly more than they are receiving from the other owner.

7) The trade is significantly benefiting one team more than the other.

8) One of the teams has a poor record or ranking and is trading away similar or better players than they are receiving to a team with a better record or ranking.

9) There is more than one pending trade involving the same player and the original trade is quite "unequal". Another team comes in and offers a more balanced trade. All trades involving the same player will be thrown out.

10)  Draft room trades are not allowed


As you can see from the above rules, BFBL takes trading seriously. Our #1 priority is to prevent any collusion from occurring. Most trades are approved but some will not. Rejected trades are more likely to happen closer to the trade deadline as some owners are looking to take advantage of struggling teams.

 

Head-to-head  12 TEAM SCHEDULE (2 DIVISIONS)


  A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6

Week 1

B1

B2

B3

B4

B5

B6

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

Week 2

B2

B3

B4

B5

B6

B1

A6

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

Week 3

B3

B4

B5

B6

B1

B2

A5

A6

A1

A2

A3

A4

Week 4

B4

B5

B6

B1

B2

B3

A4

A5

A6

A1

A2

A3

Week 5

B5

B6

B1

B2

B3

B4

A3

A4

A5

A6

A1

A2

Week 6

B6

B1

B2

B3

B4

B5

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

A1

Week 7

A2

A1

A4

A3

A6

A5

B2

B1

B4

B3

B6

B5

Week 8

A3

A6

A1

A5

A4

A1

B3

B6

B1

B5

B4

B2

Week 9

A4

A5

A6

A1

A2

A3

B4

B5

B6

B1

B2

B3

Week 10

A5

A3

A2

A6

A1

A4

B5

B3

B2

B6

B1

B4

Week 11

A6

A4

A5

A2

A3

A1

B6

B4

B5

B2

B3

B1

Week 12

B1

B2

B3

B4

B5

B6

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

Week 13

B2

B3

B4

B5

B6

B1

A6

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

Week 14

B3

B4

B5

B6

B1

B2

A5

A6

A1

A2

A3

A4

Week 15

B4

B5

B6

B1

B2

B3

A4

A5

A6

A1

A2

A3

Week 16

A2

A1

A4

A3

A6

A5

B2

B1

B4

B3

B6

B5

Week 17

A3

A6

A1

A5

A4

A1

B3

B6

B1

B5

B4

B2

Week 18

A4

A5

A6

A1

A2

A3

B4

B5

B6

B1

B2

B3

Week 19

A5

A3

A2

A6

A1

A4

B5

B3

B2

B6

B1

B4

Week 20

A6

A4

A5

A2

A3

A1

B6

B4

B5

B2

B3

B1

Week 21

Playoffs (Wildcard Week) - Division Winners receive bye

Week 22

Semi-finals

Week 23

Finals










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