Constitution

BP Guinea Pigs League Constitution

Article 1 - Terms
(a) Managers in the league will henceforth be termed participants.
(b) Players in the MLB universe will henceforth be termed players.
(c) Commissioner will henceforth refer to the commissioner (currently Richard).
(d) Hosting website will henceforth refer to the website where the game is played (currently Yahoo!).
(e) FLB blog will henceforth refer to the league blog (currently located at http://bpguineapigs.blogspot.com/).

Article 2 - General Rules
(a) Participants will begin with 25 roster slots and must start players as follows: 1 C, 1 1B, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 SS, 5 OF, 1 CI, 1 MI, 1 UTIL, 9 P. The final 3 slots will be bench slots that can be filled by any player. Once the season begins, an additional DL slot may be filled by an injured player as made eligible by the hosting website.
(b) Stat categories will be as follows: OFFENSE- R/ RBI/ HR/ SB/ OBP, PITCHING - W/ K/ ERA/ WHIP/ K:BB. Please note that in 2007 OBP replaced AVG and K:BB replaced SAVES.
(c) There is an innings pitched limit of 1500.
(d) There is an entry fee of $25 payable to the commissioner due on March 1. If this entry fee is not received by the deadline, the commissioner or his agents may find a replacement for the delinquent owner.
(e) There is a prize of $150 for 1st place, $75 for 2nd place, and $25 for 3rd place.
(f) In the event of a tie, the tiebreaker will be the order the teams are listed on the hosting website.
(g) The deadline for submitting keepers will be posted on the hosting website and the FLB blog. Submissions made after the deadline will be accepted solely at the commissioner's discretion. All finalized submissions must be emailed to the commissioner with the subject line - (Team Name) Keepers. Those emails will remain unopened until the deadline date, at which point all finalized keepers will be posted on the FLB blog. See Art. 4 for keeper rules.
(h) These rules are not exhaustive. Additional applicable rules and interpretative material may be found on the hosting website, the FLB blog, or elsewhere.
(i) Waiver priority at the start of the season shall be determined by the standings from the preceding year. The participant with the best record shall have top waiver priority, the participant with the poorest record shall have bottom waiver priority, etc.
(j) Rosters are frozen on the last day of the regular season until draft results are posted.

Article 3 - Auction Process
(a) The total budget for the auction will be $260. Dollar values for keeper player values (see Art. 4) will be subtracted from this total before the start of the auction.
(b) The auction will be comprised of as many rounds as necessary to fill up all participants' rosters.
(c) On draft day, participants will nominate players for bidding. The participant with poorest record the previous season will nominate the first player, and nominations will continue in a snake order thereafter until participants fill their rosters.
(d) A participant who nominates a player makes the initial bid on that player, which shall be not below $1. Another participant may bid a higher dollar amount in whole dollars. The highest final bid wins the player. Tying bids are not permitted.
(e) At no time may a participant bid more money than would be necessary to fill out all remaining empty roster spots on his team with $1 players.
(f) In the event that a participant bids an amount greater than his total remaining dollars as determined by (e) this bid will be disallowed at the time it is made. In the event that this error is not brought to the commissioner's attention until bidding has closed on that player, bidding shall be re-opened at the last acceptable bid if this violation is significant and noted in a timely fashion. If these conditions are not met, then the commissioner may fashion an appropriate remedy if necessary.
(g) The commissioner will give two warnings when the bidding slows down that bidding is about to conclude. If there are no additional bids after the second warning, the commissioner will call an end to the bidding (e.g. "going...going...gone."). The winning bidder will be awarded the player and his budget will be adjusted accordingly. No bids will be accepted after the commissioner concludes the bidding.
(h) Once a participant fills his roster with players he will be ineligible for subsequent nomination of or bidding on players.

Article 4 - Keepers
(a) Each participant may tag up to 4 players as keepers per year. A participant may tag as few keepers as desired. Keepers are not eligible for the auction.
(b) In general, keeper value is set at the value paid for player in the previous year's auction plus inflation. This means that each player kept in YEAR 1 shall cost his YEAR 1 value plus an additional $3 to keep in YEAR 2.
(c) In all cases, the minimum value for any player tagged as a keeper will be $15 notwithstanding a lesser auction day cost.
(d) Value may be adjusted downward by the amount of time that the player spent injured during the season and/or the player's acquisition status (i.e. having been released by the team that owned him at the start of the season and picked up on waivers or the FA market). See(e)-(g) for devaluation rules.
(e) A player's keeper value as determined by his auction day cost shall be reduced by $3 for the subsequent year if that player is picked up off of waivers or free agency. Only one such deduction can be claimed per year.
(f) For players who are hitters: A player’s initial keeper value as determined by auction day cost is reduced in price by $6 for the subsequent year if he plays in 81 or fewer games due to injury. A player’s keeper value is reduced in price by $3 for the subsequent year if he is limited to playing in fewer than 120 games, but more than 81 games due to injury. In no case shall a player’s keeper value be reduced below the floor value for keepers of $15.
(g) For players who are starting pitchers: A player’s initial keeper value as determined by auction day cost is reduced in price by $6 for the subsequent year if he starts 17 or fewer games due to injury. A player’s keeper value is reduced in price by $3 for the subsequent year if he is limited to starting fewer than 25 games, but more than 17 games due to injury. In no case shall a player’s keeper value be reduced below the floor value for keepers of $15.
- Based on the rules above, any necessary devaluation for relief pitchers/ swingmen will be made at the discretion of the commissioner.
(i) Young Player Inflation Adjustment (YPIA) - Any player whose age is less than or equal to 25 on opening day of the season YEAR 1 shall not be subject to inflation if tagged as a keeper for YEAR 2. Should such a player be retained beyond that season (i.e. into YEAR 3), standard inflation would apply. This allows for one inflation-free year and shall be known as Young Player Inflation Adjustment (YPIA). A player may only be tagged once in his career with this status.
(j) Special Rule for 2007 Keeper Player Value - All 2007 keeper values will be determined based on a player’s draft slot during the 2006 draft. Players drafted in the first round are worth $27, those draft in round 2 are worth $24, those drafted in round 3 are worth $20, those drafted in round 4 or later are worth $15. In this year, all the other valuation rules apply.
(k) In the unlikely event that a participant contests a player's value, the commissioner will consider the objection and determine whether or not a value adjustment is warranted, and, if so, in what amount.
(l) In the unlikely event that a keeper becomes injured or otherwise unavailable in the time between the deadline for keeper selection and the start of the auction draft, a participant may name a replacement keeper if so desired, but that replacement must be submitted to the commissioner prior to the start of the auction. This allows for replacement due to significant injury or other factors that will prevent a keeper from playing during the season. The commissioner reserves the right to review all replacement requests and will determine whether or not a replacement is allowable and warranted under this rule.
(m) When a participant submits his keepers to the commissioner, participant must provide the commissioner with a good faith valuation of the keeper based on the aforementioned rules. If any circumstances apply besides the general rule regarding inflation, the participant must explain which circumstance applies to deviate from the general rule. The commissioner shall take this information into consideration when assigning final keeper values.
(n) The commissioner's posting regarding final keeper values on the FLB blog shall be authoritative.

Article 5 - Commisioner's Powers
(a) The commissioner shall have the power to make any changes to the rules that he deems fit so long as he gives the league adequate notice.
(b) The commissioner shall have the power to veto any trades consummated during or after the season. The commissioner shall exercise his veto only if the trade is grossly unbalanced. Factors to be considered include but are not limited to: 1) present value of the players, 2) future value of the players, 3) team standings, and 4) potential keeper cost.
(c) The commissioner shall have the discretionary power to correct any injustices occurring during the draft in the draft room.
(d) The commissioner shall have the power to impose sanctions on participants that violate any rules.
(e) Before exercising rule, veto, or sanction power, the commissioner shall obtain the advice and consent of an executive committee consisting of at least two other participants.
(f) In regards to any of the aforementioned commissioner's executive actions, any participant may call for a vote on these actions to be conducted by the commissioner. 5 votes are required to strike the commissioner's actions.