Moonlight Graham Fantasy Baseball League Constitution

I. ORGANIZATION

A.            The Moonlight Graham Fantasy Baseball League is dedicated to the enjoyment of the game, the thrill of competition, and the camaraderie of membership.

B.            Owners must utilize APBA’s Baseball For Windows, version 5.75. An owner may still participate with version 5.5, but it will be his responsibility to obtain and use the League Play File Utility Tool to load and create 5.75-compatible files.

C.            The unmodified APBA data disk is the league standard. Only corrections officially announced by APBA will be made to the disk, and one exception as outlined in VII.

D.            The moonlight-graham group at groups.io is the official communications channel for trade announcements, file posting, and general league correspondence. When the commissioner posts results for a series, the deadlines for visiting teams to update their files and the home teams to play their files will also be announced.

E.            There shall be one League having three Divisions of four teams each.

F.            During the off-season, the commissioner shall open a time period for proposals to amend the constitution. Changes will be made with approval of majority of the voting owners.

G.            There are no league dues.

 

II. OWNERS

A. As GM, owners should build their teams to be competitive both no and future. As manager, owners should utilize their rosters to maximize the number of wins each and every season.

B.  Managers are expected to be timely in posting results, responding to league-wide e-mails and making draft picks.

C.  Any micro-manager can be used by road teams. Each owner is responsible for making his micro-manager available to everyone else. This means the most recent edition of the MM. Most MMs have undergone a few revisions.

 

III. ROSTERS

A. Rosters are limited to 40 players, which may include ‘uncarded’ players.

B. Each manager must have on his/her roster players with sufficient amount of usage to fill each position for the duration of the season.

C. The active roster for a series is 27. 12 must be pitchers. Five players must have starting pitcher grades and must have MBF remaining in the season.

D. If a player is uncarded but has one year left under contract, the team owning the player may retain the rights to the uncarded player as long as the remaining contract is paid. The uncarded player is counted against the 40-man roster limit.

E. Teams may choose to hold over uncarded players in the second year of a contract. Such players WILL count against the 40-man roster limit, and WILL be paid. They will be added to the data disk with a ‘zz’ added to the beginning of their last names. All their ratings will be minimized to worst value, and their batting cards will be edited so all results are 13.

F. Players are not permitted to start games with fatigue statuses of ‘Tired,’ ‘Bushed,’ or ‘Worn Out’. If injuries and fatigue leave a team with no players on the 26-man active roster available for a certain duty, the home manager shall contact the visiting owner and see what roster move(s) to make. If no reply is received in a timely manner, the home owner may promote players from the visitor’s farm club at his discretion, making corresponding demotions of fatigued players. If a team is unable to field a lineup by dipping into its farm roster, the following procedures shall be followed to fill the position:

     1.  Position players: The replacement player shall be the unaffiliated player who plays the needed position, is highest rated by Advanced Draft, and has a 930/100 PR/SF.

     2. Pitchers with no SP rating are not allowed to start games. If no pitcher on a 40-man roster is able to start a game, the replacement player shall be the unaffiliated SP with the most MaxBF, NOT including players assigned 1100 MaxBF due to low grades.

     3. Rosters must include at least five relievers, defined as any unbenched pitcher NOT listed in the starting rotation for a series. If a team falls below five RPs at the start of a series, it will be assigned a replacement reliever (in this case, RP grade only) with the most MaxBF, NOT including players assigned 1100 due to low grades.

G. Players assigned in the event of fatigue problems shall remain on the team’s 40-man roster for the balance of the season. The will be on one-year, $500,000 contracts which are NOT renewable at season’s end.

H. Position players pitching shall be governed mainly in two ways: 1- The League Manager function that identifies and clones official ‘Two-Way Players’ will be used. Second, the option to use 2023 MLB rules for position players pitching shall be turned on. Also, position players who are used as occasional relief pitchers will be limited to their real-life pitching appearances plus one, after which their pitching ratings will be removed. What this section does not address at this time, which may require changes in the future: a regular hitter who is also a regular reliever, penalties for an owner who egregiously exceeds usage in such a player's secondary AIM role, and abuse of other pitchers with good hitting cards, who may or may not have played field positions.

 

IV. THE DRAFT

A.      The draft shall be conducted during a time frame and by a method specified by the Commissioner.

B.      Any player carded on an American League roster on the official APBA disk may be drafted.

C.      The order for the yearly draft shall be determined by inverse order of winning percentage of the previous year. Ties between two teams will be broken by head-to-head records. The team which fared poorer in the head-to-head series will receive the higher pick. If that is a tie, or if multiple teams are tied for a position, a random, public manner of deciding the pick will be used. The Moon Series winner will draft 12th and the Moon Series runner-up will draft 11th. In the 1st round, teams finishing below .500 will participate in a weighted lottery for the first two picks of the 1st round. A random, public manner patterned after the NBA's lottery process from 1990-1993 lottery shall be devised, announced, and executed by the commissioner or his designee.

D.   A team must stop drafting once it has reached the roster limit.

 

V. MONEY SYSTEM

A. Each team will be assigned $21,000,000 per year to pay salaries and fines. Players are paid at the close of the trading period following the annual draft. This is in addition to any carryover balance from the year before.

B. Each player drafted shall be given a 2-year contract at the time of his drafting

C. The first player chosen will be assigned a salary of $500,000. Each subsequent player drafted receives a contract of $3,000 less per year, to a floor of $200,000. Selections that are passed while the passing team is below the roster limit will still result in the stepping-down of $3,000 for the next selection.

D. Players whose contracts have expired may be renewed for a 50% raise for a new two-year contract.

E. Every contract is guaranteed. A player who is cut with a year remaining on his contract must be bought out of that year.

F. Players who are carded on an NL roster on the official APBA data disk are not eligible for contract renewal or to be drafted.

G. Players who are uncarded because they have officially retired may be released from the second year of a contract at no cost to the team.

H. If a player dies while under contract, the team that he belongs to will not have to pay any of his remaining salary.

I. Non-playoff teams that finish .500 or better for the season shall be given a $2,000,000 bonus. Playoff teams that lose in the first round will receive a $1,000,000 bonus.

 

VI. TRADING

A.      Trading is permitted from the end of the Moon Series through one week after the completion of the annual draft.

B.      Trades become official only when reported by all teams involved.

C.      Draft picks in Rounds 1-5 may be traded. Draft picks may only be traded for the upcoming draft, or, in the case of trades consummated during a draft, that draft only.

     D.  There are no "players to be named later."

     E.  A trade may not leave a team over the 40-man roster limit.

     F.  Players may be sold for cash and cash may be included in trades.

 

VII. PLAY SETTINGS, OPTIONS, AND AIM CHANGES

- Games Per Team: 162

- League Play: Yes

- Wild-Card Teams: Yes

- Bench Pitching Rotation: No

- Boxscores Not Saved: No

- Based on Games Per Team: 162

- Injury and Fatigue Rules: Fatigue Only

- Pitcher Durability and Recovery: Early 21st Century

- Enforce Batters Faced Limits: Yes

- No PR 930: No

- Pregame AIM Auto Substitutions: Yes

- Pregame AIM AutoSub Platoon: Yes

- Pause Pregame for: Tired, Bushed, Worn Out

     - Game Rules: only the DH enabled

     - Pitcher 3 Batter Rule: OFF

-   Grade 1 and 2 pitchers will be allowed 1100 Batters Faced. Such pitcher will have their J-ratings changed to J1 if not already J1 or J0.

-   Position players will have their SFs adjusted to 100 through the ‘All SF set to 100’ function of AIM.

 

 VIII. SCHEDULE

A.      League play shall commence on or about April 1st of each year.

B.      Playoffs and the World Series will be played immediately after the conclusion of the regular season.

C.      Each team shall play 22 games against each team in its own division and 12 games against each team in the other divisions for a 162-game schedule. Each series will be five or six games long. Teams will play 28 series during the season, lasting one week. Results files will be posted on Sunday nights, with visiting team f-file deadlines on Wednesday nights, with changes to dates in the cycle announced as needed by the commissioner.

D.      Managers may use domed or un-domed stadia at their discretion.

E.      Games which are rained out will rescheduled by the commission during future series at the site of the rainout. If no such series exist, games will only be made up if they have an impact on the playoffs.

 

IX. PLAYOFFS and MOON SERIES

A. The three division winners and the non-division winner with the best record will participate in a two-tiered playoff to determine the league champion. Both rounds will be best-of-7. The team with the best record will face the wild-card team unless the teams come from the same division, in which case the top seed will play the division winner with the worst record in the first round.

B. Two-way ties which decide which team makes the playoffs will be broken by a one-game playoff, which will be, for statistics and fatigue purposes, counted as part of the regular season. Ties which simply determine seeding will be broken by head-to-head record, with the team having the better head-to-head record getting the higher seed.

C. Three-way tie for Division winner or Wild Card only:

1. Head to head record among all three teams - If 2 teams are tied ahead of the 3rd in this tie-break, then use two-team tie break.

2. If head-to-head is tied three ways, random public manner of choosing one team.

D. Three-way tie for Division Winner AND Wild Card slots:

1. Head to head record among all three teams. Two best records get the two spots, with tie-break for seeding treated like a two-way tie-break.

2. If two teams are tied for the second playoff spot, then treat like a two-way tie break

3. If head-to-head is tied three ways, random public manner of choosing two teams

E. Series will be played in a 2-3-2 format, with a day off between location changes. Each visiting manage will be given an option to make changes before every game, if he so desires.

F. AIM settings carry over from the regular season. However, MaxBF is not available for postseason segments.

G. Pitchers who made 1-10 real-life starts can make only one start in a post-season series. Pitchers who make 11-20 real-life starts can make two starts per series. Pitchers with at least 21 starts can start three times if fatigue allows.

H. Hitters are limited to starts in a post-seasons series per the chart below. A player may bat once per game in any game he does not start. This serves as a cap to player usage beyond any limits AIM may impose.

              1-100 PA = one start per series
              101-200 PA = two starts per series
              201-300 PA = three starts per series
              301-400 PA = four starts per series
              401+ PA = unlimited starts per series
 

X. COMMISSIONER

A.            The Commissioner shall act to ensure league competitive balance, maintain all league statistics, compile league files, and arbitrate any disputes. To act as final arbiter for any and all situations not covered by these rules.

B.            The Commissioner is empowered to replace managers who are negligent in drafting, playing games, or responding to league e-mails.

C.            The league commissioner is Chris Strovel, effective for the 2018 season.

         1. The Commissioner can be removed at any time by affirmative votes of two-thirds of the League managers.

         2. The Commissioner cannot vote in any recall election.

D.            The Commissioner's responsibilities, which may be delegated to volunteers:

1)  Maintaining a World Wide Web Page for the League.

2)  Posting Commissioner Files in a timely manner after receiving and compiling games

3)  Keeping track of player contract status.

4)  Organizing and operating the draft.

5)  Attracting new owners in the event of expansion or an owner's departure.

6)  Keeping league records.

1/21/25 – updated sections III.C, III.F.3, III.G, and VII after league-wide rule change votes

2/5/19 – Added III.H and IX.H after league votes. Corrected X.C, Clarified VII to use auto pro-rating feature of LM and add J1 vote

11/10/18 – Clarifications in I.B, I.D, V.D, VIII.E, X.D.4, and X.D.6.

2/27/18 - III.A, V.A, VI.E amended. IX amended and reformatted.

2/9/17 - I.C, II.A, IV.C, VI.C, V.F, X.C, X.D updated. IX.D created. II.D and II.F deleted.

10/16/12 - Various sections updated.