The intention of this league is to mimic the job of an actual general manager as closely as possible. Therefore, there must be 3 main goals of this constitution: 1) create an environment that somewhat mirrors that of actual baseball; 2) to create a competitive league in a given year; and 3) to create a competitive league in following years. It is crucial that those managers who find themselves in the bottom half of the league in a given season have a reason to return for the next year, or else the league will collapse. Therefore, there must be safeguards put in place to ensure competitive balance, while at the same time allowing league managers to keep much of their team in place year-to-year.

1. Each team shall during the regular season maintain a roster of 22 major-league players that can fill out a starting lineup as defined below. The remaining 18 roster spots can be used for reserves, consisting of both major and minor leaguers.
   1. A roster of 22 major-league players capable of filling out a starting lineup as defined below shall be maintained regardless of any games started, games played or innings limits.
2. If at any time during the season any team's cap room is not greater than or equal to 40 minus the number of players on that team's roster up to 40, that team is considered in an invalid state. In this circumstance, the team will be frozen until the issue is resolved. The manager will be forced to cut a player to resolve this issue, and will not be able to perform any other activities in the game, including editing and making auction bids. However, bids already placed will be processed as described in section V. below, and trades that have already been accepted will process as expected.
   1. Functionally, this means that while teams do not need 40 players on their roster at all times, they must have at least $1 available for every free roster spot, not including extra roster spots due to a player being suspended, on the 60-day IL, on the COVID-19 IL, or opted out from the MLB season.
   2. Extra roster spots granted due to a player being suspended, on the 60-day IL, on the COVID-19 IL, or opted out from the MLB season do not grant extra cap space and are not factored when ensuring a team has enough money to fill their roster spots.
3. At no time shall a team willingly go over roster and salary cap limits. If a team knowingly does this, they will face penalties at the discretion of their league's commissioner.
4. Team rosters will be filled at an annual auction to be held some time near the start of the major-league season, as determined by the league's participants.
5. A team's starting lineup depends on the scoring system of the league.
   1. In non-head-to-head leagues, a starting lineup consists of one slot at each infield position (catcher, first base, second base, third base, and shortstop), five outfielder slots, one additional middle infielder (second base or shortstop) slot, one additional hitter from any position (utility slot), five starting pitcher slots, and five relief pitcher slots.
   2. In head-to-head leagues and during the playoffs, a starting lineup consists of one slot at each infield position (catcher, first base, second base, third base, and shortstop), five outfielder slots, one additional middle infielder (second base or shortstop) slot, one additional hitter from any position (utility slot) and five relief pitcher slots. The number of starting pitcher slots depends on the league's Per Week GS Cap setting
      1. If the Per Week GS Cap is set to 0, there are two SP slots
      2. If enabled, there are a maximum 5 SP slots on a given day. The number of slots will decrease as the team gets closer to the GS cap, down to 0 if a team has no more starts available in a matchup
   3. In regular season H2H games longer than one week (for example, the first matchup of the season and around the All-Star Break), the GS cap will be the same as it is for regular one week matchups
   4. In two-week playoff games, the GS cap will reset at the end of the first week and before the second week begins on the second Monday in the matchup
6. Player positional eligibility
   1. An offensive player is eligible to fill a position if he:
      1. Played in 10 or more regular season major league games at that position in the current or preceding year
      2. Started 5 or more regular season major league games at that position in the current or preceding year
      3. Played in 20 or more regular season minor league games at that position in the current or preceding year
   2. Players will be given SP eligibility if they are the starting pitcher in 5 regular season games in the current or preceding year
   3. Players will be given RP eligibility if they pitch in relief in 5 regular season games in the current or preceding year
   4. Players designated as pitchers by Ottoneu's stats provider will get a default RP eligibility if neither of the previous two rules apply to them
   5. All pitchers can be placed in either SP or RP positions on the lineup and roster organizer pages. However they will only accrue statistics if you use them in the same manner as their MLB team
      1. SP spots must be taken by pitchers who are starting in MLB games. If a player in a team's lineup SP slot does not start on the day they are in the SP slot, they will not accrue statistics
      2. RP spots must be taken by pitchers who are in the bullpen in MLB games. If a player in a team's lineup RP slot does start on the day they are in the RP slot, they will not accrue statistics.
   6. All players are given a default UTIL position elgibility.
   7. Players can only accrue statistics for your team in official, regular season Major League Baseball games.
   8. A player who has both positional and pitcher eligibility can be used in one slot per day or per week, in the case of a league with weekly lineups
      1. If that slot if hitting, then only his hitting stats will accrue for that day or week
      2. If that stat is pitching, then his pitching stats will accrue for that day or week
   9. Players are locked into a position spot 5 minutes before their game starts
   10. In the case of a doubleheader, players are locked 5 minutes before the first game of the doubleheader starts and for both games of the doubleheader
   11. The lineups page and roster organizer for non-head-to-head leagues allows for 2 catchers for platooning purposes; Ottoneu is not a 2-catcher game
7. The player pool comprises of all players in all Major League and Minor League baseball organizations, as well as living players who in the past have been under contract to play baseball in the Major or Minor Leagues

1. All managers will complete their rosters at the annual player auction to be conducted at the discretion of the league members and commissioner
2. Each manager receives $400 in salary cap money to fill their roster, including money spent on players retained from the previous season
3. The various statuses that result in extra roster spots are not considered during the auction draft, so if a team has a suspended player, 60-day IL player, COVID-19 IL player, or opted out player, they will count against the roster limit. Once the season begins, they no longer will count against the roster limit.
4. Players are nominated by managers, using the previous season's reverse order of finish to determine the nomination order
5. Each manager can leave the auction at any time. Once all 12 managers have left the auction, the auction is complete
6. If enabled in the league settings, each manager will be expected to nominate a player in turn. If a league chooses to require nominations and a team does not nominate a player, they will be considered done with the draft
7. You may not make any trades during the draft.  Trade discussion is acceptable, however no trades can be processed or acted upon from the time the first player goes on auction until teams involved in the trade both have full rosters as defined above

1. Stats and points will only accrue for players who play in major-league regular season games
2. League standings shall be determined by either category-based (rotisserie style) scoring or points-based scoring, depending on the particular league settings
3. The categories used for scoring depend on the various game types
4. Players with two-way eligibility will appear on the lineup page in both the hitter and pitcher sections and are eligible to accrue stats in both pitching and hitting in a single day.
5. MLB stat corrections will be applied as necessary and in as timely a fashion as possible. Stat corrections will affect team stat and point totals, but will not change H2H results after the fact

1. Starters can be changed daily by each team manager, except in leagues with weekly lineups enabled. In those leagues, starters can only be changed on the day of the week set by the commissioner
2. There are positional and inning caps for all season-long, non-H2H leagues
   1. Season-long leagues without playoffs have a 162 game maximum for all positional player positions, except for a 810 game maximum for OF. Season-long leagues without playoffs have a 1500 IP maximum for all pitchers
   2. Season-long leagues with playoffs have a 135 game maximum for all positional player positions, except for a 675 game maxiumum for OF. Season-long leagues with playoffs also have a 1250 IP maximum for all pitchers. These maximums only matter during the regular season and do not affect the playoffs
   3. A 'game' for a positional player constitutes of any appearance in a major league game, whether it be a start or any form of substitution
   4. The league site will not allow managers to start a player at a position where the maximums in games or innings pitched have been reached
   5. There is a 1250 IP minimum threshold for pitchers in Ottoneu Classic (4x4) leagues, which drops to 1040 IP for Ottoneu Classic (4x4) leagues with playoffs. If a team does not meet this threshold, it will receive 0 points for all pitching categories
   6. The innings maximum is a soft cap, meaning on the day a team goes over the 1500 IP limit, all the pitchers played that day will receive credit
   7. The game limits for positional players are a hard cap, with an exception for doubleheaders.
      1. If the last game in a positional slot is occupied by a player that plays both ends of a doubleheader, stats will accrue for both games in the doubleheader. This can result in going over a positional cap by one game
      2. If there are fewer games remaining than positional slots (i.e. C and OF), the site may temporarily show a team to go over game limits, but will correct itself as outlined here
3. There are no positional or IP caps for H2H leagues. H2H leagues have an option for a per week SP GS cap, which can be configured by the league commissioner
4. Playoff games are not affected by position or inning caps. Playoffs have an option for a per week SP GS cap, which can be configured by the league commissioner
5. If a player is suspended, on the 60-day IL, on the COVID-19 IL, or opted out of the MLB season, an additional player can be added to the roster. However, this player will still count against the salary cap, and cap penalties will be enforced as normal for any transactions brought about by the player's status changing

1. All adds/drops are processed by the team managers. If necessary, the commissioner can be called upon to make these changes
2. If you wish to add a player to your roster, you must start an auction for the player, and bidding will end 48 hours after the start of the auction. The player must be within the Ottoneu player universe as defined by rule I.f. The player will be awarded to the manager who bids the most for the player, with any ties going to the team lower in the standings. If two teams are tied or the regular season has not begun yet, a coin flip will determine who is awarded the player. The team that nominated the player is obligated to bid on the player
3. All in-season auctions are Vickrey auctions with blind bidding. The player is awarded to the team that makes the highest bid, and the player's salary is $1 more than the second highest bid. If there are no other bids, the player is awarded for $1 or the player's cap penalty if applicable. If two teams are tied for the highest bid, the player salary is that amount. If no one bids at all, the nominating team is awarded the player for $1 or the player's cap penalty if applicable
4. Teams are allowed to bid such that they would go over roster or cap limits if they win the auction. If they do win the auction, they will have to get under roster and cap limits before they can set their lineups, make trades, or bid on other auctions
5. When a player is dropped, other team managers have 24 hours to claim him on waivers for 100% of his salary, with the team lowest in the standings getting priority. If the regular season has not begun yet, a coin flip will determine who is awarded the player
6. If a player passes through waivers, 50% of his salary, rounding up, counts against his previous team's salary cap as a cap penalty, until he is claimed by another team, reauctioned by the cutting team (see rule g. below) or until the end of the current season. Any bids for him as a free agent must be at least 50% of his previous salary
   1. Functionally, this means cutting a $1 player provides no cap relief until the player is claimed or otherwise added to another team
   2. An exception to the cap penalty occurs if an active player passes away mid-season. In this case, cap penalties for the player will be removed globally and the player will be removed from the player pool
7. The team that dropped the player may not nominate or bid on the player until 30 days after the drop date, unless the keeper deadline or the league's auction draft occurs in between the drop date and the player's new auction
8. Transactions can be requested from the day of the annual draft until the next-to-last day of the regular season. All auctions must be completed prior to midnight of the last day of games of the season. For example, if the last game of the season is on a Sunday , all auctions must be started by midnight Eastern Time on Friday night
9. If a team's manager changes, the new manager is given the opportunity to make one round of penalty-free cuts

1. Trades shall be allowed during the season from the conclusion of the annual player auction until midnight, Eastern Time, on the night of August 31st. Trades will be allowed during the offseason from when arbitration voting is completed until the keeper deadline
2. Uneven trades are allowed, although they will be handled as follows: If team A is acquiring 3 players while trading 1 to B, team A must stay below or at the 40-man limit or must also cut 2 additional players of their choosing in accordance with the rules in section V
3. Salary cap dollars can be traded between teams (i.e. team A can agree to count one half of a traded player's salary against their cap). However, these loans will not remain in place once the regular season ends
4. After a trade is confirmed, league managers have 24 or 48 hours to review the trade, per league settings. If a majority (50% + 1 vote) of league managers object to the trade, it will not be finalized. This clock begins automatically once both teams have accepted the trade on the site

1. Leagues may choose to have playoffs to determine their league champion. This is determined by a league setting that can be updated during the offseason but cannot be changed once the MLB regular season and Ottoneu regular season start
2. There are 3 playoff options, which determine how many teams make the playoffs and how long the playoffs last:
   1. Wild Card This option creates a wild-card round and a first round bye for the top 2 teams in the league. This is the only option that will put 6 teams in the playoffs. 4 will play 5 and 3 will play 6 in the first playoff week, and the winners will be re-seeded and play in the second playoff week. The championship will occur during the 3rd and 4th playoff weeks.
      1. For leagues without any divisions, the top 6 teams will make the playoffs based on the final standings.
      2. For leagues with divisions, the division winners make the playoffs as the top seeds, and the remaining teams are picked based on the best record regardless of division.
   2. No Wild-Card, Extended Semifinal The top 4 teams make the playoffs, with the 1 playing 4 and 2 playing 3. The semi-finals will occur over the first two playoff weeks and the finals will occur over the second two playoff weeks. Both playoff rounds will be two weeks long
      1. For leagues without any divisions, the top 4 teams will make the playoffs based on the final standings.
      2. For leagues with divisions, the division winners make the playoffs as the top seeds, and the best remaining teams by record make the playoffs as the wild-cards. The division winners are the top seeds and the remaining teams are seeded to set matchups.
   3. No Wild-Card, Regular Semifinal The only difference between this option and the previous option is that the semifinals will occur over the first playoff week and the finals will occur on the 2nd and 3rd playoff weeks. This is the only way to avoid the final week of the season. Seeding and team selection will occur as it does in the previous option
3. All playoff matchups will take on a head-to-head format, regardless of what league format you have during the regular season. You can select between SABR and FG point systems depending on your preference.
4. There will only be 1 C slot and either 2 SP slots or a customizable starting pitcher GS cap in the playoffs, as per the limitations in the H2H game modes

1. Before the end of arbitration, players may not be cut. Between the end of arbitration and the keeper deadline, players may be cut or traded. After the keeper deadline and before the auction draft, teams may not cut or trade any players.
2. Managers shall be permitted to retain any of their players at a salary which is increased based on their previous year salary.  Rules for salary increases are as follows: 
   1. Players who have played in at least one MLB regular season game in the past 2 MLB seasons will have their salary increase by $2.
   2. All other players will have their salary increase by $1.
3. In the interest of maintaining competitive balance, there are two distinct arbitration options.
   1. Allocations
      1. The allocation system gives a $25 budget to each team in the league.
      2. The team must allocate this budget towards players on other teams.
      3. Each team must allocate at least one dollar to every other team, and no team can allocate more than $3 to any other team.
      4. At the end of the allocation period, all players have their salary increased by the amount allocated towards them.
      5. Allocations take place after the initial offseason salary increase, so any allocations will be in addition to the $1 or $2 increase each player gets at the end of the season.
      6. If a team does not allocate at least one dollar to every other team, none of their allocations will count and it will be as if they did not participate at all.
      7. If a team does not allocate all $25, none of their allocations will count and it will be as if they did not participate at all.
   2. Vote Off
      1. The vote-off system gives each team in the league the ability to vote on a player on each other team.
      2. The player that receives the most votes collectively on each team is turned into a restricted free agent that can be bid on by other teams during the auction draft.
      3. In the case of a tie, the standings of all the relevant voting teams is examined. Whichever player has the team with the worst standings voting for them is the restricted free agent.
      4. The team they were voted off from will get an automatic $5 discount towards that player, so if they get the player back, they will get the player for $5 under what they bid.
      5. Players who have been voted into restricted free agency cannot be traded.
      6. Players who have been voted into restricted free agency will not appear as free agents on the site.
4. After arbitration and before the keeper deadline, teams are free to make trades and cut players penalty-free
5. Teams must always be able to field a 40 man roster for $400; therefore following the keeper deadline, a team salary must never exceed $360 + the number of players on the roster. However, there is no salary cap from the end of the MLB season until the keeper deadline.
6. The auction process in each later year is the same as in year 1.
   1. Teams that are not under roster limits as defined in I. b. are not allowed to participate in the Auction Draft
   2. Commissioners have the right to remove players from teams that are over limits after the keeper deadline in order to allow them to paricipate in the Auction Draft. Commissioners should work with the other managers in the league and use their best discretion in making these types of roster moves.
7. Teams may not trade salary cap dollars between seasons.

1. The administration fee for each team starts at $20
   1. Please read Terms for Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball prize leagues for more information.
   2. You must manage the team on the day payouts are made (generally just before arbitration starts) to be eligible for prizes.
2. Refunds will be given in the case that a league is canceled or not filled before the Major League Baseball season starts, or if a manager withdraws their team from a league before it has drafted. The "withdraw" option is available to eligible teams on the Team Settings page.
3. Under no circumstances can administration fees be transferred from one team to another.