I.
Organization
The Cerberus baseball league is organized into three separate divisions.
Each division corresponds to a clique of major league baseball teams.
The Alpha Division is bound to the American League East and the National League West divisions, while
the Beta Division is restricted to the National League Central, and the American League West.
The Delta Division is associated with teams from the National League East and the American League Central.
A team within a particular division will compete only against teams that are also within that division.
There are eight Cerberus Baseball League teams in each division.
Owners within the Cerberus baseball league will be divided into factions.
A faction will own one team in each of the three baseball divisions.
A faction may consist of one or more actual owners.
Decisions, such as amendments to this rulebook, will be based upon factions.
A faction consisting of more than one owner must determine by itself how it will govern itself.
The commissioner may serve as a mediator for disputes within a faction, but the commissioner
has no authority over how a faction will be organized.
Each faction, with the exception of the commissioner, will be expected to pay $25 in dues each season.
This money will be used to fund the website, and to provide the prizes at the end of the season.
A financial report will be provided in January of each year.
The structure of each division can be independent of the other divisions.
Thus, it's possible to have different playing time requirements or rules for each division.
II Structure
Each year, one of the three divisions will be played in a centralized fashion.
This division will rotate such that each division will be centralized once every three years.
In those years divisible by three, the Alpha Division will be centralized.
In those years divisible by three with a remainder of one, the Beta Division will be centralized.
In those years divisible by three with a remainder of two, the Delta Division will be centralized.
Thus, for the inaugural 2008 season, the Delta Division will be centralized.
In 2009, the Alpha Division will be centralized, and in 2010, the Beta Division will be centralized.
In 2011, it will be the Delta Division's turn again. The remaining divisions will be in a head-to-head format.
When the Alpha Division is playing head-to-head, the Alpha Division games will always be in April May and June.
When the Delta Division is playing head-to-head games, their gains always be played in July, August and September.
When the Beta Division is also being played head-to-head, it will be played in the months not assigned to the other Division.
Thus, the Beta Division will sometimes play in the first half of the season, and sometimes in the second half of the season.
The Division playing head-to-head games in April May June will be designated as the spring league,
whereas the teams playing head-to-head games in July, August and September will be designated as the fall league.
III Centralized League
The centralized league will play 154 game schedule, consisting of 22
games against all of the other seven teams in the division. The league
schedule will be created automatically by the computer on the
commissioner's computer. The commissioner, or his appointed
representative will play the games every Wednesday night. Deadline for
turning in updated manager profiles will be on the Monday preceding the
Wednesday of the games to be played. Results of the weeks games will be
posted to the website by the end of the day on Wednesday.
Centralized leagues will have no playing time penalties. In order
to be allowed on the active centralized team roster, a position player
must have at least 50 plate appearances and a pitcher
must have faced at least 50 batters of both sides. In order to be a
starting position player, a player must have a total of 251 or more
plate appearances, and at least 50 plate appearances
against both right- and left-handed pitchers. In order to be a starting
pitcher, a pitcher must have a starter rating as assigned by Diamond
Mind Baseball, and pitched at least 81 innings.
Any trades in a centralized league must be reported and the manager profiles must be updated by the Monday preceding
the Wednesday the games are to be played.
In order for this to happen, both teams must update their own manager's profiles to reflect the trade,
and then send the updated manager profiles to the commissioner.
An e-mail announcing the trade and an e-mail confirmation must also be received by the commissioner on the Monday before
the trade is to become official.
All trades will be posted to the website as soon as they are confirmed.
In order for a trade to be effective for the current season, it must be completed before August 1.
In all other aspects, the centralized legal conforms to the same rules as the head-to-head play.
IV Head-to-Head Leagues
The head-to-head leagues will play
an 84 game schedule, consisting of 12 games against each of the other
seven teams in the Division. Head-to-head leagues are played in monthly
cycles.
In each month, every team will play 28 games -- 14 on the road and 14
at home. Teams will play the same opponents both at home and on the
road in a given month. The home games will be played on 14 consecutive
days.
Teams are restricted to using the same rosters at home and on the road.
Furthermore, the same starting pitchers must be used in the
corresponding home and road games.
The trading deadline in head-to-head leagues is one week before the
start of the monthly cycle.
Any trade completed after the week before the last month of the season,
will be made official after the end of the season and does not affect
any part of the current season including the playoffs.
In order for a trade to be official, there must be an e-mail announcing
the trade and an e-mail confirmation sent to the commissioner All
trades will be posted to the website as soon as they are confirmed.
During each play cycle, a team will have five opponents.
Before the first of the month, each opponent must receive a copy of the team's managers profiles
including the starting pitchers for that series.
A series will consist of either two or three games.
The active roster for each manager profile must be the same, and must match the active roster for the team's home games.
The home games are played consecutively and in order on the home team's computer. No roster moves or resting is allowed
during the game play.
Players are limited to 60% of their playing time (defined as plate appearances for hitters
and batters faced for pitchers) for the Major
league baseball season for the Cerberus Baseball League season.
Whenever a player plays in a game after going over 60% of his playing
time, this will be considered a penalty game.
At the end of the season, all penalty games will be subtracted from the
wins of the team and added to their losses in order to determine
playoff positioning.
Likewise, all penalty games will be added to the win total and
subtracted from the loss total in order to determine draft position.
V Specialized Division Rules
Each division may have specialized rules that will supersede the other rules for either centralized or head-to-head league play.
Those rules will be reported here. Currently, there are no such rules.
VI Playoffs
The winner of each division will qualify for the playoffs.
Likewise, the faction without a championship team, but having the most wins in all of the divisions combined,
will also qualify for the playoffs. This is known as the "qualifying team."
The centralized league total of wins will be prorated to match the same number of games as played in the head-to-head leagues.
The faction with the qualifying team will select one of its three teams to represent it in the playoffs.
If a faction has two or more teams winning a division, that faction is allowed to choose
a single team to represent it in the finals. Note that the selected team is automatically placed in the finals of the playoffs,
and does not have to play any other playoff games.
The playoffs will be held under the rules for head-to-head play.
Players will be limited to 10% of their diamond mind listed playing
time (defined as plate appearances for position players and batters faced for pitchers)
for the entire playoffs. Roster moves are allowed between the
rounds of the playoffs, but not during a playoff series.
All rounds of the playoffs are a best-of-seven series. The first
two games are played at one site, followed by an off day, then three games in a row at another site followed by an off day
then the final two games back at the original site.
The home-field advantage will always go to a division champion over the qualifying team.
If the series is played between two division champions, then it will go to the team with the best winning percentage.
It will be expected that playoff games will be played using the net play feature of diamond mind baseball.
The playoffs are to be completed before October 31.
VII All-Star Tournament
Concurrent with the playoffs will
be an All-Star tournament.
The All-Star tournament is a double elimination eight team contest that
will be played using the net play feature of Diamond Mind Baseball.
Each faction must choose 25 players from its three teams to represent
it in the All-Star tournament.
The same rules for qualifying for centralized league play apply to
being eligible for the All-Star tournament.
The teams in the All-Star tournament will be seeded according to total
wins across all three Divisions.
Again, the centralized league will be prorated to match the same number
of games as the head-to-head leagues.
The winner of the All-Star tournament will be allowed to sign three
additional players.
The second-place team will be allowed to sign two additional players.
The third and fourth place teams will each be allowed to assign one
additional player.
The extra signed players may be on one or more teams belonging to the
faction.
VIII Prizes
All factions owning a team qualifying for the
playoffs will not have to pay dues for the following season.
Additionally, a faction owning a team making it to the championship
game will receive a Diamond Mind player disk for the next season.
Finally, the championship team will receive a free baseball book such
as the Bill James handbook or similar tome.
IX Player eligibility
A player will be eligible in a Division if Diamond Mind Baseball provides him a player rating for a team in the group.
If a player changes Divisions between Cerberus Baseball League seasons, the player will remain the property of the same
faction However, he will change teams and only be allowed to play in his new Division.
A player that has spent time on multiple teams in different divisions, will have his playing time split between the divisions,
according to the distribution by Diamond Mind Baseball.
X Rosters
Each roster is limited to a total of 35 players on
each team.
Furthermore, each roster has 20 signed players (plus possible additions
due to the All-Star tournament).
A signed player will remain with that faction for the following season.
A player that is in multiple divisions must either be signed by the
same faction in all divisions or be unsigned in all divisions.
Signed rosters for the centralized league are due by December 1 of the
previous year.
Signed rosters for the spring league will be due by January 1 of that
year.
Signed rosters for the fall league will be due by February 1, of that
year.
The remaining players will be released into the free-agent pool, and
will be made available for the draft.
XI Draft
The draft for each division will be held separately.
Every draft will be serpentine with the worst team picking first in the
odd rounds and therefore also picking last in every even round.
Each draft will be conducted online in a chat room. The centralized
draft will be held in February.
The spring league draft will be held in early March. The fall league
draft will be held in May.
XI.A Initial Draft
This section pertains only to the initial draft of the Cerberus Baseball League.
A special stadium draft will be held in December.
The Centralized League draft (Delta Division) will be held in January. The Spring
League Draft (Alpha Division) will be held in February. The Fall League draft (Beta Division)
will be held in March.
The draft order for the stadium draft will be determined by the closest selection to the Texas
Pick 3 daytime lottery drawing on December 3rd. The stadium draft will be serpentine. A drafted
stadium can be assigned to any team in the faction, but no stadium can be assigned to more than
one team.
The draft order for the Centralized and Fall leagues will be inverted from the draft order of the
stadium draft.
The draft order for the Spring League will be the same as the stadium draft.
The winning lottery numbers can be found
here.
Signed rosters for the initial season will be due within 2 weeks of the end of the draft.
XIIGame Settings
The Cerberus Baseball League will have no designated hitter and no injuries.
Weather effects will be used but rainouts will be turned off.
XIII Free Agent Signings
There are no free-agent signings allowed in the Cerberus baseball leagues. Any player not drafted will be
available in next year's draft.
XIII.A Trading
Each league will have its own in-season trading deadline.
Trades made after the in-season trading deadline are effective on the next Diamond Mind season disk.
Trades can only be made within one league. Draft picks in the
upcoming draft can always be traded. Draft picks in the following year can be traded after the in-season
trade deadline.
XIV Amendments
This rulebook can be amended whenever five of the eight factions agree to make the amendment.
Amendments will be proposed in November, although they can be discussed at any time. There will be
the fewest number of voting periods needed to resolve any changes. However, all changes will be
determined by the end of November.
Voting on all issues is open, meaning that everyone knows how everyone votes.
XV Openings
If during the course of the season, a faction becomes vacant, the remainder of that season will be played
as computer-controlled opponents. The Commissioner, or his representative, will create a manager's profile to play
the rest of the games for all teams within that faction. No trades or other roster moves will be allowed to
take place. All teams belonging to that faction are ineligible for any postseason play, but are
also immune from any penalty games that may be incurred.
Openings will be filled during the off-season, but active recruiting will begin as soon as the opening is known.
If a faction becomes partially vacant, the commissioner will work with the remaining faction members to complete
the season.
XVI Schedule
This is the schedule for the Cerberus baseball league season.
November: Award prizes. Proposals to changes in the constitution and voting. Fill openings.
December: New DMB disk with updated player ratings. Centralized league signed roster deadline.
January: Spring league signed roster deadline. Financial report.
February: Fall league signed roster deadline. Centralized league draft.
March: Spring league draft. Spring league MP due. Centralized MP due.
April: Spring league 1st month games. Centralized games.
May: Spring league 2nd month games. Centralized games. Fall league draft.
June: Spring league ends. Centralized games. Fall league MP due.
July: Fall league 1st month games. Centralized games. Centralized trade deadline (7/31).
August: Fall league 2nd month games, Centralized games.
September: Fall league ends. Centralized league ends.
October: Playoffs and All-Star tournament.