***Official Rules***
Jan 22, 2012 16:45:26 GMT -5
Post by Ben (Rays GM) on Jan 22, 2012 16:45:26 GMT -5
Note: As of June 2020, Brian (Blue Jays GM) is the head commissioner of Pro-GM. Jon (Astros GM) is taking over Brian's role as second-in-command, while Tucker (Padres GM), Smitty (Mets GM), and Max (Tigers GM) will continue serving as co-commissioners. Nick (Orioles GM) will also be stepping up as a co-commissioner. Ben (Rays GM) will continue to serve as an advisor, but is stepping down as commissioner of the league.
The following is an update of the official Pro-GM rules. They have been updated for clarity and to reflect all rule changes up to this point (1/31/18).
Welcome to Pro GM, a dynasty league where you take command of a Major League team and draft, trade, and sign free agents to try to turn it into a fantasy baseball champion year after year.
This league is free.
Honor Code:
By signing up for this league you agree to abide by the following:
"I will conduct myself in a manner that promotes fair play and fun for all. I will read these rules in their entirety and adhere not only to the letter of the law, but the spirit as well. I will not attempt any sort of collusion, cheating, or bending of the rules of any sort, even if not explicitly forbidden by these rules. I will remain involved and active in the league, and do my best to check this site often - at least once a day, if possible, throughout both the regular season and offseason. I understand that if at any time the commissioners feel that my continued participation is detrimental to the league, whether due to my behavior, lack of activity, or any other reason at their discretion, they have the power to fine my team, put me on probation, or remove me from the league, and I will respect that decision."
The commissioners of this league are Brian (Blue Jays GM), Jon (Astros GM),Tucker (Padres GM), Smitty (Mets GM) Max (Tigers GM), and Nick (Orioles GM). You may go to any of the above with any questions or issues.
1. Your Team:
Your team has the same name as a MLB team, and it was that team's real life roster that was used to determine your team's roster to start this game. You may not change your team and become the GM of another team at any time, so your team will be the same for the duration of your time in this game (although a few people who have left the game have been invited back in as the GM of a new team, those were at the commissioners' discretion and are not the norm). When you become the GM of your team, introduce yourself and tell us who you are, and bookmark this site - hopefully you'll be here a while!
Regardless of what username you sign up with, your display name will be changed to "Yourname (Yourteam GM)," but it's in your best interest to choose a simple username because it is still used for logging in.
Personal Messages (or PMs) are the primary means of communication between GMs. To send a PM, click on somebody's username and choose "Send Personal Message."
Another important means of communication is Chatango. Lots of informal group discussion occurs on Chatango (which is the chat box found at the bottom of the page), and Private Chatting (or PCing) can be a quicker way to negotiate or chat with another GM one-on-one. When you post to Chatango, you will be prompted to create a username. Try to make it something that can be easily remembered and think about including your name or team name so other GMs will know who you are. There's a guide on using Chatango here: pro-gm.proboards.com/thread/3673/chatango
2. Roster:
In total you may have up to 80 players on your roster (originally 70; this number increases every few years at commissioner discretion), and your major league roster may have up to 40 players. There is no minimum roster size, but you are expected to field as close to a complete, competitive roster as you can.
On Yahoo, you are allowed to have 25 players active at a time.
There will be a spot for C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util/DH, 4 starting pitchers, 4 relievers, 1 additional pitcher (starter or reliever), and 7 bench spots for the rest of your active major leaguers. To qualify for a position, a hitter needs 5 starts or 10 games played at the position. To qualify as a SP a pitcher needs 3 starts, while he needs 5 games in relief to qualify as a RP. These are Yahoo's requirements, not ours.
Because we only allow 25 active players on Yahoo but 40 major leaguers, you may find that you have more major leaguers than you have space for on Yahoo. Choose the 25 players that you want to activate at the beginning of the season, and the rest will be sent to your “reserves.” At any time during the season you may call players up to your active roster on Yahoo by posting in the *Yahoo Moves* thread under Baseball Operations. Roster moves will be made weekly, and must be in by the end of the day on Friday to guarantee that they will be processed in time for the following week. Changes can be made to your Yahoo roster every Monday, at which point they are locked in for the week (if you are unable to change your roster, just navigate in Yahoo to next Monday's date and change it there).
3. Payroll:
A year of service time is defined by a season in which the player had over 130 at bats for hitters, and over 50 IPs or over 25 games for pitchers. Use the player's stats on mlb.com, fangraphs.com (my personal favorite), baseballreference.com, or another stats website to determine how many years of service time they have.
Players with fewer than six years of service time in real life will be paid based on the following formula:
First year players (players who have completed zero years of service time, according to our criteria) - $0.5 million
Second year players (players who have completed one year of service time, and are thus in their second years) - $1.0 million
Third year players - $1.5 million
Fourth year players - $2.0 million
Fifth year players - $2.5 million
Sixth year players - $3.0 million
Your players will continue along this salary schedule for as long as they remain under your control. Once they complete their sixth year, they become free agents. This is entirely based off of real life stats. If you have a player on your roster for the entire season but he doesn’t manage to exceed 130 ABs as a hitter or 50 IPs or 25 games as a pitcher, you don't have to move his pay up or give him a year of service. On the other hand, if he does reach the designated total for any one of those stats, he will gain a year of service regardless of whether you had him as an active player, a reserve player, or in the minors. The only exception to this will be if the player was redshirted (see below).
Please note that every few year these prices may undergo minor changes to ensure realistic salaries (the most recent change took place after the 2017 season).
A player who is on this salary schedule is called a "cost-controlled" player, and will be referred to as such.
For the 2011 season, everyone had a salary cap of $100 million. This number will increase every season by roughly $2-5 million, though it could be more or less at the commissioner's discretion. For the 2018 season, the cap was increased to $140 million due to the jump in cost controlled salaries. The exact increase will be announced by the commissioner after each season. Realism, fairness, and the best interest of the league will be considered. Some seasons, no increase occurs.
4. Minor Leagues:
In addition to your major league roster, you may have a minor league system. Your total roster may not exceed 80 players, so if you have a full 40-man major league roster you may only hold 40 minor leaguers, but if you have fewer major leaguers you can have more minor leaguers.
Any first year player may be sent down to the minor leagues without having to clear waivers (see section on waivers). Any other cost-controlled player (2nd year through 6th year) must go through waivers to be sent down. You may not send players on veteran contracts to the minor leagues. You may, however, sign veterans to minor league contracts ($0.5 million), in which case they can be treated as minor leaguers.
Unlike major leaguers, you may drop a minor leaguer or any player earning a minor league salary ($0.5 million) at any time with no penalty, except that once dropped, he may not be picked up again unless you add him through the usual channels (draft, free agency, etc).
Each offseason there will be a Rule 5 draft, during which any players in our minor leagues that have completed a year of service time but haven’t been called up may be drafted by another GM and added to that team’s major league roster (see section on drafts).
There are three main ways to add prospects:
a) the amateur draft (see section on drafts, below).
b) immediately after the draft, you may roster 4 prospects from your major league team's real life franchise, as long as they were draft eligible (haven't completed a year of service time and aren't already on another team) - see "Draft Procedures.
c) acquiring them from other teams.
Any moves involving prospects (promotions, demotions, releases) should be posted as transactions, generally in the baseball operations section.
5. Trades:
Trade negotiations generally happen over private messages ("PM") or private chat on the Chatango ("PC"). Once the trade has been agreed upon, one of the GMs involved in the trade should post it in the "Trades" section, and the other should confirm it, making it official. If you believe that a trade should not be approved, reply to the trade saying that you "veto" it and give a brief reason, but please wait until both GMs have confirmed the trade prior to posting. Six vetoes will cancel a trade. A trade becomes official if it does not receive any vetoes within 24 hours after confirmation. If it receives one veto, then an additional 24 hours will be added, making 48 hours total during which the trade may be vetoed. If it doesn't receive six vetoes after 48 hours, it passes.
Vetoes should only be used in the most extreme situations, when you think that there may be collusion or if the trade significantly upsets the competitive balance of the league or cripples a team both now and in the future. If the veto system is abused or gets out of hand, it can be changed.
Accusations of collusion will be taken very seriously, and any GMs deemed to have participated in collusion will be removed from the league at the commissioners' discretion.
When you trade, you must make sure that both teams can fit the players that they are acquiring into their payroll. If you make a trade that forces you over your cap, the trade will be reversed and you may be fined or put on probation at the commissioner's discretion.*
You may not trade money. However, you may offer to cover some or all of a veteran player's contract for the receiving team so that the visiting team puts the player on his roster at a lower contract. Include any information about salary coverage when posting the trade. If the player is then traded from the second team to a third team, the first team must continue to pay the portion of the contract as originally agreed to, and the player will continue to be listed with the new, lower contract. Trades involving any other sort of cash considerations will not be honored. You can not cover salary on cost controlled players with one exception, which is noted in the free agency section below.
When covering salary, you can opt to pay it off early, essentially "frontloading" the commitment. So one team can cover $10 million per year for each of the next three years on a player, lowering his salary by $10 million per year, but pay off all $30 million at the start, if they have the cap space. Information on how to go about this is posted in the "trades" board.
You may trade draft picks (but not compensation picks). You may not trade players to be named later.
6. Free Agency:
Free agents will be:
1. Any players who have achieved one year of service time (over 130 abs for hitters, over 50 IPs or over 25 games for pitchers) who are not on a roster. This includes players who have achieved six-years of service time and thus are no longer cost-controlled, players formerly signed as free agents whose contracts have expired, and cost-controlled players who have been non-tendered.
2. Any player who has a major league contract in real life but has not completed a year of service who is age 24 or older on January 1 of the current offseason (PRIMARY FREE AGENCY ONLY).
Primary free agency will begin in early December. Ten free agents at a time will be bid on; when one free agent is won, another can be opened up by anyone. You win a free agent when you have the leading bid for 24 uninterrupted hours. The leading bid is the contract offer with the highest raw annual value. Be careful when bidding - you may not withdraw bids.
Contracts can be one to four years in length. In real life players tend to favor longer contracts, but in our game players always go with the contract with the highest annual value, so instead, longer contracts will receive a discount of 5% off of the annual value for each additional year offered, i.e. a four year contract will be discounted by 20% each year. This discount will be taken after bidding is completed to keep things simple and so that everyone can plainly see the raw annual value (the annual value before discounts) of your bid. There are also minimum and maximum salary restrictions, as well as different bidding rules, for contracts of different lengths. In addition, there is a 10% hometown discount for signing a player who last played for your own team (hometown discount), a discount of 5% following a year in which you made the playoffs, and a discount of 5% more for winning the World Series. Please see the complete free agency rules, which are found in the Primary Free Agency section of the "Free Agency" board, for more information.
If you trade a player who received any discounts, the discounts will be transferred. However, you may not trade (or waive) a player until May 15 of the following season after signing him (if signed during the regular season before May 15 he may be traded after May 15 of that year. If signed after May 15, he may not be traded that year - but he can still be waived).
Free agent contracts are called "veteran contracts," and players signed to veteran contracts will be called "veteran players." Veteran contracts expire immediately after the end of the World Series of their final year.
Veteran contracts must have an equal value for each year of the contract. There is no backloading, no deferred money, and no option years.
The primary free agency period will begin shortly after the Rule 5 draft (typically in early January) and continue until the start of the regular season. The secondary free agency period will begin on opening day and continue until one week before the start of the playoffs. During the secondary free agency period, only one-year deals may be offered, no discounts are given whatsoever, and no draft pick compensation is received. During the secondary free agency period, players who have not completed a year of service may not be signed, even if they are over 24.
Top free agents can earn their teams compensation picks. Any player who receives a bid with a raw annual value of $15 million or more will earn their team a compensation pick (unless the player re-signs with his original team) provided they were on the team for the full season, starting on opening day. Compensation will take the form of sandwich picks in between the first and second rounds IF the player signed for a total value of $50 million or more (before discounts). Otherwise, the pick will fall between the second and third rounds. The draft order for these round will be determined by the overall raw annual value of the contract, with this highest value picking first. The team who ends up signing the player will not lose a pick.
Sometimes, players with fewer than six years of service time become free agents. If you sign one of these players and their contract expires prior to them completing their sixth year of service, then at the completion of the deal you may choose to keep the player or non-tender him. If you tender him a contract, it will be for 50% of the original annual salary of the expiring veteran contract. You will be faced with this same choice of whether or not to keep him at this same value each year until the completion of his sixth year of service. You may cover salary when trading these year-to-year players, but only for the current season, not future seasons.
Note that if a player signed for $6 million or less you should instead just put him on a regular cost controlled schedule.
You may not bid more money than you have cap-space available at any time, or the bid may be considered void and you may be fined or lose the right to bid on free agents for a set length of time at the commissioner's discretion, and depending on when the transgression is discovered.*
7. Redshirts:
Each year, a team may be able to redshirt up to five players. Up to two of your redshirts may be 2nd or 3rd year players; the rest must be minors/1st year players. A redshirted player does not gain a year of service even if he accumulates the necessary playing time, but cannot be used on your active roster or the redshirt will be lifted. Redshirt requests are due by May 1 - until that time, you are welcome to use the player even if you intend to redshirt him.
A player can only be redshirted once, unless he doesn't reach the minimum playing time to achieve a year of service for that season, in which case he may be redshirted again at a later time. In other words, if it turns out the tag was unnecessary because a year of service was not reached regardless, the player may be tagged again. Once a player has been redshirted it will be indicated on the Official Rosters throughout his cost-controlled years, and he will remain a year behind the typical cost-control schedule, reaching free agency a year later than he otherwise would have.
It is important to us that teams attempt to remain competitive, and we don't want the opportunity to redshirt players to cause rebuilding and future-oriented teams to field depleted lineups. So, in order to redshirt a player, teams must first apply, stating their reasoning for requesting the redshirt and demonstrating sufficient depth at that position (including at DH for hitters and at P for pitchers) to cover the loss. Commissioners will consider each application individually. Unsuccessful applications may be appealed by PM or resubmitted once cover is found, or may be replaced with a new application to redshirt a different player.
In addition, ensuring that your redshirt requests succeed will be a season-long endeavor. All teams are expected to make an effort to remain competitive throughout the season (with potential penalties including loss of draft picks or demotion in the draft order), but teams who use the redshirt rule will be held to an even higher standard, as they must keep the positions that the redshirted player would occupy filled for the entirety of the season or risk having the redshirt lifted. Players who have had their red shirts lifted by the commissioners may be re-tagged in future seasons provided that all criteria for redshirting are met.
Once the May 1 redshirt deadline passes you may still choose to lift a redshirt during the season, but only two of your redshirts may be lifted, and must be lifted prior to the trade deadline. If you lift a redshirt you may then use the player, but any benefits of delaying the service clock will be lost. This applies to all service time gained for the full year, even service time accumulated prior to the lifting of the redshirt. So, if you redshirt a player who then proceeds to have a fantastic two months in which he would have gained a year of service, then you lift the redshirt and the next day he suffers a season-ending injury, he still gains a year of service in our game, even though he was redshirted and inactive during the time of his service and only had one day as an active player on your team. If a player's redshirt is lifted, he may not be redshirted again in future seasons, either by the team who lifted the redshirt or by any other team if he's traded.
You may only trade away redshirted players if you lift the redshirt before trading (this would count towards your limit of two redshirts lifted per season).
8. Releasing Players:
When you sign a free agent, unless you can trade the player you are responsible for paying that player's entire salary for the duration of the contract except in the following conditions, when you may request salary relief:
1) If the player officially retires during the offseason while you have him signed to a long-term veteran contract, you are obligated to pay him for the following year, and nothing more. If the player officially retires during the regular season, you will be obligated to pay him for the remainder of that season and nothing more. You must inform the commissioners if you would like to apply to drop a contract for this reason, and they will use their discretion as to whether the retirement can be deemed official. A player must be retired for this to count – simply announcing an upcoming retirement is not acceptable, nor is media speculation.
2) If a player on a multi-year veteran contract has a year in which he fails to exceed 130 ABs, 50 IPs, or 25 games pitched for any reason, all subsequent years of that contract can be reduced by 25%. The only exception to this rule would be if the missed time was due to an injury that was already known about at the time of the signing, and the missed time was expected. For example, if you sign a player who you know might be out for the year, you can't get salary relief following that year (although if you sign a player with a minor injury and he misses more time than expected, you may be eligible at the commissioners' discretion).
3) If a player is put on the restricted list by his real life team, or if news breaks that a player fabricated his age or identity in a way that might significantly alter the value of the player (at the discretion of the commissioners, to be handled on a case-by-case basis), you may apply to opt out of the contract. You must apply to opt out within two weeks of the breaking of the news. We will not consider any such news more than two-weeks-old as grounds for opting out of a contract.
To apply for salary relief, post in the salary relief section in Baseball Operations.
If you wish to release a player on a veteran contract (long-term or one year) for any other reason, you must buy him out and pay the player's entire salary (although you may frontload this salary and pay it off early, the same way you would do in a trade). If you wish to release a cost-controlled player you may simply non-tender him during the non-tender period (during the offeason), but if you wish to release him during the season you must continue to pay him for that year only. During the offseason, cost controlled players can be non-tendered and released with no penalty. During the regular season, you can release the player but must continue to pay the player for the remainder of that season, but no more.
We generally offer new GMs the opportunity to drop one contract of their choice with no penalty when they first enter the game. This must be a contract already on the team - a new GM may not trade for another team's bad contract and then drop that player. The exception to this would be if the team has already had a GM change during that year and a contract was dumped at that time - this option is only available once per year per team (our year officially begins and ends at the end of our World Series). The contract to drop must be chosen when the new GM enters the game, or the option to use this amnesty clause is lost.
9. Waivers:
There are two types of waivers that you may use depending on whether you are trying to dump a contract or send a player down to the minors:
Unconditional waivers:
You may not send players on veteran contracts down to the minor leagues, and if you release them you'll have to eat the contract. You may, however, try to see if anyone is willing to take a player off your hands for nothing by placing him on unconditional waivers. If you place a player on unconditional waivers and another team claims him, the new team immediately receives the player and is responsible for the entire salary. Once a player is claimed you may not pull him off unconditional waivers. However, before the player is claimed you may remove him from unconditional waivers at any time, or you may leave him there for up to ten days (still paying him, of course, until he gets claimed). If nobody claims the player after ten days, you may waive him again.
Outright waivers:
In additional to unconditional waivers, there are also outright waivers, which are used to send a cost-controlled player down to the minor leagues. You may not send players on veteran contracts down to the minor leagues. When you place a player on outright waivers, other teams have 72 hours to claim the player. If the player is claimed, he will go to the claiming team and must be placed on that team's 40-man roster and paid by that team. If a player passes through outright waivers unclaimed, you may send him to the minor leagues. He will continue to earn his major league salary, but he won't count against your 40 player limit for your major league roster.
In both types of waivers, claims are honored on a first-come, first-served basis. Teams with worse records do not receive any kind of priority. The only exception to this is if a GM waives a player drafted in the Rule 5 draft during the year following his selection, in which case the player must stay on waivers for the full length of time even if claimed, and the GM who lost the player in the Rule 5 draft may claim the player with top priority at any time during the window. If the original GM does not claim the player, he goes to the GM who made the first claim.
To recap: unconditional waivers are for veteran players AND cost-controlled players, and are used to see if another team will take the player and his contract off your hands, but if a player is unclaimed you must keep him on your major league roster. Outright waivers are only for cost-controlled players, and are used to send a player down to the minor leagues if he clears. In either case, if a player is claimed he is lost by the team who waived him.
10. Drafts:
The Amateur Draft will take place each August after the Amateur Signing Deadline, and GMs may draft any player who was taken in the MLB draft. GMs may also select minor league players (who have not yet completed a year of major league service time) who do not appear in any team's system at that time, provided they are not international free agents who were 24 or older on January 1. If you draft an amateur player who does not or did not sign a contract in real life, you may still keep the player in the hopes that he'll be drafted again in the future. More on the Amateur Draft can be found in "Amateur Draft Procedures" in the drafts section
The Rule 5 Draft will take place each November, and it will be an opportunity for you to draft players who have achieved a year of service time but were not called up by their GMs in our league. You must place any players drafted on your 40 man roster, and if you attempt to waive the player at any time during the following season the team who lost him in the Rule 5 Draft has first priority. You may also draft non-rostered minor league players that will be age 24 or older on January 1 following the draft if they have been in the minor leagues for at least one year. These players do not have to be added to the MLB roster, drafting them is just like drafting non-rostered minor league players in the amateur draft but with a smaller player pool (since it is limited by age).
Draft order will be determined by something called the "Gold Plan." In the Gold Plan, once you're mathematically eliminated from contention, you start accumulating gold points, and draft order is determined by a ranking of most points earned. You earn points in the following ways:
1) You earn one gold point automatically each week after being eliminated, as long as you make an effort to field the best lineup you can with what you have available to you that week (in other words, don't leave your three OF spots open while three active OF sit on your bench).
2) You earn one point for every category that you win after being eliminated. If you win a week 7-5, you get 7 points. If you lose 10-2, you get 2 points.
The team with the most points drafts first, followed by the team with the second most, etc. Ties are broken by looking at record (lower record picks first). If still tied, we'll look at the previous year's record and keep going back until the tie is broken.
Teams who attempt or appear to attempt to throw games in order to gain a better draft position will be bumped down in the draft order and may receive other penalties.
11. Regular Season:
Any trades that are made during the regular season should be made on this site, same as always, and the commissioner will enter them in on the fantasy site on a weekly basis. July 31 is our trade deadline. This site will remain active during the regular season due to trades, the June draft, league news, etc, so remember to check in often.
The regular season will take place on Yahoo, and there will be separate leagues for the AL and the NL. The regular season will be head-to-head style, meaning each week you will compete in certain categories and you will receive either a win, loss, or tie for the week depending on how you did in those categories. You will receive only one win, loss, or tie each week, depending on who wins more categories.
The categories will be:
for hitters - AVG, BB, XBH, HR, SB, PA
for pitchers - ERA, K, IP, QS, SV, WHIP
Roster changes will happen weekly. This forces a GM to set a certain lineup, rotation, and bullpen for the entire week, which is important given how extensive each bench can be. There will be a minimum innings pitched requirement of 20 innings, and failure to reach this requirement will result in your team losing all of its pitching categories for the week (which means a tie is your best possible outcome).
There will be two leagues with three divisions: NL and AL, each with an East, a Central and a West. The Astros are considered part of the NL Central so that there's an even number of teams in each league, as required by Yahoo. There will not be interleague play.
12. Playoffs:
The playoffs will take place in the two Yahoo leagues. Six teams from each league will make the playoffs: three division winners and three wild card winners. In the event of a tie, we will use Yahoo’s tiebreak system, which unfortunately can't be changed. The first thing Yahoo looks at in tie breakers is division winning percentage (if in the same division) followed by record in each week, starting with the last week of the season and moving backwards until a week is found where one team was better than the other.
The two top seeded teams will have a bye for the first round of the playoffs. There will be four Wild Card series, four division series, two championship series, and one World Series. The winner of the World Series will be the Pro GM Champion. The World Series will take place in a third Yahoo league, with the league Champions invited when the time comes.
Ties in the playoffs also have to go by Yahoo's tiebreak rules, which look at head-to-head record between the teams, then at playoff seed. For the World Series, we have selected our own tiebreaker:
1) First, we will use "would-be" head-to-head record. Teams in the NL and AL don't play each other, but we can simply match the teams' stats up from every week, starting with week 1 and going all the way through the League Championship Series, and see what the head-to-head record would have been had the teams played each other every week of the season. If still tied, we will...
2) Use head-to-head stats. Yahoo keeps track of our cumulative stats for the entire season. To break a tie, we will look at those totals and give a point for each stat lead. If the NL champ had more HRs than the AL champ, the NL champ gets a point. If the AL champ had a lower team ERA, the AL champ gets a point. Most points wins the tiebreaker. If still tied, we will...
3) Use cumulative playoff stats. We will total all of the stats for the playoffs (LDS, LCS, WS) for each team (same as the second tiebreaker but looking only at the playoffs). If still tied, we will...
4) See who would have won the LCS if the AL and NL team had been paired up. If that would have been a tie, see who would have won the LDS, then the Wild Card week, then the last week of the regular season, then the second-to-last week, etc.
While this league is just for fun and there is no prize for winning, playoff teams do receive a discount on free agents the following offseason of 5%, and the Pro GM Champion receives an additional 5% discount, for 10% total. In the event of a tied World Series, even though one team will be declared champion using the tiebreak system, both teams will receive the additional 5% discount.
* Fines and probation:
Fines and probation may be given out by the commissioner under certain circumstances. If a fine is given out, you will put the fine on your roster and pay it as you would a player. A fine can be a lump sum for one year, or a fixed amount for up to four years. Probation will take the form of extra scrutiny over your trades and roster moves to make sure that you are making fair and legal moves but also moves that are in your team's best interest, for now and for the future. While your team is in probation, the commissioners may veto your trades without the trade going through the standard veto process.
The following is an update of the official Pro-GM rules. They have been updated for clarity and to reflect all rule changes up to this point (1/31/18).
Welcome to Pro GM, a dynasty league where you take command of a Major League team and draft, trade, and sign free agents to try to turn it into a fantasy baseball champion year after year.
This league is free.
Honor Code:
By signing up for this league you agree to abide by the following:
"I will conduct myself in a manner that promotes fair play and fun for all. I will read these rules in their entirety and adhere not only to the letter of the law, but the spirit as well. I will not attempt any sort of collusion, cheating, or bending of the rules of any sort, even if not explicitly forbidden by these rules. I will remain involved and active in the league, and do my best to check this site often - at least once a day, if possible, throughout both the regular season and offseason. I understand that if at any time the commissioners feel that my continued participation is detrimental to the league, whether due to my behavior, lack of activity, or any other reason at their discretion, they have the power to fine my team, put me on probation, or remove me from the league, and I will respect that decision."
The commissioners of this league are Brian (Blue Jays GM), Jon (Astros GM),Tucker (Padres GM), Smitty (Mets GM) Max (Tigers GM), and Nick (Orioles GM). You may go to any of the above with any questions or issues.
1. Your Team:
Your team has the same name as a MLB team, and it was that team's real life roster that was used to determine your team's roster to start this game. You may not change your team and become the GM of another team at any time, so your team will be the same for the duration of your time in this game (although a few people who have left the game have been invited back in as the GM of a new team, those were at the commissioners' discretion and are not the norm). When you become the GM of your team, introduce yourself and tell us who you are, and bookmark this site - hopefully you'll be here a while!
Regardless of what username you sign up with, your display name will be changed to "Yourname (Yourteam GM)," but it's in your best interest to choose a simple username because it is still used for logging in.
Personal Messages (or PMs) are the primary means of communication between GMs. To send a PM, click on somebody's username and choose "Send Personal Message."
Another important means of communication is Chatango. Lots of informal group discussion occurs on Chatango (which is the chat box found at the bottom of the page), and Private Chatting (or PCing) can be a quicker way to negotiate or chat with another GM one-on-one. When you post to Chatango, you will be prompted to create a username. Try to make it something that can be easily remembered and think about including your name or team name so other GMs will know who you are. There's a guide on using Chatango here: pro-gm.proboards.com/thread/3673/chatango
2. Roster:
In total you may have up to 80 players on your roster (originally 70; this number increases every few years at commissioner discretion), and your major league roster may have up to 40 players. There is no minimum roster size, but you are expected to field as close to a complete, competitive roster as you can.
On Yahoo, you are allowed to have 25 players active at a time.
There will be a spot for C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util/DH, 4 starting pitchers, 4 relievers, 1 additional pitcher (starter or reliever), and 7 bench spots for the rest of your active major leaguers. To qualify for a position, a hitter needs 5 starts or 10 games played at the position. To qualify as a SP a pitcher needs 3 starts, while he needs 5 games in relief to qualify as a RP. These are Yahoo's requirements, not ours.
Because we only allow 25 active players on Yahoo but 40 major leaguers, you may find that you have more major leaguers than you have space for on Yahoo. Choose the 25 players that you want to activate at the beginning of the season, and the rest will be sent to your “reserves.” At any time during the season you may call players up to your active roster on Yahoo by posting in the *Yahoo Moves* thread under Baseball Operations. Roster moves will be made weekly, and must be in by the end of the day on Friday to guarantee that they will be processed in time for the following week. Changes can be made to your Yahoo roster every Monday, at which point they are locked in for the week (if you are unable to change your roster, just navigate in Yahoo to next Monday's date and change it there).
3. Payroll:
A year of service time is defined by a season in which the player had over 130 at bats for hitters, and over 50 IPs or over 25 games for pitchers. Use the player's stats on mlb.com, fangraphs.com (my personal favorite), baseballreference.com, or another stats website to determine how many years of service time they have.
Players with fewer than six years of service time in real life will be paid based on the following formula:
First year players (players who have completed zero years of service time, according to our criteria) - $0.5 million
Second year players (players who have completed one year of service time, and are thus in their second years) - $1.0 million
Third year players - $1.5 million
Fourth year players - $2.0 million
Fifth year players - $2.5 million
Sixth year players - $3.0 million
Your players will continue along this salary schedule for as long as they remain under your control. Once they complete their sixth year, they become free agents. This is entirely based off of real life stats. If you have a player on your roster for the entire season but he doesn’t manage to exceed 130 ABs as a hitter or 50 IPs or 25 games as a pitcher, you don't have to move his pay up or give him a year of service. On the other hand, if he does reach the designated total for any one of those stats, he will gain a year of service regardless of whether you had him as an active player, a reserve player, or in the minors. The only exception to this will be if the player was redshirted (see below).
Please note that every few year these prices may undergo minor changes to ensure realistic salaries (the most recent change took place after the 2017 season).
A player who is on this salary schedule is called a "cost-controlled" player, and will be referred to as such.
For the 2011 season, everyone had a salary cap of $100 million. This number will increase every season by roughly $2-5 million, though it could be more or less at the commissioner's discretion. For the 2018 season, the cap was increased to $140 million due to the jump in cost controlled salaries. The exact increase will be announced by the commissioner after each season. Realism, fairness, and the best interest of the league will be considered. Some seasons, no increase occurs.
4. Minor Leagues:
In addition to your major league roster, you may have a minor league system. Your total roster may not exceed 80 players, so if you have a full 40-man major league roster you may only hold 40 minor leaguers, but if you have fewer major leaguers you can have more minor leaguers.
Any first year player may be sent down to the minor leagues without having to clear waivers (see section on waivers). Any other cost-controlled player (2nd year through 6th year) must go through waivers to be sent down. You may not send players on veteran contracts to the minor leagues. You may, however, sign veterans to minor league contracts ($0.5 million), in which case they can be treated as minor leaguers.
Unlike major leaguers, you may drop a minor leaguer or any player earning a minor league salary ($0.5 million) at any time with no penalty, except that once dropped, he may not be picked up again unless you add him through the usual channels (draft, free agency, etc).
Each offseason there will be a Rule 5 draft, during which any players in our minor leagues that have completed a year of service time but haven’t been called up may be drafted by another GM and added to that team’s major league roster (see section on drafts).
There are three main ways to add prospects:
a) the amateur draft (see section on drafts, below).
b) immediately after the draft, you may roster 4 prospects from your major league team's real life franchise, as long as they were draft eligible (haven't completed a year of service time and aren't already on another team) - see "Draft Procedures.
c) acquiring them from other teams.
Any moves involving prospects (promotions, demotions, releases) should be posted as transactions, generally in the baseball operations section.
5. Trades:
Trade negotiations generally happen over private messages ("PM") or private chat on the Chatango ("PC"). Once the trade has been agreed upon, one of the GMs involved in the trade should post it in the "Trades" section, and the other should confirm it, making it official. If you believe that a trade should not be approved, reply to the trade saying that you "veto" it and give a brief reason, but please wait until both GMs have confirmed the trade prior to posting. Six vetoes will cancel a trade. A trade becomes official if it does not receive any vetoes within 24 hours after confirmation. If it receives one veto, then an additional 24 hours will be added, making 48 hours total during which the trade may be vetoed. If it doesn't receive six vetoes after 48 hours, it passes.
Vetoes should only be used in the most extreme situations, when you think that there may be collusion or if the trade significantly upsets the competitive balance of the league or cripples a team both now and in the future. If the veto system is abused or gets out of hand, it can be changed.
Accusations of collusion will be taken very seriously, and any GMs deemed to have participated in collusion will be removed from the league at the commissioners' discretion.
When you trade, you must make sure that both teams can fit the players that they are acquiring into their payroll. If you make a trade that forces you over your cap, the trade will be reversed and you may be fined or put on probation at the commissioner's discretion.*
You may not trade money. However, you may offer to cover some or all of a veteran player's contract for the receiving team so that the visiting team puts the player on his roster at a lower contract. Include any information about salary coverage when posting the trade. If the player is then traded from the second team to a third team, the first team must continue to pay the portion of the contract as originally agreed to, and the player will continue to be listed with the new, lower contract. Trades involving any other sort of cash considerations will not be honored. You can not cover salary on cost controlled players with one exception, which is noted in the free agency section below.
When covering salary, you can opt to pay it off early, essentially "frontloading" the commitment. So one team can cover $10 million per year for each of the next three years on a player, lowering his salary by $10 million per year, but pay off all $30 million at the start, if they have the cap space. Information on how to go about this is posted in the "trades" board.
You may trade draft picks (but not compensation picks). You may not trade players to be named later.
6. Free Agency:
Free agents will be:
1. Any players who have achieved one year of service time (over 130 abs for hitters, over 50 IPs or over 25 games for pitchers) who are not on a roster. This includes players who have achieved six-years of service time and thus are no longer cost-controlled, players formerly signed as free agents whose contracts have expired, and cost-controlled players who have been non-tendered.
2. Any player who has a major league contract in real life but has not completed a year of service who is age 24 or older on January 1 of the current offseason (PRIMARY FREE AGENCY ONLY).
Primary free agency will begin in early December. Ten free agents at a time will be bid on; when one free agent is won, another can be opened up by anyone. You win a free agent when you have the leading bid for 24 uninterrupted hours. The leading bid is the contract offer with the highest raw annual value. Be careful when bidding - you may not withdraw bids.
Contracts can be one to four years in length. In real life players tend to favor longer contracts, but in our game players always go with the contract with the highest annual value, so instead, longer contracts will receive a discount of 5% off of the annual value for each additional year offered, i.e. a four year contract will be discounted by 20% each year. This discount will be taken after bidding is completed to keep things simple and so that everyone can plainly see the raw annual value (the annual value before discounts) of your bid. There are also minimum and maximum salary restrictions, as well as different bidding rules, for contracts of different lengths. In addition, there is a 10% hometown discount for signing a player who last played for your own team (hometown discount), a discount of 5% following a year in which you made the playoffs, and a discount of 5% more for winning the World Series. Please see the complete free agency rules, which are found in the Primary Free Agency section of the "Free Agency" board, for more information.
If you trade a player who received any discounts, the discounts will be transferred. However, you may not trade (or waive) a player until May 15 of the following season after signing him (if signed during the regular season before May 15 he may be traded after May 15 of that year. If signed after May 15, he may not be traded that year - but he can still be waived).
Free agent contracts are called "veteran contracts," and players signed to veteran contracts will be called "veteran players." Veteran contracts expire immediately after the end of the World Series of their final year.
Veteran contracts must have an equal value for each year of the contract. There is no backloading, no deferred money, and no option years.
The primary free agency period will begin shortly after the Rule 5 draft (typically in early January) and continue until the start of the regular season. The secondary free agency period will begin on opening day and continue until one week before the start of the playoffs. During the secondary free agency period, only one-year deals may be offered, no discounts are given whatsoever, and no draft pick compensation is received. During the secondary free agency period, players who have not completed a year of service may not be signed, even if they are over 24.
Top free agents can earn their teams compensation picks. Any player who receives a bid with a raw annual value of $15 million or more will earn their team a compensation pick (unless the player re-signs with his original team) provided they were on the team for the full season, starting on opening day. Compensation will take the form of sandwich picks in between the first and second rounds IF the player signed for a total value of $50 million or more (before discounts). Otherwise, the pick will fall between the second and third rounds. The draft order for these round will be determined by the overall raw annual value of the contract, with this highest value picking first. The team who ends up signing the player will not lose a pick.
Sometimes, players with fewer than six years of service time become free agents. If you sign one of these players and their contract expires prior to them completing their sixth year of service, then at the completion of the deal you may choose to keep the player or non-tender him. If you tender him a contract, it will be for 50% of the original annual salary of the expiring veteran contract. You will be faced with this same choice of whether or not to keep him at this same value each year until the completion of his sixth year of service. You may cover salary when trading these year-to-year players, but only for the current season, not future seasons.
Note that if a player signed for $6 million or less you should instead just put him on a regular cost controlled schedule.
You may not bid more money than you have cap-space available at any time, or the bid may be considered void and you may be fined or lose the right to bid on free agents for a set length of time at the commissioner's discretion, and depending on when the transgression is discovered.*
7. Redshirts:
Each year, a team may be able to redshirt up to five players. Up to two of your redshirts may be 2nd or 3rd year players; the rest must be minors/1st year players. A redshirted player does not gain a year of service even if he accumulates the necessary playing time, but cannot be used on your active roster or the redshirt will be lifted. Redshirt requests are due by May 1 - until that time, you are welcome to use the player even if you intend to redshirt him.
A player can only be redshirted once, unless he doesn't reach the minimum playing time to achieve a year of service for that season, in which case he may be redshirted again at a later time. In other words, if it turns out the tag was unnecessary because a year of service was not reached regardless, the player may be tagged again. Once a player has been redshirted it will be indicated on the Official Rosters throughout his cost-controlled years, and he will remain a year behind the typical cost-control schedule, reaching free agency a year later than he otherwise would have.
It is important to us that teams attempt to remain competitive, and we don't want the opportunity to redshirt players to cause rebuilding and future-oriented teams to field depleted lineups. So, in order to redshirt a player, teams must first apply, stating their reasoning for requesting the redshirt and demonstrating sufficient depth at that position (including at DH for hitters and at P for pitchers) to cover the loss. Commissioners will consider each application individually. Unsuccessful applications may be appealed by PM or resubmitted once cover is found, or may be replaced with a new application to redshirt a different player.
In addition, ensuring that your redshirt requests succeed will be a season-long endeavor. All teams are expected to make an effort to remain competitive throughout the season (with potential penalties including loss of draft picks or demotion in the draft order), but teams who use the redshirt rule will be held to an even higher standard, as they must keep the positions that the redshirted player would occupy filled for the entirety of the season or risk having the redshirt lifted. Players who have had their red shirts lifted by the commissioners may be re-tagged in future seasons provided that all criteria for redshirting are met.
Once the May 1 redshirt deadline passes you may still choose to lift a redshirt during the season, but only two of your redshirts may be lifted, and must be lifted prior to the trade deadline. If you lift a redshirt you may then use the player, but any benefits of delaying the service clock will be lost. This applies to all service time gained for the full year, even service time accumulated prior to the lifting of the redshirt. So, if you redshirt a player who then proceeds to have a fantastic two months in which he would have gained a year of service, then you lift the redshirt and the next day he suffers a season-ending injury, he still gains a year of service in our game, even though he was redshirted and inactive during the time of his service and only had one day as an active player on your team. If a player's redshirt is lifted, he may not be redshirted again in future seasons, either by the team who lifted the redshirt or by any other team if he's traded.
You may only trade away redshirted players if you lift the redshirt before trading (this would count towards your limit of two redshirts lifted per season).
8. Releasing Players:
When you sign a free agent, unless you can trade the player you are responsible for paying that player's entire salary for the duration of the contract except in the following conditions, when you may request salary relief:
1) If the player officially retires during the offseason while you have him signed to a long-term veteran contract, you are obligated to pay him for the following year, and nothing more. If the player officially retires during the regular season, you will be obligated to pay him for the remainder of that season and nothing more. You must inform the commissioners if you would like to apply to drop a contract for this reason, and they will use their discretion as to whether the retirement can be deemed official. A player must be retired for this to count – simply announcing an upcoming retirement is not acceptable, nor is media speculation.
2) If a player on a multi-year veteran contract has a year in which he fails to exceed 130 ABs, 50 IPs, or 25 games pitched for any reason, all subsequent years of that contract can be reduced by 25%. The only exception to this rule would be if the missed time was due to an injury that was already known about at the time of the signing, and the missed time was expected. For example, if you sign a player who you know might be out for the year, you can't get salary relief following that year (although if you sign a player with a minor injury and he misses more time than expected, you may be eligible at the commissioners' discretion).
3) If a player is put on the restricted list by his real life team, or if news breaks that a player fabricated his age or identity in a way that might significantly alter the value of the player (at the discretion of the commissioners, to be handled on a case-by-case basis), you may apply to opt out of the contract. You must apply to opt out within two weeks of the breaking of the news. We will not consider any such news more than two-weeks-old as grounds for opting out of a contract.
To apply for salary relief, post in the salary relief section in Baseball Operations.
If you wish to release a player on a veteran contract (long-term or one year) for any other reason, you must buy him out and pay the player's entire salary (although you may frontload this salary and pay it off early, the same way you would do in a trade). If you wish to release a cost-controlled player you may simply non-tender him during the non-tender period (during the offeason), but if you wish to release him during the season you must continue to pay him for that year only. During the offseason, cost controlled players can be non-tendered and released with no penalty. During the regular season, you can release the player but must continue to pay the player for the remainder of that season, but no more.
We generally offer new GMs the opportunity to drop one contract of their choice with no penalty when they first enter the game. This must be a contract already on the team - a new GM may not trade for another team's bad contract and then drop that player. The exception to this would be if the team has already had a GM change during that year and a contract was dumped at that time - this option is only available once per year per team (our year officially begins and ends at the end of our World Series). The contract to drop must be chosen when the new GM enters the game, or the option to use this amnesty clause is lost.
9. Waivers:
There are two types of waivers that you may use depending on whether you are trying to dump a contract or send a player down to the minors:
Unconditional waivers:
You may not send players on veteran contracts down to the minor leagues, and if you release them you'll have to eat the contract. You may, however, try to see if anyone is willing to take a player off your hands for nothing by placing him on unconditional waivers. If you place a player on unconditional waivers and another team claims him, the new team immediately receives the player and is responsible for the entire salary. Once a player is claimed you may not pull him off unconditional waivers. However, before the player is claimed you may remove him from unconditional waivers at any time, or you may leave him there for up to ten days (still paying him, of course, until he gets claimed). If nobody claims the player after ten days, you may waive him again.
Outright waivers:
In additional to unconditional waivers, there are also outright waivers, which are used to send a cost-controlled player down to the minor leagues. You may not send players on veteran contracts down to the minor leagues. When you place a player on outright waivers, other teams have 72 hours to claim the player. If the player is claimed, he will go to the claiming team and must be placed on that team's 40-man roster and paid by that team. If a player passes through outright waivers unclaimed, you may send him to the minor leagues. He will continue to earn his major league salary, but he won't count against your 40 player limit for your major league roster.
In both types of waivers, claims are honored on a first-come, first-served basis. Teams with worse records do not receive any kind of priority. The only exception to this is if a GM waives a player drafted in the Rule 5 draft during the year following his selection, in which case the player must stay on waivers for the full length of time even if claimed, and the GM who lost the player in the Rule 5 draft may claim the player with top priority at any time during the window. If the original GM does not claim the player, he goes to the GM who made the first claim.
To recap: unconditional waivers are for veteran players AND cost-controlled players, and are used to see if another team will take the player and his contract off your hands, but if a player is unclaimed you must keep him on your major league roster. Outright waivers are only for cost-controlled players, and are used to send a player down to the minor leagues if he clears. In either case, if a player is claimed he is lost by the team who waived him.
10. Drafts:
The Amateur Draft will take place each August after the Amateur Signing Deadline, and GMs may draft any player who was taken in the MLB draft. GMs may also select minor league players (who have not yet completed a year of major league service time) who do not appear in any team's system at that time, provided they are not international free agents who were 24 or older on January 1. If you draft an amateur player who does not or did not sign a contract in real life, you may still keep the player in the hopes that he'll be drafted again in the future. More on the Amateur Draft can be found in "Amateur Draft Procedures" in the drafts section
The Rule 5 Draft will take place each November, and it will be an opportunity for you to draft players who have achieved a year of service time but were not called up by their GMs in our league. You must place any players drafted on your 40 man roster, and if you attempt to waive the player at any time during the following season the team who lost him in the Rule 5 Draft has first priority. You may also draft non-rostered minor league players that will be age 24 or older on January 1 following the draft if they have been in the minor leagues for at least one year. These players do not have to be added to the MLB roster, drafting them is just like drafting non-rostered minor league players in the amateur draft but with a smaller player pool (since it is limited by age).
Draft order will be determined by something called the "Gold Plan." In the Gold Plan, once you're mathematically eliminated from contention, you start accumulating gold points, and draft order is determined by a ranking of most points earned. You earn points in the following ways:
1) You earn one gold point automatically each week after being eliminated, as long as you make an effort to field the best lineup you can with what you have available to you that week (in other words, don't leave your three OF spots open while three active OF sit on your bench).
2) You earn one point for every category that you win after being eliminated. If you win a week 7-5, you get 7 points. If you lose 10-2, you get 2 points.
The team with the most points drafts first, followed by the team with the second most, etc. Ties are broken by looking at record (lower record picks first). If still tied, we'll look at the previous year's record and keep going back until the tie is broken.
Teams who attempt or appear to attempt to throw games in order to gain a better draft position will be bumped down in the draft order and may receive other penalties.
11. Regular Season:
Any trades that are made during the regular season should be made on this site, same as always, and the commissioner will enter them in on the fantasy site on a weekly basis. July 31 is our trade deadline. This site will remain active during the regular season due to trades, the June draft, league news, etc, so remember to check in often.
The regular season will take place on Yahoo, and there will be separate leagues for the AL and the NL. The regular season will be head-to-head style, meaning each week you will compete in certain categories and you will receive either a win, loss, or tie for the week depending on how you did in those categories. You will receive only one win, loss, or tie each week, depending on who wins more categories.
The categories will be:
for hitters - AVG, BB, XBH, HR, SB, PA
for pitchers - ERA, K, IP, QS, SV, WHIP
Roster changes will happen weekly. This forces a GM to set a certain lineup, rotation, and bullpen for the entire week, which is important given how extensive each bench can be. There will be a minimum innings pitched requirement of 20 innings, and failure to reach this requirement will result in your team losing all of its pitching categories for the week (which means a tie is your best possible outcome).
There will be two leagues with three divisions: NL and AL, each with an East, a Central and a West. The Astros are considered part of the NL Central so that there's an even number of teams in each league, as required by Yahoo. There will not be interleague play.
12. Playoffs:
The playoffs will take place in the two Yahoo leagues. Six teams from each league will make the playoffs: three division winners and three wild card winners. In the event of a tie, we will use Yahoo’s tiebreak system, which unfortunately can't be changed. The first thing Yahoo looks at in tie breakers is division winning percentage (if in the same division) followed by record in each week, starting with the last week of the season and moving backwards until a week is found where one team was better than the other.
The two top seeded teams will have a bye for the first round of the playoffs. There will be four Wild Card series, four division series, two championship series, and one World Series. The winner of the World Series will be the Pro GM Champion. The World Series will take place in a third Yahoo league, with the league Champions invited when the time comes.
Ties in the playoffs also have to go by Yahoo's tiebreak rules, which look at head-to-head record between the teams, then at playoff seed. For the World Series, we have selected our own tiebreaker:
1) First, we will use "would-be" head-to-head record. Teams in the NL and AL don't play each other, but we can simply match the teams' stats up from every week, starting with week 1 and going all the way through the League Championship Series, and see what the head-to-head record would have been had the teams played each other every week of the season. If still tied, we will...
2) Use head-to-head stats. Yahoo keeps track of our cumulative stats for the entire season. To break a tie, we will look at those totals and give a point for each stat lead. If the NL champ had more HRs than the AL champ, the NL champ gets a point. If the AL champ had a lower team ERA, the AL champ gets a point. Most points wins the tiebreaker. If still tied, we will...
3) Use cumulative playoff stats. We will total all of the stats for the playoffs (LDS, LCS, WS) for each team (same as the second tiebreaker but looking only at the playoffs). If still tied, we will...
4) See who would have won the LCS if the AL and NL team had been paired up. If that would have been a tie, see who would have won the LDS, then the Wild Card week, then the last week of the regular season, then the second-to-last week, etc.
While this league is just for fun and there is no prize for winning, playoff teams do receive a discount on free agents the following offseason of 5%, and the Pro GM Champion receives an additional 5% discount, for 10% total. In the event of a tied World Series, even though one team will be declared champion using the tiebreak system, both teams will receive the additional 5% discount.
* Fines and probation:
Fines and probation may be given out by the commissioner under certain circumstances. If a fine is given out, you will put the fine on your roster and pay it as you would a player. A fine can be a lump sum for one year, or a fixed amount for up to four years. Probation will take the form of extra scrutiny over your trades and roster moves to make sure that you are making fair and legal moves but also moves that are in your team's best interest, for now and for the future. While your team is in probation, the commissioners may veto your trades without the trade going through the standard veto process.