THE

ACTION BASEBALL LEAGUE EXTRAORDINAIRE

CONSTITUTION

"VERY A.B.L.E."
MEMBERSHIP GUIDELINES

Pretty basic really, we just ask that you  :

Play By The Rules
(hey, they make things "easier", not harder)

Be "On Time" With League Functions
(a well functioning league requires this, your part of it's success!)

Be Courteous And Reply To Trade Offer Emails
(never hurts to send by even just a quick reply to someone's trade offer message to you)

HAVE FUN!!!
(that is what it is all about!)

NOTE : This document is not called "The Constitution of the United States". Thus, it does not require an "Act of Congress" to edit it. It is best described as an "Evolving Document". So, when/should the need arise over time to re-word some Rule(s) in order to make it/them more clear and/or defined, or should a new Game Feature be created, or one changed, that needs to be accounted for or implemented into this document, please know that it shall be done so unilaterally with only the best interests of the League in mind.

FORMAT

A full email, full computer ACTION! PC Baseball League using the current WINDOWS edition of the game.

16 Teams, 4 Divisions, 4 Teams in each division.

162 Game Schedule

March through October Playing Schedule, approximately, including the Playoffs

1 Series per week which will be either at Home or on the Road

90 Games against your three Division opponents, 45 Home & 45 Road

1 Series of 6 Games each against each of the other 12 league teams split half at Home, half on the Road, and that rotation will flip flop every year so you have at least one Series against every team in the league at least once within two years.

Each Team chooses and plays in a Current MLB Stadium for the entire season. Stadiums may be changed if nobody owns the new Stadium you want to play that season in, or you may swap Stadiums with someone if they want to. Please note that Stadiums may not be "traded", only evenly swapped. Should a member leave, his teams Stadium may be claimed by one of the remaining members before a replacement member is named.

Players will NOT have their ABLE Team Stadium set as their real life home park. All Players will have their real life home park remain their home park.

Ball Park effects will be used.

The DH is not allowed

ROSTERS

All of these conditions must be met :

Each team must 35 players on its roster. Up to, but no more than, 2 of your players do not have to be rated on the disk.

A 25 Player Active Roster is set before every Sereis and may not be changed during it's play.

The Active Roster Limit will increase to 35 players beginning with the first series after September 1 on the ABLE schedule. 

Each Team should have approximatley 600 Plate Appereances for each Position.

Each Team should have approximatley 1350 Innings on it's pitching staff.

Players rated solely as a Designated Hitter are allowed to play at one position, which can be any position they ever played in their MLB Careers (we will use http://www.baseball-reference.com/ as a guide for which positions these players previously played) in the field. They will be rated "1" at this chosen position.

PLAYER USAGE LIMITATIONS

Player usage will be regulated by using the games fatigue system.

Batters with over 500 Plate Appearances are excluded from Usage Rules...

Batters with less than 500 Plate Appearances have Reduced Hits by 50% penalty set at at 110% Plate Appearances.
 
Pitchers Usage is controlled by the Games built in EPC System.

Stolen base attempts shall be regulated by the Action game.

GAME PLAYING RULES SETUP

In the General Rules setup, these options are turned ON :
Catcher Fatigue
Display WC Standings
Apply Park Effects
Rain Delays
Replay Reviews
Suspensions
Draft League LH Pitcher Boost
Sacrifice Rules : Using Modern Rules (1954 to present)

In the Roster Management setup, these options are turned ON :
25 Opening Day Roster Limit
35 Player September 1st Roster Limit
Use Daily Lineups If Available
Injuries
Max Injury Length = 30 Days

In the Usage Rules setup, these options are turned ON :
BATTING
Over 110%
50%
Based on Plate Appearances
Exclude if over 500 Plate Appearances

PITCHING
No Penalty

Prorate Usage Rules for Each Playoff Series checked ON

In the Miscellaneous Rules setup, these options are turned ON :
Show Steel Success %
Show Base Runner Success %
Display Pitcher Estimated Pitch Counts (EPC)

Coaching Decision Clock is set at 10 Seconds

Pitch-by-Pitch Mode can be used if playing Solo. If playing over the Internet it may only be used if BOTH Managers agree to use. This is due to the extra time required to play the games.

SEASONAL PLAY

Only one series will be played a week.

The Schedule on the ABLE Master Disc will be used and followed.

ABLE's Weekly Four Step Schedule will go as follows  :

1) All Game Exports & Manager Exports Files are due in every Sunday Night by 9pm Pacific Time, or earlier. Any Games not received on time will be Auto Played using computer managers for each team.

2) On Monday morning a new ABLE "RESULTS" MASTER DISC will be sent out updated through the previous weeks games. You MUST update your data disk every week with this new file.

3) Your New Manager File (the File named "YourTeamName.MAN" in the ABLE Data Disc Directory, which is the one you make ACTIVE in the Game to play your ABLE Games) is due in every Monday Night by 9pm Pacific Time, or earlier. You don't of course need to send one in if you require no Roster Changes, or don't alter any of your Managerial Preferences. Please keep in mind that your Roster is frozen for the entire Series once step #4 below takes place below.

4) Every Tuesday you will receive a COMPLETELY NEW ABLE "PLAY BALL" MASTER DISK. You MUST update your data disk every week with this new file.

IMPORTANT NOTE   :   It is the HOME Managers has the option on how he wants to play his games for that week. He can :

A) Play them over the internet if "he" and the road coaches wants to...

B) If the Road Manager has requested to play the Games over the Internet the Home Managers may allow the Road Coach play the games. The Games will still be played in the Home Managers Ball Park as the Home Team, just with the Home Team being run by the computer manager... This is the "recommended option" to choose if the Road Coach would like to play the games via the Internet and you would prefer to just Auto Play the Games... the reason being of course that your team will be run the same way you were going to run it any ways, thus there is no harm allowing the Visiting Manager to run his team if he wants to... NOTE : The Visiting Manager must then indeed PLAY the Games, he may NOT then Auto Play the Games himself. Should something arise that prevents him from playing the games manually, he must then inform the Commish to go ahead and Auto Play the Games.

C) He can play them solo against the computer if he chooses (the road coach will have no say in that matter, needing only to be politely informed that you wont have the time for Internet Play with this Series)   SPECIAL NOTE : No Zooming of Games is allowed...

D) He can auto play them himself...

E) Or finally he can tell the Commish to go ahead and Auto Play them.

Five choices, all the Home Managers, and they all add up to making it a very easy league to be involved in, you participate as much as YOU want to in the Regular Season.

IMPORTANT NOTE   :   The ROAD Manager MUST contact his opponent by NO LATER THAN Monday Night asking if he would like to play the games via the Internet.

MISCELLANEOUS RULES

A)   If an injured player is due to come back from his injury in your upcoming series you need to do one of two things, which are either  :
    1) Set your Roster via your Manager Profile to only go into the next Series with 24 Active Players. That way when the injured player becomes active he is available to be used by your team during that Series...
OR
    2) Set the injured player(s) to be Inactivate via your Manager Profile going into the next Series. That way the will not push your Roster past the 25 Player Limit when their Injury expires...   NOTE  :  Should an Injured Player(s) suddenly become Active during a Series you are playing, and it pushes your own or your opponents team past the 25 Man Active Roster Limit, you must immediately mark those returning players, and only those players, Inactive.

B)   A pitcher must have a minimum EPC of 75 to start a game.

C)   If you are the home team and you notice that due to injuries from a previous series, a starting pitcher for the visiting team has an EPC of 0 at the start of a game, you should either   :
    1) choose in the injured players place a spot starter from the bullpen who is not already scheduled to start in your series,
OR
    2) inactivate the injured starter and activate the starting pitcher on the bench with the most real-life IP.
Since this situation obviously occurred due to the visiting manager not sending in an updated manager file, the home team manager is under not obligation to contact the visiting manager to ask for a starting pitcher replacement preference.

D)   No starting pitcher may be removed from a game until he has given up 3 runs or pitched 5 innings. If your Pitcher is Fatigued by a Rain Delay, then you can ignore this Rule and pull your Pitcher. However, if after the Rain Delay your Pitcher IS NOT FATIGUED, then this Rule DOES still apply.

E)   Managers shall not take advantage of "gamisms" inherent in Action baseball. Examples of gamisms include: using a pitcher with good hitting stats and limited at bats to pinch hit, or using a pinch runner who is slower than the original runner.

PLAYOFFS

All Playoff games must be played over the Interenet or in person.

Each Round is 7 Games using a 2-3-2 Home/Road Format.

4 Division Winners Seeded 1-4, and the 4 Top Wild Cards Seeded 5-8. Seeding Position Holds throughout entire Playoffs. To break Seeding Ties, Head-to-Head will be used first, then Common Opponents, then Coin Flip.

Pairings are   8@1,  7@2,  6@3,  5@4

Only batters' fatigue will be used in the playoffs, using the option to prorate fatigue for playoff games. Batters will be assigned 16.8% usage (based on the maximum potential 21 playoff games) times 1.30.  The usage will does not reset at the beginning of each series.  (The calculation is: Actual AB * (21/162)*1.30 = Playoff AB's, before the penalty is applied.)

Starts by pitchers in post-season play are limited as follows:

TRADING

Any Trade that takes one or both of the participating members over the 35 Man Roster Limit must also include in it a list of the players they are cutting in order to not exceed the 35 Player Limit. At no time may any member ever exceed the 35 Man Player Limit.

Trades may include players and or draft picks, but all players and draft picks in a transaction must be transferred at the same time.

Trades may not include players to be loaned, transferred, or named later, or any other type of future considerations.

No agreement may be made to announce a trade or part of a trade at any future date.

No Draft picks more than one year in advance may be traded. At the conclusion of the World Series, the next season is considered to have begun. For 2010 ONLY, no 2011 may be traded until after the 2010 ABLE World Series.

No trade is official until both parties have contacted the commissioner with details of the trade. The commissioner reserves the right to void any trade that is blatantly one sided or damaging to the league.

Trades become effective at the start of the series following approval of the trade. Players may not be used until the trade has been approved.

No trades may take place after the results containing games for July 31 have been sent until the end of the playoffs for the season in progress.

Off-season trading begins with the conclusion of the World Series.  

FREE AGENT CLAIMS

From a stated time (soon after the Draft as designated by the Commissioner) until one week before the beginning of the Regular Season,
all un-owned players, the free agent pool, are able to be claimed on a first come, first served basis. For each player Claimed, a player must be cut from the roster if by adding this player a team's roster is in excess of the 35 limit.

During the Regular Season, each team is allowed to make up to 3 emergency "temporary" free agent claims on an as-needed basis, without the need to cut a player. The reason for making an "emergency temporary player claim" would be situations like needing a player due to fatigue or injury at a certain position. In such emergencies the players claimed must be returned to the free agent pool at the conclusion of the season. Teams would request a player at a certain position, and would be awarded the player with the most usage (the league picks the player). No emergency claim player would be eligible for the playoffs, unless injuries required such a player.

THE DRAFT

7 Rounds

Non tradable additional picks are awarded to those teams requiring more picks to reach the 35 Man Roster Limits. The players chosen with these selections may be traded after the conclusion of the Draft.

Reverse Order by Record, with World Series Winner and Runner-Up being placed Last and Next To Last respectfully

Held in the Chat Room in early to mid January on a Saturday (announced well in advance, usually in October of the previous year, to allow everyone to clear their schedule to be able to participate in the entire event), usually requiring up to 4 hours participation with ALL SELECTIONS BEING MADE ON THIS ONE DAY, no email drafting allowed prior to OR after this announced "Drat Day".

A Weighted Lottery to be drawn from a hat will be performed for the first two positions of the first round. The 3 LOWEST seeded Non-Playoff teams only from the previous year will be seeded 1 through 3, with the team with worst regular season record receiving 3 chips, second worst receiving 2 chips, the third worst 1 chip. Any ties by record will be broken by strength of record faced for seeding purposes. The team with the weakest schedule faced will be seeded better. If teams are still tied at this point a coin flip will determine who is seeded better. Teams that required these tie breaker's will rotate positions every round. After the first two draft positions of the first round are drawn, all remaining teams will fill out the remaining positions in reverse order by record. The lottery affects draft positions for the first round only. It's affects on teams that are tied and need to rotate every round WILL BE accounted for though.

RULE CHANGES

A total of 11 confirming votes (out of 16 members) are required to amend the  rules as stated in this constitution. First-year members will not vote. If the full 16 member complement will not be voting in a given year, a propotional percentage of the voting members will be required to amend the constitution. All results, including how each team voted, will be emailed to the league promptly after the voting deadline.

A rules vote can be held at least once per year before the Draft.

All  members may submit rule proposals to the commissioner by his given date. All proposals must be placed on the ballot. If two or more overlap or conflict each other then a run off of these will be required.

EXPANSION PROCEDURES

Expansion will almost always be by 4 Teams.

A 3 Phase Drafting System will be used to stock the new teams.

Before Drafting begins, all current teams will send in a list of 18 Players they own to protect, with a limit of between 6 to 8 pitchers allowed to be protected. These players will considered "protected", and not be exposed in the upcoming Expansion Drafts.

1st DRAFT PHASE  :  Expansion Teams will use the Current League Disc to select 19 players from the un-owned player pool. The Draft Order will be determined by a random "pull from the hat", and the draft itself will be serpentine in nature (the team selecting first in the 1st Round will select last in the 2nd, first in the 3rd, and so on...).

2nd DRAFT PHASE  :  Each Expansion Team will then make 16 Selections from the remaining owned players who are not protected. Once an existing team loses 4 Players from it's protected list, it's remaining players become protected and are no longer available. The Draft Order will be the opposite of what it was in the 1st Phase Draft.

At this point, each Expansion Team will be fully stocked with 35 Players and may participate in Off Season Trading.

3d DRAFT PHASE  :  During the Regular Draft held every January, Expansion Teams will be slotted in the selections immediately following the previous season Non Playoff Teams. The Draft Order will be the opposite of what it was in the 2nd Phase Draft.

The above is in place in order to ensure those teams that endured a difficult season the year before are not "punished" by the Expansion Process, while at the same time teams that enjoyed success are not "rewarded" at the expense of the incoming Expansion Teams. 

POWERS OF THE COMMISSIONER

The commissioner will resolve any conflicts that arise that he determines are not practical for a league vote. Any ruling by the commissioner may be overturned by a league wide veto of at least 11 votes within two weeks of the commissioners decision. Protests are excluded from this however.

The commissioner may veto any trade or player acquisition which does not follow league rules or is in his opinion deemed harmful to the leagues welfare.

The commissioner shall manage league affairs such as finances & dues, the draft, schedules, newsletters & stat reports, backup coaches, expansion, administration of rules and the general operation of the . The commissioner may delegate any of these duties to league members who volunteer as he sees fit.

The commissioner may dismiss any league member for not following league rules, non payment of dues, excessive lateness or for operating in a manner not in the leagues best interest in his opinion.

The commissioner shall rule as he sees proper and fair to the situation on anything not specifically covered in this constitution as the need arises.

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