The XBL league rules are set forth in seven parts.

NOTE: Any previously approved rules changes for the 2008 season appear in RED TEXT
 

I. League Organization
II. Players
III. Acquiring and Losing Players
IV. Season
V. Game Play
VI. Player Restrictions
VII. Postseason
 
 
 
 
 
 

I. League Organization

1. Purpose
The XBL's purpose is to provide an enjoyable, relaxing, and competitive environment with which to play a season using the Baseball for Windows(BBW) computer game.

2. Rule Changes
Should any franchise owner wish to change these rules, he shall;
· Submit the proposal in writing via e-mail to the league's Commissioner.
· The proposal is then presented to the franchise owners at the next season’s draft meeting
· Franchise owners then vote on a one vote per owner basis
· A 75% approval is needed for these rules to be amended.
· Any rule change approved is put into effect at the beginning of the following season

3. Teams
This league is comprised of 18 franchises. Any owner is as such, limited to four franchises at any given time. The teams are split into three divisions of six teams each.
 

II. Players
1. Roster Size
A franchise's roster is limited at any time to 40 players. The following shall all contribute to the total roster size

· Carded players, as set forth by the 26 active players of each of the 30 MLB teams on the current season disk.
· Players which have left the carded rosters of any stock team used in this league but are held on that team’s roster
· Players that are not part of the usable card set and held on their team’s roster.

Before each February 1 of each year, each team must reduce its roster to no more than 25 total players. Should this not be done, the rosters will be cut down, starting with the team's uncarded players at random, and continuing with the carded roster, in inverse order of actual games played in the season represented, until the roster has been reduced to 25 players.

2. Active Rosters
A team's active roster is composed of the players, which are eligible to play in a league game. Each week a team is limited to an active roster of 25 players. Players may be moved between the active and inactive rosters in the two days (Monday and Tuesday) before each week's play begins.

III. Acquiring and Losing Players

1. Free Agency
Any XBL player who changes leagues in the next season's APBA carded set becomes a restricted free agent as of Dec. 15 each year (i.e. shortly after APBA releases its new season's list of carded players), regardless of which team he's with.

Before the end of Dec. 14, the team owning the restricted free agent must exercise one of three options by the end of Jan. 31:
a. The team can keep the player by spending a draft pick on him*
b. The team can trade the player to another team. If a restricted free agent is traded between Dec. 15 and Jan. 31, the player signs with his new team and is no longer a free agent.
c. The team can release the player, who goes into the pool for the next draft. If a team does not declare which option it wants to use by the end of January, the player will be released and go into the draft pool.

Teams cannot sign restricted free agents that are either released (and headed for the draft) or on other teams' rosters as of Dec. 15, unless the team makes a trade with another team to acquire a restricted free agent. If a team wants to keep a restricted free agent, it must have at least one first-round pick in the draft following the most recent season (i.e. the next draft), and forfeit one first-round pick to sign the player.

If a team then wants to keep a second restricted free agent, it must have at least one other unused draft pick in the second round or better in the next draft (an unused first-round pick works here, too) to forfeit to sign the player.

If a team wants to keep a third restricted free agent, it must have another available draft pick in the third round or better (i.e. 2nd- or 1st-round pick) to forfeit in order to sign the third player. This process would continue in like fashion for additional re-signings by a team.

2. Draft
Before each season's draft players will be "rolled over" to the next season disk, using only the 26 players on each stock team. Draft order is determined by a draft lottery for the first three picks, and by inverse order of the previous season's winning percentages thereafter. The main draft is 10 rounds long. The rest of the draft will be handled by Baseball for Windows’ auto-GM function to fill the rosters to 40 carded players. An owner may submit a GM and scout export file should they wish to do this before the draft by sending such files to the commissioner’s office.

3. Draft Lottery
Three dice rolls will be made using three dice before each season's draft to determine the first three picks in the draft among the non-playoff teams.
The percentages for the first pick are as follows:
Worst winning percentage: 28% of rolls
2nd worst: 22%
3rd worst: 15%
4th worst: 10%
5th worst: 8%
6th worst: 7%
7th worst: 4%
8th worst: 3%
9th worst: 2%
10th worst: 1%
For the second pick, the worst team moves to 29%, and 31% for the third pick. The remaining teams take their respective spots. This order applies to the first round only. In all other rounds teams will pick in the inverse order of their winning percentages.

4. Trades
Trades may be made at any time before 10 p.m. central time on the Tuesday before week 15 begins. Players may not be traded between 10 p.m. central time on trading deadline day and the end of the XBL playoffs. When a trade is made, it need to be confirmed by all parties to the Commissioner via e-mail, who may overturn any trade on grounds of competitive balance. If an owner wishes to trade players among his own franchises, it requires a two-thirds approval amongst all franchise owners on a one vote per owner basis. Abstentions in this manner count against the proposed trade. All trades are reflected in the next commissioner file.

5. Free Agent Signings
If an owner wishes to make a claim on a free agent (defined as any player not affiliated with any team, which is eligible to play that season) after the draft, that owner shall inform the commissioner of the claim between 10:00 p.m. central time on Sunday and 10:00 p.m. central time on Tuesday. If no other team places a claim on the same player within this period, that player will be placed on the claiming team's major league roster if there is space available, or farm roster otherwise, and will become available for that team to use with the next Tuesday’s “Play Ball” commissioner file.

If two or more teams make a claim on the same player, and at least three weeks of play have been completed, the team with the worst record at the time of the claim, using the tiebreakers in Section VII to break any ties, will get the player. If less than three weeks of play have been played that season, the team with the worst record over the teams' last ten regular season games will get the player, again using the tiebreakers in Section VII to break ties in record. Also, a team may not sign more than one free agent per week.
The free agent list will be frozen after the trading deadline, and will re-open after the following season’s draft.

IV. The Regular Season
1. Schedule
Each team will play a 66-game game schedule, broken down as follows: Each team will play the other teams in their division six times (30 games). A team will play each team not in their division three times each (36 games). A team will be scheduled to play three games per week. If an owner is unable to play his scheduled games in any given week, that team's MicroManager will manage the game in his place.

2. Playing the Games
All games will be played using Baseball for Windows version 5.5.

3. Computer Games
In a computer game, the home team is responsible for playing the game against the visiting team's MicroManager. If the visiting manager wishes, he may contact the home team's manager to arrange to play the games head-to-head.

A commissioner file, named C-WKxxA.alp, where xx is the number of the week in progress, will be sent to all league owners Sunday night or Monday morning each week, which will contain all results and stats from the previous week's games. No games are to be played with this file. All teams will then have until 10 p.m. central time each Tuesday to report trades and free agent claims and minor-major league callups, as well as send a franchise file to the commissioner containing all roster moves (between the major and minor leagues), commit its starting pitchers for the coming week's games, and game lineups for visiting teams. A second commissioner file, called C-WKxxB.alp, where xx is the number of the week in progress, will be sent out late Tuesday or early Wednesday. This file is for playing the games. No owner shall make any roster moves with this file. Upon completion of an owner's games, the home team's manager (or whatever physical location the games were played) shall send the commissioner a franchise file, along with all HTML box scores for games played, and preferably a short state of the team/owner report. This process is then repeated throughout the season.

V. Game Play
1. DH Rules
The designated hitter rule will be used in all XBL games.

2. Modifications
Hit and Run Play - Any batter may hit-and-run with any base runner at any time the manager wishes.
Stealing - Any player may steal any base at any time the manager wishes
Ballpark Effects - Will not be used in this league
Other Options - Bunt for a hit, Infield in with 3rd base empty, Intentional walk with bases full, and sacrifice with two out options will be turned on

3. AIM Usage
The Advanced Injury Management (AIM) feature shall be used in all games played by the computer. The setting will be on All Injuries and Fatigue, and number of AIM games increased to tighten the settings with the increased roster size, making it so that non-regular players will get tired much more quickly than in past seasons, thus forcing a manager to use his minor league roster more throughout the season.

4. Rainouts
The Commissioner will reschedule all rainouts at the next available common day off. If there are no more common days off before the end of the regular season, the game will only be made up if a playoff spot or division championship is at stake.

5. Extensions to the deadlines
If more time is needed to complete a series, a one-day extension may be requested of the Commissioner. The extension request must be received by the Commissioner, either through e-mail or phone call or in person, by Sunday at 6 p.m. central time, so that the rest of the league can be apprised of what's going to happen. Usually, this will result in less time with the commissioner A-file for the next week.

6. Commissioner's power to turn over games to the visiting team's owner
If you cannot in any way play your scheduled games during the week, please let the Commissioner know as soon as possible, so the games can be turned over to the visiting manager to play. Also, if the league office is still awaiting your franchise files on Sunday evening, one attempt will be made to contact the owner by phone at approximately 8:30 p.m. central time, to see if the games are in progress or will be coming that night. If the owner cannot be contacted, and the league office does not hear anything from the home team's manager by 9:00 p.m. central time regarding when those games will be played, the league office reserves the right to allow the visiting team to play those games. If that happens, the franchise file from the visiting team will then be the official results of the games. Should this event occur, however, the deadline of 10:00 p.m. central time on Sunday to get the games completed will be extended at the Commissioner’s discretion.

7. Participation Penalties
To circumvent the loophole by which an owner may let his team be managed all season by a micromanager, rendering franchise(s) as dummy teams, the following penalties will be imposed. All owners with two teams had 66 home games scheduled for them to play in 2008. (33 home games for each of two teams). If an owner does not complete at least 33 (18 for owners with one team) of these 66 games, his voting rights as to any rules changes and award voting will be revoked for the next season. If an owner does not complete at least 24 (12 for owners of one team) of his scheduled games, that owner's first round draft picks will be forfeited in the following season's draft.

Should an owner inform the commissioner in a timely manner that he cannot play his games for any week, he shall be credited with one game played for every two home games scheduled for that owner's teams. However, the commissioner must be informed each week in this manner to receive this credit. As well, this may only be employed for five consecutive weeks during the season.

All owners should participate (preferably once a month during the season) in league matters by giving a state of the owner/teams when sending his f-file for games played. This doesn’t have to be much, it could just be a sentence commenting about your team, a quote, a complaint about how your players suck, players you have on the trading block, proposed jihads against an opponent, coaching rumors or changes, etc. Really, this can be anything. The idea is because we can’t play face-to-face, is to get everyone personally involved in their teams and the league, and stops the autopilot way of team management.

VI. Usage of Players
1. Limitations on Pitchers
The AIM feature will govern all pitcher usage and injuries, so there will be no appearance limits, or restrictions from week to week.

2. Limitations on Position Players
AIM will govern all player usage, so there will be no games played limits on any players.

VII. Postseason
1. Qualifiers
The three division winners, along with the five non-division winners with the best records, will be invited to participate in the XBL’s postseason.

2. Playoffs
The division winners will be seeded 1 through 3, based upon their regular season record, with the 1 seed being the best team. The non-division winning playoff teams shall be seeded 4 through 8 in the same manner. The first round will be a best-of-five series, with the lower-numbered series hosting games 1,2, and 5. the matchups will be as follows:

Series 1: 1 seed vs. 8 seed
Series 2: 4 seed vs. 5 seed
Series 3: 2 seed vs. 7 seed
Series 4: 3 seed vs. 6 seed

The semifinals will be a best-of-seven series, with the lower-numbered seed hosting games 1,2,6, and 7. The winner of series 1 will play the winner of series 2, while the winner of series 3 and the winner of series 4 will play each other. The winner of the semifinals then play each other in the XBL World Series, which will also be a best-of-seven, with the lower-numbered seed hosting games 1,2,6 and 7.
All playoff series will be limited to two weeks real time. If the series remains incomplete after that, the remainder of the series will be simulated.

3. Resolving ties in record
Ties between two or more teams are resolved as follows (Starting at the beginning each time one or more teams are eliminated)
· Head-to-head record against all teams involved, decided by winning percentage
· Divisional record, if teams are from the same division only
· Fewest number of runs allowed against teams in its own division, but only if the tie involves teams from one division only
· Fewest number of total runs allowed
· A playoff game will be played if the tie means one team will be eliminated from postseason play
· The team which has gone the longest without losing if it does not
· Coin toss if the tie still exists

4. Special playoff game rules
AIM status will be carried over from the regular season, and will govern all player usage. There will be two days between the end of the season and the beginning of the playoffs. Owners must declare a 25-man series active roster before each playoff series begins, and no roster moves may be made once a playoff series begins.
All pitchers are treated the same as in the regular season. There is a day off between games 2 and 3 of a five-game series, and between games 2 and 3 as well as games 5 and 6 of any seven-game playoff series. There is also two days off (previously one) between the last scheduled game of one playoff series and game 1 of the following playoff series.

5. Postseason Awards
Upon the regular season's conclusion, and before the playoffs start, all owners shall vote on the basis of one vote per owner on the following postseason awards.
· Most Valuable Player
· Starting Pitcher of the Year Award
· Relief Pitcher of the Year
· Rookie of the Year
· Manager of the Year

VIII. Rights reserved to the Commissioner
1. Rules not covered in this document
Any issue that comes up, not covered by the provisions above, will be settled by the commissioner, and will be ratified by a majority vote of league owners.

2. Cheating
This will not be tolerated, and will be checked upon regularly. Canceling a home game that you are losing and re-starting is the main offense. If this is discovered, then the Commissioner will invoke item 1 of this section to settle the matter.

3. Owner concerns
Should an owner suspect anything out of line, or have a concern he feels needs immediate resolution, he shall bring this concern to the Commissioner (preferably via e-mail, so there’s a record of the request), who will then present it to league members to decide by two-thirds vote if it needs immediate amending of the rules. Should the resolution fail, it will be brought up again at the following season’s draft for further discussion.