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Article I. INTRODUCTION
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Section 1.01    The Moneyball Baseball League, hereby referred to as the MBL, is an online Strat-O-Matic baseball league (hereafter referred to as SOMO). The purpose of the league is to assemble a 40-man roster, while operating on a $140 million salary cap for a twelve team league. Each owner will be the general manager of their franchise. 
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Section 1.02    Each General Manager will take over all current contract situations as determined by the Strat-O-Matic Online 365 salaries at the time of the inaugural draft.
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Section 1.03    Immediately after the inaugural draft, owning teams are able to, but are not obligated to, sign each eligible draftee to a contract extension as per the CONTRACT RULES established in Article IX below.
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(a)     Cot’s Baseball contracts will be used for determining a player’s term of service, rounded up, for the purposes of offering contract extensions after the inaugural draft (https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/).
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(b)     Draftees must have three or more years of service time in order to be eligible for a contract extension.
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(c)     Contract extensions take effect beginning in the 2020 season. SOM 2019 salaries are in effect for the inaugural seasons.
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(d)     Prospects will count toward the salary cap as noted in Article IX Sect 4.
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Section 1.04    Example 1: Byron Buxton is drafted in the inaugural draft at a salary of $500,000. He has 2.16 years of service time, rounded up to 3 years, so he is ineligible for a contract extension but remains under team control for three more years.
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Section 1.05    Example 2: Miguel Sano is drafted in the inaugural draft at a salary of $530,000. He has 3.07 years of service, rounded up to 4 years, so he is under team control for two more seasons and is eligible for a contract extension. Miguel Sano could have his contract renewed for four years at the annual salary determined by Section 9.09(a).
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Section 1.06    Example 3: Michael Brantley is drafted in the initial draft at a salary of $6,020,000. He has 9 years of service time. Since he has more than 6 years of service time the owner is free to extend the contract any number of years as long as the contract minimums in Section 10.08 are met. [Note: the player can be extended at the contract minimum or his current salary, whichever is higher. The only way player salaries go down is through free agency].
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Article II.        INAUGURAL DRAFT
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Section 2.01    The inaugural draft is a 41 round live draft. The draft will consist of 40 players and 1 stadium. Stadiums can be chosen in any round of the draft.
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Section 2.02    Only those players who were issued SOMO cards this year 2020 for 2019 season) are eligible for the inaugural draft. Unleashed cards are not permitted for the inaugural draft.
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Section 2.03    The initial draft is serpentine; all subsequent free agent drafts are non-serpentine based upon the previous seasons regular season combined records, worst to first, NFL style.
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Section 2.04    There is no clock for round 1 of the inaugural free agent draft. Rounds 2 and 3 will operate with a 3-hour clock. 10am-10pm EST, Monday thru Friday. The Clock will be turned off over the weekend, but there is a strong preference for all owners to try and make timely picks over the weekend.
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Article III.      PROSPECT DRAFTS
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Section 3.01    There is 1 prospect draft during each season.
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Section 3.02    The yearly prospect draft is 3 rounds, to be held immediately after each year's winter free agent signing period the arbitration settlements have been completed, here after called Spring Prospect Draft.
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Section 3.03    Prospect Eligibility: Prospects are defined as any player who has signed a contract with an MLB organization but who has no MLB experience prior to the start of the current MLB season. [Note, this means that players with no MLB experience prior to the 2020 MLB season, but who are carded in the SOM 2020 season, are still considered prospects and not free agents for the purpose of our annual prospect draft].
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Section 3.04    The initial prospect draft is serpentine. Draft order for this initial prospect draft will be the reverse of the draft order for the Inaugural draft. All subsequent prospect drafts are non-serpentine, and draft order is based on the previous year's regular season records, worst to first, NFL style. Season champions draft last. Ties are resolved as determined in the tie-break rule in Article IV Section 4.05 of the General Rules.
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Section 3.05    There is no clock for round 1 of the supplemental free agent spring prospect draft. Rounds 2 and 3 will operate with a 3-hour clock, 10am-10pm EST, Monday thru Friday. The Clock will be turned off over the weekend, but there is a strong preference for all owners to try and make timely picks over the weekend.
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Section 3.06    The maximum number of prospects allowed on each roster is 10.
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Section 3.07    Prospects are not counted as part of the 40 man roster while they maintain their prospect status; however their salaries count toward the $140 million salary cap (see Article IX Sect 4 for prospect salaries).
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Section 3.08    Owners control the rights of their prospects for no longer than 3 years. At the end of 3 years (from time of draft) a prospect must either be promoted to the 40 man roster or released.
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Section 3.09    Prospects can be traded, but the 3 year timeline remains constant for each prospect.
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Section 3.10    Owners lose rights to all prospects that they release; released prospects are eligible to be drafted if the prospect was never issued SOM card, or signed as a free agent if they were issued a SOM card for the current SOM season. Un-carded players are not eligible for free agency.
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Section 3.11    Individual owners are responsible for their own prospect research.
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Section 3.12    Prospects can be promoted to the major league roster at any time, provided there is roster space available. Once promoted all prospects lose their prospect status, and cannot be demoted back to prospect status.
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Article IV.     GENERAL RULES
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Section 4.01    A year is defined as a calendar year comprising two SOMO seasons. There will be 2 seasons played each year; Season 1 will begin after the winter free agent signing period is over. Season 2 will begin in August. Only leashed cards are eligible for season play.
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Section 4.02    Divisional assignments will change each season.
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(a)     For the initial season the divisions will be formatted in the 1-4-7-10, 2-5-8-11, 3-6-9-12 set up based on the initial draft order.
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(b)     Cumulative team records will determine the divisional assignments for Season 1 of each new year.
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(c)     Divisional assignments for season 2 each year will be determined by the final won/loss records of the previous season in a randomized way East 1-4-7-10 Central: 2-5-8-11 West: 3-6-9-12
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Section 4.03    All transactions must be posted on the individual league thread.
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Section 4.04    The league Commish shall maintain a record of all drafts, transactions and player movements and provide a copy to any owner upon request.
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Section 4.05    All ties between teams will be broken by the previous season's head-to-head win/loss records including playoffs. If this does not break the tie, cumulative win/loss head-to-head records from the previous card seasons will be used. Failing that, ties will be broken by a coin toss.
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Section 4.06    All rule changes must pass by a super majority - 8 owners or more.
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Section 4.07    There are no specific rules against "roster dumping." Owners no longer in a pennant race can use their best judgement in determining the makeup of their team, provided that all general roster size limits are met. However, it is expected that all owners will act in the best interests of the game.
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Section 4.08    All leagues will be set up using the DH, advanced skill level, 5% FA drop penalty, and super advanced injury rules.
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Article V.        STADIUM RULES
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Section 5.01    Each player will draft a stadium during the initial free agent draft.
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Section 5.02    Stadiums are unique and belong to each owner for the duration of the league.
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Section 5.03    Replacement owners will be allowed a one-time option to change stadiums upon joining the league.
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Section 5.04   Owners can choose to change their stadium after 3 years (or 6 SOMO seasons).
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Section 5.05    There will be a separate stadium draft immediately following the spring FA draft each year.
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Section 5.06    Owners wishing to change stadiums must drop their stadium PRIOR to the spring FA draft.
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Section 5.07    Stadiums can also be changed through trade. Players may trade stadiums with other players at any time except while a regular season is in progress.
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Section 5.08    If the BP effects change by +/-6 in one category or by +/-15 in all four categories combined the owner may change stadiums.
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Article VI.     SEASON ROSTER RULES