Each team will also have a reserve roster of 17 additional players, for a total team roster of 40 players.

IV. POSITION ELIGIBILITY

A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared at least 20 times in the major leagues in the preceding season.

Designated Hitter is considered a position. A player who only qualifies as a DH may only be assigned to the DH roster slot.

If a player did not appear in 20 games at any position, he may be drafted only at the position at which he appeared most frequently.

If a player appeared in less than 20 games at 2B or SS, but 20 games or more at those two positions combined, he may be draft eligible for the middle infield slot. This exception would also apply to 1B, 3B and the corner infield slot.

If a minor league player did not appear in 5 games in the majors at any position, he may be drafted at the position at which he appeared most frequently in the previous minor league season.

If a player did not appear the prior season in the majors at all, he qualifies at the position he played most frequently the prior season in any league(s) he played in. If a player sat out the previous year for any reason, his eligibility will be determined by the last season in which he played professional baseball in the United States.

These eligibility rules shall only be used to determine the positions at which a player may be drafted. Once the season begins, a player becomes eligible for any additional positions he appears at in the major leagues at least 5 times.

V. STATISTICS and STANDINGS

The following statistical categories will be used to determine team performance and league standings:

Teams are ranked from first to last in each of the ten categories and given points for their respective ranking (12 points for 1st place, 11 points for 2nd place, etc.)

The team with the most overall points at the end of the major league regular season will be deemed the league victor.  Statistics from any tie-breakers required for MLB playoff determination do not count.

In the event of ties in an individual category, the tied teams will share the ranking points of the two positions in the standings.

There will be no minimum inning or at bat requirements.

VI. PLAYER ACQUISITION

Stage One:  A player auction will be conducted during the annual First Pitch Arizona fantasy baseball symposium at the Arizona Fall League. At this auction, each team must fill out its 23-man active roster at a total cost not to exceed $260.

Each owner will receive a set of league depth charts prior to the start of the auction. These charts will list players by position within major league team according to the eligibility described above, but include no statistics or player values. This document, a pen/pencil, and a blank roster sheet will be the only support materials allowed at the auction. Partners, laptops, magazines, books or any other pre-prepared materials of any kind are prohibited.

There will be one or more Auctioneers who run the proceedings. All decisions of the auctioneer are final.

The Auctioneer will award the player to the team that is the high bidder. The team acquires the player for that amount and announces the roster position the player will fill.

The process is repeated, with successive team owners introducing players to be bid on, until every team has a completed roster of 23 players, by requisite position.

Players eligible to be acquired at this auction include any player on the expanded 25-man roster at the conclusion of the just-completed major league season.

Players eligible at more than one position may be shifted during the course of the draft.

No team may select a player who qualifies only at a position (or positions) that the team has already filled.

The winning bid for each player shall be considered his salary for the duration of that season. A player's salary is fixed for that period, no matter his status, be it active, reserved or released into the free agent pool.

Stage Two:  Player acquisition for the purposes of completing the remaining 17 reserve spots will be done in the form of a straight draft, conducted online prior to Opening Day at a time to be determined.

Draft order will be conducted in a serpentine fashion, with the top-seeded team having first selection in round one, last selection in round two and first again in round three, etc.

In the league's initial draft, seeding will be determined by random draw. In subsequent seasons, seeding will be determined by the previous year's standings. A 12-team league would draft in the order of 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,5,4,3,2,1. Other league sizes would be determined using a comparable method. Expansion teams would be seeded at the beginning of the list.

Players eligible to be acquired at this draft include:

All players acquired during Stage Two will have a salary of $1. The $17 total salary of the reserve roster will not count against the $260 active roster limit.

Players acquired during Stage Two that have fewer than 50 AB or 10 IP of prior major league experience at the time of the draft may be designated as Farm Reserve players. There is no limit to how many Farm Reserve players a team may have on its reserve roster. Once a player exceeds 50 AB or 10 IP at the major league level, he loses Farm eligibility.

VII. THE RESERVE LIST

At any time prior to the weekly transaction deadline, a team may reserve a player from its active roster and replace that player from his reserve list.

A player placed on the major league disabled list may be moved to the reserve roster just like any other player move. DLed players will be considered as part of the 17-man reserve.

A player may be activated from the reserve list only if he is on the active roster of a major league team. DLed players may be activated even if they have not yet been activated by their major league club.

Players on a team's reserve list who are on a major league team's active roster may remain on the reserve list indefinitely during the course of a season.

VIII. FREE AGENTS

On the first Sunday of each month, from May through September, up to three (3) free agents in the free agent pool may be signed by each team, in the following manner:

A straight draft will be conducted online, in a serpentine fashion, beginning in reverse order of the league standings as of that Sunday. This draft should commence no later than 9 PM Eastern Time.

The salary of each acquired free agent will be $10. If an owned player is released into the free agent pool and re-drafted during a monthly supplemental draft, his new salary will be the greater of his original draft value, or $10.

Only players who are active on a major league roster at the time of the transaction deadline may be selected. A player may not be drafted if he is on another active or reserve roster during the transaction period.

Players acquired via the monthly free agent draft may be added to the acquiring team's active or reserve roster. For each free agent that it signs, a team must at the same time release, trade or reserve a player from its roster.  At the conclusion of the draft, all team rosters must be settled at 40 players.

If a team owner is unable to attend the online draft, he may appoint a proxy to select his players for him. Teams that are unrepresented at the time of the draft will be unable to select free agents for that month.

IX. TRADES

Trades may be made at any time except for the period between August 30 and the conclusion of the major league season. Statistics will take effect at the normal reporting period.

Teams are free to make trades of any kind so long as at least one player is exchanged on each side of the deal, and the active rosters of the teams involved in the trade reflect the required position distribution upon the completion of all the week's transactions.

Any player may be traded to another team's active roster or reserve list. Uneven trades are permitted; reserve players may be activated to settle a team’s active roster, even if it leaves a team’s reserve roster short of 17 players. Failure to replace a traded player and bring a team's active roster to its legal limit will result in the nullification of the trade.

All trades are subject to review by the Commissioner, who has the power to overturn a trade if he deems it as being against the best interests of the league.

X. TRANSACTIONS

The transaction deadline will be 12:00 noon Eastern Time, Mondays.

For purposes of statistical calculation, transactions will be effective commencing with games played on that Monday.

Reserve/recall transactions may be entered online by each team owner directly. Trades must be transmitted to the Secretary of Waivers And Transactions (SWAT) and e-postmarked by Monday at 12:00 noon Eastern Time.

Reserve/recall transactions may be made beginning the first Monday after the conclusion of the Stage Two draft.

Performance stats of a player shall be assigned to a team only when he is on the active roster of that team and on the active roster of a major league team.

XI. ROSTER SALARY COMPOSITION

At the conclusion of the Stage One player acquisition, each team’s active roster will have a combined salary of no more than $260.

The total salary of all players on a team’s active roster may never exceed $325 at any time.

XII. ROSTER PROTECTION

One week prior to the beginning of a new season's Stage One auction, all teams must designate no more than 15 players that they will retain ownership of for the upcoming season. This information must be reported to the SWAT, who will distribute it to all owners.

These 15 players may originate from a team's active or reserve roster. All must be promoted to the active roster prior to the beginning of the Stage One auction, with the exception of Farm Reserve players.

Farm Reserve players who are protected may occupy a team's bottom-most reserve roster slots. In this way, unused Stage Two picks would be given up at the end of that draft.

Retained players must have their salary level increased by $5 each year, with the exception of players originally drafted as farm players whose salary would increase by $3 each year.

Decisions on retention are made on a season-by-season basis. There are no limits to how long any player may be owned by the same team.

XIII. TIE-BREAKERS

In the event of a tie in the standings, the tiebreaker is the number of categories in which each of the tying teams beats all the other teams with which it is tied. This should be used to break ties in the final standings as well as any interim standings for purposes of determining free agent seeding.

If there is still a tie after using this method to determine the final standings, the teams tied in the tiebreaker share the championship.

If there is still a tie after using this method to determine interim standings, the tie will be broken by a coin-flip by the Commissioner.

XIV. OWNERSHIP and EXPANSION

Team ownership is perpetual. An owner deciding to leave the league may transfer ownership to another person; however, existing owners must vote to approve any new owners into the league.

Teams abandoned during a season will have their rosters frozen until the completion of the season.  New ownership must be approved by a vote of the remaining league owners. If no owner is found by the time of the subsequent Stage One draft, all players on the abandoned teams will become free agents. 

Existing owners may elect to expand the number of teams in the league. New owners must be approved by a vote of existing owners.  Expansion rosters are stocked after the existing teams announce their freeze lists and prior to the Stage One draft. Expansion teams can choose from among any non-protected player on all existing teams, and select their 15 keepers. Salaries of these players will be at current season rates, not increased protection slot rates.

Ownership for abandoned teams must be found before any expansion takes place.

XV. INFORMATION

For the purposes of all transactions contingent upon events in Major League Baseball, the official information source will be the transactions page at ESPN.com. All transactions are to be based on the CURRENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE as of the 12:00 noon ET deadline. MLB transactions that occur prior to 12:00 noon ET but are not reported at ESPN by that time, are NOT ALLOWABLE.

XVI. QUALIFICATION

Owners are eligible to participate in the Xperts Fantasy League if

XVII. RESPONSIBILITY and GOVERNANCE

The commissioner is empowered to interpret the rules. Any decisions he makes in this regard, and/or to resolve conflicts, are final.

All illegal player moves made by a league member will be nullified. For an illegal draft pick, the player will be immediately released back into the free agent pool. For an illegal roster move, the transaction will be nullified and any affected statistics will be recalculated back to the date of the offense.

Any issues not covered by this Constitution will revert to the rules as stated in the Official Constitution of Rotisserie League Baseball.

Any act that is not expressly permitted in these sources is illegal.