Queen City Fantasy League Constitution

League Overview:

The Queen City Fantasy League (QCFL) is a traditional roto-style fantasy league. Players are non-salaried and chosen by order in a draft. This is a keeper league that has been in existence since the spring of 1994. We scrapped all teams for the last time in 1997 and have been running since then, seamlessly thanks to RotoNews and now Commssioner.com.

Web Site:

The QCFL now owns www.qcfl.com. This website will be the new home for all information about the QCFL. We also have a blog that keeps track of league news at qcfl.blogspot.com

League Data Source:

The league will use the statistical host as the source of most player information. Currently, and for the foreseeable future, the league host will be Commissioner.com. For certain information that is not available through the league host, such as information on players in the minor leagues, we will consult Baseball-Reference.com. If neither of these sites contains the information we need, an internet search will be performed.

Contact:

To contact the league for any reason, including reporting roster moves & trades, requesting keeper eligibility & scheduling information, or with any general inquiries, please direct your email to queencityfantasyleague@gmail.com. This address is read by all three league officers and periodically it may be used to send announcements to the entire league. If you have a specific question for a particular officer, send the question directly to their email address for more efficient response. The email addresses for individual officers will be listed on the QCFL homepage, along with the email addresses of all other owners.

League Specification:

The QCFL will consist of as many as 18 teams per year. Each team will be managed by an owner or owners. Each team that has more than one owner will select a "majority owner" for league correspondence. No owner may have more than one team.

League Fees:

Due to the lack of quality free services to host our league, a fee will be collected to cover the cost of any services needed. If a suitable free service can be found no fee will be collected. If there are additional funds after the fees are collected, proceeds will be split among the winners as follows: 1st place - 50%, 2nd place - 25%, 3rd place - 15%, 4th place - 10%. For the 2009 season our host will be Commissioner.com, which will cost the league $150. Each owner will be responsible for paying a $20 entry fee to cover the cost.

League Officers:

The QCFL has three officers: A Commissioner, an Assistant to the Commissioner, and a League Secretary, held by Dan Elmaleh, Doug Biggs, and Jack Angert respectively. The duties of these offices are as follows:

Commissioner:
The Commissioner will serve as a tie breaker in votes involving the league officers. The commissioner will vote like any other owner in all league matters that require an X% vote to pass. The Commissioner is also responsible for maintaining the policy of "best interest of the league." This includes having the power to veto trades that are made with poor intentions, enacting special provisions to the constitution with out the off-season waiting period, and disciplining owners who abuse league rules and privileges. This includes actions up to removing owners from the league — the commissioner needs a 2/3 vote of all officers to remove an owner. A unanimous vote of all officers is required to overturn a decision by the commissioner in these or other matters. While league officers will help make moves and perform audits, the commissioner will execute all trades as all trades require his approval. The Commissioner will take care of all monetary aspects of the league, including collecting entry fees and distributing prizes, in years when we must pay for a hosting service. The Commissioner will also retain a copy of the official current version of the Constitution.
Assistant to the Commissioner:
This officer is responsible for the maintenance of the draft order throughout the season, off-season, and during the draft. The Assistant to the Commissioner is responsible for organizing the auxiliary draft, along with assisting the League Secretary with the unproven talent draft. The Assistant to the Commissioner also assists in rulings where it has been determined that a triumvirate should rule, and in the case when a ruling normally made by the Commissioner or League Secretary involves one of said officer's teams.
League Secretary:
This officer will primarily be charged with keeping accounts of players for the sake of determining keeper eligibility, and reporting those accounts at an appropriate time to assist in preparation by team owners for the upcoming draft. Additional duties include assisting with the auxiliary draft, organizing the unproven talent draft, and assisting in rulings where it has been determined that a triumvirate should rule, or in the case that a ruling normally made by the Commissioner or Assistant to the Commissioner directly involves one of said officer's teams. The League Secretary will also maintain the Constitution for reference by the members of the league.

If ever for any reason a decision that should normally be made by an officer directly affects that officer's team, the other two will convene to come to a joint decision on the matter in lieu of the responsible officer to avoid possible conflicts of interest. It is also for this reason that both the Assistant Commissioner and the League Secretary work together on the auxiliary draft and the unproven talent draft.

Officers have lifetime appointments that can be overturned by either:

Teams:

Each team consists of 23 active baseball players and a reserve of inactive players. Players are chosen from real players on actual Major League Baseball teams. As in real life, no player may appear on more than one team at a time. On each team there will be 14 active hitters who must fulfill the following position requirements:

In addition, each team will have 9 active pitchers, consisting of any combination of starting and relief pitchers. The players on the active roster will contribute to the team's statistics.

Scoring:

The categories that are used in the QCFL are Home Runs (HR), Runners Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), and Batting Average (BA) for hitters, and Wins (W), Saves (S), Earned Run Average (ERA), and Walks Issued Plus Hits Allowed the quantity Divided by Innings Pitched ((W+H)/IP or WHIP) for pitchers. In each category a team receives points based on their position relative to the rest of the league.

In a year when there are 15 teams, the team with the lowest ERA will receive 15 points, while the team with the second lowest ERA will receive 14, and so on until the team with the highest ERA receives 1 point.

League standings will be determined by adding the points from each category, with the team with the highest total being in first place. At the end of the season the team with the most points wins.

In the event of a tie the teams who have tied will enter into a tiebreaker round as follows:

If Team A wins three categories and Team B wins five categories the score will be 13-11 in favor of Team B.

The final standings in a given season are used to determine draft order for the following season.

Position Eligibility:

To be eligible to be drafted at a position, a player must have appeared at that position at least 20 times in the previous season. If the player appeared in at least 20 games in the previous season but did not appear 20 times at any one position, the position(s) that he appeared at most often in the Major Leagues will be considered his official position(s) during the draft. If a player appeared in at least one but fewer than 20 games at the Major League level in the previous season, the player's draft position eligibility will be determined by combining the prior season's positional appearances in the Major Leagues and the minor leagues. If a player did not appear in the Major Leagues in the previous season, the most recent prior season in which he appeared in the Major Leagues will be used to determine his draft position eligibility. If the player has never been in the Major Leagues then his draft position eligibility will be determined by whatever position(s) at which he appeared the most in his last minor league season, or at the position which he is expected to play in the coming season upon approval by the Commissioner. If a player only appeared as a Designated Hitter during the previous season, or if he played the majority of his games at DH and 20 or more at no other position, he will only eligible to be drafted for the Utility Player spot on a team's roster. Baseball-Reference.com will be used to determine minor league games played by position.

Once the new season begins, a player is eligible to play any position at which he appears at least 5 times, or at his official position according to the league host.

Player Selection:

Players will be selected in one of four drafts. The main draft and reserve draft take place before the season, usually beginning early to mid-March and ending before the regular season begins, and are run on QCFL.com's draft site. In addition, there will be an auxiliary draft run by the Assistant Commissioner sometime between one month after opening day and the All-star Break. Finally, after the All-star Break but no later than August 31st, there will be an unproven talent draft run by the League Secretary.

Draft Order:

Teams will draft in reverse order to their final position in the standings the previous year. The team that finished last will choose first, and the team that finished first will choose last. In subsequent rounds this order will flip-flop, so in the second round the first pick goes to the team that finished first and the last to the team that finished last. At the end of the second round it reverses again, and the procedure repeats until all teams have drafted their Roster players and Reserve Draft players, for a total of 30 players. The draft order will also be used to run the auxiliary draft and the unproven talent draft. Expansion teams will be provided bonus picks in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd rounds to provide them with the eight players that they would have kept had they been in the league the previous season. In addition, the expansion teams then assume the first picks of the odd rounds and the last picks of the even rounds as if they had finished below the returning teams in the standings the previous season.

Expansion draft order is chosen at random by the commissioner. Expansion teams who enter the league after the specified date will receive the last picks of expansion teams.

If expansion teams get picks 1, 2, 3 and 4 and then a new expansion team comes in, the order will not be reshuffled. The expansion team who came in after the specified date will get the 5th pick.

The Draft:

In the initial draft, a team will select the players it needs to fulfill a 23 man roster consisting of 14 hitters and 9 pitchers as described above. At no point may an owner select a player that he does not have a roster space for.

If Bob already has two shortstops (SS, MI) a second baseman (2B), and has his Utility Spot (UT) filled and nowhere to move the Utility Player, he may no longer choose either a second baseman or a short stop in this draft.

Players taken in this draft shall be known as Roster players for the sake of keeper eligibility, up to four of which may be retained for the following season.

The Draft Site:

Due to life decisions that are constantly moving our owners, it has become next to impossible to hold a proper live draft. As such, Dan Elmaleh has written a draft site for us. This is a quick overview of how it works. Each team is given a unique login and password by the commissioner. Before the draft begins but after all trading has ceased and keepers have been announced, the final draft order will be loaded into the draft site. At that point, each team may log in and select a player if it is their turn, or research the available players in preparation for their turn. There is also a message board that you may use to chat with your fellow owners or leave messages for the league officers.

During an owners turn he or she is said to be "on the clock." At the start of the draft each owner will have 8 hours to make their selection, not including the hours of 12AM to 8AM ET. This is not to say that an owner can not make a selection between 12AM and 8AM ET if their turn comes up, just that those hours will not be counted against the clock.

If an owner does not select a player by the end of their time on the clock, the best overall player will be selected for him by the league officers according to projections for the coming year and the positional needs of the team. An owner whose pick has been made by the league officers may change that draft pick to any player still available at the time that he logs in to the draft site and sees who was selected for him. If the player that the owner wanted has already been selected by another team after his time on the clock expired he will not be able to select that player. The owner must post their intended pick on the draft site message board and/or contact a league officer as soon as possible so that the pick can be corrected and the player originally selected can be placed back into the draft pool.

As a matter of courtesy, please do not make a selection if it is your turn and you are aware of an issue with the draft site that has not been resolved. The fewer picks that occur after something goes awry, the easier it will be to get things straightened out and back on track.

In order to complete the draft in an efficient manner, there will be a certain number of days with 8 hours on the clock per pick, followed by a certain number of days with 4 hours on the clock per pick, followed by a certain number of days with 2 hours on the clock. If for some reason the draft is still running as we approach opening day, a speed day may be necessary. Such a day will take place on a weekend day in order to try to accommodate all owners' participation. The preseason schedule each year will have details on when the draft begins and how many days each phase lasts.

To help keep the draft moving while we all attend to our daily commitments we have implemented a queue to rank your players and make your picks automatically in the event you are not near your computer when your turn comes up. The queue updates every time someone logs in to the draft site, and so if there are players in your queue and someone logs in after your queue wait has expired, the site will attempt to make a pick for your team, even if it is between 12AM and 8AM ET.

Finally, if an owner takes the full time on the clock and the officers must pick for them, they will be moved ahead to the next time limit; during 8 hour days, such an owner will only have 4 hours on the clock in their subsequent turns, and during 4 hour days such an owner will only have 2 hours on the clock in their subsequent turns. The penalty only lasts as long as the phase of the draft and the owner's time on the clock will never be reduced below 2 hours.

The Draft Site will be used for both the main draft and the Reserve draft.

Reserve Draft:

Immediately following the main draft up to seven additional players will be selected in the reserve draft. Reserve draft players may play at any position. A team moves into the reserve draft as soon as its roster is full without waiting for other teams to fill their rosters.

If Bob kept seven players and George kept five, Bob would begin the reserve draft in the 17th round of the draft, while George would still have two more Roster players to select. George would begin his reserve draft in the 19th round, after Bob had already taken two Reserve players.

Players taken in this draft shall be known as Reserve players for the sake of keeper eligibility, and each team will be able to keep up to two Reserve draft players.

[The following paragraphs refer to live drafts, and are not applicable to the league with the use of the draft site. If we return to using a live draft, however, this portion of the constitution will be reinstated].At the end of draft day each team will have thirty players consisting of the 23 Roster players and the 7 Reserve players. As this constitutes the vast majority of the players on a team, owners are heavily encouraged to be present to participate. In the event of an unavoidable conflict, owners must arrange an alternative with the Commissioner. Typical alternatives include sending a list of players in order of preference so that another owner may draft for you on your turn, or participating online. Keep in mind that if you decide to use a list of players, it must be much longer than the thirty players you would like for your team, as other teams in the course of the draft will pick some of the players that you had wanted. In the event the list is exhausted, the Commissioner will have a computer choose the next best available player based on projections for the coming season. If you don't show up and don't get the team you wanted, you only have yourself to blame.

Note: The commissioner is encouraged not to draft for other teams as he has multiple duties at the draft. He will be empowered to take volunteers to draft for needed teams; in the event no one steps up to do this, the commissioner will assign a team to the task.

Auxiliary Draft:

Sometime after the first month of the season has passed but before the All-star Break, the Assistant to the Commissioner will announce the auxiliary draft. In this draft owners will have a chance to acquire two additional players for their teams. These players may be from any position. Players selected must not be on any QCFL roster, including that of the team selecting them. Players will be chosen in the reverse of the order that was established on draft day. Since this draft takes place via email, a list of at least twelve players should be submitted, as there will inevitably be some conflicts. Players taken in this draft shall be known as Auxiliary Draft players for the sake of keeper eligibility, and you will be eligible to keep up to one player from this group. The Assistant to the Commissioner will be aided by the League Secretary in running and determining the results of the auxiliary draft. Any additional details will be provided at the time of the announcement of the auxiliary draft. For the foreseeable future, this draft will be held annually on or about May 15th.

Unproven Talent Draft:

Sometime between the All-star Break and August 31st, the League Secretary will announce the unproven talent draft. For this draft owners will have the opportunity to select two players who have never appeared at the Major League level (one plate appearance, one defensive appearance, or one pitch thrown). Baseball-Reference.com will be used to determine whether a player has appeared in the Major Leagues. As with the auxiliary draft, these players may be from any position, they must not be on any QCFL roster, and the draft will be done via email, so a longer list of at least five players should be submitted. Unlike the auxiliary draft, players will be chosen in the original draft order. Players taken in this draft will be known as Unproven Talent for the sake of keeper eligibility, and a single player from this draft may be kept for next season. The League Secretary will be aided by the Assistant to the Commissioner in running and determining the results of the unproven talent draft. Any additional details will be provided at the time of the unproven talent draft's announcement. For the foreseeable future, this draft will be held annually on or about August 15th.

Roster Management:

Each team has two rosters, the 23 player active roster whose members will earn stats for the team, and the reserve roster, which will be limited in size depending on which of the drafts have taken place. Between draft day and the auxiliary draft, the reserve roster is limited to seven players plus one minor leaguer. After the auxiliary draft, the reserve roster is limited to nine players plus one minor leaguer. Following the unproven talent draft, the reserve roster reaches is maximum size of the year, nine players plus two minor leaguers. Exceptions are made for players on the DL as described below. At any time following draft day owners may make as many changes to their active roster as they wish including switching players between their reserve roster and their active roster, acquiring free agents, and dropping unwanted, unneeded, or injured players from the team. This is provided that the team's active roster still consists of the 14 batters (all in the proper positions) and 9 pitchers as described above. The reserve roster must also stay within its appropriate size limit. Transactions may occur daily, and will take effect on the day performed, or on the following day if done after 12:00 PM EST. Any players not selected in the Reserve Draft, Auxiliary Draft, or Unproven Talent Draft will count as Roster players for the sake of determining keeper eligibility.

[Due to the transactions records kept by Commissioner.com, email notification of daily moves is no longer required. In the event that we move to another service that does not provide the transactions listing, the following section will be reinstated.] Note: QCFL is very happy to present you with as much flexibility as you need in running your team, including the ability to make various moves. However, to prevent possible misconduct and help keep things organized, the league officers will be making weekly audits of what moves are performed. You have the ability to make literally unlimited moves, but you MUST email the league officers with all of your roster moves before you make them. As soon as you notify the league officers of your move(s) you are empowered to make the move(s) without awaiting feedback.

The Waiver Wire:

The QCFL uses Commissioner.com's waiver wire process. As such, any player who is dropped will be placed on waivers for two days, during which time any team may make a claim for that player. At the end of the two days the claiming team with the highest waiver priority will get the player, at which point their waiver priority will be dropped to the lowest in the league. If no team makes a claim on the player in the two day waiver period, the player becomes a free agent.

From Commissioner.com: "The original waiver order is the reverse order of your draft. After you make a successful waiver claim, you are placed at the bottom of the waiver order. The waiver order never resets. It runs continuously all season long. Free agents that are new to the player pool will be available only via waivers. The team with the highest waiver rank will receive its first requested player."

Injuries:

In the event that a player on your team goes on the Major League Disabled List, you may immediately acquire another player to replace him on your roster as long as you maintain the restrictions of position eligibility on your active roster. This player will not count against the reserve cap for the duration that the injured player is on the DL. When the injured player returns from the DL the cap will again be enforced and one player from your reserves must be released (assuming you are over the limit). If you keep the replacement player and release someone else, the replacement player will be counted as a Roster player for the sake of determining keeper eligibility unless that player already had another keeper classification for that season. As always, mail the league officers with news of your move.

Trades:

If at some point you decide that you really want a player who is on another team, you are more than welcome to try and negotiate a trade. Assuming that an acceptable agreement has been reached, both parties must mail the Commissioner with the details of the trade or use the trade interface provided by Commissioner.com described below. The Commissioner will make the trade within seven days of receiving confirmation of the deal from both teams. If the trade interface on Commissioner.com is not used, it is imperative that both teams email the Commissioner; otherwise a trade will not go through. Players may be traded for players, future draft picks, or any other commodity approved of by the Commissioner.

Commissioner.com provides a process to offer, counter offer, accept, and enact trades. While owners are welcome to negotiate via email first, when possible the actual proposal and acceptance should be submitted via the league site. If you are making a trade for a draft pick, you may specify the pick in question in the trade comments section. Using the league site will make things easier for the league officers.

The commissioner reserves the right to reject any trade that is not in the best interest of the league. Such a veto can be overturned by a 3/4 vote of the entire league (if an appeal is made). The teams in question do not vote in this process.

Trade Deadline:

The trade deadline each season will be August 31st unless otherwise announced by the commissioner. After the trading deadline there will be no trades until the end of the World Series.

Trade Addendum:

If a team trades a player to another team for draft picks in a future draft and:

Bob trades Kevin Homer to George for George's second round pick next year, but either Bob or George decides not to play in the following season, so Bob's team gets the player back and George's team gets the draft pick back.

Bob trades Kevin Homer and Willie Fastball for a second round pick next year, and a third round pick the year after. If Bob leaves the league after one more season (the second round pick has been used but the third round pick still hasn't been used) then George gets to keep the players (assuming he still has them on his roster) but he doesn't get a pick in the third round of the next draft. If George leaves the league after Bob has used the second round pick but not the third round pick, Bob will get a compensation pick sandwiched between the third and fourth rounds (he can't draft from George's spot in the draft order because George no longer has a spot in the draft order).

If a team trades away a first or second round pick for the next season, the team shall have to prepay the dues for the following season. Additionally, if a team trades away any three picks in any one future season, the team shall have to prepay the dues for all the applicable seasons. If the team remains in the league, the dues will count for each future season played until the prepaid dues are exhausted. If the team leaves the league before all of the picks have been used, the above method will be employed, and the prepaid dues will be forfeit to the league. In the next season after such a team leaves the league, the remaining sum of the prepaid dues will be added to the pot to be split among the top four teams.

Keepers:

At the end of the season, assuming that each team has participated in all four drafts, each team will have a minimum of 34 players. These players will consist of Roster players (those selected in the first phase of the draft or not selected in any of the special drafts), Reserve Draft players (those selected in the reserve draft on draft day), Auxiliary Draft players (those selected in the auxiliary draft), and Unproven Talent (those selected in the unproven talent draft). A team is allowed to keep up to eight players from their roster as of the close of the season. By no means is a team required to keep any players. The eight keepers come from your roster as follows:

In the event that you missed one of the special drafts or no longer have the players that you selected in those drafts, you may trade for players with special keeper status before the keeper deadline and then keep those players for the coming season.

Frank did not participate in the Auxiliary Draft and does not have any Auxiliary Draft players on his roster. Pete has both of his Auxiliary Draft players on his roster and can only keep one. If Frank and Pete can work out a trade for one of Pete's Auxiliary Draft players before the keeper deadline, Frank will be able to keep that Auxiliary Draft player in addition to his four Roster players, two Reserve players, and one Unproven Talent player.

Please Note: Any player may be counted as a Roster player if you so wish for determining keepers, but no other category shifts are allowed (you can't make an Auxiliary Draft player into a Reserve player or an Unproven Talent for example).

Going back to our previous example, if Pete really wants to keep both of his Auxiliary Draft players, he may declare one of them as an Auxiliary Draft player and the other as a Roster player. He now can choose three additional Roster players.

Finally, all keepers will fill into the following year's roster as Roster players to begin the draft. The exception to this rule is the Unproven Talent player. If he has still not appeared in a Major League game when it is time to declare keepers, he will remain considered an Unproven Talent for the following year and will not take a spot on the main roster. If he has been called up and appeared in a game at the Major League level, he will begin the next season on the reserve roster, and will count as one of the seven original Reserve players for the following year. Baseball-Reference.com will be used to determine whether a player has appeared in the Major Leagues.

If George ended up keeping four pitchers, a 1B, SS, and an OF, plus an Unproven Talent who spent the year at AA, he must then acquire five more pitchers, a 2B, a 3B, a CI, an MI, a UT, and 4 OF in the upcoming draft. Once he has done so, his roster will be full, and all players on it will count as Roster players for determining keeper eligibility for the following season, and he will move on to selecting his Reserve players for the following year. His Unproven Talent player will stay on the Unproven Talent roster, and will be joined by up to two additional players when the Unproven Talent draft for the following year rolls around. Bob's Unproven Talent keeper got a September call up, so after he finishes filling out his roster and moves to his reserve draft, the first slot will already be taken by his former Unproven Talent.

League Officers May Designate Keepers

In the event that an owner has indicated the desire to return to the league, has paid his or her dues, but has not submitted a keeper list by the deadline, the league officers will attempt to contact the owner by any means available. If, after all contact options are exhausted, the team has not submitted a keeper list by 24 hours before the scheduled start of the draft, the league officers may select the keepers for the team in order to allow the team to enter the draft without having to drop all of its players. The keepers will be chosen based on the list of best available players, with the goal of keeping the maximum number of players possible. As this action will be taken as a last resort immediately prior to the start of the draft, in most cases the owner who failed to submit a list of keepers will have no recourse to alter the list chosen by the league officers.

Off Season Activity:

The QCFL season ends on the final day of the regular Major League Baseball season, baring any pending tie-breakers. Once the standings are complete and without ties, there will be no more league activity until the Commissioner contacts teams in the winter to start preparations for the coming season. The Commissioner typically contacts owners from the previous season in late January or early February to determine the makeup of the league for the coming season and announce the dates for preseason activity, such as the deadline to declare keepers, and the draft dates.

From early February until the draft day expansion teams are welcome to join the league assuming that it is not full. Expansion teams will draft a completely new roster. Abandoned teams are removed from the league and all of their players are placed back into the draft pool. Existing teams are not allowed to trade with expansion teams until the deadline has passed for expansion teams to join and the expansion draft order has been announced.

Following the final day of the regular season no more players may be added to or dropped from your roster until after Draft Day of the following season. Players may be traded after the conclusion of the World Series.

Changes to the Constitution:

Suggestions for changes and additions should be submitted in writing to the league officers. If two of the three agree to it, it will be put up for a vote from all of the owners in the league, and upon receiving a 3/4 majority will be placed into the Constitution and take effect the following season unless the Commissioner deems it is otherwise necessary to change the rule immediately. Suggestions for clarifications must be submitted similarly, but will be enacted by two of the three league officers' consent and will take effect immediately. Any changes to the document in any form whatsoever will be duly reported to the members of the league promptly by the League Secretary.

Voting Cool Off Period

While we are happy to consider proposed changes from the owners of the league, we do not want to vote on the same topics year after year if they have not been widely accepted by the league owners. Therefore, if a measure has been proposed for a vote and fails to receive at least 50% approval from the owners, the proposal may not be placed for a vote the following year. It would become eligible again for a vote two years after the previous failed vote. Additionally, a measure that has been defeated three times will only be reintroduced to the league for future votes with the approval of two of the three league officers.

Document History: