The Constitution

The California Penal League

Article I. Administration
Officers:
Commissioner – Daniel Desjeunes (a.k.a. “Ricky”)
Vice Commissioner – Michael Fenn
Treasurer – Walter Welsh
Fees:
The fee for the league is $175 plus costs.
Winnings:
The League Fees are distributed after each season according to the following scale:

$175 for Regular Season Champ
$450 for Playoff Champ
$300 2nd in playoffs
$200 3rd in playoffs
$100 4th in playoffs

Non-playoff teams (Loser's Bracket)
$75 5th in Reg Season
$50 6th in Reg Season
$50 7th in Reg Season
$0 Last in the Regular Season

Dispute Settlement:
The Commissioner shall settle all party disputes that can be resolved by use of the rules outlined in this document (the “Rules”). If an issue arises that is not in the Rules, or the Commissioner decides that a rule is too vague to settle the dispute, the Commissioner will take a vote from all persons that own teams in the league (the “Owners”). A majority vote is required to settle the dispute. Changes to Rules or any Amendments require a minimum of 5 votes for ratification. In the event that a majority cannot be reached because three or more solutions exist, the Commissioner will take the top two vote-getting solutions and take another vote. All amendments must be ratified before the start of the season.


Franchises:

The CPL consists of eight franchises:

1. Fierce Deuce—Owner—Kevin Hadfield
2. Hunter Killers—Owner—Walter Welsh
3. Bangkok Dangerous—Owner—Javier Flores
4. Neither Here Nor Oleyer—Owner—Michael Oleyer
5. Ole’ Bullshit—Owner—Michael Fenn
6. Zarley Zalapski & Friends—Owner—Aaron Levy
7. Chuck Norris Death Machine—Owner—Nick Talarico
8. Stick, Hit, Ball & Stuff—Owner—Daniel Desjeunes

Article II. Rosters
Starting Roster
The starting roster for each team is as follows: 2 Catchers; 1 First Baseman; 1 Second Baseman; 1 Shortstop; 1 Third Baseman; 1 Middle Infielder (any player that qualifies at 2B or SS); 1 Corner Infielder (any player that qualifies at 1B or 3B); 1 Designated Hitter; 4 Outfielders; 5 Starting Pitchers; and 3 Relief Pitchers.

Players are eligible at their primary position, plus positions they've played 20 games last year or 10 games this year. All position players are eligible at DH.

A team’s “Starting Pitching Staff” (i.e., 5 SPs and 3 RPs) may not have more than 10 projected starts for a scoring period. For purposes of enforcing this rule, projected starts will be determined by the CBS Sportsline projections listed at 10:00 a.m. EST (the “Start Deadline”) on the day the scoring period begins. If a team’s Starting Pitching Staff has more than 10 projected starts on or before the Start Deadline, such team’s lineup is illegal (the Owner of said team, the “Defaulting Owner”). If projected starts are added to a team’s Starting Pitching Staff on CBS Sportsline after the Start Deadline, such team’s lineup is legal for the scoring period.

The Commissioner, Vice Commissioner and the Defaulting Owner’s opponent may, but are not required to, send notice to the Defaulting Owner informing him of the illegal lineup. Prior to the “lineup lock deadline” as listed on CBS Sportsline, the Defaulting Owner may change his roster to comply with this rule. Prior to the start of the Defaulting Owner’s first MLB game of the scoring period, meaning before the start of any MLB game containing an “active” or “reserve” player on Defaulting Owner’s roster, but excluding any player on the Disabled List and in the minors (the “DO First Game”), the Defaulting Owner may send a time and date stamped message (e-mail, text, voicemail) to the Commissioner, Vice Commissioner or his opponent listing the lineup changes desired to bring the team into compliance. Any such message sent after the start of the DO First Game will not be honored and the Owner’s roster will be modified by the Commissioner to attain compliance. The Commissioner shall modify the Defaulting Owner’s lineup in good faith, and the Owners accept and acknowledge the Commissioner’s authority to do so. Any lineup changes by the Commissioner shall be non-appealable unless a majority of the Owners find that the Commissioner did not act in good faith. For purposes of this section, “good faith” shall be defined as “honestly and without deliberate intention to set a weaker, compliant Starting Pitching Staff than otherwise available to the Defaulting Owner.” The Owners acknowledge that (i) a player’s total points for the current season, and (ii) CBS Sportsline projections for the scoring period are reasonable, good faith basis to decide between eligible players under this section.
Bench
Each team will have 14 bench players. Owners may fill their bench with any combination of players.
Each team will also have 2 minor league players. A player must be in the minor leagues in order to qualify. In the event that a player is brought from the minors to the majors, the Owner must either: (a) put the player on his bench if the Owner has an open spot; (b) put the player on his bench and release a player from his bench; or (c) release the player into the free agent pool.
Each team will also have 2 injured reserve spots. A player must be on the Disabled List in order to qualify.
On draft day, Owners may draft both: (a) players in the minor leagues as of draft day, and (b) players on the disabled list as of draft day. However, those players must take a spot on the Owner’s 14 player bench until the date that waiver moves are allowed. Owners will not be receiving additional draft picks for minor league players and injured players.

Article III. The Draft and Keepers
Draft Day:
On draft day, each owner will select a total of 35 players (21 for starting lineup; 14 for bench). Each round, the pre-determined draft order will “snake,” meaning the Owner with the last pick in the 1st round will have the first pick in the 2nd round. Each team’s draft position is chosen by the owner per the following system:

1st choice—1st place finisher of the previous year’s loser’s bracket tournament
2nd choice—2nd place finisher of the previous year’s loser’s bracket tournament
3rd choice—3rd place finisher of the previous year’s loser’s bracket tournament
4th choice—4th place finisher of the previous year’s loser’s bracket tournament
5th Choice—4th place finisher of the previous year’s playoffs
6th Choice—3rd place finisher of the previous year’s playoffs
7th Choice—2nd place finisher of the previous year’s playoffs
8th Choice—The previous year’s champion

Keepers:
Each player selected in the draft will be given a 3-year contract. In the event a player is traded, the new owner receives the player’s original contract.
Beginning with the 2007 season, each Owner may keep up to 7 players from their roster. The “keeper” will count against the Owner’s 2007 draft according to the round that he is selected in the 2006 draft. Owners may only keep 2 of their first 5 selections. Subsequent years will work in the same fashion. All players not identified as keepers are considered released, their 3-year contract is voided and they enter next year’s draft pool.
Players that are picked up from the waiver wire after the draft may NOT be kept the next year. Such players will automatically become free agents again for the following season’s draft.
An Owner may choose to keep two players from the same round (one he drafted and another he traded for). The higher scoring player of the two will be “kept” in the earlier round. Illustration: Owner1 drafts Randy Winn in the 12th round. Later in the year he acquires Jeff Suppan, Owner2’s 12th round pick. In that year, Winn scores 21 points and Suppan scores 23 points. If Owner1 chooses to keep both Winn and Suppan, Winn would be his 12th round pick in year 2 and Suppan would be the 11th round pick in year 2.
A player who moves up a round in keeper value (i.e. Jeff Suppan above) maintains the new value going forward. Therefore, if Owner1 wishes to keep Suppan for year 3 then he must keep him in the 11th round, NOT the original value i.e. the 12th.

Illustrations:
 Trading of Contracts: If Owner1 drafts Alex Rodriguez in 2006 and decides to keep him for 2007 and then trades him to Owner2 in 2007, Owner2 has rights to Alex Rodriguez for two years (the 2007 and 2008 seasons).

 2007 Draft: If Owner1 drafts Paul Konerko in the second round in 2006, and Owner1 decides to keep him, Konerko will be Owner1’s 2007 second-round selection.

 2008 Draft: If Owner1 drafts Brad Lidge in the 1st round of 2007, and wishes to keep both Lidge and Konerko, Owner1’s first and second round picks will be filled with those players. Thus, Owner1 may NOT keep any player from his third, fourth, or fifth round selections.

“Minor” Keepers: In addition to a team’s seven designated keepers, teams have the option of keeping players who have not yet attained MLB rookie status. If a player is drafted in Year A and (a) never enters the team’s starting lineup during Year A or (b) does not attain rookie status in Year A, as determined by MLB rules, that player may be kept in Year B’s draft in the same round he was drafted in Year A. If the player meets this “minor” designation, Year A will NOT be considered Year 1 of that player’s 3-year contract. A player may be designated a minor player for unlimited seasons prior to his official rookie designation.

Article IV. Transactions
Lineups are set once at the start of each scoring period. Each scoring period is set by CBS Sportsline and is generally one week, from Monday through Sunday. The deadline for setting lineups is 30 minutes before the first game on the first day of the scoring period. Illegal rosters receive 0 points for the scoring period. Sportsline will notify you when your roster is illegal.
The Playoffs start in period 22 and each round shall consist of 2 scoring periods. Prior to the start of the first round of the playoffs, each competing Owner will designate 1 Batter and 1 Pitcher from its bench to compete in the event of a tie. Owners may designate alternative players before the beginning of Week 2 of the playoff round if they wish to do so. In the event of a CPL World Series tie, the Owners will compete during the last week of the MLB regular season.

Add/Drops
Add/Drops are handled by a waivers process. Each Owner will have up to 10 waiver moves in the season. Once a player is picked up that player may not be traded for a 10 day period. The waivers process runs everyday until the season starts, at which time the process will run on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The waiver order resets after each weeks' games. Dropped players remain on waivers for at least 1 day.

Trades
Owners may freely make trades. Owners may make trades during the off-season. No trades can be made during the season after the trade deadline of 11:59 PM ET on June 30 of each season.

(1) Draft Picks. Draft picks may be traded. When trading a draft pick, Owners must get an equal amount of draft picks in return so that every owner will have 35 picks in the next year’s draft.

(2) Trading Players with Keeper Rights. Only drafted players may be kept. Therefore, traded players may only be kept if they were drafted by the owner trading them and had not been released to the free agent pool between the time the player was drafted and the time of the trade. If an Owner wishes to keep a player acquired via trade, the traded player will count against the Owner's draft according to the round that the traded player was drafted in by his original Owner.

(3) No option trades are permitted—if a player is traded from Team A to Team B during the season, he may not revert back to Team A without valid consideration.

(4) A player who has been retained (“kept”) for the third year of his contract MAY NOT be traded once the MLB season begins.

Comments and Examples.

The easiest way to process this is just to remember that a player's value (the round he was selected in) transfers to any subsequent owner so long as the player wasn't released to the free agent pool. Thus, if Joe Dimaggio is picked in the 2nd round, and is traded two times, he will be on the third owner's roster as a 2nd round pick. The third owner may then have two 2nd round picks on his roster. The following year, assuming third owner only has one 2nd round pick, he may only keep one of the players because our keeper/draft system could not work in any other way.

Example 1:

In 2006, Owner1 trades his 2007 3rd round pick to Owner2 in return for "Good Player" and Owner2's 24th round pick.

Result 1:

Owner 1 has keeper rights to "Good Player" (assuming such player was not a free agent pickup). If Good Player was drafted by Owner2 in the 4th round, Owner1 will presumably have two players on his roster that were drafted in the 4th round. Assuming Owner1 has not acquired an additional 4th round pick, Owner1 may either: (a) Not keep either player and retain his 2007 4th round pick; (b) keep ONE of the players as his 2007 4th round pick, and release the other into the free agent pool, or (c) keep one player in the 4th Round and the better of the two players (as outlined above) in the next available round (e.g., the 2nd Round). Owner1 cannot keep any player drafted in the 3rd round unless he acquires a 3rd round pick from another Owner (because he traded his 3rd round pick).

Result 2:

Owner2 will have two 3rd-round picks. Owner2 may either: (a) keep a player drafted in the 3rd round (as either his scheduled 3rd round pick or his acquired 3rd round pick); (b) release any 3rd round drafted players into the free agent pool, and have two 3rd round picks; or (c) in the event Owner2 acquires another 3rd round player, keep two 3rd round players. Owner2 may not keep any player drafted in the 24th round unless he acquires a 24th round pick from another Owner (because he traded his 24th round pick).

Article V. Scoring
Scoring is a Head-to-Head, Points Based System. A tie in a regular season game will be reflected as a tie in the standings.
Batting Points:

Singles 1
Doubles 2
Triples 3
Walks 1
Hitting for the Cycle 2 additional points
Grand Slam Home Run 1 additional point
Hit By Pitch 1
Home Run 4
Runs 1
Runs Batted In 1
Stolen Bases 2
Pitching Points:

Walks Issued -0.5
Complete Games 5 additional points
Earned Runs -1
Hits Allowed -0.5
Hit Batsman -0.5
Holds 3
Innings 2 per inning
Strikeouts 1
No Hitter 10 add. points
Saves 8
Shutouts 2 additional points
Wins 10