CIBL CONSTITUTION

CIBL CONSTITUTION

Requirements for Participation

· Diamond Mind Baseball current version with the latest season disk.

· Internet connection and email capability.

· Ability to prepare lineups for 6 games by Thursday each week, play 6 home games on average every other week and e-mail the results to the commissioner no later than midnight Pacific time Monday.

· Estimated time requirement is no more than 2 hours per week.

General

· There will be 24 teams divided into 2 leagues with 3 divisions of 4 teams each.

· The DH rule is in effect for all league play.

· Rosters will consist of a maximum of 40 men, no more than 26 of which can be active for a particular series. Beginning with week 24, active roster maximum size expands from 26 to 30. (Amended 2019)

· Only players on the season disk will be allowed unless protected from the prior season.

· Actual ballparks will be used, with a maximum of one team per ballpark.

· Injury Rating will be used. All injuries will be cleared each week.

· Bullpen warmup disabled.

· Weather effects enabled.

· The “Ohtani Rule” is enabled (Starting Pitcher as DH Rule is allowed)

· Intentional Walk rule is no pitches

· Batter Pitching Rule is unrestricted

· Minimum Batter Faced for pitching change is 1

· Pickoff Throw Limit is set to Maximum 3

League Leadership

League leadership will consist of an elected Commissioner, an elected First Commissioner and an elected Second Commissioner, each serving a 3 year term. Nominations will be made by the membership. Election for each position will be by a majority vote of all members casting votes. A quorum of ¾ of the members is required.

Position Duties

The Commissioner will be responsible for all trade decisions and levying of penalties as described in the body of the Constitution below. The Commissioner will also be responsible for moderating discussions of league business as necessary, calling for votes on league business and proposed rules changes and administering those votes as described in the Constitution below. The Commissioner will be responsible for either preparing or managing the preparation of the league schedule. Finally, the Commissioner will be responsible for all other duties as described in the Constitution below.

The First Assistant Commissioner will be responsible for collecting weekly statistics and distributing results as described in the body of the Constitution below. The First Assistant Commissioner will substitute for the Commissioner as necessary and serve as an advisor to the Commissioner on league business.

The Second Assistant Commissioner will serve as an advisor to the Commissioner and substitute for the First Assistant Commissioner and Commissioner as necessary.

Gameplay

Teams will play a 162 game schedule lasting 30 weeks.

Players are allowed to play out of position.

"Head to Head" Internet games are encouraged but not required.

Lineups and manager profiles are due to the opposing home manager and to the Assistant Commissioner no later than Thursday, preferably sooner. Box scores and statistics for the series are due to the Assistant Commissioner no later than midnight Pacific time each Monday. The Assistant Commissioner will compile statistics and email each league owner a weekly newsletter containing the league disk, player transactions, and other news no later than Wednesday night. Deadlines may be adjusted as needed to accommodate special circumstances.

Each manager submitting a Manager Profile for his series should specify players to be called up in case of injuries. If a player’s injury period is shorter than the remaining length of the series then the player called up as a replacement must be farmed again as soon as the injury period expires.

The Commissioner will control all teams without an owner.

Playing Time Limitations:

1) Batters are limited to 102.49% of actual total plate appearances (Plate appearances are defined as AB+BB+HBP+SF+SH).

2) Batters are limited to 125,49% of actual plate appearances vs. LHP (except as in #10 below).

3) Batters are limited to 125.49% of actual plate appearances vs. RHP (except as in #10 below).

4) Pitchers are limited to actual innings pitched except starters who never appear in relief in the CIBL (see #6 below).

5) Pitchers with a starter durability rating are limited to actual games started. (See 13 below)

6) If the CM uses a visiting team starting pitcher in an unintended relief role, the owner may request an exemption so that the pitcher’s usage can still be tracked by games started. The request may be granted at the Commissioner’s discretion. (Amended 2019)

7) Pitchers who never appear in CIBL relief may exceed actual innings pitched if their CIBL starts do not exceed actual starts.

8) Any player not obtaining 50% of plate appearances (batters) or 50% of innings pitched (pitchers) cannot be retained beyond the end of the current season except as in #12 and #13 below.

9) Any batter who had 650 or more plate appearances in MLB for a particular season may appear in the CIBL without any limitations (revised in 2021 post-season).

10) If a batter has 100 or more MLB plate appearances vs. LHP, or 300 or more MLB plate appearances vs. RHP, he has no restriction against that handed pitcher.

11) If a batter has less than 100 total actual plate appearances, the 50% minimum plate appearance requirement for player retention is waived.

12) If a pitcher has less than 20 actual innings pitched, the 50% minimum innings pitched requirement for player retention is waived.

13) Pitchers with no Starter durability rating cannot be used as a Starter regardless of whether they started games in the previous MLB season. Over-usage of starts would be penalized as if the pitcher had no starts in MLB play.

14) Players used as both a pitcher and position player in MLB (e.g. Shohei Ohtani) are subject to normal usage limits for both roles but must meet the 50% retention threshold in only one of the roles. (Amended 2019)

Players who have reached their maximum usage in a particular week must be farmed before the following week's games. Failure to do this will result in additional penalties and a warning will be issued. Failure of an owner to heed this warning may result in expulsion from the CIBL at the Commissioner's discretion.

Penalties

If an owner is unable to meet any deadline, the commissioner must be notified in advance to avoid a penalty. After 2 days late, the League commissioners may use any information available to simulate the games. More than 7 days late without notification will result in expulsion from the league at the Commissioner's discretion. Missing more than 3 deadlines in a season is also justification for expulsion. To expel an owner from the league, the Commissioner will email this intention to all current owners. The owner being expelled has one week to respond to all current CIBL owners regarding his desire to continue in the league. At this point a 2/3 majority vote is required to keep the owner in the league.

A player exceeding his allowed playing amount will cost his owner .001 in winning % for every extra PA or 1/3 IP, and .01 will be subtracted for every extra Game Started for pitchers. For batters who have more than one PA violation (e.g. over 102.49% in total and over 125.49% vs.LHP), only the maximum violation for that player will be used in a penalty calculation. Winning percentages adjusted by penalties affect both standings and draft position--unadjusted percentages will be used when determining free agent acquisition position. Draft position penalties will be assessed as follows for all draft rounds:

.001 - .020 points: no penalty

.021 - .100 points: loss of 1 draft position

.101 - .300 points: loss of 2 draft positions

.301 and higher: loss of 3 draft positions

If a team’s draft position is at or near the end of a round and penalties push it beyond that round then draft position will be pushed to the next round and teams in the next round will move up in position. (Amended 2019)

Trades and Free Agents

Trades will be allowed through the 20th week. The Commissioner must be notified by BOTH parties via email, and no trade is final until it is included in the weekly newsletter.

The Commissioner may reject any trade if, in his judgement, it is not in the best interest of the League. If the owners involved in a rejected trade still wish to pursue the trade, the Commissioner will put the trade up for league vote. A 2/3 majority approval vote is required.

All trades made by the Commissioner must be approved by a 2/3 vote of the Commissioner’s Trade Review Board. The board shall be comprised of the First and Second Assistant commissioners and an owner nominated by the membership and elected by a plurality of the voting members. A quorum of 2/3 of the membership is required.

All players included on the original season disk but not on a CIBL team are considered free agents. Requests for these players must be received by the Commissioner before midnight on Monday. If more than one request is made for the same player the same week, the requesting team with the lowest winning percentage will receive the player. Tiebreakers for free agent acquisition are (in order): Winning %, How long since the last free agent acquisition, and the last draft position (higher draft position will get the player since this team will be the weaker one from the prior year). Players acquired from free agency during the season must be released to the free agent pool at the end of the season. However, a player may be taken from the free agent pool anytime between the end of the draft and the start of the regular season and be retained on the regular roster as if he had been drafted. Free agents may not be selected in the period between the end of the regular season and the conclusion of the subsequent draft.

There is a 40 player maximum per team, so if a transaction puts you over 40, you have to release players until you get back down to 40.

Playoffs

For each league, all three division winners are joined by two wild-card teams to form the post-season field. The division winners are awarded the top three seeds based on penalty-adjusted winning percentage. The top two non-division winners are awarded wild card berths on the same basis. The wild card teams face each other in a best-of-3 series (1/1/1 for venue). The winner of the wild card series gains the #4 seed and faces the #1 seed in the division series. The LDS & LCS are best-of-7 series (2/3/2). All post-season games must be played head-to-head via NetPlay unless both owners agree otherwise.

Home field advantage in the wild card series goes to the higher adjusted winning percentage. Home field in the LDS or LCS goes to the higher seed. In the World Series (2/3/2), the AL representative has home field advantage in odd-numbered years, the NL representative in even-numbered years.

A tie for a division title, if either team also merits a wild card, is settled via tiebreaker: penalty points, then head-to-head regular season record, then intra-division record, then intra-league record, then a coin flip. The same tiebreakers, excepting intra-division record, apply when determining home field for the wild card series if both teams have identical adjusted winning percentages.

If the team losing a division title tiebreaker would be ejected from the playoff field, a one-game playoff shall decide the division (instead of a tiebreaker). A tie for the second wild card berth is also resolved by a one-game playoff. The one-game playoff is considered a regular season game, but playing time limits are waived.

Playoff games must be played head to head via NetPlay unless both owners agree not to.

Playoff Playing Time Limitations (Wild Card Series)

Pitchers:

· Games Started: >29 actual = 2 CIBL playoffs, 20-29 actual = 1 CIBL playoffs, 10-19 actual = 1 CIBL playoffs, <10 starts actual = unavailable in CIBL playoffs.

· Innings: >49.2 IP actual = unlimited CIBL playoffs, 20-49.2 IP actual = (actual IP/20) CIBL playoffs, <20 IP actual = unavailable in CIBL playoffs

Hitters:

· >499 plate appearances actual = unlimited CIBL playoffs

· 50-499 plate appearances actual = (actual PA/30) CIBL playoffs

· <50 plate appearances actual = unavailable in CIBL playoffs

· Players who meet the regular season requirements noted in (2) & (3) above may be used without limit against that handed pitcher. For all others, LHB/RHB plate appearances vs either handed pitcher by a factor of 20 rounded down shall not exceed actual PA/20

Playoff Playing Time Limitations (Division Series, Championship Series, World Series)

Pitchers:

· Games Started: >29 actual = 3 CIBL playoffs, 20-29 actual = 2 CIBL playoffs, 10-19 actual = 1 CIBL playoffs, <10 starts actual = unavailable in CIBL playoffs.

· Innings: >49.2 IP actual = unlimited CIBL playoffs, 20-49.2 IP actual = (actual IP/10) CIBL playoffs, <20 IP actual = unavailable in CIBL playoffs

Hitters:

· >499 plate appearances actual = unlimited CIBL playoffs

· 50-499 plate appearances actual = (actual PA/15) CIBL playoffs

· <50 plate appearances actual = unavailable in CIBL playoffs

In the event of overuse, an owner must request a replay within 24 hours of results being sent to League Leadership. The League Leadership will review and vote to grant or dismiss the claim. Any replay will be required to replay all games beginning with the game in which the violation occurred.

Amendment added August 2014:
A pitcher must pitch at least 10 innings during the regular CIBL season for the team that wants to use that pitcher in the postseason. A batter must have at least 50 plate appearances during the regular CIBL season for the team that wants to use that batter in the postseason. These minimums apply to the period the player has spent on the team's roster since acquisition. Players who are released or traded away and then re-acquired must meet these minimums after their most recent addition to the roster.

Injuries will be cleared between playoff rounds.

Maximum roster size is 26 to be specified at the start of each playoff series. Players may be brought up in case of injury, however.

After the Season

Each year, teams will be allowed to protect up to 25 players. All players who did not get at least 50% of their actual plate appearances or innings pitched will be waived (except as in #11 and #12 above).

Trades are allowed freely after the World Series is over through the 20^th week of the following season.

After the new season disk is available, owners should start preparing for the next draft that will be run typically in mid-January each year. The exact date will be set by the Commissioner at least a month in advance.

The draft will be run by the Commissioner or his designee. Draft position will be in reverse order of unadjusted final winning percentage. Ties will be broken by a random selection method of the Commissioner’s choice. The draft will consist of 15 rounds with a supplemental round, if necessary, to allow owners to complete a 40 player roster. Owners may make selections until they have reached a 40 player limit. However, owners may drop players at any time to remain below the limit in order to continue to make selections.

Clarification on handling roster limits during the draft: Picks can be made up until that team’s roster reaches the 40-player limit. Players may be released from the roster PRIOR to the start of a round by sending a league-wide email, with any released players going into the draft pool starting with that round. Once the round officially begins, the release of players does not go into effect until the next round with the team releasing the player(s) not eligible to pick in that round if at their roster max. Draft picks can be traded during a round to get back under the 40-player limit. (Added 2019)

After each season (and perhaps during the season as well) there will most likely be issues each owner will be required to vote upon. Suggestions for items to be voted upon may be submitted to the Commissioner at any time. At the Commissioner's discretion, these items may then be submitted for vote. Passage requires a 2/3 majority of votes cast. Owners may submit their abstinence when asked to vote. Owners not responding may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.