I. ORGANIZATION.

The Bill Veeck's Leg (BVL) League is a NL-only Strat-O-Matic Baseball computer league currently consisting of 14 teams, with the regular season running April thru approximately November. It began its first season in 2000.

A. The teams are divided into two divisions, and play a balanced 156-game schedule.

B. League dues are $20. The dues cover any necessary mailings and phone calls incurred on the league's behalf. Additionally, the dues will cover a trophy for the winning team each season and three traveling plaques containing the names of the MVP, Cy Young Award winner, and Manager of the Year. Dues must be paid in full no later than February 1 to reserve a place in the league.

II. GOVERNMENT.

The league is run by several committees. The 3-man Trade Committee will approve all trades made in the league. If any trade is determined by a 3-0 vote to have been unfair by their definition, the trade is vetoed. The 3-man Compensation Committee will create and organize each season's Compensation Draft. And the 3-man Executive/Rules Committee will oversee the league. Each committee will rotate membership.

A. The Executive/Rules Committee, after accepting any and all league feedback, will determine league issues including which issues are brought to votes. The Committee has all powers to make any unilateral decision it feels to be in the best interest of the BVL with the exception of voiding trades.

B. The league Statistician will create the rosters and coordinate and distribute the statistics regularly during the season.

C. The Trade Committee will be responsible for logging all trades and keeping up-to-date draft pick situations.

D. The Webmaster will keep all meaningful materials available on the website.

E. The League Treasurer will disperse all monies.

A. The BVL uses only National League players. If a player has two cards, or a combined card, only the card with the NL team name will be used indicating his NL usage.

B. The BVL does not use uncarded players.


IV. LEAGUE RULES

A. ROSTERS

1. Before each season, each team may protect up to 22 players from their previous season's roster. (In case of Expansion, this number may be altered by the Executive/Rules Committee.) Teams may protect carded or uncarded players.

2. Rosters may consist of carded or uncarded players. However, uncarded players must remain in the minor leagues.

3. All teams must have a minimum of 1,400 Innings Pitched (IP) and 650 Plate Appearances (PA) at each position on their roster. They must also have a backup at each position on their active roster at all times. The Executive/Rules Committee reserves the right to make waiver adjustments to any team not in compliance with these or any roster rules.

4. Before each month's set of games, teams must report their starting rotation and list of minor leaguers to the statistician. Teams must use the same 25-man active roster for the entire month.

a. Teams may not deviate from their reported starting rotation during the month except for the September exception. Starter rest will be enforced throughout the month. For example, assume the pitcher that starts on your May 1st game is a non-asterisked (four days rest) pitcher. He may not start again until your May 6th game. Then again on your May 11th game and so on. Rotations renew each month so it is possible that the pitcher that started the last game of the previous month starts the first game of the current month.

b. During September, all players with usage left may be activated. Such players may be activated for some September series but not others as a means of controlling usage. Teams may include in their road instructions such things as, "Let Jones start at second base until he accumulates 10 plate appearances. Then deactivate." But, as always, you may NEVER instruct the home manager to make in-game decisions, such as "Remove Smith once he pitches four innings in his start." Such instructions are illegal in any month.

B. PLAYER USE (Also see PLAYING RULES)

1. For the regular season, all players may be used a maximum of 105% of their actual ML PA/IP. (A "plate appearance" is defined as at-bats plus walks.) In case of fractions, always round higher.

2. Managers are responsible for not over-using players and are subject to penalties if they do. Intentional overuse will result in immediate dismissal from the league. Accidental overuse will be penalized as follows: 3 Points for each inning a pitcher is overused. 1 Point for every plate appearance a batter is overused. The Executive/Rules Committee also may dole out penalty points for violations of league rules or lateness. Penalty is the loss of a draft pick according to the following:

ACCUMULATED PENALTY POINTS PENALTY

0 - 25: None
26 - 50: Loss of 5^th round pick
51 - 75: Loss of 4^th round pick
76 - 100: Loss of 3rd round pick
101 or more: Loss of 2nd round pick

All penalties will be assigned to the manager, not the franchise. If a manager does not have a penalized pick (i.e., he had already traded it away), he can either trade for his original pick back or forfeit a pick one round better in the following year's draft.

Exception: See Rule V.C.1.

3. Except in the postseason, pitchers listed as "Starter" only may not relieve. Pitchers listed as "Relief" only may never start. Pitchers designated by SOM as an "*" starter (usually determined by 200 IP + 30 starts) may pitch with only three days rest. All other starters need four days rest. (As noted in SOM's Super-Advanced Rules.)

4. A player may play a position not listed on his card only in the following circumstances:

a. Outfielders may change as per SOM's Super-Advanced Rules;

b. If due to injury he is without enough players to field a team;

c. Teams may use a position player to pitch under SOM's rules ONLY IF his team is behind by at least 10 runs AND the game is in the eighth inning or later. 

5. Pinch-runners are permitted at anytime with the following exception: If a pinch-runner tries for the lead and fails to get it, he may not be removed for another pinch-runner as long as he continues to occupy the same base. (This applies to the human playing the games only.)

6. Road managers  may never include in-game strategy instructions. (See Rule IV. A. 4. b. above.) Once the game starts, your (road) team is in HAL's hands.

7. PLAYERS WITH SEPARATE BATTING AND PITCHING CARDS IN THE SAME SET
(i.e., The Brooks Kieschnick Memorial Rule)

a. Only one of the player's cards may be active in any given road series. The owner of the player must specify in his road instructions which of the player's cards is to be used in that series.

b. If the player's pitching card enters the game first, his owner may use the player's batting card only to pinch hit for the player's pitching card. Afterwards, the player's batting card may remain in the game and play the field at any rated position other than pitcher. The player's batting card cannot return to pitch unless allowed by rule IV.B.4.c. (i.e., a non-pitching card can only pitch if his team is down by 10 or more in the 8th inning or later).

c. If the player's batting card enters the game first, the player's pitching card can enter only as a substitute for the player's batting card.

d. The player's pitcher's hitting card (i.e., the generic cards SOM uses for pitcher's hitting) cannot be used to pinch-hit.

e. Usage of the batting card and the pitching card is tracked separately. The pitching card "burns out" when its usage reaches the card's 105% IP limit; the batting card burns out when its usage reaches the 105% PA limit. PA incurred by the generic pitcher's hitting card and IP incurred by the hitting card do not count against the other card's usage.

[Note: this rule to be automatically removed if and when Strat-O-Matic revises its baseball computer game engine to treat the two cards as a single player.]


C. TRADES

1. The BVL allows trading at the following times:

a. The Pre-Draft trading period, beginning after the Protected Lists are handed in (approximately 2 weeks);

b. The Post-Draft trading period, beginning shortly after the Draft and lasting approximately 1 week;

c. In-Season trading, which will end at approximately the end of July.

2. In-Season trades must be reported to the league no later than the 20^th of the month to be active for the following month. Trades reported after the 20^th will not count the following month.

3. Trades may be for any asset (carded players, uncarded players, draft choices through the 10th round) except ballparks. Trades for draft choices may be only for "this year and next year." For example, during the 2003 pre-draft trading period, you may trade 2003 and/or 2004 draft picks. But you may not trade 2005 draft picks until the 2004 pre-draft trade period.

4. Intricate or conditional trades are permitted but:

a. The full conditions must be spelled out in complete detail at the time of the trade;

b. Any trade that could be considered a "trade back" -- that is, automatically or through conditions the trade is completely or partially reversed the following year -- is prohibited.

c. Trades agreed to during a non-trading period are not binding unless finalized by both parties during a legal trading period.

5. All trades must be submitted to and approved by the Trade Committee. In the event a trade is not approved, its participants may re-work and re-submit the trade after hearing the Committee's reasons. There are no appeals for any decision made by the Trade Committee.

D. ROOKIE DRAFT

1. The rookie draft will be held via phone on one weekend day in March, or partially by phone and partially by e-mail. Teams may end up with fewer or greater than 13 picks but will end the draft with no more than 35 players on its roster.

a. The number of picks a team has is 35 minus the number of protected players that team owns. If a team has a pick taken away through penalty, the number is 35 minus penalty picks minus protected players. No team may have more than 35 players on its roster at the end of the draft.

b. The draft is in reverse order of the previous year's finish, with the Leg  Series loser drafting 13th and Leg Series winner drafting 14th automatically.

c. We will hold an NBA-style draft lottery to determine the first three overall picks in the rookie draft. The lottery will concern only the eight non-playoff teams with the team with the worst record having a 22 percent chance to get the first pick, the second-worst record a 19 percent chance, and so on, down to the team with the eighth-worst record having a 3 percent chance.

The team with the worst record, therefore, will draft no worse than fourth overall.

2. There is no time limit on draft choices, but after approximately three minutes expect to be razzed mercilessly.

E. COMPENSATION DRAFT

1. Beginning in 2002, a player Compensation system will take effect..

2. When the season begins, the Compensation Committee will list on the league website the players with NL cards who had AL cards the season before. These players are known as Incoming Players. Conversely, AL players who had NL cards the year before will be known as Outgoing Players.

3. When a BVL team owns an Outgoing Player, he is entitled to apply for Compensation. Compensation is made up of Incoming Players. Each manager who qualifies (some will qualify more than once) will decide whether to seek compensation for their Outgoing Players. If they choose not to, they keep what are known as Retainer Rights. With the Retainer Rights (RR), if the player comes back into the NL he is automatically property of that franchise. If a manager received compensation for an Outgoing Player, he waives his RR. If that player returns to the NL, he will go into the Rookie Draft.

a. Any owner failing to submit a compensation list by the deadline gets 30 penalty points, and the Executive/Rules Committee makes compensation decisions for the owner using their best, and fairest judgment on each player.

b. Managers lose Retainer Rights on any player who has not received a Strat-O-Matic card for three consecutive seasons.

4. The league will vote on a Compensation Order, ranking players by their AL card with lesser consideration given to age and potential. Managers may NOT vote for their own players.

5. When the Compensation Draft Order is determined, those managers will participate in choosing players in order. This draft will take place approximately 1-2 weeks prior to the Rookie Draft and may be conducted by e-mail.

6. Players with split AL and NL cards may receive compensation, but that compensation will be limited to the quality of the AL card. If a manager received compensation in this way, the player goes back into the Rookie Draft and will be ineligible for the next Compensation Draft.

F. PLAYING RULES (Also see PLAYER USE)

1. All Super-Advanced rules, including Super Hal, are used with the exception of the Weather.

2. Injuries are allowed but for the balance of the series only. Unless specified in instructions, HAL will create a new lineup.

3. Starting pitchers may not be removed from a game until they have allowed three (3) runs or pitched four (4) innings.

4. No pitcher may start an inning with a zero fatigue rating. If a pitcher reaches zero during an inning, he may finish the inning, but he must be relieved before the next inning.

5. Face-to-face and Netplay (with limitations) are allowed. For Netplay, each team may play three road Netplay series and unlimited home Netplay series. This will allow the average team to play six Netplay series, or 36 Netplay games. Any games played via Netplay will constitute a series as far as this limit is concerned.

V. POSTSEASON

A. Qualifying teams. Six teams will make the BVL playoffs, the two division winners and the non-division winners (wild cards) with the four best won-lost records.

2. The first round of the playoffs will pit the wild card teams against each other with the division winners receiving byes. The wild card team with the best record will play the wild card team with the fourth-best record, while the second and third-best records will play each other.

3. In the second round, the division winner with the best regular-season record will play the first-round playoff winner with the worst regular-season record. The other division winner plays the other remaining playoff team.

4. The winners will play for the BVL championship, a.k.a the Leg Series.

B. Schedule. The team with the better regular-season record hosts Games 1, 2, 6 and  7 of first-round and Leg series. In the second round, the division winners host Games 1, 2, 6 and 7, REGARDLESS of regular-season record. (If necessary, use head-to-head record as a tie-breaker. If that is the same, then use division record as a tie-breaker.) A day off is recorded after games 2 and 5. Each team starts each series with no carryover fatigue nor injuries.

C. Postseason limits are 15% for division winners and 20% for wild cards. Meaning, if a division winner player has 100 carded innings pitched, he has 15 post-season IP. In case of fractions, always round higher.

1. Players overused during the regular season cannot participate in the postseason without penalty. If a manager chooses to use a player overused in the regular season during the postseason, the player's overuse will be multiplied by 5 in determining penalty points. However, no teams will be allowed to surpass a total of 125 team PP's by activating a player for the playoffs. 

Example: Joe Slugger was overused by 20 plate appearances in the regular season and would cost his team 20 penalty points. If Slugger was activated for the postseason, it would cost his team 100 (20 x 5) penalty points, with his team forfeiting a third-round draft pick the following year.

All voluntary usage penalties must be paid in the subsequent year's draft. This is an exception to Rule IV.B.2. If activating an overused player for the postseason would cause the owner to forfeit a draft pick he no longer owns, he may substitute a higher draft pick that he does own. If he does not have a pick in his possession sufficient to satisfy the penalty incurred by activating the player, he may not activate that player for the postseason.

D. Playoff teams must submit a 25-player roster to the Statistician before they play their games. These rosters will be unchanged throughout the postseason.

E. Injuries. These rules differ from regular-season injury rules in two respects:

1. Regular-season injuries will not continue into the playoffs;

2. Injuries will be limited to Balance of Game +1.

F. Breaking ties. If two teams are tied, and both teams will either go to the playoffs or both miss the playoffs, the tie-breaking procedures are: First, head-to-head games vs. that opponent; second, division record; third, coin flip.

1. If there is a tie and one team will go to the playoffs and one will not, a playoff game will be held (with all regular-season limits applying).

Home team will be determined by a coin flip.

This game will be played on Day 157 as noted previously.

2. In case of a three-way tie where only one team will advance to the playoffs, all managers draw a number out of a hat.

The winner (having drawn the "1") will have the option of either playing both teams 2 and 3 at home, or the winner of the 2 vs. 3 matchup (2 is home in that one) on the road. This is a single-elimination process.

G. All Starting pitchers may relieve in the postseason as designated by the SOM Super-Advanced rules.

VI. ETCETERA

A. The BVL is governed by the rules of Major League Baseball, the BVL, the Strat-O-Matic Game Company Inc. Harold Richman Prop., and common sense, in that order.