Preamble

We the Commissioners, in order to form a more perfect fantasy baseball league, establish fair play, insure league tranquility, provide for the common enjoyment, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of baseball to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Get a Life Baseball Champions League.

League Structure

League

The GET A LIFE BASEBALL CHAMPIONS LEAGUE is a part of Get a Life Sports and was founded in 2021. It may be referred to as “the league” or “GLBCL” throughout these Rules & Regulations.

The league is comprised of 16 teams, which are all parts of the league and cannot be sold. If an owner or ownership group decides they no longer want to be part of the league, that team reverts to the league and the Commissioner will seek new ownership.

In order to promote a professional and consistent look and feel, all team names are comprised of a geographic component and a nickname (ex.: Fort Wayne Fury, Baker St. Bombers). Teams may not use the nickname or logo of any MLB team or the name of any team in any of the other Get a Life Baseball Leagues. All logos will be in the approved format.

The league is divided into four divisions of four teams each. Returning Division Champions will select the other teams in their divisions prior to each season.

Commissioners

The office of Commissioner is not voted upon, but is occupied by an unimpeachable tyrant. Term of office is forever, or until the Commissioner loses interest.

The Commissioner appoints a Deputy Commissioner prior to each season. The Deputy Commissioner assists the Commissioner when necessary, and in the case of a calamity involving the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner assumes the duties of the Commissioner.

All functions of the league are handled by the Commissioners in conjunction with CBS Sports, unless delegated to another individual.

If a situation arises that is not adequately covered by the existing Rules and Regulations, the Commissioner will make a ruling that he feels is in the best interest of the league.

Disputes that cannot be handled within these Rules & Regulations, or resolved by a ruling from the Commissioner, are decided by an outside arbitrator agreed upon by all parties involved. The arbitrator's decision is final.

Teams and Owners

All owners must be approved by the Commissioner. There is no limit to the number of owners that a team can have. Unless the Commissioner is told otherwise in advance, it is assumed that any owner listed for a team is authorized to perform any functions for that team.

The Commissioner may remove an owner or owners if he feels there is sufficient cause. Causes include, but are not limited to: collusion, inactivity, or gross mismanagement that affects league play.

If an owner disappears during the season, their team may be considered an "abandoned team." The Commissioner will attempt to find new ownership for the abandoned team, or may appoint an owner from the re-draft league to act as interim owner for the remainder of the season. Any money won by an abandoned team is split equally among all remaining teams in the league. Any owner that abandons a team will be banned for life from all Get a Life Sports leagues and pools.

Calamities

A "calamity" is defined as death, illness, injury, relocation, or other unforeseen circumstances preventing an owner from completing the current season.

In the case of a calamity the Commissioner will appoint an owner from the re-draft league to run the affected team for the remainder of the season. After the season any money due the affected team is forwarded to the owner or their family.

League Year

The new league year begins the day after the GLBCL playoffs have concluded.

▪ The Offseason begins concurrent with the new league year and runs through MLB Opening Day.
▪ The Regular season is 21 weeks long.
▪ The Playoffs are three weeks long, the Championship Game is the last of those three weeks.

Suspension of a Game or Season

If a player strike, owner lockout, or any other unusual event causes a season to end prematurely, the team with the most wins at the point the season is declared over by the MLB will be awarded the League Championship. All other finishes will be determined the same way.

League Fees and Prize Pool

Prior to each season, each team will pay a Franchise Fee of $135.

▪ $100 of this will be placed into the Prize Pool.
▪ $25 will be held for potential Special Achievement Bonuses.
▪ $10 is for the League Admin Fee (covers web hosting for the league, league championship T-shirt, and helps offset the cost of running the savagelizard.com web site).
Special Assessments may be charged during the season. These assessments are only charged if a player accomplishes one of the Special Achievement Bonuses (see below). These assessments will come from the $25 being held for each team. Whatever part of the $25 held that is not paid out will be returned to team owners. If more than $25 is paid out for Special Achievement Bonuses, the Commissioner will assess the additional amount to each team at the end of the season.

The Prize Pool is $1600 and will be disbursed at the end of the season as follows:

▪ $600 for League Champion
▪ $250 for 2nd Place
▪ $150 for 3rd Place
▪ $100 for 4th Place
▪ $75 for 5th
▪ $50 for 6th place
▪ $25 for the winner of the Best of the Rest tournament
▪ $50 for Division Champions
▪ $25 for each League MVP
▪ $25 for each Cy Young Award winner
▪ $25 for each Rookie of the Year
Special Achievement Bonuses

▪ $100 for a Perfect Game
▪ $100 for a 4 home run game
▪ $100 for a 20 strikeout game
▪ $100 for an unassisted triple play
▪ $100 for batting .400 for the season (minimum of 502 plate appearances)
▪ $100 for Triple Crown Winner (Home Runs + RBIs + Batting Average)
▪ $50 for a No-Hitter (does not include combined no-hitters)
▪ $25 for hitting for the Cycle
All prizes based on individual player awards or achievements are paid to the franchise with that player on their roster at the time it happens. Winner based on entire MLB season (for season long awards).

Annual Draft

Prior to each season on a date TBD, shortly after the Super Bowl each year, the Annual Draft will be held. The draft is 10 rounds long and is conducted over several days or weeks on the CBS web site. Owners have up to three hours for each pick. Owners may pass if they do not wish to take a player when it is their turn to pick.

Any player taken in the previous year's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, undrafted free agents from that year's draft class, international signings, or any unowned MLB or MiLB player can be taken in any round. Only players on a Major League Baseball or Minor League roster at the beginning of the draft will be eligible to be drafted.

Draft slots 1-8 are assigned based on record (regardless of finish in the Best of the Rest tournament), if records are equal lower total wins is the tiebreaker. Worst record gets the first pick and so forth in order.

Draft slots 9-16 are based on finish in the playoffs.

Final Cuts

Once the season has begun, all teams must cut as many players as necessary to get down to the maximum number of players on the Active Roster, Reserve Roster, and Farm Team by the beginning of Week 2 of GLBCL play.

All teams must have a legal Active Roster for Opening Day.

Roster Management

Active Roster

A legal active roster is comprised of 25 players with these positional requirements:

▪ Catcher (x2)
▪ 1st Baseman
▪ 2nd Baseman
▪ Shortstop
▪ 3rd Baseman
▪ Middle Infielder (2B or SS)
▪ Corner Infielder (1B or 3B)
▪ Outfielder (x5)
▪ Utility Hitter (any non-pitcher) (x2)
▪ Starting Pitcher (x4)
▪ Relief Pitcher (x4)
▪ Utility Pitcher (Starter or Reliever) (x2)

Teams have until 5 minutes before each player’s first game of the week to promote them to their Active Roster, or send them down to the Reserve Team, Farm Team, or Injured List at the CBS web site.

Inactive Roster

The Inactive Roster contains all of the players a team controls, but does not have on their active roster. This includes the Reserves (bench), Minors (Farm Team), and Injured (player on the MLB's IL).

▪ Reserves (Bench): Teams have 8 reserve (bench) slots that may be used for players at any position. These players may move freely to the Active Roster and back. Minor league players may not be assigned to bench spots.
▪ Minors (Farm Team): Teams have 20 Farm Team slots that may only be used for Minor Leagues players. This may include prospects and players sent down to the minors by their MLB team.
▪ Injured: Teams have an unlimited number of Injured List spots that may be used for players placed on any of the MLB Injured Lists, or for players suspended by the Major Leagues.
If there is a question about a player's eligibility for any of these lists, the team owner must provide proof that the player is eligible for that slot.

Players called up by their MLB team or removed from the MLB's Injured List must be moved to either the active or reserve roster before the beginning of the next week of play, or be released.

Position Eligibility

Hitters can be assigned to any position played at least 20 times the previous season. If a player did not play 20 games at any position, he is eligible at the position he played the greatest number of times. A hitter becomes eligible for a new position during the season once he has played that position five times.

If a DH does not have eligibility at a real position, they may only be used in a Utility slot.

A pitcher is considered a starting pitcher if he started at least 10 games, and a relief pitcher if he had 20 relief appearances the previous season. If a pitcher did not reach either of these requirements the previous season, then he is eligible at whichever role he pitched in the greatest number of times. A pitcher becomes eligible to be a starting pitcher after five starts, or a relief pitcher after 10 relief appearances during the current season.

If a player did not play any games at the Major League level the previous season, he may be assigned to the position shown for him at his highest minor league play. Players of this type will be eligible at whatever position(s) are shown by the CBS web site.

A player may be eligible as both a hitter and a pitcher, but will only accrue stats in whatever position they occupy on the active roster, not both. Players of this type may be moved to different spots on the active roster for each new week of play (Ohtani rule).

Player Contracts

Once a team drafts a player, claims a player off of the Waiver Wire, or acquires a player by trade, that player is under contract to that team until they are released or traded away. Players can be kept by their team from season to season. There are no contracts that expire and there are no salaries attached to contracts.

Players acquired during the season with $0 bids are automatically released at the end of the season.

Free Agency

Any player not on the active or inactive roster of any other team is considered a free agent.

Teams may submit sealed bids using the Free Agent Budget (FAB) Auction process at CBS Sports. Though teams may bid on free agents any day of the week, CBS Sports will determine the winner of the sealed bidding on Sunday nights and assign players to the teams with the winning bids.

Teams begin the season with a $100 FAB to use for signing free agents. Minimum bid is $1, and after the GLBCL trade deadline, teams may submit $0 bids for players. $0 bids are not allowed during the playoffs.

A player must be on an MLB team's 26-Man roster, 7-day IL, 10-day IL, or 14-day IL, to be signed through the FAB auction. Minor League players may not be bid upon, they are allocated only during the Annual Draft.

For purposes of GLBCL free agency, a minor league player is not eligible to be signed until they have been called up and have appeared in at least one game. If the player is sent down later, their status as a minor leaguer is reset and must again appear in one game before they can be signed.

Players can be signed through the FAB auction for the Active Roster or Reserve Roster. No player can be signed directly to a GLBCL team's IL.

Teams must have a legal roster by the roster deadline for the next week of play following any transaction.

Trades

Players may be traded freely between teams. Trades should be made using CBS Sports, and become official when a proposed trade is accepted. Trades can also be made by notifying the Commissioner, and those trades become official when all teams involved in the trade have reported the details to the Commissioner.

Trades made during the regular season are effective with the commencement of the next week of play.

Trades may involve major league players, prospects, and future draft picks. Only draft picks for the next two seasons can be traded. So during the 2026 season, only picks for that season, 2027 and 2028 may be traded.

Trades cannot involve contingencies, cash, property, first born children, or any other considerations outside of the league.

During the season no trades can be made after the first pitch of the first game returning from the all star break. Trading resumes when the new league season begins.

Teams must have a legal roster by the roster deadline for the next week of play following any transaction.

Outright Release

Players can be released at any time. However, their stats continue to accrue until the end of the current week of play.

Teams must have a legal roster by the roster deadline for the next week of play following any transaction.

Rules of the Game

Head-To-Head Play

Each week teams will play Head-to-Head against another team in 10 statistical categories. The winner of each category will be credited with a win. If a category is tied, both teams are credited with a tie. Each weekly matchup produces 10 results for each team in the league standings. The categories are:

▪ Total Bases
▪ Stolen Bases
▪ Runs Batted In
▪ Runs Scored
▪ On Base Percentage
▪ Quality Starts
▪ Saves plus Holds
▪ Strikeouts per 9 innings (K/9)
▪ Earned Run Average
▪ Walks plus Hits /Innings Pitched (WHIP)

The spirit of the rule is that owners have a staff with four starters, four relievers, and two pitchers of their choice. To help achieve this a minimum innings rule is in place to prevent owners from exploiting eligibility rules to load up on either starters or relievers.

Team pitching staffs must pitch a minimum of 35 innings per week. Failure to meet the minimum for a week will result in losses in ERA, WHIP, and K/9 for that week.

In the event a team does not meet the minimum innings requirement for a week, the Commissioner will look at the team's pitching staff. If the Commissioner can see that a team clearly started four healthy starters (currently starting games, not just eligible), and four healthy relievers (currently relieving games, not just eligible), but rainouts, short starts, and/or unexpected injuries caused them to fail to meet the minimum, the Commissioner will waive the penalty.

Statistics

The league statistics are compiled by CBS Sports and published at their web site.

Statistics for a player are assigned to a team only when that player is on their active roster.

A “week of play” begins each Monday and ends with the conclusion of all games the following Sunday. The first week of the season may be longer if the season does not begin on a Monday. The week of the All Star Break is combined with the following week.

Any errors detected by league owners must be reported to the Commissioner immediately.

Standings

There are four divisions or four teams each. Teams are ranked from best to worst within each division based on record. For purposes of ranking, a tie counts as half of a win.

At the conclusion of the regular season the best team in each division is crowned the Division Champion and advances to the playoffs (Seeds #1-#4). If there are ties in the divisional standings, the following tiebreakers will determine the winner of the division:

▪ Most wins
▪ Best head-to-head record in games between the tied teams
▪ Best divisional record
▪ Coin toss

First three Wildcards (Seeds #5-#7) are the teams with the best records that did not win their division, regardless of which division they are in. If there are ties when determining the wildcard teams, the following tiebreakers will determine the winner of the tie:

▪ Most wins
▪ Best head-to-head record in games between the tied teams
▪ Coin toss

The final Wildcard (Seed #8) is the remaining team with the best record in the Breakdown Standings. If there are ties when determining this wildcard team, the following tiebreakers will determine the winner of the tie:

▪ Best regular record
▪ Most wins
▪ Best head-to-head record in games between the tied teams
▪ Coin toss

Playoffs

A single elimination tournament crowns the League Champion. The eight playoff teams are seeded 1-8 as described above. First round schedule is:

▪ 1st seed vs 8th seed
▪ 2nd seed vs 7th seed
▪ 3rd seed vs 6th seed
▪ 4th seed vs 5th seed

In the second round the highest remaining seed will play the lowest remaining seed, and the two middle seeds will play each other. First round losers will continue playing for final placement using the same seeding rules.

There will be a Best of The Rest tournament for the eight teams who do not make the playoffs. Seeding rules will be the same as above.

Tiebreaker for any playoff game is higher seed wins (homefield advantage).

Final Thoughts From the Commissioner

COLLUSION BETWEEN TWO OR MORE TEAMS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!

While it might be difficult to prove that owners acted in concert to affect the outcome of a season, any owners who exhibit behavior that strongly points to such conduct will be removed from the league and banned from any future Get a Life Sports activities.

This league requires a year-round commitment. Though there is much less activity during the offseason, it is expected that all owners pay a reasonable amount of attention to their teams at all times. This includes, but is not limited to, prompt response to emails from the Commissioner, timely responses to trade proposals, and generally just paying attention.

The purpose of this league is to compete and have a good time doing it. There are sixteen teams, and they are all going to run things how they best see fit. Someone else's idea of a good prospect/player/trade might be different than yours. Some teams might trade a lot, some not much at all. The Commissioners will run the league, you run your team and let others run theirs.

All that having been said, let's have some fun!