LetsPlay3 Rules

Summary of  LP3 Rules

The Biggies

Here are the biggie rules, pretty much in order of importance:

  1. Positivity - Our league is competitive and friendly. The means smack is allowed (and encouraged!), but real negativity is not tolerated. Also, if an owner makes an honest mistake, then he/she is allowed to correct it.

  2. Head-to-head - We are a head-to-head league. It's more fun. Yes, I can prove that statement.

  3. Fifty bucks - It's $50 to play... you can get this waived. If you don't pay then you don't get part of the pay-off if you win. Your money gets bumped up to the person above you, or down if you win the whole thing.

  4. Payout - We vote on this before the draft each year, but the general idea is this: If we have 8-10 teams, then $50 to 2nd place and the rest to the winner. If we hit 12 teams, then $50 to 3rd and 4th place, $100 to 2nd, and the rest to the winner.

  5. Yahoo - We are a Yahoo league and generally play by their rules, except for the playoffs. You'll read about this in the next two sections.

  6. Snake draft - We do a snake draft. This sucks, and I can prove it. But no one cares (except me and Steve Tucker), so there you have it. Dop.

  7. Total bases - We use 5x5 scoring, except we have substituted total bases for batting average. Why? Because it's better. Plus, I never liked Rod Carew when I was a kid.

As commish, I am rarely "drunk with power." The last "decision" I made was to lock out a couple of inactive teams down at the end of a season, so that they didn't interfere in the playoff run of the real teams.

    Yahoo Settings

    We're a Yahoo league. Here are our league settings, straight from the horse's mouth:

    Setting Value
    Custom League URL: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/letsplay3
    Season Type: Full
    Draft Type: Offline Draft
    Max Teams: 16
    Scoring Type: Head-to-Head
    Player Universe: All baseball
    Max Moves: 25
    Max Trades: No maximum
    Trade Reject Time: 2
    Trade End Date: August 10, 2008
    Waiver Time: 2 days
    Can't Cut List Provider: Yahoo! Sports
    Trade Review: League Votes
    Post Draft Players: Follow Waiver Rules
    Max Acquisitions per Week: No maximum
    Min Innings Pitched: 14
    Weekly Deadline: Daily - Tomorrow
    Start Scoring on: Week 1
    Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL
    Stat Categories: R, HR, RBI, SB, TB, W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP

    Just so you don't have to take your shoes and socks off, that's a total of 20 roster spots. We usually draft 18, and then open up the big board the next day to fill the remaining two slots.

    The Playoffs

    The biggest weakness in Yahoo is their limited playoff options. We don't like 'em.

    So, for the playoffs, we use Yahoo to set our lineups, but tally the results on our own. The differences are:

    1. Only the top 4 teams make the playoffs: 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3

    2. Each playoff series is one week long. Same scoring and everything. We use Yahoo's tiebreaker system... the first tiebreaker is ERA.

    3. As a result of #2 there, our playoffs end in the middle of September. We end early to avoid weirdness you find at the end of a regular MLB season... like sitting your stars if you're not in the playoff hunt.

    thanks... yow, bill ( williamt@williamt.com )