NORTH AMERICAN BASEBALL LEAGUE CONSTITUTION

a. The North American Baseball League (NABL) was founded in July, 2000.
b. The purpose of the NABL is to provide the owners with a realistic, competitive and fun baseball management experience using the Diamond Mind Baseball (DMB) software.

a. The Commissioner is the sole governing body of the NABL.
b. The Commissioner is responsible for:

c. The original NABL Commissioner shall remain until such time as he resigns from his position. If/when the Commissioner resigns, he may chose to either appoint a new Commissioner or hold a league election for new Commissioner.

a. League fees will be determined by the Commissioner each year in order to cover the costs of the league (i.e.-purchasing the season disk, webspace, etc...). Typically, this cost will not exceed $ 15-20 per season, but this is not firm, as the fees may rise as the costs involved with running the league do.

b. It is each owner's responsibility to pay their dues before the deadline each season. If they have not been received by the deadline, the Commissioner reserves the right to penalize unpaid teams, including removing non-paying owners from the league entirely.

c. League fees are non-refundable. If an owner leaves the league during a given season, their fees will not be returned to them.

a. The NABL will be divided into two leagues, the American League and National League, both of which will use the Designated Hitter rule.
b. Within each of these leagues will exist two divisions. In the American League, there will be the Eastern Division and the Western Division. In the National League, there will be the Northern Division and the Southern Division.

a. Begins the day after the conclusion of the NABL Championship Series.
b. Represents the period in between the Post-Season of one season and the beginning of the next Regular Season.
c. During this period, events such as free agency, the NABL Draft and contract renewals occur and the first time trading can occur since deadlines in regular season.
d. All continuing service time years are increased by one year.

a. Two-week period before the regular season.
b. Each team will play each team in NABL once for a 23-game exhibition schedule.
c. Unlimited usage for all players during the Pre-Season.

a. The regular season will consist of a 162-game schedule for each team.
b. The schedule breakdown will be as follows:

	AMERICAN LEAGUE		NATIONAL LEAGUE
YEARS	EAST	WEST	EAST	WEST
2015, 2017, 2019	vs. NL EAST	vs. NL WEST	vs. AL EAST	vs. AL WEST
2014, 2016, 2018	vs. NL WEST	vs. NL EAST	vs. AL WEST	vs. AL EAST

a. At the conclusion of each season, the division winners of each of the four divisions will advance to the playoffs as well as four wild card teams, two from each league. The wild card teams will be the two non-division winners in each league that have the best record.
b. In the event of a tie between two teams for first place in their respective division, where the non-division winner would qualify for the wild card, the team that had the better head-to-head record against the other tying team will finish in first place while the other team will finish second. In the event that the head-to-head record was evenly split, a the team with the better record within their division will be the division winner. In the highly unlikely event that both the head-to-head and division records are the same, the team with the greater run differential (runs scored - runs allowed) will be the division winner. If a tie still exists, then a coin toss will be conducted by the Commissioner.

c. In the event of a tie between two teams for a wild card berth, there will be a one-game playoff, with home field advantage being determined first by the team with the better head-to-head matchup between the two teams or, if the matchups were evenly split, with the better record within their division .
d. Round 1 (League Divisional Series) will be a best-of-seven series in which each wild card team will play each division champion. There will be two League Divisional Series in each league.
e. Round 2 (League Championship Series) will be a best-of-seven series in which the winners of the each league's Divisional Series will play each other.
f. Round 3 (NABL Championship Series) will be a best-of-seven series in which the two winners of the League Championship Series will play each other for the NABL Championship.

g. Teams will be seeded 1-4 in each league, with the two division champions having the first two seeds and the two wild card teams having the bottom two seeds. The division champion with the better record will have the higher of the two seeds, and the wild card team with the better record will have the better of the two wild card seeds. If a tie exists in either case, it will be determined first by head-to-head record, second by division record, and third by the team with the better run differential.
h. Teams will be re-seeded at the end of each round based on the formula outlined in Section G. In all playoff series, the team with the better seeding will have home field advantage.

b. Features all active players who are eligible for the 25-man roster.
c. Must always maintain no less than 45 players on this roster.

d. Teams who reach the playoffs will be allowed a maximum of 55 players on this roster the following year, while all other teams will be allowed a maximum of 60 players on this roster.
e. Also includes players with Minor League contracts, who do not count against the cap.
f. No team can ever exceed the 60 player limit.

a. Features all active players who are eligible to play in regular season games.
b. No minimum, but may never exceed 25 players at any one time.

c. The 25-man roster must, at all times, be comprised at least of the following: 2 x Catchers, 5 x Infielders (at least two players at each infield position), 4 x Outfielders (at least one at each outfield position), 4 x Starting Pitchers, and 3 x Relief Pitchers. Players rated at more than one position can be counted at multiple positions, with the exception of pitchers.

d. Teams can expand their 25-man rosters to 27 players effective games starting September 1st of each year.

b. A Major League Contract is the most common player contract in the NABL. Every player other than those who qualify for Minor League Contracts will receive a Major League Contract.

d. Any player acquired through any form of free agency, the NABL Draft or waivers will receive a Major League Contract.

e. Only players with Major League Contracts are eligible to be on the 25-Man Active Rosters

f. A Minor League Contract is given to every player selected in the Minor League Draft. This is the only way in which any player can receive a Minor League Contract.

g. A player with a Minor League Contract accumulates no service time or salary while he maintains that contract. However, Minor League Contracts do expire and if the player is to be renewed at that time, he must be given a one-year, Major League Contract worth $ 300,000. After that one season, the player can be renewed like all other players.

a. Each team must have a home stadium in which to play their home games.
b. Each stadium must be an active stadium in that season’s DMB disk.
c. Teams are prohibited from using Coors Field as their home stadium.

d. A team must remain in the same stadium for a minimum of three consecutive seasons. At that point, they may request to change their stadium to any available stadium providing they have had at least two losing seasons during their last three seasons. If they do not meet that requirement, they may still request to change their stadium, but they must pay $ 2,500,000 to do so.

e. An exception to the rule in Section D above is if and when a stadium becomes inactive. At this point, the team that played in that stadium may choose a new stadium to play in without any requirements or compensation required.

a. The current salary cap is $ 80,000,000. During the off-season, the league will institute a 'flex cap' policy in which teams can exceed the cap by no more than $ 10 million. The flex cap period will be determined each year, but it will usually run from the start of post-season renewals through the end of February, with all teams required to be under the salary cap by March 1st. At all other times when the flex cap policy is not active, no team can have a payroll that exceeds the salary cap.

b. Salaries that apply towards the cap are total annual salaries and are not pro-rated. For instance, if a player with a salary of $ 1,000,000 is acquired halfway into the current season, the entire $ 1,000,000 will apply to the cap rather than the pro-rated amount of $ 500,000. Likewise, if a team trades that player, the entire $ 1,000,000 will be removed from that team's payroll.

a. Cash funds are used for a variety of purposes, including buying out contracts, including in trades, adding as a cash bonus to a free agent contract, and paying off fines.

a. Teams will receive cash awards for a variety of achievements, including team performance, owner performance, and contributions to the league as decided by the Commissioner on a per-case basis (this is referring to incidences where the Commissioner may offer a cash award incentive for participation in a league activity, such as writing news articles for the website, etc....)

b. The primary source of cash awards will come from a per-win cash bonus system that will begin during the 2007 season. This system will apply as follows:

c. The per-win cash award does not apply to all wins when a team moves into a higher win range. For example, if a team wins 110 games, they would receive $ 100,000 for each of their first 72 wins for a total of

$ 7,200,000, $ 125,000 for wins 73-89 ($ 2,125,000), $ 150,000 for wins 90-99 (a total of $ 1,500,000), and $ 200,000 per win for wins 100-110 (a total of $ 2,200,000). In total, that team would receive $ 13,025,000 in cash funds for their 110 wins.

d. Teams will also receive cash awards for team and individual accomplishments as follows:

a. League fines are issued solely at the discretion of the Commissioner and are paid only by cash funds.

b. Fines will be issued for offenses such as violating usage rules, repeated late submissions of profiles, roster violations, and any other violation of the rules or spirit of the league as he sees fit.

a. Any player who is on the DMB season disk in-use is eligible to play in NABL games in any given season.
b. All players cannot exceed usage of more than 110% of their total usage on the NABL season disk.
c. Usage is measured by plate appearances for batters and batters faced for pitchers (formerly measured in at-bats and innings pitched).
d. It is the responsibility of all owners to monitor the usage of all their players to ensure that they do not exceed usage limits. Any team whose player(s) exceed usage limits will be penalized in by way of fines and/or that player being granted free agency, either immediately or in the off-season.
e. All owners also have the responsibility to monitor usage of any and all players who they are trading for. Trades will not necessarily be vetoed because usage limits for any or all players involved have expired.

a. All the conditions set out in Section XXIII regarding player usage exist in the playoffs except where noted below:

b. Playoff usage limits are, per series, 7% of real-life plate appearances for batters and 10% of real-life batters faced for pitchers.
c. Starting pitchers can act as relievers, although relievers cannot act as starting pitchers.

d. Each team's 25-man roster must be submitted before the beginning of each series. After each series has begun, team's cannot promote any players, only demote players once their usage expires.

a. Any player who is not on any team's 40-Man, Reserve or Minor League roster or on waivers, and is on the Diamond Mind Baseball season disk to in-use for the upcoming season is eligible.
b. The draft will last five rounds and the draft order will be determined by the final standings of the previous season, with the team with the worst record drafting first each round and the team that won the NABL Championship drafting last each round.
c. Contract Allocation:

d. All players who are eligible and are not drafted will be placed into the free agent pool and may be signed through In-Season Free Agency.
e. In the case of two or more teams having identical records, the tie will be broken by the teams’ runs for and runs against record and the difference between the two numbers. The team with the worst difference between their runs for/runs against record will receive the higher pick. If a team has more runs scored then runs against, their total will be positive, while teams with more runs against than scored will have a negative total.

Effective September 1, 2011, the league will no longer conduct a Minor League Draft. The information below is for reference only.

a. Any player who has not been previously drafted and has not yet played in the major leagues in his career and is on a minor league roster at the Rookie, A, or AA level as of the cutoff date (ideally June 1st of each season, but is subject to change) of that given season is eligible for the Minor League Draft.

b. The draft lasts two rounds and the draft order is determined by the final standings of the previous NABL season, with the team with the worst record drafting first each round and the team with the best record drafting last each round.
c. Contract Allocation (based on the highest level the player has played at in that season as of the cutoff date):

AA Players - 2 years
A Players - 3 years

d. In between rounds 1 and 2 as well as after the second round will be supplementary rounds for all teams who lost a restricted free agent to make a selection as compensation. The order for the supplementary rounds will be in the order of the team who lost a player to the team who had the worst record the previous season picking first to the team who lost a player to the team with the best record the previous season picking last.

f. Players selected in the Minor League Draft cannot be traded until the off-season following that draft (i.e.-Rich Harden is selected in the 2003 Minor League Draft; he cannot be traded until after the 2003 season ends).

f. Teams must have enough room on their minor league rosters to accommodate their picks as of the day of the draft (i.e.-if a team has three picks, it must have no more than 17 players on their minor league roster going into draft day). If they do not, they will only be allowed to draft until they reach their maximum (i.e.-if a team has three picks and 18 players on their roster, they will only be allowed to draft players with their first two picks and their final pick will be forfeited).
g When Minor League Draft selections are promoted to the 40-man roster, their salaries will be at $ 270,000 per season for the duration of their contract.

i. Once a selection is promoted to the 40-man roster and begins to earn a salary, it cannot be reversed. His team is liable for that salary until the end of his contract.

a. Should the league expand, an Expansion Draft will be held in order to redistribute talent from the existing NABL teams to the expansion teams.

b. All players on any NABL roster will be eligible, including players whose contracts have just expired and can be renewed, as well as those who cannot be renewed. An expansion team can draft them and renew them or put them in the RFA auction.

d. Each existing NABL team will initially protect fifteen draft-eligible players. After the first round, each team may protect an additional two players. At the end of the second, third, and fourth rounds, each team may protect an additional two players.

f. After a team loses one player in a round, they cannot lose any additional players that round.

a. Each team is entitled to trading activity, providing that it does not infringe with any NABL Rules. In general, these are the core guidelines for trading:
i) All trades must keep all teams involved under the salary cap.
ii) No trade can involve the trading of draft picks for any NABL Draft that is not the next draft.
iii) All players must be declared at the time of the trade. Players to be named later are not allowed in trades.
b. The Commissioner has the power to veto any trade that he sees as being extremely unfair, corrupted or, for any other reason, damaging to one or more of the teams involved.

c. The trading deadline will occur at a pre-determined date each season, usually in late-July/early-August.

a. Only NABL Draft picks can be traded and can only be done one draft at a time, meaning picks from the 2011 NABL Draft cannot be traded until the conclusion of the 2010 NABL Draft, and so on.

a. Any player who is acquired via Restricted Free Agency cannot be traded until they have spent at least one full season with their new team.

b. This does not apply to any player who was re-signed/matched via RFA, only players who change teams via RFA.

a. When a player’s contract expires, his team may choose to renew him. There are two types of renewals as indicated below:

i. Contract Extensions: This are discounted renewal rates that apply to all players being renewed prior to the beginning of their final year under contract. A player can be renewed within a certain timeline during the off-season, usually beginning at the same time as off-season renewals. While the renewed salary goes into effect immediately, the final year of a player's existing contract does not count as one of the years of the contract extension. For instance, a player who has an expiration in 2014 could be renewed for up to three more years following the 2013 season. If he was renewed for three years, his new salary would take effect in 2013, and his contract extension would run three years past the 2013 season, expiring after the 2016 season.

ii. Contract Renewals: In the off-season, a team may choose to renew a player whose contract expired at the conclusion of the most recent season. The renewal rates are determined in percentages of current salary. However, keep in mind that the contract years will increase by one before the off-season renewal period begins, so if you have a player who is at four years, he won't be able to be renewed in the off-season as he will then have five years and that will violate the rule below.

c. Any player with more than four years cannot be extended or renewed and must become either a restricted or unrestricted free agent.
d. No renewal can last for more than three years.

CONTRACT EXTENSION RATES
YEARS	1-YEAR CONTRACT	2-YEAR CONTRACT	3-YEAR CONTRACT
1	150%	175%	225%
2	175%	200%	225%
3	200%	225%	250%
4	250%	275%	300%

CONTRACT RENEWAL RATES
YEARS	1-YEAR CONTRACT	2-YEAR CONTRACT	3-YEAR CONTRACT
1	150%	175%	200%
2	200%	225%	250%
3	250%	275%	300%
4	300%	325%	350%

a. In all types of free agency, the winning bid is determined as the offer with the greatest value and, in case of two or more bids being tied in value, the greatest value over the shortest period (i.e.-Team A and B are bidding on Carlos Delgado. Team A offers $ 20 million for five years, while Team B offers $ 20 million for four years. Team B wins the bidding).
b. While cash can be used as bonuses, it cannot exceed 20% of the total value of the contract. (i.e.-With Carlos Delgado, Team B could not give more than $ 4 million in cash bonuses [20% x $ 20 million = $ 4 million]). This applies to all kinds of free agency.

a. Restricted Free Agency is reserved for the elite players of the NABL once their contracts have expired.

b. Restricted free agency gives the original teams of these free agents the right to match the top bid for each player and retain them with that contract, or to receive compensation in the form of supplementary draft picks in the NABL Draft. As well, it allows them to re-sign a player who a) has exceeded four years and cannot be renewed through conventional renewals; or b) has a renewal salary that the owner feels exceeds his market value, so he could RFA the player in hopes of re-signing him at a salary below his renewal salary.

c. Teams are limited to declaring two Restricted Free Agents per off-season and may only retain a maximum of one RFA each season. The retention provision will take effect with the RFA class of 2013. Teams designating two RFA's may retain both of them for the 2012 auction.

d. The starting bid will be $ 20,000,000. Should the player not receive any bids, his current team will be forced to sign the player for a $ 20,000,000 contract spread out over no more than four seasons.

e. Teams will receive one supplementary draft pick for each player they lose, up to a maximum of two picks. The first supplementary picks will be between the third and fourth round of the NABL Draft, and the second supplementary picks will be between the fourth and fifth rounds.

f. Because RFA status is reserved for elite NABL players, the Commissioner may reject a team's RFA designation if they do not fit that categorization. However, any player who has achieved an Elias player rating of at least 70.0 in at least two of the last three seasons is automatically eligible for RFA status and cannot have their designation overrule. Elias ratings can be found at http://espn.go.com/mlb/playerratings/_/type/batting/rating/elias

g. If a Restricted Free Agent signs with a new team, that team is prohibited from trading that player for one full NABL season. If he is retained by his initial team, then this rule does not apply.

h. A team can use cash to pay up to 20% of the total contract value, with the remaining amount paid in salary over a maximum of five seasons.

i. If a player is retained by his current team via RFA and has been with that team for at least three seasons, that team will receive a 10% hometown discount if they choose to re-sign that player, meaning their matching contract would be 90% of the top bid.

j. Any player who was a Restricted Free Agent from 2008 onwards cannot be designated a RFA again in the future.

a. Any player whose contract has expired, has been released or is left undrafted, and not a restricted free agent is an unrestricted free agent.

b. Free agents will have a minimum annual salary based on the length of their contract. These minimums will be as follows:

c. Unrestricted free agents will only be able to receive a contract with a maximum of four years in length. The only players who will be able to receive a five-year contract in free agency are Restricted Free Agents.

d. The specific procedures for unrestricted free agency will be modified from year to year. As of now, the current method is that of bidding via e-mail with results posted daily on the website; however, each off-season specific details will be given as to that year's free agency procedures.

a. Once a player selected in the former Minor League Draft becomes a free agent, he cannot go through regular renewals or become a restricted free agent if he has never been on a 40-man roster during his contract.
b. If a player has not been on his team's 40-man roster at any point during his initial contract and thus has no NABL salary or contract years, his team may either renew him to a one-year, $ 300,000 deal, or leave him unsigned. If he is re-signed, his deal will be a major league contract and he will begin to accumulate contract years. If he is unsigned and appears on the upcoming year's DMB disk, then he will be eligible for regular free agency. If he is unsigned and does not appear on the upcoming year's DMB disk, then he will go back into the draft system.

a. Any player who is unsigned after off-season free agency and the NABL Draft and eligible to play the upcoming season will be placed in a Free Agent Pool, which teams can sign players from throughout the season.
b. Any player signed from the Free Agent Pool is signed to a $ 250,000 contract that expires at the end of the current season and cannot be renewed, making that player an unrestricted free agent.

Please note - until further notice, the league will not be using a waiver system. The rules below are for reference only.

a. If a team wishes to release themselves from the liability of a contract, they may choose to use the Waiver method before or instead of a full cash buyout of the contract.

c. Once a player is put on waivers, he must stay on for a set period of time before he either clears waivers or is awarded to a claiming team.

d. During the season, the waiver period is 48 hours. In the off-season, this period is seven days.

e. Once a player is put on waivers, he cannot be removed until the waiver period expires. Likewise, once a claim is put in on a player, it cannot be removed.

f. If more than one team places a claim on the same player, the winning claim will be awarded to the team with the worst winning record. In the off-season, this will be based on the season just ending. During the regular season, this will be based on the current season.

g. If two or more teams put in a claim on the same player, and have the same record, the team who put in the first claim will win.

h. At the end of the claim period, the posting team will have the option to either release the player to the winning waiver claim, or pull the player back and retain him on their roster.

i. If there is a claim and the posting team pulls the player back from waivers, they may not do so again should they place the player back on waivers within the next 12 months.

k. If there is a winning claim, the posting team will have a set period of time to decide to let the player go or pull him back. In the off-season, that period of time is three days. In the regular season, it is 24 hours. Should a team not post their decision within the time frame, the player will automatically be awarded to the claiming team (if there is one) or back to the posting team, if there are no claims. As well, the posting team will receive a $ 500,000 fine should they not post any response within the timeframe.

l. A posting team may place a player on Conditional Waivers. This will allow the posting team to offer to pay part of the remaining salary as a condition of the waiver claim. In order to do so, they must specify "Team A places Player B on Conditional Waivers and will pay 50% of the remaining salary."

m. If a player is claimed on Conditional Waivers, the posting team will have the conditional dollar amount immediately removed from their cash reserve and credited to the winning team.

n. Players claimed after August 31st of each season are ineligible for any post-season use.

o. The Waiver Wire will close on September 15th of each season until a designated point in the off-season.
p. All waiver posts, claims, and pullbacks must stay within the designated post topic on the Waiver Wire column of the Message Board.

l. The subject of any new waiver post must always be the players full name (i.e.-Chipper Jones) and the first post must always have any details of the claim.