CDL League Constitution and Bylaws

Cooperstown Diamond Legends (CDL) is a simulated baseball league using OOTP9 as its sim engine (version 9.1.6 as of August 11, 2008).  Ownership of OOTP9 is required for all CDL owners. Additionally, an AIM Screenname, while not required, is beneficial to owners who wish to attend live CDL events, like the Amateur Draft and Live Sims.

Table of Contents

1. Owner Responsibility
2. Commissioner Responsibility
3. Amateur Draft
4. Financial
5. Trades
6. Simulation Dates & Procedures
7. Free Agents
8. Contract Extensions
9. Rosters
10. Offseason

Owner Responsibility

All owners need to actively participate in the league to guarantee membership. This is really the only thing that we ask of all owners. We understand everyone has a busy schedule with responsibilities to attend to, and we do not expect individuals to devote hours of time to the CDL. Our definitions of active participation:
- Emails from Commish and other managers returned in a timely fashion.
- Your team "needs" (e.g. injured players removed, lineup changes made, replacements chosen etc.) need to be addressed as soon as possible. If a team owner will be unavailable to a period of time (vacation, etc.), please drop us an email at commish@cooperstowndiamondlegends.com. For obvious reasons, no owner will be allowed to own more that one team at a time. This has never actually happened in the CDL, but no offensive language or behavior will be allowed towards anyone involved in the league, with infractions resulting in expulsion from the league. Remember, we are here to have fun. If not expressly stated below, penalties for violating CDL rules are at the discretion of the CDL Comissioners. 

Commissioner Responsibility

- (Updated 2009) It will be the commissioners' responsibility to see that the league runs smoothly. They will carry out the sims, drafts, update the web page, etc. Larger issues may involve asking for a league-wide response on the matter, again however, the final say on any dispute or issue will rest in the hands of the commissioners.

Amateur Draft

The Amateur draft will be held at the beginning of each season. We will conduct the first two rounds of the amateur draft first in the forum and then live after the conclusion of the free agent signing period in the league chatroom.  If you are unable to attend, please send a list of players you want selected in order of preference.   The rest of the draft will be completed using lists emailed to commish@cooperstowndiamondlegends.com.  In either case, failure to send a list will result in the computer selecting for you. 

- (Added Rule 2018) During rounds 1-2 of the Amateur Draft there will be a 24 hour clock on each pick made in the CDL forum. The clock starts as soon as the Draft is announced by email, and will restart after each pick is posted. Owners may send a list to commish@cooperstowndiamondlegends.com if they can't make their upcoming pick, otherwise their selection will be made via OOTP's auto-pick function.

- (Added Rule 1994, Updated 2009, 2014) The first seven draft slots (draft lottery slots) in the Amateur Draft shall be determined by a weighted lottery starting with the 1995 Amateur Draft. The team that finishes closest to .375 (61-101) for the season will get seven chances out of twenty-eight in the lottery, while the next closest team gets six chances out of twenty eight (and so on). After the first 3 draft slots the next 17 selections will be based on the worst-to-best records of teams that did not make the playoffs. The final 8 draft spots are determined by a combination of playoff results and regular season record. The random numbers generated for the draft lottery as well as any ties related to the draft order will be resolved using the http://www.randomizer.org/form.htm. The draft order will be calculated and posted in the CDL forum as soon as possible after the World Series.

- Note: The CDL Amateur Draft will be held June 15th (game time) of each year. The draft crop should be revealed on or shortly after opening day (April 1) and a draft thread should be posted shortly afterwards so that owners can begin the draft early.

Financial Rules

- (Updated 2018,2020) The salary cap is set at $75,000,000. Try to be responsible in your spending, and if you have several superstars coming into their contract year, keep that in mind when sending in free agent bids.  

- (Rule Change 1979, Updated 2009) If a violation of the salary cap is discovered the offending owner will receive a warning email from a league Commissioner. If the violation is not remedied within a few sims of this warning, the player or players whose contract(s) will get the team back under the salary cap will be released at the commish's discretion.

- (Added Rule 1986, updated 2020) Minor league option years will be disabled.

- (Added Rule 2027) Arbitration after 3 minimum salary seasons will be grandfathered in starting in 2027.
Arbitration was set to 5 years on January 31, 2027 (game time), it was set it to four years on January 31, 2028 (game time), and finally set to three years on January 31, 2029 (game time).

- (Added Rule 2018, Updated, 2020) Minor League Free Agents are enabled. Minor league players with 6 years of minor league service who are not on the 40-man roster become free agents after the season if they have a minor league contract or their MLB contract runs out.

- (Added Rule 2029) Important: No bonus contracts. After the 2029 opening day no free agent or extension contract with a bonus attached will be allowed INCLUDING BONUSES REQUESTED BY PLAYERS. If a player signs a free agent or extension contract with a bonus after this date he will be released into free agency as soon as the infraction is discovered. Please be extra careful when selecting the "Meet Demand" button in those rare cases where a player requests a bonus.

Trades

- (Updated 1982) To complete a trade, post it in the "Completed Trades" League Forum. Both owners must post before the sim starts in order for a trade to be actioned, and cash may be included in any deal as long as the team receiving the cash has less than $20,000,000 in cash before the trade is actioned. Disputes about unfair trades may result in a trade review with the owners involved and the league head office, though we would prefer to keep out of this subjective area. For newer owners: Beware of offers of multiple poor/average players for one star player or prospect since poor/average players can usually be signed for nothing in the CDL free agent pool.

- (Added Rule 1979, Updated 1994, 2009, 2022) Amateur draft picks for Rounds 1-5 may be included in any deal, and draft picks may be traded for the next two drafts. Trading is suspended during the first two live rounds 1-2 of the Amateur Draft (if applicable).

Simulation Dates & Procedures

- (Updated 2009) We will be simming three times weekly, 15 days per sim. Sim days will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Roster moves and Lineup changes should be sent using the games "Export Team to FTP" button on the team setup screen by 8 PM CST the day of the sim (unless a later time is announced in a league wide email). The GM is also responsible for placing and removing players from the disabled list (DL). We do not action trades and upload a new league file between sims so include roster instructions in your trade post (or via commish@cooperstowndiamondlegends.com email) if you want your newly acquired players placed in your rotation, lineups, and depth charts, that way we can manually make your changes before beginning the sim.

Free Agents

- (Updated 2019, 2020) We will use the integrated OOTP9 ftp offer system to run at least 6 pre-season Free Agency sims. These sim dates will be posted as part of the pre-season schedule on the front page of the CDL web site (http://cooperstowndiamondlegends.com).

- OOTP9 should not allow you to offer a free agent contract that would put you over the salary cap if the player signed, but if the game fails to do this we will manually release any signed player that put your team over the cap.

- (Updated 2021) Free Agent offers outside of the preseason Free Agency Period are also sent via OOTP9 (right click and choose "offer contract" to any free agent).

Contract Extensions

- (Changed rule 2019) You may offer your own players contract extensions as allowed by OOTP9 logic.   

- (Added Note 1994, updated 2019) OOTP9 should not allow a team to sign a contract extension that would place them over the salary cap in the following season.  

Rosters

- (Updated 2009, Updated 2020) Rosters are limited to the OOTP settings, currently a maximum of 25 players in the Majors, 50 players in AAA, 50 players in AA and 50 players in A. Owners must have players in every applicable batting lineup and starting depth chart slot, and have at least one backup player set for every position on their applicable depth chart. The batting lineup and depth charts that apply are based on the league the team is in - NL teams must have all eight LINEUP VS RHP and LINEUP VS LHP batting lineup and depth chart starters slotted as well as one depth chart backup for each of the eight positions while AL teams must have all nine LINEUP VS RHP+DH and LINEUP VS LHP+DH batting lineup and depth chart starters slotted as well as one depth chart backup for each of the nine positions.

If there are batting lineup, or depth chart infractions as defined above then the commissioner may use OOTP's auto fill feature to set an offending teams lineup, and if necessary, call up minor league roster players at his discretion until the batting lineup or depth chart infractions are corrected.

Off Season

- At the end of every season, there will be a short break before the next season begins. During this time, we will post the pre-season schedule on the main CDL page (in main news section as well as on right hand sidebar), then conduct free agency, the Amateur Draft, and Spring Training (if applicable) according to that schedule.

The above rules and policies are subject to change at any time. As stated above, any suggestions or ideas as to the betterment of the league will be appreciated.

Paul Groening - CDL Co-Commissioner, Minnesota Twins GM
Chuck Groening - CDL Co-Commissioner, San Francisco Giants GM
Nick Cuomo - CDL Co-Commissioner, Chicago Cubs GM
Joe Geoghegan - CDL Co-Commissioner, Kansas City Royals GM

Last edited August 29, 2008 (added the 'No Contract Bonus' rule)