Official Rules: Playoff Basketball Pool

After seeing the issues that arose the other day, when only eight people registered for the hockey pool, I decided to alter the Rules for this basketball pool. I think the result is an improvement, even if we only managed to get 6 people to sign up.

Here are the basic rules, as have been previously laid out in two posts on the baseball league message board (msgs # 262, 273).


1. There will be two Conferences of 6 teams each, whereby each team is restricted from using players from the opposite Conference.

2. Scoring will be counted under a H2H Roto format (meaning the same scoring type as the baseball league, hockey leagues, and regular season basketball league).

3. Managers will be required to dress at least one player from each of the Conferences' 8 NBA clubs, with room for an additional 4 players from that Conference.

4. Managers are required to enter TWO rosters (an East and a West).

5. Each roster shall consist of 12 active players and 5 players on the Inactive List (to be activated after Round One).

6. The Yahoo position-eligibility will apply to lineups consisting of: PG, PG, G, SG, SG, SF, SF, PF, PF, Big, C, C, with an IL consisting of: PG, SG, SF, PF, C.

7. As for the scoring categories, basketball is a high-scoring game, so I don't want any 4-4 or 3-3 scores. Managers will be challenged to either choose well-rounded players or else to choose a balance of specialists, to compete in the 25 disciplines: GP, GS, Mins, MPG, FGM, FGA, FG%, 3PM, 3PA, 3P%, FTM, FTA, FT%, +/-, OREB, DREB, REB, RPG, AST, APG, STL, STL/TO, BLK, PTS, PPG.

8. Scoring will accumulate throughout the playoffs (meaning a player can score all his points in Round 1, but they will still be used to count a manager’s Round 4 score).

9. Each manager will have picked two independent teams, so our tourney will consist of 4 Rounds of eliminations.

10. Six Eastern teams, seeded 1-6, will face off in the usual 1 vs 6, 2 vs 5, 3 vs 4 Round One. At the same time, the Western Conference will feature three series.

11. The winners of these six series will advance to Round 2, along with the highest scoring of the three losing teams (so if you're gonna lose, make it a 13-12 loss and you'll still advance).

12. As a tie breaker for the Wild Card, when two teams lose by the same score, those two teams will be compared h2h to determine the winner. In a rare case where this is also tied, the winner will be the team with the best PPG (then Pts, if necessary).

13. A tie breaker in the case of a regular h2h tie game (i.e. 12-12), shall be used the same way as in the hockey pool. Compare the teams h2h for only the final day of Round 1, as the final period of the OT game. If necessary, he double overtime would be the second last day of Round 1, and so on.


That should just about cover everything. I’ll be posting the Official Rosters soon, so look for that in the next day or so.

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Official Rules: Playoff Hockey Pool

When configuring this little hockey pool for 16 entrants, I failed to consider the ramifications of getting only 8 people to submit their picks. As a result, several facets of this format are now flawed, but still workable.

Here are the Official Rules, as they have been previously laid out in a series of three posts on the baseball league message board (msgs # 209, 227, 233).


1. A maximum of 16 entries will be accepted (though we can make do with only 8, I suppose).

2. Scoring will be counted under a H2H Roto format (meaning the same scoring type as the baseball league, hockey league, basketball league).

3. Each team will consist of 12 F, 6 D, 2 G.

4. Each team must contain one player from each of the 16 NHL teams among their starting 20, with 4 "at-large" players.

5. Each team will select a “Press Box” of substitutes, consisting of 2 F, 1 D, 1 G (to be used after Round 2 is complete).

6. There will be 8 scoring categories: G, A, Pts, +/-, PPG, GWG, SOG, Wins.

7. Scoring will accumulate throughout the playoffs (meaning a player can score all his points in Round 1, but they will still be used to count a manager’s Round 4 score).

8. Teams will be seeded 1-8, as a way to determine H2H matchups.

9. If we end up going with only 8 teams, then our “Quarter-Finals matchups” will run for a month, with the first eliminations taking place after Round 2 is completed.

10. With 8 scoring categories, a tie-breaker or Overtime will be needed to determine the winner. Any category can remain tied, meaning OT would be required for a 4-4 game as well as a 3-3 game or (God forbid) a 2-2 score.

11. For such occurances, the "Overtime" period will become the final day of the just-completed matchup. So, if after the NHL completes its Conference Semi-Finals, one of our "Series" or Matchups is tied 4-4 or 3-3, then those two teams would be judged upon their performance on the last day of action before the Conference Finals begin. If that day's scores also result in a 4-4 or 3-3 tie, then we'd look back one more day for the "Double-Overtime Period".

12. Substitutions from your Press Box can only be made between the NHL’s second and third Rounds, and third and fourth Rounds, so if both of your active goalies were to advance to the Conference Finals, you'd be given the opportunity to make a switch if your 3rd goalie were to advance as well (keep in mind that we will all lose a minimum of 8 players from our active roster after Round 1, so chances are that all 3 of our Press Box skaters will be brought in automatically).

13. Our Press Box players will not be allowed to contribute to our opening round Matchup. Since our opening Matchup will be a four-week Series, that means that no substitutions will be allowed after the NHL completes its Conference Quarter-Finals. Once we get to the Conference Finals, you will be allowed to use these players to win your Semi-Finals Matchup. As stated, the scoring that players accumulate, whether in your active lineup or in your Press Box, will be used to determine the Semi-Finals winners, and ultimately the Championship. Deciding which players to replace in your active lineup in four weeks time, will depend on how many stats they have compiled to date, even if their season is over. For the most part, the decision will be easy, but there may arise a situation where you prefer an eliminated player's stats to a still-active player's. Either way, you will only be allowed to "bench" or essentially throw away 4 players, while keeping your best 20 for the next Matchup. With a minimum of 12 players to be eliminated from each of our teams by the time we need to decide, we will all be choosing at least 8 guys for the Semis whose season is over. Just think of it as a place to dump your worst 4 guys, if you're lucky enough to advance.


So I hope that covers every contingency. The wording can be a little awkward at times, but I wanted to retain the exact phrasing from the original posts, whenever possible. I’m sure we all understand the gist of it, so let’s just sit back and enjoy the first two Rounds of the playoffs. Once we get close to the Conference Finals, I’ll remind everyone to consider their Press Box moves. As for scoring updates, Hockey Guru and I are currently trying to configure the most efficient layout. Expect to see an update similar to this one, probably after tomorrow night’s games.

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Official Rules: Baseball League Rules

Article 1 – Objectives


1.1 To better reflect MLB rules and to encourage activity from teams near the bottom of the standings, the waiver priority will be reset weekly, on Mondays, between noon Eastern and midnight Pacific, beginning after Week 1 and ending after Week 24. Priority will be assigned to teams based on reverse order in the standings

1.2 All teams shall be named, identical in style, with a geographical place name followed by a nickname. All components of a team’s name shall begin with a capital letter, followed by lower case letters. The Commish must approve all names, as he sees fit, so as to maintain a uniform standard across the league. Failure to comply may result in suspension of the manager’s right to manage his team, or even expulsion

1.3 Before the draft, a poll will be conducted to determine whether the draft order shall be somehow preset, or if Yahoo should randomize it at the draft

1.4 Nobody shall be allowed to enter 2 teams in the league. Any findings of collusion will result in the immediate expulsion of both managers

1.5 All managers shall allow their e-mail addresses to be seen by other managers to discourage the same person from entering 2 teams in the league

1.6 All managers are required to do everything within reason to win each Matchup. It is not permitted to lose a Matchup by their benching players

1.7 Attendance is mandatory. If a team becomes dormant, the Commish reserves the right to expel the manager

1.8 The Commish shall not assume control over a team except when reversing illegal transactions. All reversals shall revert the roster and lineup to the exact state in which it existed, before the transaction was made

1.9 In the event that this is not possible, due to an uninjured player on the DL, the Commish will set the team’s lineup, one time only, by dressing the highest ranked uninjured players, as per the Yahoo season-to-date rankings after the season has begun, or as per the 2008 rankings if it occurs before the season. The 5 lowest-ranked injured players shall be placed on the DL, if that the team owns more than 5 injured players

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Article 2 – Transactions


2.1 A manager shall be permitted to make trades during the draft provided the Commish agrees to the trade. Trades will be processed immediately after the draft

2.2 Any player, within reason, may be dropped, as the limited Can’t Cut List has been deactivated to accommodate season-ending injuries

2.3 If a manager deems an opponent’s dropped player to be too valuable, he may file a grievance on the Message Board, entitled OBJECTION, with the reasons for his grievance outlined within the body of the message. If 7 OBJECTIONs to a dropped player are filed within 7 days of the drop, the transaction shall be immediately reversed by the Commish, as well as all related transactions

2.4 If the 7-day period elapses with between 1 and 6 OBJECTIONs having been filed, the Commish shall render a judgement on the validity of the grievance(s), and may decide to reverse the drop and all related transactions

2.5 All trades will be processed immediately upon the acceptance of the receiving party, as the trade protest mechanism has been deactivated

2.6 As a component of a trade involving at least one player moving in either direction, an exchange of waiver priorities may be included. Both parties must stipulate the terms of a waiver priority exchange within 7 days of the trade. These terms may include a one-time exchange, a limited time weekly exchange, a limited-time perpetual exchange, a permanent weekly exchange or a permanent perpetual arrangement. The arrangement can be either absolute, or conditional upon the future waiver priorities of the parties involved. The exchange may be enacted immediately or at a later date, as specified by both parties

2.7 If a manager deems a trade to be unfair, he may file a grievance on the Message Board, entitled PROTEST, with the reasons for his grievance outlined within the body of the message. If 7 PROTESTs against a trade are filed within 7 days of the trade, the transaction shall be immediately reversed by the Commish, as well as all related transactions

2.8 If the 7-day period elapses with between 1 and 6 PROTESTs having been filed, the Commish shall render a judgement on the validity of the grievance(s), and may decide to reverse the trade and all related transactions

2.9 In the event a disgruntled manager either benches his players or drops them all, the Commish reserves the right to bypass the 7-day period and reverse the illegal transactions. A manager deemed by the Commish to be disgruntled shall be given 7 days to defend his actions, though he will be forbidden to manage his team. After the 7-day period has elapsed, the Commish reserves the right to declare the team dormant. Should an illegal transaction be performed unbeknownst to the Commish, and affect the outcome of a Matchup, the Commish reserves the right to manipulate lineups to achieve the rightful scoring outcome

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Article 3 – Judgements


3.1 The Commish shall be responsible for the conduct of the game and for maintaining order throughout the season

3.2 He is authorized and required to enforce all of these rules and to enforce the prescribed penalties

3.3 He is authorized to rule on any point not specifically covered by these rules

3.4 He is authorized to make changes to this list at any given time

3.5 He is authorized to expel, or otherwise punish, any manager for unsportsmanlike conduct

3.6 He is authorized to order a manager to do, or to refrain from doing, anything that affects the administering of the rules

3.7 His decisions that involve the use of his judgement are final

3.8 If there is reasonable doubt that his decision abides by the rules, any manager may appeal any decision

3.9 If a decision is appealed, the Commish may call for a vote, while retaining the authority to override the result

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Official Rules: Baseball League Settings

When I started this baseball league, I put a lot of thought into every aspect of the game play. We have already discussed the minimum IP issue at length, and we even changed a scoring category (Win% into Holds). At one point (unfortunately, too late), trader dick brought up the issue of positions (changing BN slots into RP slots). Nothing much has been said about the myriad other settings and rules that affect how we play.

Rosters

Each roster is comprised of 10 hitters, 10 pitchers, and 10 BN slots (plus 5 DL slots). This setting can no longer be altered.


Minimum IP

You must record at least 45 IP each week; otherwise risk losing any of the pitching categories that you might be leading in.


Playoffs

The top eight teams will qualify for the “post-season”, which begins on Monday, September 7th. There are no byes awarded to the top-ranked teams – only the privilege of playing a team that couldn’t even make the Top 6.

Scoring Categories

I always hated the Yahoo “O-Rank” system. Outside of the Top 3, they usually get it wrong. The column next to that, however, labelled just “Rank” purports to eliminate all subjectivity, and simply follow a formula. Using the default 5 X 5 settings (and default-sized leagues and rosters), the counting categories are easily measured. Their database ranks every player rotisserie-style, with the guy who has the most Runs scoring a “first-place” among the 400-450 other hitters. The same is done for RBI, HR’s, and SB’s.

Then comes the tricky part. Using the Batting Average category, the database orders all 400+ hitters, but assigned a “weighted” rank, depending on a player’s degree of deviation from the league average. In other words, a player who hits over .400 is not only ordered near first among the 400 hitters. He is also judged on how many AB’s he has, to determine if he is “helping” his team frequently or only a little. I don’t have a clue what such a formula might look like, but I trust that it generates an accurate portrait of who “gets more” in the category. And by that I mean that I trust that the accuracy of the column called “Rank”, whether sorted by this season or last season, whether by totals or per game averages, is a number that can be relied upon, provided you can estimate just what that formula might be.

In choosing the scoring categories, I wanted to retain a semblance of the players’ default values, as measured by the Rank column. I could have just used the default 5 X 5 categories, but I like to add as much nuance as possible to valuating a player. So I took the default cats as a baseline and attempted to “triple them up”, by adding two related categories to each of the ten originals. This way, a specialist like a closer or a base-stealer wouldn’t lose any value.

Since the Rank of a closer is based upon his contributions to the five pitching cats, he needs to retain a 20% stake in our 15 pitching cats to retain his default value. A player who leads the league in Saves is very likely to also lead the league in Save Opportunities and Net Saves. Using the three cats instead of just Saves, allows for a more detailed look at closers than a 5 X 5 system is capable of. Similarly, leading the league in SB’s will give you a good shot at also winning the Net Steals, and if you’re really good, the SB% as well.

Tripling up WHIP was easy, as that is the one category that is truly redundant with its sister-cats (H/9, BB/9). Another easy one was strikeouts, which I tripled up with K/9 and K/BB to really judge a guy’s abilities. It was tougher to triple up ERA, but I went with OBPA and Holds, figuring set-up men usually have the lowest ERA’s and lead both categories. To accompany Wins, I use QS and IP’s as comparable leader lists.

The league leaders in Batting Avg will often be found on the On-Base and Hits lists, as well. The same goes for Runs leaders on the AB’s and Triples lists. Players who lead the league in RBI will also be found among the league leaders in Doubles and Xtra base hits, while the Home Run kings will usually rank highly in Walks and OPS.

All that to say that now we can trust the Rank column for a fairly accurate, but rough sketch of where our players rank in this league. Anytime you have a league that doesn’t conform to every default setting, you get further away from accurate – I was trying to bring it back, closer to the norm (while using a freakishly large number of categories).


Written Rules

In addition to the aforementioned settings, I added a long list of Rules, most of which can still be found in the Commissioner’s Note. What I did was, I took the Official Baseball Rules and tried to alter them a little to apply to our league. The problem was, the Commissioner’s note only allows so many words. So I kept chopping and cutting, until I arrived at the finished product, that was nothing like what I had envisioned. To fit into the small space, I had cut out some key jokes that had set up other jokes. What I was left with was a cramped layout, full of sternly worded phrases, and a few disjointed jokes. It actually was my intention to have everyone name themselves after a city, but the whole point of that Rule was to reflect the Official Baseball Rule concerning the lettering of a player’s name on his jersey. Anyway, I won’t change them at all, but I thought I’d re-post them here, if only to make them easier to read. That, and re-include Article 3, dealing with my almighty powers. Look for that to follow, above.

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Welcome Home to the Ottawa League

Using the Playoff Hockey Pool as an excuse, I decided to put up this little blog as a sister site of the league page.

While it’s nice to see over 200 messages on the board already, this forum will allow for expanded coverage of the various topics raised there. The sheer volume of posts required to do justice to our hockey pool would add needless clutter to our baseball boards, though I eventually plan to use this space for all sports. In a few days, we should add a basketball pool to our stable of pastimes, hopefully involving more than just you seven readers.

I figured I’d start this site off with some recycled content from our baseball boards, then get into tonight’s new pool. I’ll put up the Conference Previews, as well as each of Will’s Top Ten Lists. I’ll search the archives for other good stuff to encapsulate here, too. After that, I’ll put up the Official Rules for each of the leagues, and finally, our hockey league rosters. Anything else I’m leaving out?

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