Since our league is far flung, meetings where everyone is present will be impossible. League play will be based on the Major League games played between Monday and Sunday of each week. Owners should exchange their lineups for the upcoming week's play on either Sunday, or before noon on Monday at the latest. Once Major League play begins on Monday, no changes may be made to either the lineup, or to the roster. Meetings for votes and resolution of disputes may be called as needed, with owners participating by telephone.
In all votes for rule changes and other general issues, approval of a majority of owners will be required for passage. All owners must be notified of a vote before any vote is taken. In the event of a tie, the rule or situation shall remain unchanged. The owners vote is the final authority.
The draft shall be conducted on Sunday April 25, beginning at 11:00 am CDT. At the Houston draft meeting a selection order for all teams will be determined by chance. Draft order shall be determined by a random draw of cards, with each card having a team's name on it. Owners living in the same geographic area must conduct the draft at a common site. Owners will choose from active major league players, following the draft order determined by the draw of the cards. Although players may be drafted in any sequence an owner chooses, each owner must first draft at least one player from each major league team, to a total of 30 players. When a player is drafted, the owner must declare what club the player is being drafted from, and at what position the player is to be classified on the owner's team. Position is initially determined by the player's classification in USA Today Baseball Weekly (BW). A player drafted to a position they do not normally play, or that is mistakenly attributed to the wrong team may be challenged, and his eligibility determined by a vote of the owners. After the main draft, owners will reverse the draft order so that three players can be selected by each owner to complete that team's roster. These players must also be classified by position, since they may be used on the team either as starters, or as substitutes. The two drafts will make a total of thirty-three players selected overall.
Players are classified into one of eight positions: Outfield, Shortstop/Second Base, First Base, Third Base, Pitcher, Reliever, Catcher, and DH. Players selected to these positions must play these positions in the major leagues. Players shall be classified for each week according to the classification given by BW, and shall remain in that classification until such time as that classification is changed by BW. Under no circumstances may a player switch positions during a playing week, and changes to his position become valid only after publication in BW. A substitute player is listed for the following positions: Catcher; 1B & DH; 2B, SS, & 3B; Outfielders, and Bullpen. Players who substitute in the 2B/SS/3B slot are limited by the following restrictions: 2B/SS players are allowed to be starters at 3rd, but 3rd basemen are limited to playing 3rd. The DH may be a player from any position, but can only play in his classified position if used in any role other than DH, players classified by BW as a DH may not play any other position. Players substituting in the bullpen may be made up of either starting or relief pitchers.
Starters: The statistical performance of the starting lineup comprises the team's weekly statistics. The starting lineup is composed of the following positions:
Offensive positions: Catcher 1 starting position First base & DH 2 starting positions Shortstop, Second & Third 3 starting positions Outfield 3 starting positions Defensive positions: Rotation Pitcher 0-5 starting positions Relief Pitcher 0-3 starting positions
Total 9-17 starting positions
In addition to the starters, six players will be named as substitutes to assure that statistically significant play is applied to the competition. One catcher, one DH/1st baseman, one shortstop/2nd/3rd baseman, and one outfielder will be listed. For the pitching staff, 2-3 staff members assigned to the bullpen will constitute the substitutes for the pitching staff.
One player will be designated as a pinch hitter. This position allows you to make up deficiencies in the total at-bats of any player, up to a limit of four at-bats, if the designated substitute has been used for another player, or lacks sufficient at-bats to make up for the starter's deficit. This player may be classified at any position although he is expected to play at his classified position if used as a starter or substitute at any other time.
Squad players are available to become starters at the weekly lineup assignments. The number of total active players (starting, backup, & squad) may not exceed 25 players for any team.
Each team will begin the season with eight players classified as disabled. During this time, players may be transferred to and from the DL without restrictions. Starting in week two, a player transferred to the DL may not start for the next two weeks (mirroring the major league rule). The owner may hold any position mix desired in the squad and disabled list. The starting lineup and other assignments may only be changed once a week. If a team does not have a position player eligible to fill a position by the lineup deadline, that position will be entered into the team's statistics as a zero. If the owner fails to meet the noon Monday deadline for submitting changes to his lineup, the last week's lineup will be used for the new week.
Since N.E.R.A. league play does not involve any monetary obligations or compensations, money is strictly prohibited in any trading. Multiple player and multiple team trades are permitted. All trades must be made known to the other league owners, and take effect at the next Sunday deadline. Players traded from a team's disabled list will have the same status on the new team and will not be available to start. Traded players will carry the same position classification to the new team unless a change is approved by the league. Owners may also exchange players active in the major leagues but not active in N.E.R.A. league play if the owner can satisfy one side of an actual major league trade. These trades can only be realized if it is a player for player trade without cash or other terms (i.e. player to be named later), and must be executed on the first Sunday after the trade is announced. Restrictions on position classification continue to apply. During the last month of the season (Weeks 16-20) all trades will require the approval of the majority of the owners.
Although other sources may be used in the compilation of the weekly statistics, the daily box scores as reported by the USA Today Baseball Weekly will be the final authority for the league's statistics. Each owner will prepare the statistics for the opposing team that their team is playing, using the lineup provided by the opposing owner. Owners using computer programs (Excel, Lotus, Quattro) to monitor their games and produce weekly results should consult with the N.E.R.A. News statistician to confirm the formulas to be used for all calculations. The results of each week's game should be made available to all owners, so that everyone knows where they stand. Competition in the game is based on each team's Net Earned Run Average (N.E.R.A.), the team's theoretical margin of victory in an average game. The N.E.R.A. is computed in the following manner:
( ( (2*Runs)+(2*RBI's) )-Errors ) / At-bats (Spreadsheet format)
Each player will have an O.R.A. every week, which will be combined with the other players results for a team figure. A sample player O.R.A. could be worked as follows: Your second baseman played in 6 games this week. He had 19 at-bats, scored 2 runs, and had 5 RBI's, with no errors. Doubling runs, we get 4, and doubling RBI's, we get 10, for a sum of 14. There are no errors to subtract. Dividing 14 by 19, we get a respectable .7368 for the weekly O.R.A..
In the event a player fails to complete his at-bats, the league incorporates substitutes for several positions. Assume that the substitute for 2B/SS/3B totals for the week were 12 at-bats, scoring 1 run with 3 RBI's and 1 error. Using the above formula, we see that the sub's O.R.A. is .58. Assuming the starter had 8 at-bats with no runs and only 1 RBI, with no errors, his O.R.A. is .25 for the week. To get the combined O.R.A. for these players, use the following formula:
Thus we get the following combined total for the two players described above: (2 + 5.8) / 18, or .43... Not spectacular, but much better than the Starter's .25. Should there be more than one player short of at bats, the pinch hitter can be of great use. For instance, if the 3B's at-bats are short by 4 or less, then you can factor in the statistics of your pinch hitter, just like you would a substitute's numbers as illustrated above. If the Starter is missing more than four at-bats, then the equation looks like this:
This applies no matter how low a starter's at-bats drop...even down to zero. The pinch hitter's at-bats cannot exceed four, although they may be less if the starter's at-bats exceed 14. The pinch hitter cannot be used instead of the designated substitute unless the sub has been applied to a starter with equal or fewer at-bats already. Finally, if you have used all available substitutes and the pinch hitter, and still have players short of at-bats, you basically use what you got:
Like the O.R.A., this is a weekly statistic, and is the equivalent to the actual E.R.A. in the Major Leagues. However, unlike the Major League, your pitching staff competes collectively. The team E.R.A. is computed in the same way as an individual E.R.A., with the numbers involved being the sum of all earned runs given up by the starting staff, multiplied by nine, and divided by the sum of all innings pitched by your starting staff for that week. The equation used looks like this:
(Total ER*9) / Total IP (Spreadsheet format)
An example of how to compute a week's E.R.A. goes as follows: One of your starters pitched in 2 games (13 innings) and gave up 6 earned runs. So his E.R.A. is figured by multiplying earned runs by 9, (54) and dividing that by his 13 innings, for a dismal 4.15. If you are below the 45 innings needed to compute the starting staff E.R.A., to get your team E.R.A., you will look to your bullpen and utilize the following formula:
Let's say your staff had 36 innings, with a E.R.A. of 3.22, and your bullpen had a E.R.A. of 1.50, over the course of 12 innings pitched. The result would be: (115.92 + 13.5) / 45, which is equal to a staff E.R.A. 2.88. It is important to note that your backups must have enough innings to cover the deficit of the starting rotation. (In the above case, a minimum of 9.) In the event that the bullpen cannot meet this criteria, then 1 earned run per inning of deficit is figured into the total E.R.A. of the staff, according to the following formula:
The basic concept here is to add a run per inning (including fractions) if you do not meet the minimum number of innings pitched. If your bullpen had only seven innings instead of the 12 shown above, the result would be:
The net result is that your E.R.A. goes from 2.88 to 3.15... not good. This example shows how a bad week would work. A good week would simply be a matter of taking the 45-plus innings pitched by your starters and relievers and plugging the earned runs given up into the E.R.A. formula.
The Net Earned Run Average is the method by which the outcome of league play is determined. The O.R.A. is calculated for the nine offensive positions, and the E.R.A. is determined for the pitching staff. The difference between these two numbers determines the theoretical margin of victory for a team. It can be negative, which is usually bad news.
Each team's N.E.R.A. will be compared with the team N.E.R.A. of their scheduled opponent for that week. The team with the highest N.E.R.A. will register a win, and the other team will record a loss. In the final week of the season, the league will assign matchups so as to avoid ties in the standings. This final weeks schedule will be agreed upon by a majority vote of the owners. The season win/loss record for each team will be the primary basis for competition, and the team with the best win/loss record after 21 weeks will win the pennant. The secondary basis of competition will be the team's RedStat, which is determined by comparing each teams weekly N.E.R.A. with those of the other teams, and awarding a victory for each team which would have lost to that team, and a loss for every team which would have beaten the team, if a further basis of comparison is needed, the team's average N.E.R.A. will be used (Sum of all weekly N.E.R.A. divided by number of weeks played.)
In the event of a premature end to the season, the final standings as of the last complete week of play will be used to determine the league champion. Should play resume, re-opening of the season will be decided by a vote of the ownership, which will include the resolution or inclusion of any partially played weeks
Owners are responsible for submitting their lineups to the opposing team's owner and to the N.E.R.A. League Office by the deadline on Monday. Owners are expected to be available for receiving these lineups in a timely manner, or for making arrangements with the involved owner if their schedule will conflict with the deadline. It is important that all lineups be submitted before the deadline, regardless of how far in advance they must be given to ensure they make the deadline.
We appreciate any and all interest in the game and encourage the formation of new NERA Leagues, however we do ask that you inform us of their existence and of rule changes your league incorporates into the basic structure. We also reserve the right to publish these rules in any form for commercial use. Commercial use of these rules and game concepts without the written permission of the copyright holders is expressly prohibited.