SICO League Managers, Rules
May, 2014 Jays at Pirates. Three SICO wise men.
(Left to right) - Tim Harper, Mike Trickey, Chris Hall (perhaps better known as Waner, Wagner and Kiner !)
History
SICO (Scoresheet Internet Combined Online) is a combined AL/NL Internet Scoresheet league. SICO was founded by Dale Hogg and we began play with 18 teams in 1997. The league expanded in 1999 to 20 teams, and again in 2010 to 22 teams. The league consists of 2 divisions, Lee and Kinsella, each with 11 teams. The division winners and 4 wild card teams qualify for the playoffs. The league follows AL (DH) rules.
1) League Administration
1) League websites and links The Yahoo Group site is currently the official source for league rules, posts, and other files.
Scoresheet’s league website contains all current season schedules, rosters, scores and statistics.
Jay Dell Mah currently archives many interesting statistics and Scoresheet facts on his great website.
Scoresheet baseball rules and customer support.
2) League administration
The league’s founder Dale Hogg was the original commissioner of the league and eventually transitioned duties to Glen McPherson. In 2007, Dean Young was elected to commissioner. He was succeeded by Tery Kazakoff in 2010. Tery, Glen Dundas and Chris Hall form the leadership committee and league tribunal.
The main duties of the commissioner and leadership committee are to run the league, facilitate discussion of league rules and issues, amend and enforce the league constitution, intervene with trade or other disputes, administering the draft process, keeping track of trades filling ownership vacancies.
Playoffs
1) Qualifying for Post-season The two division (Lee, Kinsella) winners automatically qualify for the post-season. In addition, the top four non-division champions also qualify as Wild Card teams. The wild cards can all come from the same division.
The league plays a balanced schedule. The divisions are divided based on franchise number, with odd numbered teams in the Lee Division, even numbered teams in the Kinsella Division.
2) Playoff format For the actual games and matchups, we follow Scoresheet Baseball’s rules for playoff seeding. Divisional winners are seeded 1 – 2 based on won-lost record. A division winner can play against a wild card team from his own division. The wild-card teams are seeded 1-4. 1st plays 4th and 2nd plays 3rd in best of seven game series. The winners of the opening round series will then be reseeded with the 2 divisional winners, where 1st plays 4th and 2nd plays 3rd in seven game series. The final series (third round) is a seven game final. In each series, the team with the better won-loss record gets to be the home team in games 1, 2, 6 and 7, and the other team is home games 3, 4 and 5. If the 2 teams are tied with the same won-loss record then the computer will just flip a coin to determine who is home 4 of the 7 games. Also, division winners are always at home games 1, 2, 6 and 7 versus wild card teams.
How much a player can be used in the Scoresheet playoffs is based solely on how much he plays in the majors the last 4 weeks of the season (in every series both hitters and pitchers can get up to 40% of the number of at-bats or innings pitched they got in the majors the last 4 weeks of the regular season.). How well the players will do is based 40% on how they do in the majors the final 4 weeks of the season, and 60% on how they did in the majors the first 5 months (assuming they play about the same amount of time per week all season.) Also, Scoresheet only lets pitchers start a game in the playoffs if they start a game in the majors in the last 4 weeks of the season.
Each and every playoff series is played as if it is the only series being played. No matter if the first series goes only 4 games, or as many as 7, in the next playoff series each team's #1 pitcher will start game 1, the #2 pitcher will start game 2, etc. Playing time limits also DO start over for each series. (You can think of it as if we have a 5 day layoff between series to rest up.)
3) Playoff tie-breaks We follow Scoresheet Baseball’s rules in breaking ties. “If 2 or more teams are tied at the end of the season, but the tie only matters for playoff seeding, then we'll use head to head records to break the tie, and if those are tied we'll go to overall run differential. If two or more teams are tied and a playoff berth is at stake then a 7 game playoff will be played to break the tie. That tie-breaking series will use the same rules as our normal playoff series, and will be played at the same time as the normal playoffs. (Essentially adding an extra round to the playoffs to see who makes the 'real' playoffs.) If there are 3 teams tied for a playoff berth the team with the best head to head record among the three teams will get a bye while the other two teams play 7 games, and then the inner of that will play another 7 game series against the team that had the bye.”
Protection Rosters
SICO currently follows as soft keeper rule. In January, owners may submit a protection list with a minimum of 8 and as many as 13 “veteran” slots. Owners may also protect a maximum of 3 “rookie” slots. There are specific rules with respect to each type of protection slot (below). All protected players must meet player eligibility requirements (see Draft Eligibility). We follow Scoresheet Baseball’s rules in defining rookies:
“A 'Scoresheet minor leaguer' is a player who at the end of the season still has less than 130 career major league at bats, or less than 50 career major league innings pitched. (Scoresheet 'minor leaguers' have an asterisk next to their name in your league roster print-out.)”
1) Veteran Protection Slots
SICO currently allocates a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 13 “veteran” protection slots. Rookies may be protected using “veteran” protection slots. Players who are assigned a protection slot remain on that owner's roster until the next season and may not be drafted by any other team in the subsequent year's draft.
The first 13 rounds of the subsequent year's draft are considered to be "taken up" by the aforementioned protection slots.
Teams protecting fewer than 13 players will receive additional draft picks in the “pre-draft” which takes place prior to the main draft (rounds 14 and higher). For example, a team protecting only 10 players will receive draft picks in rounds 11, 12, and 13.
At present, Owners CANNOT trade veteran protection slots. Prior to 2006, owners could trade protection slots to other owners but were forced to use all of their slots to protect players (i.e., they could NOT opt for draft picks in lieu.).
2) Rookie Protection Slot
Each team is also assigned 5 'rookie' protection slots which may only be used on players with no more than 130 career Major League at-bats, or 50 career Major League innings pitched. Players who are assigned a 'rookie' protection slot remain on that owner's roster until the next season and may not be drafted by any other team in the subsequent year's draft.
Use of 'rookie' protection slots is not mandatory. An owner may use all, some, or none of the rookie slots that he was assigned or has acquired in trade. Rounds 36 through 40 are considered to be“taken up” by the rookie slots. For each rookie slot that an owner uses, he will forfeit a draft pick in the next season's main draft. For the first rookie slot he uses, the owner will lose his Round 40 draft pick, for the second, his Round 39 draft pick, and so forth, losing a draft pick one round higher than the previous round for each additional rookie he keeps.
Owners can trade rookie protection slots to other owners. The round 36-40 draft rights associated with the rookie slot (if an owner opted not to protect a rookie with the slot) are also assumed to be traded along with the slot. At present there is no limit to the number of rookie slots that an owner can accumulate.
3) Protection Lists
The commissioner will announce a date (usually in late January) at which all protection lists are due. At least 24 hours prior to the deadline, the commissioner will submit his list to the league to avoid conflict of interest. All other protection lists will be emailed in confidence to the league commissioner, where they can be revealed in unison to the entire league at once. Due to current rules which allow for flexible protection limits, all owners are encouraged to submit their lists confidentially to the commissioner so other owners do not have an unfair advantage.
Drafts
After protection lists have been finalized, SICO currently employs three successive stages of drafting. The initial pre-draft is intended for all teams which opted to protect less than 13 veteran players, the main draft completes everyone’s rosters up until opening day, and Free agent supplemental picks are used to round out everyone’s rosters during the season.
1) Player Eligibility
A player is eligible to be drafted in a SICO pre-season or supplemental draft if, at the time that draft commences,
1. His rights, as defined by the Major League Collective Bargaining Agreement (encompassing players both under and not under contract) are owned by a Major League Club.
or
2. He is a Free Agent whose status was granted by a Major League team who previously owned his rights.
** Members voted in March, 2012 to make eligible all players who have once played in the MLB.
However, a player may not be protected in subsequent seasons unless he meets the above criteria.
(The most likely situation in which this would occur is an amateur signing, as follows: At the time the player is drafted a MLB team owns his rights, but they subsequently lose his rights due to a return to school or by sitting out a season.)
Players chosen in the June amateur draft are not available to be drafted until the following season's preseason draft.
Foreign players not signed by a major league team as of opening day are not available to be drafted until the following season's preseason draft.
2) Pre-draft (up to and including Round 13)
At present, teams can choose to protect up to a maximum of 13 “veteran” players. The 13 protection slots are synonymous with rounds 1 through 13. Teams with less than 13 protected “veteran” players will receive draft picks in the pre-draft (i.e., a team with 9 players will receive draft picks in rounds 10, 11, 12, and 13) to ensure that they come out of the pre-draft with 13 players.
In mid-season 2008 poll, owners adopted a new rule limiting pre-draft eligibility. The new eligibility rules are based on the end of the previous season, meaning June-draftees and International signings NOT eligible in the pre-draft.
Players are not eligible for the pre-draft rounds whose rights are not held by a MLB team. That is, international players, and players chosen in the preceding year’s amateur draft, can not be chosen until drafting starts in Rd. 14.
Each team that is participating in the pre-draft will have their draft slots filled in a draft grid, many rounds will have few teams participating (i.e., if only two owners chose to protect as little as 7 players, then they will be the only two teams participating in round 8).
Playoff champion picks last, other playoff finalist second-last, remainder in reverse order of regular-season standings.
First tie-breaker: The team with the worst run differential (runs scored - runs allowed) picks before the team with the better run differential, with the order changing each subsequent round.
Second tie-breaker In even-numbered years (2002 for example), the lower-numbered team picks before the higher-numbered team in R14, with the order changing each subsequent round. In odd-numbered years (2003 for example), the higher-numbered team picks before the lower-numbered team in R14, with the order changing each subsequent round.
The draft order will NOT “snake”, and the tie-break formula (above) will apply to each round so the “worst” team will pick earliest in each round.
3) Main draft (Rounds 14 through 35)
After the pre-draft is completed, the main draft will commence. At present, we draft from Rounds 14 through to Round 35 where most teams have predetermined that they will opt to protect rookies
Draft order will be determined the same as the Pre-draft, however for teams that were tied in last season’s standings (lowest wins)… In previous years, the teams that tied in last season’s standings (lowest wins) had their tie-break formulas flipped every other round (i.e., the worst team of the tied clubs picked first in even rounds and last in odd rounds). As we likely need to prepare to use Scoresheet’s on-line drafting tool for 2008… we may tentatively need to revert to the same draft order in every round (which is easier to schedule anyways)…
The draft order will NOT “snake” each round so the worst team will pick first in every round.
** February, 2017, members voted to adopt the Scoresheet system for draft order.
The last 3 rounds of the main draft (R33-35) are designated as “rookie slots”. For each rookie protected with a rookie slot, the team will forfeit one of these picks. Traded rookie slots will also be accompanied by the rights to these draft picks.
4) Free agent supplemental drafts
Each team will be allocated 10 supplemental draft picks to be used in a free-agent style draft which takes place throughout the regular season. These picks are eligible to be used from a pre-determined start date (see below – currently mid-April) until the trade deadline. The picks may be traded to other owners. Unused picks do not carry over beyond the trade deadline, they are lost. Draft eligibility rules extend to these picks as well, which means that June amateur draft signings and many mid-season additions to rosters would be considered ineligible for drafting.
In order to provide for some order & fairness to the first few weeks of drafting (currently this would be weeks # 2 and 3), draft grids will be established for 2 rounds of drafting in each of the first each weeks. The draft grids will be ordered based on the prior season's reverse ranking (changed from current season standings, April, 2015). Owners may optionally decide to take players within their scheduled draft slot. After the grids are completed, a period of free-for-all drafting (first-come first served) will take place until a pre-determined time at the end of the week. A maximum of 5 total players can be drafted in each of the first two weeks of drafting.
After the first two weeks of “grid-based” drafting, a true free-agent style draft process will be in place until the trade deadline. Undrafted eligible players will be selected on a first-come and first-served basis, as determined by posting dates on our Yahoo Group website. Only 1 player can be selected per post. The leadership committee will try to liaise with Scoresheet to provide them with a list of each player selected each week, however it is ultimately the responsibility of the drafting owner to ensure that the drafted player is reflected properly on his roster and is available on time for lineup changes.
Trades
1) General Trade guidelines Protection and rookie spots can be traded (if a rookie spot is traded, the associated R33 to R35 draft pick must be traded as well).
No limits on the number of protection or rookie slots that may be traded.
If a draft pick traded in an announced deal is discovered to belong to another team (i.e., it has already been traded) then a higher draft pick will be included in the deal as a replacement pick.
"Players to be named later" or any future considerations (other than draft picks) cannot be included in trades.
It is each owner’s responsibility to post ALL trades on the Scoresheet league site (where it must be confirmed by both owners) and it must be ANNOUNCED to the league by way of the Yahoo group.
The in-season trade deadline is August 31. Trading then not allowed until the end of the SICO season. Trades can then be made until protection lists are submitted (approx. late January). Another freeze in effect from the submission of the protected lists until the start of the pre-draft (approx. mid-Feb).
2) Trade Disputes
Trades posted to the entire group are considered FINAL. Any disputes must be logged to the league commissioner within 72 hours. If necessary, the leadership committee will review a trade dispute and provide a ruling. In extreme cases, the entire league will be involved in the process providing pro and con arguments but it will ultimately be the leader committee’s responsibility to render a verdict.
Rules
1) Rule Interpretations and Changes
Scoresheet Baseball rules are used as a general practice for SICO, however there are selective situations where Scoresheet rules are overridden (i.e. pre-draft, free agent drafts, no limits on trades, etc…).
Two thirds (2/3) of SICO owners will be required to approve a change to our league rules and constitution. A minimum of two-thirds (2/3) of SICO owners must vote on a given issue for the vote to be binding.
For any dramatic mid-season rule changes which affect the current season or mid-draft rule changes which affect the current draft, at least 90% of owners must vote in approval of a change.
It is the responsibility of the commissioner to call for all votes, facilitate league discussion, and provide a date and time at which all votes will officially be closed. All voting intervals must be at least three days. An owner can choose to “abstain” on a voting issue, however the abstentions will not be included when determining the final percentage of owners who voted for or against a given proposition. An owner may change his vote on a given issue up until the time that the commissioner rules the outcome “official”.