Monday, July 6, 2020

2020 COVID-19 Season Rules Adjustments

Here are the adjustments we're making to the Jeremy Rankin's Field of Dreams Fantasy Baseball league rules for the abbreviated 2020 COVID-19 season.

COVID-19 IL (CIL)

  • The 2020 season will feature an unlimited COVID-19 IL (in CBS, a subset of the Injured group) in the JRFoDFBL, the express purpose of which is to protect players who may be keepers. Beginning on July 6, owners are welcome to email the league with specific requests to have players placed on their CIL. Each email should be for one player (send multiple emails if you have more than one player) and must include a link to a reputable news article stating that the player will either sit out 2020 or spend time (or begin the season) on his team's IL because he tested COVID+.
  • Beginning on July 13, owners are welcome to email the league with specific requests to have players placed on their CIL in the cases where players have yet to report to camp (because some players are not releasing their COVID+ status).
  • You may only use the CIL for players currently on your team. It cannot be used to draft and stash players who are free agents.
  • A special field was created in the Overview section of your team page to track CIL eligibility and status.
    • E: The player is eligible because you owned him to start the season
    • CIL: The player is currently on your CIL
    • OPT: The player opted out of the 2020 season. These players will have their contract lengths adjusted so that 2020 does not count as a contract year.
  • A player is only eligible to remain on your CIL as long as one of the following is true:
    • He has opted out of playing for the season
    • He is not on his team's active roster on gameday. In other words, you MUST change his status when he returns to his team's active roster.

Rosters

  • In the spring, we added two reserve roster slots to account for players who were injured but were not yet on their team's IL because the season had not begun. We now have two "regular" IL spots, therefore two reserve roster spots will removed following games on Sunday July 26. If your team is not in roster-compliance (Rule 1.3) on Monday July 27, you will be ineligible for any stats on that day.
  • We will not have a summer expansion draft in 2020. Instead, we will have one slot per week added as follows so that we can further fill our rosters in FAAB each week:
 August 16 bench spot
 August 23 bench spot
 August 30 prospect spot
 September 6 prospect spot
 September 13 prospect spot

Fees & Prize Money

  • There will be no HR Derby in 2020. All 2020 pot funds will be divided among the top three finishing teams according to Rule 4.5.
  • CBS has notified us that our 2020 season is free from them. Therefore, 2021 dues (due by December 1 according to Rule 4.2) will be reduced to $40. The additional $10 ($150 - 14 teams x $10) will be added to this season's pot funds, now a total of $40 x 14 + $10 = $570.

Scoring Adjustments

  • Minimum PA to qualify for OBP ranking: 1,400.
  • Minimum IP to qualify for ERA & WHIP: 415
  • Maximum IP before you cease accumulating pitching stats: 850

Player Contracts

  • As noted above, players under contract who opt out of the 2020 season will have their contract lengths adjusted so that 2020 is not a contract year.
  • Further, any players who spends more than 30 days on their MLB team's IL due to COVID-19 will have their contract lengths adjusted so that 2020 is not a contract year.

FAAB

  • A special FAAB auction will be held on Wednesday evening July 22 prior to the first MLB game on Thursday. This auction will be held in addition to auctions on Sundays July 19 & July 26.

Miscellaneous

  • If Major League Baseball fails to play at least 40 regular season games in 2020, our 2020 season will be canceled. If possible with CBS, teams will be reset to their December 1, 2019 states and no dues will be collected for the 2021 season.