Fantasy Baseball Head to Head (H2H) League Rules

Fantasy Baseball Big Game Head to Head leagues leagues will consist of leagues of 22 teams.   Each owner will be allowed to decide if they would like to participate in a H2H league if the league does not fill up.  League prizes will be prorated accordingly, to correspond with the percentage of the league entries,  in the event of an unfilled independent league.

www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com offers head to head (H2H) leagues for those who prefer that style of play or would like to just get their feet with the style. Their will still be online drafts conducted to determine rosters; however, there will be noticeable differences between the H2H leagues and our other leagues. H2H leagues will consist of 22 teams. Instead of accumulating stats and scoring them in rotisserie fashion, in our H2H leagues, each team will compete against another team for the week. The winner will be the team which accumulates the most points for the week among the two teams.  Weekly match ups will be determined randomly before the start of the first week's games.

Each team will go head to head against the other teams in the league once, compiling a Won/Loss Record based on the 21 head to head match ups. At the conclusion of the 21 week head to head schedule, the teams with the six best records will advance to the playoffs, with the team with the best record receiving the highest seed ranking. In the event of a 2 team tie, the winner of the regular season weekly H2H match up will win the tie breaker. In the event that three or more teams are tied with the same Won/Loss record, H2H match ups will not matter. Instead, the team with the highest accumulated point total for the regular season will win the tie breaker. The team with the next highest point total accumulation for the regular season will win the next tie breaker. This will be repeated until the ties are broken and all teams are ranked from 1 to 22.

Rosters - Player Selection – The order of selection will be determined randomly by www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com
The draft will consist of 18 rounds. Each owner will have 60 seconds to make a selection. Once the time is up, the owner is subject to have his or her selection determined for them. The online draft company's software may elect a player for any owner who does not make their own selection within the allotted time frame. www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com reserves the right to decide if the assigned player will remain on the assigned owner's roster. In rare cases, www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com may allow an owner to make another selection, if the situation calls for it. Owners are responsible for their own computer equipment and internet connectivity. Owners with weak connections or connectivity problems are subject to have players assigned to them when their draft turn arrives if they are not available to make a selection in their allotted time. Owners will be given the opportunity to test the draft service at least 24 hours prior to their draft. Owners who elect not to test the software will not be allowed to hold up the draft. All owners are asked to enter the draft room 15-20 minutes prior to the draft start time. The draft will not be delayed for owners who arrive late. Owners who do not show up will not receive a refund.

The draft will be done in a serpentine order. After the first round has been completed, the last team to select in round 1 will select first in round 2. This will alternate each round, so that the team selecting first overall, will select first in the odd rounds and last in the even rounds.
Any player may be drafted, regardless of whether the player has made his major league debut or not; however, once the draft is over, owners must abide by the free agent rules. If a player who has not yet made his major league debut is drafted, he will qualify at the position he appeared in most during last season in minor league.

Each draft will last 18 rounds.

Teams can draft any number of players at any position, as long as they meet the minimum starting line up requirements. Drafted teams will consist of the following.
C - 1
1B - 1
2B - 1
3B - 1
SS - 1
OF - 3
DH - 1
P - 5
RES- 4

The reserves can be any position, hitters and/or pitchers. Players can be selected in any order.

Scoring - Players in your starting line up can gain or loss points for your team. The following points will be rewarded or subtracted from your team based on the following:

Hitting Points
Single = +1
Double = +2
Triple = +3
Home Run = +4
RBI = +2
Run Scored = +2
Stolen Base = +2
Caught Stealing = -1
Base on Balls = +1
Hit by Pitch = +1
Strike out = -1

Pitching Points
Win = +10
Loss = -5
Inning Pitched = +1
Strikeout = +1
Base on Balls = -1
Save = +5
Complete Game = +10
Shutout = +10
Hit Batter = -1
Earned Run = -2
Wild Pitch = -1
Balk = -1

Pitcher's hitting statistics will not be used in owners hitting totals.  Hitters pitching statistics will not be used in pitching totals.  Only regular season stats count.  One game playoffs to determine playoff eligibility count toward a team’s total statistics; however playoff games and World Series games do not.

Total points accumulated for all players in starting line up will provide a weekly point total for H2H match up. The team with the higher score wins that H2H match up. In the event of a tie, the teams will each be awarded a Tie.

Playoffs:
As mentioned earlier, the top 6 ranked teams will advance to the playoffs. The first round of playoffs, designated as the wild card round, will take place over one week (week 22 of the MLB season).

Wildcard Game #1 will feature a H2H match up of the #6 seeded team vs. the #3 seeded team.
Wildcard Game #2 will feature a H2H match up of the #5 seeded team vs. the #4 seeded team.
(The #1 and #2 seeded teams will receive "byes" and will automatically advance into the semi-final round.)

The semi-final round will take place over a two week period (weeks 23 & 24 of the MLB season), with the highest accumulated points total for the two weeks determining the semi-final playoff game winners.

Semi-Final Game #1 will feature the highest remaining seeded team vs. the #2 seeded team.
Semi-Final Game #2 will feature the lowest remaining seeded team vs. the #1 seeded team.
(For example, If the #6 seeded team wins their wildcard game, they will play against the #1 seeded team in the semi-finals round.)

The Championship Series will take place over a two week period (weeks 25 & 26 of the MLB season), with the highest accumulated points total for the two weeks determining the league champion.

The two winners from the semi-final games will face each other in the championship game.
The two losers from the semi-final games will face each other in the consolation game.

Prizes - Prizes will be awarded as follows:
League Champion will receive $1,100.
League champion runner-up will receive $500.
Consolation game winner will receive $150.

Prize Money (Ties) - In the event of a tie for prize money, the teams tying will each receive an equal half of the combined money for the two spots occupied.  For example, if there is a tie for 1^st place, these two teams will each receive an equal half of the total prize money for the first and second place prizes for that league.  The same process would occur if the second and third place teams were tied for second place.  The teams would each receive an equal share of the second and third place prize money.  In the event of a tie for third place, the teams tied for third would each receive an equal share of the third place prize money. 

Position Qualification – To qualify for a position, a player must have appeared at that position 20 times last year.  Players will qualify for a new position during a season once they appear at the new position 10 times.  Once this happens, a player’s eligibility is updated for the upcoming week.  Players coming up from the minor leagues will only qualify at the position they appeared in the most during the previous season.  Players with less than 20 games of major league experience will be eligible at the position they appeared in most.  Example: A September call up who plays 9 games at 1B and 6 in the OF will be eligible at 1B only.  (Pinch hitting and pinch running do not count as positions.) 

Weekly Line Ups
Each week, teams will submit their weekly line up for the upcoming week. Teams will have up until 5 minutes prior to the start of the first game for the new week to submit their line ups. The first day of the week will be Monday and the last day will be Sunday. Teams must submit a valid roster. If you roster is invalid, your last valid roster will be substituted in its place. Players on the DL can be inserted into your starting line up. Starting line ups become locked 5 minutes prior to the start of the first game for the week. If you have a player starting who is not playing, for any reason, whether it be injury, demotion, suspension, etc, that player cannot be changed for that week. You must wait until the next week's game to determine if you would like to replace the player. All team owners are responsible for updating their own line ups. Emails asking www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com to update your roster will not be honored, unless the league home page is down and changes cannot be made.

Free Agents – All teams will be given $1,000 Free Agent dollars to bid on free agent players throughout the season. Each week, teams will be able to place bids on players they would like to acquire. For each player acquired, a player must be dropped from the winning bidder’s roster. The highest bid wins. Owners may place conditional bids, in the event they lose out on their first selection. Owners will not be given any additional free agent money throughout the season. Free agent money can only be used to bid on free agent players. Free Agent dollars have no other value and may not be redeemed for anything else. In the event of a tie, the player in the lower standing will be awarded the player. Owners will have the option of using any remaining free agents dollars each week to obtain free agents. All Free Agent bids will close at 6 PM EST on Sundays. Winners will be announced shortly after, along with their winning bid. The runner up bid total will also be revealed. The owner with the runner up bid will NOT be revealed.
A player must have made their major league debut in order to be an eligible free agent. The only exception to this rule is a player who was drafted in the same league. This player will enter the free agent pool for bidding if he is dropped from the drafting team. The debut does NOT have to be the current year; however, players who have not made their major league debut and were not drafted are not eligible to be bid on. Once a player makes his debut, he will remain eligible based on majority of minor league appearances. Players will gain additional eligibility once he appears at least 10 times at a position, if it is different than the position they have appeared in most in the minor leagues.

Trading - In order to prevent any questionable team to team collusion, there will be no trading in any Big Game Leagues.
 

***All stats will be tracked by a third party.  www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com will not be responsible for systems issues, such as computer outages, internet connectivity problems or any other issue which may result in an owner not being able to select during their draft when their draft slot comes up.  Teams stats will be updated in real time.  League standings will be updated daily.  In addition, www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com will not supply equipment for owners to perform their drafts.  All owners are responsible for ensuring they have their own equipment, which can interact with the draft supplier's software.  Owners who are disconnected from the draft room will be assigned a player by the draft supplier's software.  THIS MEANS ALL OWNERS SHOULD ENSURE THEY HAVE A STRONG, RELIABLE  INTERNET CONNECTION.  Owners should not use dial up internet connections when drafting their teams.  In the event of a system outage or server crash or any other unexpected event that causes the stat service to lose stats, Fantasy Baseball Big Game will not be responsible.  If the stats provider's system is down and you are unable to make your weekly transactions, it is your responsibility to email your changes to info@fantasybaseballbiggame.com at least 5 minutes prior to the start of the first game on Monday.  If the server is not down, each owner is responsible for making their own weekly roster updates.  Emails sent to info@fantasybaseballbiggame.com for transactions moves will not be processed without confirmation from the stats provider service that there server was down.

Refund Policy - All sales are final with the following exceptions.
1. In the event that a Head to Head (H2H) league does not fill up, owners will be given the option of receiving a refund or participating in a prorated league with prorated prize money, based on the number of owners in the league. 

Some examples of reasons refunds will NOT be granted. 
1. The team owner does not show up for the live online draft.  (If this happens, the owner will be assigned draft picks as noted above and will manage the team drafted.) 
2. Team owner is not happy with team drafted. 
3. Team owner decides they would no longer like to participate, after payment is collected for a full league.  (The only exception will be if the big game contest grand prize is not guaranteed.)
4. Owner experiences draft problems and is assigned picks.  (Owners are responsible for their internet connectivity being reliable.  In the event the third party draft software experiences technical problems, and the draft cannot continue, it will be rescheduled.  This ONLY applies if all owners are not able to draft and third party vendor acknowledges system problem.)
*This is not an all-inclusive list, but is intended to provide examples.

Taxes - All winners of $600 or more are responsible for filing all applicable IRS documents.  Winner’s checks will be mailed after the conclusion of the regular season. 

Unforeseen Events/Uncovered Rules - The rules are meant to cover all possible likely scenarios.  In the event something occurs that is not covered in the rules, www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com has the right to make the decision it feels is best for the overall integrity of the game.

www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com reserves the right to refuse any entries it feels may compromise the integrity of the game and service for the other players.  The Big Game is not open to the immediate family and friends of www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com employees.  All owners must be 18 years of age or older.  Owners are responsible for meeting any IRS guidelines in regards to reporting winnings.  www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com will issue 1099 forms for anyone winning $600 or more.  Prize money will be mailed to winners once the 1099 form is signed and returned to www.fantasybaseballbiggame.com

If you have any questions concerning the rules or anything in general, please email info@fantasybaseballbiggame.com