Puck's World Fantasy Baseball League (PWFBL) is known as a "keeper" league. This means that each team is allowed to keep the rights to players into next year. There are no fees, no prize money, no salary cap, and no limit to the number of times a player may be kept. The Sol Series Champion will be awarded the traveling trophy, the Solaris Trophy, that is to be returned to the President of the League before the following year's playoffs begin.

All rule changes for the fantasy season must be ratified before January 1st to be effective for that season. All rule changes regarding the offseason must be ratified before the preceeding Sol Series (ie. 2003 offseason rules must be finalized before the 2002 Sol Series). Any disagreements about the rules will be solved by the League President.

Teams:

Each owner will chose a team name that has a place and a nickname (ex. Michigan Twinkies, Funky Monkies of Guam). A team may only change their name after playing five full seasons under their current name. Once a team changes their name, they will have to play another five full seasons, or take a year off before they can change their name again. A team returning after missing a season or more will have their tenure reset to zero, unless compared to another owner returning the same year.

Owners will "sell" their franchises to the new owner when they leave the league. This means that new owners will take on the roster and responsibilites of the franchise they are taking over. The new owner will be allowed to rename and relocate their franchise without penalty. All new owners will be appointed by the league President.

Owners participating in PWFBL, must submit their account password to the league office. In order to provide an alternative to giving out passwords to personal accounts, Puck's World Fantasy Sports, Inc (PWFSI) will provide each owner an account with Yahoo! to use for this league and others in PWFSI. Owners are subject to penalty actions by the league if they do not follow this rule during the season.

The Roster is made up of 24 players. There are 16 starters to play everyday, 7 Pitchers and 9 Batters. The starting batters have to fit in these catagories:

1-C Catcher
1-CI Corner Infielder (1st or 3rd)
1-MI Middle Infielder (2nd or SS)
2-IF Infielders (any infielder)
3-OF Outfielders (any outfielder)
1-DH Designated Hitter (any batter).

Protections:

Each year a list of four (4) protected players will be sent to commissioner of the league for each team. The due date of the protection list will be at the discression of the commissioner, but a 2 week notice will be given league-wide or posted on the messageboard.

After protection lists are due and before the draft, each expansion team will draft 2 batters and 2 pitchers from the pool of remaining players that were on the rosters of the existing franchises the previous year. These four players will be the protected players for the expansion teams.

Draft:

The proceedure for draft will be announced prior to the draft. The draft will be a snake-style draft held on the Yahoo!, or other, online software. The draft order will be in reverse order of finish (based on overall head-to-head record), in the regular season, with the defending champion drafting last in the first non-keeper round. No in-draft trades will be allowed. In-Season trading rules regarding commissioner-waiting periods will be waived for this exception.

Draft Method #1: New for the 2005 Draft, every team will draft their keepers with the first four (4) picks in the draft. Then the draft will continue as normal on Yahoo in snake style. If an owner accidentially chooses another team's keepers, then the other team will draft one of the team's keepers and trade after the draft. In-Season trading rules regarding President-waiting periods will be waived for this exception.

Draft Method #2: Protected players will be ineligable for the draft. If during the draft, these players are accidentally drafted by another team, the team that drafted the player will forfeit that draft pick. Protected players will be added to their respective teams before the beginning of the season and after the computerized draft.

Season:

Puck's World Fantasy Baseball League usually plays an abbreviated schedule which leads to the playoffs ending in August. For a league of six (6) or more, each week all the teams will be paired up according to the schedule into a head to head match. Schedule length will vary from year to year depending on the number of teams. The team with the most points at the end of the week (Sunday) will win the week and be awarded a win. In case of a tie, both teams will be awarded a tie which will be treated as half a win for both teams. The Standings will be shown as follows:

Overall Wins - Overall Loses (Division Wins - Division Loses) Overall Fantasy Points

Example: Someone with 5 wins, 2 of those being division wins, and 6 losses, 4 of those being division losses and has 1032.5 fantasy points would look like this:

Team Name 5-6(2-4) 1032.5

In the case that a team may drop from the league, during the season, and a suitable replacement cannot be attained, then matchups that included that team will become a bye week. The current teams that are still active will dump the score for the week into a Pool. All the scores in the pool will be ranked at the end of the season with the top HALF being awarded a win for that bye week and the bottom half being awarded a loss. If there is a TIE on the line (ie 11 and 12 have the same points out of 22 scores) then both teams will be awarded a tie.

If the league's membership drops below 8, the commissioner of the league has the power to disregard head-to-head matchups in favor of a season long point race. Playoff format and participation will be at the discression of the commissioner.

Trading:

The League President has the right overrule any trade that he feels is detrimental to the competitiveness of this league.

From the end of the draft to the trading deadline, trading will be done with the online software and only player for player(s) trades are allowed.

New in 2005, there will be a "soft" trading deadline. This means, once a team is eliminated from playoff contention, they are not allowed to trade with a team(s) still in the playoff race. This includes trading within a division, when a team is eliminated from division contention. Once a division has been clinched, trading can resume within that division as normal under these rules regarding if they are either in or out of playoff contention. The President of the league will veto any trade that is made between an eliminated team and a contending team.

Off-season trading will be player for player(s) only. One week prior to the protection date, trading will be suspended until the updated rosters are posted on the PWFBL website, or message board. Rules regarding trades and vetoes will follow the same process as In-Season trading.

Playoffs:

The playoffs begin the day after the trade deadline with the top seeds given to the division winners. The wild cards will be given to the next highest ranked teams. Fantasy Points will be rounded to the nearest whole fantasy point when deciding tiebreakers. If there are three divisions, the two top placed division winners will receive first round byes.

Rosters will be frozen at the trading deadline. No waiver or free agent acquisitions will be allowed.

Division leaders are based on Division Record FIRST, then Overall Record, Head to Head Record, Division Fantasy Points, Overall Fantasy Points, Division Daily Record, Overall Daily Record, President's Discression.

Wild Cards will go to the best teams based on Overall Record, Overall Fantasy Points, Head to Head, Overall Daily Record, President's Discression

Probation and other Penalties:

If any owner breaks a rule or displays an unsportsmenlike behavior that threatens the fun or competitiveness of the league, the commissioner has the right to levy a penalty onto an owner. The penalty shall fit the crime and could range (but not limited to) from losing specific managerial rights, to probation, or even expulsion.

Probation is the loss of rights to certain aspects of the league and can ultimately lead to expulsion. During a probationary period, typically one full fantasy season, an owner loses all representative rights for that time period. Owners on probation are also not allowed to vote in official league business. Probations will come to term on Dec 1st, at which point the commissioner must either reinstate the owner, or call for a vote of Expulsion.

Penalties, including Probations, can be appealed to the PWFSI Sky Box, who can reverse the commissioner's ruling if they (Sky Box) find the penalty unjustified or unfair. Owners directly involved in the case are not allowed to vote on the issue. A majority vote is needed to overturn a penalty enforced by the commissioner.

All owners that are in their first year of PWFBL, or are returning from an absence 6 months or greater are automatically placed on probation for a full year. No probationary period can exceed two (2) calendar years.

Expulsion
If an owner is placed on probation for a certain behavior and continues to exhibit that behavior, the commissioner will be in a position to call for a vote for expulsion. The commissioner must, in detail, explain the behavior and actions taken to try to resolve the issue up to that point. An impeached owner will be allowed to defend themself in a timely matter before the voting begins. The owner will be forced to leave the league if a majority is reached in the vote.

In extreme cases, the commissioner may call for a league-wide vote for immediate expulsion when he feels that the league's integrity is in question. The owner(s) involved in the case shall not be allowed to vote in this rare occasion. The owner will have a chance to state his case before expulsion vote takes place. A three-fourths vote (9 votes) is needed to expel an owner using this method.

During the offseason, the commissioner may "sell" a franchise to another person without a vote. This shall only be used if the owner is deemed "inactive" and unresponsive to emails and/or inactive on the league messageboard. This power is completely at the discression of the commissioner.