How to play Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues
Description
If you have ever played Yahoo! Sports free Fantasy Baseball, then you pretty much already know how to play our Pro Leagues game. The free and Pro Leagues games are virtually the same, except for the pricing…and the payouts! Here are few pointers to get you started playing Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues.
Resolution
If you've ever played Yahoo! Sports free Fantasy Baseball, then you're set, because the games are the same, except for the pricing. Here are few pointers to get you started playing Pro Leagues Fantasy Baseball.
Contents
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues is a skill contest where you compete against other users to win prizes based on your knowledge and skill in assembling and managing a fantasy baseball team. Your goal is to get the best team on the field each day, since the better your players perform in real-life games, the more value they bring to your fantasy team.
In addition to these instructions on how to play the game, please read the Official Rules of the contest and the Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues Additional Terms of Service. These two documents contain the terms you agree to if you choose to play the game, along with other important topics such as eligibility. If there’s a conflict between the Official Rules, the Additional Terms and/or these instructions, the Official Rules are the last word and will control.
Please see the Getting started in Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball article for the current season’s playing dates.
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues are offered in two different scoring types – Rotisserie and Head-to-Head. The exact length and format of your league’s playing season will depend on which scoring format your league uses.
In leagues that use Head-to-Head scoring, the 2013 North American professional major league baseball regular season (the “2013 Regular Season”) is divided into a series of 25 “Game Weeks.” In a Head-to-Head league, the first 22 Game Weeks of the 2013 Regular Season represent your fantasy regular season. Following the conclusion of the fantasy regular season, each Head-to-Head league will compete in a three-week fantasy playoff, conducted in connection with the real-life games played during Game Weeks 23-25. If your Head-to-Head league drafts after a Game Week is already underway, your league will not begin its season until the start of the following Game Week, and your league’s fantasy season will be shortened accordingly.
If you are playing in a Rotisserie league, your fantasy regular season runs through the last day of the 2013 Regular Season. Rotisserie Leagues do not include a playoff; the winner of a Rotisserie League is determined as of the end of the league’s fantasy regular season. In a Rotisserie League, if your league drafts after the real-life season is underway, your league will begin its fantasy season on the next day following your draft.
Refer to the Scoring section below for more information about how each scoring format works.
Whatever your league’s scoring format, please note that the real-life playoffs have no bearing on any of the leagues in this Contest. Statistics from real-life playoff games, and from any makeup games that may be played after the scheduled end date of the 2013 Regular Season, will not be included in the scoring for any league in this Contest.
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues are offered in two different scoring types – Rotisserie and Head-to-Head – and at two different competition levels each – PRO20 ($20 entry fee) and PRO100 ($100 entry fee). There is no limit to the number of Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues you are allowed to join.
All Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues are public leagues, and within each scoring type, all leagues use the same standard settings. Refer to the Scoring section below for more information.
In each league, you are competing against a group of fantasy fans from around the country. When you sign up, you will be randomly placed in a league with other managers who have chosen the same scoring type (Rotisserie or Head-to-Head), competition level (PRO20 or PRO100), and draft time.
While the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball free game can accommodate leagues of various sizes, all Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues have exactly twelve managers per league. A league will not conduct a draft or begin league play until all twelve slots have been filled. If your league does not fill up before its scheduled draft time, the league will be cancelled, and all managers will be issued a credit that may be applied towards another team in a different league. If you do not use your credit before Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues registration closes, you will be automatically issued a refund.
Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues use one of two scoring types: Rotisserie or Head-to-Head. Within each scoring type, all leagues use the same standard settings.
In a league that uses Rotisserie (Roto) scoring, each team in the league is ranked throughout the fantasy season from first to last in each of 10 statistical categories (each, a “Category”), based on cumulative stats to-date. Fantasy points are then assigned to each team based on their current ranking within each Category (“rotisserie points”). The team ranked first in the league in a category will receive 12 rotisserie points for that category, while the team ranked last in the league in that category will receive 1 rotisserie point. Your overall point total is calculated from the sum of your rotisserie points across all Categories. The league standings, in turn, are based on each team’s overall point total.
The most important thing to remember about rotisserie scoring is that rotisserie standings reflect cumulative season stats and not any single-day accumulation of stats. Please see Rotisserie (Roto) scoring explained and Default Public League Settings for more details.
In a league that uses Head-to-Head scoring, your team squares off in a weekly matchup against another manager's team to see who can compile the best stats across 10 statistical categories (each, a “Category”). Each Category counts as one game, with the win for each game going to the team that finishes the week with the best total in that Category for the week. So, if in a given week, your team scores more runs than your opponent’s, your team would be credited with a win in the runs Category. However, if your opponent ends the week with a better earned run average than your team, your team would be charged with a loss in the ERA Category. If both teams tie in a Category, both teams are credited with a tie. This weekly win-loss-tie total is added to your cumulative season record and is used to determine standings and playoff seedings.
Please see How scoring works in a Head-to-Head Baseball League and Default Public League Configurations in Fantasy Baseball for more details.
When you sign up for your Pro League, you select your desired draft date and time. Assuming all twelve manager slots have been filled before your scheduled draft date and time, your league will conduct a live online draft to determine the rosters for each team.
In a live online draft, each manager selects a squad in a real-time, round-robin online meeting with the other managers in the league. During his/her turn each round, the manager selects one player to add to his/her squad, until the team’s roster is full. The draft order reverses each round, so the manager that starts the first round ends the second, and the manager that ends the first round starts the second, and so on. Additional details and full instructions about how to participate in your league’s draft can be found in the Draft Overview section of the Help pages.
Once your draft is complete, your team will have a full roster of starting and bench players for the first game of the season. If you make no changes, your team’s initial day of games will be played with the players you chose as starting players in the league’s draft. Throughout the season, it’s up to you to make adjustments to your roster based on your knowledge and skill in evaluating how your players are performing in their real-life games. See the Benefits of editing your roster link for some considerations when deciding to start/bench players.
In addition to moving players between starting positions and bench slots, you can add and drop players from your team using one of the following methods:
In real life, professional baseball teams use waivers to make the rights to a player available to all the other teams in the league on an equitable basis. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball Pro Leagues features a comprehensive waiver system that builds upon the real-life waiver concept in a number of important ways. The waiver system ensures that all team managers have a fair chance to add players to their teams from among the pool of players that happen to be available at any point in the season. See the help article on Waivers for more details.
All players who are not currently on any team in your league, and who are not otherwise currently on waivers are considered free agents. Free agents may be acquired by any manager in the league on a first-come, first-served basis. See the help article on Free Agents for more information.
A trade consists of one team exchanging a player or players with another team in the same league. For more information on how to conduct trades, deadlines for trading activity, and the process by which trades are reviewed for fairness, see the help article on Trades. In particular, please keep in mind that each league has a trading deadline. Refer to the Transaction deadlines article for more information about making adjustments to your roster, including deadlines for when roster moves may be made. For the exact date, please see Trade Deadline in Fantasy Baseball.
Leagues that use rotisserie scoring do not offer any kind of fantasy playoffs. A rotisserie league’s fantasy season ends at the conclusion of the 2013 Regular Season. There are no standings tiebreakers in rotisserie leagues, so, for example, if at the conclusion of the fantasy season a tie exists atop the standings, co-champions will be declared.
Leagues that use Head-to-Head scoring use a 6-team, 3-week fantasy playoff (Game Weeks 23-25) directly following the fantasy regular season (Game Weeks 1-22), in order to determine the final standings.
Please see Head-to-Head Playoff Configurations in Fantasy Baseball for how matchups for the playoffs will be determined.
In the event of a standings tie during the regular season or a matchup tie during the playoffs, Yahoo! will use the following system to break the tie:
- For regular season standings ties, please see Regular season tiebreakers in Fantasy Baseball.
- For playoffs games that end in a tie, please see Playoff tiebreaker rules.
Now, play ball!
Additional Information
For complete game play directions and current topics, please either browse or search the Pro League section of the Fantasy Baseball system.