Free Agency Manager

The CBA Commissioner will appoint an individual to act as Free Agent Manager for the league. The FA Manager will be responsible for:

• Keeping up with the franchise player lists for each team
• Correcting loopholes and/or omissions in the free agency rules

Player Classifications 

For the purpose of the free agency system, each player in the league will fall into one of three categories:

• Eligible
• Exempt
• Franchise

Eligible & Exempt Players 

A player is considered eligible for free agency once he has completed his 5^th official major league season. For purposes of this system, an official season is defined as follows:

• Position Players:       150 At Bats
• Pitchers:                  55 Innings Pitched, or 15 Appearances

Any player that does not meet the eligibility requirements is considered to be an “exempt player” until the completion of their 5^th official season.

If unprotected (see “franchise players” below), a player will be eligible for the free agent draft immediately following the conclusion of his 5^th official season. For example, an unprotected player who completes his 5^th official season in 2002 will be eligible for the free agent draft that occurs between the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

Franchise Players

Each team may designate certain players on its roster as franchise players. A franchise player is a player whose is so valuable to a team that he has been "protected" by that team. As long as a player keeps his franchise designation, he is ineligible for free agency. 

Each team can designate up to 8 franchise players. However, to ensure competitive balance and prevent one team from hoarding the best hitters or pitchers, franchise designations are limited to the following classifications:

• 4 positional players
• 4 pitchers

Any moves/changes of Franchise Players must be reported to both the FA Manager, & the Commissioner via email or under the FP Section of the Message Board.

Any blatant abuse of the franchise designation system will result in an owner losing 1 franchise player slot for a 1-year period.

Replacing Franchise Players

As an owner evaluates the value of each player on his team, he may determine that a franchise player needs replacement. In order to accomplish this, the owner must be aware of the following rules that apply to this process:

• A franchise player can only be named or replaced during the period stretching from the end of the free agent draft up to 24 hours after the trading deadline of the following season. [Trade deadline is always midnight EST 31 Jul, so FP changes can occur up to midnight Aug 1^st (game time)].
• Like any other unprotected player, a replaced franchise player will be eligible for the free agent draft at the end of the season. (Providing he meets FA criteria)
• A player who has been replaced as a franchise player is prohibited from being renamed as a franchise player for the same team
• Any franchise player who retires at the end of the season may be replaced with another player prior to the free agent draft

Free Agency & the Free Agent Draft 

When a player reaches eligibility and becomes a free agent, he is entered into a pool of candidates for the free agent draft. The free agent draft is a selection process by which teams can select players from other teams who they feel will make an impact upon their roster. 

The draft will consist of two rounds & will take place via a Live Draft over 2 evenings. 

The selection order of both rounds will be determined based on the record of a team during the previous regular season, with the team with the worst record picking first and ties broken based on division record, and then by the RS rating.

Eligible Free Agents will be posted on the website prior to the draft.

This list will be determined using the Pro Years report in H.H. Edit, and will be prepared by the FA Manager. Owners will then be required to prepare and submit a list of pullbacks in order of preference. (This list will help the Commissioner during the draft should an owner be unable to attend, and therefore is mandatory by all owners) 

No team is allowed to lose more than three players in the free agent draft.

When a team has a player selected by another team, he may pullback a player after the first selection, and 1 after the second selection (this is redundant actually, since once you lose a 3rd player, your team is locked) from his list of eligible Free Agents. An owner may opt to select his own player during the draft. This not only prevents another team from selecting him, but it also counts as one of the two players that the team can lose in the draft

New Owners

In an effort towards fairness, a new owner will be given a 48 hour period in which to evaluate his team and re-designate franchise players. None of the restrictions on replacing franchise players will apply in this special circumstance.

***ABUSE OF THE FREE AGENT SYSTEM***

If other instances arise where it appears an owner is attempting to "use" the Franchise Player system to an unfair advantage, or if an owner finds a loophole and doesn't bring it to the Commissioners attention immediately, that owner will be expelled from the league and the rules will be modified to prevent further abuse of this type.