The RAB 140™

The following a guest entry from regular commenters tommiesmithjohncarlos and The Honorable Congressman Mondesi. If you’re involved in one of our many fantasy baseball leagues, I suggest you read up…

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the RAB 140™!

You are part of the inaugural season of one of the most interesting and exciting ventures in all of fantasy sports.  The RAB 140™ is a system of 7 linked, tiered permanent fantasy baseball leagues of 20 teams each, with year-over-year keepers and team promotion/relegation.

Most of you are fantasy regulars, so there’s no need to go over basics.  Please remember to read the roster rules and the scoring setup on your league page (all leagues’ settings are the same). Instead, let’s discuss the specifics of the tiers and the relegation and keeper formats.

Leagues of The RAB 140™

There are seven tiered leagues in the system.

1.) The RAB Premier League™
2.) The RAB Championship League™
3.) The RAB Baseball League One™
4.) The RAB Baseball League Two™
5.) The RAB Conference American League™
6.) The RAB Conference North League™
7.) The RAB Conference South League™

Relegation

All seven leagues play head-to-head seasons.  At the end of each year’s play, the 20 teams in each league are ranked from #1 through #20, based on their final standings (including playoff victories).

The top four teams in Tiers 2-7 (i.e., the league champion, runner up, and two semifinalists) are promoted to the tier above the one they played in that season.

The bottom four teams in Tiers 1-6 are relegated to the tier below the one they played in that season.

The middle 12 teams in each Tier remain where they are.

Keepers

At the conclusion of the fantasy year, all team rosters for all 140 teams in The RAB 140™ will be frozen.  At a date (to be determined in 2011), once the new team/league arrangements (post-relegation and promotion) have been announced in accordance with the above relegation structure, all teams will decide on THREE (3) players that they would like to keep on their roster for the new season.

These three keepers will be the team’s first three draft selections in the new season’s draft.  If a team decides to have only one keeper, that keeper will be the team’s 1st round pick; if a team decides to have only two keepers, those keepers will be the team’s 1st and 2nd round picks.

Since the promotion and relegation system will result in some player overlap (i.e., a player being owned on two different teams in the same league), teams will choose their keepers in an ordered First-Second-Third-Fourth priority structure as follows:

1.) The RAB Premier League™
FIRST PRIORITY: The top 16 teams
SECOND PRIORITY: The 4 teams promoted from The RAB Championship League™

2.) The RAB Championship League™
3.) The RAB Baseball League One™
4.) The RAB Baseball League Two™
5.) The RAB Conference American League™
6.) The RAB Conference North League™
FIRST PRIORITY: The four teams relegated (demoted) from a higher league
SECOND PRIORITY: The #1 team promoted from a lower league
THIRD PRIORITY: The middle 12 teams (league holdovers)
FOURTH PRIORITY: The #2, #3, and #4 teams promoted from a lower league

7.) The RAB Conference South League™
FIRST PRIORITY: The four teams relegated (demoted) from The RAB
Conference North League™
SECOND PRIORITY: The sixteen league holdovers

Once a player in selected as a keeper on one team, he cannot be a keeper for another team.

Important note: similar to how there will be some players in a given league who are owned by two or three teams, there will also be some players in a league who are owned by nobody.  After the promotion/relegation is complete, but before teams select their keepers, all team owners will be provided with a list of noteworthy players in their league who are unowned and thus draft eligible by default.  Owners should use this information wisely; it may be beneficial to choose fewer (or no) keepers in order to retain a higher draft slot to select certain players you have an eye on.

After the selection of keepers is complete, all non-retained players are returned to the draft pool.

That should cover it for now; we’ll continue to work out any kinks as they arise (with your input, of course). Welcome aboard, and happy drafting!