Lineups

Team lineups are submitted for a week of games at a time.  The commissioner's office will set a deadline for each week's lineup changes.  If no lineup is submitted, or is submitted late, the team will retain the same lineup from the previous week.  See Season Schedule for more details on how the lineup is used and Schedules and Deadlines for information on the submission deadlines.

Hitters

The first part of the lineup is the starting batting order.  A team must name nine players to start and list the order in which they will hit.  This includes eight position players and a designated hitter.  In addition to the order, lineups will include the position at which the player occupies.  Only hitters identified by their primary or secondary position can be used in that position.  As an example, only a player listed with a primary or secondary position of third base may be used as a starting third baseman. His place may be filled by a reserve if he does not actually play in that day's game (see below).

Any player may be used as a designated hitter.  Players who are identified only as designated hitters in the master player list may not be used in any other position unless they meet the criteria listed in the Positions section.

As described in Season Schedule, a player's statistics for major league game X will be used for fantasy game X.  If he does not play in that game, two things can happen.  First, a reserve off the bench may be used to fill his place.  Reserves are submitted in the order in which they should appear in the game.  Starting with the first reserve, each sub is checked to see if he played in game X and if his primary or secondary position fills the spot in question.  If so, that player is inserted into the lineup for that game.  This is at the same position in the order as the listed starter.  Should there be no valid substitutions, the spot is filled by the Benchwarmer Batter with the following statistics: 0 for 5, no RBI, no walks, no SB, 2 errors. (If the Benchwarmer fills the DH role, there will be no errors).

Exception: Actually, the DH is always the first position substitute.  If the owner's starting position player is out, and the listed DH is eligible to play at that position (primary or secondary position), then the DH will fill that role.  However, the batting order will not change.  The reserve selected as the new DH will occupy the spot in the batting order vacated by the missing starter.  Once all the field position players are filled, the highest remaining reserve will fill the DH spot, if necessary.

Pitchers

Starters

Pitchers are handled differently, since it is very unlikely that they will pitch in the actual corresponding games between the major league and the fantasy seasons.  As soon as the starter is placed in the rotation, he begins to accumulate starts in a pool or, rather, a queue.  When his turn in the rotation comes up, the oldest start in the queue will be used for that fantasy game and will be removed from the queue.  Starts will accumulate as long as the pitcher is in the starting rotation up to a maximum of three - at which time the oldest one is discarded and never used.  If the starter is removed from the rotation, the queue is emptied until he is placed back in the rotation.

• Only starts will be used while a pitcher is in the rotation.  No relief appearances will be used for the queue.
• Spot starters will only accumulate one start.  Thus, their latest available start will always be the one used.
• Starting Pitchers will begin accumulating starts beginning with Major League Game 1.

Rotation

Owners specify a starting rotation of five pitchers.  A pitcher is used in a game if a) it is his turn in the rotation and b) he has a game in the queue to use.  In the situation where at the start of the season, or if he is placed into the rotation mid-season, and does not have a qualifying game, then the next pitcher in the order with a qualifying game will pitch in his place. This is contingent on the fact that he has not pitched in the previous 4 games (see below).  If none of the other pitchers in the rotation qualify to pitch, then the spot starters are taken, in order, to fill the start, provided they have a qualifying game. 

The spot starters are not rotated.  For example, a spot starter is needed in game 32.  The first spot starter qualifies and is used.  Assume that the spot starters do not change and the next spot start is needed in game 63.  Again, the first in the order is checked first, despite the fact that he was the last spot starter to be used.

If no starters qualify for the game, a Pinesitter Pitcher fills in with the following line score: 3 IP, 5 ER, 0 K.

Rest Between Starts

Starting pitchers must rest for four fantasy games between starts. If a pitcher's turn in the rotation comes due and he is unable to pitch - due either to no available starts or not enough rest - he is skipped until the next normal turn for his rotation spot (unless he starts due to higher-ranked starters missing a turn as described above).  Thus, it makes little sense to reorder a rotation, unless the owner is inserting new starters and moving others DOWN the list.  Otherwise, they will need to sit out a start. (Owners still need to be careful about when they make that change - in certain weeks, even moving a pitcher down in the rotation will cause him to miss a start.)

Relief Pitchers

This is significantly more complicated, if that's possible, than the starting pitching.  Again, this is largely due to the fact that the need for relief pitching will generally not correspond with real major league game appearances.

Rather than maintain a queue of games for relief pitchers, their performance will be collected on a sliding scale of six games.  That is, games #1-6 will be compiled for fantasy game #1.  Games #2-7 will be compiled for fantasy game #2, and so on.

Only actual relief appearances will count.  No starts will be included in a relief pitcher's pool of games.
The actual use of these games will be described in more detail below in Scoring.