Playoff Rules:

Should Post-season rule I.4 be restated as follows?

Current: A continuing pitching rotation must be used during post-season play. A rotation of 2, 3 or 4 pitchers may be used. The length of the rotation may change for each series. However, the rotation may not restart at the beginning of each series.

Proposed: Starting pitchers must have at least three days of rest between postseason starts. A day of rest is accumulated by any of the following events:

A game that the starting pitcher does not pitch;
A travel day within a series;
A travel day between one series and the next;
When a series ends in fewer than the maximum number of games, a day off for each game that is played less than the maximum.

For example, in the event that an LCS ends in 6 games, the Game 6 starter would have two days’ rest before the World Series and would be eligible to start in Game 2 of the World Series, provided the other usage requirements are met. Results: Yes, 17-1.

Should the following postseason usage rule be added for starting pitchers?

Proposed: No starting pitchers may start more than six games in a postseason. Results: No, 11-7.

Should the postseason usage rule for relief pitchers be raised from 17% of actual innings pitched (for an entire postseason) to 22% of actual innings pitched, up to a maximum of 20 innings pitched? This would apply only to pitchers used exclusively as relievers in the postseason. Results: Yes, 13-6.

Should the following postseason usage rule be added for position players?

Proposed: Any position player with 500 or more actual at bats does not need to be rested during the postseason. Results: Yes, 16-3.

Max roster size and salary cap

Should a maximum roster size of 40 players, excluding draft picks, be imposed on teams on the Roster Lockdown Date each December 31? Results: No, 11-8.

If a 40-man roster limit is imposed, should an additional 10-player minor league roster be allowed, where players who still have rookie status (less than 130 AB and 50 IP) can be placed? Results: Yes, 11-8, but this is moot.

If a 40-man roster limit is NOT imposed, should the salary cap be calculated each year based only the top 40 salaries on each team, so that the salary cap will not be inflated by the mere presence of large numbers of players on some rosters?. Results: Yes, 11-8.

Should a rule be added to limit the number of players who did not play in the Majors in the previous season that may be carried on a team’s roster? Specifically, should teams be limited to carrying no more than ten players at the Roster Lockdown Date who did not play in the majors during the previous season? Results: Yes, 10-8.

Should the salary cap formula be changed from the present system to the following:

Set the cap for the 2006 season arbitrarily at a number to be determined below.
For future years, the cap in Year X+1 is set as follows:

Salary cap in Year X times

Total RFBA Salaries for first 40 players on each roster in Year X +1 divided by

Total RFBA Salaries for first 40 players on each roster in Year X

In other words, increase the salary cap each year by exactly the ratio of next year’s salaries to this year’s salaries. Results: No, 10-8.

If the above rule is accepted, what should the arbitrary salary cap be for the 2006 season?

$80 million

$90 million

$100 million

$110 million Results: 1, 3, 9 and 5, respectively, but this is moot.

Draft picks and free agents:

Teams with high winning percentages are currently not granted first (or first and second) round draft picks. Should this rule amended so that no first and second round draft picks are taken away from high-winning-percentage teams? (This would not affect the granting of supplemental picks to low-winning-percentage teams.) Results: Yes, 13-6.

Should the waiver wire procedures be amended so that any players that are picked up must be dropped at the end of the next playing season and placed back into the draft pool? Results: No, 15-4.

Player Usage:

Instead of the sliding scale currently used for player usage, where different kinds of players are limited to 110%, 115% or 120% of their actual playing time, should the limit be a flat 110% for all players? Results: Yes, 11-8.