[IBL] important off-season information

[Sean Sweda]

The IBL off-season kicks off on December 1st.

DRAFT:
Teams with the current pick may announce their selections in the 2024 Draft from 12/1 through Friday 2/2.  Draft selections should be announced on the IBL mailing list.  The official draft order will be sent out shortly.  Unusable draft picks will be removed from the draft order after rosters are frozen on 2/1.  Draft picks beyond the 9th round will be added for teams that need them at the same time.  

TRADES:
Teams may make trades from 12/1 through Wednesday 1/31.  Trades should be reported in the same way as the regular season, via email to <transactions at ibl.org>.  If you are trading draft picks you should include the year of the pick(s) involved (e.g. "MCM#2 2024") to avoid potential confusion.  If the trade involves an upcoming pick in the draft then you should also announce it on the mailing list.

CUTS:
Over the weekend I will be removing all players from the current rosters that were under 75% or over 133% usage according to the final usage report.  If you wish to retain a player who did not make usage then you should file an appeal with the Commissioner ASAP.  Teams have until Friday 12/15 to send a list of additional cuts to <transactions at ibl.org>.  Note that it is not necessary to list players who were automatically removed due to usage.  If you change your mind about cuts before the deadline please re-submit the entire list.  After 12/15 there will be no cuts until the first post-draft transaction period in March.

ROSTERS:
At this point we are still waiting for Retrosheet to make their 2023 MLB event files available for download.  Once that data is available the IBL rosters will be updated for the 2024 season and the complete list of Free Agents will be available.  2025 draft picks will be added to rosters at the same time.  No transactions will be processed until after the rosters are updated.  Until then please include with your transactions the info necessary to identify player(s) on both 2023 and 2024 rosters (e.g. if they changed MLB teams: "ARI Varsho > TOR Varsho").

COMMISIONER’S EDIT
The discrepancies in the Constitution’s various eligibility rules, which in some cases are based on AB+BB and in other cases by PA/BF, can be addressed via Commissioner’s edit (1.2.2).  I am proposing a consistency edit (listed below) to standardize all eligibility rules to use PA/BF.  If any owner registers an objection to this edit it will be tabled until voted upon, and could not take effect any sooner than the 2025 season because carded eligibility must be settled prior to producing the FA list.  If no objections are received this edit will take effect when rosters are updated for 2024.

edit:
3.1.1 Carded Players
(change "30 at bats” to “30 plate appearances”)

3.3.5 Playoff Eligibility, Limitations, and Restrictions
(change “AB+BB” to PA/BF accordingly)