KEEPERS
Each Red-Eye team is eligible to select up to three players from its off-season roster to keep for the following season. These keepers will be selected on or before the keeper deadline designated by the commissioner. Each keeper will be slotted into his respective team's draft based on the round in which he was drafted the year before.* If an owner has multiple keeper players ranked in the top rounds, those players can be slotted in rounds 1 through 3 in order of their respective, preseason, average draft rankings for H2H leagues.
*The only exceptions to this rule are...
1) Players with slots from the same round. This could occur in the event of a trade. In this case, the two players would be slotted into sequential rounds with the higher CBS H2H ranked player allotted in the higher round.
2) Elite players (usually 1st or 2nd rounders) who were slotted in a lower round the previous year due to the presence of other elite players on the same roster. For example, David Wright slotted as a 2nd rounder for Pagreeba last year due to the presence of Ryan Howard, but he would be slotted as a 1st rounder next year unless his team again decides to keep a higher-ranked player.
3) Free agent keepers (see below)
KEEPER CLOCK
Any player drafted may be kept in that same slot for up to two drafts after he is initially selected. If a team wishes to retain a player after those two consecutive drafts, the player's new slot will be determined according to the average CBS Head-to-Head league rankings the following season. If an owner so chooses, players drafted between rounds 1 and 3 (the traditional keeper spots for top players) may also be subjected to a new CBS ranking slot after two consecutive drafts as a keeper.
Any player traded during the regular season or the off-season retains both his drafted slot status and his keeper "clock." That means that the new owner must subject his newly acquired players to the CBS rankings on the same time schedule as the prior owner would have.
FREE AGENT KEEPERS
Any player who is signed as a free agent by August 15th is also eligible to be a keeper and will be slotted in the 16th round for the next year's draft. Subsequent FA keepers will be slotted in the 17th and 18th rounds. The round order for multiple FA keepers will be based, once again, on the CBS average draft rankings.
If a player drafted after the 16th round is released during the regular season, he will be considered a free agent under the above policy, thereby losing the advantage of his drafted position if re-signed.
KEEPER TRADES
During the regular season, teams may trade both players and future draft picks. The regular season trade deadline will be August 15th. During the league playoffs, teams cannot trade players or draft picks. Teams may sign free agents during the playoffs, but may not designate those players as future keepers.
After the playoffs, off-season rosters are frozen and the draft order is determined by Jason's "ping pong balls" method for the following season. Before keepers are designated, owners may trade anyone on their rosters and any draft picks. After keepers are designated, roster sizes are reduced, and only keepers and draft picks are considered tradeable properties.
If an owner wants to keep three top-ranked players for the following season, he must not trade his top three picks or risk forfeiting the chance to keep one of the three.
If an owner wishes to keep a player from rounds 4-23, he may not trade the draft slot that corresponds to that player for the next year. Any mistakes in this regard will not result in the loss of a keeper, but may require a penalty in which the owner has to slot the player a round higher than anticipated.
Owners are expected to publicly report any agreements regarding off-season trades or draft picks on the message board. These trades will be subject to the standard league voting policy of two days. Any agreement between two owners is not valid unless also approved by the league and the commissioner's office.