DV DRAFT RULES CLARIFICATION

SLFBLers, I’ve been asked by the Commish to clarify our rules about the DV draft and trading of DV picks. The origin of the rules goes all the way back to 2004 (see Amendment IX). Below I highlight the language in the rules and explain using current examples. However, the most important takeaway from the following is this: when you trade a DV draft choice, you also lose a protected spot on your DV squad going into the relevant draft.

Keep in mind that the size of the DV squad was reduced from 15 to 12 with Amendment XII initiated for the 2017 season. Also keep in mind that at the end of any draft, your M-L squad can have a maximum of 25 players and the DV squad can have a maximum of 12 players (not including players on IR). If you have questions about any of this, please put them in the comments on this post.

Amendment IX, Section A1 says: “The number of DV rounds a team can participate in will be equal to the maximum number of players allowed on a DV roster minus the number of DV players protected.” 

EXAMPLE: the Panthers protected 10 DV players for the 2021 draft thus they can participate in the first 2 rounds of the DV draft: 12 players max allowed on DV roster – 10 DV players protected = first 2 rounds in DV draft Panthers will draft in.

Amendment IX, Section A2 says: “The maximum number of DV players a team can protect will be equal to the maximum number of players allowed on a DV roster minus the lowest round DV draft pick traded.”

EXAMPLE 1: the Chopp Sticks traded their 2021 1st round DV pick to the Bad News Bears who now own the rights to that draft pick. The Chopp Sticks could have protected 11 DV players maximum for the 2021 DV draft. Had they protected 11 DV players, the Chopp Sticks would have had no draft picks in the 2021 DV draft: 12 players max allowed on DV roster – 1 (1st round DV pick) = 11 DV players max they could protect.

EXAMPLE 2: The Hit Men traded their 2021 2nd round DV pick to JoJo’s PugBoyz who now own the rights to that draft pick. The Hit Men could only protect 10 DV players maximum for the 2021 DV draft: 12 players max allowed on DV roster – 2 (2nd round DV pick) = 10 DV players max they could protect.

Amendment IX, Section B1 says: “In the event that teams trade DV draft picks, they will be treated in the same manner as those draft picks traded in the MLB draft.” [In other words, when you trade a draft pick in the major league draft, you lose that pick and don’t magically get an extra pick at the end of the draft. Same with trading a DV pick—when you trade a DV pick, you do not get an extra pick at the end of the draft. Trading any pick means your team will have 1 less draft pick.]

EXAMPLE 1: the Chopp Sticks traded their 2021 1st round DV pick to the Bad News Bears who now own the rights to that draft pick. The Chopp Sticks protected 10 DV players. Since they traded their 1st round DV pick, they have no draft picks in the 1st round of the DV draft; however, since they protected 10 DV players, the Chopp Sticks have a 2nd round DV pick: 12 players max allowed on DV roster – 10 DV players protected – 1st round pick traded = 1 total DV draft pick (in the 2nd round). Had they protected 9 DV players they would have had 2 total picks (no 1st round pick, but a 2nd & 3rd round pick).

EXAMPLE 2. In the above example, the Bad News Bears have an extra 2021 1st round DV pick. This extra pick does not impact how many DV players the Bears could protect for the 2021 DV draft. They decided to protect 9 DV players. Thus they have 4 total DV draft picks: 3 of their own (12 players max allowed on a DV roster – 9 DV players protected by Bears) in the first 3 rounds plus they own the Chopp Sticks 1st round DV pick.

EXAMPLE 3: The Hit Men traded their 2021 2nd round DV pick to JoJo’s PugBoyz who now own the rights to that draft pick. Since the Hit Men protected 10 DV players for the 2021 DV draft, they have a 1st round DV pick but do not have a 2nd round DV pick.