Official Rulebook

1 The Game

1.01 What Wallop Is

Wallop is a fantasy baseball game built around one thing: the home run. You draft six MLB hitters, manage a small roster, and score points every time one of your players goes deep. No pitching staffs, no batting averages, no waiver-wire spreadsheets. Just the most exciting play in baseball, stretched across seven months with your friends.

1.02 The Season

A Wallop season runs from MLB Opening Day through the final out of the World Series. The regular season builds a foundation; the postseason can blow it wide open. Every team stays in contention until the last pitch of October.

1.03 What Counts

Only home runs. A solo shot to right field counts the same as a towering blast to center. Grand slams, walk-offs, and postseason homers are worth more — but the currency is always the home run. Nothing else scores points.

2 Leagues

2.01 League Size

A Wallop league has between 3 and 10 teams. There are no head-to-head matchups, so odd numbers work just as well as even. Eight to ten teams is the sweet spot for competitive balance.

2.02 Creating a League

Any registered user can create a league. The creator becomes the league's commissioner. Creating a league requires only a name — the draft date and other settings can be configured later.

2.03 The Commissioner

The commissioner is the league's organizer. They invite members, set the draft date, configure draft settings, and can pause or resume the draft if needed. Commissioners also have the authority to resolve disputes within their league (see Section 10).

2.04 League Activation

Scoring visibility is activated when the commissioner pays the league fee: $26 for the 2026 season. The price is locked to the league's founding year and never increases for that league.

Payment can happen at any time — before the draft, after the draft, even mid-season. It does not gate any game mechanics. Without payment, all gameplay works normally (drafting, roster moves, waivers), but points and standings are hidden. Home runs still accumulate behind the scenes and light up retroactively when the commissioner pays.

2.05 Joining a League

Players join a league through an invite link or a direct email invitation from the commissioner. Each player names their team upon joining.

3 Rosters

3.01 Roster Composition

Each team carries six players in three slot types:

3.02 Active Slots

During the regular season, only players in Active slots score points. Managers choose which four of their five non-DL players are active on any given day.

3.03 Bench Slot

The Bench player does not score points but can be freely swapped with any Active player. Use it for off-day coverage, slumping hitters, or matchup decisions.

3.04 The DL Slot

The DL (Disabled List) is a strategic lockable bench, not tied to real-world injuries. It adds a layer of roster strategy that rewards conviction.

(b) Before the first game of the season, all roster slots — including the DL — are freely rearrangeable. The 15-day lock only takes effect when a player is moved into DL after the season has started.

3.05 Player Eligibility

Any MLB player on a 40-man roster is eligible to be drafted or claimed. There are no position restrictions — the only stat that matters is home runs.

4 Scoring

4.01 Regular Season Scoring

4.02 All-Star Game Scoring

During All-Star week, all six roster slots become active — every player scores regardless of slot assignment. No lineup management is needed.

(a) Home runs in the All-Star Game are worth 2 points (double regular value). An All-Star grand slam is worth 5 points (2 base + 3 bonus).

(b) If the Home Run Derby winner is on your roster, you receive a 4-point bonus. This is a one-time award applied when the Derby concludes.

4.03 Postseason Scoring

In the postseason, all six roster slots activate and home run values escalate by round:

5 The Draft

5.01 Draft Format

Wallop uses a snake draft with 6 rounds. In odd rounds, picks go from first to last; in even rounds, the order reverses. This balances early-pick advantage across the draft.

5.02 Draft Order

For a league's first season, draft order is randomized. In subsequent seasons, draft order follows reverse standings — last place picks first.

5.03 Draft Modes

The commissioner chooses one of two draft modes when configuring the draft:

Slow Draft — Managers take turns picking one player at a time, in snake order. Each pick has a timer (hours, not minutes), so managers don't need to be online at the same time. When it's your turn, you get an email. A typical slow draft takes 1-2 days. See 5.05-5.07 for clock, quiet hours, and auto-pick rules.

Rapid-Fire — Every manager ranks players before the draft. When the commissioner starts it, all picks resolve instantly using everyone's rankings. The draft completes in seconds. See 5.08 for details.

5.04 Pre-Draft Rankings

Before the draft begins, managers can rank players in order of preference. Rankings are private — no one else can see your list.

(a) In a Slow Draft, rankings are optional. If you have rankings set and the pick timer expires, the system will draft your highest-ranked available player instead of picking randomly (see 5.07). Rankings also appear as a sort option in the draft picker.

(b) In a Rapid-Fire draft, rankings are required. Every manager must rank enough players to cover all possible picks before the commissioner can start the draft.

5.05 Slow Draft: The Clock

Each pick has a timer. The commissioner chooses from presets when configuring the draft:

The commissioner can also enable timer compression, which reduces time per pick in later rounds: rounds 3-4 get 75% of the base timer, rounds 5-6 get 50%. Later rounds need less deliberation — the top players are already off the board.

5.06 Slow Draft: Quiet Hours

The commissioner sets a daily window (default: 11 PM - 8 AM) when the draft timer freezes. Picks are still allowed during quiet hours — the clock just doesn't run. If you're up at 2 AM and want to make your pick, go for it.

5.07 Slow Draft: Auto-Pick

If the timer expires, the system checks whether you have pre-draft rankings set. If you do, it drafts your highest-ranked available player. If you don't, it selects from the top 5 available players by projected home run production and randomly picks one. The randomness is intentional — auto-pick without rankings gives you a decent player, not the optimal one. There's a real cost to missing your pick without a backup plan.

(a) After 2 consecutive auto-picks for the same manager, the system drafts all of their remaining picks immediately (best available, no randomness penalty). This prevents a single disengaged manager from holding the entire league hostage.

5.08 Rapid-Fire Draft

In a rapid-fire draft, all picks resolve at once. The system walks through the snake order pick by pick, and for each pick selects that manager's highest-ranked player who hasn't already been taken. Because earlier picks consume players from later managers' lists, ranking depth matters — rank well beyond your 6 roster spots.

The commissioner can start a rapid-fire draft only after every manager has submitted enough rankings. Bot teams draft automatically using projections. Once started, the result is final — there are no timers, pauses, or undos.

5.09 Commissioner Draft Controls

In a slow draft, the commissioner can pause and resume the draft at any time (e.g., for technical issues) and undo the most recent pick on behalf of a manager (e.g., an obvious misclick). These controls are not available in rapid-fire mode.

6 Lineup Management

6.01 Setting Your Lineup

After the draft, managers assign their six players to slots: 4 Active, 1 Bench, 1 DL. The daily decision is which four of your five non-DL players are in the Active slots.

6.02 Daily Lock

The lineup for a given day locks when the first MLB game of that day starts. After lock, the day's lineup cannot be changed.

6.03 Carry-Forward Rule

If you don't set a lineup for a given day, the previous day's lineup carries forward automatically. You're never penalized for missing a day — last week's lineup keeps working until you change it.

6.04 Weekly Pre-Setting

After Monday waiver processing, managers can pre-set different lineups for each day of the upcoming week. This lets you plan around off-days and matchups in one sitting rather than checking in daily.

6.05 All-Star Week

During All-Star week, all six roster slots activate. Every player scores regardless of slot assignment. No lineup management needed.

6.06 Postseason

In the postseason, all six roster slots activate and rosters are frozen (see Rule 7.06). There are no lineup decisions — your full roster rides.

7 The Waiver Wire

7.01 Processing Schedule

Waiver claims process every Monday at 4:00 AM ET. This gives managers the full weekend to evaluate who's hot, who's hurt, and who's available.

7.02 Claim Deadline

Claims must be submitted by Sunday at 11:59 PM PT (Monday 2:59 AM ET). After the deadline, no changes can be made to that week's claim lists.

7.03 Waiver Priority

Priority is determined by reverse standings — last place picks first. This helps struggling teams recover and keeps races tighter. If teams are tied, priority goes to the team that hasn't made a successful claim in the longest time.

7.04 How Claims Work

Managers submit two separate ranked lists each week:

(a) Players you want to acquire, ranked by preference. Your top choice is attempted first. If that player was already claimed by a higher-priority team, the system tries your second choice, and so on.

(b) Players from your roster you're willing to give up, ranked by preference. When one of your add claims succeeds, the first player on your drop list is released — regardless of which add succeeded. Fewer players on your drop list means fewer possible claims.

(c) Teams are processed in waiver priority order. Each team's top available add-list player is claimed, and their top drop-list player is released. After a successful claim, that team moves to the lowest priority for subsequent rounds of processing. The cycle repeats until no more claims can be fulfilled.

7.05 Pre-Season Waivers

If Mondays fall between the draft and Opening Day, waivers process on the normal schedule. Pre-season waiver priority follows reverse draft order (last pick gets first priority) since there are no standings yet.

7.06 The Waiver Freeze

Waivers freeze on the Monday closest to September 1, after that day's claims process. After the freeze:

• No further waiver claims are processed
• Rosters are locked for the stretch run and postseason
• DL moves and lineup changes are still allowed through the end of the regular season

This is your last chance to position your roster for October. Choose wisely — you're betting on which players' teams make the postseason.

8 Trades

8.01 Future Feature

Player-to-player trades between teams are a planned future feature. For the 2026 season, roster changes happen exclusively through the waiver wire. If a unique situation arises, the commissioner can make manual roster adjustments.

9 Tiebreakers

9.01 Standings Tiebreakers

If teams are tied in points at any point during the season:

1. Total home runs — Raw HR count, ignoring multipliers and bonuses
2. Most recent home run — The team whose player went deep most recently
3. Alphabetical — By team name (last resort)

9.02 Championship Tiebreakers

If teams are tied in points at the end of the season:

1. Postseason points — Who scored more in October
2. Total home runs — Raw HR count
3. Most recent home run
4. Co-champions declared — If all else is equal, the title is shared

10 Disputes

10.01 Commissioner Authority

The commissioner makes initial rulings on any situation not explicitly covered by these rules.

10.02 League Vote Override

Affected parties can appeal a commissioner's ruling. A majority vote of league members overrides the commissioner's decision.

10.03 Data Source

All scoring is based on MLB Statcast data. If a home run is later reversed (e.g., ruled a ground-rule double after review), the scoring is adjusted retroactively and affected teams are notified.