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News Archive

Just in case you might have missed anything throughout the season, important notes that appear on the home page or other messages will be posted here as well.  Other places for information include the rules and frequently asked questions.

3/18/08

  • The re-work of online version of the rules is complete.  Some of the internal links on the site may still take you to the old pages for a time, however.

3/14/08

  • Got a brand new team?  You need to pay for your team before picking a league to join (see below).  Please do it soon so that we can get the drafts underway.  They generally take a couple weeks to complete.
  • Important change - if you were an owner in 2007 or earlier and are picking up a new team, as of today you can now choose your league and pay later (this is the way it used to be and has now been fixed).
  • Team payments are due soon.
    • There is a link from any of your team pages to show what's due (for all your teams) or you can click here.
    • It's not an integrated process (maybe some year).  If you use PayPal, please make sure that on the second page you click both the "Payment Complete" button AND the PayPal button.
    • If you mail a check or money order, please also click "Payment Complete" so that I know it's coming and your payment record is updated with the pending payment.
  • If anyone is still interested in the Benchwarmer Benefactor option, the offer is open again through March 31.  If you've already paid for 2008 teams, we can deduct that earlier payment.

3/13/08

  • Benchwarmer Bash - We're down to 2 Teams: London from Beatleball (the last wild card team to make the field) vs. Gashouse, the league champ from Reality Bites.

3/11/08

  • Benchwarmer Bash - Semifinals Complete
  • Check out the change on the box scores for this round - at the end you'll find the raw scores that go into making the final game score.  This will continue in the regular season (and at some point we will probably break it down further).
  • Not much change this year that will affect game play - check out the Rule Changes for 2008.
  • Also available, you can view the pdf version of the 2008 BWB Rulebook

2/25/08

  • Reminder - After Week Zero (5 more transaction periods), your team's cash balance must be at or below 5 million.
  • Contract extensions are now open.  As always, BWB suggests that unless you need to sign extensions now (like to get your cash balance below 5 million), you really might want to wait until July to submit your extensions.  All it takes is a season-ending injury on April 1st and your extension is wasted money.

2/21/08

  • Here comes the Benchwarmer Bash - the final piece of the 2007 season.  Round One games should be posted in the next few days.
  • The delay on the Bash is partly due to a behind-the-scenes rewrite of how playoff results will be posted - to reduce the manual part of the process.  The primary benefit of this will be easier posting of playoff results at the end of the 2008 season.

2/9/08

  • Rosters and team cash balances are up to date after the Redistribution Draft.
  • Because of the delay in the draft results, the 2008 Weekly Schedule has been updated to allow for more transactions before the start of the season. (The season schedule of games will be posted later this winter).
  • Instead of weekly transaction dates, through February the deadlines are about 5 days apart.
  • You should also be able to begin setting your lineups to get a better picture of your team.

2/8/08

1/13/08

  • All cuts have been processed.  Remaining players on your rosters were paid their salaries.
  • New players on MLB 40-man rosters are now in the BWB player list.  No further additions until a player appears in a major league game.

1/11/08

  • There will be only a couple minor rule changes this year, but one item will be a procedure on how the BWB office will automatically handle missing the deadline for things like roster cuts, so that we don't keep pushing back.

1/2/08

  • Final Minor League Standings for 2007.
  • Player of the Year rankings are final.
  • Cash bonuses for Minor Leagues, POY, plus cash for Orphan teams will be credited overnight.
  • All positions are now final (the minor leaguers are now complete).  About 160 players were removed from the Player List.

12/22/07

  • Some of you have indicated interest in the Benchwarmer Benefactor.  Thanks for inquiring.  There's now a button on that page that will allow you to pay via credit card or PayPal account.  Contact me for other options.
  • Other payment for 2008 teams will probably be set up after January 1.

12/21/07

  • If you won your division or a post-season tournament in 2007, you've won a free team.
  • What orphan teams are available?

12/20/07

  • "Winter Meetings Trades" Week 2 are now posted.
  • NOTE: Trades are closed now until after the Redistribution Draft.

12/6/07

  • Planning for 2008 - Check out:
    • An offer to never pay for teams again
    • Additional free teams
    • Design a BWB logo or Advertisement
    • BWB Help Wanted

11/26/07

  • New salaries and positions for players in 2008 are now posted.
  • You can begin making carry over decisions for 2008.  The exact deadline will be later in December...to be set in the future.

11/20/07

  • Are you coming back to run your team in 2008?  Please let us know by November 30.
    • It's a little involved...but you need to be actually switch to each team you own in order to answer the question.
    • You'll find a link on your team roster page ("Are you coming back...") or you can click here

10/30/07

  • BWB Playoffs - Championship Week - We're done!!!
  • League Champions:
    • Hall of Fame: Leucadia Longboarders - Jeff Deeble
    • Shadowball: Las Vegas Billionaires - Jim Sowerby
    • Chevy Chase: St. Cloud Ice - Jerry King
    • Beer:  Foster's Oil Cans - Phil Dang
    • Beatleball: Lake Wobegon Whippets - Andy Marquis
    • Reality Bites: Gashouse Gorillas - Rob Behymer
    • Longball: Nokomis Choo Choo Trains - Jacob Vass
    • Golden Throat: Boomer Sooners - Phil Dang
    • K Street: Atco Baseball GURU - Chris Bellina
  • The field for The Benchwarmer Bash is finalized.  Any teams that want to change their lineups (for the remainder of the off-season) have until Friday night at midnight.
  • All league champs get their same team for free in 2008 PLUS an extra free team in a new league (or orphan team) if they would like to use it.
  • All other post-season winners in the Gore Cup or the Bottom Feeder Open win a free team in a new league or an orphan team.

10/20/07

  • Congratulations to owners with multiple conference-winning teams:
    • Phil Dang - Foster's (Beer) and Boomer (Golden Throat)
    • Tom Twomey - Hoboken (Beatleball) and New Jersey (K Street)
    • Rob Behymer - Gashouse (Reality Bites) and Mudville (Longball)

10/17/07

  • Game #6 (#3 for Bottom Feeder Semis) was corrected for Beatleball - a couple slightly different score, but no change in the winners.
  • Sorry for the delay - I was sick on Monday.  The deciding game of the first week of playoffs will be posted on Wednesday night.
  • The deadline for setting lineups for Week 2 will also be extended to Wednesday night.

10/7/07

  • On the Player of the Week page, the Player of the Year standings are not yet final - there are some more calculations to make.

10/5/07

  • Congratulations to owners with multiple division-winning teams:
    • 4 Teams:
      • Phil Dang - Key West (Chevy Chase), Foster's (Beer), Buffalo (Longball), Boomer (Golden Throat)
    • 3 Teams:
      • Tom Twomey - NJ (Shadowball), Hoboken (Beatleball), New Jersey (K Street)
    • 2 Teams:
      • Rob Behymer - Gashouse (Reality Bites), Mudville (Longball)
      • Scott Campbell & Leif Johnson - Seattle (Hall of Fame), Beijing 2008 (Reality Bites)
      • Jeff Deeble - Leucadia (Hall of Fame), Los Anaheim (Beatleball)
      • Dave Regan - Boar's (Hall of Fame), Jundland (Shadowball)
      • AND...after 7 years of being shut out of the playoffs...Jon Swanson - Edinburgh (Chevy Chase), Gettysburg (Longball)

 

10/1/07

  • What's coming up in Benchwarmer Baseball?
  • Lineups for the first week of the playoffs are due tonight.
  • There are a lot of set up tasks necessary to score games for the playoffs - it will take probably until the end of the week to complete.
  • There's been some criticism on the "dragging out" process of the playoffs....but there are a lot more manual processes in displaying playoff results.  We can do about a game per day. Generally, our playoffs extend through the MLB playoffs...we always say that Benchwarmer Baseball is a "year round activity."
  • Tiebreakers for Division Place and Tournament Seeding

9/29/07

  • We have a winner - South Pole wins the tiebreaker game in a Glavine vs. Smoltz showdown to beat Gladstone and win the Bachelor Division in Reality Bites.
  • Week 25 Statistics and Players of the Week posted.

9/27/07

  • We're done with the regular season...and yet we're not
    • In Reality Bites, Gladstone took 2 out of 3 from South Pole to force a tie.
    • Gladstone will host a one-game playoff against South Pole - Game 151 - to decide the division
    • The game uses Week 25 lineups - it's just an extension of the current week.
    • The result of the game will be posted SATURDAY.
  • Week 25 winds up - for all other teams -  Games 148-150
  • See Standings in All Leagues for a look at all the races.
  • Playoff match ups will be posted over the weekend (I need to figure out some tiebreakers).
    • Don't forget all teams make some sort of post-season play.
    • You can change your lineups for Week 26 - the first playoff week - now.  The deadline is Monday night.
      • No expanded rosters - taxi squad and minor leaguers won't come into play.
      • You must meet all lineup guidelines (you may be forced to keep some guys in the minors).
      • You can reset your pitching rotation for this week AND for the second week of the playoffs without any concern for 5-days rest compared to the previous week.

9/26/07

  • It doesn't look any different, but this is Benchwarmer on a new server.  AND - all the database issues seem to be fixed, so you should be able to update your lineups again.

9/19/07

  • The field is expanded - and the format slightly changed - for this year's Benchwarmer Bash.  The Bash is played after all of the league championships.  In the past, results have shown up in the spring.  I make no promises, but I'm going to attempt to do it all before the end of 2007 this season.

9/18/07

  • We're done with Regular Season transactions and lineups.  The Week 26 lineup deadline - for the first week of the playoffs - is Monday, October 1.
  • There's no "roster expansion" for the playoffs - taxi squad and minor league players will have no impact on games.

8/19/07

  • Point of rules clarification - all playoff games will be pulled by a random draw from MLB games 81-160.  (The rule change this year was for "2nd half" of the season, with clarification to come.  Sure...the 2nd half started on game 82, but this provides a nice even range of 80 games).

8/12/07

  • The latest update to League Histories (see your league home page) and BWB Records - Beatleball.  Next up: Longball

7/30/07

7/19/07

  • Note: If at any time your web browser doesn't show you the correct week of transactions - or stats - or games - as labeled above...OR your deadlines don't seem to be the same as listed - try making sure that you are accessing the site via benchwarmerbaseball.net - rather than .com

7/12/07

  • There are no salary rebates for cut players for the rest of the season.
  • All free agent pick ups require you to pay 40% of the salary for the rest of the season.
  • Trades will continue to have salaries picked up and rebated at pro-rated values for the rest of the season.

7/2/07

  • This probably needs some clarification (maybe it's been a couple years at least...and will probably be more specifically stated in next year's rules update)
    • When filling in substitute positions, we DO NOT check what alternate positions your starters can play - the starting lineup is essentially fixed.
    • We only check the DH and the five bench players.

6/15/07

  • 2007 First Round draft picks are now in the player list.  For now, you'll find them by looking for players new in Week 12, but later this weekend there will be a filter to pick them out specifically.
  • A note on signing first-rounders: if they don't sign a contract with their team before the Rule V draft in December, they are dropped from BWB (and from your roster).

6/9/07

  • We are now 1/3 through the season.  Off to a bad start?  You still have 2/3 of the season left.

5/30/07

  • Here's an updated version of the BWB Rules (pdf format).  Over the course of the summer, we'll try to get the online version to match this.  As before, at this time the written version supersedes anything on the web.
  • Actually, I thought this was in the rulebook, but I don't think it is - What determines the winning and losing pitcher in the box score and stats?
    • Winning team:
      • Starting pitcher must complete 5 IP and have an ERA less than 5.00 for the game - or pitch a complete game - to get the win.
      • Otherwise, the bullpen is the winning pitcher.
    • Losing team:
      • The starting pitcher is always the losing pitcher...unless...
      • Unless he pitches 5 to 8.7 innings and only gives up 1 run or less (6.3+ IP, 2 ER is OK), in which case the bullpen picks up the loss.

5/28/07

5/8/07

  • OK, I figured out finally how to display the full season schedule without having to copy and paste it for each individual league.
  • There is now an option on the lineup change page to allow you to move a player to IR immediately - similar to the "cut" option (and you still must use the Transactions to actually put the player on IR).
  • Starting with Week 7, putting more than 2 players on the taxi squad will no longer be an acceptable lineup loophole - even if you are cutting the players.
  • If you see "Transaction Warning" or "Lineup Warning" by your team name in the upper left corner - there's a reason.  If you don't fix it, BWB will need to adjust your lineup or delete your transactions.  (Note - you'll always see a warning if you use the cut or IR options while setting your lineups).

4/30/07

4/27/07

  • As you look at the box scores, keep in mind that the runs your team scores in the game won't quite match up with the runs your hitters score or the other team's pitchers give up.  Our "box scores" actually are showing you the tally of all the statistics for that game - and the scoring formula takes those stats and converts it into the final score.

4/16/07

  • If you're looking for a disabled list, that's really what the "Taxi Squad" is (just that they don't have to be really injured).  Your other option is to put a player on "Injured Reserve" but you can never activate him the rest of the season.
  • A few final rule changes that I just haven't had the chance to write up.  And remember the 2006 changes that are not in the full version of the rule book.

4/15/07

  • The good news is that from here on out, you'll get another 2-3 games posted every 3-4 days.  Game 3, however, should be posted Monday night.
  • How to view results?
    • On your league home page, click the link for "This Week's Games"
    • On any page, look for the link "Results" in the page footer area.
  • How to view standings?
    • On your league home page, you'll see a shortened version of the standings.
    • On your league home page, you can click "Current Expanded Standings" for more details.
    • On any page, click the link "Current Standings" in the footer area.
  • You'll also find a link to view all the league standings on your league's home page if you want to peek at what else is going on.
  • Note: Team names during the scoring process - that show up in the box scores and the standings - are taken from an off-line copy of the teams table that's updated only when transactions are processed.  If you've changed your team name since April 11, those changes will show up in the results posted after Week 2's transactions are run.  We're not set up for frequent team name changes.

4/11/07

  • For those of you who didn't ask, but wondered...transactions and lineups are frozen between the deadline and the time that they are processed.  Typically, that will not stretch into 2-3 days like it did this time.  The fact that you only need to submit/set once a week should give you plenty of time.
  • Warning; Make sure you spend a few minutes on checking your transactions.
    • Transactions are a 2-step process.  After you mark WHO you want to sign/cut, you need to go back and indicate WHAT TYPE of transaction and WHEN you want it to occur (what round).  There were many transactions deleted this week as a result.
    • Just be careful - there's no error-checking right now to prevent you from "signing" a player you already own or "cutting" a player you actually intended to sign.  (Someday, perhaps).  It's tough to be a mind reader, so those transactions were left unchanged and, as a result, did not go through.
    • Watch your roster limits that appear at the bottom of your team roster page...particularly when you are trading.  You need to make sure that after the processing you'll still have a legal roster.
    • We try to give you plenty of warning if your transaction submission is not legal or your lineup is not correct.  See the upper left corner of any page by your team name...
  • Cash balances above 7 million were reduced to that level (except for the Chevy Chase League and Beer League).
  • There's no urgency on contract extensions right now - you have until the end of July.  Unless you want to make sure you do it with the money you've got and don't trust yourself to have any left in July, you may want to wait (a player with a season-ending injury right now will definitely have a lower salary next season...you'd be overpaying).

4/9/07

  • The Benchwarmer Bash - Championship - Congratulations to the NJ Dirty Bombs of the Shadowball League.

4/8/07

  • 2007 Schedule is now posted - Click "This Week's Games" on your league home page - or "Results" at the bottom of any page for a week-by-week look at the schedule.  (We'll try to get a new way to view the entire season on one page soon).

4/4/07

  • All teams received a 2 million dollar cash disbursement.
  • Returning Leagues...A reminder - you can only have a maximum balance of 5 million (5000 as displayed on your team page) coming into the season.  However, the deadline is extended through Week One this season - giving you until the April 7 deadline to get your team to 7 million or less (because all teams got an extra 2 million to start the season).

4/2/07

  • Some of you may be waiting for the results from the Benchwarmer Bash to see what you need to pay this year.  Because of that, roster and lineup restrictions for non-payment will not go into effect until the Week 2 deadline.
  • Want to learn more about Benchwarmer Baseball?  Check out the BWB Tour.   However, we're not starting any more new leagues in 2007.
  • There are still some Orphan Teams for 2007.  If you're just joining BWB for the first time and want one of these teams, you'll still need to register as a user.

3/26/07

3/21/07

  • Chevy Chase League:
  • Beer League:

3/14/07

  • Contract Extensions are now open.  Access the form from your cut/sign page or the main transactions form.  Suggestion - only returning teams with balances over 5 million probably want to do this right now.

1/22/07

  • Rosters and free agent lists are now updated for RETURNING leagues.  We are now in Transaction Week -9 with deadline Friday night at midnight.  You can trade and pursue other transactions.  Contract extensions will be turned on and allowed starting in March.

1/21/07

1/7/07

  • Weekly schedule of transaction deadlines can be found on the Transactions page.

12/29/06

  • New players - about 90 - have been added to the player list.  However, they won't be visible until after the next database update, which may not be until Sunday night.  Basically, anyone on a 40-man roster on MLB.com as of 12/27 is now in the game.
  • Any team that owns Max Scherzer - he is the only unsigned draft pick from 2006.  By rule, he will be removed from the BWB player list - and your team.  Don't keep him as part of your 28 carryovers.  (Removal will occur at the next database update).

12/23/06

  • Orphan Teams - your extra $2 million is now credited.  (For teams with identified owners by 12/22).
  • Several MLB players were removed from the game since they've announced their retirement.  For our rosters, this affected mostly Brad Radke, but there were a couple others.  They are now off your rosters.  Unlike a few years ago, Roger Clemens hasn't officially "retired" again, so he's still on the player list for now.

12/19/06

11/26/06

  • Salaries are now final for the 2007 season.  Teams have been given all the post-season cash that they will get.

11/8/06

  • Player of the Year results are in.  Cash bonuses will be credited after the salary cap money is distributed.

10/26/06

  • 2006 Benchwarmer Playoffs - The Season is Complete!!
  • Congratulations to all the league champions:
    • Hall of Fame League: Milford Mohawks
    • Shadowball: Motley Kruse
    • Beatleball: London Groove Armada
    • Reality Bites: Jersey Sea Shore Jersey Boys
    • Longball League: Nokomis Choo Choo Trains
    • Golden Throat League: Boomer Sooners
    • K Street League: Atco Baseball GURU

10/24/06

  • Dawns (K Street) survives the bubble and makes it into the Benchwarmer Bash.
  • For anyone making the Bash, you have until Friday night, October 27 to make any lineup changes.  You'll use one lineup for the entire Bash and games will be selected from throughout the the MLB season.

10/11/06

  • The Benchwarmer Bash this season will include the 7 league champions and 9 wild card teams (non-champs with the highest BWB Power Index)
  • The winner of the Benchwarmer Bash will get 2 free seasons with their team (in addition to the 1 free year if they were the league champ).  The runner up will get 1 free season.

10/2/06

  • Week 25 Statistics and Players of the Week are now posted.  Player of the Year results will come soon and will not necessarily be the same as the year-to-date standings.
  • Important Playoff Rule Change - In case you missed the e-mail update, starting pitching performances will be selected from the closest MLB start to the game selected for scoring the game - and no longer has to occur within the 10-game span of games first selected for picking the game.  However, this "closest start" must be within 20 games of the MLB game selected.
  • Major League games in play for the playoffs are games 1-160 (actually up to 162 for starting pitchers).

9/28/06

  • Divisional Playoffs:
    • Shadowball: YYZ 4  Atlanta 3   Box Score
    • Beatleball: Roseville 10  San Francisco 7 (despite the Pinesitter)   Box Score
    • Reality Bites: JERSEY SEA SHORE 10  Gashouse 4   Box Score
    • K Street: South Philly 9  Fort Marquis 3   Box Score

9/12/06

  • One note about call ups - we figure out all the positions as normal and then see where the call ups might fit in.  We don't necessarily find the best fit like we do for the bench players.  For example, if you have a bench player that's eligible to play 1B and 3B and we stick him at 3B and a Benchwarmer at 1B, we're only looking for someone to play 1B from the call ups - we won't switch the bench player to 1B if we find another 3B (maybe next year, but that was just too much of a re-write).

9/2/06

  • Minor League Results - Sorry, this is an area I couldn't keep up with (I couldn't save stats at a given point throughout the season, so it was always a moving target).  Minor League results this year will be a single recap - utilizing the full-season stats of any players you had on your minor league rosters on the normally scheduled minor league weeks.  Next year I'll hire out the stat gathering.

8/10/06

6/18/06

  • There continue to be some problems in trying to display past weeks' lineups.  The problem comes in the storage and retrieval of the current week number and sometimes it appears that it's stored as text instead of an integer.  I'm fooling around with different ways to fix it, but so far nothing's worked except manual intervention when it breaks.  If you don't see dashes (-----) in the status column of a roster, you're looking at the current week's roster, regardless of what the heading says.

6/17/06

  • FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICKS - The top 30 2006 picks are now part of the player pool.
    • View them in the player list using the "Other" filter.
    • If a player does not sign with his major league team by the winter meetings or decides to attend college, he is removed from the player pool.

6/12/06

  • Injured Reserve: RULE CLARIFICATION - If a team has a player on IR and trades that player away, the IR designation is wiped out and the new team can put the player on their active roster.
  • Don't forget, if you put a player on IR, you cannot remove him except to cut or trade him - including for the playoffs.

5/30/06

  • Someone wrote to me today that extending anyone to a contract out beyond 2 years is a joke because of the huge cash guarantee you've got to put out (note - in the "early days" it was cheaper and cash was more plentiful).  I'll contend that signing anyone to any contract may be a joke before mid-July...but since they continue to come in, there's an updated analysis of past-season's contract extensions - available from the contract extension page.

5/29/06

  • All Orphan teams are now placed.

5/28/06

  • If you haven't paid yet (not counting new owners of Golden Throat orphan teams) - you're still blocked from transactions and lineup changes and risk losing your BWB franchise if not paid by the Week 10 deadline (June 8).

4/30/06

4/24/06

  • Hey, there's one lineup workaround I publicize about once a year (now's the time) that you can use if you've got players on your roster, but are cutting them and don't really want to use them in your current week lineup.  
    • For example, let's say you've got some real-life minor leaguers, who make too much to be in the BWB minor leagues, you can't stow them on your taxi squad, and need to fill their spots with someone who's really playing.
    • Cut them.  (And this is only good for cuts, not trades.)
    • Put them on the taxi squad.
    • As long as the players are actually cut, I ignore the 2-player maximum and the players are dropped immediately, not next week.  (If something goes awry with the release, I'll have to adjust your lineups to make room for them again).
    • This assumes you have the players to fill their spots immediately.  You still need to have a legal 26-man major league squad.
    • With the use this September of the taxi squad as "call-ups", I'll add a new option this summer on the lineup pages specifically for cuts.

4/11/06

  • The 2005 Benchwarmer Bash - Championship is over.  For the second straight year, the Beatleball champ takes the crown, with Carlisle coming from a 3-1 deficit to win a close 7-game series.

4/10/06

  • The 2006 Schedule is Ready - Click on "This Week's Games" on your league's home page or "Results" on the bottom of any web page.  (The "Season Schedule" link for your league has not been updated yet).

3/31/06

  • Injured Reserve is now available to teams.  View the Rules Change page for details.  You do this via the Transactions process, not Lineup Changes (start off the process as though you were going to "cut" him).

3/25/06

3/17/06

  • After finally changing (slightly) the formula for calculating Player of the Year, the final results are done.  Check out your league's winners (scroll to the bottom of the page).  Teams with winners will have the money credited during this week's transactions.  (AFTER the transactions are done).

3/2/06

  • Contract extensions are now open for players.  My suggestion is always - unless you're trying to get under the maximum cash level before Opening Day, you should wait...there's lots of time for ripping up knees and things like that before the extension deadline at the end of July.

2/28/06

  • FYI: benchwarmerbaseball.com is now also a valid web address to use when connecting to the site

2/12/06

  • Redistribution Draft - This is why I normally do this in early January...  The results are in!!!  You can view Quick Results to see who you were able to pick up.

1/19/06

  • With the 40-man rosters checked, a new set of players are now available.  There will be no more additions until after Opening Day - players must now appear in a major league game to get added.

12/20/05

  • 2006 Salaries, Positions, and Salary Cap Figures updated.
    • 2006 Salary Cap = 44875 (44.875 Million) - New Teams in 2006 will start with 45 Million.
    • Each team got the same distribution - enough to get the team with the lowest balance up to the cap figure (so each league is different).
    • Any player with an "x" listed for their secondary position - these minor league players still must be verified for position - their primary position may change in January.
    • Player of the Year awards are not yet done, so some teams will get a small amount of additional cash in a couple weeks.
  • LEAGUE CHAMPIONS - Your team is free in 2006 - you also may play a brand new team or Orphan Team for free in 2006.
  • GORE CUP and BOTTOM FEEDER CHAMPS - You may play a brand new team or an Orphan Team for free in 2006

12/17/05

11/1/05

  • The Benchwarmer Bash - It's our off-season tournament between all the league champions to crown an overall champion.  All five league champions will participate along with three wild card teams to create a bracket of eight.
  • Teams are seeded based on Power Index Rating, with wild cards at the bottom of the list.
  • Lineups (one submission for the whole tournament) are due Sunday night, November 6.  MLB Games will be randomly picked from throughout the season.  Results will show up later in the winter
  • Participants in order of seeding:

    1. Boar's Nest (Hall of Fame) - Power Index: 2

    2. Asia (K Street) - PI: 6

    3. TRB (Shadowball) - PI: 10

    4. Carlisle (Beatleball) - PI: 17

    5. Rainy City (Longball) - PI: 31

    6. Milford (Hall of Fame) - Wild Card - PI: 1

    7. South Hill (Longball) - Wild Card - PI: 3

    8. NJ (Shadowball) - Wild Card - PI: 4

10/28/05

  • Championship Series - Game 7

  • Congratulations to our League Champions:

    • Hall of Fame League: Boar's Nest
    • Shadowball League: TRB Systems
    • Beatleball: Carlisle Thunderpants
    • Longball League: Rainy City Whiffleball Players
    • K Street League: Asia Analog Kid

10/19/05

  • Championship Match-ups:
    • Hall of Fame: Oaxaca vs. Boar's Nest
    • Shadowball: Tombstone vs. TRB
    • Beatleball:  Carlisle vs.London
    • Longball:  Rainy City vs. Nokomis
    • K Street:  Dawns vs. Asia

9/4/05

9/2/05

  • Trading Deadline: We're past the trade deadline for 2005.  I have not yet fixed the links to prevent you from initiating trades - so although the site will let you try it for now, anything submitted will be ignored.
  • Minor League Season - I apologize on the absence of results.  I thought in 2004 I had worked it out to a (fairly) efficient way to handle gathering the stats and posting results.  The change in stat providers this season really f'd up that process.  There will be minor league results, but rather than in-season updates, we'll have just one end-of-season set of standings.  You'll get credit for the players you had on your minor league rosters in the weeks scheduled for this season.

8/20/05

  • The Power Index is now (finally) fully automated.  And so it makes its initial 2005 update.  In the future, you can find a link to it on your league's stats index page.

7/22/05

  • Don't have the BWB All Star Teams posted yet, but have figured out who makes it - and that let me distribute the player bonuses this week (in time for contract extensions).  You can see the results on the financial updates.

6/18/05

  • 2005 First Round Draft Picks - are now available as part of the player lists.  Use the "Other" filter to pull them out of the larger list.  First rounders must sign by the Rule V Draft in December or they are removed from the system (including your team if you still have him at that time) and do not get added again until they qualify by one of the normal ways or are drafted again.

6/1/05

  • Minor League Schedule Update
    • In the last couple of years, I've been able to download all the stat files by organization off of Baseball America online and take a couple weeks to go through and pick out our stats for our minor league season.  That option isn't available this year - I can't take that snapshot in time and fill in the stats later.
    • I don't have time to run the Week 7 stats this week so my current plan (still subject to change):
      • Wait until Week 11 rosters are in to pull minor league stats - you'll get season-to-date stats for everyone on your minor league roster that week.
      • Anyone on your Week 7 minor league list who isn't there anymore in Week 11 will be included in the Week 11 update.

5/30/05

  • Is your team losing a lot of 1-run and extra-inning games?  If so, you're coming close to winning those games - what can you do to help get you over the hump?
    • Try to reduce the number of Benchwarmer Batters - and the automatic 2 errors each one commits - Make sure your bench is full of players who are in the majors, not on the DL, and ideally are real-life starters.  In a perfect world you can cover each position, if needed.  Errors may mean the difference between a win or loss in a close game.
    • Make sure your bullpen is manned by 5 relievers getting regular duty.  The Pinesitter Pitcher in the bullpen is a killer this year and if you have more than one in a game, you're working uphill.
    • Keep 2 healthy major leaguers in your spot pitcher role - I'd still suggest 2 starters.  Despite allowing pitchers to move up in the rotation this year, you'll still be in trouble at some point without a start from the spot position if you have a member of the rotation miss a start or two.

5/22/05

  • I think this is fairly bug-free - Check out the new Trade Rumors page.  (In the future, access it from the main transactions page).
  • One new thing from last week - you're going to have to accept trades twice in order to prevent any quick-fingered mistakes (or protect you from your cat pressing the button - no lie - someone on ESPN once used that excuse on why we should all let him pick up his cut player first).

5/17/05

  • Please take note of the "Transaction Warning" if it appears by your team name in the upper left corner of the screen - and fix any problems before the deadline.
  • To clarify how I handle transactions that aren't complete:
    • If you don't indicate the type of cut - leaving it at "Choose type of cut" - I interpret that as an outright release.
    • If you don't indicate a round or type of signing - leaving the transaction type as just "Choose" - I ignore the request completely (I have given some new people the benefit of the doubt).
  • But to make things crystal clear and avoid misinterpretations on my part (and it's too much work to change later, so you'll be stuck), please make sure you fully complete the transaction process - and if you have extra players - some of you seem to use the transaction list as a holding pen for players you don't eventually want to sign - please remove them from your transaction submission by using the far right column on the modify area - "Remove".  Choose "drop" and it will remove them from your transaction list.

5/16/05

  • Due to some changes in the source of Minor League stats (Baseball America no longer has an agreement to publish them and they had a great format to use), I'm modifying the BWB Minor League season.  Stats will be checked now in weeks 7, 11, 15, 19, & 23.  This is still subject to change if it becomes too hard to look up.

5/9/05

  • It's going to be a long time before I get the message boards up again - I had always intended to start up a group on Yahoo, but someone beat me to it - thanks to Anthony Citarella for taking the initiative - but sorry I didn't promote it sooner.  For those of you looking for an outlet to post messages and get a little of the back and forth: Click to join BenchwarmerBaseball Yahoo Group

5/7/05

  • The Player of the Week is Back!  This year, you get 25K for having a player win a weekly category (up from 10K).  Winners for Weeks 1-3 are now posted (and money credited to your accounts).  In the future, you can access the page from your league home page or the statistics index.
  • The Power Index will return soon (working on automating the process).

4/18/05

  • Don't forget, we've got a rule change if you don't have an available spot starter to fill in for your missing normal starter - we'll check down in the rotation to see if anyone can move up.  This may cause a little havoc with your rotation, but hopefully will avoid some Pinesitter Pitcher appearances (you'll eventually need to have a spot starter available to break the cycle of moving pitchers up).

4/3/05

  • Benchwarmer Bash -  Game Six - Gorilla finishes off D-Town with a 7-2 triumph to become the first all-around BWB Champ.

3/28/05

  • A couple rules questions -
    • I think I originally intended the 80% salary rebate to start on Week 1, but I previously published it starting on Week Zero - so it is now in effect (see 2005 Transaction Schedule)
    • New guys in Spring Training who aren't listed on the player lists (like, say, Iguchi) won't appear until they show up in a major league game.  Why?  Well, kind of "because".  So why are some A and AA players available?  See the rules page on player additions or some of the questions in the FAQs.
    • By the way, the written form of the rule book is for now the final arbiter - see page 32 - I actually eliminated the "non-roster invitees" part of the rule for adding players in December/January (eliminated the very first off season).  That's not to say there still aren't some errors - and I will have a list of errata soon.

3/14/05

  • BWB Rulebook : This written version includes all recent changes.  This version supercedes anything on the web version, in case of any conflicts (the web version will eventually be re-written.  However, I've already found a couple errors and will note them when appropriate.  Format: pdf.  2005 BWB Rulebook
  • Full player list (as of January 2005).  This pdf file is zipped, but is still very large (1.5 MB).

3/9/05

  • 2005 Rule Changes for our last updates before the season, including:
    • Quantifying the adjustment for hits and walks given up by a pitching staff and how it affects the game score.
    • A slight change in handling the pitching rotation - specifically if your scheduled starter misses a turn.

3/8/05

  • Contract extensions are now active.  You can also access the form from your team sign/cut page and from the main Transactions link at the top of the page.
  • Suggestion - Contract extensions are not due until the end of July.  Beatleball and Hall of Fame League owners can only take $5 million into the season and so for some of them now over that level, contract extensions now make sense.  But you potentially are wasting your money if a player gets a season-ending injury early in 2005.

3/6/05

  • FYI - There appear to be some recent problems with BWB email for addresses ending in aol.com, and netscape.net.  We'll check into it...

1/19/05

  • 2005 Player List.  We're working (belatedly) on getting you a printable copy.  In the meantime, for those of you who want to slice and dice the list, here's a comma-delimited version.

1/11/05

  • Are you getting email from Benchwarmer Baseball? - Email from this site gets forwarded using a server script - and may be interpreted by some systems as SPAM unless you add BWB as a trusted site.  You should have been getting many broadcast emails from us for the last few weeks.  If not, try going to your team page and send yourself an email - OR use this SPAM TESTER.
  • We know when email gets returned due to a problem (and one current user has that situation), but we have no way to tell if our emails are blocked by spam filters.

1/10/05

 		  
 
  Buy MLB Tickets at StubHub!
 

1/2/05

  • New Players - The off-season player additions are complete and you can now choose them for your Startup or Redistribution Draft. Use the "New in 2005" filter at the top of the selection pages.  Here's the list if you want to print one.
  • At the same time, unsigned 2004 1st Round draft picks: Stephen Drew, Philip Humber, Jeff Niemann, Jared Weaver  have been eliminated from the player lists and were removed from any team that owned them or any draft list that included them.
  • You'll find several new filter choices for viewing and picking available players.

12/30/04

11/26/04

  • Some updates to Rule Changes for the 2005 Season - Make sure you check out the change from "spot starters" to "spot pitchers" (and it's not just terminology) and the institution of an off-season salary rebate.

11/14/04

  • Rosters now display 2005 positions and Preliminary 2005 salaries (some players will be getting additional bonuses added on to their salaries - in the coming week).
  • Cash balances are updated for salary cap distribution and post-season placement.
  • Salary cap for 2005 = 46146 (in thousands).  2004 cap was 47210.  There were some adjustments in the salary formula this year to reduce pitcher salaries - particularly closers.
  • Each team gets the same amount of cash - enough to get the team with the lowest balance up to the cap number.
    • Hall of Fame League - Distribution = 45092
    • Beatleball - Distribution = 45354
    • All new leagues get 47 million (cap rounded up).

11/7/04

  • Final Minor League results - Brewster and Angleton win titles.

10/29/04

  • Playoffs - Congratulations to League Champions:
    • D-Town Demolishers
    • Gorilla Biscuits
  • D-Town will play against Gorilla next week to crown an overall BWB champion. (You guys have until Sunday night to make any additional lineup changes).

10/23/04

  • Just announced - the 2004 BWB Players of the Year - access the list from your league's home page

10/10/04

  • The Beatleball All Star Series is in the books.  The Martin Conference wins 2 games to 1.  See the league home page for more details.

10/3/04

9/29/04

9/11/04

  • Congratulations in Beatleball to Carlisle - setting a new BWB record with 17 straight wins.

9/30/04

8/11/04

  • The Hall of Fame League All Star Series is complete.  For the first time, the Johnson Conference is victorious.  See the league home page for more details.

7/27/04

6/16/04

  • Now available!! - The BWB Power Index - how does your team rank?

6/10/04

7/8/04

  • There have been some problems reported with the Transactions page causing browsers to crash.  I made it happen on my version of IE and was prompted due to that error by Microsoft to install XP Service Pack 1.  After that, I couldn't make it crash.  Maybe give that a shot if you've got an hour or two.
  
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