7/25/22
- I understand that there have been problems connecting to the
site - I'm seeing them too. There's not a lot I can do
with the level of access I have (plus I need to be on the phone
to support and will need to do that when I'm back in the US).
- To help out due to the web problems - contract
extensions will be extended for at least one more week - you do
NOT have to finish them this week.
- We're going to keep the lineup/transactions due on Thursday
night...for now, but I'll check back again in a day or two to
see how the site is going.
7/22/22
- This week is the final week to submit
contract extensions. Deadline is Thursday,
July 28 at 11:59:59 PM EDT
7/21/22
- I'm headed on vacation Friday night through Saturday 7/30
(going to Iceland). When we planned this, my deal was that I'd
make time to do some limited updates throughout the week. I
wasn't planning on the current difficulties I'm having to
publish info to the website, so my expectations are further
reduced. We'll be in a camper until Wednesday and I've
added Wi-Fi, but I'm not going to plan for very much.
- Here's a basic outline:
- Thursday 7/21, 7 PM EDT: Week 16
deadline for lineups and transactions
- Results of Week 16 transactions will post either late
Thursday night or on Friday morning 7/22
- I'll try to update MLB transaction data for the players
at least once or twice, but use your own knowledge of IL
status and promotions/demotions (always note the date last
updated shown on the player list)
- Next BWB game scores? This is TBD. I should most
likely be able to process stats and run the game-scoring
program, but posting box scores and standings will be a
problematic. I may post game scores without box scores
available right away. At best, we won't have any box scores
or updated standings until Thursday, July 28.
- Thursday 7/28, 7 PM EDT: Week 17
deadline for lineups and transactions - this is also the
contract extension deadline for 2022.
- Results of Week 17 transactions probably won't post
until I'm back in Minnesota - ideally posting by Saturday
night, 7/30. The Week 18 deadline will remain at Thursday,
August 4, so plan for a short week.
- I'll try to get all games and standings caught up by
Sunday 7/31-Monday 8/1.
- This is, of course, subject to change depending on
circumstances and technical handicaps.
- How about when will the 1st Round draft picks will
show up in the player list? Because we've got the
contract extension deadline in Week 17 and an expected short
week of transaction submissions for Week 18, my plan is that the
new players will be available for the Week 19 signings
(open 8/5 and deadline on Wed 8/10).
7/19/22
- I made a mistake in the note below on July 6. I said that
Week 15 was the deadline to cut players and still get a prorated
salary rebate (it was and always has been), but I listed that
the deadline to do that was July 21 (oops - that's the Week 16
deadline). Just in case there was any confusion, we'll
extend the salary rebates to this week - Week 16, July 21
deadline (you'll get a 36% salary rebate).
- Free agent players are signed at 40% of their 2022 salary
for the remainder of the season
- Reminder - transactions this week are due
THURSDAY night (and
will be on Thursday nights for the 2 weeks after that)
- Check all your teams to see if you have any
pending trade offers
7/17/22
- For Week 16 lineups - you may reorder your pitching
rotation from scratch - we will not check on games of rest
between Weeks 15 and 16 - it's our version of the All
Star Break. Lineup deadline is Thursday night.
- All teams will get a cash distribution this week of 1
million Benchwarmer Bucks (1000) in advance of the contract
extension deadline on Week 17 (deadline July 28)
7/9/22
- With Game 75 we've reached the halfway point of the regular season.
7/6/22
- You have 2 more weeks to cut players and receive a prorated
salary rebate. Week 15 (deadline 7/21) is the final week
for salary rebates this season.
7/4/22
- There are going to be some non-standard changes to our
weekly transaction/lineup deadline days
- With the compressed nature of this MLB season, those
deadlines will soon be getting far out of line.
- In addition, there's some concern that too much of
bullpen performances are known in advance. This won't
completely solve that situation, but moving up the deadlines
will help a bit.
- I'll post a more complete schedule, but for the next few
weeks:
- Week 14 deadline moves to Saturday, July 9
- Week 15 deadline - Friday, July 15
- Week 16 deadline - Thursday July 21
6/27/22
- There have been some additional web issues this morning but
that might have related to me trying to update the team stats.
I'll keep an eye on it.
- Enough people were affected by the website problems on
Sunday night that we'll extend this week's transaction/lineup
deadline. Most asked for 2-5 hours but that won't change
the time that I can process them and by midnight most of today's
games are done. So we'll extend until the time of the first game
on Tuesday: Tuesday, June 28 1 PM Eastern.
- Note - Trade offers that expire with the original deadline
day/time are not changed - they will still expire at 7 PM
tonight.
6/26/22
- All the standings after Game 60 should be in place and
updated. I haven't gone back yet to try to get the missing box
scores up.
- Sorry for the posting delay - I've been having problems
Friday night through Sunday afternoon with publishing the box
scores and updated standings after Games 58-60. Some of the box
score links you click may not work as the file doesn't exist yet
on the website. Some of the league standings and
head-to-head records will be missing. I'll work to get
this resolved as soon as I can and I have a support ticket in
with my web provider.
6/17/22
- Reminder - every 5 weeks our transaction deadline days
change to sync with MLB - starting this week, deadlines
are on Mondays at 7 PM Eastern
6/13/22
- At Game 50 we hit the 1/3 mark of the regular season
5/23/22
- One of the problems I've seen with my stats provider this
season is that the box scores are not correctly handling players
who are at multiple positions per game - only listing the last
position played. As a result, my totals may be short in some
cases of players getting to the 10-game level and gaining
eligibility for a new position. I normally say that the
stats from the service are the official ones I work with until
there's a correction, but in this case with a known problem, if
you feel a player should be listed for a new position (5
consecutive games or 10 games total), let me know. Keep in mind
I typically update positions on the website every 2-3 days -
usually on the same day we post game scores - so there is
usually a slight delay in posting.
5/15/22
- Reminder - transaction/lineup deadlines have shifted to
Tuesdays at 7 PM Eastern.
- Check all your teams to see if you have any
pending trade offers.
5/12/22
- Reminder - every 5 weeks our transaction deadline days
change to sync with MLB - starting this week, deadlines
are on Tuesdays at 7 PM Eastern
5/8/22
- The end of Week 3 wraps up 3 weeks of play within your division. The
schedule for the next 8 weeks is against teams outside of
your division.
5/6/22
- This week's transactions - Week 5 - is the final
week in which you get an 80% salary rebate for cut
players. The rebate goes down 4% every week after that.
- A look behind the BWB curtain - Friday
edition:
- BWB collects MLB stats via a service that publishes XML
file versions of MLB box scores. From there, I've got
some programs and a series of MS Access operations that
loads the data into a database and preps it for use in BWB
games.
- I've had a ticket open since Monday dealing with files
from last Friday and Saturday that were incomplete with no
player performance information - now 11 games. Plus
there's a missing box score from May 3. As of yet,
this isn't fixed and from some communication with them this
week, they're having continuing technical problems this
season.
- I have hand entered 2 box scores earlier this year and
it's not something I'd prefer to repeat for 12 more games.
However, I am at the point where if I don't have the missing
data by Saturday morning, I will do that and we'll get back
to scoring games this weekend.
5/3/22
- A reminder that I've shut off email notification for trade
offers. I'll try to work on some other approach, but in the
meantime, please remember to regularly take a look at the
pending transactions for
all of your teams, which will show you if anyone
has proposed a trade to you and is awaiting a decision.
4/24/22
- It's a little early in the season - 24/25ths of the regular
season still remains - but here's our 1-page look at comparing
teams across all the leagues in the BWB universe:
Around BWB
4/22/22
- It's BWB Opening Day! Week 1
Begins - Games 1-3 posted -
See results
- The next score update - for Games 4-6 - is expected by
Saturday night.
4/16/22
- 2022 Schedule posted - you can see this in
a number of ways:
- Weekly schedule for your
entire league - this is the link I'll post on the home
page when we score games, it's also available on your
league's home page and in the footer of every web page - the
"Results" link. This page will show the results and
links to box scores.
- Full season schedule
for your league - a text representation of each 3-game
series for this year. It's also available as a link on
the league home page and on the weekly schedule. This
page will not show game results.
- Full season schedule
for your team - A running record of all your games (or
check out another team), including YTD record at each game,
a link to the box score, and a look at upcoming pitching
matchups. This is available from a link at the top of
the weekly schedule page.
4/15/22
- Players may start getting added to the player list from
here on out - as they appear in their first MLB game
- Players are only added at the time of the posting of
transaction results - so you don't have to be searching
daily for new additions.
- You'll find the new players in the player/free agent
list - find the drop down box for "New in 2022" -
players are listed by the first transaction week in
which they can be signed.
4/10/22
- Some of these are just placeholders for upcoming changes and
clarifications but here is a
list of
the 2022 BWB rule changes.
- None of these have yet been incorporated into the main
rules pages
- Here are a couple of change of note:
- The previously announced roster size change from 40
to 45 players - see rule 4.0 and many of the BWB rules
pages will need to be modified to reflect this.
- NEW - We're tightening up the rules
around which starts can be used for pitchers moving into
the spot roles S1-S3. Just as with P1-P5, no starts
prior to the day of the transaction deadline will be
used (this had been relaxed in 2014).
- There are no other expected Covid-related temporary
changes as we had in 2020 and 2021. BWB will adjust if
the situation warrants it later in the season.
- Week Zero
Transactions Posted
- Any teams with cash balances above 5000 were slated to
be cut down to that level (exceptions: new leagues, new
owners taking over orphan teams, and orphans adopted on or
after Week -2) - however, see the special
extension below
- Teams were then provided with an extra 2000 in Opening
Day cash
- Because of some problems by my stat provider, not all
the games from the first three days of the season were
available to me on a timely basis. For that reason -
there are no new players added to the list this week. They
will be added after we process the Week One transactions.
- Week One Transaction/Lineup Deadline - modified from
Wednesday 7 PM to Thursday, April 14 at 1 PM Eastern -
see Season Deadlines
- Maximum Cash Balance - enforcement delayed
- this will eventually get codified into the rules as something
we'll do every year
- Because of the nature of blind transaction submissions -
teams may have planned out to get the balances below the
limit, but after perhaps not being able to sign the players
they wanted, the cash balances are now too high.
- In trying to cut people a break, this
list of
teams that are over the maximum cash balance
still have a chance to use their cash
before losing it.
- Because all teams have been given 2000 cash for
Opening Day, the new maximum balance is 7000
- The teams on the list can only work their cash down
via contract extensions - no additional player signings
are available
- Use the normal
contract extension form to
submit your choices
- Before we process Week 1 transactions, we'll run a
special contract extension round only. After those
extensions are processed, any of the teams that still
have balances over 7000 will be cut down to that amount.
- Then we'll move on to run the remainder of the Week 1 transaction
submissions as normal.
- The deadline to complete this is the same as the
Week 1 transaction deadline - Thursday 4/14 at 1 PM EDT
-
Only the
teams on this list need to be concerned about this
4/5/22
- Contract extensions submitted for Week -1 were not
originally showing up in rosters earlier today. That should be
fixed. Let me know if you see any problems.
- Week Minus 1
Transactions Posted. The deadline for Week
Zero is Saturday, April 9 at 7 PM Eastern -
see Season Deadlines
- Note - the Week 1 deadline - when you need to set your BWB
Opening Day rosters - is Wednesday, April 13. I will work to get
Week Zero transactions posted by late Saturday night, which will
give you all of Sunday to work on your lineups.
4/4/22
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase Two Draft, Part Two is
complete
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Rosters populated and finances updated.
- The Phase 2 draft is now complete - your league moves
into weekly transactions (next deadline is tonight,
Monday 4/4!).
4/3/22
- Arghh - Great Lakes League - sorry, I just
forgot that I was planning to process your Phase 2 draft on
Thursday night. I'm working on it on Sunday afternoon and
will have the results posted very late Sunday night or on Monday
morning. I'm going to give you a quick 1-day option to make
transactions on Monday.
- So, for everyone, the Week Minus 1 transaction
deadline is pushed back to Monday night at midnight EDT.
3/30/22
- To reiterate: For anyone just adopting orphan teams from
here through the beginning of the season, the extra 4000 in cash
you get is not subject to the 5000 cash ceiling in Week Zero.
- We're getting down to the wire for the final
touches on your rosters heading into the season.
- Week -1 transactions are due Sunday night at
midnight
EDT
- Week Zero transactions are due
Saturday, April 9 at 7 PM EDT -
teams in returning leagues will lose any cash balance left
over 5000 at that time (and then all teams get an
extra 2000). Starting a few of years ago, there are exceptions to this rule:
- Any orphan teams acquired by an owner for his/her
initial season of BWB are not subject to the maximum
cash balance
- Any orphan teams acquired where the extra 4000 cash
is credited on Week -2 or later does not have to quickly
reduce (We're currently in Week -1, so pick up an orphan
now and your cash is safe)
- And - any teams
currently in orphan status will not be subject to a cut.
-
See the rule
- Week 1 lineups will be tentatively due on Wednesday,
April 13 - I need to recheck the revised MLB schedules
to make sure our weeks line up correctly.
3/27/22
- We're not going to run any additional league startup drafts
for 2022. However,
these orphan teams are
still available for this season.
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase Two Draft, Part Two is
complete
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Rosters populated and finances updated.
- We move to Phase Two, Part Three - your next set of
picks are due on Thursday night, March 31 at
9 PM
Eastern
- We're looking to do this one last draft submission and
won't have a ton of time for transactions after that, so the
number of rounds of picks this week increases to 12 to try
to wrap things up.
- Sorry for the odd deadline time, but my plan will be to
post the results by late Thursday night so that you have
Friday-Sunday to participate in a short, but normal, weekly
transaction period.
3/23/22
- Coming soon - I will be posting all the 2022 rule changes
with more detail.
- One rule change that will be coming but will not
quite be ready right now - we want to look at some
"anti-tanking" approaches that could affect the draft order for
the Redistribution Draft starting with the 2023 draft (and so,
the 2022 season).
- I'm going to start off a discussion online about this
looking for input about various possibilities.
- Consider that it's very likely that the team with the
worst record in your league may not automatically get the
first pick in the offseason order. Don't start
setting up your team to tank yet.
- In a perfect world this would already have been set so
that you knew the status at the start of the season. But as
long as you understand changes are coming, I'm OK with
figuring this out in the next few weeks.
3/22/22
- Sorry about this...I forgot all about changing the
transaction warning messages from last season. Last year we
allowed 46 total players and 36 over 250, and the new limits on
those are 45 and 35. The warnings should be current now.
3/20/22
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase Two Draft, Part One is
complete
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Rosters populated and finances updated.
- We move to Phase Two, Part Two - your next set of
picks are due on Thursday night, March 24 at midnight
Eastern
- We're getting a little late in the spring - so the
number of rounds of picks this week increases from 8 to 10
- All teams will
receive an extra 1000 in cash during this week's transactions.
This is added to assist with the costs of moving players to
"prospect" status - although you can use it for any purpose. If
you're short on cash, it DOES count to assist you with salaries
for this week's signings. The Great Lakes League gets this
cash after the draft is complete.
3/14/22
-
Redistribution Draft
2022 - Rounds 3-5 posted
- We now move on to normal weekly transactions - in the
preseason, deadlines are Sunday nights at midnight Eastern
- All transaction types are open - signings, cuts, trades,
and contract extensions
- Next deadline is for Week -3, Sunday night,
March 20 at
midnight Eastern
3/11/22
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase One Draft is
complete
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Rosters populated and finances updated after the results
for Phase One.
- We now enter Phase Two of the draft - your first set of
picks are due on Wednesday night, March 16 at midnight
Eastern
3/4/22
- No miracle reconsideration from the owners to stop the
lockout yet, so we're going to push back the next deadline to
the Redistribution Draft and give you some more time. The
deadline for the final adjustments to rounds 3-5 is
Sunday, March 13 at midnight Pacific.
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase One Draft results
complete
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Posted now - Resolution of contested picks for players
picked by 2 or more teams
- Rosters will be populated with the drafted players and
Phase 2 opened up on Saturday.
3/2/22
- With MLB's current situation, our calendar/schedule will be
a little fluid.
- At this point, there's no change to our expected
schedule - if something unexpected were to happen that
caused the players and MLB to get back on track for the
originally scheduled Opening Day, we'd need to jump right
back in to the original deadline schedule.
- So, the next submission for the Redistribution Draft is
still Sunday 3/6 and we'd expect the first week of
post-draft free agency and trades to be due Sunday 3/13.
- As the next few days progress, we'll have a better view
on the near term schedule.
- Yet to be determined - any affect on the BWB regular
season. It's not ideal, but with the cancellation of
5-6 games we can still do our normal 150-game regular
season. If it extends beyond that, we'll need to make
some adjustments.
3/1/22
2/26/22
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase One Draft is
underway
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Posted now - unique picks by team and a listing of the
contested players
- Coming this week after the next Redistribution Draft
posting: We'll start to resolve the
contested picks
- Roster and lineup warnings are now reflective of the new
roster sizes.
2/21/22
- Lineup change form fixed for the new lineup/roster changes,
but the lineup warnings are not yet updated (found an error
after the fix but not enough time yet to correct it).
- The Phase 1 Draft form is now updated to reflect the new
roster sizes.
- Teams must select a minimum of 29 players (up from 26)
- Teams must fill 6 bench spots, 6 bullpen slots, and 3
spot pitcher spots
- Teams may pick as many as 45 players (up from 45)
- Not that you necessarily need the extra time, but the
Great Lakes League will be delayed a few more
days so that you can look at your draft list to check for
warning messages related to the new rules. New
deadline: Friday night at Midnight Pacific (on the site
that's 3 AM on 2/26/2022)
2/14/22
-
Redistribution Draft
2022 - Round 1 posted
- Major rule change - Roster sizes have increased
- This is an increase of the active roster from 26 to 29
players and the 40-man roster is now the 45-man roster
- Bench: increased from 5 hitters to 6
- Bullpen: increased from 5 pitchers to 6
- Spot pitchers: increased from 2 pitchers to 3
- Taxi squad: increased from 4 to 6
- There are several reasons behind this, including how MLB
teams use the IL and options, continuing expectations of
Covid situations, and the opportunity to have a few more
players with salary over 250.
- Each team received an extra 4000 in cash
to cover the larger roster - this was an estimated change
and eventually I'll reexamine the salary cap formula and may
adjust some more down the road if necessary.
- This takes effect immediately (the first round of the
Redist Draft used the new limits) but it's going to
take me a few days to change the lineup setting page, the
roster limits display and warnings and the Phase One draft
page for new leagues (you now need to pick a
minimum of 29 players, not 26
- I'm technically on vacation Feb. 15-22 so my ability to
conduct BWB operations may be limited in that time and responses
to questions might be slow.
2/11/22
- Redistribution Draft Lists due this Sunday -
February 13 - 5 PM EST
- If I'm going to wait until I have a chance to write up the
official rules changes in full, it looks like it might take me a
long time to post them. I'm going to wait on a couple of
announcements until after the first Redistribution Draft lists
are due, but here is another rule change for this season:
- For a long time, new leagues have begun play in BWB with
an initial salary cap 10000 higher than that season's
official cap. Starting this season, that first-year cap will
be 15000 above the normal cap.
- The 2022 cap is 38000, so teams in new leagues have
opened up with 53000 in the bank.
- However, while I added cash to the balances, I didn't
realize that I had to change the draft limits. The Great Lakes
League draft was done with warning messages if teams crossed
48000 in total salary. For that reason, I'm reopening the Great
Lakes League draft, so that you can take advantage of the higher
limit. The new deadline will be Tuesday night, Feb. 22 at
midnight EST.
- Great Lakes League Draft - Phase One Draft
- See the league
draft index for more information
- Deadline: Tuesday night, Feb 22 at midnight EST
1/29/22
- How do you pick players for the Redistribution Draft?
Visit your team roster and just above the list of players you'll
see the link "Choose Redistribution Draft Picks."
- 107 New players added to the game based on the 40-man
rosters
for MLB teams
- This is the only player addition until after
Opening Day
- To find them - In the filter/search area of the player
lists, look for the "New in 2022" menu -
See the list of new players
- The Great Lakes League is full - and
the draft list deadline is in 1 week - deadline is
Saturday night, Feb 5, midnight EST
1/28/22
- Results of carryover choices posted. View the
Transactions page to see
the cuts in your league.
- The 2022 Redistribution Draft is now open. You'll have
a little over
2
full weeks to make your selections - but that includes 3
weekends. Deadline is Sunday 2/13/22 at 5 PM EST.
- Why the odd time for a deadline? I'm traveling on Feb. 15th
and gone for a week so I need to make sure that I can post the
first results before I leave.
- Visit your team roster to see the link to begin making your
picks.
- For more information, see the rules regarding the
Redistribution Draft
- There are 2 weeks to do your list for Round 1, but you
should consider building for all 5 rounds - or at least as much
as you can, because if any of your listed picks/alternates are
gone by your turn in the order, we'll pull up picks from Round 2
and beyond to make sure you get 3 selections.
- After Feb 13, we post the results of only Round 1 only - any
drafted players will be removed from the remainder of your
lists.
- You'll have almost 2 weeks to redo draft lists (if you choose),
then we post the results of only Round 2 (again removing
drafted players from your rounds 3-5)
- Then one more week for an optional redo of your draft
lists, and we post the results of Rounds 3-5
- The season calendar of deadlines
is not yet updated for 2022, but the
deadlines for the Redistribution Draft are:
- Sunday evening 2/13 5 PM EST - First submission - we post results for Round
1
- Sun night 2/27 Midnight PST - Adjust your lists for Rounds 2-5 - we post
results for Round 2
- Sun night 3/6 Midnight PST - Adjust your lists for Rounds 3-5 - we post
results for the remaining 3 rounds
- Any players on your
Prospect Roster have been moved back to your 40-man roster.
You can begin to move players to prospect status again after the
Redistribution Draft.
- Note - the transaction order has not yet been updated to
move division winners into picks 13-16 of the draft order. That
will happen within a few days.
- The roster limit information on your team roster pages has
not yet been reverted back to normal limits from the 2021 Covid
exceptions - that also will come later in this coming week.
1/26/22
- I can't do the work tonight to process/post carryover
choices and there are a few things to work out with some of the
orphan teams along with some pending orphan adoptions, so I am
extending another 24 hours until Thursday night at
midnight Eastern.
-
Check all your
teams for status/errors
- My goal is to give you 3 full weekends to do the first
cut on the Redistribution Draft - so I intend to get the
results posted and the draft open by Friday.
- There are some rule changes coming, but the only one I've
revealed so far is that players will no longer be automatically
removed from the BWB player list if they sign in a foreign
league or other non-MLB-affiliated baseball. Players like that
will remain on the list as long as they continue to be held on
at least one BWB roster. However, if no team rosters that
player, he will be delisted.
1/22/22
- We've got a lot of
orphan teams (and some more on the way) -
and if you've got some extra time and can help out, I'm
looking for foster owners. You don't have to run
this team all year, but if you can most importantly help me out
with picking their roster cut downs this week and maybe start
off the Redistribution Draft, that would be a great help. Please
contact me if you're interested and let me know how many teams
you might like to take on. I'll set you up in leagues where you
don't currently have a team.
1/21/22
1/20/22
- Week 30 Transaction
Results Posted (Winter Trade Period #2) - The
deadline for roster cutdowns is extended out to
Wednesday, January 26 at Midnight Eastern
- Some of you have asked about your payment confirmation - I
have to go in and do that manually and it's just one of those
things I'm behind on this winter - I will check it soon and mark
you paid for your team and answer your emails if there are any
remaining questions.
1/19/22
- Player of the Year
rankings final. Cash
distributed to teams of players finishing in the top 3 of
each league. (This should have been set to award to the teams
that had the players at the end of the season before any trades.
If you see any mistakes let me know).
1/5/22
- Deadline modifications to give you some
more time:
- Winter trade period #2 moves back from Tuesday 1/11 to
Monday night, January 17th at midnight EST.
- Roster cutdown to 28 players moves back
from Monday 1/17 to Sunday night, January 23rd at
midnight EST.
- Planning ahead - Redistribution Draft first submission
will be due Sunday night, Feb. 13 (instead of 2/6)
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