Season Schedule

Regular Season

Teams will play a regular season of 150 games.  Teams are divided into two conferences.  Each conference will have two divisions.   

Schedule Breakdown

• Play 18 games against each of the other three teams in your division. (54 games)
• 12 games against each of the four teams in the other division of your conference. (48 games)
• 6 games against each of the eight teams in the opposing conference. (48 games)

The performance of a player in a fantasy game is directly obtained from the real major league game.  However, since teams play on different days the schedule deals with game numbers, not game dates.  That is, in a team's first fantasy game of the season, the performances of the players are based upon the first real game that their major league teams play.  Game 40 of the fantasy season is based upon game 40 of the major league season.

Example: A team owns both Ken Griffey and Derek Jeter.  For fantasy game 100, those players would be scored depending upon how Griffey does in the 100th game for Cincinnati, while Jeter would be scored according to the Yankees' 100th game, despite the fact that those might be several days apart.

Should a player be traded to a team that has already played more games than his original team, unfortunately that span of games is lost for the player.  If he is traded to a team with fewer total games, his original games with his original team will count until the new team has played enough games.  This also includes games he spent on the bench in real life.

The regular season will cover major league games 1-150.  If a position player does not play in a particular major league game, he will not "play" in the corresponding fantasy game.  Pitchers work a little differently (see Lineups for more details).

Each week of the fantasy season will cover 6 games.  That creates a regular season schedule of 25 weeks.  Lineups and roster changes are submitted once per week.

Postseason

Following the regular season, the division champions of each conference will meet in a best-of-seven championship series.  The winners will meet in a best-of-seven league championship series.

Since the very end of the season can often be a time of resting for the playoffs and calling up the minor leaguers, the playoffs will use major league games a little differently.  Instead of using games 151-162 for the playoffs, random games from throughout the season will be used.

Previously, the first round of playoff games used random games from each 10-game span from games 1-70.  The second round of playoffs used a similar pattern from games 80-150.  (See Rules - Season Schedules for details).  While this provides a very clear picture of when players will be available, many people commented that a hot player in the second half of the season does that team absolutely no good in the first playoff round.

So, sacrificing a little predictability for a better chance of using those second-half performances, the post-season schedule will be modified in this way.

Note: Games 1-7 indicate the first round of the playoffs.  Games 8-14 are for the second round.

1. Game one will be a random game drawn from major league games 1-160.
2. The ten-game span including that randomly picked game will be recorded.  (For example, if game 54 is picked, the 10-game span is 51-60).
3. Pitching performances will be selected from that ten-game span in this manner:
   1. A random number: 1, 2, or 3, will be picked, indicating which start from that span to use for the scheduled starter.  If 3 is picked and there is no 3rd start, a random selection of 1 or 2 will be used instead.
   2. Using the same random 1-3, relief appearances will use games 1-6, 3-8, or 5-10 of that span accordingly.
4. Once a given 10-game span is used, it will no longer be available for use throughout the playoffs.

Thus, the playoff schedule still adheres to a season-long approach toward games, but allows for some variation in when those games are used.