Benchwarmer Baseball - A Year Round Proposition

This is a re-posting of an entry from November 2009...with new dates added.

Sure, you're probably still working on your fantasy football teams - and maybe you've got basketball and hockey going on too...but Benchwarmer Baseball keeps you active throughout the winter.

Quick note - some dates below might be in flux...the ones below represent a push back in some dates.  They will not be moved any earlier.

What should you be doing from now until Opening Day?

Trade with other teams - We run 2 fall trading sessions...the deadlines are Dec. 3 and Dec.17.  Did you keep a player under contract that you now regret?  Do you have too many high-priced players?  Do you need a lot of help for your team?  Do you want to address a position of weakness NOW?  This is the only chance to trade until after the Redistribution Draft in February.  Because nobody's paid salaries for 2011 yet, there's no cash assumption/rebate on salaries right now.  The team picking up the player will be 100% responsible for the salaries later in December.  Also - since there are no cuts right now, you temporarily do not have to worry about roster sizes and limits.

Choose players to keep - You can keep up to 28 players for your 2011 roster.  You don't have to keep that many (or any at all!).  But, if you have any players on your rosters with contracts for 2011 or beyond, you are obligated to keep them.  Once the cuts are processed, you will get charged for the 2011 salaries - so you need to pick your carry overs with these things in mind:

• Your roster must be legal.  You obviously won't be over 40 total players, but you must fit in the limits for hitters/pitchers making more than 250.
• The cash you have now is all you'll get.  Whatever you leave yourself is all you'll have for the Redistribution Draft and free agency until Opening Day.
• In January-March, if you end up deciding to cut a player you originally carried over into 2011, you do get a salary rebate - but only at 50%.
• Carryover choices are due Friday, Dec.31
• Use the table of information below your team roster to give you some guidance on whether or not your roster will be legal and how much cash you'll have left with your current set of cuts.

Pick Players in the Redistribution Draft - Once the players cut from rosters go back into the free agent pool, our first operation is to run the Redistribution Draft.  This is an optional exercise, but is your chance to pick up free agents (and new prospects added to the player list in December).  Teams pick in reverse order of 2010 finish...and get three players at a time.  We run the draft for 5 rounds, so that's 15 selections you can make.  Obviously, this is a chance for the lower-finishing teams to pick up good players or prospects.  Don't miss the chance.  Your picks for the Redistribution Draft will be due Sunday, January 16.

Free Agency and Trading - After we process the Redistribution Draft (sometime in late January), we go into weekly free agent pickups and trades again through the end of March.  This is where you put the finishing touches on your roster for your championship run in 2011.  Current plans should give you 9-10 weeks of transactions between the draft and the start of the season.

Set your Opening Day Lineup - Date TBD

Long Term Proposition

OK, so you're 1/3 through the 2010 season and your team sucks.  Maybe you're in the group of us that after 50 games our team hasn't reached double-digit wins or just made it (I do mean "us"...my team in Beer League was a division winner in 2009 and has a whopping 12-39 record this season...17 GB).

While in a typical league, you might just cash out your time and wait for next season.  But - assuming that you plan to come back and give it another shot in 2011 (go "worst to first"!), why put effort into the rest of 2010?

The future.

First - you earn $30,000 per win for your team.  You can use that for contract extensions this season - or grabbing extra prospects if your cash is low - or saving for 2011 player salaries.

Second - First Round draft picks.  Take advantage of your bad record and high weekly transaction position to grab the top draft pick (or whatever one you want) in the recent MLB draft.  We'll probably add those players into the system for the Week 12 transactions.  If you were a bad team in 2009 paying attention, you might have just added Stephen Strasburg to your rotation if you grabbed him last summer.

Third - other callups throughout the season.  Perhaps your team wasn't celebrating Strasmas, but another highly-touted rookie made his debut on June 8.  Since he doesn't exist in the BWB system yet, we'll be adding him for the Week 11 transactions.  Pay attention throughout the season and you may grab some gems.  And even if you don't have the top weekly pick in your league, it can still be worth a try - maybe the worst teams in your league actually have checked out.

Grabbing these new players may end up paying off right away - or not for another year or two - or never at all.  But staying active when you have the advantage of pick position can set you up nicely down the road.

Rounds in weekly transactions

I guess I never saw this as a confusing issue, but I've received several questions this spring about trying to sign free agents and then being asked to assign them to a "round."

So...think of it this way.  Every week when we do transactions, it's like a four-round mini-draft.  With the round number, you are ranking your choices.  When we process the transactions we run through the picks round by round in that week's transaction order (during the season, the order is set from worst to first in overall record).  If you play in a league that processes free agent pickups via a waiver order, it's the same thing - though you may not see it presented the same way.  For example, I know that in the CBS leagues in which I play - the commissioner approves picks team by team - in the defined waiver order.  But I just have to list them in the order I want - not put "round numbers."

Doing it round by round allows to add some extra things - like an alternate pick if your primary choice is already gone - or a contingent release that only gets processed if you pick up that player.

Still confused?  Check out a few weeks of the transaction report for your league(s) and you'll see how the 4 rounds play out.  Just click "Transactions" in the navigation bar at the top of any page.

Multiyear Contracts

If you're new to BWB this season - or want some reminders, you should review the rules and notes about contract extensions before you attempt to use them.

See past postings on contract extensions

This is often a confusing aspect for new players.  Take some time to see how it works if you're not sure.

Above all - you must have the full cash balance on hand to pay the entire contract.  And you never get that money back if you cut/trade away the player.

Orphan School - Lesson 3: Cash

A continuing series to allow new owners of Orphan teams to catch up:

Some of you might be launching into transactions right away this week.  That's great, but just a few notes about cash and player salaries before you find yourself in a hole.  See Rules: Finances for full details.  You may think you have a roster full of dead weight, but there are financial implications of transactions you should be aware of before you start cutting guys.  Sometimes, you may have to work around roster problems you inherited in creative ways.

Make sure you read the rebate exceptions at the bottom of this post.

How teams get cash:

• All teams got 40-plus million distributed to them in December.
• All teams get 2 million at Opening Day.
• There's an extra million handed out at the end of May, June, and July.
• In small amounts, you get cash for every win plus there is cash distribution each week dependent upon your place in the division.
• Teams get cash for final division placement and post-season results.

That's pretty much it.

On the other hand, your team has already paid the salaries of every team on your roster.  Every time you sign a player from here on out, you will also need to pay that salary right away.  But here's a "bonus" of sorts: if you cut a player, you get some sort of salary rebate.  (Same thing goes on salaries when you pick up a player in a trade or trade away a player).

Salary assumption and rebates are based on a sliding scale depending on how much is left in the season - take a look at the Weekly Transaction Deadlines for the season.  The 3 columns on the right of the deadlines table show you the salary percentage you have to pick up or get back in transactions.

So, in February, as you sign players, you need to pay 100% of their listed salary.  BUT, you'll only get 50% of a salary back if you cut a player.  Take a look at Week Zero - April 5....at that point the salary rebate goes to 80% (why the difference?  When we started the game, salary rebate in the off season was zero...a rule change put it up to 50%).  So, you never get 100% of a salary back when you cut a guy - 80% is the maximum.  There are 25 weeks in the regular season, so essentially we cut off 4% from the value each week.  When we get to Week 15, the 40% mark, there are 2 important changes: a) all signings the rest of the season are at 40% of salary and b) no more salary rebates.

Trades are a slightly different story - right now if you trade a player away you get 100% of the player's salary in rebate.  And later in the season, when we hit Week 15, the salary rebate/assumption for trades continues to decrease each week by 4%.

So, at the moment, there is more financial benefit to you to trade a player away than cut one.  This is also a way that you can fill out your roster if you're short on cash - trade away one expensive player for a couple of cheaper ones (etc.).  More on that another time.

Two important exceptions on salary rebates:

1. For players with salary 200 or below, you NEVER get a rebate when you cut them.
2. Contracts...do you have a "2010" or "2011" in the Contract column for a player in your roster?  This is important....this player was signed to a "long-term contract" in 2009 or earlier.  At that time, a cash amount was paid for the entire length of the contract.  Until that time runs out (so 2010 = the 2010 season), no more cash needs to be paid for him.  BUT - you never get a salary rebate for cutting or trading away a player on a multi-year contract.  Be aware of that before you start getting rid of these guys thinking you'll get extra cash.  Contracts are a much deeper subject - you should read the rules about them.

Again, if you're short on cash, you can use contracts to your benefit in trades.  Pick up a player from another team who has a contract for 2010 and trade away a guy who doesn't have a contract.  You get a salary rebate for trading away your guy and not have to pay anything for the guy you're getting.

One final note - if you're on the other end of the cash balance scale, there is a "use it or lose it" aspect of cash to retain a competitive balance.  You can only carry a balance of 5 million (listed as 5000 on your roster page) into the season.  Anything above that will be cut off in early April.

Orphan School - Lesson 2: The Roster

In a continuing series to help Orphan Team owners get up to speed...

See the BWB Rules about Rosters to cover this topic.  (a new tab/window will open)

There are 26 mandatory positions on your roster:

• 9 starting batters - covering all 8 fielder positions plus DH (any OF will do)
• 5 backup batters - fill in at a given position in a game if needed.  We'll talk bench on another day, but you want to cover all positions here, so multi-position guys are valuable.
• 5 starting pitchers - your starting rotation ordered 1-5
• 5 bullpen pitchers - the scoring formula outlines how many of these are needed in any game if your starting pitcher doesn't go 9 innings.
• 2 spot pitchers - If your scheduled starter doesn't have stats for a game, a spot starter will fill in from here.  You can also put a relief pitcher in here too who will fill in if any of your 5 bullpen guys don't have stats.

Those 26 slots can be filled by any player in the system, no matter their salary.
You also have 2 roster slots for the "Taxi Squad" and any player with any salary can go in these slots.  This is, in effect, our "disabled list" but you can put any player there - he doesn't have to be hurt.  However, his stats will never be used for a game (except for the last 3 weeks of the season, that's an exception for another time).

So you have 28 roster spots that can be filled by a player of any salary - 100-10000 (or whatever the top salary might be).

Side note: Injured Reserve is not your normal disabled list.  If you put a player on IR, you cannot remove him from there all year except if you cut or trade him.  You'd use that for some guy who wrecked his knee in April but you want him next year.  The IR spot does NOT count against your roster spots (so it basically gives you a 41st player if you use it).

Your final 12 roster spots are "minor league" slots.  And in BWB, our definition of minor league eligible is a player who has a salary of 250 or below.  So Matt Stairs just signed a minor league contract in real life and if he starts off there instead of the majors (and for some reason you have him), you still can't put him in your minor league slots - his salary is 408.  Think of these guys as "out of options" - you have to DFA them, you can't send them down...and in BWB that means if you want to get them out of an active spot you need to put them on IR (never to be used again this season), put them on Taxi Squad, or cut/trade them.

To help you out, there are some guides on your roster page.  Right above your player list, you'll see any warnings about your lineup and roster:

And below your roster list, there is a table that lets you know how you're set up on roster minimums and maximums - let's check it for a different team:

 

 The left side of this table shows the minimums.  This team has the minimum number of hitters - 14 - so if he cuts one, he'd need to pick up another to remain legal.  On the right side, we see roster maximums in relation to the number of hitters with salary over 250 you can have.  Your maximums are 16 hitters with salary 250 or higher and 14 pitchers at 250 or higher.  But then why doesn't the total add up to 30?  That's because in order to reach the maximum, you need to use the taxi squad slots, which are pitcher or hitter.  Your mandatory spots in the roster are 14 hitters, 12 pitchers (26 total).  Using the 2 taxi squad spots gets you 2 extra positions for players (now the total is 28) and all other roster spots - 12 total - are "minor league" slots.  

The team above can now only sign players who make salary 250 or below.

And - think about it - this roster is full on the major league side.  If this team signs a player with salary 100 now, but wants to use him in the starting lineup, there is no room - the 28 possible slots for players with salary 251 or higher are full - so in order to play the rookie, one of the higher-priced guys need to be dropped.

Orphan School - Lesson 1A: The BWB Primer

Last spring, I posted a series of articles called the BWB Primer

You can check that out for expanded commentary beyond the rules.  Taking over an orphan team, some of the topics may not yet make sense, but take a look and it might be of some help.

Orphan School - Lesson One: The Game Itself

There are several brand new Benchwarmer owners taking over Orphan teams this season and you're putting yourself into a game where probably 13-15 of the 16 teams in your league are back for their 2nd BWB season...or maybe their 10th.  So as we proceed to Opening Day, you've got to make some decisions and moves (or refrain from moves) against experienced foes.

So let's quickly start off with what you're trying to do - win games.
And let's look at a sample of that....go to http://www.benchwarmerbaseball.net/season/schedule.asp?lg=A1

This is the final week schedule of the 2009 season in the Hall of Fame League - our charter league in BWB (started back in 2000).  Each week in BWB, you play 6 games.  Each game is scored individually.

In the upper left corner of the schedule - right under the heading Game 145, you'll see that Michigan beat New Fairfield 3-2.  Click the "Box" link just to the right of that and you'll find the game box score.

Let's not deal with the specifics of the scoring formula here, but just deal with what you see in the box score.  Each week, you'll set a starting lineup of 9 hitters - and you put them in order 1-9 - and they must fill all the 8 standard fielding spots plus DH (we don't care about specific OF positions).

If you look at the very bottom of the box score page, you'll see that the performances for Major League game #150 were used for this game (yeah, it's Game 145 in BWB....that's another story...but the important thing here is that it's a single MLB game mapped to a single BWB game).  Whatever your players did in that game goes into our scoring formula.

Notice in Michigan's lineup that after Carlos Ruiz there's a "(B5)" listed?  In that game, Michigan's starting catcher did not appear in the corresponding MLB game.  So, we grabbed a catcher from the bench.  Each team has a 5-person bench, so you want to try to cover all the positions.  What about the 3rd slot in Michigan's order - it says "Benchwarmer First Baseman"?  Well, Michigan's starting 1B did not play that day and he didn't have an eligible guy on the bench for 1B who played either.  So the Benchwarmer filled in - went 0-5, and even worse, had 2 errors.

As you look at the very bottom of the box score, you'll see the "Raw Scores for the game and this shows how the game score came about.  Games in Benchwarmer are a combination of your hitting score and your opponent's pitching score.  The team with the highest Total Raw Score wins the game - we just round them to integers to make them appear as runs.

At the moment, don't get too wound up in the scoring formula itself.  What you're doing in Benchwarmer Baseball is essentially - build the best "baseball" team you can with the amount of money you have to spend and put them into a solid batting order and pitching rotation.  And make sure you have bench players who can fill holes when they're needed (so if you can fill your bench with real-life starters, that's best).

As we continue this week and beyond, I'll make some suggestions on how to proceed with your roster as we enter free agency - whether you've got a lot of cash to spend or not.  I would say generally don't make a lot of rash decisions this first week.  15 other guys in your league may be waiting to take advantage of you.