Saturday, March 23, 2013

2013 Rule Changes - Tightening up lineup/rotation moves

It's a lot of words to try to explain this - but in response to some complaints about teams being able to cycle pitchers in and out of the rotation after knowing the actual MLB result (and confirmation that it was possible and was being done), there are three major adjustments:
  • Better research into the 2013 MLB scheduling and how it hits BWB deadlines
  • Tracking the actual date when players first get added to a team's rotation/starting lineup
  • Clearing out the queued starts when a pitcher moves from spot starter to the rotation.
See http://www.benchwarmerbaseball.net/rules/rulechanges/rule_changes_13.asp for the exhaustive explanation.

There might be some tinkering and fixing, but this is an actual change, not a proposed change - it's been in formulation since October/November 2012.

Dates will be tracked now on your lineup changes - you can play around with it a little bit during the last week of March to check out the effects.  All lineups will be adjusted to March 31 at the start of the season.

But comment below if you'd like.  For about 95% of you, you will not notice anything.

** Under contemplation partially as a result of this change but also just the way my schedule works now - we may set transaction/lineup times to Noon Eastern and push back one day on the current schedule (so Week 1 deadline would be Sunday 4/7 at noon instead of Saturday night 4/6 at midnight Pacific).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jon, I do not have issue with these rules changes as they do correct a method of manipulation of SP starts. However, it would have been beneficial if these changes were made earlier in the offseason as they do affect owner decisions in trades and acquisitions. I understand you probably have a lot on your plate and we appreciate all your hard work. Jesse

Mike said...

Agree with Jesse - it would have been nice to have a whole season/offseason to prepare a different type of roster if needed. That is my only quibble though - if it was put in place for 2014 opening day and announced when you did, no problem at all.

-Mike

swanjon said...

Fair enough. Should have been communicated earlier - I was concentrating on solving the tech/web piece first.

I'm not sure how it really affects roster construction, however...

Mike said...

Quality vs. quantity, for me. But that could be a fundamental roster decision for people anyway. For instance, pay bigger $$ for a 5th starter and just have nobodies as spot starters, or have three potential lottery picks, knowing a big start from any of them can be streamed?