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).

Open Comment Thread for Potential Rule Change - Weekly Transactions

This is a call for comments on a potential rule change for 2013.  Currently weekly transactions are limited to 4 rounds of free agent signings.

• Should that number be increased?  To what?
• Should it be unlimited?

The 4-round approach comes from the model game for BWB, Robot Baseball.  At the time, owners submitted transactions onto bubble sheets that had to be scanned - that required some kind of limit.  When I started BWB, I was processing all transactions by hand, but that's now mostly automated.  Theoretically, on the web this could now be set to a higher or even unlimited number.

In some situations, the 4-round limit can make it take several weeks to redo/rebuild a team.  4 rounds of submissions do not guarantee 4 successful awarded picks.  When a team is dealing with a rash of injuries or taking over an abandoned team, more drastic changes may be desired.

Possible unintended consequences:

• Benchwarmer has been a mix of rabid/casual players.  The once per week nature of transactions and lineups means that people don't have to log in daily to change their team.  Missing a week of transactions can be costly, but currently doesn't have to be deemed critical since other teams are limited in the number of players that they can pick up.
• Benchwarmer has typcially had slow gradual changes to teams as opposed to massive overhauls, an approach I generally like.
• If transactions are unlimited or at a high number, it is possible that a team or collection of teams, if highly motivated, could corner the market on first-round draft picks/September callups when they are added to the game - rather than be limited to 4 per week.

BWB is not yet endorsing this change - but instead exploring owner sentiment for the current system.


Please use the comments section for this post to weigh in with your opinion.