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Benchwarmer News

3/16/26

  • Week -2 Transaction Results Posted
    • Next deadline - Week Zero: Tuesday night, March 24 at 7 PM Eastern (We're skipping Week -1)
  • All teams will get an extra 2000 in cash this week - it's not added to your balance yet, but if you're short on cash, you spend it as though you have it (your cash balance can go as low as -2000 in the hole in your transactions).
  • We're getting down to the wire for the final touches on your rosters heading into the season.
    • Because we are skipping Week -1, for this week you can sign up to 8 free agents instead of the normal 4.
    • After the Week Zero transactions - teams in returning leagues will lose any cash balance left over 5000 at that time (and then all teams get the extra 2000).  Starting a few 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 (3/15) or later does not have to quickly reduce (We're currently in Week Zero, 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
  • The Week 1 deadline will be on Sunday, March 29. That will be the final set for your Opening Day lineups. Since there will be a relatively short week after Week Zero, you might want to start prepping this week.

3/15/26

  • Check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers.
  • Transaction deadline is tonight (Sunday) extended to midnight Eastern
  • Transaction schedule after today...skipping a week back in January shortened the time available post-draft and I would have preferred at least 2 regular transaction weeks before Week Zero. Some teams might be in ready-to-go shape after the draft and some might need more help. Rather than try to squeeze in an extra week with short deadlines, the next transaction week we'll double the allowable picks from 4 to 8.
    • Week Zero - deadline Tuesday, March 24, 7 PM Eastern
      • I'm out of town March 20-23, so passing on a couple extra days to you
      • 8 rounds of free agent picks instead of 4
      • You need to sign players by this week for them to be on your roster for Opening Day.
      • Your team cash balances need to be at or below 5000 after processing transactions.
    • Week One - deadline Sunday, March 29. Time TBD
      • Setting your Opening Day lineups
      • Special last-chance opportunity to get your cash balances below 5000 using contract extensions
  • Estimating to post results Game 1 of the new season around April 2 or 3.
  • It probably goes without saying if you look at the calendar, but no new leagues for 2026.

Did You Know? BWB is now listed on John Skilton's Baseball Links

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3/11/26

  • THIS SHOULD NOW BE FIXED for cuts and trades: People have brought up that the salary rebate is not working for cut players. I've found the problem - the players carried over from last season (and not under multiyear contract) were not marked correctly as "paid this year." I will try to fix this later on Wednesday night. You do get an 80% salary rebate for cut players. This is affecting salary amounts in trades as well.

3/9/26

  • Redistribution Draft 2026 - Rounds 3-5 posted
  • We now move on to normal weekly transactions - we're going to have 3 weeks of transactions before you need to set your Opening Day lineups.
    • All transaction types are open - signings, cuts, trades, move to prospects, and contract extensions
    • Next deadline is for Week -2, Sunday night, March 15 at 7 PM Eastern
  • We have more time this season than in the last couple of years. We will enforce the maximum cash balance of 5000 heading into the season rule. Your team's cash balance needs to be at or below 5000 after Week Zero transactions (deadline March 26).
  • More details will be posted by Tuesday night on the remaining preseason transaction deadlines.
  • Those of you who have Shohei Ohtani on your teams now have an "extra Ohtani" on the roster to allow you to use one as a hitter and one as a pitcher.

3/1/26

2/23/26

  • I had some requests for more time on the readjustment of your draft lists - new deadline is Sunday, March 1 at 7 PM Eastern

2/18/26

2/14/26

  • Reminder - Deadline for your draft lists for the 2026 Redistribution Draft is tomorrow night - Sunday 2/15/26 at Midnight Eastern
  • Check for any errors in your draft! - View all of your teams' Redistribution Draft lists
  • I have 4 orphan teams without a foster owner - if you have time to crank out any more draft lists by Sunday night, let me know!

2/2/26

  • Results of carryover choices posted.  View the Transactions page to see the cuts in your league.
  • The 2026 Redistribution Draft is now open.  You'll have 2 weeks to make your first selections.  Deadline is Sunday 2/15/26 at Midnight Eastern
  • 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 almost 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 15, we post the results of only Round 1 only - any drafted players will be removed from the remainder of your lists.
    • You'll have another week to redo draft lists (if you choose), then we post the results of Round 2.
    • And then one final adjustment and we'll do Rounds 3-5.
  • The season calendar of deadlines is not yet updated for 2026, but the deadlines for the Redistribution Draft are:
    • Sunday evening 2/15 Midnight EST - First submission - we post results for Round 1
    • Sunday night 2/22 Midnight EST - Adjust your lists for Rounds 2-5 - we post results for Round 2
    • Sunday night 3/1 Midnight EST - Adjust your lists for Rounds 3-5 - we post results for the remainder of the draft
  • 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.

1/31/26

  • Check the carryover status for all your teams - Deadline is tomorrow night at midnight Eastern
  • Here are the available orphan teams for the 2026 season. Email me if you want to pick up a team.
  • 2026 Orphan Special - repeating 2025's offer
    • All adopted orphan teams in 2026 are FREE
    • Teams adopted by owners who are playing for the 1st time in 2026 - or previous owners reactivating in 2026:
      • Your adopted orphan will also be free in 2027
      • You'll get an extra bonus free team in 2027 that you can use to draft a team in a new league or pick up an additional orphan in 2026.
      • Want to join BWB? Sign up here
  • I also need foster owners. If you don't want to adopt a team outright, but you can help me get the team ready for the 2026 season, let me know. Your extra time commitment can vary:
    • Foster only until Feb. 1 to choose the roster cuts
    • Stay through the Redistribution Draft to choose new players for the team
    • Stick around and take care of the team in the regular season until someone (hopefully) adopts the team
  • More coming on new leagues for 2026 in the next few days

1/11/26

  • Week Thirty Transactions Posted (2nd winter trade period)
  • Time to finalize your roster carryover/cut decisions - deadline is Sunday night, January 25 at midnight Eastern
  • Any players that have officially retired have been automatically removed from rosters and from the player list (Andrew Heaney is a prime example)
  • 99 New players added to the game based on the 40-man rosters for MLB teams as of late December.
    • This is the only player addition until after Opening Day
    • This includes some former major leaguers who played in foreign leagues and the 3 Japanese players who posted and signed
    • To find them - In the filter/search area of the player lists, look for the "New in 2026" menu - See the list of new players
    • While we're in the cutdown period and Redistribution Draft, you can also view players who were added in Week 25 in 2025. Since the last free agent signings were in Week 24, these players have not yet been available to sign.

1/3/26

  • Some deadline changes/extensions, based on some of my availability to run the transactions:
    • Current trade deadline extended to Sunday, January 11 at 7 PM EST
    • Roster carryover deadline changed to Sunday, January 25.
    • I'll have something posted later on the changes to the other deadlines.
    • Later today/tonight, I will switch all open trade offers that expired on a January 4 action deadline to be January 11.

12/17/25

11/25/25

  • Someday, I hope I can fix the email issues for our domain so it's not rejected as spam and you can receive notification about trade offers. For now, check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers.

11/23/25

  • We're open for business for the 2026 season:
    • Please let us know if you're keeping each of your teams in 2026. Deadline is January 4 or we assume the unanswered teams become Orphans.
    • Player retention decisions for 2026 can now be made from your team roster pages.  Deadline to complete this is expected to be Sunday, January 11 - if you have a lot of teams, don't wait!!
    • Trades are now open for a 3-week trading period, ending on Sunday, December 14.  Following that will be another 3-week trade period open through January 4.
    • If you were a foster owner in 2025, I've left you with your foster teams for now. If you want to change that, there is a separate section for foster teams on the page you use to say yes/no to coming back next season.
  • 2026 player salaries are final - Premium salary adjustments have been applied
  • 2026 player positions are updated but not final
    • Any player showing an "x" in their position didn't have any MLB stats in 2025, so I need to go back in and check what they did in the minors in 2025 (or maybe they didn't play at all and might be removed from the list) - their positions may change.
    • That usually takes a lot of time and I hope to be finished sometime in the spring.
  • Salary cap cash has been distributed.  The 2026 salary cap is 40857 (was 39106 in 2024).  The actual amount given to each league is enough to get the team with the least cash in the league up to the cap amount.
  • I'll work on getting the team payment info set up soon (for both 2025 and 2026). Don't send me anything yet.
  • Look for info on new leagues within the next week or two

11/19/25

  • Here's an updated plan to get us to 2026:
    • This weekend (Sat or Sun) - 2026 salaries and positions ready and the salary cap calculated. Once that's all posted, we'll open up teams to confirm returning in 2026 and start the 2 winter trade periods and you picking your players to keep on the roster
    • Sunday 12/14/25: Deadline for trade period 1. This should be close to 3 weeks to trade.
    • Sunday 1/4/26: Deadline for trade period 2. Another 3-week stretch.
    • Sunday 1/11/26: Deadline for roster carryover decisions. It's only a week after the last trade deadline, but you shouldn't wait until then to start. You should have close to 7 full weeks to make your changes.
    • Sunday 2/1/26: Deadline for the 1st submission of the Redistribution Draft
    • Sunday 2/15/26: Deadline to adjust Redistribution Draft for rounds 2-5
    • Sunday 2/22/26: Deadline to adjust draft lists for rounds 3-5
    • Sunday 3/1/26: Free agency and trades open
    • Sunday 3/22/26: Week Zero transaction deadline when you need to have a legal roster.
    • Sunday 3/28/26: Week 1 lineups due.
    • Scattered in between I hope to have new leagues up and running and drafting.

11/17/25

11/11/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2025 - Final Championship Results: Lamoureux Mighty Dekes (Original Six League) defeated NYC2ATL Jr. Blackbirds (Four Star League) 4 games to 3
    • Congratulations to team owner Sherman Wan
    • This is Sherman's 1st win after 5 times as the runner up
    • Sherman won 2 league championships in 2025 and had 4 teams in the field of 128 that started out the Bash
    •  Also congratulations to runner-up Ricardo Alexander, stopped in his quest for a 5th straight Bash title

11/10/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2025 - Semifinals completed - All games posted.  Championship round coming on Tuesday.
  • We're down to our final two teams. NYC2ATL and Lamoureux were victorious in the semifinals:
    • Lamoureux (87-63, Original Six, Power Rank 150) - Sherman Wan  vs. NYC2ATL (109-41, Four Star, Power Rank 1) - Ricardo Alexander
    • It's different teams for both, but it's a finals rematch for the team owners from last year.
    • Ricardo has won the Bash for the last 4 years with different teams. Sherman has never come out on top in the Bash, but has been runner up 5 times.
    • Neither league has had a Bash winner before.

11/9/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2025 - Quarterfinals complete. Games 1-7 posted. Semifinals on Monday.
  • Previewing the Bash:
    • There are 8 teams remaining - 3 league champions and 5 wild card teams
    • None of the franchises in the field have won the Bash before, although 2 owners have won with different teams - Ricardo Alexander and Leif Jonson. Ricardo has won the Bash for the last 4 years.
    • There are no repeats from last season as Federation champions.
    • Federation titles by seed:
      • 1st: 4
      • 2nd: 2
      • 3rd: 1
      • 4th: 1
    • Owners with multiple teams in final 8:
      • 3 teams: Ricardo Alexander
    • Our top seed based on BWB's power ranking, is NYC2ATL (Four Star) with an Power Index of 1. For the first time since 2021, the #1 team made the field. 3 of the top 10 teams for Power Index are in the final 8.
    • Atlanta (Game Night) has a BWB Power Index of 189, which is the lowest-ranked team to make the Bash quarterfinals.

11/6/25

11/5/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2025 - Federation Semifinals Games 1-7 posted.
  • Finals coming on Thursday
  • Previewing the Federation round:
    • There are 32 teams in the Federation field - 21 league champions and 11 wild card teams
    • 1 of the teams, Kingston (Marxball), has won the Benchwarmer Bash in the past (twice).
    • 8 of the teams have previously won a Federation title, with 2 of the 2024 winners looking to repeat (Chandeliers from Bronx Bombers and NYC2ATL from Phightin' Phils)
    • 2 of the 16 semifinal series have an owner with teams on both sides of the matchup. The owners are Robert Elias (one as a foster owner) and Ricardo Alexander
    • Owners with multiple teams in the Federation round of the Benchwarmer Bash:
      • 6 teams: Ricardo Alexander and Jason Kiernan
      • 3 teams: Robert Elias (plus 1 more as a foster owner), Jerry King
      • 2 teams: Bill Munger and Sherman Wan
      • 7 other owners have a single team

11/4/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash - Association Round Recap
    • Association titles by seed:
      • 1st: 10
      • 2nd: 4
      • 3rd: 9
      • 4th: 10
    • 21 titles were won by league champions, 11 by wild cards
    • For our league championship rematches mentioned below on 11/2, Elsinore won again while NYC2ATL avenged their finals loss.
    • 18 teams came in with a chance to repeat from 2024 and 5 of them did

11/3/25

11/2/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2025 - Association semifinals are complete: Games 4-7 posted.
  • Association finals coming on Monday.
  • Notes heading into the Association Finals:
    • Second time around, flip a coin. Below we noted that 9 semifinal matchups were repeats of league championships. Just over half - 5 series - went to the league runner up this time.
    • 10 of the 32 finals matchups feature teams in the same league. This time there are 3 repeats of conference championship series and 2 league championship rematches:
      • Blame Canada: Alberta (Michael Rudolph) vs Elsinore (Jerry King). Elsinore won the league championship 4-3
      • Four Star: NYC2ATL (Ricardo Alexander) vs Upstream (Jim Duzyk). Upstream won 4-3
    • In the Association finals we have 1 of the 32 series with an owner playing against himself: Jerry King has both teams in the finals of the Josh Gibson Association.

11/1/25

10/31/25

  • Benchwarmer Bash - Games start on Saturday. Matchups are posted for the Association Semifinals - see the Benchwarmer Bash page and look for "Association Results" links within each Federation block - Quick links to those pages coming tomorrow.
  • Previewing the Bash:
    • There are 128 teams in the Association field - 68 league champions and 60 wild card teams
    • 5 franchises in the field have previously won a Bash title, including last year's champion NYC2ATL Yankees from Chevy Chase League (Ricardo Alexander) and there are 4 previous runners up.
    • He's done it with 3 different teams...Ricardo Alexander has won the last four Bash championships.
    • 24 of the teams have previously won a Federation title, with 4 of 2024's 8 Federation winners attempting a repeat this year.
    • 44 of the teams have previously won an Association title (a level of competition that started in 2019), 18 of 2024's 32 Association winners are in the field again this year.
    • Of the 64 first-round Association matchups, 20 feature teams from the same league playing each other. Several are playoff rematches:
      • There is 1 rematch of conference championships
      • We have 9 league championship rematches:
        • B Movie Actor: Brisco County (John Hula) vs Fantasy (Orphan with foster owner Anthony C). Fantasy won the league title 4-2
        • Beer: Maiden's (Derrick Silensky) vs Duff (Leif Jonson). Duff won 4-2
        • Birdland: J-town (Keith Rudy) vs Ocean City (John Hula). Ocean City won 4-0
        • Geek Pride: Welcome to (Jamie Reese) vs Loco (Michael Quinn). Loco won 4-2
        • Original Six: Montreal (Michael Rudolph) vs Lamoureux (Sherman Wan). Lamoureux won 4-0
        • Steel City: Carnegie (Dave Matter) vs Clean (Orphan with foster owner Robert Elias). Clean won 4-2
        • That's the Fact Jack: Kingston (Ricardo Alexander) vs Fort Knox (Michael Quinn). Fort Knox won 4-3
        • They Might Be Giants: Belgium (Jon Swanson) vs McCovey Cove (Jason Kiernan). McCovey Cove won 4-2
        • White Elephant: Run Rickey (Sherman Wan) vs Mustache (Dave Matter). Mustache won 4-3
    • 2 of the 64 first-round series have an owner with teams on both sides of the matchup - Jason Kiernan and Dave Matter
    • Owners with multiple teams in the Association round of the Benchwarmer Bash:
      • 15 teams: Jason Kiernan and Dave Matter
      • 14 teams: Ricardo Alexander
      • 9 teams: Jim Duzyk, Michael Quinn, and Michael Rudolph
      • 7 teams: Jerry King
      • 6 teams: Robert Elias (plus 1 more as a foster owner for an orphan team)
      • 5 teams: Bill Munger
      • 4 teams: Leif Jonson, Jon Swanson, and Sherman Wan
      • 3 teams: David Henning, John Hula, and Ken Stevenson
      • 2 teams:  Craig Burke, Anthony C (plus 1 more as a foster owner for an orphan), and Greg Flees
      • 11 other owners have a single team

10/26/25

  • Congratulations to BWB team owners who won multiple league championships in 2025: (see how this compares to last year)
    • 14 titles: Jason Kiernan (out of 18 conference champions)
    • 12 titles: Ricardo Alexander (14)
    • 7 titles: Michael Quinn (8)
    • 5 titles: Dave Matter (12)
    • 4 titles: Jim Duzyk (8), Robert Elias, including 1 as a foster owner (from 7 conference champs, plus 2 as an foster owner of orphan teams), Bill Munger (5), Jerry King (4)
    • 3 titles: Leif Jonson (4)
    • 2 titles: Greg Flees (2), Ken Stevenson (3), Sherman Wan (9)
    • 2 orphan teams won league championships this season
  • 33 of 2024's 68 league champions won their division again this season. 12 completed the journey to a repeat league championship.
  • Two teams have repeated for more than 2 seasons
    • 5 straight championships:
      • Marxball: Kingston (Ricardo Alexander)
    • 3 straight championships:
      • Game Night: Atlanta (Ricardo Alexander)

See the News Archive for older headlines.