Benchwarmer News

5/1/25

• There is a bug in the roster limits checking if you have Ohtani on your roster. The transaction warning messages that you will see are based on counting Ohtani batter and Ohtani pitcher as 2 players - but it's really only 1. Even if you don't have any signings/drops, if your roster is at 45 players, you'll see an error as though you're going to have 46. For now, if you have Ohtani on your team, you're going to need to do a little manual roster limit checking. I'll see if I can fix that this summer.

4/22/25

• Check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers
• 2 weeks in - we've got 6 teams at 12-0 and 2 teams still looking for their first win at 0-12.

4/21/25

• It's a little early in the season - 24/25ths of the regular season still remains - but here's our 1-page look at comparing teams across all the leagues in the BWB universe: Around BWB
• After 1 week of play, we've got 47 undefeated teams at 6-0 and 40 winless teams at 0-6.

4/19/25

• More Games! - Week 1 complete - Games 4-6 posted
• And we have games! - Week 1 underway - Games 1-3 posted

4/16/24

• We're (almost) ready to start playing games - I need to process Week 2 transactions tonight
  • We have a 2025 schedule!
  • See the the full league schedule for the whole season
  • See your team's complete schedule
• If all goes well and as planned, Game 1 should be up on Thursday and the remainder of Week 1 after that
• Weekly deadlines for transactions and lineups

4/7/25

• A big batch of new positions added to players.
• Check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers

4/5/25

• Week Zero Transactions Posted  - sorry for the delay - there were a lot of teams that needed to have players added to get to a legal roster.
• Next deadline - Week One: Wed, April 9 at 7 PM Eastern
• Expected deadlines beyond that:
  • Week 2: Saturday, April 12, time TBD
  • Week 3: Tuesday, April 17, 7 PM EDT
• All teams received an extra 2000 in cash this week

3/29/25

• Week Minus One Transactions Posted
• Next deadline - Week Zero: Wednesday night, April 2 at 7 PM Eastern.
• Expected deadline for Week 1 transactions and lineups is now Sunday, April 6 at 1 PM EDT.
• With the short time between Week Zero and Week One, work on getting your lineups/rotations close to ready for Opening Day.
• 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 up to -2000 in the hole in your transactions).

3/20/25

• Redistribution Draft 2025 - Rounds 2-5 posted
  • Redistribution Draft is complete
  • Quick view of the players added to all your rosters this week via the draft
• We now move on to normal weekly transactions - we're going to squeeze in 2 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
  • Because we're short on time, there will be 8 rounds of picks allowed for these 2 weeks.
  • Next deadline is for Week -1, Wednesday night, March 26 at midnight Eastern
• Normally, we have at least 4 weeks of free agency between the draft and Week 1.  With only 2 weeks, there are a couple of changes - similar to what we did in 2024 with a compressed schedule:
  • Week minus one and Week zero will have more than 4 rounds of free agent picks (8).
  • I will not enforce the 5000 cap on team cash balance heading into the season. You can wait longer this year to sign your multiyear contracts.

3/10/25

• Redistribution Draft 2025 - Round 1 posted
  • You may now modify your draft list one final time for Rounds 2-5
  • The next deadline is Wednesday night, March 19 at Midnight Eastern
  • View all of your teams' Redistribution Draft lists
  • Quick view of the players added to all your rosters this week via the draft

3/9/25

• Redistribution Draft: picks are due tonight! Sunday night 3/9/25 at Midnight Eastern
• Since Ohtani was only a DH last season, a reminder on the rule we put in for the 2023 season - Ohtani can serve as both a pitcher AND hitter for you in the same game. Once the Redistribution Draft is completed, you'll get an "extra Ohtani" on your roster that can be placed in your pitching rotation. We'll clarify the process and the rules closer to thte start of the season.

3/8/25

• If you're having any trouble finding how to make Redistribution Draft picks, visit your team roster and look for the link "Choose Redistribution Draft Picks" above your list of players
• Check for any errors in your draft! - View all of your teams' Redistribution Draft lists
• I have 8 orphan teams without foster owners - if you have time to crank out any more draft lists by Sunday night, let me know!
• There were a couple late additions to the available orphan teams - including a team in Marxball that has the #1 pick in the draft. Contact me if you're interested in adopting any orphans!

3/1/25

• Transaction order is now updated for the Redistribution Draft (and 1st 2 weeks of the regular season).
  • Set in reverse order of 2024 winning percentage
  • League champions are 16th, runners up 15th and the other 2 division winners 13th and 14th.
• View all of your teams' Redistribution Draft lists

2/26/25

• Results of carryover choices posted.  View the Transactions page to see the cuts in your league.
• The 2025 Redistribution Draft is now open.  You'll have almost 2 weeks to make your first selections.  Deadline is Sunday 3/9/25 at Midnight Eastern
• I can't remember of the transaction order is completely correct to account for playoff results - I'll verfify that by Thursday or Friday.
• 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 March 9, we post the results of only Round 1 only - any drafted players will be removed from the remainder of your lists.
  • You'll have about 10 days to redo draft lists (if you choose), then we post the results of Rounds 2-5.
  • With compressed time this year, we're only doing 2 draft list submissions instead of 3.
• The season calendar of deadlines is not yet updated for 2025, but the deadlines for the Redistribution Draft are:
  • Sunday evening 3/9 Midnight EST - First submission - we post results for Round 1
  • Wednesday night 3/19 Midnight EST - Adjust your lists for Rounds 2-5 - we post results for Rounds 2-5
  • Because of delays to this point, we'll have a compressed time for free agency - squeezing in 3 weeks of transactions in about 10 days...but we'll increase the number of rounds of picks during those weeks.
• 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.

2/23/25

• The list of available orphan teams should be up to date through 5 PM Eastern today. For those of you who offered to be foster owners, I'll go through those and assign tonight.
• We have some orphan openings in our prize leagues. These are leagues which privately collect league fees plus a prize fee and then distribute prizes based on results. The page indicates they are available by "invitation only," but let me know if you're interested in any of these leagues and I can assist:
  • Beer League
  • Murderers' Row
  • Moneyball League
• I'm back home and working through the orphan requests that came in after Monday night. Because there will be a bunch of orphan assignments, I'm extending another day - new deadline is Monday night, midnight Eastern. I should then have the Redistribution Draft open by Tuesday for almost 2 weeks (you'll have 2 full weekends).
• If you're finding Benchwarmer Baseball for the first time and want to join and take over an existing franchise for the 2025 season, sign up here to begin

2/18/25

• Reminder - don't pay for your teams yet. Much as I'd love to get your money, the payment info is 2 years old. Let me fix that before you start sending in money (will probably be early March).
• Check the carryover status for all your teams - You might be surprised - maybe you're over the limit by 1 player. Deadline is Sunday night

2/16/25

• Reminder roster cut/keep decisions are now due Sunday night, February 23 at midnight Eastern
• There are likely some teams added to the list, but here are the available orphan teams for the 2025 season. Email me if you want to pick up a team.
• 2025 Orphan Special
  • All adopted orphan teams in 2025 are FREE
  • Teams adopted by owners who are playing for the 1st time in 2025 - or previous owners reactivating in 2025:
    • Your adopted orphan will also be free in 2026
    • You'll get an extra bonus free team in 2026 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'm not going to have a computer Tuesday-Saturday. For the most time available for your new orphan team before the deadline on the 23rd, I'll need to hear from you by Monday night (2/17). You can still ask for a team the rest of the week, but I might not be able to hook you up with your team until Saturday night/Sunday morning.
• 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 2025 season, let me know. Your extra time commitment can vary:
  • Foster only until Feb. 23 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
• Unfortunately, BWB will not start any new leagues this year. Fingers crossed to get back to that in 2026.

See the News Archive for older headlines.