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Frequently Asked Questions
If there's anything you can't find here or in the rules,
please
send an email with your question and we'll try to answer it
as soon as possible.
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Web SiteQuestion | Answer | | My league is going through the startup draft? How do I get to the page to build my list? | Visit your team roster. About halfway down the screen you'll see a link to your draft list - depending on what phase you're in. If your league is in Phase One, the link will read "Startup Draft". If your league is in Phase 2, the link will read "Startup Draft - Phase 2" | | Can I look at leagues I don't belong to? | Yes. Click on the "Leagues" link at the top of any page. You'll first see all the leauges to which you belong, but then you'll see all of the BWB leagues and you can click on any of them to visit them. | | How do I look at my League's home page? | When you're logged into BWB, you should be associated with a league (if you own multiple teams, one is always active). You should see that league name in the upper left corner of every page. If you do not see that name, you may need to make sure you are correctly logged in. Another method to get to your league page is to click the "Leagues" link at the top of any page. You'll see all the leagues to which you belong and just click the appropriate link. | | How do I access my Team Roster? | When you're logged into BWB, you should be associated with a team (if you own multiple teams, one is always active). You should see that team name in the upper left corner of every page. If you do not see that team name, you may need to make sure you are correctly logged in. Other methods to get to your team include clicking the "Teams" link at the top of every page or the "Roster" link at the bottom of every page (just above the ads). | | Sometimes I can't change my team correcly, even though the site is supposed to remember me. | There may be a few bugs in the process - if it appears that you are not recognized correctly, try logging out and logging back in to reset your session. |
Rosters & LineupsQuestion | Answer | | I know that there are several players I want to keep next year, so should I sign them to a contract this year? | Not necessarily. In BWB, the "contract" is a way to pay a player up front his current salary and lock him in for the next season. You do that when you expect that his salary will increase by quite a bit the next year (it's based on performance). That's different from keeping players from season-to-season. You get the chance to pick as many as 28 players in November that you want to retain. You DON'T need to sign them to a multi-year contract to do that. | | I have a backup catcher on my bench. Why did I have a "Benchwarmer Catcher" in my box score? | If your starting player doesn't appear in a given major league game (say Game #34), the backup has to appear in that same game to be in your lineup. | | Why do I get to set my lineup only once per week? | Since major league teams play their games on different days (meaning, not all teams play their tenth game on the same day), changing lineups on each day would be tough for players to plan for and frankly, it's a lot easier to administer weekly changes. |
ScoringQuestion | Answer | | How do you determine the losing pitcher in a BWB game? | The starting pitcher always gets the loss UNLESS he allows 0 earned runs, allows only 1 ER in 5 or more innings, or allows only 2 ER in 6.1 or more innings. If the starter doesn't get tagged for the loss, it goes against the bullpen. If the starter goes 9 innings, he gets the loss regardless of the ER allowed. | | How do you determine the winning pitcher in a BWB game? | If the starter throws 5 innings or more AND has an ERA for the game of 4.50 or better. If your team wins, but the starter doesn't qualify the win goes to the bullpen. If your starter pitches 9 innings, he gets the win no matter how many runs he gives up. | | How do errors come into play? | The BWB scoring formula basically sets up that the runs you score in a game is 1/2 your offensive score and 1/2 your opponent's pitching score. Errors committed by your player make your pitching score higher - and thus make it more likely to increase the number of runs your opponent scores in the game. |
SeasonQuestion | Answer | | Any chance you could have more teams make the playoffs? | Right now, there are no plans to increse the championship field. We've got 25% of the teams in the playoffs, which is about in line with MLB. It's tough to finish in 2nd with a better record than other division winners, but that makes a title even more challenging. | | Explain the 5-game gap to me. | Because pitchers don't pitch every day, we need to use a span of games to guarantee their stats are included. So, we use pitching performances over a 6-game span. Thus, ML games 1-6 are used for BWB game 1. In order to get some kind of correspondence, we use the last game of that span for the hitters - so ML game 6 = BWB game 1. This was ripped off from Robot Baseball, but made sense for me. |
PlayersQuestion | Answer | | Why are some minor league players available while others are not? | Players are added to the BWB Player List when any of these occur: A) They appear in a major league game B) They are a first-round draft pick or C) They appear on the 40-man rosters immediately after the Rule V Draft in December. | | Why isn't player X who was just signed from Japan on the player list? | If he was not signed in time to appear on the 40-man rosters in December, he doesn't get on until he plays a regular season game. | | Player Y is a hot phenom in Spring Training and is going from AA to the majors this year. Everyone knows he'll be Team Z's #4 Starter/Opening Day catcher/etc., etc. Why isn't he available? | If he's not already listed, the only way he makes it now is once he plays a major league game. It's impossible to tell the future and many March "stars" don't make it. |
TransactionsQuestion | Answer | | Why do you have transactions only once per week? | Since the game is played on the basis of weekly lineups, there is little point in having daily transactions. | | If I pick up a player, why can't I put him in the lineup that week - why do I need to wait a week? | Because so many decisions may hinge on you getting / not getting your player, it's just easier to deal with to handle lineup decisions once signings are official. |
Team FinancesQuestion | Answer | | Should I sign a minor league player to a multi-year contract? I want to lock him up for several years. | In most cases, no. While you sign a player to a contract for next season for the same salary he made this year, there is a 250 minimum contract value. In most situations, unless a guy comes up to the majors early in the season and plays a lot and does well, his salary next season will still be under 250. In the off season, our player lists show both this year's salary and the one for last year. You can use that as kind of a guide on when a player makes a jump over the 250 mark. If the player NEVER gets to the big leagues this season, then you definitely do not want to sign him to a contract. | | I have a player under contract for two more seasons and he just retired. Do I get that money back? | No. Think of it this way, once you spend that money on a multi-year contract, that cash is gone forever. It's one of the risks involved in spending that money. Note - this is different if you've merely retained a player and paid his current season salary in December. In that situation, if he retires before the season begins, you get a full refund. | | Why do I have to have all the money up front for a multi-year contract? In real life, wouldn't I be able to pay out that salary year by year? | Sure, but let's remember this is still "fantasy" baseball. We're not simulating absolutely everything (we don't pay players weekly either - you pay a whole season salary up front). The multi-year contract is something that should be a little bit rare and involve some risk. So to do that, we make you pay the entire contract at one time. |
Franchise StartupQuestion | Answer | | When I pick my first draft list in Phase One, do I have to keep under the salary cap? | Yes. Choose your startup draft roster as though you were going to get everyone. If you go over the salary cap, your submission is invalid. | | Why can I only pick up to 8 players in each submission for the Phase Two draft? Wouldn't it be quicker to let us pick more? | Yes, and in some cases for leagues that don't draft until mid-to-late March we do that. But 8 players at a time allows you to submit a targeted list for certain positions and salary values, then reevaluate your roster and needs and try again. | | Why do you figure out contested players first - if some team was the only one to draft C.C. Sabathia, don't they start out with an advantage already? Why would they start off with zero in total salary? | This was a change we made after the very first season. We generally see two different approaches in startup drafts: one will fill only the 26 minimum spots and the other will attempt to sign up to 40 players with a lot of prospects and minor leaguers. We found that by giving out all the uniquely-drafted players first, we basically gave the teams that went after prospects no shot at the current stars and highly sought after players. | | When you do a list draft, why don't you just go through all 16 teams one-by-one to place players, like a typical draft? | We took the draft system from what our model game - Robot Baseball - had devised. It's a bit quirky at times, but the goal is to attempt to create teams as equal as possible at the start in total team salary. When we go through the contested players to dole them out to teams, we give preference to the team with the smallest total salary so far (and - theoretically - currently the weakest of the teams vying for that player. | | Can I drop or trade players during the Phase 2 Draft? | No - we use the draft process only to build up teams to a legal roster. Once all teams are complete (filling all positions - not necessarily filling them with current major leaguers), then your league will begin standard transctions, which will include signings, drops, and trades. | | How do I pick players for a new team? | We go through a list draft process in Benchwarmer Baseball. You will find a link to your draft list from your team roster page. Please do not attempt to build your draft roster via the standard transactions links - those are for leagues that are already in operation. | | Why don't you do a live draft? | We're trying it out for a few leagues in 2009 (if they fill up). It's tough to get 16 people together at the same time and drafting a whole team will take a really long time. Live drafts will only pick the first 10 players and then proceed like the other list drafts. For now, we'll just use a chat room to hold the draft. |
Off SeasonQuestion | Answer | | Redistribution draft - do I get to change my picks between rounds? | No. You submit a list of up to 15 players and that list does not change throughout the draft. |
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