Benchwarmer News Archive - 2008

12/31/08

• For Returning Leagues: The Redistribution Draft deadline for submitting picks is December 31 at midnight Pacific time.
  • As mentioned before - the Redistribution Draft is optional.  If you don't submit a list, you'll need to use trades and free agency over the rest of the winter to rebuild your team.  But you may miss out on some big stars who are available (maybe C.C. Sabathia, Johan Santana) and definitely on some prospects (like players just added to the game a couple weeks ago).
  • Don't forget - your current cash is all you get until Opening Day.
• The FAQs page has been redesigned - but the questions are still old.  I'll start updating the list soon with some of the things asked of me over the last year or two and things that need clarification.

12/23/08

• Newly redesigned links page (transfer of links in progress)
  • While there, you'll find a link to the new Benchwarmer Baseball Blog
  • One of the posts on the new blog includes details on how you can become an authorized BWB Blogger and earn a free team.

12/15/08

• Click the "Transactions" link above to view all the players cut in your league.
• If you want some guidance on the Redistribution Draft might work, check last year's results.

12/14/08

• Carry over decisions have been processed.
• New MLB players were added to the player lists - players on 40-man rosters at this time.  There are no more additions until the regular season begins.
• The Redistribution Draft is an optional process.  You are encouraged to participate, but don't have to - so we won't hold up for anyone missing the deadline.

12/6/08

• Minor League Standings are now posted for 2008 and prize money credited.  Visit your league's home page for the link to the minor leagues.

11/27/08

• The Benchwarmer Bash - Finals Complete
  • Congratulations to Leif Jonson and the Trinidad Island Vikings - the new champion.  Trinidad won the final three games of the series and Leif wins 2 free seasons for Trinidad.
  • Also, good job Jerry King with the runner up St. Cloud team.  That gets you one free season.

11/25/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - Finals are set: Trinidad (Longball, owned by Leif Jonson) vs. St. Cloud (Chevy Chase, owned by Jerry King).  Look for games posted on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Benchwarmer Bash Bracket

11/22/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - Semifinals Complete

11/19/08

• 2009 Final Salary Values Posted.

11/18/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - Quarterfinal Round Complete.

11/12/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - Round Two Complete

11/11/08

• Did you win a division or a post-season tournament?  You've won yourself a free bonus team that you can use for yourself or give away to a friend.  If you were a league champ, your current team is free in 2009 too.

11/10/08

• The 2009 BWB Salary Cap is slightly more than 43 million Benchwarmer Bucks, down about 6 million from 2008.  See the team finances page to see the actual salary distribution by league.

11/3/08

• As we start getting "No" answers on teams coming back, we'll begin to build up the Orphan team list for 2009.
• You can actually begin paying for 2009 if you like, though payment is not due until April for returning teams.  If you're still in the Benchwarmer Bash - you should wait (your team is free if you win).  If you're dropping a team or two, wait a bit on paying...the multiple team discounts were set up assuming you'd be keeping them all.

11/2/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - Round one is complete

10/22/08

• Playoffs - Week 2 - Championship Week Complete  -  Games 6 & 7 posted.
• Congratulations to the 2008 League Champions
  • Beatleball: Roseville Bandidos - Andy Deeble
  • Beer:  Elsinore Hosers - Anthony Citarella
  • Chevy Chase: St. Cloud Ice - Jerry King
  • Golden Throat: Boomer Sooners - Philip Dang
  • Hall of Fame: Oaxaca Revolution - Sherman Wan
  • K Street: South Philly Italian Stallions - Anthony Tarone
  • Longball: Lemon Juice - Roland Dupont
  • Reality Bites: Maryland Tax Collectors - Adam Wilson
  • Redbirds: Brooklyn Usual Suspects - Jerry King
  • Shadowball: BALCO LABS 2 Disgruntled Postmen - Derrick Silensky
  • Three of a Kind: Hudson River 3-Eyed Fish - Tom Twomey

10/20/08

• Player of the Year Rankings are final.  It's nearly unanimous for Berkman, Sabathia, and Lidge.  Only the Chevy Chase League finished with Mariano Rivera #1 in the bullpen. 
  • There were slight adjustments in the formula earlier this year to reduce the weight of more minor stats, but the POW and POY is a compilation of percentile rankings in many statistical categories. 
  • The POY rankings are based 50% on the full season performance of the players, and 50% on the top 22 weeks of POW scores for players (allowing them up to 3 bad/injured weeks).

10/15/08

• Playoffs - Week 1 Complete

10/11/08

• You can find a direct link to your league's playoffs from your league's home page.

10/4/08

• Congratulations to owners with multiple division winners:
  • 5 Teams(!) - Phil Dang
  • 3 Teams - Jerry King, Don Kruse, Adam Wilson
  • 2 Teams - Roland Dupont, Robert Elias, Andy Marquis, Sherman Wan
• Current expected schedule:
  • Minor League results - posted by the end of October or early November.

9/24/08

• San Berdoo at Santa Ana in a one-game playoff for the Fletch Division title in the Chevy Chase league.
  • San Berdoo wins 5-1 and wraps up the final playoff spot.  Last year, San Berdoo beat out Santa Ana by one game - this year it took the extra game to do that.
• What happens in Benchwarmer Baseball at the end of the season?

9/23/08

• Week Twenty-five complete...sort of - Game 150 Posted.
• See standings for all leagues.
• Two division races were still undecided heading into the last game.  None of the teams involved managed to win game 150.
  • Chevy Chase - Fletch F. Fletch Division - Santa Ana tied with San Berdoo; Both teams lost and ended up in a first-place tie.
  • K Street - Seaver - Altoona led New Jersey by 1 game; Both teams lost, so Altoona held onto their lead for the title.

9/11/08

• NEW - In Week 25 there used to be NO transactions.  Starting this year, you can cut players or move them to IR, but you cannot sign a player.

8/30/08

• The stats for the completion of the suspended White Sox - Orioles game are counted when the game is complete.  The suspended game was #130 for both teams and the regular game #131.  So you may see some players on the DL show up in your box score.

8/28/08

• If you drafted a 2008 First Round Pick who did not sign a major league contract, he's going to be removed from the BWB player list (and your rosters) after the season.

8/26/08

• The trade deadline has passed for 2008
• Starting with week 23 lineups, we've got roster expansion.  Your taxi squad players and minor leaguers will fill in if you've got any extra holes in your lineups.  You can optionally put the players in order now.

7/31/08

• Contract extensions are done for the year.

7/25/08

• BWB All Star Teams are posted - you'll find a link on your league's home page.  Bonuses for all star players - including MLB all stars - were included during the Week 17 update.

7/10/08

• There are no salary rebates for cut players for the rest of the season.

6/27/08

• All teams received an extra million Benchwarmer Bucks this week.  You'll get one more distribution at the end of July.

6/12/08

• First Round draft picks (top 30 picks) are now in the player list.

5/31/08

• All teams received an extra 1 Million Benchwarmer Bucks during the Week 9 transactions (the last transaction period in May).  There will be similar cash distributions during the final transactions of both June and July.
• Note an important clarification in the rules for salary rebates regarding players on multiyear contracts.  The existing language was kind of murky on whether a team getting a contracted player had to pay any portion of the current year's salary (or maybe even inferred that there was always zero cost).
• Later this week, we'll add an indicator on roster and trade pages to players with multiyear contracts who were paid for in full for 2008 and thus will earn a salary rebate or cause a team picking them up in a trade to pay the prorated portion of 2008.

5/5/08

• Here's the link again to a New feature: Check out a test of a chat application.  We'll find a more permanent home for it eventually.  Let me know if you run into any problems with it.

5/3/08

• Week 5 was another payment deadline.  If you haven't yet paid for your teams, you cannot change your lineup, in addition to being blocked from transactions.  See the deadlines for details.  If you don't pay by Week 10, BWB will take over ownership of your team and look to replace you.

4/27/08

• In order to cut down on potential oversights and eventual manual intervention during transactions/lineup processing, there are 2 changes:
  • On the page where you choose players to cut or put on IR, you must select the type of transaction immediately (you can still change it later).
  • In order to use the "Cut" or "Inj" slot for a week's lineup, you must actually first submit the transaction to release the player or put him on IR.

4/20/08

• Don't forget - the first step of a transaction to choose the player you want to sign or drop does not complete the transaction.  You must set the transaction round and specific type of sign/drop.

4/13/08

• If you're new to BWB, you may want to hold off on contract extensions and watch how they work a little bit. 
  • You do not need to get a multiyear contract with a player to carry him over into 2009. 
  • What you are doing is paying lower dollar amounts now on the bet that the player's salary will be significantly larger next year. 
  • If you are signing a contract for more than one year, keep in mind you must pay for each season.  The amounts shown on the extension form are what it will take to sign that player for each individual year - not the total contract amount to wrap him up for that long.
  • A multiyear contract on a player who will not see the majors this year - or only a brief call up - is a definite waste of money (at least for the 2009 season).

4/2/08

• Season schedule is posted.  You'll find a link to the full schedule and this week's games on your league's home page.
• Three of a Kind League - Draft Central

4/1/08

• Redbirds League - Draft Central

3/19/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - We have a champion - the Gashouse Gorillas from Reality Bites.  Congratulations!  Gashouse wins 2 free seasons and London, as the runner up, gets one free year.

3/18/08

• The re-work of online version of the rules is complete.  Some of the internal links on the site may still take you to the old pages for a time, however.

3/13/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - We're down to 2 Teams: London from Beatleball (the last wild card team to make the field) vs. Gashouse, the league champ from Reality Bites.

3/11/08

• Benchwarmer Bash - Semifinals Complete
• Check out the change on the box scores for this round - at the end you'll find the raw scores that go into making the final game score.  This will continue in the regular season (and at some point we will probably break it down further).
• Not much change this year that will affect game play - check out the Rule Changes for 2008.

2/25/08

• Reminder - After Week Zero (5 more transaction periods), your team's cash balance must be at or below 5 million.
• Contract extensions are now open.  As always, BWB suggests that unless you need to sign extensions now (like to get your cash balance below 5 million), you really might want to wait until July to submit your extensions.  All it takes is a season-ending injury on April 1st and your extension is wasted money.

2/21/08

• Here comes the Benchwarmer Bash - the final piece of the 2007 season.  Round One games should be posted in the next few days.
• The delay on the Bash is partly due to a behind-the-scenes rewrite of how playoff results will be posted - to reduce the manual part of the process.  The primary benefit of this will be easier posting of playoff results at the end of the 2008 season.

2/9/08

• Rosters and team cash balances are up to date after the Redistribution Draft.

2/8/08

• Redistribution Draft - Complete

1/13/08

• All cuts have been processed.  Remaining players on your rosters were paid their salaries.
• New players on MLB 40-man rosters are now in the BWB player list.  No further additions until a player appears in a major league game.

1/11/08

• There will be only a couple minor rule changes this year, but one item will be a procedure on how the BWB office will automatically handle missing the deadline for things like roster cuts, so that we don't keep pushing back.

1/2/08

• Final Minor League Standings for 2007.
• Player of the Year rankings are final.
• Cash bonuses for Minor Leagues, POY, plus cash for Orphan teams will be credited overnight.
• All positions are now final (the minor leaguers are now complete).  About 160 players were removed from the Player List.