Benchwarmer News

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.

2/15/25

• I'm moving the deadline back for roster cuts by 1 week, to Sunday night, February 23. I didn't get orphans taken care of in time to assign any teams and if you're going to take over a team, you should get a chance to choose your players. This is the original orphan list - teams that were orphans throughout 2024. I will have that list updated by Sunday afternoon with additional orphans after going through all the yes/no responses for returning. I'll have an email out on Sunday as well with more details.

2/10/25

• Check the carryover status for all your teams
• Some notes on player status as you pick your keeps/cuts:
  • Players who have retired or are otherwise known to be out of baseball - marked "Ret" as their team - will be removed from the player lists and from all teams after this Sunday, regardless of whether you drop them or not.
  • Players who have signed in Japan, Korea, or Mexico will NOT be removed from the game as long they continue to appear on at least one BWB roster. "Jap" is the team name used to indicate a player in any Asian country (this is a holdover from original implmentation and may be updated someday) and "Mex" is the team designation for a player who was last in the Mexican League. Be aware of those players on your roster and make sure you cut them if you don't want to hang on to their rights as they will count as one of your 28 carryover players.
  • It looks like I haven't fully updated the online rules for the complete details of this, but see Rule 17.1.2 and the rule changes for the 2022 season and the interpretation above.

2/9/25

• Week Thirty Transactions Posted (2nd winter trade period)
• Time to finalize your roster carryover/cut decisions - deadline is Sunday night, February 16 at midnight Eastern

1/26/25

• Week Twenty-nine Transactions Posted (1st winter trade period)
• Trades reopened for the 2nd winter trade window - deadline is Sunday, February 9 at midnight Eastern
• Continue to work on roster cuts - the final deadline is Sunday, February 16
• I should have an updated list of orphan teams within the next couple of days

1/21/25

• 81 New players added to the game based on the 40-man rosters for MLB teams as of mid-January.
  • This is the only player addition until after Opening Day
  • To find them - In the filter/search area of the player lists, look for the "New in 2025" 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 2024. Since the last free agent signings were in Week 24, these players have not yet been available to sign.
  • Although Roki Sasaki signed a minor league contract, I've added him to the list. I checked back and this is what we did with Shohei Ohtani as well.
• Tonight is the first winter trade deadline at midnight Eastern time. Check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers.

1/11/25

• Final additions to team cash until Opening Day:
  • Team finances updated for playoff awards
  • Player of the Year rankings final. Cash distributed to teams of players finishing in the top 3 of each league.

1/7/25

• Reminder that the email notification for trades is turned off. Check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers.
• Hold off on payment for the 2025 season - I didn't even set it up properly for 2024, so the notices on whether or not your teams are paid are not correct. Hopefully I'll have that set up in a week or so.

1/5/25

• We're open for business for the 2025 season:
  • Please let us know if you're keeping each of your teams in 2025. Deadline is January 22 or we assume the unanswered teams become Orphans.
  • 2025 player salaries are final - Premium salary adjustments have now been applied
  • Player retention decisions for 2025 can now be made from your team roster pages.  Deadline to complete this is expected to be Sunday, February 16 - if you have a lot of teams, don't wait!!
  • Trades are now open for a 2.5-week trading period, ending on Wednesday, January 22.  Following that will be another 2.5-week trade period open through February 9.
  • If you were a foster owner in 2024, I've left you with your foster teams for now. If you want out of that, let me know.
• Projected off-season schedule:
  • Trade period 1 - Deadline Wed 1/22. Can't do 3 weeks, but can give you 2 1/2.
  • Trade period 2 - Sun 2/9
  • Carryover choices - Sun 2/16
  • Redistribution Draft, Round 1 - Sun 3/2
  • Redistribution Draft, Rounds 2-5 - Fri 3/14
  • Week -1 transactions - Wed 3/19
  • Week Zero transactions - Tue 3/25
  • Week 1 transactions/lineups - Sun 3/30

12/28/24

• Salary cap cash has been distributed.  The 2025 salary cap is 39106 (was 40575 in 2024).  The actual amount given to each league is enough to get the team with the least cash up to the cap amount.
• Team finances updated for awards for final division placement
• Awards for the playoff results will come after the salary cap cash is added.

12/10/24

• Site updates:
  • 2025 salaries are posted and are not final - Premium salary adjustments are applied after the salary cap is calculated (this is a correction from what was originally posted as final on 12/10)
  • 2025 player positions are updated but not final
    • Any player showing an "x" in their position didn't have any MLB stats in 2024, so I need to go back in and check what they did in the minors in 2024 (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 January/February (with everything going on this year, I never got that finished for the 2024 season).
• Still to come before I can open up rosters for changes
• Calculation of the 2025 salary cap
• Some setup tasks to move from the 2024 season to the 2025 season.

12/4/24

• Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Final Results: NYC2ATL Yankees (Chevy Chase League) defeated I've Seen Your Face Before My Friend (Home of the Brave) 4 games to 0
  • Congratulations to team owner Ricardo Alexander.
  • This is Ricardo's 4th straight win in the BWB ultimate tournament.
  • Ricardo won 9 league championships in 2024 and had 12 teams in the field of 128 that started out the Bash.
  • Also congratulations to runner-up Sherman Wan in his fifth trip to the finals.

See the News Archive for older headlines.