Posts Tagged ‘baseball’

We’re still one player shy (Cubs)

How the league is to be played

We will be playing the 1972 season which is to be released by Dynasty mid season. We will be playing under 1972 rules with one exception. There will be at least one interleague home and away series played to allow each player to play each other player at least once.

The schedule

As soon as I have time I will begin to work on the schedule which will assume 20 teams . While I don’t have to deal with the logistics of hotels and airports it still is a complicated matter to make it and will take some time to enter into the system. Please be patient with me as I do so. My goal will be to have the schedule ready before the draft.

Number of games:

We will be playing 162 games Two series (one home and one away 6 games ) against teams in the opposite league and Four series against in league teams. Because of the number of teams there will be a slight imbalance

Six same league teams (Four 3 game series 12 games)
Three same league teams (Two 3 game series, Two 2 game series 10 games)

All those team determinations will be random.

This assumes 20 teams btw

Frequency of games

There will be two scheduled series per week. Most series will be 3 games there will be 6 two game series during the season.

Number of teams

We currently have 19 confirmed teams. As soon as the Cubs are taken we’re set at 20 teams. If by some chance

Division setup:

With 20 teams we will have two five team divisions in each league. I’ll have to see if they offer wild card options when I advance the season.

NEW!PREDRAFT AND DRAFT DAY TRADE WINDOWS!

Pre-Draft Trade window:

There will be a 48 hour window before the formal draft where trading will be allowed.

Any player on the roster (rookie or retained player) may be dealt along with drift picks up to the 7th round at this time.

Only draft picks for the upcoming draft will be tradable.

The trade window will end 15 minutes before the start of the formal draft to allow for any updates to lists to be recorded before the start.

Draft Day Trading up or down window.

At the end of each round there will be a 10 minute window for rosters to be adjusted and all the paperwork to be done.

For the first five rounds of the draft During those 10 minutes teams will be allowed to Trade. NO PICKS BEYOND THE 7th ROUND ARE TRADABLE. At the start of the 6th round Trading is closed in the league till after the 5th series of the regular season.

In Season Trades and waivers.

After the fifth series of the season teams may trade. Any player on the current roster may be traded along with any of the first seven draft picks for the next season (currently 1973 BUT 1972 if they get it released in time. If a trade is made that increases a roster beyond the 40 man limit a player must be released before the next series is played. Any trades agreed will not be executed until all the teams involved have the same amount of games played.

Waivers takes place after the sixth series. Teams make waivers picked based on their current record and are made from the undrafted players not on rosters.. If a pick brings a Roster over 40 a player must be released or an injured player not on the DL must be placed there to make room.

The DL:

In a change from previous seasons players on the DL WILL count toward your roster but to make up for it we will have a maximum 40 man roster. We will still only draft 35 but players may expand their rosters via trade and waivers.

Playing Games.

All games must be completed before the next scheduled series. the Dynasty system will take over and auto play any games that are not completed one hour before the next scheduled game (even if said unfinished game is in progress) Players are encouraged to use the chat room and the Dynasty message system to reschedule games if needed and are also encouraged to make a manager profile in case a game has to autoplay. Instructions on how to do that are here.

Be aware that if you have your team on AUTO and your opponent requests a rescheduled in the system Dynasty will automatically allow it so keep this in mind when or if you turn auto on. Also be aware if both team are on auto and you reschedule the game will be played automatically so make sure your team is not on auto before you do this.

Etiquette for no/call no show

This is a game and real life trumps it so there will be times when people miss their game days. Here is some suggested game day Etiquette:

  1. If you know in advance you can’t play on the scheduled game day and time try to contact your opponent to arrange a different time both through the chat room and the dynasty system.
  2. If gameday comes and your team is on AUTO your scheduled opponent should assume they can play all or part of their series if they choose.
  3. If gameday comes and you haven’t heard from your opponent check your “Friends” list to see when the last time they signed on was. If it is 10 days or more then play the series vs the PC
  4. Give two five minute: Wait 5 min for opponent to show periods before starting the game//If your opponent hasn’t shown up by then begin game 1.
    • Once game 1 is done. You have 2 choices. Either if followed is officially considered valid:
      • Give one 5 minutes period for your opponent to show if he doesn’t, Autoplay
      • Exit and let the system auto schedule for 24 hours from now. Then go to step 1
    • If you have to leave in the middle of a game or series your opponent has the right to continue to play. They may choose to agree to reschedule but experience tell me it’s bet to get the games done.
  5. On occasions when you and your opponent are in touch but just can’t seem to find a time when both are available I make the following suggestion.
    • The player who shows up on gameday should play one game (2 game series) or two games (3-4 game series) against the pc.
    • When those games are finished exit the system and put yourself on Auto being sure to check the “Take my team off auto after this series”
    • Then your opponent can finish the series as his or her time permits
  6. Keep in mind that the Dynasty system is designed to keep games moving the default position should always be to get games played when possible.
  7. Be aware if you’re running late you can join a game in progress and take over
  8. If you do show up and take over please let your opponent know via chat.

If you know you’re going to be gone let your opponent know. 

Expansion and Expansion draft

If there is a sudden interest in the league we may have an expansion draft under the following rules: b

Selecting a franchise:

New players who do not take an existing franchise will be allowed to select any of the four currently open franchises they are:

AL

  • Chicago White sox
  • Detroit Tigers

NL

  • San Diego Padres
  • Houston Astros

They will automatically gain the rights to any rookies for the 1971 team of that franchise.

If we again have multiple expansion teams they will pick franchises in the order that they confirmed their intent to join the league.

If a current player expresses an intent to leave the league before the expansion draft the expansion players will in the order above be given the option of taking over that existing franchise including their roster and current draft picks (or lack thereof)

Expansion Draft:

If an expansion draft is announced each team will have two weeks to submit a list of protected players currently on their 40 man rosters. These players will not be eligible to be drafted in the expansion draft. There will be a maximum of 7 players on each teams protected list. it is recommended (but not required) to submit an additional twelve players to be protected once a player or two is drafted from their team.

Whenever a player is chosen off a team in the expansion draft said team will be able to immediately protect an additional five players. No team can lose more than three payers to the expansion draft. If a list is not submitted before the draft and not submitted at the time the first player is taken from the team then said team will not have additional players protected until such a list is provided. I will allow a reasonable amount of time in case the player is not in the chat room for me to try to contact said player before another player is takin from his team.

Expansion teams draft a minimum of four players and a maximum of 12 players to their rosters before the regular draft. The number of players picked in the expansion draft by an expansion team will determine where they will draft in the regular draft.

As soon as all expansion teams have completed their drafts two things happen

  1. All teams must submit the list of players retained in the regular draft. The players drafted by the expansion teams are considered to be that list.
  2. All Rookies become property of their franchises and count toward their current rosters. but NOT toward their number of protected players.

Franchise locations and parks

Every team is presumed to have the park their team played in during the season they entered the league.

Franchises whose teams move in real life are not required to relocate their teams. So the Seattle Pilots are not required to move to Milwaukee and the Washington Senators are not required to move to Texas but they retain the option to do so at any time.

Franchises are NOT required to build new stadiums and my continue to play in their old stadiums if they wish. So Cincy can stay in Crosley field and Pittsburgh can remain in Forbes Field if they wish but they retain the right to move into those new stadiums at any time so another team my NOT select that stadium. If a team chooses to move into their new park in the same city the old park is considered demolished and no other team may use it from that point on.

A team may NOT move into a park that in a different city because the Dynasty system bases the weather on the park used NOT the city that a team’s label claims it is in. Thus if the Seattle Pilots want to play in Country Stadium they MUST move to Milwaukee

A team may NOT move into a park in the same city that belongs to a future franchise. Example. If the Seattle Pilots choose to remain in Seattle rather than move to Milwaukee they may NOT move into the Kingdome because it is reserved for the Mariners franchise when it becomes available.

Old parks

A team MAY move into an old park from the same city under the following conditions:

  1. The park was once the home park of the franchise OR
  2. The franchise that once owned the park is now located in another city

Examples,

  • In 1971 the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee the Mariners if taken MAY move into Sick Stadium.
  • The Cardinals may move into Sportsman’s park because it was once their old stadium.
  • Both the Yankees and the Mets may move into the Polo Grounds because the park is in NY and both teams were once based there.

Rookies

A “Rookie” is define as any player who did not have a card for the previous season.

A rookie is considered to be part of the team listed on their card regardless of who they actually played their first game for (Dynasty lists cards based on who a player finishes a season with thus any rookie that was traded by an MLB team in his first season will have their card listed for the team they were traded to NOT the team they played their first game with.

All teams retain rights to their rookies prior to the draft and rookies for a franchise are not eligible to be drafted in any expansion draft.

A Rookie becomes a part of a team after said team names their protected players for the draft. They count toward the 40 man roster

Any team that doesn’t want to retain a rookie may release them before the draft to open up a roster spot but once release all rights to said player are surrendered.

Players retained list

All teams may retain a number of players based on their finish in the 1970 season. The players retained list for 1971 has already been posted here: but I’ll repeat it below for convenience

  • World series winner 4 players (Dodgers)
  • World series runner up 5 players (Royals)
  • non-world series Division winners 6 players (A’s, Mets/Daytraders, Orioles)
  • Wild Card Teams Winners that don’t make the series 7 players (Angels, Cubs, Braves)
  • Wild Card game losers 8 players (Senators, Phillies)
  • Non division winning teams with the 5th and 6th best records 9 players (Red Sox Brewers)
  • Non division winning teams with the 7th and 8th best record 10 players (Twins, Indians)
  • Teams with the 4th-6th worst records 11 players (Yankees, Giants, Cardinals)
  • Teams with the worst and 2nd worst record 12  players (Expos, Reds1, Pirates)

1Due to an error during last years Draft the Reds spent a draft pick on a player Boston had rights to. The Reds were given several options for compensation & choose retaining an extra player this season so the Reds will have a max keeper list of 13 players.

NOTE: If a player on your current Roster does not have a card for the next season due to injury, military service etc but WILL the following year a team may choose to retain the rights to said player but will have to spend a protected spot for it and will have to keep a space for him all season.

Example: Rico Carty was out for all of 1971 due to injury. Boston could have decided to hold his rights playing 1971 with 39 players and thus 1972 will hold the rights to Carty. If at any time he chooses to release him Carty will be considered a rookie for Atlanta Rookie because

  1. He had no card the previous year
  2. No team held his rights
  3. His 1972 card says “Atlanta”

Boston choose not to retain so Carty is considered released. Carty’s 1972 cards is with the Braves thus the new Braves owner does not have to put him on the retained list as he is considered a rookie for the team.

The draft order of teams has been posted here and will be repeated below taking into account the possibility of expansion teams. Any team that is not retained will of course not be drafting BUT If a team holds the draft pick of a team that is no longer in the league he will draft those picks as if that team was still in the league in the round that he holds them. Of course with expansion this doesn’t apply this season.

  1. Worst team (12) Montreal Expos (Bad News Bears)
  2. 2nd worst team (12) Pittsburgh Pirates1
  3. 3rd worst team (12) Cincinnati Reds1 (if an expansion team picks only 4 they draft ahead of the Reds)
  4. 4th worst team (11) San Francisco Giants
  5. 5th worst team (11) St Louis Cardinals (if an expansion team picks only 5 they draft ahead of the cards)
  6. 6th worst team (11) New York Yankees
  7. 7th worst team (10) New York Mets (Daytraders) Cleveland Indians (An expansion team that picks only 6 drafts ahead of the tribe)
  8. 8th worst team (10) Minnesota Twins
  9. 9th worst team (9) Milwaukee Brewers2 (An expansion team that picks only 7 picks ahead of the Brew crew)
  10. Best non playoff team (9) Boston Red Sox2
  11. Wild Card game loser with worst record (8) Philadelphia Phillies (An expansion team that picks only 8 picks ahead of the Phils)
  12. Wild Card game loser with best record (8) Washington Senators
  13. Divisional round loser with the worst record (7) California Angels (An expansion team that picks only 9 picks ahead of the Halos)
  14. Divisional Round loser with the 2nd worst record (7) Atlanta Braves (Red wings)
  15. Divisional Round loser with the 2nd best record (7) Oakland A’s (An Expansion Team that picks only 10 picks Ahead of the A’s)
  16. Divisional Round Loser with best record (7) New York Mets (Daytraders)
  17. Worst Team that made it to the Pennant Series (6) Chicago Cubs
  18. Best team that made it to the Pennant Series (6) Baltimore Orioles
  19. World series loser (5) Kansas City Royals (An expansion team that picks only 11 picks ahead of the Royals)
  20. Word series winner (4) Los Angeles Dodgers Expansion Team(s) if any that draft 12 players pick after LA

NOTES:

  1. The Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates had identical records AND were 6-6 head to head the 2nd tiebreaker is previous draft.Pit picked ahead of Cincy and is thus considered “worse” as they had a better start so they get the 3rd pick over the Reds
  2. The Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers had identical records but Boston won the season series 7-5 and the is considered the “better” team.

The first tiebreaker for non-playoff teams with identical records is head to head matchups which is why the Mets draft ahead of Seattle. The 2nd tiebreaker if teams had identical records AND split their season series is draft order for the previous season thus California drafts ahead of StL..

Examples: If the Cubs traded the NYY their 3rd round draft pick last season but are not an active team this year then during round 3 the Yankees would get a pick at spot 17 as if they were.

If two or more expansion teams draft the same number of players their draft position will be determined by a dice roll

When all teams have drafted that will be considered the end of a round and the next round will commence.

Teams will continue to draft in this order until:

  • Their team reaches 35 men OR
  • A team with 25 or more players on their roster voluntarily drops out

Once a team has dropped out of the draft they may not re-enter it and must increase their roster either through trades or waivers.

A Team MUST have at least a 25 man roster before leaving the draft!

Formal & Informal Draft

Draft on designated Draft day(s):

A date and time will be set for the initial rounds of the draft. It will almost certainly be a Saturday or Friday as those are the days I have off. All teams will be expected to be either:

  1. Available in the slack chat room (preferred)
  2. Available by phone
  3. With me in my home at the time of the draft
  4. Have a list of players to be drafted submitted

All current players are presumed to have looked over the card(s) for 1972 online or at least looked up stats by draft day. All expansion teams (if any) encouraged to start doing so at once.

  1. There will be one designated draft day per week.
  2. On a designated draft day a strict 5 minute limit will be allowed to make a pick.
  3. If a team misses their pick will be moved to after the next player on the list who will be considered on the clock and allowed to pick. Example Philadelphia misses their pick and Washington is next, Washington is allowed to pick and Philly picks after them
  4. If a team who has been skipped has to be skipped twice their pick can be made any time before the end of the round. Example Washington is scheduled to pick 10th They miss their pick If they figure out who they want they can make a pick or submit a list any time before the end of the round and that pick will be valid.
  5. If a team that has been skipped has not picked by the end of the round then a pick will be made for them by me. Said pick will be the player from your franchise who played the most games that season based on their card. Example: Boston does not pick or submit a list for round 5 I will look at the Roster for the actual 1972 red sox to see who is available. If Billy Conligiliaro has the most games played among unpicked players he will be Boston draft pick. If Boston already has 6 outfielders that will not matter Billy C becomes the pick.
  6. As soon as a round ends there is ten minute period to update rosters and list and confirm players. During that period Draft day trades may be made as per above.
  7. The opening Scheduled draft days will go on for 100 picks. Other scheduled draft days will be 60 picks. Once the number of picks is reached the clock is turned off
  8. The Formal Draft generally begins at either 11 AM or 1 PM EST to give west coast folk the time to be awake. Be aware of that if you are scheduled to pick

BE AWARE THAT EVEN WITH A FIVE MINUTE LIMIT THAT CAN MEAN 100 MINUTES FOR 20 TEAMS TO PICK IN ONE ROUND. PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DRAFT TO CUT DOWN ON THE TIME REQUIRED. The more prepared everyone is the faster things will go.

Picks off the clock and on non-draft days

As soon as the initial draft ends the “informal draft” begins

During the informal draft a team has 24 hours to make a pick. Picks can be submitted in the draft room or via the Dynasty message system or in person if the person picking is local or via the phone to me. If there is an existing list from the formal draft it will be used to continue the informal draft.

Once the pick is made and recorded on the draft sheet and the player moved to the roster I will announce the pick in the slack chat room and inform the person up, the person on deck and the person in the hole to be prepared to pick. Until you see that announcement the pick is not official.

The Informal draft ends when:

  • Round 30 is complete OR
  • The next formal draft begins

The informal draft resumes after any formal draft that doesn’t reach round 30.

Be aware that trading can be made at any time during the informal draft until:

  • round seven is complete
  • 15 minutes before a formal draft that has not completed round 7

IMPORTANT: Once round seven of the draft is complete trading is finished until the end of week 5 of the season.

The season will begin one week after the draft is complete.

Finally be aware that I have a big event coming up Easter week for my 35th anniversary and that the planning and execution of said event might take some of my time.


If you have any questions not covered here please let me know.

Two things today.

First if you’re a baseball fan I have openings in two leagues that I hope to have drafts for before the end of this month.

Our 1972 league of Dynasty baseball (162 games) has the following teams available: Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs

Our 1997 league (80 games) has the following teams available ( Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates)

In both leagues you can relocate the franchise you take to a new location if so desired and if the franchise is open.

Contact me in comments if you are interested.

Secondly while it’s a day late here the Indulgence Calendar for February is now available for download here. Be aware if I’m late again on this it will be always be available at the WQPH Web site. 

The regular one

And the Blank one

The first of the three David Tennant Doctor Who specials meant to try to get the views they chased away to tune back in prepare for the 60th anniversary of the show is due out this week but for the Red Nose day children in need business in England there was a short special that came out yesterday:

It was not only hilarious but had several little things for the folks who have been gone:

  • Julean Blech as Davros who played him in opposite both Tennant and Capaldi
  • Reference to the Mark Three travel machine, vs Mark 4 in the premiere Davros episode
  • Reference to Genesis of the Daleks
  • The joke about messing up the Canon (in reference to the actions of Chibnall)

It’s a promising start.


Thanksgiving comes very early this year meaning that Advent, the beginning of the church year will not be starting the Saturday after thanksgiving as usual, but the week afterwards. So technically we have a full week between Thanksgiving and the start of the shortened Christmas season but the start of the shopping season still begins on the 24th.

The media and the admin keeps insisting that the economy is doing fine. The events of the next two to six weeks will tell us if they are right or if they are full of it.


In my tabletop baseball league my team which has been overachieving has dropped out of 1st but is still solidly in the playoffs. But no matter how it ends I’m looking good for next year.

Both unanimous winners of the MVP Ohtani in the AL and Acuna Jr. in the NL are currently on my roster so no matter what happens the rest of this year, It going to look pretty good for me next year.

But I think Ohtani would look much better in a Redsox Uniform next year. It would be the best marketing move to bring the Redsox fans back to the stands.

Will they have the balls to do it?


The Celtics with Porzingis and Jrue Holiday have gotten off to an incredible start and it has become apparent that Holiday has more than adequately replaced Marcus Smart both in terms of defense and in terms of intentional fortitude.

At least one writer has suggested that Philadelphia go after Smart to shore up their defense as they chase Boston, but no matter what the situation there is no question that I was completely wrong in terms of the effect of this trade.

The Celtics and the Bruins both with incredible starts are making a serious move to win over the Boston/New England fans who are walking away from the Pats. If they can follow through they might just do so.


Both the media and the Trump campaign have gone all in on the idea that Ron DeSantis is finished both to serve their own purposes as both fear him but despite this DeSantis continues to pull in money and continues to make the fight.

Yesterday he made the case for him over Trump noting some basic facts that people ignore

“As a lame duck with poor personnel, and the distractions, it’s going to be hard for him to get this done,” DeSantis said. “My candidacy is lower risk, because we’ll run Biden ragged around this country, but high reward because you get a two-term conservative president who’s going to stand for your values and deliver for you for eight full years.”

And on CBS he played the age card rather effectively:

Trump is still my 2nd choice and if he’s at the top of the GOP ticket next November he’s have my vote no prob but anyone who is discounting DeSantis is deluding themselves

Update: Here is one more

As all of you know I’m both a big baseball fan and a huge pinball fan and yesterday I got an offer that I thought I couldn’t refuse.

There is a first rate pinball game called Silver Slugger that was rented for me as a Christmas gift last year. I really enjoyed this game as it combines a standard pinball scoring system with a baseball scoring system (pinball points and runs) I can highly recommend this game to anyone who wants an inexpensive pinball machine. (New Machines generally run between $7-15K)

Well the fellow who rented the machine offered it to me for sale. He understood that I only had a limited area to place a game and said location might have issues with sunlight than can fade machine. This machine had a color scheme that would best be able to handle the location without damage.

Furthermore the price he asked was $300 less than the median current price on Pinside (the pinball market) and because he would be picking up a rental from my son anyways the delivery would not be extra which is huge.

It was an excellent bargain. I had enough to pay for the machine in the mad money that I’ve been putting aside every paycheck for the last year or two and I was debating if DaWife would tolerate a machine at the spot where it would go when the oil delivery truck showed up in front of the house.

So I went outside grab the mail and to get the bill for the 190 gallons of heating oil that the tank took.

$710

Mind you this is the first delivery of the year. During an average heating season I expect to have 3 1/2 more such deliveries turn up at the house over the four or five months. Which means $2500 more in oil bills yet to come.

During the Trump years that same oil bill would have been about $360-$400 at the most meaning I would expect to pay another $1260- $1400 dollars over the course of the heating season.

The difference? That the price of the machine.

Now if it were the Trump years I would be able to use that cash saved for the machine secure in the knowledge that I’d be able to handle any twists and turns that might come up. The only question would be the reaction of DaWife to it being a permanent rather than a temporary addition to the house that my sons might rent for me at Christmas & Birthdays.

But alas Joe Biden is president, everything from groceries to gasoline has skyrocketed and given the inept foreign policy that has enabled our enemies and funded Iran who funds Iran and the turmoil in the middle east I can’t be sure that my next oil bill won’t be a whole lot more by the time I burn through what I have, particularly since domestic energy production which was big in the Trump years, is discouraged now.

Given those facts It would be completely irresponsible for me to spend the money on that machine, much more prudent to hold off in case the side effects of the third Obama Term Biden years get even worse. And of course if we have a fourth Obama term second Biden term it likely won’t be much better.

So as I look longingly at the photo of the machine that I enjoyed so much and email the fellow that I really can’t pull the trigger right now all I can say is:

Thanks Joe Biden.