The 2024 LTBNL Reserve Draft will be held Sunday night, March 24, at 10:00 EDT.

Please join by Zoom (and turn on video) if you can.  You can also use the OnRoto chat room; we'll be in there too.  And you can follow along on the handy Reserve Draft Grid. (Click the yellow button below).  GroupMe would work as well, if you prefer to just use that.

By my count, there are 19 reserve freezes, meaning that we need to fill 89 spots tonight.  If you have a list with 89 names, you are good!  If you'd like to move your frozen players to different draft slots, just let me know and I'll update the grid.  The sooner you can do that, the better (for me at least).

Feel free to make trades of players and/or draft picks right up until the Reserve Draft starts.  I'll update the Grid if necessary.  Just make sure all teams have balanced and legal rosters once the trade is done.  

Please don't self-transact until after I get the players we pick in the Reserve Draft entered into OnRoto.  I'll give the go-ahead when everything's ready.  We may be able to open up FAAB prior to Thursday, which would certainly be a first.

Here's the Zoom info for the Reserve Draft:

Topic: LTBNL
Time: Mar 24, 2024 10:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84513437941?pwd=EpUeIE259HfDd7PSaunmMYNlHZy2YQ.1

Meeting ID: 845 1343 7941
Passcode: 208778

On March 23, 2024, members of the League to be Named Later convened in Dayton, Ohio to open the THIRTY-SIXTH SEASON of LTBNL baseball.  

The Auction was hosted, for the second year in a row, by the Show Hoffs.  Their setup for the Auction is unparalled.  Many thanks to Dan for hosting us and putting up with our ridiculousness for six hours.  Thanks also for the bagels and coffee.  Our reigning champion, Gregory Peckers, provided an awesome DiBella's lunch.  The Candy Stripers couldn't be present in person, but sent along some 2024 Topps to open and exchange.

Present in person were The Show Hoffs, Henry Myers, filling in admirably for Dan's Fever, the Rick Shaws, the Sol Train (until their mom had to pick them up), the Doug Outs, Karnold Nowledge, the QuagMyers, and the Peckers.

Our beloved treasurer, Stevie's Wonders, was in Charlotte for Madness, watching North Carolina and Tennesse advance.  LTBNL founding member Candy Stripers and newcomer Joey Bag o' Donuts drafted from their stately homes.  And the Green Monsters called in for the Auction from a very quiet location near Orlando.

The PICFL called the proceedings to order at about 10:30.  A rules change proposal was made to add "designated hitter" as an LTBNL position (in place of the non-super utility spot).  It was noted that several players qualified only at DH and were thus eligible to placed only at a UT spot.  Discussion ensued, but ultimately the motion failed.  For the 19th consecutive year, Steve proposed expanding reserve rosters from 9 to 10.  This measure also failed, narrowly.  Until next year!

The Pham Rule:  Tommy Pham is still looking for work.  He is also the only known player to ever be suspended for punching a fellow player due to a fantasy sports dispute.  But we digress.  The Doug Outs were permitted to freeze Pham at $1 and then sought, under Rule 20.4, to reserve him prior to the Auction.  We voted to allow that, but ultimately Doug graciously withdrew his request when it appeared technically impossible to make the appropriate change on FanTrax.  Still, the LTBNL voted to amend Rule 20 to clarify that if a team freezes a free agent, the team MUST keep the player on its active roster through the Auction. 

We decided to table the question of possibly adding an injured reserve spot to our rosters.  It was agreed that a formal proposal would be drafted for later vote via OnRoto poll question.

Rule of Reason position changes were granted for Christopher Morel, Joey Meneses, and Henry Davis.  The League Office would then spend the next 4.5 hours trying to figure out how to move players on FanTrax during the Auction.

At 10:51, the Fever threw out the first name, and it was a big one.  Ronald Acuna Jr.  The Wonders got him for $53 (a hefty but well-deserved raise) and then also selected the last player, Tanner Rainey, at 3:54.  With that pick, the Auction concluded.

For the most part, things ran really smoothly and although we had a little bit of a slow start, the middle section of the draft and the end-game would have to be described as brisk.  It would have been nice to have been a little clearer before the Auction started on how to move players around on rosters, and it would have been good if the League Office had remembered to move frozen players to reserve before FanTrax barrelled ahead at 10:30 on the nose.  

The League Office thanks everyone for being on time and hanging in there for the whole Auction.  It was an excellent effort on everyone's part.  It was very good to see everyone!  Auction Day is always one of the most fun days of the year, and the League Office is very grateful to have somehow assembled such a great group of friends for fake baseball purposes.  

The financial state of the LTBNL is strong.  That statement remains true even though it's not about the money.

Thanks to Steve, almost everyone is paid up for 2023 and the 2023 winners have been or will shortly be paid.  I will post the full financial report here shortly.  If you haven't paid, you can do so now via Zelle directly to the Treasury, or via PayPal or Venmo or Apple Pay to the PICFL, who will transfer the funds into the Treasury.  Thank you.

Here's a summary of the rules changes we implemented for 2023:

• we are now charging a flat fee of $150 in lieu of the $26 basic fee and the stats/tech assesment.  This will also cover all of your transaction fees for movement of players between active and reserve (up and down) all season, no matter how many you make.  We'll still charge for FAAB purchases, waiver claims, trades, and September expansion.
• September roster expansion will now be limited to 2 extra players (instead of the "unliimited" option we used to have).
• The IP requirement has been reduced from 950 innings to 900 innings.  We have added a $50 penalty to be assessed to any team that fails to make the minimum.  This applies to the AB requirement as well, though we didn't adjust the number: It's still 4,250.
• The Ohtani Question:  We will treat him as two separate players: a hitter and a pitcher.  Both Ohtanis will be available in this year's Auction.

I still need to update the Constitution to reflect these changes, but I'll get to it soon.

The Big Sheet is ready!  Please advise the League Office promptly of any errors.  Next I'm going to be updating the OnRoto site, and then FanTrax.

Welp.  2020 kind of sucked.  As we were planning for an Auction that never happened, I remember typing into GroupMe, "

That turned out to be true, but really not in the way I was thinking.

We wound up deciding to "mothball" our teams and play roto in 2020 as a one-off season with no freeze lists, a snake draft, relaxed rules, no transaction fees, and probably a bunch of other concessions to COVID-19.  Every team started with a blank slate, knowing that their "real" rosters would be held in a state of suspended animation until 2021.  We agreed that every team would chip in $25, the prize pool to be donated to a charity of the winner's choosing.  We used Fantrax for both the snake draft on July 26.

It went OK, I think.  Speaking for myself, I definitely paid less attention to my team on a daily basis.  There were plenty of days where I just forgot to set a lineup.  But I enjoyed it.  It was great to have baseball back on TV, even if a lot of games got postponed and rescheduled along the way.  The dumb Manfred rules changes didn't bother me as much as I thought they would.  I honestly didn't even mind the DH that much, and I thought the 7-inning doubleheaders were kind of fun.

And then on August 19, we got this:

as there's a drive into deep left by Castellanos and that'll be a home run.  And so that'll make it a 4-0 ballgame.

If memory serves, our pennant race wasn't really very close and Joe won by a lot.  I'll post the standings and stats on the 2020 page soon.

Joe has chosen the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation to receive the bounty of his victory.  So far, seven teams have kicked in $25.00, so we'll be sending them $200, counting Joe's contribution.  If anyone else wants to chip in -- and it's entirely voluntary -- please send your money to me by the end of the day on Monday, February 22, by either Venmo (@Tom-Myers-22) or Paypal.  I'm forwarding all I've collected to Joe after that.  Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for a great Auction, and especially to Steve for hosting and to Arnie for lunch. 

II will have the rosters entered into OnRoto soon.  Here is a link to our post-Auction rosters in PDF.

The Reserve Draft will be held on Tuesday night, March 26, at 10 p.m., EDT.  We will just use the GroupMe app this year, and hopefully avoid some of the technical difficulties of years past.  Quags are on the clock!

If you have frozen reserve players, please text or email me the pick numbers you wish to forfeit.  if possible, please do this by 7 pm or so on Tuesday night.  We'll permit trades up until 7 pm on Tuesday night also.  The Reserve Draft Grid will be updated soon with the Wonders-DougOuts correction and the most recent trades.

Thanks again to Steve for his service as League Treasurer.  Below is his 2019 Financial Report.  If your number in the last column on the right is red, you're a winner!  You'll receive a check from the League Treasurer.  If that number is black, please be prepared to pay up at the Auction.  

I finally updated the Constitution with the several changes we've made over the last few years.  Just in time to amend it again!  Most of the changes I made were housekeeping cleanups related to our new position requirements (The Davitt Proposal) and the roster size changes that we made when we lost the Astros.  I also changed the minimum IP and AB requirements (10.6 & 10.7) and I re-wrote 16.8 to clarify that when a team claims FAAB compensation for a player traded to the AL, that player is automatically released rather than the team needing to release him.  As always, let me know if you find any errors.

Here are the three proposals that Joe submitted to the League Office for vote prior to this year's Auction.  Proposal No. 1 passed, 7-5.  Proposal No. 2 failed, 8-4, and No. 3 failed, 9-3.  Thanks for voting.

Many thanks to Steve for once again preparing our League Financial Report.  Please be prepared to settle up at the Auction on Saturday.  You can pay your fees via PayPal!  Use the link below.

The Green Monsters held on, surviving a late-season challenge from the QuagMyers, to post their second straight title, and sixth overall.  

Congratulations to the Gregory Peckers, who won the 2017 Commissioner's Trophy.  The Trophy is presented each year to the team that has the best post-All Star Break stats but doesn't finish in the top four.  Please feel free to check my work, as these numbers are entered into the spreadsheet by hand.

The final standings are below.  You can see the entire worksheet here.  (Click on Sheet 1 to see the whole deal).

Here is the official video of KC's dousing for his 2016 Championship, following the 2017 Auction.

Following the 2016 Draft, the Rick Shaws received their second consecutive dousing, and the chocolate shower was administered by the smallest Monster, K.C.'s son Carson.  It was a sneak attack; it happened so quickly that I don't think I got a video.  I did get some photos, though.  Please take note of the demonic glee on the face of young Carson.

Here is Rick getting his first dousing, following his 2014 title.  

Following the 2013 Auction at Steve's office, we did a catch-up dousing for the ceremonies we somehow skipped.