LTBNL 2021
Playing fake baseball the right way. Since 1989.
Thanks to everyone for a great Auction., and especially to Dan for hosting. Perfect setup and perfect location!
Also, many thanks to our Treasurer for getting our finances caught up, and to everyone for paying in what they owe. I'll post the updated financial report here on the Annex soon. If you still owe anything, try to get Steve paid this week.
Rosters have been entered on the OnRoto site. Please take a look at your team when you have a moment and make sure everything looks right.
Here's a summary of the rules changes we voted to make:
Still to be voted on (by upcoming OnRoto poll): The Ohtani Question, and possibly moving the FAAB biddng deadline from noon to later in the day.
The Reserve Draft will be Wednesday night, March 29, at 10 pm EDT. We'll use Zoom and the OnRoto chat room. You can use one or the other or both. If you can't be present, just get me a list of picks before the Draft.
Meeting ID: 849 0032 7510
Passcode: 008355
Here's a handy Reserve Draft Grid to follow along with the progress of the Draft. Let me know if you see any errors. I'll be updating this live during the Draft.
You are welcome to make trades, including trades of Draft Picks, up until 9 pm on Wednesday.
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.
The 2023 LTBNL Auction will be held on Saturday, March 25, starting at 10:30 am EDT at the Show Hoffs’ offices in Dayton.
Scott Industrial Systems
4433 Interpoint Blvd
Dayton OH 45424
If you can’t be there in person, let me know. Even though most of us will be present, I’d still like to use FanTrax as we have the last couple of years to manage the Auction.
Going once …
If you won’t have a computer or iPad or something to run the auction software, please let me know as soon as you can.
Freeze lists will be due by Wednesday, March 22 at noon. Please feel free to turn in a tentative list before then if you’d like. I’ll post all the freezes as soon as I can after noon.
If you’ve been following the GroupMe chatter at all, you’ll know that some potential rules changes have been floated, and that we had a Zoom call Tuesday night to discuss further.
Here’s what we came up with.
The Flat Fee Proposal: Arguments were made for an against, but what we ultimately came up with as a proposal to be put to a vote is for a flat fee of $150 to be paid at the beginning of the season (on or before Auction Day). That amount would cover the basic fee and the stats assessment, plus all activate/reserve fees for the whole season. We’d still charge the regular fee for FAAB purchases, waiver claims, and trades.
The Innings Pitched and At-Bats Requirement: There was general agreement that it’s disruptive to the standings and not great in general when teams fail to meet the minimums and get dropped to the bottom of the applicable categories. We decided to propose that a team that does not meet the minimum be fined $50. We also discussed dropping the IP requirement from 950 innings to 900.
September Roster Expansion: The proposal is to mirror the new MLB rule more closely by reducing the number of expansion players permitted from unlimited (nine) to one.
The Shohei Ohtani Dilemma: We should prepare for the possibility that Ohtani winds up in the NL later this season. OnRoto provides two options: treat him as (1) two completely distinct players, Hitter Ohtani and Pitcher Ohtani, who can be on different teams; or (2) as one player owned by just one team in the league.
The plan for now is for discussion on these four proposals to happen between now and March 25, so we can vote quickly, with minimal discussion, on draft day and then get down to bidding. You may be thinking to yourself: “those proposals are OK but it would be better if we did this instead …" To you I say (1) you should have been on the Zoom call! and (2) fine; but let’s discuss modifications to the proposals now rather than on the morning of the auction. Let’s have a consensus going into draft day so we can have quick yes/no votes and then move on.
Thanks everyone! See you in the GroupMe. Enjoy the basketball.
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!
Playing fake baseball the right way. Since 1989.
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.
Proposal No. 1:
Amend Article 4.1 to provide for an “open” or “English” auction, as opposed to our current “around the room” style. Wikipedia defines an English auction as “an open-outcry ascending dynamic auction,” meaning that any team could call out a bid at any time, presuming the team has enough money to bid and an open appropriate roster spot for the subject player, until the player is sold. We’d still go around the room to nominate players, of course, but the “IN” and “OUT” signs would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Teams could jump in and out of the bidding at will.
Proposal No. 2:
Amend Article 21.1 to provide that the In-Season Salary Cap shall be $350 from Opening Day to May 31, $375 from June 1 to the All Star Break, and then $400 for the rest of the season.
Proposal No. 3:
Amend Article 6 to expand the Reserve Draft and Reserve Roster from 9 to 10 players. The extra player would be assigned a salary of $10. If both this Proposal and Proposal No. 2 pass, then $10 would be added to each of the salary cap numbers in Art. 21.1.
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.