Friends:
I realized today it might be of some help to you to know how I will implement the new mid-month adjustments rule. (The new rule is printed at the end of this post, for your reference.)
The first big change in the rule is redefining when you can make roster moves: anytime, no waiting for injuries or demotions. But you are limited to three per month, soccer-style. This part of the rule change doesn’t dictate any adaptation on my part, other than probably leading to more roster changes, since we generally have averaged fewer than three per team up to now.
The second big change is we allow for people to be completely removed from active duty. Up to now if you had a player sucking badly you couldn’t do anything to get rid of him other than pray for God (or Dexter Fowler) to smite your player. Now you can demote him to the minors (ie, make him stop playing for you).
But we didn’t want this to allow us to escape the damage the player has already done. So instead of letting you dial back the percentage the player was active, we will be cutting the player off from all further updates to his stats that month. Here’s how:
- I will move your player from the active roster list on BP to your team’s “Watched Players” list, which is not consulted for daily stats updates.
- I will move your player’s accumulated stats from your team’s section of my stats update spreadsheet, to a separate protected “shelved players” section that will not be updated. The rest of your team will get its normal updates, but your player sent to the minors will be frozen on the stat sheet as of the date he was demoted. Every day for the rest of the month his stats will remain unchanged . The stats he’s already accumulated will stay on your books, but his further stats will be ignored — whether they be the same, or worse, or his long-awaited breakout. If it is the latter, you can hope it endures until the next month when you can jump back on his bandwagon.
For players getting increases in playing time, or being activated for the first time, we will continue to use his allocation percentage, and the 3% per day left in the month limit on playing time increases. This is not perfect — you’ll get X% of the entire month’s work, not just the time after the promotion or increase. This has always been the case, and we’ve lived with it.
I am asking you to live with this for April.
I have an idea for how we can make promotions (from 0% active) only apply to time after the promotion, but this isn’t called for in the rule and I’m not sure I’ve got a foolproof plan.
We can review our experience at our end-of-April meeting and decide if further adjustments are needed in May when I will have more time to work out kinks.
If this leaves you bewildered or even just a little unclear, let me know. Call me at 503-487-7240 and we’ll have a pleasant chat and I will not use the opportunity to inform you of our latest “Grab a EWIE” promotion featuring DFA’d (and DL’d) Sean Rodriguez. (EWIE stands for Ex-Wolverine Infielder Effect — the unnatural glow of success that comes to all crummy Wolverine infielders once they reach a different team.)
The NEW RULE
Mid-Month Roster Moves: During the month each EFL owner may make three roster moves. A single roster move can include:
a) Increasing an active player’s playing time at one or more positions where he is eligible to play (with accompanying decreases in OH time, if necessary), OR
b) Demoting a player to the minors (which means the player will accumulate no more stats for the rest of the month), and
(i) Calling up one player from the minors to replace the demoted player at one or all of his positions, and /or to play at OH; and/or
ii) Increasing active players’ playing time at eligible position(s) covered by the demoted player (with accompanying decreases in OH time, if necessary).
The EFL team may not make any other adjustments, such as decreasing the percentage of playing time of any active player at any defensive position. The playing time added to any position (including Other Hitter or a pitching role) must be between 1% and 3% per day remaining in the calendar month counting the day the owner announces the change(s) to the league. (The normal requirement that players be activated for a minimum of 33% of their actual PA or IP for the entire month is waived for changes announced under this rule.) No player may be moved from starting pitcher to relief pitcher, or vice versa, as a mid-month replacement. No player may be promoted to the major league roster in the same month he was demoted to the minor leagues.