NEW BLOOD
Thanks to Leo for introducing Gary; this year we have four new owners!
- Gary Ruud — Giants
- Pat Walsh — Tigers
- Steve Clemmons — Marlins
- Michael Mendoza — Pirates
DRY RUN/SPRING TRAINING
As of now, the website has been updated with all 2020 owner information, the stats have been reset, and we are ready to replay the first week of 2019 season on the new sim engine (see below). I hope that you can log in and enter a lineup/rotation by MONDAY NIGHT, and when I get up Tuesday I’ll run the games. This is a dry run/spring training exercise. It is to test the logins and basic functions. Also, we want to test the new sim engine — it worked reasonably well last year but I rolled it out without time to debug it so we stuck with the old one for last year. PLEASE review the box scores/play-by-play and let me know if you see anything amiss. You don’t need to enter trades or worry about waivers; just take the lineup that’s in there for the end of 2019, get yourself up to speed, and make sure everything works. This will use last year’s rules.
Pending that, we’ll run games on Friday using this year’s stats and this year’s rules.
HOW TO PLAY FOR THE NEWCOMERS
IF YOU ARE NEW to the league: Go to the newsletter page (https://asfblblog.wordpress.com/) and the most important thing is to click on the “How to enter lineups — week 2” link on the right-hand side. You can also click on the about/rules/technical info links if you want background reading. If you don’t, the best advice is to just put together the best lineup/rotation/bullpen you can based on real stats, and the only trick to figure out is the “adjustments to reality,” which is in that documentation.
As soon as I send this I’ll send you your password, which is all you need to log in. Also, I’ll post this on newsletter page, which is where most of the league announcements will show up.
RULES AND WHATNOT
We’ll use the DH in both leagues (to Adam Symonds’ delight and over my grevious objections), the extra-runner in extra-innings rule, and the 3-batter minimum rule. Obviously, we won’t use AAA players this year since there aren’t any, and I’m looking into how difficult it would be to change the roster sizes on the fly. August 31 is the trade deadline. We will use the new 16-team playoff format. As always, the stands will be packed with digital fans, and they look less cheesy than the greenscreened ones that show up on the Dodger broadcasts. Those are just creepy.
Also the no arguing rule, so if anyone gets in Leo’s face without a mask you go on quarantine for 14 days 🙂 Shout out to OC resident Shohei Ohtani, who became the first player in major league history on second base to start the 10th and, 3 minutes later the first to get caught between second and third right before the next hitter nailed a single.
CONTACT INFO
Still updating the google list (we have to use that because some email sites block the email our site generates), so until then log in, click on “owners and emails,” and you can find the email of anyone you want. To send a league-wide email, copy and paste the list from the box at the bottom.
SIM ENGINE INFO/TAKING THE PLUNGE
We had been running off of a Microsoft Access database with constant uploading and downloading from might laptop. We switched to running of a mysql database that is updated and runs on the server, which was way better. But, my laptop still ran the games and kept connecting back and forth with the server. The new sim engine runs on the server so there’s no upload and downloading. The main new features are play-by-play info and some more unusual but realistic events (runners getting picked off, etc.). It should be more stable, automatically backed up, etc. We can also now archive individual player stats to answer questions like “who has the most ASFBL HR in a season?,” etc. The play-by-play will eventually be a button you can use to watch the games unfold without knowing the results, but for now it’s just a dump to review so you can see all the logic the computer is using.
But, the main thing was that last year if the new sim didn’t work we could just jump back to the old one. This year there are a bunch of rules changes that I don’t think I can maintain in the offline software and the online software, so we are full-steam-ahead, don’t-look-back on the new sim engine. I’m hoping the short season is the right time to do this, since everything is a little whacked anyway.
Think that’s it; looking forward to doing the short season with you! It’s still weird, but I’m finding it comforting to have box scores to wake up to and games to watch on TV.
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