SCORESHEET BASEBALL: Thoughts on Pricing for the upcoming 2020 season
July 22nd, 2020
Hello Again: Finally, MLB's Opening Day is almost here. And with the season ready to start tomorrow (Thursday the 23rd), I wanted to remind everyone that if you want to send in a lineup change or trade notice to take effect for the week 1 games, the deadline to do so is 7:05 PM Eastern time/4:05 PM Pacific time on July 23rd. Any lineups or trade notes sent in after that time (the start of the first MLB game on the 23rd) will not be used until Scoresheet's week 2 games.
This e-mail is going out to everyone who is signed up for the 2020 season - if you have already sent in your week 1 lineup this e-mail does *not* mean that you need to send it in again. And you can continue to make changes for week 1 up until the deadline. If you send in more than one week 1 lineup we will simply use the latest submission sent in by/before the week 1 deadline.
DH in NLs this year: Following MLB's lead, all Scoresheet teams this season will use a DH. If you are in an NL and there are just 8 starting batters listed on your web lineup form, then you will need to add a 9th starting batter to your lineup versus both RHPs and LHPs for the send button to work. To do that, you need to move a batter from your bench or farm to the starting lineup so that you have 9 starting batters. Then you should type in -DH to the position listing for one (or more) batters so that the DH position is covered and so the send button will work.
Position qualifying: Position players will automatically qualify at new positions during the 2020 season once they play 7 games at that position in the majors (lowered from the usual 10 games required). In addition, if a player plays in all of his major league team's games in week 1 at a new position we will qualify him there effective week 1 (he will qualify at that new position before we play the week 1 games at the end of the week on our computer.) Also, pitchers on our short reliever list can not appear in a Scoresheet game before the 4th inning. But, if a pitcher on that list gets a start in the majors then they are considered a 'regular' pitcher for the rest of the season, and can start for your team. Like batter positions, we do make that change retroactive to the start of the week. So if a pitcher on our short reliever list starts a game in MLB during week 1 he would be eligible to start for your team in Scoresheet in week 1.
Pitching rotation week 1: With 6 games being played by most Scoresheet teams in week 1, the normal 5 man rotation is required. That means 5 different pitchers will have to start your games each week, including week 1. If all 5 of the pitchers listed in your rotation pitch in the majors week 1 then each one would start once, with one of them (your #1 starter if prefer to face is not being used) starting twice. The other pitchers would all have a start banked for future use. Player stats are all doubled this season, so a pitcher starting once in real life has two starts available, so if just one is used the other is banked, along with half of his real life stats from week 1. If one of your rotation pitchers does not pitch in the majors in week 1 then a bullpen (or farm system) pitcher can start as long as he gets 1.2 innings pitched in the majors week 1 (stats are doubled, so 1.2 real IP would satisfy the normal 3 IP needed to start.)
Orphaned Keeper League Teams Available: There are still orphaned teams available in some of the continuing leagues we run. If you'd like to look over some rosters of leagues with orphaned teams in them, a list can be found at: www.scoresheet.com/BB_AvailableTeams.php The normal team fee for a continuing league team is $89. But with the season about ready to start, the current price to take over an orphaned team is just $29, though no credit for 2021 is earned for that low rate. If you had previously paid $39 or $49 for an orphan you will be getting a $10 credit for 2021, and if you paid $79 back before keepers were turned in you will be getting a $20 credit for 2021.
Let's all get ready for some baseball to be played. While thee are obviously many other things going on in the world that demand attention, hopefully baseball will provide us with a much needed distraction. And I for one could really use the enjoyment that baseball brings me, as it has been a rough few months.
Play Ball! - Jeff Barton, Scoresheet Baseball
