Auction will use the website Couchmanagers.com. We plan on at least one test run beginnng about Sep 17. Anyone who wants to be part of an auction this fall should have the chance to participate in a test run first, to get the hang of how the process works.
Details available to any who are interested, but the auction will be conducted by each owner nominating a player or two, with bidding open until a 12-hour or 18-hour window passes with no additional bids, at which time the player is rostered by the high bidder. We would auction about half a full roster, and use a regular draft to finish off the rest.
Committing to a (free!) test run does not commit you to a league in the fall; nor does it get you automatic invite if we have more parties than a league can handle... but it does put you on the inside track.
Because the auction might take longer than a standard draft, we plan to begin the actual Scoresheet winterball auction in late Oct; earlier than others. Joining this auction league will require payment up front to Scoresheet, to ensure we don't begin a process offline and then have a major hiccup.
This year's winter league will feature the seasons 1981-1984. Our auction league will be an NL or BL, depending on # of owners. The short test run will use last year's players, 1977-80. A cheat sheet can be made available if anyone needs last year's ##s.