Last week, I emailed all of last year's managers about returning for 2007. If you did not receive it, please send email to bbfl at scottlucas dot com with the following information:

Team Name (old and new, if changing):
Your name:
Email address:
WILL / WILL NOT be playing this year:

BBFL Preseason Schedule

Rule proposals and discussion will run from now until next Sunday. If we have complete team ownership by then, the schedule will run as follows:

Feb 19 through Feb 25: Rule proposals
Feb 26 through Mar 4: Rule voting
Mar 6 through Mar 18: Off-Season Trading Window
Mar 19: Announce Keepers
Mar 24: Deadline to change keepers
Mar 29: Draft.

The moment we get a league’s ownership finalized, I will begin emailing owners to match owners with orphaned rosters. Remember that we changed the roster-assignment process last year. In essence, demoted teams choose first (in order of 2006 finish), then promoted teams, then owners promoted via attrition. Owners who do not respond promptly will be passed over and may have rosters assigned to them. See Rule XI of the BBFL constitution for details.

Regarding the trading window, Alomar and Barfield owners may have players they must relinquish now per the three-year rule. I’ll post a list in the near future (I emailed 2006 final rosters last week). Keep this in mind when developing a trading strategy.

Rule Proposal Guidelines

1. One owner proposes a rule change or an addition/adjustment to a current rule.
2. Someone seconds the proposal.
3. The proposal is added to the list. If two or more proposals seem contradictory, I may combine them into a single multiple-choice question at the time of voting (as an example from 2004, we wouldn't have wanted separate proposals on how many teams to relegate). We'll just see how they develop.
4. Before you submit a proposal, please review the constitution to make sure you’re not covering old ground.

Remember, BBFL rules can’t contradict Yahoo. For example, in 2005 the BBFL voted to require 100 or more at-bats to qualify for offensive wins (similar to the 25-inning minimum). I later discovered that Yahoo provided no way to implement that rule, so out it went. Rule changes on in-game play (for example, statistical categories) will take effect this year, but structural changes involving ownership (for example, the ordering system for placing orphaned rosters with new owners) will not take effect until 2008. Put another way, no new rule may take effect before Opening Day.

Also, if a proposed rule would create onerous administrative duties for the commissioner, the commissioner reserves the right to complain incessantly until the rule’s proponents give up.

Finally, I will insure that daily roster changes will follow the “next day” system we used from 2003-2005, not the “same day” system I inadvertently put in place last year.

Advancement / Relegation

Per league rules, the three lowest-ranked teams in the Alomar and Barfield divisions move down, and the top three teams (in the standings or playoffs, depending on the circumstances) in Barfield and Carter move up. Here are the switches for 2006:

Pohnpei Papayas, Magic 9, and Moscow Rats advanced to Alomar.
Schroedinger’s Bat, Eastern Shore Birds, and Jay’s Ehs were relegated to Barfield.
Sexy Underpants, Chico’s Bail Bonds, and the Wedding Singers advanced to Barfield.
European Wannabe, Dr. Z’s Hot Men, and Pistol Nine were relegated to Carter.

Draft Day

During the past three years, every division has held its draft on the Thursday prior to Opening Day. This year, that will be March 29th. We’ve typically drafted at about 9pm EST, rather late for you Easterners but necessary to accommodate those out west.

Waiting List

Interested in playing? Post here and join the waiting list. Last year’s waiting list was 30 or so, and it does carry over, but plenty of people decline or don’t respond. We may have a few openings. I’ll have to dig through old emails to confirm the existing list, and I’ll post it here when I do.

RESPONSES AS OF FEB 24, 6pm EST

Alomar: ALL RETURNING

Barfield: 18 returning, 2 out (Jick’s Rays, Jay's Ehs)

Carter: 15 returning, 3 out (European Wannabe, Pistol Nine, Anarchist Archivists), 2 not invited back for too-passive ownership

WAITING LIST AND POTENTIAL NEW OWNERS

These are the leftovers on the waiting list from Feb 23 2006, when we filled up the league last year:

see you, ronnybrams, T-Fern, HippyGilmore, Geoff, zaptom, The Bone, Jevant, Jobu, andrewkw, Noah, Grrbear, rlblt, clark, williams_5, torpg20, Alexander, DepecheJay, JC, jayfanbooklyn, skinner.

I'll need to add those who signed up afterwards, followed by those who've signed up now. Whether by email or comment, I always add people in order of time of the message. We will need seven new owners this season.  Emailing will begin Saturday 24 Feb.

You must have a valid BB account and be in the good graces of the Roster to join. Also, as this is the time of year when people should be expecting information about fantasy ball, I'm pretty ruthless about passing over waiting-list members who don't respond quickly. I'll post here when I send out the invite email.