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Benchwarmer News

1/11/25

1/7/25

  • Reminder that the email notification for trades is turned off. Check all your teams to see if you have any pending trade offers.
  • Hold off on payment for the 2025 season - I didn't even set it up properly for 2024, so the notices on whether or not your teams are paid are not correct. Hopefully I'll have that set up in a week or so.

1/5/25

  • We're open for business for the 2025 season:
    • Please let us know if you're keeping each of your teams in 2025. Deadline is January 22 or we assume the unanswered teams become Orphans.
    • 2025 player salaries are final - Premium salary adjustments have now been applied
    • Player retention decisions for 2025 can now be made from your team roster pages.  Deadline to complete this is expected to be Sunday, February 16 - if you have a lot of teams, don't wait!!
    • Trades are now open for a 2.5-week trading period, ending on Wednesday, January 22.  Following that will be another 2.5-week trade period open through February 9.
    • If you were a foster owner in 2024, I've left you with your foster teams for now. If you want out of that, let me know.
  • Projected off-season schedule:
    • Trade period 1 - Deadline Wed 1/22. Can't do 3 weeks, but can give you 2 1/2.
    • Trade period 2 - Sun 2/9
    • Carryover choices - Sun 2/16
    • Redistribution Draft, Round 1 - Sun 3/2
    • Redistribution Draft, Rounds 2-5 - Fri 3/14
    • Week -1 transactions - Wed 3/19
    • Week Zero transactions - Tue 3/25
    • Week 1 transactions/lineups - Sun 3/30

Did You Know? You can change your email address temporarily in your personal profile

12/28/24

12/10/24

  • Site updates:
    • 2025 salaries are posted and are not final - Premium salary adjustments are applied after the salary cap is calculated (this is a correction from what was originally posted as final on 12/10)
    • 2025 player positions are updated but not final
      • Any player showing an "x" in their position didn't have any MLB stats in 2024, so I need to go back in and check what they did in the minors in 2024 (or maybe they didn't play at all and might be removed from the list) - their positions may change.
      • That usually takes a lot of time and I hope to be finished sometime in January/February (with everything going on this year, I never got that finished for the 2024 season).
  • Still to come before I can open up rosters for changes
    • Calculation of the 2025 salary cap
    • Some setup tasks to move from the 2024 season to the 2025 season.

12/4/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Final Results: NYC2ATL Yankees (Chevy Chase League) defeated I've Seen Your Face Before My Friend (Home of the Brave) 4 games to 0
    • Congratulations to team owner Ricardo Alexander.
    • This is Ricardo's 4th straight win in the BWB ultimate tournament.
    • Ricardo won 9 league championships in 2024 and had 12 teams in the field of 128 that started out the Bash.
    • Also congratulations to runner-up Sherman Wan in his fifth trip to the finals.

12/3/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Semifinals: All games posted.  Championship round coming on Wednesday.
  • We're down to our final two teams. NYC2ATL (Chevy Chase) and I've Seen Your Face Before were victorious in the semifinals:
    • I've Seen Your Face Before (81-69, Home of the Brave, Power Rank 63) - Sherman Wan  vs. NYC2ATL (93-57, Chevy Chase, Power Rank 18) - Ricardo Alexander
    • Ricardo has won the Bash for the last 3 years with different teams. Sherman has never come out on top, but has been runner up 4 times.
    • Neither league has had a Bash winner before.

12/2/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Benchwarmer Bash Quarterfinals: Games 1-7 posted.  Semifinals coming on Tuesday
  • OK - life happening a little bit - time to pick up where I left off - Benchwarmer Bash Quarterfinals will post tonight
  • Answering another question, yes there will be a season in 2025 and I'll work to get caught up. Some of the timelines might be a little tighter.
    • I'm unavailable the end of this week and the weekend - so I intend to get player salaries and positions for 2025 posted next week.
    • After that, we can open up off-season trading.
  • Previewing the Bash:
    • There are 8 teams remaining - 6 league champions and 2 wild card teams
    • None of the franchises in the field have won the Bash before, although 3 owners have won with different teams - Ricardo Alexander, Jason Kiernan and Leif Jonson. Ricardo has won the Bash for the last 3 years.
    • There are no repeats from last season as Federation champions.
    • Federation titles by seed:
      • 1st: 3
      • 2nd: 5
    • Owners with multiple teams in final 8:
      • 2 teams: Ricardo Alexander, Jason Kiernan, and Sherman Wan
    • Our top seed based on BWB's power ranking, is Southeast Northern State Westerners (Bleed Dodger Blue) with an Power Index of 11. For the first time since we moved to Federations in 2009, none of the teams in the top 10 of power ranks made the final 8. 2021 was the last time the #1 team made it.
    • I've Seen Your Face Before (Home of the Brave) has a BWB Power Index of 63 which is the lowest-ranked team to make the Bash quarterfinals. It's the first time since 2012 that we haven't had any teams ranked higher than 100 make the field.

11/17/24

11/16/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Federation Semifinals complete: Games 1-7 posted. Finals coming on Sunday
  • Previewing the Federation round:
    • There are 32 teams in the Federation field - 18 league champions and 14 wild card teams
    • None of the teams have ever won the Benchwarmer Bash
    • 8 of the teams have previously won a Federation title, but none of the 2023 winners has advanced this far
    • 3 of the 16 semifinal series have an owner with teams on both sides of the matchup - it's Jason Kiernan in all of them
    • Owners with multiple teams in the Federation round of the Benchwarmer Bash:
      • 13 teams: Jason Kiernan
      • 3 teams: Ricardo Alexander, Leif Jonson, and Sherman Wan
      • 2 teams: David Henning, Dave Matter,
      • 6 other owners have a single team

11/15/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash - Association Round Recap
    • Association titles by seed:
      • 1st: 8
      • 2nd: 8
      • 3rd: 10
      • 4th: 6
    • 18 titles were won by league champions, 14 by wild cards
    • For our league championship rematches mentioned below on 11/13, 3 of the 4 went to the finals loser - only Metropolis from Superman League won again in this round.
    • 4 teams came in with a chance to repeat from 2023 and none of them did

11/14/24

11/13/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Association finals coming on Thursday - first games posted in the morning.
  • Notes heading into the Association Finals:
    • Second time around, not much change. Below we noted that 6 semifinal matchups were repeats of league championships. 5 of the 6 league winners prevailed in this series too - the only change was that NYC2ATL beat Overdried in the rematch.
    • 14 of the 32 finals matchups feature teams in the same league. This time there are 2 repeats of conference championship series and 4 league championship rematches:
      • Birdland: J-town (Keith Rudy) vs Palmer, McNally, Cueller, Dobson (Jason Kiernan). PMCD won the league championship 4-3
      • Bronx Bombers: Chandeliers (Sherman Wan) vs Maris (Jason Kiernan). Maris won 4-3.
      • Experts: Fantasy on Roids (Christian Ingram) vs NYC (Scott Swanay). NYC won 4-1.
      • Superman: Here Come (Michael Lehman) vs Metropolis (Jason Kiernan). Metropolis won 4-2.
    • In the Association finals we have 2 of the 32 series with an owner playing against himself: Jason Kiernan has both teams in 2 different finals: Yogi Berra Association and Hank Greenberg Association.

11/12/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash 2024 - Association semifinals complete - Games 1-7 posted.
  • Benchwarmer Bash - Matchups are posted for the Association Semifinals - see the Benchwarmer Bash page and look for "Association Results" links within each Federation block (or see the quick links below on the 11/11 note).
  • Previewing the Bash:
    • There are 128 teams in the Association field - 68 league champions and 60 wild card teams
    • 2 franchises in the field have previously won a Bash title, including last year's champion Kingston Baseball Club from Marxball (Ricardo Alexander) and there are 6 previous runners up, including last year's 2nd place team, Suffolk Steel from Perfect World (Robert Elias)
    • 25 of the teams have previously won a Federation title, with 2 of 2023's 8 Federation winners attempting a repeat this year.
    • 39 of the teams have previously won an Association title (a level of competition that started in 2019), 11 of 2023's 32 Association winners are in the field again this year.
    • Of the 64 first-round Association matchups, 23 feature teams from the same league playing each other. Several are playoff rematches:
      • There are 8 rematches of conference championships
      • We have 6 league championship rematches:
        • A League About Nothing: Overdried (Jason Kiernan) vs NYC2ATL (Ricardo Alexander). Overdried won the league championship 4-1
        • Beer: Goose Island 312 (Jason Kiernan) vs Duff (Leif Jonson). Goose Island 312 won 4-3
        • Born to Run: Central City (David Henning) vs Runnin' Redbirds (Jason Kiernan). Runnin' Redbirds won 4-3
        • Deuces Wild: Las Vegas (John Stroba) vs Double (Jason Kiernan). Las Vegas won 4-1
        • Moneyball: Random (Jason Kiernan) vs Billy's (Michael Quinn). Billy's won 4-3
        • Triple Crown: Toronto (Leif Jonson) vs Hobart (Michael Rudolph). Toronto won 4-3
    • 3 of the 64 first-round series have an owner with teams on both sides of the matchup - Jason Kiernan (twice) and David Henning
    • Owners with multiple teams in the Association round of the Benchwarmer Bash:
      • 32 teams: Jason Kiernan
      • 15 teams: David Henning and Sherman Wan
      • 12 teams: Ricardo Alexander
      • 6 teams: Michael Rudolph
      • 5 teams: Robert Elias (plus 2 more as a foster owner for orphan teams), Leif Jonson, and Dave Matter
      • 4 teams: Jerry King
      • 2 teams: Alonda Clifton, John Hula, Christian Ingram, Andrew Lehman, Michael Quinn, John Stroba, and Jon Swanson
      • 13 other owners have a single team

11/11/24

11/5/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash field is finalized. The seedings on the Association pages are not yet updated.
  • Deadline for lineup changes for Benchwarmer Bash teams changed to Wednesday night - midnight Eastern

11/4/24

11/3/24

  • Playoffs: Championship Week: Games 1-4 posted - See Playoffs for All Leagues
  • Week 27 lineup changes in place. Lineups are open again - teams headed to the Benchwarmer Bash can change their lineups one more time to last the duration of the Bash. Lineup deadline is Tuesday night, Nov. 5 Wednesday night, Nov. 6 at midnight Eastern.

11/2/24

  • Benchwarmer Bash page is now active - showing potential entrants.  Listed wild card teams assume the higher-ranked teams win their league championships. Wild cards shown in italics are tentative and not confirmed.
  • 34 of 2023's 68 league champions won their division again this season. 18 are still alive heading into the league finals
  • Congratulations to owners still alive with multiple conference wins: (see how this compares to 2023)
    • 32 Teams - Jason Kiernan (out of 45 division winners)
    • 16 Teams - David Henning (24)
    • 13 Teams - Ricardo Alexander (17)
    • 10 Teams - Sherman Wan (21)
    • 8 Teams - Michael Rudolph (14)
    • 6 Teams - Leif Jonson (8)
    • 5 Teams - Michael Quinn (15)
    • 4 Teams - Michael Lehman (6)
    • 3 Teams - Jim Duzyk (5), Robert Elias (6), Tom McGraw (3), John Stroba (5), and Jon Swanson (4)
    • 2 Teams - John Hula (7), Andrew Lehman (10), Dave Matter (13), Bill Munger (3), Jamie Reese (6), and Ken Stevenson (4)
    • Add one more for Michael Lehman and Robert Elias as foster owners for 2 orphans still in the running.

11/1/24

  • Playoffs: Week 1: Game 7 posted - See Playoffs for All Leagues
  • Lineup deadline for the 2nd week of the playoffs (Week 27): Saturday, November 2 at midnight Eastern
  • 2024 in Review (Part 2):
    • See Standings for All Leagues and Around BWB
    • Of 272 division winners from 2023, 108 repeated with division titles this season (120 of 272 repeated last year)
    • 83 of the division winners from last season finished below .500 in 2024, 40 of them dropped all the way to last place this year. 2 of those teams lost 100 games this year.
    • From the 272 divisions that existed in 2023, 26 division winners in 2024 are franchises that never before won a division title.
      • Special shout outs to teams doing this for the first time after 10 or more years of league play:
        • Bill Munger, Broomall in Beatleball's 21st season
        • Matt Strawbridge, Australia in Shadowball's 20th season
        • Alonda Clifton, Real Ballplayers in Fenway Fenatic's 14th season
        • Christian Ingram, The 1993 Philadelphia Phillies in Phightin' Phils' 14th Season
        • Tom McGraw, Chip in Phightin' Phils' 14th Season
        • Andrew Lehman, Banta in Firemen League's 13th season
        • Sam Campbell, Cincinnati in Firemen League's 13th season
        • Ken Stevenson, Canadian in Motor City's 12th season
        • John Hula as foster owner, Cal in Moneyball's 12th season
        • Jaime Reese, Red in Cleveland Rocks' 12th season
        • Andrew Lehman, Cujo's in Scooby Doo's 17th season
    • Of the 68 league champions from 2023, 34 of them repeated as division winners this season. (40 of 68 league winners from 2022 won divisions in 2023).
    • 40 teams went "worst to first" - finishing in 4th place in 2023 and winning a division this year (31 last year).
    • 21 teams out of 1,088 won 100 games this year, topped by 1 team with 108 wins: Leif Jonson with Duff in Beer League
    • 21 teams lost 100 games, with 1 team dropping 112 for the season.
    • 22 teams had 100 or more losses in 2023.  4 of them won their division this year (4 made 2nd-place) and 8 of them finished .500 or better. However, 10 of those teams finished in 4th place this season. None of those teams lost 100 games again this year.
    • 13 teams won 100 or more games in 2023. 1 of them won 100 games again this season and 8 were division winners this year. Only 1 of those teams ended up below .500 this year.

10/31/24

  • Playoffs: Week 1: Games 4-6 posted - See Playoffs for All Leagues
  • Congratulations to owners with multiple division wins (see how this compares to last year):
    • 45 Teams - Jason Kiernan
    • 24 Teams - David Henning
    • 21 Teams - Sherman Wan
    • 17 Teams - Ricardo Alexander
    • 15 Teams - Michael Quinn
    • 14 Teams - Michael Rudolph
    • 13 Teams - Dave Matter
    • 10 Teams - Andrew Lehman
    • 9 Teams - Orphan teams under BWB Office and foster owners
    • 8 Teams - Leif Jonson
    • 7 Teams - John Hula
    • 6 Teams - Jamie Reese, Jerry King, Michael Lehman, Robert Elias
    • 5 Teams - Alonda Clifton, Jim Duzyk, John Stroba
    • 4 Teams - Don Kruse, Ken Stevenson, Jon Swanson
    • 3 Teams - Craig Burke, Anthony C, Tom McGraw, Bill Munger, Jerry Stevens
    • 2 Teams - Sam Campbell, Mike DeSmedt, Christian Ingram, Tom Kohl, Sheldon Price

10/30/24

  • Playoffs: Week 1: Games 1-3 posted - See Playoffs for All Leagues
  • 2024 in Review: This season, there were 18 divisional ties throughout BWB. In 2023, 8 divisions ended in ties - how did the teams in last year's tiebreaker games fare this season?
    • Born to Run League - Cobb Division:
      • Winner: Quad Cities Stealing Home (Tom Kohl) - Went on to win the league championship. This year: Won the division by 5 games
      • Loser: Escape from New Jersey in a Green Ford Taurus (John Hula) - This year: Finished 3rd, 15 GB
    • Born to Run League - Raines Division:
      • Winner: Central City Flashes (David Henning) - This year: Won again by 14 games
      • Loser: Quick Feet (Roland Dupont) - This year: Finished 3rd, 20 GB
    • Fenway Fenatics - Cronin Division:
      • Winner: Green Monster (Tom McGraw) - This year: Finished 2nd, 1 GB
      • Loser: Scarlet Sox (Roland Dupont) - This year: Finished 4th, 29 GB
    • Game Night League - Operation Division:
      • Winner: Minnesota Moose (Jon Swanson) - This year: Finished 4th, 15.5 GB
      • Loser: SoCal Blue Dogs (Scott Owens) - This year: Tied for 1st again and won the tiebreaker
    • Minnie & Paul League - Carew Division:
      • Winner: Nebraska Legends (Michael Gaston) - This year: Finished 3rd, 6 GB
      • Loser: Bloomington Metropolitans (Sam Campbell) - This year: Won the division by 2 games
    • Moneyball League - Scott Hatteberg Division:
      • Winner: Atlanta Beane Pies (Ricardo Alexander) - This year: Won the division by 2 games
      • Loser: Bloom County Boingers (Dave Matter) - This year: Finished 3rd, 4 GB
    • Redbirds League - Brock Division:
      • Winner: Brooklyn Usual Suspects (Jerry King) - This year: Won the division by 10 games
      • Loser: Hello Wisconsin Stoners (Michael Lehman) - This year: Finished 4th, 25 GB
    • Whiff League - Jose Canseco Division:
      • Winner: Arlington Killer Donkeys (Brad Lewallen) - This year: Finished 4th, 7 GB
      • Loser: Branyan's Bombers (Michael Rudolph) - This year: Won the division by 1 game

10/29/24

10/28/24

10/23/24

10/21/24

  • Initial posting of playoff tiebreakers within divisions. Main purpose at this point is to show which teams that tied for 2nd will play in the Gore Cup - this is a corrected version that added the 2nd place tie in Bronx Bombers.

10/17/24

  • Week 25 Statistics and Players of the Week
  • 18 Division Champions from the October 15 tiebreaker games (See standings for all leagues and a full list of all 2024 division winners)
    • A League About Nothing - Elaine Division: Infinite Zeroes (owner David Henning - 23rd win in 2024) - 4th time on top; League champ in 2020-21
    • Anchorman League - Chancellor Division: Huey Lewis The News Boys (owner Alonda Clifton - 4th win in 2024) - 4th division win, 1st since 2018
    • Beer League - Yeast Division: The Natty Lights (owner Bill Munger - 3rd win in 2024) - Defending league champ (6 overall); 15th consecutive pennant
    • Blame Canada League - Kenny Division: Thunder Bay Voyageurs (owner Jerry Stevens - 3rd win in 2024) - 4th pennant, 1st since 2015
    • Cleveland Rocks
      • Boudreau Division: Red Barchettas (owner Jamie Reese - 6th win in 2024) - 1st title in league's 12th season; Had finished 2nd 5 times, includling last year
      • Averill Division: Not So Hot In Cleveland (owner Andrew Lehman - 9th win in 2024) - 2nd win
    • Commissioners League - Chandler Division: Brooklyn Dodgers (owner Jason Kiernan - 44th win in 2024) - 11th pennant; League champion in 2011-2012
    • Fenway Fenatics -Boggs Division: Alaskan Wilderness (owner Dave Matter - 13th win in 2024) - 3rd trip to the playoffs
    • Four Star League - Patton Division: Its the Top of the Pops (owner Andrew Lehman - 10th win in 2024) - 1st time on top since 2010
    • Game Night League - Operation Division: SoCal Blue Dogs (owner Scott Owens) - Won for the 3rd time in league's 4 seasons; 2021 league champion
    • Geek Pride League - Berners-Lee Division: Boba Chette Salutes Greef Karga (owner Sherman Wan - 21st win in 2024) - Defending league champ (3 overall); 5th straight division win and 9th in 10 years
    • Grunge League - Hole Division: Knee Deep In Hoopla (Orphan team - Foster owner Alonda Clifton) - 3rd division win; 2021 league champ
    • Hall of Fame League
      • Ruth Division: Seattle Survivors (owner Leif Jonson - 8th win in 2024) - Repeat win, 8th overall; Won 3 league titles between 2014-2017
      • Cooperstown Division: Alcatraz Crabcakes (owner Michael Burkert) - 5th division win; 2001 league champion
    • North Siders League - Sutter Division: Wrigleyville Bryzzo Souvenirs (owner Jason Kiernan - 45th win in 2024) - 7th division crown
    • Pacific Northwest League - Cougars Division: Hooterville Flying Pigs (owner Alonda Clifton - 5th win in 2024) - Also won in 2021
    • Phightin' Phils League - Roberts Division: SGV Dukes (owner Michael Quinn - 15th win in 2024) - 4th division win, 1st since 2015; League champ in 2011-2012
    • South Siders League - Fox Division: Delphi Titans (owner David Henning - 24th win in 2024) - 4th division title; 2016 league champion

See the News Archive for older headlines.