Playoffs
Obviously, the first task at hand when the season
ends is to crown our 2013 Champions. In addition, all BWB teams qualify for some
sort of post-season tournament. BWB Championships
The division winners in each conference meet
for a best-of-7 series to determine the conference champion.
The teams with the best regular season records earn home field
advantage. Then, the winners of the conference championship
series meet to determine the league champion. Again, a
best-of-7 series. The team with the best record gets home
field advantage.
The Gore Cup
All four second-place teams advance to this
tournament for runners-up who probably feel like they should
have taken first place. Teams are seeded 1-4 by record and
in this first week we have #1 vs. #4 and #2 vs. #3 in a
best-of-7 series. Winners of the first round advance to
the finals, with the highest seeded team earning home field
advantage. This is also a best-of-7 series.
The Bottom Feeder Open
The remaining 8 teams get a reason to visit
the site during the playoffs too. In this first week,
teams are seeded 1-8 by regular season record and face each
other in a best-of-3 quarterfinal series (home-away-home).
Following the first series, using the same lineups, the winners
are re-seeded and compete in another best-of-3 series for the
semifinals. The two surviving teams meet in a
best-of-5 final series in the second week.
More information:
Teams can change lineups from one week of the
playoffs to the
next. The pitching rotations may be completely reset
without worry of proper rest of starters. All teams are
playing for extra BWB Bucks to help fill out their rosters for
next season. League champions earn a free season for their
team next season. In addition, all 3 tournament winners
will have the option to take a free team for the next season in a new league
or a free orphan team.
Benchwarmer Bash
Winners of each league and selected wild card teams will advance to a tournament to
find the overall champion of Benchwarmer Baseball.
This provides some focus during the down time of the off
season. In 2013, we have 37 leagues. Each league
is placed in one of eight Federations. The league champions
and perhaps a few non-champion teams with the highest BWB Power
Index in their Federation will meet in the Federation
Championship tournament. From there the eight
Federation Champions advance to the Benchwamer Bash.
Results will
appear in October-November. All series are
best-of-seven. The winner of the Bash earns two
additional free seasons for his/her team and the runner up
gets one more free year.
Off Season
More details will come from time-to-time
about specific dates on the following events. Also see the
Off
Season section of the Benchwarmer Baseball Rules
Player List Updates - Salary Cap Calculation
In early November, the player lists will
be updated to reflect new positions and new salaries for the
next season. Retired players will be removed
automatically from team rosters and free agent lists.
Teams will learn how much cash they'll get during the
winter. BWB will most likely post a preliminary salary
list, but the final values will not be known until all of
the major MLB awards are announced (MVP, Cy Young, etc.)
Cash Implications
New
topic 12/23/13
There are always questions about this, so here's an
attempt to run down a few things about cash balances and how
the events/decisions below come into play.
- You receive your cash distribution of salary cap
Benchwarmer Bucks in mid-to-late November.
This is all the cash you will receive from BWB until
Opening Day (Week
Zero).
- There are two trading periods in November-December.
You can trade cash back and forth during these trades.
- As you make your final decisions for the carryover
of up to 28 players on your roster, keep in mind that
any cash left in your balance is all you have to work
with; you will not receive any further cash
distributions from BWB until Opening Day.
- All salaries for players carried over into 2014 will
be deducted at the carryover deadline.
- The remaining balance you have in your account is
all you have to spend on signing players in the
Redistribution Draft in January.
- When free agency begins again in February, you can
cut players for a 50% salary rebate. If you trade
players away, you will get 100% salary rebate.
There is no additional cash from the BWB office
until Opening Day.
Roster Decisions
In November-December, teams can decide which
players to retain for the next season
November Trading
There are two fall trading periods - Nov 10-30 and Dec
1-28 that gives you some flexibility on your team
composition before carryover selections. No salary
implications on these trades - it's just players and cash.
Carryover Selection
You can actually start this in early
November, but after the two trading periods we go
exclusively into choosing your carryover players - you can
keep a maximum of
28 players. You MUST keep any players under contract
for 2014 and beyond - everything else is up to you.
See the Benchwarmer Rules
for more information about carryover.
The deadline to complete this is
Saturday, January 4. You'll be charged at that time
for the 2014 salary for the players you keep. All other players will go into the free
agent list.
New Players
The MLB Winter Meetings in December serve
as our cutoff point for the player lists in 2014. At
that time, any players on 40-man rosters immediately after
the Rule V Draft who are not in the BWB System will be added
to the master list. (In practice, the player list
update will typically occur in late December). After this time, there are no more
additions in 2014 until a player debuts in a Major League game
and at the amateur draft in June.
Redistribution and League Entry Drafts
New leagues will begin drafting as they
fill up. In January, teams in returning
leagues will submit a list of up to 15 players that they
wish to sign in the Redistribution Draft. Teams will
draft in reverse order of their 2013 season record.
See the Benchwarmer Rules
for more information about the Redistribution Draft.
Free Agency
Throughout January, February, and March,
teams can begin to make trades and sign/cut players.
By the beginning of April, they need to have a complete
roster in place in order to make a run at next year's title.
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