------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | International Replay Baseball League - Founded October 30, 1973 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ***************** IRBL NEWSLETTER # 644 ***************** 3-10-02 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ...................................... PLAYER TRANSACTIONS: The WHITE SOX released TRIPP CROMER, MIKE MAHONEY. The RED SOX released BUBBA CARPENTER, GARY RATH, MARK THOMPSON, MATT WHISENANT. The ATHLETICS released JUAN ALVAREZ, CHAD OGEA, KIRT OJALA. The TIGERS released MIKE NEILL, CHRIS TREMIE, MARK HOLZEMER, MATT RUEBEL. The TIGERS traded JOEY HAMILTON to the INDIANS for A.J. HINCH. The BREWERS released JOSH BOOTY, DARRELL EINERTSON, RICK HEISERMAN, KURT MILLER, STEVE L. SPARKS. The EXPOS released AARON LEDESMA. The INDIANS released SHANE ANDREWS, JASON RAKERS, BRAD RIGBY. The TWINS released TRACE COQUILLETTE, IZZY MOLINA, BRETT LAXTON. ...................................... Please contact me immediately if you find any errors on the draft results, cross-reference rosters or the DMB IRBL player files. ...................................... IRBL Manager Address List changes: eMail address change: Frank Hopkins (RED SOX) fhop@attbi.com ...................................... I have attached an updated IRBL Manager Address List. ...................................... IRBL Rule # 36 has been updated to reference the configuration options added to the IRBL Menu Program. Updated IRBL Rules are attached. ...................................... 2002 IRBL Schedule: Due to the continued use of an unbalanced schedule and Interleague series that the Major Leagues has used since 1999, the 2002 IRBL schedule is again unbalanced. Although all IRBL teams play 81 road games and 81 home games, the number of series per team varies. AL teams play 38 or 40 series and NL teams play 42, 43, 44 or 45 series. So that the NL teams will not get an advantage of having extra days off for scheduling starting pitchers, NL teams IRBL # 644 3-10-02 2 have 5 series where there are no days off between series. These series are noted with an asterisk, "*", on the Starting Pitchers Rotation sheet after the series date. For these noted series, there will be no day-off between this series and the preceding series for calculating the days off between starts for starting pitchers. You will find the post-season schedule at the bottom of the SCHEDULE.Y02 file. ...................................... My thanks again to Gerry McDonald for volunteering and preparing the 2002 IRBL schedule. This is the fifth straight year that Gerry has completed this time consuming task and I appreciate the effort. ...................................... Included with this newsletter are the following items so you can prepare your 2002 season team instructions (refer to IRBL Rule # 15): 1) Starting Pitchers Rotation forms for all teams (PITCHING.Txx) 2) Inactive List forms for all teams (INACTIVE.Txx) 3) Team Instructions forms (INSTRUCT.Txx) 4) Player Usage forms for all teams (PLAYERUF.Y02) xx: IRBL team code number NOTE: To edit the above files, select "Display or Print Series Results or Newsletter Files" from the IRBL Menu Program. Highlight the file name in the LIST file selection display and press the [E] key. This will invoke the DOS EDIT program. Use this method to edit the file rather than your own word processing program so that the file remains pure text. Be sure that you are in the "Overwrite mode" (the cursor will be a blinking rectangle) and not the "Insert mode" (the cursor would be a blinking underscore, "_"). You can switch between modes by pressing the [Insert] key. The "Overwrite mode" is easier to work with because it will not "push out" the remainder of the line when you type. If you prefer, you can also use a Windows text editor program (such as Notepad) to edit the files. IRBL # 644 3-10-02 3 Please do not use a word processing program (such as Word or WordPerfect) because these programs will modify the format of the file and will insert special characters that will be time- consuming for me to remove. You can verify that the file is saved as pure text by viewing the file with the IRBL Menu Program and verifying that you do not see any strange characters mixed in the file. ..................................... Please use the following guidelines when filling out the forms: 1) Starting Pitchers Rotation form: Fill in the pitcher's initials (2 capital letters only) next to each game number. At the bottom of the page, list each pitcher's full name, the initials used, indicate if he throws "L" or "R" and the number of starts he is scheduled for using the following format: T GS - -- BOUCHER, DENIS (DB) L 25 DELUCIA, RICH (RD) R 30 GROOM, BUDDY (BG) L 30 JONES, JIMMY (JJ) R 27 MILITELLO, SAM (SM) R 11 PUGH, TIM (TP) R 8 ROBINSON, RON (RR) R 2 WILLIAMS, MIKE (MW) R 29 When typing the above chart, make sure that you do not exceed 60 lines on the page or 80 characters on a line (refer to the line and column counter in the lower right corner of the editing screen). 2) Inactive List form: Place an "XX" (use capital letters only) in the appropriate box for each player on the Inactive List for each series. There must be exactly 25 players on the "Active List" for each series (i.e., 25 boxes next to a player's name in each column that do not have a "XX"). 3) Team Instructions: Edit this file to contain your starting lineups for all your road and home series (including all lineups stored in your Computer Manager profile). If you leave out your home series IRBL # 644 3-10-02 4 lineups, your instruction package will be considered incomplete. If you list a player in every lineup who cannot play 162 games, you must include a note indicating which games he will be sat out and who will replace him. When typing this page, make sure that you do not exceed 60 lines on the page or 80 characters on a line. 4) Player Usage Form: The PLAYERUF.Y02 file contains a filled out form for each team. You can select and copy your team's form to a file (use file name PLAYERUF.Txx) using the directions detailed in IRBL Rule # 21A. 5) Computer Manager: Create your profile following the guidelines in IRBL Rule # 15 and export the file to the C:\IRBL\RESULTS.Y02 directory naming the export file MP-xx (where xx is your IRBL team code number) (if your number is less than 10, then precede it with a "0") (i.e, the DODGERS file would be MP-03) (the DMB procedure is Transfer-Export statistics, select your team, select nothing on the next two screens, navigate to the RESULTS.Y02 directory and type in your MP-xx file name) Prepare the above detailed files and then select "Create ZIP file of Team Instructions Files set" from the IRBL Menu Program. This will combine the files into one file called INSTRUxx.ZIP (where xx is your IRBL team number). Send me this INSTRUxx.ZIP file via email. The 4 files are summarized as follows: 1) INSTRUCT.Txx 2) PITCHING.Txx 3) INACTIVE.Txx 4) MP-xx.ZIP NOTE: The xx is the two digit IRBL team number. These numbers are: xx xx -- -- D-BACKS 29 ANGELS 13 DODGERS 03 ATHLETICS 14 IRBL # 644 3-10-02 5 GIANTS 04 MARINERS 25 PADRES 05 RANGERS 15 ROCKIES 27 ASTROS 01 INDIANS 20 BREWERS 19 ROYALS 16 CARDINALS 07 TIGERS 23 CUBS 08 TWINS 17 PIRATES 12 WHITE SOX 18 REDS 06 BRAVES 02 BLUE JAYS 26 EXPOS 09 DEVIL RAYS 30 MARLINS 28 ORIOLES 21 METS 10 RED SOX 22 PHILLIES 11 YANKEES 24 ...................................... All the team instruction files will be distributed shortly after the instructions receipt deadline. ...................................... DEADLINES: Mar. 24 - Team instructions to be received by League Office Apr. 3 - First series of 2002 season ...................................... Files included on LRD # 644: --------------------------- INACTIVE.Txx --> Inactive List Forms INSTRUCT.Txx --> Team Instructions file IRBLROST.TXT --> IRBL Rosters IRBLRULE.TXT --> IRBL Rules MANAGERS.TXT --> Manager Address List NEWSL644.xxx --> Newsletter # 644 PITCHING.Txx --> Starting Pitchers Rotation Sheets PLAYERUF.Y02 --> Player Usage Forms for all teams SCHEDULE.Y02 --> IRBL NL and AL league schedule File Extension Legend (xxx): --------------------------- T1C --> Viewable one column newsletter text format TXT --> Viewable text format ...................................... BK