------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | International Replay Baseball League - Founded October 30, 1973 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ***************** IRBL NEWSLETTER # 771 ***************** 3-4-07 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ...................................... PLAYER TRANSACTIONS: The REDS released AUGIE OJEDA, SETH GREISINGER. The ASTROS released JASON ROMANO, DANE SARDINHA, ESIX SNEAD, ERIC ECKENSTAHLER. The DEVIL RAYS released JASON CONTI, DOUG DEVORE, MARK LITTLE, PRENTICE REDMAN, DOUG CREEK. The MARLINS released DAN WILSON, TERRY ADAMS, OMAR DAAL. The PHILLIES released TONY ALVAREZ, JUAN GONZALEZ, BEN GRIEVE, DAVID KELTON, MARSHALL MCDOUGALL, JAMAL STRONG, MANNY AYBAR, CARMEN CALI, JEREMY GRIFFITHS, ISMAEL VALDEZ. The GIANTS traded ELI MARRERO, MATT STAIRS to the ATHLETICS for JUAN CASTRO, DAN ORTMEIER. The ASTROS released TREY HODGES, SCOTT SULLIVAN. The PHILLIES traded JASON TYNER to the BLUE JAYS for SCOTT MATHIESON. The RED SOX released MATT ANDERSON. The YANKEES traded JOHN NELSON to the ASTROS for MATT TREANOR. The WHITE SOX released ADAM GREENBERG, MIKE HESSMAN, JOE HIETPAS, KENNY KELLY, TONY TORCATO, ROB BELL, MARK LUKASIEWICZ, LINO URDANETA. The BLUE JAYS released JERMAINE CLARK, ENRIQUE CRUZ, MIDRE CUMMINGS, RYAN JACKSON, TREY LUNSFORD, DUSTY WATHAN, JIM MECIR, C.J. NITKOWSKI. The INDIANS released JASON ALFARO, JESSE GARCIA, EDWARDS GUZMAN, BO HART, CARLOS ALMANZAR, JOSE JIMENEZ. The ATHLETICS released PETER BERGERON, ERIC CROZIER, BUCKY JACOBSEN, JOHN OLERUD, ELI WHITESIDE, MATT FORD, JOSH STEWART, AMAURY TELEMACO. The GIANTS released RYAN BRADLEY, MATT MANTEI, JUSTIN WAYNE. The ROYALS released ZACH SORENSEN. The WHITE SOX released CODY MCKAY. The DODGERS released MIKE COOLBAUGH, RONTREZ JOHNSON, DANNY KLASSEN, DAVE MATRANGA, JOE DAWLEY, BEN DIGGINS, AL LEITER, CALVIN MADURO, BILL SIMAS, BEN WEBER. The BREWERS traded JOSE VIZCAINO, JEREMY AFFELDT to the RANGERS for LOU MERLONI, BRANDON BACKE. The BREWERS released CARLOS BAERGA, BRANDON LARSON, VIC DARENSBOURG, BLAINE NEAL, BUD SMITH. IRBL # 771 3-4-07 2 The BRAVES released BRIAN DAUBACH, BOBBY HIGGINSON, MICKEY LOPEZ. The DIAMONDBACKS released NATE BLAND, TIM HARIKKALA, BILLY KOCH, GABE MOLINA, VLADIMIR NUNEZ, BRIAN REITH, DAN SMITH. The CARDINALS released CRAIG BRAZELL, JOE VALENTINE. The PHILLIES traded JUAN CRUZ to the BRAVES for DANA EVELAND. ...................................... 2007 IRBL Schedule: Due to the continued use of an unbalanced schedule and Interleague series that the Major Leagues has used since 1999, the 2007 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 43, 44, 45 or 46 series. So that the NL teams will not get an advantage of having extra days off for scheduling starting pitchers, NL teams have 4 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. There are also some series dates where some teams have no series scheduled. You will find the post-season schedule at the bottom of the SCHEDULE.Y07 file. ...................................... My thanks again to Gerry McDonald for volunteering and preparing the 2007 IRBL schedule. This is the tenth 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 2007 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) IRBL # 771 3-4-07 3 4) Player Usage forms for all teams (PLAYERUF.Y07) xx: IRBL team code number I recommend using a Windows text editor program (such as Notepad or Wordpad) to edit the files. If you prefer, you can use the DOS EDIT program via the IRBL Menu Program as follows: 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. 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. Be sure not to use the [Tab] key to align columns. Instead, use the [spacebar] to insert spaces to align columns. Please do not use a word processing program (such as Word, Works 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 IRBL # 771 3-4-07 4 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"). At least four pitchers (in addition to the scheduled starting pitchers) must be on the "Active List" for every series. 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 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.Y07 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 IRBL # 771 3-4-07 5 to the C:\IRBL\RESULTS.Y07 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.Y07 directory and type in your MP-xx file name) NOTE: Remember to set the "AB vs LHP" or "AB vs RHP" to zero for the players who cannot enter the game vs a LHP or vs a RHP (per IRBL Rule # 15A1C) (some people forget to do this). NOTE: The computer manager will ignore pitchers who are not listed in the "Relief" pitcher profile and will use "ineligible" pitchers ahead of such "eligible" pitchers if no other relief pitcher is available. Therefore, if you want a pitcher (starter or reliever) to ever to be used in relief, you must list him in the "Relief" pitcher profile (and set him to "ineligible" in the games that you do not want him to relieve). 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 GIANTS 04 MARINERS 25 PADRES 05 RANGERS 15 ROCKIES 27 IRBL # 771 3-4-07 6 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 NATIONALS 09 DEVIL RAYS 30 MARLINS 28 ORIOLES 21 METS 10 RED SOX 22 PHILLIES 11 YANKEES 24 ...................................... NOTE ABOUT MY REVIEW OF THE TEAM SEASON INSTRUCTIONS: As I indicated the past four years, I will no longer perform a detailed review of all team season instructions to verify that every plan is sufficient so that no player would be overused because it is just too time consuming. There are IRBL Rules that penalize you for over-using players (such players cannot be used in the post-season and you are penalized in next year's draft) so be sure you are carefully planning and monitoring your players' usage during the season. When I will do is make sure that the instructions are as easy to read as possible (i.e., upper and lower case instead of all capital letters, separate line items for each special instruction and separate sections for road and home instructions). ...................................... SPECIAL DIRECTION REGARDING HOME SERIES INSTRUCTIONS: It is a struggle every year getting every manager to provide the home series instructions that cover all lineup changes and which players replace which players. The main purpose of preparing those instructions is so they will be available in case a manager cannot play his home series. A secondary benefit is that it provides each team with a plan that will prevent (if followed) any player overuse (and resulting penalties). The intent was not to make more work for the vast majority of the managers who will play all their home series just for protection against the few who fall behind or drop out. This is what I have accepted over the IRBL # 771 3-4-07 7 past two years and will accept again this year: If you don't want to prepare a home series plan and want to adjust player usage on your own during home series, if give me your word that you will complete all your team's home series (and state that at the bottom of the instructions sheet) (no matter what personal misfortune or tragedy befalls you), then you can leave out the home instructions. Of course, I hope no misfortune happens to anyone but I would not want the loss of your "honor" to add to that tragedy so don't give me your word on this unless you mean it. ...................................... All the team instruction files will be distributed shortly after the instructions receipt deadline. ...................................... The following teams are without permanent managers: NATIONALS : Don Tobin (TGM) ATHLETICS : (need volunteer) ORIOLES : Ricky Diaz (TGM) BLUE JAYS : Chip Hopkins (TGM) MARLINS : John Parker (TGM) DIAMONDBACKS : Jim Lee (TGM) Play your road series against these teams. The following teams have temporary managers who will be playing the home series for the team plus road series against the above other teams who do not have a game playing manager: RANGERS : John Mattfeld (TM) DEVIL RAYS : Marc Schlotthauer (TM) Volunteer needed: A volunteer is needed to prepare the ATHLETICS team season instructions and monitor player usage during the season. ...................................... DEADLINES: Mar. 18 - Team instructions to be received by League Office Apr. 1 - First series of 2007 season ...................................... Files included on LRD # 771: --------------------------- INACTIVE.Txx --> Inactive List Forms INSTRUCT.Txx --> Team Instructions file IRBL # 771 3-4-07 8 IRBLROST.TXT --> IRBL Rosters NEWSL771.xxx --> Newsletter # 771 PITCHING.Txx --> Starting Pitchers Rotation Sheets PLAYERUF.Y07 --> Player Usage Forms for all teams SCHEDULE.Y07 --> IRBL NL and AL league schedule File Extension Legend (xxx): --------------------------- T1C --> Viewable one column newsletter text format TXT --> Viewable text format ...................................... BK