------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | International Replay Baseball League - Founded October 30, 1973 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ***************** IRBL NEWSLETTER # 896 ***************** 3-11-12 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ...................................... PLAYER TRANSACTIONS: The ATHLETICS released GARRETT ATKINS, BRIAN BARDEN, BRIAN BARTON, RHYNE HUGHES, MIKE RYAN, DOUG MATHIS, BILLY TRABER. The BREWERS released ROMAN COLON, JESSE ENGLISH, A.J. MURRAY, DAVID PATTON, TYLER YATES. The TIGERS released HECTOR LUNA, HENRY VILLAR. The CARDINALS released JOE CREDE, ANDY MARTE, KEVIN MENCH, KEVIN RUSSO, T.J. BEAM, MIKE HAMPTON, JAY SBORZ. The ROYALS released GREGOR BLANCO, RYAN BUDDE, MATT WATSON, JONATHAN ALBALADEJO, JESUS COLOME, MIKE KOPLOVE, DAMASO MARTE, SHAIRON MARTIS, FRANK MATA, BRANDON MEDDERS, VIRGIL VASQUEZ. The CUBS traded MIGUEL CAIRO, JONATHAN LUCROY to the GIANTS for TAYLOR GREEN, ERIC SURKAMP. The DODGERS traded PEDRO BEATO to the PIRATES for JOE MATHER, LUIS MONTANEZ. The YANKEES released IAN SNELL. The WHITE SOX released DREW MACIAS, BRAD KILBY, RADHAMES LIZ, CARLOS MONASTERIOS. The BLUE JAYS released LUKE CARLIN, KEVIN CAMERON, GREGORY INFANTE. The RED SOX released YOSLAN HERRERA, JOHN VAN BENSCHOTEN. The BRAVES traded BRAD PENNY, FERNANDO RODNEY to the RED SOX for BLAINE BOYER, GREG REYNOLDS. The RAYS released AARON BATES, DAVID ECKSTEIN, BRAD ELDRED, MIKE LAMB, FERNANDO TATIS, GREGG ZAUN, ALEX HINSHAW. The ASTROS released RONNIE BELLIARD, HERNAN IRIBARREN, OSWALDO NAVARRO, BRAD NELSON, FERNANDO PEREZ, JONATHAN VAN EVERY, VICTOR GARATE, HUNTER JONES, GIL MECHE. The PHILLIES released BRANDON FAHEY, LANCE BROADWAY, YUSMEIRO PETIT, JASON WINDSOR. The REDS released TRAVIS DENKER, TROY GLAUS, NICK STAVINOHA, JOE BISENIUS, BRYAN BULLINGTON, BYUNG-HYUN KIM, SCOTT LEWIS, JONATHAN MELOAN, SCOT SHIELDS, JORGE SOSA. The RAYS released RANDY WINN. The BLUE JAYS released THOMAS DIAMOND, MIKE HINCKLEY, JHAN MARINEZ. IRBL # 896 3-11-12 2 The DODGERS released JEFF FRAZIER, CASEY DAIGLE, GARY MAJEWSKI, RUSS ORTIZ, CHRIS SEDDON, SCOTT STRICKLAND, SEAN WEST. The METS released JAMIE BURKE. The GIANTS released GUILLERMO QUIROZ, BRADEN LOOPER. The INDIANS released JORDAN BROWN, CASEY FOSSUM, SCOTT MUNTER, SAUL RIVERA, NATE ROBERTSON, CHRIS SAMPSON, TAYLOR TANKERSLEY, CHRIS WATERS, SEAN WHITE. ...................................... New IRBL Manager: PADRES: Francois Lessard 5 Notre-Dame West app 103 Thetford Mines (Quebec) Canada G6G 1J1 418-338-3260 lessard.francois@cgocable.ca Francois is returning to the IRBL for an unprecedented 4th time. He managed the CUBS from 1981 thru 1983, the BRAVES in 1985 and managed the BLUE JAYS for a short time at the start of 1999. Let's all welcome Francois back to the IRBL family! ...................................... The following teams are without permanent managers: Play your road series against these teams: ASTROS : John Parker (TGM) PADRES : John Mattfeld (TGM) ATHLETICS : Gerry McDonald (TGM) BLUE JAYS : Chip Hopkins (TGM) RAYS : Jim Lee (TGM)(1) 1 : preparing instructions only 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: REDS : Bill Mattfeld (TM) MARLINS : Jim Lee (TGM)(2) RANGERS : John Mattfeld (TM) ROYALS : Don Tobin (TM) ORIOLES : Ricky Diaz (TM) 2 : Jim Lee (TGM, off-season only) Ian Roach (TM, during season) IRBL # 896 3-11-12 3 ...................................... 2012 IRBL Schedule: Due to the continued use of an unbalanced schedule and Interleague series that the Major Leagues has used since 1999, the 2012 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 or 45 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.Y12 file. ...................................... My thanks again to Gerry McDonald for volunteering and preparing the 2012 IRBL schedule. This is the 15th 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 2012 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.Y12) xx: IRBL team code number The easiest way to view and edit the files is by using Windows Notepad. Start Notepad by selecting "Start- Programs-Accessories-Notepad". Then open Windows Explorer, navigate to the RESULTS.Y12 folder and drag any of the IRBL # 896 3-11-12 4 files into the Notepad window. 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 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 IRBL # 896 3-11-12 5 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.Y12 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.Y12 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 IRBL # 896 3-11-12 6 Transfer-Export statistics, select your team, select nothing on the next two screens, navigate to the RESULTS.Y12 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 If you are not using the IRBL Menu Program, send the above listed 4 team instructions file inside a zipfile named using this format: INSTRUxx.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 # 896 3-11-12 7 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 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 9 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. What 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 # 896 3-11-12 8 past 7 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 you state at the bottom of the instructions that you will complete all your team's home series, then you can leave out the home instructions. I would then expect you to either do what said (or submit home series instructions before you leave the IRBL). ...................................... All the team instruction files will be distributed shortly after the instructions receipt deadline. ...................................... DEADLINES: Mar. 25 - Team instructions to be received by League Office and all managers within your league Apr. 4 - First series of 2012 season ...................................... Files included on LRD # 896: --------------------------- INACTIVE.Txx --> Inactive List Forms INSTRUCT.Txx --> Team Instructions file IRBLROST.TXT --> IRBL Rosters MANAGERS.TXT --> Manager Address List NEWSL896.xxx --> Newsletter # 896 PITCHING.Txx --> Starting Pitchers Rotation Sheets PLAYERUF.Y12 --> Player Usage Forms for all teams SCHEDULE.Y12 --> IRBL NL and AL league schedule File Extension Legend (xxx): --------------------------- T1C --> Viewable one column newsletter text format TXT --> Viewable text format ...................................... BK