April (Early May) 2023 update

This release is scheduled for 10AM, 5/2/23

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This update, we’re focused on adding options to help leagues control their finances/free agent markets, to get more players moving from team to team.

Check out the slide deck for more details - Team Finance Updates
Condensed Version to discuss with your league - Team Finance Updates, Cliff Notes

Some videos to check out for more information

Hard Cap/Free Agency Discussion w/Zubaz and crew - https://youtu.be/x9H3DKnY0yY
Hard Cap Walkthrough - https://youtu.be/ZQ4P5HKhuVk
 Binding Contracts Walkthrough - https://youtu.be/A2M3Or1O79o
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New Front Office Page

  • New single-page application designed to help organize your team roster and finances,
  • Click 'Roster' from your team page, and you will find a new link to Front Office.
  • You’ll be able to view your entire team’s roster and finances in one place, customize the data you want to see, and download to a CSV file
  • During the postseason, you’ll see each player’s salary demands (or intention to retire) for next year, and can choose whether to sign or release them at the season flip.

Hard Cap Salary Enforcement

  • Hard Cap Salary Enforcement setting added to League Settings page.
  • At the start of the postseason, the Front Office page displays your team finances for next season.
  • In Hard-Cap leagues, you'll see the players that the team will SIGN/RELEASE at the flip if you take no action - this is set by a default signing order, and you will have the entire postseason to change those decisions. You will not be able to save changes that would take your team salary over the cap.
  • Default signing order - Players are set to SIGN in the following order (High to Low salary in Low Minors, High to Low salary in Active Roster, High to Low salary in AAA). If signing the next player would take the team over the cap, that player is set to RELEASE.
  • NOTE: Default sign/release decisions are made only at the beginning of the postseason, and cap enforcement happens only at the season flip, SO - leagues that wish to enforce a hard salary cap must select it before the postseason.

Binding One-Year Contracts

  • Binding Contracts setting added to League Settings page.
  • In leagues with Binding Contracts, you can only release players at the season flip. So, any player on your team at the season flip (or any players signed from free agency or traded for) will stay with your team until the next season flip unless traded.

Draftee Salaries

  • Draftees do not count against the salary cap in the year they are drafted, and will show $0 salary that season.
  • The salary shown during the draft will be their first full year salary.
  • This allows teams to draft freely even in leagues with increased financial pressures, as they will have at least until the season flip to figure out how to pay for their new players.

Minimum Salary Player (Scrub) Changes

  • Minimum salary of lowest quality players (AKA scrubs) reduced from $50K to $0 in their first season.
  • If player retirements or player releases at the season flip take an owned team’s Active Roster under 14 batters/11 pitchers, scrubs will be signed to fill the missing roster spots.
  • This ensures that managers have full knowledge of what their exact payroll will be after the flip, and reduces the need for ‘scrub management’ as owners will now have an automated way to sign minimum salary players.

Related Changes

  • Added 'Front Office' moves pending tag to franchise page. Teams in leagues with a Hard Cap or Binding Contracts will see this tag, with a link to the front office page
  • Updated 'Find a League' page to reflect Hard Cap and Binding Contracts options, and display different league team, division, conference structures

Other Changes

  • New public leagues will have 8 teams by default instead of 24, to help new users get started promptly. New private leagues can still be created for 24 teams - see Creating New Leagues
  • New leagues will have a shorter pre-season in Season 1, to help leagues get started promptly.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed overall potential ratings to not change over time, to match individual potentials ratings.
  • Fixed inconsistencies in PbP, to correctly display stolen bases/caught stealings.
  • Fixed error displaying Team Fielding Stats.
  • Fixed dates on the team amateur draft pages to be accurate.
  • Improved site speeds/stat updating processes.