June 2022: The Umpire Strikes Back

On June 8, 2022, a major update to CSFBL is coming, which we're calling The Umpire Strikes Back.

Discuss these changes on Discord or in the forums.

Play baseball in a different era

Leagues can now have a different sim model – you can now join leagues that (or change existing leagues to) emulate different eras of baseball. Two eras are available with this release, and we will be adding more in the future:

Free Agent Era (1977-1993) – based on MLB during the “Free Agency” era, roughly between 1977 and 1993, a generally well-balanced era of baseball.
Dead Ball Era (1901-1919) – based on the early days of professional baseball, when pitchers were more dominating and home runs were few and far between.

Existing leagues will remain on the CSFBL Classic model, which has been in place for years and will continue to be available for leagues that wish to use it. This model also gets a small update to improve the difference between grass and turf stadiums – expect fewer singles for games played on grass than in the past.

To support the new baseball eras, leagues can choose to change their sim model, and the team creation UI has been updated.

Team and player management

There have been extensive updates to the way you manage your team and the way you see players.

All users now see the same current and potential ratings for all players, on all teams. Ratings are still scouted (with varying levels of accuracy, because some players are harder to “scout” than others). Over time, as players age and gain experience, this accuracy will increase. Endurance is one exception: you always see it with perfect accuracy.
Potential ratings are shown as letters instead of numbers (A+ to E), and will not change (what you see on draft day is what you’ll see until they retire). A player’s potential Endurance is no longer visible.
The Front Office system is gone – no longer will you need to allocate money towards scouting and development, all teams now get it for free. All that money is now free to spend on players.
New summary ratings have been added: Overall and Potential, each with sub-ratings: Hitting, Pitching, and Fielding. These summary ratings are based on a player’s existing ratings compared to their relative value based on the league that player is in, and provide a quick summary of a player’s current or potential value. (For example, Slugging is worth less in a Dead Ball Era league than compared to a Free Agent Era league.)
The salary system has been updated to provide more balanced salaries for players based on their skill, performance, and potential.
Endurance and Fatigue are shown differently. Endurance columns show a player’s “current” and maximum values. (Players “lose” Endurance as they play, and recover when they have a day off.) Fatigue and “SeaFat” are now shown as a single “Status” field: Rested, Good, OK, Tired, Fatigued, and Exhausted. Players at the Tired level and lower will suffer performance penalties that increase as they get more tired.
You can now change a player’s position directly from a player card, once a season; their ratings will be updated immediately to show their skill at the new position.
Many team pages have been updated with more useful views and columns. The team manager page has an improved UI.

League customization

Leagues can now choose to use a draft lottery for the upcoming season’s draft order, modeled after MLB’s upcoming draft lottery. The classic model (“worst record gets top pick”) remains and is the default unless a league chooses to use the draft lottery.
Leagues can change their sim model any time before the start of each season. Existing leagues will use the CSFBL Classic model.
Leagues can now choose whether or not to use the scouted ratings (when turned off, all ratings are 100% accurate), and whether or not to show individual potential ratings (when turned off, only the overall “potential” rating is shown).

Looking for more details?

Slideshow on the upcoming release - Another look at the USB update

Looking to discuss options with your league? - League Decision Guide

Last call before the updates - June 8th updates almost here

Follow the running list of questions - FAQ list