St. Louis Finns 27-11 .711 -
Wilmington Quicksteps 23-15 .605 4
Los Angeles Nessmen 22-16 .579 5
Manhattan Meat Possums 20-18 .526 7
Illinois Noise 15-23 .395 12
Pittsburgh Pythons 14-23 .378 12.5
Toronto Crown Royals 12-25 .324 14.5

 

Alaska Willows 24-13 .649 -
Boston Dirt Dogs 22-16 .579 2.5
Fort Worth Pioneers 21-17 .553 3.5
Arizona Raccoons 20-18 .526 4.5
Colorado Beavers 17-20 .459 7
Piedmont Giants 17-21 .447 7.5
Las Vegas Nomads 16-22 .421 8.5

 

 

 

Oh Sheets! So Close To A No-No!

Seattle Navigators starter Ben Sheets took a no-hitter into the top of the 9th Friday night against the visiting San Mateo Wolverines. The Wrigley faithful were on their feet as Sheets retired Joe Crede, then caught Damion Easley looking for the second out, Sheets' 12th strikeout of the game.

All that stood between Sheets and a piece of ISBL history was Wolverines second baseman Mark Bellhorn. Sheets threw two quick strikes past Bellhorn, but on a 2-2 pitch, Bellhorn blooped a single into shallow left field to rob Sheets of a spot in the record books.

Sheets had to settle for a 6-0 shutout victory, and the Gators went on to post a 5-2 week against the Wolves to move within striking range of third place in the Union League.


All series are SIX games, scheduled 5/17-22.

First team listed is the away team for the first three games.

 

Be sure to get in contact with your opponent early ("e-mail him before he can e-mail you" is always a good rule to follow) and figure out if you're going to NetPlay or MP them, then schedule accordingly.

 

SENIOR CIRCUIT

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

INTERLEAGUE

JUNIOR CIRCUIT

FEDERAL LEAGUE

UNION LEAGUE

INTERLEAGUE

 


Players who exceed 110% usage for the year will be posted here. New additions are in bold. They have been mandatorily farmed for the year, can not be traded, and are ineligible for postseason and cup play. These players are noted in your roster with the coding ++NAME++.

BATTERS
  • Richie Weeks (GIA) -- DNP
PITCHERS
  • NONE

  • NONE

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CUT YOUR ROSTER DOWN TO 25 MEN BEFORE STARTING THIS WEEK. 

BE CAREFUL TO KEEP PLAYERS ON DISABLED LIST FOR MINIMUM 15 DAYS. Check the DL listings below to be sure what date players are eligible to return. PLEASE NOTE: The game program allows players to be brought back before they've served 15 days. ISBL DOES NOT, so please consult the DL listings to ensure that you're bringing players back on the correct date.

DON'T MAKE NON-DL-RELATED MID-SERIES ROSTER MOVES. The only moves you can make during a series are to put someone on the DL or to take them off (and an accompanying promote/farm to cover THAT player). And be sure to consult the list below to see when your player is eligible to come off the DL.


CHECK YOUR MANAGER PROFILE

Remember what Troy always says. Recheck your manager profile weekly to make sure phantom zeros aren't popping into your usage limits. Check to see if you have injured players, or players eligible to be reactivated. Be sure to check that your roster is at 25, especially if you have acquired new players through trade or free agency, as the game tends to make all of these players active.

We would advise those of you that constructed preseason manager profiles (before the Week 1 disk was released) to double check them to ensure that playing limits are correct. The last preseason disk that was posted showed several players with settings of zero, and the CM will pass over many of these players when your team is away. You can see this on the final page of the profile where the players are listed. The playing limits were corrected to the actual usage numbers on the Week 1 disk. If you put together an MP using an older V9 disk, you can correct the playing limits this way:

  1. Click on the "Other Actions" button in the lower right corner of either the "Pitching," "Saved Lineup" or "Depth Chart" page of your Manager Profile.
  2. Click on "Generate Manager Profile."
  3. Uncheck everything EXCEPT "Generate playing time limits," keeping that one checked, and click OK. This should retain your other settings while ensuring that the playing time limits are correct.

Of course, once you've corrected these playing time limits, you can manipulate them as needed to make sure that players are used only in the specific roles you want them to play (i.e. if you have a pitcher rated both to start and relieve, and you only want him used as a starter, you can set his relief appearances to zero). Also, be sure to note that in Version 9, there's a new page for setting player-specific tendencies, as well as team tendencies.

PAY ATTENTION TO OPPONENT'S INSTRUCTIONS

If an owner takes the time to send you an MP and/or instructions as to how to install his pitchers/lineups, take care to use these. Seen a couple of instances this year where MPs have been sent, only to be ignored/looked over/forgotten by opponents. If they're sending you an MP, it means they have changes from what's on the disk that may affect their rotation, or player usage, or whatever. So use them. Otherwise, you're risking having to play the games over again. And might get fined for repeated occurances.

When your opponent has taken the time and care to create an MP for your series that week, make sure to import it into the database. If you're unsure that you're doing things correctly, please contact Micah, Troy or Tim for help. Some important things to consider:
  • Merely downloading the zip file from the e-mail doesn't install it. You have to go to Import Statistics (found in the game menu under Transfer), find the zip file, click it open and import it.
  • If you do this, and the initial import screen comes up, and you don't see your opponent's team name there highlighted, there's a problem. Contact your opponent or one of us to resolve this.
  • You need to make sure the new disk for the week is installed BEFORE you import the MP. Otherwise, when you install the new database, it will overwrite the new MP with the old one.

SOME ADDITIONAL DIRECTION ON PLAYING IN NETPLAY

When FTF players set their rosters to 25 (or make changes to their roster between weeks), whoever the host is won't have those handy, so you'll need to at least make whatever pre-series changes on your disk, generate an MP file with those changes (just like you would a file with played games to send), and send it to whichever of the two of you is hosting. That's an extra step we haven't had to contend with before with the NetMeeting, where you could just make the changes yourself or instruct your opponent to do so. And you can STILL instruct your opponent to do so, but you'll need to do that before you link onto the NetPlay, 'cause there's no way to get to the MPs once you've linked. Because of this, it's advisable that for the series, one team remains the host throughout, who will have made his changes and installed the MP (or made the changes as directed) of their opponent.
 
Switching between who is the home manager and who is the away manager is pretty simple if you're mid-series and already connected with one as home and one as away. The host needs only to click on "NetPlay" in the top menu line and then "Swap manager roles" to flip them.
 
As for changing options, this is done by the host. Make sure the settings for the host are "Human" and for away are "Remote." If for some reason, you get into the game and one party doesn't have control of, say, baserunning, have the host go in and fix it.

If you have any additional questions about V9 play, please direct them to stats@isbl.com.


  • Willows trade Garrett Atkins, Neal Cotts, Bobby Estalella & $600k to Crown Royals for A.J. Pierzynski (still need two cuts from the Royals, who are now at 42)

You can track your finances, as well as your payroll ceiling, at the ISBL Finances page (see link above).


Please be sure to check if you have injured players. This lists only players already placed on the DL.

A (CAREFUL!) note denotes a player whose injury expires before his DL time does. Don't bring these players up until the day noted, or the Usage Nazi hammer will come down on your little head.

These players were DL'ed during the past week and must remain there for at least 15 days:
  • Bigbie (GIA): hurt 5/4 for 14 days (CAREFUL!), can return 5/20 (later this week, see below)
  • Harris,W (GIA): hurt 5/5 for 18 days, can return 5/23

These players are eligible to come off the DL at some point (see below) this week:

  • Uribe (EXP): hurt 4/19 for 16 days, can return NOW
  • Wright,Jam (QUI): hurt 4/27 for 16 days, can return NOW
  • Madritsch (WIL): hurt 4/28 for 6 days, can return NOW
  • Martin (EXP): hurt 5/1 for 3 days, can return NOW
  • Kotsay (SID): hurt 5/1 for 15 days, can return NOW
  • Bigbie (GIA): hurt 5/4 for 14 days (CAREFUL!), can return 5/20
  • Marrero (UND): hurt 4/20 for 32 days, can return 5/22
These players were placed on the DL previously and are not eligible to come back this week:
  • Benoit (FOR): hurt 5/7 for 16 days, can return 5/23
  • Utley (CRO): hurt 4/30 for 33 days, can return 6/2

POWs FOR WEEK 5

12 teams voted: BAN, NAV, PRA, CAR, NES, FOR, GRI, UND, SLU, SID, PIO, WIL

SENIOR BATTER: Albert Pujols (Meat Possums)

Pujols (MEA): 7 votes -- PRA, NES, FOR, GRI, SLU, PIO, WIL

Durazo (QUI): 3 votes -- NAV, CAR, SID

Bonds (FIN): 2 votes -- BAN, UND

 

SENIOR PITCHER: Jake Peavy (Force)

Peavy (FOR): 6 votes -- BAN, CAR, NES, FOR, UND, PIO

Garcia,F (FIN): 5 votes -- NAV, PRA, SLU, SID, WIL

Lima (QUI): 1 vote -- GRI

 

JUNIOR BATTER: Carlos Delgado (Dirt Dogs)

Delgado,C (DIR): 12 votes -- unanimous

Everett,A (UND): no votes

 

JUNIOR PITCHER: Brandon Webb (Sluggers)

Webb,B (SLU): 7 votes -- BAN, PRA, NES, FOR, GRI, UND, SID

Prior (UND): 2 votes -- NAV, CAR

Loaiza (BUL): 2 votes -- SLU, PIO

Kennedy,J (SLU): 1 vote -- WIL

POW BALLOT FOR WEEK 6

Will be posted with the next Gazette. 

 

 

 

 

Beltway Bandits 26-12 .684 -
Chicago Force 20-18 .526 6
Albuquerque Sidewinders 19-18 .514 6.5
Saskatchewan Prairie Fire 19-19 .500 7
Halifax Explosion 18-19 .486 7.5
Omaha Orange Crush 15-23 .395 11
Washington Gridlock 14-24 .368 12

South Carolina Cardinals 29-9 .763 -
Chicago Bulldogs 20-17 .541 8.5
Louisville Sluggers 17-21 .447 12
Seattle Navigators 17-21 .447 12
San Mateo Wolverines 15-22 .405 13.5
Cartersville Cyclones 15-23 .395 14
New York Underdogs 14-24 .368 15