1.         The Rule for “BONUS” Pitchers will be changed to the following:
 
a.  Starting pitchers with an E.R.A. of 3.00 or higher may double their actual number of starts not to exceed 24 total starts.
 
b.  Relief pitchers with an E.R.A. of 3.00 or higher may double their actual number of relief’s not to exceed 40 total relief’s.
 
Explanation:  We have lowered the Bonus era from 3.50 to 3.00.  Under the old rules, out of 147 total pitchers, there were only 21 Bonus pitchers, this increases that number to 43.
 
2.         The Rule for “BONUS” Batters will be changed to the following:
 
a.  All batters with a batting average of less than .250 may have up to 75 additional at bats without incurring any penalty.
 
We have lowered the Bonus Batting Average from under .235 to under .250, no matter how many AB’s a player has.  With the AB issues we had last year, we are confident by changing this rule going into the season , that NO team should fall short of AB’s.
 
 
3.         The Rule for Qualification at a position for players less than 400 AB’s will be changed to the following:
 
a.  In order to receive a fielding rating in SPB, a player must have:
1.  Made one (1) or more appearances at that position.
 
Discrepancies between this policy and the fielding ratings assigned on the official DMB season disk will be adjusted in favor of the league’s policies.
 
b.  Players with 400 or more at bats will NOT be rated at any position for which they played fewer  than five (5) games.
 
The main change here is that the statistic for games started is not easily attainable in the era, so if a player has less than 400 AB’s and played a game at a position, he will receive a qualification.  I think this is the way we have done it the first two seasons anyways, this just makes it official.  The 5 game rule for over 400 AB’s remains the same.
 

This should help all of us with our pitching and hitting needs going into the season.  Please let Chris or I know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Mike and Chris