February 3, 2012
Managerial Change
DAYTON, OH. - Original SPB founder Jim Wheeler has decided to relinquish his franchise, the Preble Zorros.  Taking the reigns will be Jim Condon, who will rename the team to the Aragorn Striders.  He will stay at Progressive Field.  I welcome aboard Jim C, and thank Jim W. for all he has done for the league, and the Diamond Mind game. 

January 15, 2012
Draft day complete and team name change
DAYTON, OH. - Thank you everyone for a successful Phase 1 and 2 drafts.  The Free agent draft will begin with your lists due to me by Saturday January 21st. You must have less than 45 players on your roster in order to pick up any free agents.  Order will be the same as phase 2.  Additionally, Greg Henning has decided to change his team name from teh Richmond Rebels to the Washington Generals.  This will be reflected on the new database.

January 9, 2012
More ballpark changes
DAYTON, OH. - The Gotham City Thunder has vacated the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, and have moved into Yankee Stadium. The Asgard Aesir have vacated Target Field and have moved into the Ballpark In Arlington.  The Niskayuna Warriors have moved out of Turner Field and have occupied Target Field. The Miami Redhawks have abandoned Citizens Bank ballpark and has taken Turner Field.  The Crimea River Reptiles have pulled up stakes from Fenway, and will move into the Oakland Coliseum. The Houston Oil Barons have moved away from Miller Park and have claimed Fenway Park. The Scio Farmers have claimed Miller Park and are vacating Sun Life Stadium  The Prarie Jack Rabbits hop out of Kauffman Stadium and populate Citizens Bank Ballpark. This leaves Sun Life Stadium and Kauffman Stadium as available parks.

January 9, 2012
New Manager plus ballpark changes
DAYTON, OH. - The Leeds Zeppelins franchise has changed hands, and is now owned by veteran SPB manager Greg Nolen.  His new team name will be the Roanoke Colonels, and will be moving into Tropicana Field.  His email address is gnhokie@verizon.net.  He is up to speed and will be ready for the draft this Saturday. Welcome aboard Greg! The Midnight Rambler and Jim Jansen has vacated Yankee Stadium and has moved into Safeco Field.  The Asgard Aesir has inherited Target Field after the Metrodome is no longer in use.  The available stadiums are now Yankee Stadium and Oakland Coliseum. 

December 28, 2011
2011 Call for protected rosters
DAYTON, OH. - With the rookie draft a few weeks away, it is time to put a call out for your protected roster.  The number you are allowed to protect does NOT include the one player that you could possibly keep if eligible from the 50% Use or Lose list.  Click HERE for the list.....if you have a player with an * and a +, it means that player has been protected and will not count towards the numbers below.  If you have players with an asterisk (*) and no plus sign (+), you have not chosen anyone and this will be your LAST CHANCE to do so. Please identify this player with your protected list.  You may either send your list in an email, or farm your unprotected players and send me a Manager Profile for me to import.  ALSO: Once your list is in, only protected players can be traded until draft day.  If you make a trade that results in an different number of protected players than what is listed below, please send along any applicable changes to your roster.  All protected rosters are due to me by Wednesday January 7th. 

Protect 20 players
Thunder Bay Damage
Leeds Zeppelins
Kansas City T-Bones
Midnight Rambler
Michigan Tigers
Bay Area Barking Seals

Protect 19 Players
Needham Rockets
Preble Zorros
River City Rhinos
Colgate Creek Blue Crabs
Miami Redhawks
Niskayuna Warriors
Houston Oil Barons
Frankfort Frogs
Scio Farmers
Prairie Jack Rabbits
Jersey Jukes
Asgard Aesir
Richmond Rebels
Bluff Park Rowdies
Jotenheim Storm Giants
Bowling Green Buskers

Protect 18 players
Virginia Terriers
Dayton Dynamo
Carolina Sandlappers
Canton Moondogs
Oakwood Owls
Worcester Grays

December 18, 2011
2011 Season disk items
DAYTON, OH. - Now that the 2011 season disk is out, there are some roster lsits to pay attention to.  The 2011 uncarded list is on the left side menus.  The following list is the list of players that made the 2011 uncarded list that carried over from 2010.  Your list of 2011 uncarded players (3 max) is due by the beginning of the MLB 2011 regular season.  The 2011 rookies are now posted on the left menu as well.  The following list identifies the players who had position removals and changes in accordance with item 6.A. in the constitution.

December 8, 2011
2011 Rookie draft date set
DAYTON, OH. - The 2011 Rookie draft will be hosted by me in Dayton Ohio on Saturday January 14th.  More info to come as we get closer.    

October 22, 2011
2010 World Series Champ Crowned
DAYTON, OH. - Congratulations to Tom Kackley and his Canton Moondogs.....SPB-Now 2010 Champions!   Complete World Series scores and writeups are found in the Playoff section.  Congratulations to Vin Onstott for a hard-fought series, and his pennant win.  The off-season is now officially underway!   

October 8, 2011
Team Name change
DAYTON, OH. - The Thunder Bay Damage have now changed their name to the Gotham City Thunder.   

October 3, 2011
Managerial replacement
DAYTON, OH. - It is with much regret that inform you that Jerry Cada has stepped down due to time constraints.  I would like to thank him for his service, and he is welcomed back at anytime.  Taking jerry's place is fellow SPB manager John Labudra. He will be renaming the team the Crimea River Reptiles, and will continue to occupy Fenway Park. You can check out Joh's info on his bio page.  Welcome aboard John!  

September 28, 2011
2010 World Series set
DAYTON, OH. - Congratulations to the two pennant winners.  The Falduto League Champion Canton Moondogs (Tom Kackley) will square off against the Schilling League Champion Oakwood Owls (Vin Onstott) to determine the 2010 Championship.  Both teams are qualified for the DMB Tournament of Champions that is now in its 3rd year.  Good luck to both managers!

August 24,  2011
Final stats and power rankings posted...playoff matchups set
DAYTON, OH. - The stats and power rankings are posted for September of 2010. Congratulations to the following teams for making the playoffs:

Falduto League: Canton Moondogs (Tom Kackley, 104-58) vs Bluff Park Rowdies (Peter Reoch, 91-71)
                         Bowling Green Buskers (Chris Williams, 96-66) vs Dayton Dynamo (John Turnbull 99-63)

Schilling League: Worcester Grays (Hugh McElaney, 110-52) vs Virgina Terriers (Ron Peterson, 97-65)
                          Oakwood Owls (Vin Onstott, 110-52) vs. Carolina Sandlappers (Don Swearingen 99-63)

The teams listed first will have Home Field Advantage based on them being division winners. The Grays get the #1 seed over the Owls based on a better head to head record (5-3).  

January 25, 2011
Roster deletes for FA Draft
DAYTON, OH. - The following players were cut from their rosters prior to the FA draft.  They are now eligible to be acquired:

Frogs: Russ Springer
Rhinos: Troy Patten and P Kameron Mickolio.
Rebels: Ken Griffey, Kaz Matsui, Niumen Romero, Leo Rosales
Grays: Pedro Viola
Blue Crabs: Jeremy Reed, Hayden Penn
Rockets: Jamie Burke
Moondogs: Eric Byrnes, Fernando Cabrera
Jukes: Jack Taschner
Rambler: Jeff Larish, Emmanuel Burris, Cesar Ramos
Zeppelins: Jared Burton 

January 25, 2011
All 2010 draft complete
DAYTON, OH. - All 3 phases of the 2010 draft are complete.  Free Agents can now be obtained on a first-come first-served basis until the end of the first month of play. 

January 25, 2011
Team Name Change
DAYTON, OH. - Jim Wheeler is renaming his Manhattan Titans to the Preble Zorros.  This will be noted on the current database.

January 23, 2011
SPB-Now beat writer announced 
DAYTON, OH. - I would like to announce that Vin Onstott has agreed to be the SPB-Now beat writer. He has carte blanche on writing/roasting anything about the league he wants to. Good luck and Thanks Vin!

December 29, 2010
Stadium change 
DAYTON, OH. - The Oakwood Owls are vacating pitching-friendly Safeco Field for Coors Field.  This leaves Safeco Field and Tropicana Field as the two available stadii.    

December 26, 2010
Managerial change 
DAYTON, OH. - It is with regret that I announce that Craig Korol has given up the reigns of the Dodge City Marshalls. He built a good team, and will be missed. Another great manager has swiftly agreed to take over the reins. Jerry Cada will become the new manager, and will rename the team to the River City Rhinos. The information on the website will be updated in the next day or so. 

Welcome aboard Jerry!

December 20, 2010
2010 Phase 2 protected player numbers 
DAYTON, OH. - The following teams will be allowed to protect the following number of players for the upcoming 2010 Phase 2 draft.  I will call for rosters as we get closer to the draft.

18 Players
Worcester Grays
Niskayuna Warriors
Canton Moondogs
Carolina Sandlappers
Bowling Green Buskers
Richmond Rebels

19 Players
Virginia Terriers
Dodge City Marshalls
Frankfort Frogs
Kansas City T-Bones
Dayton Dynamo
Asgard Aesir
Needham Rockets
Thunder Bay Damage
Manhattan Titans
Midnight Rambler
Bluff Park Rowdies
Jotenheim Storm Giants
Michigan Tigers
Miami Redhawks
Oakwood Owls
Bay Area Barking Seals

20 Players
Scio Farmers
Colgate Creek Blue Crabs
Houston Oil Barons
Prarie Jack Rabbits
Leeds Zeppelins
Jersey Jukes

December 20, 2010
2010 Season disk is upon us 
DAYTON, OH. - Gentlemen:  The 2010 season disk is out and can be purchased at the DMB Storefront.  Please secure your copy buy the beginning of the SPB-Now 2010 season.  Here is what was done to prepare the season disk to its present state for our league:

(1) Ensured all trades were made.  (2) Deleted Major League teams and orgs from the 2010 disk. (3) Deleted all partial players from multiple teams. (4) Removed rating for those players who were over or equal to 400AB and played 10G or less [LIST]  (5) Migrated players to new season disk. (6) Assigned carded players from current uncarded list. (7) Assigned underused players that each team was allowed to keep 1 of with under 100PA/5GS/50BF. This part is frozen and teams may no longer protect a player if they have not done so already. (8) Create rookie list. (9) Ran Lynn Miller's NOT HERE program to determine uncarded players that teams can protect for the following season....limit 3. [LIST]  (10) Run Lynn Miller's BALLPARKS program for ballpark ratings [LIST] 

PLEASE look over your roster to make sure that I have not missed anyone, either carded or uncarded.  Please have your uncarded player list to me the beginning if the season, but the sooner the better.  

November 21, 2010
Managerial Change 
DAYTON, OH. - Rich Applegate, manager of the Waldo Peppers has decided to relinquish his franchise.  I would personally like to thank Rich for his service to the league, and will remain an integral part of our other SPB Leagues.  Replacing Rich's reigns will be SPB-veteran Steve Ehresman, who will be renaming the team the Prarie Jack Rabbits.  Welcome aboard Steve!

October 27, 2010
New World Series Champion crowned 
DAYTON, OH. -The 2009 SPB-Now Championship pennant will fly in the stadium of the Niskayuna Warriors, as Don Rahn defeated Greg Henning's Richmond Rebels in 6 games to capture the crown.  Complete playoff coverage can be found in the playoff link on the left.  Both managers are eligible to play in the DMB Tournament of Champions hosted by Rob Cappizano.  The 2010 off-season is now in full swing!  

September 12, 2010
League Championship matchups set 
DAYTON, OH. -Here are the results from the Divisional series:

Falduto League:
Moondogs (Kackley) sweep the Buskers (Williams) 3 games to 0. They will face the Rebels (Henning) who swept the Marshalls (Korol).

Schilling League: 
Grays (McElaney) won series versus the Terriers (Peterson) 3 games to 2. They will face the Warriors (Rahn) who defeated the Sandlappers (Swearingen) 3 games to 2. 

Good luck to the final four teams! The playoff box scores and write-ups will be posted tonight, with further write-ups posted as I receive them. 

September 1, 2010
Another manager change 
DAYTON, OH. - It is with much regret that I announce that Marc Hollingsworth is stepping down as manager of the Rip City Highlanders. He leaves in good standing and I would like to thank him for his many years as an SPB-Now founding manager. 

With that being said, I am proud to announce that SPB-Now Commissioner-emeritus Rick Ryan has agreed to take over the Highlander franchise. It is great to have him back in SPB-Now! Rick has renamed his team to the Miami Redhawks. I am sure Rick will make more than a few trades to get the team back on track. 

August 28, 2010
Manager Openings filled 
DAYTON, OH. - I am proud to announce the two openings for SPB-Now have been filled. Taking over the Ozark Fiddlers franchise is Dean Toso, brother of Brian Toso. His new team name is the Asgard Aesir. He will have to tell us how it is pronounced! He can be reached at tosodj@gomoorhead.com. The second opening for the Hilbillies franchise will be taken over by Peter Reoch, who will rename his team the Bluff Park Rowdies. His email is npeter7040@yahoo.com. Welcome to both new managers! 

August 28, 2010
Rule changes abound  
DAYTON, OH. - The following rule changes have been brought forth and voted upon by the rules committee: 

1) Player losses due to overusage has been eliminated. Player losses has also been grandfathered for this year, so that nobody loses a player to overusage. You will now only lose players to underusage. 

2) The Playing time limits meter will be set at 115% for all players for use in the PTL module for player performance. This includes Plate Appearances and playing splits for batters, and IP, BF, and GS for pitchers. All of these thresholds is what DMB 10 uses. 

Players will no longer have an advantage to overusing a player beyond 115% since DMB will baseline that player to a “replacement level” performance after reaching 115%. In the past overusing a player would result in continued good performance beyond their 115% limit. This will automatically take care of that, thus the elimination of the rule #1, since there is no advantage now for overusing a player past 115%.

3) Eliminate all bonus player rules for all players. All players can be used as much as the game will allow….but their performance will go to “performance level” player conditions after 115% There is no use in doubling a bad pitcher when he will be pitching bad after his allotted real-life limits anyways. This also eliminates a lot of admin time for me sifting through overused players for deletion from rosters. There will be NO player limits on usage, since the game will automatically lower their performance at 115%. 

If a scrub player was to be used for a good player once that good player reached his playing limit, the same result will occur by just leaving that good player in there and letting the game use replacement level stats for any play over 115%. ALL UNDERUSAGE rules will remain intact. You still must use everyone 50% or lose them. This will still force managers to use their bench players. 

August 28, 2010
Playoff pairings set  
DAYTON, OH. - The playoff matchups are now set, and the playoff page is now posted.  Here are the pairings: 

Falduto League Divisional Series:
Bowling Green Buskers (Chris Williams) vs. Canton Moondogs (Tom Kackley)
Dodge City Marshalls (Craig Korol) vs. Richmond Rebels (Greg Henning)

Schilling League Divisional Series:
Virginia Terriers (Ron Peterson) vs. Worcester Grays (Hugh McElaney)
Carolina Sandlappers (Don Swearingen) vs. Niskayuna Warriors (Don Rahn)

Good Luck to all. We will have a new champion this year!

July 21, 2010
September games completed  
DAYTON, OH. - The stats and power rankings for September 2009 season is now posted.  I will within the next week have all of the end of season playoff matchups, the database, overusage/underusage losses, and the draft order. The player losses below are not complete, as I will need to complete the list with the September losses.  More to be posted as it comes.   

Players lost so far to date:
Alfredo Amezega-Tigers
Cameron Maybin-Zeppelins
Guillermo Moscoso-Rockets
Ramon Ramirez-Rockets
Jeff Gray-Tigers
Nelson Figueroa-Highlanders
Nick Green-Hillbillies
Lou Marson-Rambler
John McDonald-Zeppelins
Adam Eaton-Blue Crabs

January 24, 2010
All drafts complete  
DAYTON, OH. - The drafts are complete and the free agent draft results are now posted, along with current rosters.  Listed below are the players that were cut during the FA period:

Barking Seals: Carlos Silva
Rambler: Tony F. Pena, Mike Lincoln
T-Bones: Emil Brown, Brian Wolfe
Buskers: Rich Rundles, Jesus Colome, Alan Embree, Zach Jackson
Rockets: Chad Reineke, Sidney Ponson, Billy Sadler, Chris Denorfia
Warriors: Robinson Cancel
Moondogs: Doug Slaten

Free agents are now available on a first-come, first-served basis until the April disk goes out.