We’re one day away from March, from which we will be 10 days away from the keeper deadline.
Decisions aplenty as some teams scramble for that last-second trade/upgrade, while others scour spring training boxscores to try and break deadlocks in the mind for roster positions.
Then there are a select few, namely those that went through mini-draft in November, who are contempt with their squads as the March 18 draft approaches.
There’s also that one person who shall remain nameless — for now — who just found out he had the keepers screwed up and realized he didn’t have to make a decision on someone because he had the extra roster spot.
The JLB can be complicated in that way.
So, with some new owners, some newer owners, and some older owners who may need a refresher, here’s the JLB For Dummies edition. This is just a quick hit on everything, so refer to the rulebook for in-depth rules.
KEEPERS
Your keepers are comprised of the following 21 players:
Seven Bats
Six of these batters have to play different positions — and if they have multiple positions, you can select which one you want to count. A seventh keeper bat can be a duplicate position if you’d wish. Yes, DH counts as a position, and these players can be absolutely any player in the player pool.
Five Pitchers
Three starters, one reliever and one wild card pitcher are in this category and they can be absolutely anyone in the player pool.
Seven Franchise Players
Pitchers, hitters, doesn’t matter. Positions, do not matter. These seven just have to fall into the following categories:
1 PLAYER with 3.099 level of experience or less as noted on their baseball reference page.
5 PLAYERS — yes, five Crox — with 2.099 level of experience or less.
1 PLAYER with 0.099 level of experience or less.
Two Minor Leaguers (Green spot players)
You are allowed to keep two players in your green roster spots, reserved for players who do not have a single game of MLB experience. Please note, most of these players are denoted by a green flag; however, some rookies (denoted by a green “R” next to their name, still qualify). For example, Stephen Gonsalves on my roster only has the green “R” and he can go into my green roster spot. Others with the “R,” like Yohander Mendez, who has major league innings logged, physically cannot be moved into that spot.
That Totals 21
At the end of the day, that’s 21 players. Note, you’ll see a third green spot soon, but that’s in preparation for the draft where we will expand on more round to give everyone a chance to carry 3 minor leaguers from here on out.
GET YOUR KEEPERS IN ON TIME
Keepers have to be sent in on March 11, at 12 a.m., so essentially Saturday night on March 10, at 11:59 p.m., you should be hitting send if you haven't yet.
All you have to do is checkmark your keepers on Fantrax and submit an official breakdown of who is who (as in vets/franchise/minors) to me so I can check for eligibility.
AH?! ONE OF MY KEEPERS GOT INJURED!
Reminder, per JLB rules, if one of your keepers suffers a significant injury — this is subject to approval by commissioners, as in, it must be clear to us that the keeper is going to miss a significant amount of time — you will be allowed to replace them with a player that was on your roster at the keeper deadline.
WHAT’S THIS WAINWRIGHT RULE?
If you have a veteran player who is significantly injured, but you want to keep, you can apply to have them count for the Wainwright Rule, which means you’d be permitted to keep them as your 3.099 or less franchise guy. See JLB rulebook for further details.
POSITION ELIGIBILITY
So, Adam Eaton is slated to play left field for the Nationals. Big switch for him this year. It’s confirmed. It’s happening right now in spring training. So per JLB rules, I’m going to go in and add LF before the keeper deadline.
You can apply for such roster changes before the keeper deadline, too. The rules are, it has to be confirmed by the team and he has to be playing that position in spring training.
After the draft, the regular-season rules kick in and that means a player must play 10 games at that position before they will be granted that position by Fantrax.
DID I MISS SOMETHING?
Ask me if you’re unsure. I’m a loser. I have nothing better to do than talk about this stuff, so reach out to me if you have any questions.
Also, let me know if something doesn’t make sense. I’m not perfect and sometimes in trying to keep this as simplified as possible, ambiguity leads to you thinking one thing, when the rule is actually another way.
Let’s follow the good old rule, “See something, say something.” It’s for the good of the League.
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