The Buehler Rule: Fantrax adjusts settings just for the JLB

We are just six days away from the first official JLB Winter Meetings.

Although, some of you may be surprised to see that — right, Parker?

Yes, it's six days. It didn’t start Tuesday night as some of you said on Slack. I'm sure you guys were joking. ... That, or I suppose the reading comprehension section of the SAT must have looked like a Blake Treinen slider for some of you.

I hope the next couple paragraphs will be easier to digest because they’re important.

I’ve been working with Fantrax and I have great news for our JLB setup. In the next day or so, you’re going to see the three “P” pitching slots on your roster switch to SP/RP.

I requested the new starting lineup option so that we can have the “P” disappear for good. We will never have that roster problem of having to figure out whether a P counts toward SP or RP.

The starting lineup slot of SP/RP will obviously work the same for us — you can either put a starter or reliever there. The only change is physical appearance.

The other change that comes with this will be my ability to adjust the primary position. This will be helpful in the event a pitcher has a random change in season.

Let me explain how this happens and how we will be better prepared for it.

Two years ago, before we had the “P,” the Fantrax system would automatically assign a new pitcher to the pool who didn't have a clear direction as a "P" primary. Why? I don't know, but it does. In our system, without a "P" on the roster, the system would automatically assign it SP or RP as primary. The problem would occur once a "P" is called up, it could get assigned the opposite primary midseason.

This issue affected Crox in 2017 as Walker Buehler all of a sudden had his primary switched from SP to RP because he was relieving and not starting. On Fantrax’s backend, he was labeled as a “P” primary to start the year, but we didn’t know that because we didn’t have that as a lineup option.

This midseason switch could still happen for young pitchers, but we are now able to fix it and move on easily.

It’s very rare, but it could happen. In 2017, I had to force accept illegal rosters. Now I can just change the player to keep the primary status he had to start the season.

At the end of the day, those of you who struggle with reading comprehension, there is no need to fear. Essentially there is absolutely no effect on anyone in the JLB. I just wanted to explain it so if the rare switch does happen, you know how and why I fix it.

I'll add it to the rulebook soon, but for all intents and purposes, if a midseason switch happens, the position will be switched back. The owner will not have the option to accept the new primary and just keep it because it's a sweeping change. If a switch happens, it could make your roster illegal for a prior scoring period and will change standings as we saw in 2017.

For anyone who has a "P" right now on the roster, if the switchover to SP/RP and elimination of "P" switches what was originally approved by me as your primary for a "P," I will adjust and work with you to correct heading into 2019.

If anyone has any questions on this, feel free to reach out to me.