Fellow Managers, 

The MLB lockout is over, and Baldelli’s Modern XII Life is BACK! — Not war, nor pandemic, nor college graduation can stop us. Commissioner Manfred read our letter and capitulated, establishing a complete 162 game season with opening day set for the first week in April.  

League dues are $200 (no inflation here!) due ASAP.
Important Dates

• Division Picks: Sunday, March 20th between It’s Milk Time and CoMeesh.
• Keeper Deadline: Monday, March 28th
• Draft Day: (proposed), Sunday, April 3rd *preferred. Alternate Wednesday, April 6th. 

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Fellow Managers, 

The Commissioner’s Office of Baldelli’s Modern Life is actively monitoring the lockout situation between owners and players in Major League Baseball — in fact, we’re considering writing a letter urging them to come to their senses. America needs perfect games, booyas, hotdogs, and brewskis, and BML needs one dang uninterrupted season. Is that too much to ask?

Until we know the outcome of MLB’s collective bargaining agreement, this office can’t in good conscious collect league dues. If Commissioner Manfred shortens the season beyond April, we will likely cut down league dues. I want to avoid having another exhibition season, and we will unless the 2022 season is shortened considerably (think All-Star break).  

For now, please read about the proposed rule changes that I have in mind for 2022 on the league rules roadmap. Feel free to discuss in this thread. 

Hello Managers, 

It’s my honor to announce the winner of Baldelli’s Modern Life XI, managers Doc, and Dave from the team, Life of Ke’Bryan! Congratulations to the champions! 

And congratulations to Alternative Bats for a historic Cinderella run to the finals from 8th place, beating out the strongest regular-season team in BML history to make the finals.  

In April it seemed that this championship moment for Ke’Bryan was destiny, but the road to glory was arduous and far from a sure thing. In April, Ke’Bryan had the most draft dollars, unbelievable keepers, and found themselves in the weaker regular-season division. However, injury after injury, unlucky trades, and poorly performing star players (I’m looking at you Cody Bellinger) dropped Ke’Bryan from an early division lead down to 7th place. Even late in the season, the playoffs were not a guarantee. Ke’Bryan lost their last two weeks in the regular season (four out of their last six matchups), making the playoffs by just a couple of games. 

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Like calling balls and strikes, some league rules have grey areas or unique details that parties involved can interpret differently. For that reason, I’ve built a precedents page on our website. 

Precedents are not rules, nor do they bind future rulings. They are guidelines established by past Commissioner decisions that inform future rulings. To ensure that rules are applied consistently across seasons, it is essential to create a list of precedents that the Commissioner can review and reference when making decisions.

I invite all managers to review this new dimension to the league rules.

Fellow Managers,

I’m proud to announce that all 14 of you rejoined the league this year, and submitted keepers on-time. After a year like 2020 the continuity of the league is amazing and a testament to the awesome-sauce that is Baldelli’s Modern Life XI.

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Fellow Managers, 

I have the great privilege to welcome you all to Baldelli’s Modern Life XI — our 11th season in the “Modern” era. 

While 2020 will never be forgotten, some good came out of it for the direction of this league. We learned that auction drafting is wicked fun and that roto is not our cup of tea. But 2021 promises to be the year we’ve all been waiting for.  

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I have made a couple of last-minute changes to the league settings that I only realized mattered about two seconds ago (thanks Tragic BABIPs).

First, since we changed to roto scoring instead of head-to-head, weekly add drops no longer apply. That’s right, you can add or drop more than three players a week. Stream away. However, there is a maximum season total of 525 innings pitched by all your pitchers combined. That number, 525, is Yahoo’s recommendation (see attached). Waiver wire rules are the same. 

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The draft date is set for Thursday, July 16th at 5PM PST (8PM EST).

• The draft order will be set randomly 30 minutes before the draft.
• All team keepers were removed.
• Auction budgets have been reset to $260.
• There is no trade deadline
• No trades made this season will effect next season.

Good luck managers!  

According to ESPN, MLB is eying the date of July 24th as opening day for a 60 game season. There is no guarantee that they will play all 60 games (or any for that matter) but that doesn’t mean we can’t play some fantasy. 

Our 2020 fantasy season will be treated as a one-off exhibition. The rules that I recommend today will apply only until MLB returns to a normal schedule.  

2020 Exhibition Season Rules

1. Auction draft with all managers starting with equal auction dollars.
   1. Auction dollars based on the 2019 season will be awarded during the next full season. 
2. Every player is in the draft pool. No players can be kept from 2019. 
   1. Keepers and year eligibility are frozen to 2019. Next full season you can keep players from your 2019 team. 
3. The scoring type will change from head-to-head to rotisserie.
4. The top three teams at the end of the season, even if the season is canceled, win prizes. There is no playoff. 
5. The entry fee is $50. We will take it from the fees already paid.  
6. Prizes will be: 1st $350, 2nd $225, 3rd $125 (Total prize pool $700). 

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In light of the recent zombie apocalypse, and at the urging of many league managers, the 2020 Baldelli’s Modern Life draft will be postponed.

If any kept player tests positive for the zombie-virus (and only zombie-virus) before draft day, team managers will have the choice not to keep the player and to recoup their draft dollars instead. All other players are locked at this point (stay tuned for the keeper email). 

This office understands that managers have life schedules that are difficult to adjust. However, it is our belief that the benefit of giving managers extra time to prepare for the new draft format outweighs the cost of rescheduling the draft. We did not reach this decision lightly. 

We encourage all managers to wash hands and change diapers often before draft day.