COPYRIGHT NOTICE This manual and the computer programs and audiovisuals on the accompanying floppy disks, which are described by this manual, are copyrighted and contain proprietary information belonging to Diamond Analytics Corporation. No one may give or sell copies of this manual or the accompanying files, disks or listings of the programs to any person or institution, except as provided for by written agreement with Diamond Analytics Corporation. No one may copy, photocopy, reproduce, or translate this manual or reduce it to machine readable form, in whole or part, without the prior written consent of Diamond Analytics Corporation. Any person/persons reproducing any portion of this program, in any media, for any reason, will be guilty of Copyright Violation, and shall also be subject to civil liability at the discretion of the copyright holder. The software may not be used or copied in any way which might allow two or more persons to use the software separately at the same time. LIMITED WARRANTY Neither John Benson nor Diamond Analytics Corporation, nor any employee, dealer or distributor, makes any warranty, express or implied, with respect to this manual, the disk, file or any related item, their quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for any purpose. It is the responsibility solely of the purchaser to determine the suitability of the products for any purpose. To the original purchaser only, Diamond Analytics Corporation warrants the media to be free from defects in material for 60 days. If during the first 60 days after purchase, a defect in media should occur, the software may be returned to Diamond Analytics, who will replace the media at no charge. If at any time after the initial 60 day period, your media becomes defective, the media may be returned to Diamond Analytics for replacement at a reasonable service charge. In no case will John Benson, or Diamond Analytics Corporation, or any of their agents or employees, be held liable for direct, indirect or incidental damages resulting from any defect or omission in the manual, or other related items and processes, including, but not limited to, any interruption of service, loss of business, anticipated profit, or other consequential damages. IMPORTANT: The above warranty does not apply if you make any unauthorized attempt to modify or duplicate the product, or if the product has been damaged by accident or abuse. Copyright c1999 by Diamond Analytics Corporation with all rights reserved. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA by Diamond Analytics Corporation, 15 Cannon Road, Wilton, CT 06897 The tech support phone number is listed on the download web page (http://www.johnbenson.com/download.html) ISBN # 1-880876-11-6 TRADEMARKS Rotisserie r League Baseball is a registered trademark of the Rotisserie League Baseball Association. For information, contact RLBA at 370 Seventh Avenue #312, New York, NY 10001, telephone 212-629-4036. IBM r and IBM PC r are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Lotus r is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation. MS-DOS r is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. MS-WINDOWS r is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. HP LaserJet r is a registered trademark of Hewlett Packard Corporation. DISCLAIMERS No patent liability is assumed concerning the use of the information in this manual, or the software described herein. This product is sold for entertainment purposes only, and neither the authors nor the publisher assumes any liability beyond the purchase price for any reason. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1 INSTALLATION 1 PROGRAM SETUP 2 EDITING THE PLAYER DATABASE 6 POSITION (ALT-P) 6 LISTS (ALT-L) 7 ROSTER (ALT-T) 7 DEPTH (ALT-D) 7 TOTALS (ALT-T) 8 PROFILE (ALT-F) 8 SEARCH (ALT-S) 8 SORTING 8 PLAYER POPULATION: ADDING AND DELETING PLAYERS 9 ADDING PLAYERS TO USER LISTS 9 NOTES ON EDITING 9 THE DRAFT PROGRAM 9 STANDING (ALT-S) 10 NEEDS (ALT-E) - KEEPING TRACK OF PLAYERS TAKEN AND MONEY SPENT 10 ROSTER (ALT-R) - ANALYSIS AND CHANGES 11 TRADE (ALT-T) 11 IMPACT (ALT-I) 12 PROFILE (ALT-P) 12 BUDGET (ALT - B) 12 BUDGET SCREEN 12 SEARCHING FOR BUDGET PLAYERS 14 MOVING PLAYERS WITHIN A BUDGET 15 AVAILABLE (ALT-V) - PLAYERS BY POSITION, BY LIST 15 ADD PLAYER (ALT - A) 15 PLAYER VALUATION 16 NOTES ON PLAYER VALUATION METHODS 16 PRINTING LISTS AND REPORTS 18 DRAFT SOFTWARE FILES 19 BACKUP AND RESTORE 19 TRANSFERRING THE PROGRAM BETWEEN TWO COMPUTERS 19 THE PLAYER DATABASE 19 SAVE PLAYER DATABASE 20 SAVE PLAYER DATABASE AS 20 LOAD PLAYER DATABASE 20 LOAD USER DATABASE 20 DELETE PLAYER DATABASE 20 DELETE USER DATABASE 20 UPDATE PLAYER DATABASE 20 READ WEB DATABASE 21 COMPARE PLAYER DATABASES 21 SAVE LEAGUE AS 21 LOAD NEW LEAGUE 21 RESTORE LEAGUE FROM BACKUP 21 DELETE LEAGUE 21 QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 21 TECHNICAL SUPPORT 23 Comments/Suggestions 23 ON LINE HELP INFORMATION 23 AUCTION BUDGETING BY JOHN BENSON 23 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Thank you for purchasing John Benson's Draft Software for Windows. We're excited about this program. It contains everything you've come to expect from John Benson and Diamond Library. We know you're anxious to get started, but please take a few minutes to read the information below This manual is intended to help you get the most from your draft software. Instructions on setting up a directory and installing the program will be helpful to individuals who have little or no experience with computers, but most users will find the program essentially self-explanatory and can probably start using the program immediately. Highly detailed descriptive HELP screens, as described in ON LINE HELP INFORMATION, are available at every point once you begin running the software. In many cases the information and descriptions from the HELP screens will be more detailed than the contents of this printed manual. The HELP screens should be considered an extension of this manual. The purpose of this program is to help you prepare for, and execute, a successful draft or auction in a contest to pick the best baseball players for the upcoming season, including Rotisserie and Fantasy leagues. The Draft Software has two basic program features: the Edit module and the Draft Management module. (1) the EDIT module includes the database editor and valuation program. This module allows you to: ? change player stats and recalculate dollar values. ? view depth charts for all major league teams ? view graphs of player performance for past three years, including last year's second half. ? assign players to the disabled list or to the minor leagues (and remove them from the draft and valuation pool). ? sort and compare any player with the top five available players at all positions ? sort capability on any field. ? assign/remove players from up to five user-defined lists and five Benson lists (2) the DRAFT management module allows you to: ? keep track of every player for every team. ? see available players at any position, sorted on any field. ? see league standings at EVERY MOMENT. ? see the potential standings impact of every player on every team. ? keep track of position needs and available money for every team. ? see inflation rates & adjusted values, updated continuously. ? handle toppers and freeze lists. ? create and deploy a budget to enhance Auction Draft performance. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE The key to getting the most benefit from this software is to become familiar with its features and explore all its options. During the weeks preceding your draft, you can study your league's freeze lists and plan the acquisition of specific players. By going through several practice auction drafts, you can become proficient at using all features instantly in the heat of a bidding war. Although it is easy to get started using the Draft Software for Windows(r), you will get the most benefit by practicing extensively with the software before using it in live competition. The more you practice, the better you will do in your actual drafts or auctions. Think of this metaphor: When you plan to drive a car in a race, you first want to gain a full appreciation of its handling and capabilities, and become familiar with all its instrumentation. Our advice is: practice, practice, practice. You can have some fun while learning, and you will enhance your performance. At a minimum, we recommend that you go through one entire auction as practice before using this product in real competition. In addition to becoming familiar with the Draft Software, you should be familiar with Rotisserie auctions. The rules and methods are explained in the Rotisserie League Baseball available at all major bookstores. INSTALLATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ? This software requires: Microsoft Windows V3.1x, Windows 95 or Windows 98 ? A 486 PC or higher with Microsoft Windows Installed on a hard drive. A Mouse or compatible "Point and Click" device. The term CLICK will be used extensively in this manual. Click refers to the use of a pointing device (Mouse or Trackball), and is the act of selecting and/or activating a function by clicking the appropriate Mouse button. For some, a Mouse might require a single click but others may require a "double click". On some computers, using the TAB key on the PC keyboard will move the cursor. Clicking the Up and Down arrows on the Windows Scroll may also work. Please consult your Microsoft Windows manual for full information about using click and/or double click for your computer, to select and run files and functions. Before you begin You should have a basic familiarity with your computer and have an elementary knowledge of MS-WINDOWS. Taking inventory Your package as purchased should include one Program Diskette and one User Manual. Installation steps To install the program on Windows 3.1: 1. Click on FILE to open File Menu Dialogue. 2. The menu will open. Click on RUN 3. A WINDOW with the WORD "RUN" in the Title bar should be on your screen. In the box underneath the Command Line, type the letter of the drive with the draft software diskette and then INSTALL.EXE (i.e, A:\INSTALL.EXE) and then click OK. The program will create a new directory called BENSON and then copy these files to your hard drive: ? WINDRAFT.EXE ? PLAYER.WDB ? WINDRAFT.HLP 4. Choose "YES" when the install program asks you whether you wish to install a Windows icon for the John Benson's Draft Software in the Group "Baseball Software." To install the program on Windows 95 or Windows 98: 1. Select the Start Icon and Choose RUN 2. Enter into the command line the location of the install.exe file, or use the BROWSE feature to find the file and then click OK. The program will automatically create a new directory called BENSON and will copy three files to your hard drive: ? WINDRAFT.EXE ? PLAYER.WDB ? WINDRAFT.HLP 3. Choose "YES" when the install program asks you whether you wish to install a Windows icon for the John Benson's Draft Software in the Group "Baseball Software." The installation will be complete when you see an application called JOHN BENSON'S DRAFT SOFTWARE appear in the Baseball Software group. To start the program, double-click on the Icon called JOHN BENSON'S DRAFT SOFTWARE. STARTING THE PROGRAM THE FIRST TIME YOU USE THE PROGRAM , YOU MUST CLICK ON THE "CREATE NEW LEAGUE" BUTTON. You will be asked to provide a Name for your league. Only the first eight characters of the name you choose will be displayed in other screens. Enter the name of your league and Click OK. After you name the league, the program will bring up the league setup screens. These screens will allow you to customize your software to your own league's standards. PROGRAM SETUP STEP #1: THE LEAGUE SETUP SCREEN Change League Setup will allow you to select the number of teams, positions, DH/UT, hitting and pitching categories your league will use. Under ADVANCED OPTIONS you can select custom hitter and pitcher stats, define user stats, assign weights to league categories, and change the three year average calculations. The positions and stat categories are PRE-SET for a STANDARD ROTISSERIE LEAGUE. IF YOU INTEND TO SET UP A STANDARD ROTISSERIE LEAGUE, CLICK "OK" ON THE "LEAGUE SETUP" SCREEN. You may come back later and experiment with setup alternatives. IF YOU INTEND TO USE ONLY PRE-DEFINED STATS (NO CUSTOM OR USER STATS) SKIP TO "STATS CATEGORIES" AND SIMPLY CHECK OFF THE STATS YOU WISH TO USE. You may change any information by clicking on the box you wish to change, entering the appropriate number. MAKE SURE you turn off any default stats you will not be using by clicking on the X until the box is blank. All stat categories with X's will be used. If you will be using any custom stats, click on the Custom Stat button. If not, click on OK. TIP: even if you are using standard Rotisserie league stats, the Custom Stat feature is an excellent analytical tool. You may create a variety of custom stats useful in player scouting and evaluation (such as strikeout/walk ratios) and use these custom stats to sort and rank players before your auction. You may even choose to include some custom stats in the valuation mode, print lists prior to your auction, then remove the custom stats and reset to your original categories for your final valuation . Advanced Options Button Change Custom Hitter Stats This option is used to define custom hitter stats. Clicking on this button will switch the display to the Custom Statistics screen. For details on setting up custom stats refer to DEFINE CUSTOM STAT section below. Change Custom Pitcher Stats This option is used to define custom pitcher stats. Clicking on this button will switch the display to the Custom Statistics screen. For details on setting up custom stats refer to DEFINE CUSTOM STAT section below. The categories selected will be used in player valuation and in creating hypothetical standings based on the projected stats in those categories. NOTE: Hitting/Pitching categories not selected can still be displayed when viewing players. DEFINE CUSTOM STATS The Define Custom Stats screen is used to define an equation for a custom stat. The equation used to determine the stat can be either normal or complex. The normal equation selection is recommended. The complex equation is only for those wishing to leave the Benson valuation methodology and DO THEIR OWN VALUATION DETERMINATIONS. The only way to multiply categories or to use nested parenthesis in an equation is to use the complex equation type. Stat Name Enter the name of the custom stat. The maximum length is 5 characters. K/BB for example could be used to name hitters strikeouts to walk ratio, which can pinpoint fading veterans or improving young players. Numerator/Denominator The Numerator/Denominator is used to define the numerator and denominator of a custom stat. Use the Define Numerator and Define Denominator buttons to toggle between the two modes. NOTE: If there is no denominator for a stat, the stat is considered a cumulative stat. If there is a denominator for a stat, then the stat is considered an average or ratio stat. Define Numerator Button Clicking on the button will switch the Numerator/Denominator box to Numerator. The numerator in strikeouts to walk ratio would be K for strikeouts. Enter the number 1 in the box to the left of K. Define Denominator Button Clicking on the button will switch the Numerator/Denominator box to Denominator. Enter the number 1 in the box next to BB(Walks) and then BB is your denominator. Equation Box The equation for the custom stat is displayed in this area. If the area is blank, then the custom stat has not yet been entered. Decimal Places Defines the number of decimal places used when displaying the custom stat. How far do you want to carry out your equation? You may choose to represent your custom stat as a whole number in tenths, in hundredths or thousandths. Be sure that your stat reflects the adequate number of decimals to get a proper analysis. The beauty of CUSTOM STATS is that it gives you the ability to analyze any combination of stats and create cumulative numbers, averages or ratios. You can select four custom stats to analyze per hitter, and four per pitcher. If you want to see more than four, after creating the stats you want, print them to a file or print a hard copy report, then go back and do more. CAUTION! THE CUSTOM STATS FUNCTION IS ADDICTIVE! Say you need a little home run help to boost yourself in the standings. Let's use CUSTOM STATS and to find hitters with home run per at bat rates. Click on DEFINE NUMERATOR and enter the number 1 next to AB. Next, click on DEFINE DENOMINATOR and enter a 1 next to HR. You want to see a whole number, but if you want to get real precise you can select a decimal point option. Click on Low stat-> High Value. because you are asking the program to create a ratio. In this case, a ratio of 1.00 would indicate a player hits 1 home run every time at bat, a ratio of 10.3 would indicate a player hit 1 home run every 10.3 at bats as Matt Williams did in 1994. Stat Valuation Defines how the stat will be treated during the player valuation and standings creation. Examples: High Stat -> High Value-- Home Runs, Batting Average. Low Stat -> High Value-- ERA, Ratio or Losses. DEFINE USER STATS As with Custom Stats you are able to assign the stat category a name. Follow the same instructions for stat valuation and decimal places as stated above. REMEMBER USER STATS ARE FOR CATEGORIES NOT PROVIDED WITH THE SOFTWARE AND NEED TO BE KEYPUNCHED BY THE USER (FOR EXAMPLE ERRORS OR HOLDS). When using stat categories provided with the program use Custom Stats. STATS CATEGORIES The draft software includes 28 different stat categories, plus the ability to create many more with the CUSTOM STATS and USER STATS features. The choices now include: ? 16 Hitting Categories: AB, BAVG, OBA, SLG, OPS, HR, Hits, Singles, Doubles, Triples, RBI, Runs, SB, CS, BB, K—PLUS 4 CUSTOM STATS and 2 USER STATS. ? 12 Pitching Categories: G, IP, Wins, Losses, Saves, ERA, Ratio, Hits, Strikeouts, Earned run average, Walks, Homeruns Given, PLUS 4 CUSTOM STATS and 2 USER STATS. ? Weighted stat categories: Many of you asked about handling stolen bases and runs each being worth ˝ stat category. The weighted stat allows you to do this. The default selections are the standard eight Rotisserie categories, which are all marked for inclusion when the program starts. You may unselect any of the stat categories by moving to (point and click) or TAB. To change a category, simply change the number in the box. To activate a stat, click on the box. An X will appear indicating your choice is now active. To remove an active stat category, simply click on the active X'ed box. A blank box is inactive. STEP #2: THE TEAM NAMES SCREEN The program will automatically "name" the teams 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The program allows up to eighty characters for the team name and owner name fields and eight characters for the team code field. You should have a unique name/code for each team. Many users find that short first names for the fantasy team owners (BOB, JOE, JOHN, STEVE, etc.) are easier to recall than would be new and unfamiliar abbreviations and acronyms. Team name codes are, however, purely a matter of personal preference: whatever works for you in the heat of an auction; the main objective is to identify each team quickly. STEP #3: THE SALARY LIMITS SCREEN This screen allows you to determine the draft type, optimum bid type, inflation type, and lets you define salary parameters such as percent spent on hitters, salary per team, minimum salary, salary increments, and number of decimal places. If you are following a standard $260 league format, simply click OK on the default settings. Draft Type An auction involves players being bid upon by members of the league and a draft involves players being selected in turn by league members. Optimum Bid Type Optimum bids can be determined with draft inflation or without. Inflation Type Inflation can be enabled, not used at all, or be user defined. Percent Spent on Hitters The program will value all players by assigning a specified amount of money (the number of teams, times the salary per team), to a specified number of players (the number of teams, times the number of players per team). The standard or default allocation for hitting versus pitching is 65% for hitting and 35% for pitching. (For an explanation and tips on when you may wish to use some other percentages, see Rotisserie Baseball: Playing for Blood, as referenced in the introduction ) You may change the percent spent on hitters allocation to any breakout you desire, by using the Tab key to select the Percent Spent on Hitters box. When you type in your selected percentage for hitters, the program will automatically assign the remainder to pitching. Salary Parameters The software accommodates a wide range of salary parameters. The maximum salary depends on the minimum salary increment. (you don't want to mix $100,000 salaries with one cent increments.) The maximum salary is $100,000 (with a $1 minimum/increment), $10,000.0 (with a $0.1 minimum/increment) and $1000.00 (with $0.01 minimum/increment). If you do not wish to specify Salary per Team, the program will assign the standard $260 salary as a default, with a $1 minimum bid and $1 increments. This dialogue box offers you to change the standard salary and bid increments. Tab or click on the box and make any necessary selections. After you have selected your league's appropriate Percent Spent on Hitters, Salary per Team, Minimum Player Salary, and Minimum Salary Increment; then click OK. STEP #4: THE Change Player Pool and User Lists SCREEN Player Pool Select the Major League Teams you want included in the draft pool. All teams are pre-selected unless you specify. For a standard league (AL or NL only) you will need to uncheck the teams that will be excluded. Clicking on the X by the team will remove it from the teams included in your league. If you later want to add a team back to be included, just click on the empty circle by that team, and the X will reappear. The "Include" dialogue box allows you to include or exclude certain players according to their roster status. There are four status classifications (ACTIVE, MINOR, DL15, and DL60). In the EDIT portion of the software, you can assign players to one of these four classifications. Here, you can decide which classes of players are eligible to be drafted onto fantasy teams. For example, you can exclude Minor League players by deselecting MINOR. Player Lists You may create and use up to five lists that can be called up for reference during the draft. (Later in the manual is described how to put players on these lists; at this point in SETUP you are simply naming the lists to give each list a descriptive title or label that can be recalled during the draft.) The preset names are simply User List 1, User List 2, etc. You may name the lists by clicking on the dialogue box and providing up to 12 characters for each list's name, such as "My Favorites". THIS STEP IS FOR WEB USERS ONLY: You will now see a Web Database Screen. You must select a web database then click on . You now will see a Personal Identification Number Screen (PIN) Screen. You must enter the information requested (the 5 digit zip code where you live and your 6 digit PIN number), then click on . Once you leave this screen, set-up is complete. The program will start loading, and you will see: * Players Loading * Player Valuation (based on your league configuration) Now you're ready to go! A note to non Web Users: If you install the software in a directory with an existing player.wdb file, the program will read that file during installation and not the new one provided on the installation diskette. You will have to use the Update Database command to read the new database. If you install the software in a directory without an existing player.wdb file, the software will prompt you for the database name as part of the setup process. After you have set up your league and returned to the main JOHN BENSON DRAFT SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS screen, you will want to review the players and stats displayed for your league, and become familiar with the types of information available to help you prepare for your draft. The EDIT function is the logical place to begin exploring and practicing. In the Edit mode, you will be able to perform a variety of useful tasks, instead of just reading pre-packaged information. EDITING THE PLAYER DATABASE The Draft Software offers a wide range of options for viewing, analyzing, sorting and editing the player database in preparation for your draft or auction. To change a player's name, team, age or stats, you may simply move the cursor to the appropriate field on the edit screen, and type in the correct information. Moving the cursor to the next line or column will leave the corrected information as you typed it. (Don't forget to save changes when you later exit the Edit mode.) You may also make these same types of changes by switching to the upper window edit box. In the upper window you may also change a player's Comment field (maximum 32 characters), and/or assign him to (or remove him from) any of the five user lists or any of the five Benson lists, by clicking on the List box, and adding or removing as needed. The Upper Window also shows games played by position from last year. Changing the number of games played will not affect his position eligibility. To change a player's position eligibility, you must add or delete a position while editing that player in the lower window of the edit screen or use the Change Position Eligibility option from the Setup menu item. Note: What do the # and * symbols mean? In the Display Available and the Edit Players screens, there may be a # or * symbol in front of a players name. These symbols are short hand abbreviations of a players status relative to the major league roster: The symbol # designates a status of On Disabled List. The symbol * designates a status of In the Minor Leagues. In many Rotisserie/fantasy leagues, these designations have important implications at the time of the draft. For example in standard leagues a player in the Minor Leagues (*) is not eligible to be drafted until the Ultra phase of the draft. In many leagues, Disabled List players (#) may be replaced immediately following the auction with replacements' accumulated statistics being credited retroactively. To begin editing players, click on the EDIT button or hold down the Alt key and hit E (Alt-E). Once you do that, the whole range of edit options will be offered. A brief description of each option and the short-cut key used to access it are listed below: Position (Alt-P) - View and edit players by position. Lists (Alt-L) - View and edit John Benson's player lists or create your own. Roster (Alt-O) - View and edit players by major league team. Depth (Alt-D) - View and edit players by major league team, sorted by position. Totals (Alt-T) - View and edit major league team totals. Search (Alt-E) - Scan database rapidly to find players of interest. Profile (Alt-F) - View and edit players according to dollar value groups Save (Alt-S) - Saves the edits made. We recommend saving often. Return (Alt-R) - Returns you to the main screen. Exits Edit mode. POSITION (ALT-P) From the Edit menu bar, the position button leads to a dialogue box where you may select from nine player groupings based on position eligibility. Click on the desired position selection. After selecting a position group to edit, the next screen shows a list of players eligible at the selected position, listed in alphabetical order. This screen is divided into two windows, upper and lower. The default setting for the upper window displays a single player's, Rotisserie/Fantasy team (if any), Optimal Bid % (see Optimal Bids in Rotisserie Baseball - Playing for Blood), his games played by position, whether he's on any Benson or User Defined List, and John Benson's for that player. While working in the Upper Window of Edit, the display may be changed to suit your individual needs. The lower window shows a listing of all players at the selected position. Move the cursor up and down in the Lower Window, to highlight a selected player on the list. The player selected is now shown in the upper window. To change what is displayed in the upper window click on the Display key or hit Alt-I. Display (Alt-I) This screen allows you to choose what will be displayed in the upper window. Choosing "show stats for all years" will display a player's stats and dollar values for the following time periods: projected, 3 year average, 2nd half , and each of the past 3 years. Choosing "show stats for recent years and Benson comment" will display a player's stats and dollar values (for the upcoming season, 3 year average, and last year), and the Benson comment. You may also choose to display one of the following in the upper window: The player lists (Benson and User), stat graphs, AB and IP graphs, or a user comment. Both the Benson and User comment may be displayed at the same time by selecting "yes" in the switch comment location selection. Compare (Alt-C) Clicking on this button compares the player in the upper window to all players in the following categories: uninflated value, at-bats, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, and batting average. Click on the Positions button or hit Alt-P to compare the selected players projected value to the projected value of others at his position. Sort (Alt-S) Players will be listed in alphabetical order at first presentation. You may then sort on any data item (Value, Age, HR, etc.) by pointing the cursor highlight at the chosen column and clicking on this button. Find Player (Alt-F) This button allows you to find a player by typing in his last name. Each letter you type takes you instantly down the alphabetical list to the player closest to what you have typed. This saves you the time of scrolling down the list of players to find the one you're looking for. Note: changing a player's stats does not automatically cause the program to recalculate his value. You must use the VALUE (Alt-V) option from the main menu to re-value players. By making the revaluation on demand rather than automatically, the program will not slow you down when you have several changes to make in one edit session. LISTS (ALT-L) Clicking on this button will allow you to view players in any custom list that you have created as well as the five BENSON lists. Point and click on the list you wish to review. The top window is the Player Detail and the lower window is the EDIT Projections window. ROSTER (ALT-T) Clicking on this button will allow you to select and review any major league team and to keep track of active, players as well as those you might own who have been disabled or sent to the minors. The entire roster (including Active, Disabled, and Minors players) is displayed for the selected major league team. The active roster is shown at the top of the screen. Disabled List players (as you may designate) are shown in the bottom left of the screen, and Minor League players (as you may designate) are shown in the bottom right. Changing roster status: You may move to any of these roster sections (Active, Disabled List, or Minors) by pointing to a player in that section and clicking on his name. When a player is highlighted, his status can be changed by clicking the desired status button at the top of the screen: Active (Alt-A), to DL-15 (Alt-1), to DL-60 (Alt-6), to Minors (Alt-M). To change the screen from hitters to pitchers for the selected major league team, click on the Pitchers (Alt-P) button. To move from pitchers to hitters, click on Hitters (Alt- H). DEPTH (ALT-D) This button will allow you to view each Major League teams depth by position. To select a position click on the appropriate button at the top of the screen or click on the title bar of the position in the lower window. Positions are based on Rotisserie eligibility, initially set by the 20-game standard rule, and may be adjusted by the user as appropriate. Hitters (Alt-H) Hitters are organized by position. The Draft Software determines position eligibility based upon Rotisserie rules of 20 games started at that position in the previous season. However, the default position eligibility can be overridden by changing the position field in the Edit Players screen. The program uses the following abbreviations: C Catcher OF Outfielder 1B First baseman UT Utility 2B Second baseman DH Designated Hitter 3B Third baseman CI Corner Infielder (1B or 3B) SS Shortstop MI Middle Infielder (2B or SS) Pitchers (Alt-P) The Draft Software divides the pitchers on a major league team into three categories(starters, closers and other pitchers) in the Team Depth screen. In the Draft Software, a starter is defined as a pitcher projected to pitch in at least 130 innings, and a closer is defined as a pitcher projects to save 10 or more games. All other pitchers are considered as other pitchers, those projected to pitch under 130 innings and projected for less than 10 saves. Pitchers may be reclassified as starters, closers, or other, by changing their forecast statistics to fit the ranges for these classifications as noted above. TOTALS (ALT-T) Clicking on this button shows you the projected stat totals for all the major league teams. Team totals are useful for identifying player projections that need to be adjusted, for example when a team aquires a new player. PROFILE (ALT-F) The Player Profile screen offers a variety of stratified analyses of the available player population, separated into value deciles ranked from most valuable to least valuable. The ranges to establish these deciles are determined by the software, to give you a meaningful grouping for each position in the draft pool. You can use the cursor or mouse in the lower window to select different bands to view in detail in the upper window. Profile provides four different views of the player population: player, position, category and years. Player Profile - Player The player profile view divides the player population into 10 equally spaced bands according to player value, one for hitters and the other for pitchers. This profile allows you to see the level of talent remaining in the draft pool. Player Profile - Position The position profile view divides the player population into positions. For each position, the Draft Software creates 10 equally spaced bands according to player values. This allows you to see which positions are richest in terms of value and which positions are the poorest. Player Profile - Category The category profile view shows the player populations projected performance in each category. For each category, the Draft Software creates 10 equally spaced bands according to their projected stat value for that category. This allows you to see the available talent in each category, and allows you to spot upcoming scarcities in certain categories quickly. For example, monitoring the Saves category can tell you how many pitchers are available who will have a noticeable impact on saves. You may view the display as a text or graph format. Because of the space required for this display, you must click on the right (horizontal scroll bar) arrow, at the bottom of the lower window to move to, and view the remaining categories. Player Profile - Years The Years display offers the ability to compare Benson forecasts (or your forecasts as edited) versus previous year's stats. These comparisons allow you to quickly see which players are predicted to go up in value the most or decline the most. The lower window divides the player population into bands created by subtracting the projected dollar value from the previous years dollar value. The lower window will display 3-year average, projected, and last year full and second half performance by player. SEARCH (ALT-S) You can use a search engine to copy players to a player list. The search engine operates on the same principles as Search in the Budget mode. You can also use Search to find players without having to place them on a player list. Using search in this mode, you can scan through the database rapidly to find players of interest. This is especially helpful in the Draft mode when you need to determine the quality of available players, quickly. SORTING When editing, sorts may be primary, secondary, tertiary, and so forth. The most recent sort field selected is the primary sort; so if you want two sort criteria, choose the secondary sort first, and then choose the primary sort. For example, if you want to sort by saves within each major league roster, first sort all pitchers by saves, and then sort all pitchers by team; the result will be a list of each team's pitchers, ranked by saves within each team. You may select any field with your cursor (Name, Value, Age, AB, HR, etc.) and click on the Sort button to get the players sorted by that field. For example: if you are viewing Minnesota Twins hitters, and you click on the Value column (any line) and click on the Sort button, the program will sort all Minnesota Twins hitters from highest to lowest according to calculated value. PLAYER POPULATION: ADDING AND DELETING PLAYERS From either the Team or Player edit screens, you may add or delete players. Use the INS (insert) key to create a blank line where you may enter a new player with the Name, Team, Age, Value and stats that you wish to show for him. Use the DEL (delete) key to remove any player: highlight the player you wish to delete, press the Delete key, and verify your intention by choosing Yes from the Yes/No dialogue box that follows your delete command (to choose No, click NO). ADDING PLAYERS TO USER LISTS Players can be added to the five User Lists in the Edit Player Screens. The Edit Player Screen is divided into two windows. The lower window displays the stats for a group of players at the chosen position. The upper window shows the player detail for the currently highlighted player. To add players to the User Lists, from the EDIT menu select Position. Click on the positions you want to add, then click OK. The position players list will be displayed in the lower window. The upper window will hold the player detail display. NOTES ON EDITING Use the PgUp and PgDn keys if you want to scroll through names when editing. Changing stats will not change player values, until you exit the edit mode and select the Value function. Changing a player's at-bats or innings pitched will NOT change other stats pro-rata. Real life baseball doesn't work pro-rata. For example, when a platoon player (e.g. someone who hits .280 against right-handed pitching and .210 against left-handed pitching) gets moved into a full-time everyday role facing lefties as well as righties, he doesn't suddenly become capable of hitting lefty pitchers. His per-at-bat productivity will drop. For that reason, forecasts must be done separately for each category. Also note that changes in the batting order can affect stats with no change in at-bats. Moving a player up will increase his runs and stolen bases; moving him down will usually increase homers and RBI; again the point is to consider each category separately. When adding players to the database, type the player's first name and then his last name, with a space separating them. The program will automatically look for the first space in the string of characters you enter, and start the last name with first letter appearing after that space. For that reason, you may not use spaces within a player's name, other than to separate first name and last name. If you include a middle initial, it must be affixed to the first name with no space. For example, if you insert a new player, John C Benson, the program will make the last name C and create a player named John C. Any characters typed after the second space in the player's name (such as the word Benson in this case) will be deleted, because the program recognizes only one space within each player name. Thus, to enter John C Benson as a player (if you want to differentiate him from another player named John Benson) then you should type Johnc Benson. If you add players without specifying a team name, or if you enter a team name that doesn't fit the abbreviations used in this program (as displayed in the Edit team screen), that player will be assigned a team code of FA for free agent. Other than the correct major league team abbreviations and the FA designation, the only team code recognized by the program is the code JAP for players with contracts in Japan. While typing in any cell, you may abort changes by hitting Esc (escape) before hitting Enter and before moving to another cell. If you have entered incorrect data and moved to another cell, you will need to go back and re-type the correct information. If you have made several mistakes, or if you are simply not sure about changes made in the player database, you may avoid saving the incorrect information by exiting the program and choosing "no" when given the option to save players before exiting. Note however, if you choose no save when exiting, all the changes made in that session (since your last save) will be discarded, not just the incorrect changes. For that reason it is recommended that, when you have many changes to make, you should go back to the initial Edit menu frequently, and choose Save (Alt-S); this method will also prevent loss of entered data due to accidental electric power outage and similar problems that affect all computer applications. At any time while editing, you may view your projected major league team totals to check for reasonableness of your forecast stats in total. We recommend checking major league team totals before going to your actual draft or auction, to make sure you have neither duplicated nor omitted huge amounts of major league playing time in your forecasts. THE DRAFT PROGRAM Access the Draft Module by clicking on the "DRAFT" button in the main menu. Within the Draft Module, there are nine functions that may be selected, plus a "RETURN" option. The functional choices and the shortcut keys to access them are: Standing (Alt-S) - Uses the forecast stats of the players drafted to forecast league standings. Needs (Alt-E) - shows what positions each team still needs to fill on their roster. Roster (Alt-O) - shows which players are on a specific teams roster and what position they occupy. Trade (Alt-T) - Allows you to trade players between teams during the draft. Impact (Alt-I) - Shows the impact on the standings of adding a particular player to a roster. Profile (Alt-P) - Breaks the player population into value deciles. Budget (Alt-B) - Allows maintenance of budget for any team in fantasy league. Avail (Alt-V) - Lists the available player population and their forecast stats. Add Player (Alt-A) - Enables player selection and roster placement. Return (Alt-R) - Returns you to the Main menu. STANDING (ALT-S) One of the key features of the draft software is that it shows projected league standings (in each category and in total) using the stats projections in the player database provided or as edited by the user. Standings are based on the forecast stats of players which have been selected and placed on rosters. Standings can be displayed in two ways. The default is to show standings based upon the players which have been assigned to fantasy teams. Displaying the standings in this manner has the most value in the later stages in the draft, since in the beginning each new player has a major impact on the standings. The second display method is to add an "average" player to the unfilled roster slots of each team. This will cause teams who are able to draft better than average players to move up in the standings. In either case, the standings analysis must be viewed in combination with other information available from the draft program, such as "Needs" or "Impact". It takes practice and skill to "read" the standings during the draft and use the information to make wise player selections. If your league is a standard Rotisserie league with eight stat categories, one screen in the draft software will present the standings in all eight categories and in total. If you play in a nonstandard league with more than eight categories, the screen will scroll to the right to show more categories. At the top of the League Standings screen is a breakdown of money spent on hitters and pitchers, and the number of each, and the calculated inflation rate for the auction at that moment. Inflation, appearing in the top right corner, is updated continuously, after each individual player acquisition --although you won't see the percentage change unless there is a move of one whole percentage point (or until a rounding effect pushes the percentage up or down). If your league has so many teams that they cannot all be listed on one standings screen, click, and drag the scroll button (the square which moves between the Up DOWN arrows on the right of the screen Up and Dn keys to view more teams. Note that only Active Roster players count in the determination of standings. Reserve roster players and Ultra players are not added into the stats and standings unless their status is changed to active. NEEDS (ALT-E) - KEEPING TRACK OF PLAYERS TAKEN AND MONEY SPENT The "Needs" screen is probably the most important analytical tool to use in planning your acquisitions during the draft. It should be used in combination with the "Standings" screen to give the user a full picture of what's happening as the draft progresses. The top part of the Needs screen is a summary of salaries spent by each team, matched with value obtained by each team, producing a "profit" or +/- net of Value minus Salary. The team with the biggest "surplus" is theoretically in the best position at that point in the auction. Scanning this top part of the Needs screen will keep you informed about which team is actually "winning" during a draft or auction, especially considering that the "Standings" screen will tend to show high standings for those teams that have acquired the most players at any point. The top of the "Needs" screen also accounts for the quality of player acquisitions, not just the quantity. The $Left and $Max information, in combination with the listing of position openings for each team, can yield some of the strongest tactical moves during the course of an auction. For example, if you notice that the only teams with an eligible pitcher vacancy all have maximum bids of $4 or less, then you know you can buy any available pitcher by being the first to bid $4 on him. The other owners who are able to bid $5 or more will find that they do not have any vacant roster slots for another pitcher, and the teams that have vacant pitcher slots will all find that they cannot bid over $4. More subtle coup opportunities can be developed by studying topper rights (if applicable in your league) and noting which teams don't have enough money to exercise their toppers on specific players. Just as in the game of chess where one move leads to another, the "Standings" screen with its analysis of Team Player Needs can help you see two or more moves into the future. For example, if you were hoping to execute a move like the "buy any pitcher for $4" example just cited, and you see that one opponent still has the ability to bid more than $4 for a pitcher, you may decide to wait on bringing up that pitcher for bid, and to proceed first to bring up a different type of player, the type most needed by that one opponent who has enough to stop your squeeze on the pitcher. ROSTER (ALT-R) - ANALYSIS AND CHANGES The "Roster" selection allows you to view any team in detail. After clicking on the "Roster" button, select the team you wish to view. From the main "Roster" screen, you can see the players taken and positions filled on the selected roster, and you can see the positions vacant. In the upper portion of each Roster screen, you can also see that team's total stats, money spent and remaining, salaries and values acquired, maximum bid, and average amount left to spend on each remaining vacancy. The main Roster screen also shows alternate eligible positions for each player, to help you plan or anticipate roster moves during the draft. You may view the salaries for each player on the roster or position information or contract type. MOVING PLAYERS When viewing a roster (or when buying a player), positions may be changed by moving players from one position to another. To move a player, click on the "move player" button. Then click on the position you wish to place him. The placement at the new position works the same as when buying a player. PROMOTING/DEMOTING PLAYERS BETWEEN ACTIVE, RESERVE, AND ULTRA After selecting 'Roster" and designating a team for roster analysis, you may make changes in roster status by clicking on the "Change Screen" button and selecting full roster. If your league uses a Reserve List or an Ultra List, you will see a screen that lists Active players, Reserve, and Ultra in separate areas of the screen. To move a player from Active Roster to Reserve Roster, select that player and click on the "To Reserve" button. To move the player onto the Ultra Roster click on "To Ultra". To activate a player from the Reserve or Ultra Roster, select the name of the player to activate, click on the "Activate" button, which leads to the Active Roster screen where you choose a position for the activated player. REMOVING PLAYERS When viewing any roster, you may remove a player (and return his salary to the available money allowance) by highlighting the player's name and clicking on the "Remove Player" button. TOPPER RIGHTS If your league uses topper rights (a topper is an option granted to the owner of a player in the previous year to bid $1 higher than the final bid and take that player during the auction), you may enter the topper player names on the relevant rosters before the auction. Select the Roster option. Next choose a team to add Toppers to. Click on the "Change Screen" button and select Toppers. The screen will display all players on which the selected team has topper rights. To add a new player to the toppers list for this team, click on the "Add Topper" button, and identify the player exactly as you would if you were nominating or buying that player. The salary is the price at which the team has the option to freeze the player. Even if you do not use toppers in your league, this information about which owners had which players at what prices can be useful during an auction. For example, if an owner had an opportunity to freeze a player at $10 and chose to return the player to the pool, it is unlikely that last year's owner will bid more than $10 when that player comes up for bid in this year's auction. Entering toppers will also help you predict and evaluate freeze lists. If you have entered every teams toppers (to study before the freeze lists are announced) you do not have to "buy" every frozen player just to get them onto the rosters as frozen. When viewing the toppers list for each team, just point to the player, click on the "Freeze Toppers" button, and the player will be placed on that team's roster, at the freeze option price that was specified. TRADE (ALT-T) This feature allows you to trade players between teams during the draft. The Trade Analysis Screen allows you to perform "what-if" studies on trading players between fantasy teams. The screen is divided into 2 parts. The top part shows the players being traded from the first team, and the relative impact of the trade from that team's perspective. The bottom part shows similar information for the second team involved in the trade. To add players to a trade, select position line (Hitter or Pitcher) for the player's current team and then click on the Add Player button on the Toolbar. To remove a player from the trade, select the player and then click on the Remove Player button on the Toolbar. You may leave the Trade Analysis screen at any time and return with the current trade intact. The only exceptions are if any of the players involved in the trade are no longer on their original teams, or if you leave Draft Mode. When you Execute the trade, the Draft Software will cycle through the players in the trade and ask you to place them on a position. If you abort the trade while the Draft Software is going through the players, all of the players will return to their original teams. IMPACT (ALT-I) Clicking the Impact button offers a number of "what if" variations to analyze before nominating or bidding on players. After you activate the Impacts screen. You may choose either "Fantasy Team" impact, or "Impact $ Valuation," and the user may specify any team in the fantasy league, and may choose any player position or all hitters. The Fantasy Team impact function will add every available player (among those at the selected position) and observe the standings impact of adding each player, one at a time, and recalculating the standings. The players will then be listed in descending order, with the player who has the most impact appearing at the top of the list. When choosing the Fantasy Team impact type, it is necessary to designate which team will be analyzed; click the Impact Team box, and click on the team you wish to review. When the team and position are exactly as desired, click OK. The other type of impact analysis is the "Impact $ Value" calculation, which can be selected from the Impact screen (after clicking IMPACT in the Draft menu). The Impact $ Value calculation adds every player to every team, observes the impact on standings, and recalculates all dollar values by matching all potential impacts with all remaining money in the auction. This valuation is extremely context-specific and can change dramatically during the auction. It is most useful during the final stages of an auction, when tiny amounts of talent and money can produce disproportionate impacts. The Impact $ Value is calculated in the same way as other Benson values; it is a basic scarcity model. In this case, the item of scarcity is Standings Points, not baseball statistics. It is important to recognize that Impact $ Values are not recommended bids. A player may be worth a great deal of money based on the context at a specific moment during an auction; but then over the course of an actual baseball season, that context may change, and the player's value may change as the stats and standings unfold. The best use of the Impact $ Value is to make discernments and to choose the best players from among various alternatives. When two players have approximately the same calculated Benson value but widely different Impact $ Values, the one with the higher impact $ is very likely the better player for that auction at that moment. The Impact $ Values can, and should, be used in combination with the Fantasy Team impact analysis and Benson values as inflated at that point in time. PROFILE (ALT-P) The Player Profile screen functions the same as the Player Profile screen in Edit Mode. The only difference is that in Draft Mode, the Profile is only done on the players that are still available to be drafted. BUDGET (ALT - B) The Draft Software allows you to maintain individual budgets for each team in your fantasy league. Budgets enable you to allocate money for and to determine the type of player(s) a fantasy team must obtain in order to do well. For more information on Budgeting, see John Benson's essay, "Auction Budgeting" located in the Appendix of this manual BUDGET SCREEN The Budget screen shows the budget status for a single fantasy team. The Budget screen toolbar contains the following buttons: Display, Change Goals, Change Team, Change Role, Change Players, Move Players. Below the toolbar, the Budget screen is divided into two parts . The upper portion shows information on the fantasy team. Due to space limitations, you can only display three of the items at one time. To choose which items you wish to see, click on the Display button in the toolbar and select from the following topics: Current Team Stats - shows cumulative stats for players already assigned to a fantasy team. Budget Goals - shows the levels you want to achieve in each of the selected fantasy stat categories. You can set Budget Goals by clicking on the Change Goals button in the Budget screen toolbar. Team Stats with Budget Players Included - shows what cumulative stats would be IF the fantasy team was able to obtain all of the players identified in its budget. Team Stats with Both Current and Budget Totals -shows ON A SINGLE LINE information contained in Current Team Stats and Team Stats with Budget Players Included depending on which position is selected. Team Money Situation - shows how much money is available to the fantasy team and how much money would be left if the fantasy team obtained all the players in its budget. Selected Player's Stats - shows the stats for the player in the currently selected position slot. The bottom portion of the Budget screen shows the fantasy team's budget. Each position slot is listed along with the current salary assigned to Draft Software not maintain a budget for RESERVE or ULTRA players. Each position slot can be one of 3 types: empty, assigned to an already owned player, or assigned to a budget role. You can move an owned player to another position slot by using the Move Players button. You can create a budget role or assign a different budget role to a position slot by using the Change Role button. You can add or remove players to a budget role by using the Change Players button. You can switch between the various players assigned to a budget role by clicking on the List Box for the position slot and scrolling down to the desired player. The List Box only shows those players assigned to the budget role that are ELIGIBLE for the position. Thus, a budget role may have 10 players assigned to it, of which 5 are firstbasemen and 10 are outfielders. When the budget role is attached to the 1B position slot, the List Box will only show the 5 players eligible for firstbase. Likewise, when the budget role is attached to the OF position, the List Box will only show the 10 outfielders. Finally, only when the budget role is attached to the DH/UT slot, will the List Box show all 15 players. Players eligible for multiple positions would show up in List Boxes in each of the eligible position that have the budget role attached. The List Box will only show those players that are currently available in the player pool. The List Box will not show any players that are already assigned to fantasy teams. The List Box will also show 2 other items in addition to the players attached to the budget role: NONE and AVG PLAYER. NONE is used to leave the position slot empty but still have a budget role attached to it. It allows you to quickly see the difference a single player makes to the fantasy team's cumulative budget stats. AVG PLAYER shows the average stats for all of the players in the budget role eligible for the position. It is only available if there are 2 or more players in the budget role eligible for the position. AVG PLAYER is useful when there is no clear favorite player for the position slot or if there are several players with comparable stats and it does not matter which one is chosen. The stats for all of the eligible players are added together and then averaged. The Average Stats can be seen if the position role is selected and Selected Player's Stats is chosen to be one of the items listed in the upper display. If AVG PLAYER is selected for a position slot, then the Average Stats will be added to the Budget Totals for that team. During the course of the Auction, if a player that has been identified as the Selected Player for a position slot is bought by another team, the position slot will revert to AVG PLAYER if there are 2 or more eligible players left in the budget role. If there is only 1 eligible player left, he will be assigned as the selected player for the position slot. If there are no eligible players left, the position slot will have no players selected for it. BUDGET GOALS You can set budget goals for each of the stat categories used by the fantasy league. Each league can only have 1 set of budget goals. Thus, if you have setup budgets for several teams in the fantasy league, they all must share the same budget goals. The budget goals are for information purposes only. The Draft Software will not used them to calculate values nor will the Draft Software tell you which players are needed in order to meet the budget goals. You can use the budget goals as a benchmark to compare a fantasy team's expected stats to what is needed to win the league. BUDGET ROLES A budget role is different from a position slot. A position slot is used to uniquely identify each slot in a fantasy team's roster. For example, if a fantasy league requires 2 catchers, the 2 catcher slots will be identified in the budget as C-1 and C-2. A budget role is used to collect a list of players. A budget role may be assigned to multiple position slots. Typical budget roles are POWER, SPEED, ACE. For example, you can define a POWER role to contain a list of power hitters you are interested in acquiring. You can then assign the POWER budget role to position slots 1B-1 and OF-2. This would allow you to use a common list of POWER hitters for both positions. To create a budget role, you can use the Change Role button in the main Budget Screen ASSIGNING OWNED PLAYERS TO BUDGET POSITION SLOT When you Add Players to fantasy rosters, the Draft Software gives you the option of assigning the newly acquired player to a position slot. If you disable the option, the Draft Software automatically assign owned players to the budget.. If you want to change the assignment later, you can use the Move Players button to rearrange the owned players. If you have the Draft Software automatically assign players, it will only assign owned players to a position slot for which he is listed in the main fantasy roster. If there is only 1 slot for that position, the owned player will go in that slot. If there are multiply slots (e.g. 5 outfield slots or 9 pitching slots), the Draft Software will assign players in the following order: 1. It looks to see if the owned player is the Selected Player for any of the positions. 2. It looks to see if the owned player is in the list of players in a budget role assigned to any of the slots for that position 3. It looks for a position slot that has no budget role assigned to it 4. It looks for a position slot that is not already assigned to another owned player. CHANGING A BUDGET ROLE The Draft Software can support a maximum of 20 pitching budget roles and 30 hitting budget roles. To create a budget role, you can click on the Change Role button in the main Budget Screen. Click on the Rename Role button and give a role a name (maximum of 6 characters). You can give a budget role the same name as another budget role, but you would then have to keep track of which budget role was what. To delete a budget a budget role, use the Delete Role button. This option will remove all players that were previously assigned to the budget role. If you wish to retain the list of players, you can simply select one of the "NONE" budget roles instead. If you wish to change budget roles, just scroll down the available budget roles and select the one you wish to use. Multiple position slots can share the same budget role. The Budget Role Display will show the number of players assigned to the budget role, and list the average characteristics for those players. ADDING PLAYERS TO A BUDGET To Add Players to a Budget, you must first define a budget role for a position slot. Once a budget role is defined, you can then add players to the budget role by clicking on the Change Players button in the main Budget Screen, or on the Add/Remove Players button in the Change Role dialog. This will bring up the Search Players screen which provides you with a variety of ways to add players. SEARCHING FOR BUDGET PLAYERS The Budget Add/Remove Players screen allows you to quickly add or remove players from a budget role. You can use the search engine to identify players that meet a certain criteria, or you can add individual players by name, or you can copy them from a player list. The Search Engine will search the entire list of available players and display only those players that meet your criteria. The upper part of the Search Display lists the categories you can use to search. You can click on the Search Criteria button to add or remove categories. You can include a maximum of 10 categories in the search. The Search Criteria is broken down into a max and a min range. If you leave the max or min value blank, then the search will conduct a partial search. For example, if you set the max ERA to be 3.50 and leave the min ERA blank, Search will only find those pitchers with an era of 3.50 or lower. Likewise, if you set the min Wins to 10, and leave the max Wins blank, Search will only find those pitchers with 10 or more wins. If you use both min and max, Search will conduct a range search. For example, if you set min Saves to 10 and max Saves to 20, Search will only find those pitchers with between 10 and 20 saves. If you leave both min and max blank, Search will ignore the category. For hitters, you can narrow the search by limiting it to certain positions. By default, search will find all hitters that meet the search criteria. If you want to limit the search to a specific position, click on the desired position in the position list. Once you have conducted the search, you can use either the Add Selected button to individually add players, or you can use the Add All button to add all of the players that Search found. When you use the Add by Name button, the Draft Software will prompt you for the name of the player to add. When you use the Copy from List button, the Draft Software will ask you which of the 5 user lists or which of the 5 Benson list you wish to copy players from. You have the choice of a selective copy, where you can individually add players, or you can copy all of the players into the budget role. You can also copy all of the budget players to a player list. Only a full copy is allowed, you cannot individually copy players from the budget role to a player list. MOVING PLAYERS WITHIN A BUDGET You can change the position slot of an owned player by using the Move Players button in the main Budget Screen. To perform the move, select player and then move to a different position slot and double click the mouse or hit the Enter key. If another player is occupying the new position slot, the Draft Software will do a swap. The Draft Software will check for position eligibility, and will prompt you for confirmation if you attempt to move a player to an ineligible position. AVAILABLE (ALT-V) - PLAYERS BY POSITION, BY LIST To study the pool of available players at any time from the Draft menu, click the "Available" button. You may then select any position, the same as in the Edit by Position mode. Note: Designated Hitter means only those qualified at DH under the 20- game rule. To see the pool of all available hitters, choose All Hitters from the position listing. In addition to viewing available players grouped by position, you may also view players grouped by any established list (e.g. Age 26 with Experience, or any User List). To view available players on a specific list, choose LIST from the position menu. While viewing available players, the sort key works the same (any category) as in the Edit and Roster modes described above. ADD PLAYER (ALT - A) The fundamental function of the Draft Program is to add specific players to particular teams (Regular draft) at known prices (Auction draft). To select players in both Regular and Auction drafts, use the Add Player button. Clicking on the Add Player button will produce the Select Player screen, with a cursor blinking in the Select Player name field. You are prompted to type in all or part of the player's name. Begin with the first few letters of the last name. Spelling is important but not critical. For example, if you type in "JONES" you will be shown a screen listing all players with the last name Jones; move your cursor to the correct Jones, and press Enter when the player you wish to select is highlighted. If you had typed in "Jonees" by mistake, the program would produce a list of players with names spelled similar to "Jonees," in this case you would have gotten the same list of players with last name Jones. If you had typed in just JO in the Player Name box, you would have gotten a list of all players whose last names begin with Jo. To view more player names on the player list, click on the down arrow, and to move back toward the top of the list, click on the UP arrow. To move rapidly within the list of player names that appears after you type in a name to nominate and press Enter, you may scroll through the list using the Up and Down keys. If you do not see the name you want, you may leave the list of names by clicking Cancel. The software will display only those players who are eligible to be drafted. If you did not include minor league players in the draft pool during setup, they will not appear in the player population displayed during the Nominate process. Ultra competitors should remember to INCLUDE minor leaguers in the draft pool. If you are sure that you want to add a player who is not listed in the player database, you may place his name in the database by using the New Player option in the Nominate screen. You may click or Tab from the names list to the New Player box, and press Enter. The name that you had originally typed in the Player Name box in the Nominate Player screen will appear, which in this example would be the name "Jonees" if you wish to create a new player with that name. In the Create New Player dialogue box, you are now asked to type in the first name of the player whose last name is Jonees. Enter the information and team, then click OK. The final step in creating a new player now occurs as a second Create New Player screen appears enabling the you to enter the new player's statistics. It is unlikely that you will need to create a new player with the Add Player function. But it is good to be aware of this capability so that in a time crunch you needn't exit the Draft mode. Clicking on the Display Player Detail button will bring up the Impact of Player screen. It is split. The upper screen (Nominated Player) provides player data including forecast stats and calculated value, comments, and List specifications, the same as in the Edit function. The lower screen shows the Impact of the Nominated Player on each team's place in the standings, if the nominated player were added to the total stats for each team. When you select Budget Roster Info from the Choose Team to Add Player dialog, the Draft Software will present a screen divided into two parts. The top part of the screen shows the Budget Goals, Current Fantasy Team Stats, Fantasy Team Stats with Budget Players, and the current money situation for your team. On the bottom of the screen, the Draft Software lists the available budget position slots for your fantasy team, those budget roles assigned to them, and the best player at each role. If the player currently up for bid is listed in one of the budget roles for your fantasy team, the Draft Software will enable the Budget Player Info button on the Choose Team to Add Player dialog. The Budget Player Info screen is divided into two parts. The top part of the screen shows the Budget Goals, Current Fantasy team stats, the Fantasy Team stats with Budget Players and the current money situation for your fantasy team. On the bottom of the screen, the Draft Software lists the best players in the budget role remaining the available player pool. This gives you an indication of the talent remaining and helps you to determine whether you should bid on the currently nominated player. The Add Player to Team button will jump to that team's Roster screen. If the player is a hitter, the program will ask the user to specify the player's position by pointing with the mouse and pressing Enter when the correct position is highlighted. The player will be placed at the position indicated. (If the player database indicates that the player did not appear in 20 games at the desired position, then the software asks the user to verify that the "New Position" is correct. Based on the user's instructions, any player may be placed at any position, as ordered.) If it's an auction draft, then the Draft Software will next present a Salary dialog. In the Salary box, the blinking cursor prompts for the correct salary. After typing in the salary, press Enter to place that player at that salary onto the selected team's roster. After the Add Player function has been completed, the next screen display will be the latest league standings. The overall league totals for spending and inflation also will be updated and displayed. Note: The Add Player function will enforce league rules for roster size and salary limits, not allowing purchases in excess of spending limits or acquisitions in excess of roster size.. Some flexibility is allowed in changing position eligibilities for hitters, as described above. You can move a previously acquired player to another eligible position to make room for the new player. To place a player on a Reserve List or Ultra List, simply click on the Reserve button or Ultra button on the toolbar when you reach the Buy Player screen with the buying team's roster displayed. PLAYER VALUATION The player valuation module can be executed at any time, from the Main menu, by clicking on the "Value" button. The valuation program assigns values to all players based on their projected stats, as edited by you. The "Benson" method is a simple allocation of all money to all players, based on the relative scarcity of all statistics in the pool of eligible players. The method is explained in its entirety, with examples showing a complete hitter population and a complete pitcher population, in the book Rotisserie Baseball Playing for Fun (available from Diamond Library by calling 800-707-9090) NOTES ON PLAYER VALUATION METHODS All valuation methods must conform to certain boundaries. For example: ? The total amount of player value, and the total number of players having value, must be consistent with the league's rosters and salary allowances. For example, if your league has ten teams with 23 players per team and $260 per team as a salary allowance, then: (1) there must be 230 players with a value of $1 or more, and (2) the total value of all players worth $1 or more must be $2600. ? The last hitter and the last pitcher must be worth $1. In the above example, if each team had 14 hitters and nine pitchers, the 140th hitter must be worth $1, and the 90th pitcher must be worth $1. Nobody is going to bid $2 or more on the last player when there is no one bidding against them. It is an economic fact that the last hitter and the last pitcher must sell for $1 each unless the bidder is irrational or uninformed. Similarly, if there are (for example) 200 hitters with a value of $1 or more, in a league that takes only 140 hitters, then 60 of those "valuable" hitters actually cannot have any value, because no one will ever bid on them (unless the bidder is irrational or uninformed). ? The valuation must recognize all statistical categories used in standings calculations. Within these basic constraints, there are many rational methods for valuation founded on the actual stats used for score keeping. Any method that assigns an equal amount of value to each stat category will yield realistic answers similar to the "Benson method." Some other rational methods have been based on regression analyses relating raw baseball statistics to league standings points. Others work by adding every player to an "average" roster and noting the player's impact, then assigning dollar values pro-rata based on the observable impacts. That method is in fact how the Impact $ calculation (see below) works during your draft or auction. When you ask the Draft Software to re-value players, the program goes through the following steps: (a) Add up the "hard" stats (SB, HR, W, SV, etc) for ALL players on the rosters of the major league teams you chose. This includes players designated as being in the minor leagues, as the stats attached to them assume that they will eventually be called up during the season and thus they will affect the scarcity of the hard stats of other players. (b) Determine the MEDIAN batting average, earned run average, and pitching ratio for the entire pool of players considered in (a) above. The median batting average is not intended to represent the "average" hitter; rather it is intended to represent the approximate batting average of the lowest-standing team in the batting average category. When a hitter lifts his team above the lowest-standing team in the batting average category, he helps his team score points in batting average. Note that a team composed entirely of "average" hitting in the BA category would score in the middle of that category (e.g. 6 points in a 12- team league), not zero. A hitter with an "average" BA is not worthless, but actually helps lift his team to the middle of the pack and helps his team score points by so doing. The median batting average in the entire player pool, including hitters who never get drafted, is lower than the average BA of the fantasy league, because players with higher batting average are more likely to get drafted, and because players with higher batting average tend to get more at bats. Within the player pool as a whole, the median batting average is always lower than the average or mean BA, because worse hitters tend to get fewer at bats. [These same considerations apply to ERA, baserunners per inning ratio, on base percentage, and slugging percentage in the same way.] (c) Hits, Earned Runs, and (BB+Hits) scarcity are then calculated and a preliminary value is calculated. (d) At this point, the program determines the "draft" pool. Here, if you told the program that minor league players are not eligible to be drafted, it takes them out of the pool and assigns a value of N/A to them. Same thing is done if players on DL are also not eligible. (e) The remaining players are then sorted by the preliminary value and the top 168 hitters and top 108 pitchers (for a 12 team league with 14 hitters and 9 pitchers for each team) are identified and the $3120 distributed among them. The allocation of money among hitters and pitchers is determined by the number specified in the Salary Limits Option in the Setup screen. (f) The values for the leftover players are calculated using the same factors used in (e) for the top players. One consideration is position scarcity. If your league uses two catchers per team and you have 12 teams, then 24 catchers must sell for $1 or more. The draft Software can create player values either with or without taking into account position scarcity. If position scarcity is used, the Draft Software will move money from rich positions (such as OF) to poor positions (such as C) to ensure that the last player at each position is worth at least $1. You may, if you wish, assign any value to any player by simply typing the value into the value cell when editing, and save the player database with that value typed in (that's something you might want to do in the case of catchers as in the above example). Note however that whenever you choose the Value function the program will over-write your typed value and insert the calculated Benson-method value in its place; so if you want to preserve manually entered values, don't run the Value function again afterward. One more consideration worth mentioning here is that players can have a negative value, for two reasons. One reason is that a player (especially a pitcher) can perform so badly that he actually drops his team in the standings. Consider the case of Jim Abbott in 1996. If you added Abbott's stats to any Rotisserie roster at the end of the 1996 season, that team would lose points in ERA and baserunners per inning ratio, while gaining little or nothing in the other categories; and if you subtracted Abbot's stats from any team that owned him in 1996, that team would rise in the standings as a result of his removal. Abbott had obvious negative value. A less obvious case of negative value occurs when a player doesn't contribute enough to justify his place on a team's roster. If you draft the 250th best hitter in a league that uses 140 hitters, that player will have negative value. The problem is that the player is taking up a roster space that could be occupied (and would be occupied) by a better hitter, at least as good as the 140th best hitter. In a standard Rotisserie league, the "opportunity cost" of putting a worthless player into a roster slot is about $3. Therefore, a player who never plays (or say, one at bat or one inning pitched for the whole year) would have a value of about $- 3. In leagues that take only the best players from the major league population (for example a mixed league that takes 140 hitters from the AL and NL combined) the value of a roster spot can be much higher (even as much as $10 or more). In some valuations, you will therefore see players with large negative values. The implication is simple: that player is worse than other players who are available and could be selected. Just because this valuation gets done quickly doesn't mean that there are any short cuts or quick fixes being used. The values are precisely the same, and developed in exactly the same manner, as those that would be determined by John Benson if he worked up values for your league from scratch, after studying your league rules and developing appropriate formulas to fit your specific league player population. Reserve player stats are included in valuation calculations. For example, if your roster size specifies 23 active and 7 reserve players per team, with 10 teams in the league, the program will provide 300 players worth $1 or more. The program assigns value using the assumption that reserve players will be half hitters and half pitchers. If you wish to exclude reserve players in valuations, for example during pre-draft study sessions, you may temporarily enter zero as the Reserve List number in the League Setup - Number at Position screen, and run through the valuation process, and then reset the Number at Position screen before the actual draft/auction. (Do not attempt to change the Number at Position choices during a live auction.) Reserve means that a player's salary counts against the team salary cap, and the player can be switched between reserve and active slots during the draft. The stats of reserve players do not count in the standings as displayed during the draft. Ultra means the player has no salary (i.e. draft type). HP is used for leagues that have slots that can either be for hitters or pitchers. The "Value" button commands a revaluation of the player population, as if you had returned to the setup dialogue and selected "yes" at the re-value screen. In this case it leads to a dialogue box where you may choose to do separate revaluations for projected stats, last year actual stats, and three-year actual average stats. This option allows you to save time by skipping the revaluation of last year and three-year stats, if you have simply edited the forecasts. The valuation dialogue also gives you the option to include or exclude free agents. In general, when doing early analyses long before Opening Day, including free agents will be useful so you can see what they will be worth IF they sign with a major league team. The closer you get to Opening Day, the less advisable it will be to include free agents. If you compete in a standard Rotisserie league with draft day after Opening Day, you will probably want to exclude free agents from your valuation to avoid having a player pool with ineligible players. If you do include free agents for your actual draft or auction, be sure to note that free agent values will depend on the player later becoming eligible in your league. PRINTING LISTS AND REPORTS Printing options allow the creation of paper or text file lists of almost any information contained in the player database. Print options are available only in the Main menu. After clicking on the "Print" button, the first choice is Destination, meaning a file (on the disk from which the program is running and in the current directory) or a printer. If you choose to print to a file, the program asks for a file name. You may choose any standard DOS name (8 characters + 3 character suffix). For printing to a file, the software also asks for a choice of Tab or Space Delimited file output. If you choose to print to a printer, the draft software will use the printer which you have chosen in setup to print your Windows applications. The program will support any Windows-driven printer now installed. If you choose PRINT PREVIEW, you will see the report appear on screen as it will look on paper. You may choose a font size of 6-8-10 (the default) 12 or 14 point by clicking on the circle next to the size you wish. Whether printing to file or printer, you may choose from a variety of subject matter in the Print "Report Type" dialogue box: - Printing Fantasy Team rosters is a useful function for a league commissioner or auctioneer. The Fantasy League option prints rosters for all teams. Printing Player is useful function for those who will not be using their computer during the draft. Printing Major League Team(s) will provide lists that can be conveniently matched against other media for review Printing Major League Depth Charts allows for study and analyses of the player population. Printing Projected Standings will provide the league's projected ranking based on John Benson's forecast. Printing Team Needs will show a team's present needs. The Print functions offer a wide variety of methods for selecting and sorting players to be printed. The only way to learn the capability is to explore it extensively while preparing for the draft. DRAFT SOFTWARE FILES FILES USED BY DRAFT SOFTWARE WINDRAFT.EXE Windows Draft Software Program WINDRAFT.HLP Windows Draft Software Help PLAYER.WDB Windows Player Database PLAYER.WBK Windows Player Database backup file BENSON.WIN Windows Draft Software configuration file contains location of PLAYER.WDB & name of league .WLG Windows Fantasy League setup file .WDA Windows Player Values for Fantasy League .WBD Backup of Windows Player Values for Fantasy League .TEM Fantasy Rosters .TBK Backup of Fantasy Rosters .TEM Fantasy Rosters .TBK Backup of Fantasy Rosters BACKUP AND RESTORE The Draft Software will make backup copies of the player database files and fantasy roster files. The backup fantasy roster file is created automatically by the Draft Software when the first player transaction is recorded on a new Draft session. That is, when you start the Draft Software, the program will create a backup roster file when you issue the first buy or sell command. Any subsequent transaction will not cause a backup to be created. You may restore the database and fantasy roster from the backup by clicking on the FILE option on the Main Menu and choosing LOAD DATABASE. TRANSFERRING THE PROGRAM BETWEEN TWO COMPUTERS Many users use the Draft Software on a desktop computer for their pre-draft analysis and then use the Draft Software on a laptop during the draft. To transfer the program from a desktop to a laptop you can perform the following steps: 1. Make sure the Draft Software is installed on both computers. 2. Start the Draft Software on the desktop computer 3. Click on the File Option in the Main Menu and then select Transfer Data to Floppy Disk 4. Place a floppy disk in the floppy drive and choose the appropriate drive letter 5. After the program has completed transferring the files to the floppy disk, exit the Draft Software 6. Start the Draft Software on the laptop computer 7. Click on the File Option in the Main Menu and then select Transfer Data from Floppy Disk 8. Place the floppy disk in the floppy drive and chose the appropriate drive letter 9. Select the league to be transferred Multiple leagues can be stored on the same floppy disk, but you must follow the above procedure for each league. THE PLAYER DATABASE This section will refer to two separate databases, the player database and the user database. The player database contains the player name, age, major league team, games played by position, player stats for regular categories, and the Benson comment. The player.wdb file is stored in a compressed format with information from several fields combined into bytes of information. This is why stats such as HR an SB have an upper limit of 128 and 256 respectively. In addition, the player's name and Benson comment is also compressed to save space and memory. The user database contains the player name, the user stats, and the user comment. The user database (user.udb file) can be edited using any Windows editor or spreadsheet. When you use another program to save the user.udb file, make sure to specify the file format as ASCII text. The Draft Software uses the player name to match the user stats to the regular stats for a player. If the Draft Software cannot find a player that matches, it will create a new player. SAVE PLAYER DATABASE Saves the current player database as the file player.wdb and the current user defined stats and comments in the file user.udb. Also saved is the current player values in the file .wda. The draft software automatically makes a backup of the previous versions of the databases before saving the new data. You can restore the previous version of the player database by using the Load Player Database command and specifying the player.wbk file. Similarly, you can restore the previous version of the user database by using the Load User Database and specifying player.udb for the file name. Note: you do not need to save the player database everytime you add a player to a fantasy team's roster. The draft software automatically saves the transaction in the file .tem as soon as it is made. Saving the player database will not affect the .tem file. SAVE PLAYER DATABASE AS The Save Player Database As command saves the player database in a file different from player.wdb. The current player.wdb file is left untouched. It is a good habit to periodically archive your player database. This provides you with the ability to go back to a previous version if something happens to your player.wdb file, or if you inadvertently delete a player. In addition, if you save player database in different files, the Draft Software provides you with the capability of comparing your current player.wdb file with other databases you have saved. This allows you to see how your opinion (or John Benson's opinion) on a particular player has evolved in the course of a few weeks or a few months. A good naming convention for player database is .wdb (for example, 121696.wdb, 12_16_96.wdb or dec16_96.wdb). This allows you to see when the player database is saved when use the Load Player Database or Compare Player Database commands. Note, it is very important that you use the .wdb file extension as part of the database name. Otherwise, the Draft Software will not list the files in the dialog and you have to manually enter them. LOAD PLAYER DATABASE The Load Player Database allows you to read a player database other than player.wdb. Only those files that have a .wdb file extension will appear in the file dialog. If you wish to load a file with a different file extension you must enter the file name manually. When you use the Load Player Database command, the previous player database stored in memory will be erased. However, unless you Save the Player Database, the next time you use the Draft Software, it will use the previous database. LOAD USER DATABASE The Load User Database allows you to read a player database other than user.udb. Only those files that have a .udb file extension will appear in the file dialog. If you wish to load a file with a different file extension you must enter the file name manually. When you use the Load User Database command, the previous player database stored in memory will be erased. However, unless you Save the Player Database, the next time you use the Draft Software, it will use the previous user.udb file. DELETE PLAYER DATABASE The Delete Player Database command will erase a player database from your hard disk. If you delete all of the player databases from your hard disk, the Draft Software will be unable to function. The Delete Player Database command will not erase the player database currently stored in memory. However, you must use the save command to make a permanent copy of the player database stored in memory. Only those files that have a .wdb file extension will appear in the file dialog. If you wish to delete a file with a different file extension you must enter the file name manually. DELETE USER DATABASE The Delete User Database command will erase a user database from your hard disk. The Delete User Database command will not erase the user database currently stored in memory. However, you must use the save command to make a permanent copy of the user database stored in memory. Only those files that have a .udb file extension will appear in the file dialog. If you wish to delete a file with a different file extension you must enter the file name manually. UPDATE PLAYER DATABASE The Update Player Database command allows you to update the player database stored in memory with new information stored in a .wdb database file. This new file can either be from John Benson or a player database created by yourself. READ WEB DATABASE A Web Database is a player database that has been downloaded from John Benson's Web Page (http://www.johnbenson.com). This player database differs from the regular player database (player.wdb) in that the Web Database has been encrypted. The Draft Software cannot read the contents of the Web Database without a Personal Identification Number (available from Diamond Library tech support phone number listed on the download web page http://www.johnbenson.com/download.html) If you have a Web Database and you wish to read it, you must execute the Read Web Database command from the Main Menu. The Draft Software will then ask you to select the Web Database you wish to read. The Web Database must have a .xdb file extension (e.g. 12_16_96.xdb) otherwise it will not appear in the file list and you must manually enter the file name. Once you have selected the Web Database to read, the Draft Software will then prompt you for your 10 digit phone number and your PIN. Once you have entered the information and click on the OK button, the Draft Software will read the Web Database. After you have read the Web Database, you should immediately issue the Save Player Database command so that the data is saved in the regular player.wdb. Otherwise, you will have to go through this process the next time you start the Draft Software. COMPARE PLAYER DATABASES The Compare Player Databases command allows you to compare the contents of the player database stored in memory with information stored in another player database file. This other player database file can either be from John Benson or a player database created by yourself. The Draft Software will ask you to select the file name of the player database you wish to compare against. This other player database must have a .wdb file extension, or it will not appear in the list of files the Draft Software displays. In this case you will have to enter the file name manually. Once you have selected the player database to compare, the Draft Software will display two columns of information. One column for hitters and one column for pitchers. Within each column, the Draft Software will provide a count of the number of players who have a stat category difference for each stat category in the player database. SAVE LEAGUE AS The Save League As command allows you to change the name of the fantasy league you are currently using. It will copy the fantasy league setup file, the fantasy league rosters, and fantasy league draft log to the new league name. LOAD NEW LEAGUE The Load New League command will remove the current fantasy league information from memory and load a new fantasy league. This is equivalent to selecting Change League from the Title Screen. RESTORE LEAGUE FROM BACKUP Everytime you issue a fantasy league transaction (a buy or a sell of a player), the Draft Software will save the information into a .tem file (e.g. myleague.tem). The Draft Software will create a backup of the .tem file the first time you issue a new fantasy league transaction after you have restarted the Draft Software. You can use the Restore League from Backup command to restore the previous fantasy rosters. DELETE LEAGUE The Delete League command will remove all of the files associated with a fantasy league from your hard disk. QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS Many commonly asked questions can be resolved without calling for technical support. For example: Q: Why do player values change during the auction, and what do the references to "inflation" and "inflated value" mean? A: At any time during an auction, the amount of money spent may be different from the amount of player value that has been purchased. For example, when an auction begins with some players "frozen" at low salaries (imagine owners freezing Ken Griffey at $25, Derek Jeter at $20, and Trevor Hoffman at $1) that means that the amount of money removed from the auction is less than the amount of value removed from the auction; in this example the amount of money remaining in the auction is higher than the amount of player value remaining in the auction, and having more money chasing less value means prices must rise. That phenomenon is called "draft inflation" and is explained fully in the book Rotisserie Baseball - Playing for Blood available from Diamond Library. Obviously the inflation rate can change as the auctions unfolds. Paying excessive prices will remove money faster than value, and inflation will go down. Buying players for less than they are worth will increase inflation. The Draft Software program will automatically adjust player values for the current inflation rate continuously throughout the auction, always matching the remaining money with the remaining players and their values. For those who find draft inflation confusing or unhelpful, the draft inflation function can be "turned off" before the draft begins, using league setup. Q: Why do I need to assign players to the minor leagues? Is it just to provide additional information regarding the player? A: If your league does not allow the drafting of minor league players onto the active roster, then the assigning of players to minor leagues is very important. First, it removes the player from the available pool and gives you a clearer picture of the talent currently available in a draft. Second, it prevents the Draft Software from assigning any dollar values to these players. If your league does allow the drafting of minor league players onto the active roster, then the player's status is purely additional information provided to you by the program. Q: Can I just delete players sent down to the minor leagues instead of assigning them a status of Minors? A: It is better not to delete a player. The rosters in the first week of the regular season can be very fluid, as players get injured and new players are called up from the minor leagues to replace them. It is much easier to change a players status from Minors to Active, then it is to reenter that players stats. Also, even though your league may not allow the buying of a minor league player, the Benson projections consider that many players will eventually get called up during the course of the season. Thus, the valuation model used by the Draft Software includes the stats produced by these players in determining the relative scarcity of the categories. So even though no dollar values are assigned to minor league players, they do have a small effect on the values of other players. Q: Should I delete frozen players, to get the right inflation rate for my league? A: No! Do not delete any players unless they disappear from the player population (retired, critically injured and out for the year, etc). To account for frozen players, BUY them onto the rosters where they belong, at the actual prices paid, and the inflation rate will be set automatically for the beginning of your live auction. Deleting active players will affect the relative values of remaining players (e.g. if you delete all the top base-stealers in the American League, the value of second-tier base- stealers will go up sharply). Don't use "delete" unless you are sure that a player will not play at all during the upcoming season Q: Why do similar stats for the 3 Year Average, last year, and projected forecast give different dollar values A: Player value depends on context. The draft software develops a different scarcity model for each of the years (3 year avg, projected , and last year). Thus, home runs may be "worth" more or less in the last year model than in the 3 Year Average scarcity model. Q: When I switch a player from AL to NL, why do his 3 Year and last year values change? A: Again, context determines value. The AL and NL do not have the same relative scarcities for home runs and stolen bases, for example. An even bigger difference is that pitchers' ERA's are significantly better in the NL, because National League starters get an opportunity to strike out the opposition pitcher once every time through the lineup, while American League starters must face designated hitters. When a player changes leagues, the software puts him and his last year and three-year stats into the existing scarcity model for the new league. Q: Why are the values different when I buy/freeze a player different from the values I see when I look at the players value in the roster screens? A: Before a player is bought, the program shows his inflated value. After a player is bought, his uninflated value is shown. Q: While trying to do an operation, I get a "general protection fault" error message, and the program crashes. What's wrong, and what should I do? A: First, if this problem occurs, always close the files and exit Windows; do not choose "continue" within Windows, but exit, re-enter Windows, and start the program again. TECHNICAL SUPPORT The Diamond Library Technical Support Telephone number is listed on the download web page (http://www.johnbenson.com/download.html). The Tech Support office will be open Monday through Friday. Technical Support is also available via Email. On the Internet, send mail to info@johnbenson.com. If you have technical difficulty with any software function, please do the following: 1. Write down some notes about what you see (or saw) on your screen when the problem occurred. Also try to recall what keystrokes you had entered when the problem arose, and write them down. 2. Exit the Draft Software, exit Windows, then re-enter Windows and re-enter the Draft Software. This simple procedure can solve minor faults that may occur within a Windows environment. If you are practicing or editing, attempt to re-create the problem you noted, taking careful notes of the steps that lead up to it, and then call Tech Support. If you are in the midst of a draft, you may postpone attempting to recreate the problem until after the draft is finished; simply follow the procedure of exiting and re-entering Windows and the Draft Software, and that should restore functionality unless there is a hardware problem. DO NOT CALL THE SALES OFFICE or the Order Department 800 numbers for tech support. Calling the wrong number will delay your request for assistance. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ANY REPLACEMENTS OR EXCHANGES BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT THE PRIOR APPROVAL OF OUR TECHNICAL SUPPORT OFFICE. Comments/Suggestions You are encouraged to make comments and suggestions. We have added many features as a result of feedback. We listen! ON LINE HELP INFORMATION After you've installed John Benson's Draft Software for Windows, you will notice two programs in the Benson Application Window. One is the Draft Program, and the other is the Help program. We suggest you first look through the help program. AUCTION BUDGETING BY JOHN BENSON True Confessions: I have to admit that I learned budgeting the hard way. I mean: I knew how to do the arithmetic OK. Before I ever did a simple household budget, I could design a standard-cost, job-order process cost accounting system that would automatically adjust overhead allocations and smooth out interim LIFO effects during a period of rising prices and shrinking inventories, and I could install that system in a multi-plant, multi-product, vertically integrated manufacturing operation and train the people who would use it. But when it came to managing my own money, all I could do was: wing it. The period of ignorance was June 1974, when I got my first real job. At that time, an MBA was still an attractive credential. The people who hired me gave me a salary that briefly elevated my self-esteem to Himalayan proportions. Since I didn't plan any big expenditures like a new car or trip around the world, I felt there was likely to be more money than I could possibly spend in the foreseeable future. Part of the problem was lifestyle shock. In May, I had been worrying about the price of brand- name canned beans; in June, I was worrying about whether to have a '66 or '64 Lafite with my filet mignon. Once I found the places to spend my money, it went pretty fast! Given a few credit cards, I needed only 60 days to learn that my "huge" salary was indeed finite, perhaps even paltry when applied to start-up costs such as a couple of suits and some basic furniture. When the bills came in and I saw the numbers that dwarfed my bank account, I decided it was finally time to write down my income and expenses. You can imagine the shock: I had to stop all discretionary spending immediately, and even then it was going to be a struggle just to pay the rent and utilities and make the minimum payments on those credit cards. After that, I became frugal (and still am -- ask my wife). It was relatively easy to go halfway back to the student-lifestyle budget on which I had been surviving so recently (although my then- girlfriend complained bitterly and took a month-long vacation). I paid off the creditors, tore up their plastic, and started saving money. The lesson had been learned: there is no such thing as having "enough" money. My first Rotisserie auction was a similar experience: $260 seems like a lot of money; it means you can have any player you want. In fact, you can have any five players you want. But Rotisserie is like real life: you can't win if you consistently give in to impulses. If you just keep spending until you run out of money, you find yourself in deep trouble. It's much better to have a budget and plan what to do with your money, so that you can make sure all the necessities get covered. Budgeting is really a simple process. You have a list of needs, and you have a spending allowance. You just need to match the two in some intelligent manner. Budgeting is not the same thing as price-watching. You don't go to the supermarket and spend your weekly food budget on orange juice at 39 cents a gallon. The price of OJ may be great, but within a day or two you are going to become very hungry. People who say, "Optimal bids don't work" are making this same mistake, focusing too much on price and not enough on needs. They watch for bargains diligently, but they never get around to looking at their shopping list. When you go to a Rotisserie auction, you need to come away with certain commodities. Yes, you can trade later, but a carload of orange juice (no matter how cheap you got it) is going to create storage problems, and it won't feed your family. You need to a budget framework before you start bargain-hunting. To illustrate auction budgeting, I am using a real example. It's an old example, but it won a prize for having the biggest winning margin among a large group of leagues. This case is my 1991 Diamond Aces team in the Snider NL on Compuserve Sports Forum. This was an existing league with retentions from the previous season. Here are the keepers from 1990 and the vacancies: C- OF-Andre Dawson $14 P- Kent Mercker $6 C- OF- P- Terry Mulholland $5 1B- OF- P- Jose Rijo $11 2B- Tom Herr $6 OF- P- 3B- Bip Roberts $10 OF- P- SS- UT- P- MI- P- CI- P- P- Yes, it was a good freeze list. This team had been managed in 1990 by a very smart owner, and I have made some decent winter trades to pack value into a few spots. It would take several pages to list all the available players and I what I thought of them going into the draft, but I can tell you that I had some definite acquisition targets worked out, well in advance of draft day. My wish list included the following names and approximate amounts that I was willing to pay for them: Tony Gwynn $35 David Cone $20 Vince Coleman $35 Jay Howell $25 George Bell $30 John Franco $30 Bruce Hurst $20 Four notes; (1) There was moderate draft inflation which boosted my "willing to pay" prices by about 20%. (2) The freeze list and the wish list were not just pulled out of the air. At this point, I had already studied last year's stats and standings, and looked into the personal preferences of the other owners in the league as best I could, before submitting my freeze list. And after the freezes were listed for all teams, I had carefully listed and contemplated who was available and who wasn't. My early expectation was that this auction would involve fierce bidding and excessive prices for big home run hitters, while reasonable values should be obtainable in speed, saves and batting average—so those were the three categories that I planned to pursue in the 1991 auction. I also expected quality starters to be good buys, because they were plentiful in this draft. (3) My target prices were high; that was intentional. In allowing for inflation, I was trying to prepare myself for getting squeezed in the bidding, so I could look for danger points or categories that might be hard to cover, before starting (4) In most cases, the target names were representative, not specific individual players. They were concepts. When I wrote down, "Vince Colemen $35", what I meant was that I could spend $30+ for a bundle of stolen bases. If I ended up paying $15-$20 a piece for two guys like Steve Finley and Ozzie Smith that would be OK too. When I listed David Cone and Bruce Hurst at $20 a piece, that just meant that I wanted two of the best available starting pitchers, and was willing to pay the going rate. While making my wish list, I had been adding up the money to see where I stood. My freeze list totaled $66 (In case you're curious, I figured that the underlying value was $123, so I had mentally registered a $57 slush fund that could come into play during the auction). My final wish list was more expensive: $195. The whole point was to account for the $260 total budget. After listing those seven names, with amounts rounded to the nearest $5, I had budgeted $261 and still had only 14 players. The implication was not that I am unable to add. I didn't plan to spend $261 on 14 players; I expected to find a few bargains somewhere in my target population. The purpose of the overloaded budget was to find a break point: to see what I could afford and what I could not. It was a sanity check, a framework to confine my thinking during the auction. The last thing you want to do during an auction is to be running through "what-if" permutations that could have been worked out a week before the draft. You don't want to be sitting there and mentally whittling down a $400 wish list, using up valuable brain cells, while a $5 Marquis Grissom whizzes past! The $261 "budget" using this particular wish list meant that I must be prepared to cut back on one of my seven wishes, and/or to fill the other nine slots on my roster with $1 players, if I didn't get lucky somewhere during the auction. The budget thus became a worksheet that I took to the draft. During any auction, some things go as expected; some don't. In this auction: ? John Franco came up early in the auction and the bidding went wild. Franco was the top reliever and after he was gone, the choices would become Jay Howell and a bunch of guys that I didn't like (the best of this bunch being Mitch Williams). I paid $37 for Franco, because I could not stand the thought of a bullpen founded on Mitch Williams, and I expected the bidding Howell would also become unreasonable. ? After I bought Jay Howell for $24, making me fat and happy in the saves category, I got caught bidding $13 for Mitch Williams and everyone passed (a league full of Williams-haters). This wasn't really bad news because I thought Williams was worth more than $13 and expected I could trade him later. Williams was simply an optimal bid that worked. But he took away some of the money that I had budgeted for a top starter. The net result is that I ended up with Bud Black for $10 instead of David Cone or someone similar for $20. So instead of two top starters from the auction, I get only one. [Several weeks into the season, I traded Mitch Williams for Chris Sabo; at that point I needed hitting more than I needed another starter.] ? The one top starter that I got in the auction was Bruce Hurst at $17, $3 less than I was willing to pay. ? I got Tony Gwynn for $29, $6 less than my fat budget. ? Just before Draft Day (April 18 for this league) I saw Delino Deshields stealing bases on ESPN. Hmmm. Forget Coleman. I got a premonition that Vince was due for an injury anyway; he'd been running so fast for so long and never spent a day on the DL. I wanted Deshields. Price: $31. Somebody else got to spend the summer wondering about Vince's hamstring. ? George Bell and all the other famous power hitters got bid out of sight. so I ended up with $30 that I didn't plan on having. My reaction was to buy nine hitters for about $4 a piece instead of $1 a piece, with an emphasis on long ball types. Some of them worked out,, and some didn't. But the theme certainly worked. My fill-ins included Hector Villanueva ($5 for 13 HR), Glenn Braggs ($5 for 11 HR), Darrin Jackson ($6 for 21 HR), Casey Candaele ($3 for 4 HR and 50 RBI), Francisco Cabrera ($4 for 4 HR) and Mark Leonard ($3 for 2 HR). For those six players I paid $26 and got 55 home runs, so I probably did better than I would have done by getting George Bell for $38 (actual price) and ten guys like Mark Davidson. The only point that didn't get much emphasis as events actually unfolded, is that you need lists of backups for each name on your wish list. When there are only three or four players who can fill a particular need, you better know who they are. When the last one is up for bid and you haven't yet filled you need, you can either bid aggressively, or you can shift your budgeted money toward a different need. You can write down your backup list if you want, but a good memory helps. In this particular draft, the only significant adjustments I made during the auction were substituting Deshields for Coleman and spending the George Bell home run dollars on a collection of lesser notables. Shifting some starting pitching money into Mitch Williams didn't strain my thinking, because it easy to trade saves. I did have a list of top starters, after the $20 starting pitchers were gone, I simply shifted my attention to the $10 starters that I liked. The above case illustrates how to use a budget for a Rotisserie auction. To recap, first you make a list what you want to buy, then you put estimated prices on each name or item, and finally you check to see that your total budget makes sense. Making a budget for your auction won't turn you into a good Rotisserian overnight, any more than making a sensible household budget will make you a good spouse or parent -- but it's a necessary step along the way. i