From Brad Bu (via email):

I would borrow from the Nats and name divisions after Presidents. Furthermore, since we are a Dip excerpt, Presidents who served as ambassadors, this could be:
MA -Adams
NY- Van Buren
South-Jefferson (or Monroe)
West-Bush

I've got no real strong opinions on names but worth forwarding. If you're going to borrow from the Nats, why not go all the way (George, Tom, Abe, & Teddy)?!

If you want to go Diplomacy theme, opening plays could be used:

Blitzkrieg
Hedgehog
Lepanto
Lapland Lurch
Houseboat
Roadhog
Blue Water
Yorkshire Pudding
Anschluss
Alpine Chicken

One other item that recently occured to me: Keeper deadline.

Why do we select our keepers two weeks prior to the auction? Because that's the set-up used in the other league in which I play. I just stole it (and most of the keeper rules).

Would one week be preferable? There are pros and cons:

Pro: One more week of spring training to evaluate players.
Con: One less week to prepare for the auction with full knowledge of the player pool.

This would NOT be considered for this year. We've already done too much and the new teams would gain no advantage from it. I'm only posting about it so I don't forget next off-season.

As noted in the emails, a potential swap of Matt and Michael is under consideration.

SLOTerp wrote:There is no policy on this specifically, so I will leave it to your best judgement. You can rank divisions however you please (last year's results, 3-year avg., etc...). What you do this year does not have to be 'forever', but after this year we should probably have a consistent system. Whatever you like.

I'm basing it on last year because that's what I've done in the past and that's what I expect to do going forward. If you gain a small advantage this year because of it, so be it, but the strength of schedule doesn't seem to be that out of whack because of it. Your ranking is a lot lower than it should be, but you're still only 4.5 points easier than the average schedule (the difficulty of your division and the easiness of your inter-division matchups seem to cancel out).

Also, if you switch Michael and Matt, this is going to be rendered moot.

I have a crazy idea: baseball-themed division names. Yeah, weird, I know. Though Dip-themed is good too.

Sharur wrote:Also, if you switch Michael and Matt, this is going to be rendered moot.

I have a crazy idea: baseball-themed division names. Yeah, weird, I know. Though Dip-themed is good too.

I'm cool with the switch. So, here are the divisions with baseball-themed names

Angels in the Outifeld Alex, Nick, Brad Ba, Freeman

Bad News Bears Matt, Andrew, Brad S, Steve

Damn Yankees! George, Brad Bu, Todd, John

Bull Durham Mike, Barry, Ryan, Michael

Does Outifeld need to be spelled that way?

That's the porn version.

I'd like to be in the "Trouble with the Curve" Division.

Sharur wrote:For what it's worth (very little since it will only affect the order in which games are played, if anything), I'm considering Freeman to have finished ahead of Michael by virtue of a superior prior RBL service record.

The guy is immortalized on the plaque. That means something!

Ryan really belongs in Major League 3 - Back to the Minors.

... that joke would have worked better a year ago.

Other Diplomacy (or rather, WWI) themes:

Names of note
Wilhelm II
Ataturk
Nicholas II
George V
Pershing
Bismarck
Ferdinand

Aircraft
Albatros
Bristol
Caudron
Fokker
Junkers
Nieuport
Sopwith
Spad
Vickers

I kind of think the planes are cool.

Yes, let's name my division Bismarck!

How about journeyman relievers?

LaTroy Hawkins
Octavio Dotel
Arthur Rhodes
Dennys Reyes

Rhodes out west!