Here’s a schedule of sims for the next few weeks:

Wed., 12/2 – Nate – Sim to 8/10
Fri., 12/4 – Mack – Sim to 8/15 (sim to be run mid-day due to schedule conflicts for Nate and me)
Mon., 12/7 – Nate – Sim to 8/20
Wed., 12/9 – Mack – Sim to 8/25
Fri., 12/11 – Nate – Sim to 9/1 (seven-day sim to get to roster expansion)
Mon. 12/14 – Mack – Sim to 9/6
Wed., 12/16 – Nate – Sim to 9/11
Fri., 12/18 – Mack – Sim to 9/16
Mon., 12/21 – Nate – Sim to 9/21
Wed., 12/23 – Mack – Sim to 9/26

For all of you who might still be making contract offers, here’s the anticipated schedule. Times will vary as to when the sim was held, as Eric and I will be “watching” the games I’m simming and therefore making it fit around our work.

Thursday: Game 1, Mack
Friday: Game 2, Mack
Saturday: Game 3, Nate
Sunday: Game 4, Nate
Monday: Games 5-7 (as needed), Mack

We’ll then drop back to an every other day format, most likely, as we move through the 2006-07 offseason.

Here’s an updated schedule for the rest of the regular season. We’ll probably do playoff sims every day, as we have in the past.

7/17 (F) – Mack – Sim to August 10
7/20 (M) – Nate – Sim to August 15
7/22 (W) – Mack -Sim to August 20
7/24 (F) – Nate – Sim to August 25
7/27 (M) – Mack – Sim to September 1 (seven-day sim to roster expansion)
7/29 (W) – Nate – Sim to September 6
7/31 (F) – Mack – Sim to September 11
8/3 (M) – Nate -Sim to September 16
8/5 (W) – Mack – Sim to September 21
8/7 (F) – Nate – Sim to September 26
8/10 (M) – Mack – Sim to October 1 (last regular season sim)

Here’s the schedule after tonight’s sim, running through the rest of the year. It goes way too far out in the future to hope we’ll stick to it exactly, but it gives everyone an idea of where we’re going.

6/15 (M) – Mack – Sim to June 5
6/17 (W) – Nate – Sim to June 10
6/19 (F) – Nate – Sim to June 15
6/22 (M) – Mack – Sim to June 20 (includes amateur draft)
6/24 (W) – Nate – Sim to June 25
6/26 (F) – Mack – Sim to June 30
6/29 (M) – Nate – Sim to July 5
7/1 (W) – Nate – Sim to July 10
7/3 (F) – Mack – Sim to July 15
7/6 (M) – Mack -Sim to July 20
7/8 (W) – Nate – Sim to July 25
7/10 (F) – Mack – Sim to July 29 (4-day sim)
7/13 (M) – Mack – Sim to August 2 (4-day sim, includes trade deadline)
7/15 (W) – Nate – Sim to August 7
7/17 (F) – Nate – Sim to August 12
7/20 (M) – Mack -Sim to August 17
7/22 (W) – Nate – Sim to August 22
7/24 (F) – Mack – Sim to August 27
7/27 (M) – Nate – Sim to September 1
7/29 (W) – Mack – Sim to September 6
7/31 (F) – Nate – Sim to September 11
8/3 (M) – Mack -Sim to September 16
8/5 (W) – Nate – Sim to September 21
8/7 (F) – Mack – Sim to September 26
8/10 (M) – Nate – Sim to October 1 (last regular season sim)

Due to ongoing tech issues and not wanting to rush a sim we’ll delay until Friday and Mack’s sim for the next one.

Edited by Mack to add that I’ll probably run the sim in the early afternoon Pacific time (provided my flight back to Seattle tomorrow morning isn’t interminably delayed).

FYI, here’s the planned schedule for the first part of the 2006 season, once we finish Spring Training today and tomorrow. It’s our normal three sims per week, but we’re not alternating every time as Nate and I have got vacations / business trips planned.

Fri., 5/15 – Nate – Sim to April 6
Mon., 5/18 – Mack – Sim to April 11
Wed., 5/20 – Nate – Sim to April 16
Fri., 5/22 – Mack – Sim to April 21
Mon., 5/25 – Nate – Sim to April 26
Wed., 5/27 – Nate – Sim to May 1 (Amateur Draft Pool announced)
Fri., 5/29 – Mack – Sim to May 6
Mon., 6/1 – Mack – Sim to May 11
Wed., 6/3 – Mack – Sim to May 16
Fri., 6/5 – Mack – Sim to May 21
Mon., 6/8 – Mack – Sim to May 26
Wed., 6/10 – Nate – Sim to May 31
Fri., 6/12 – Nate – Sim to June 5
Mon., 6/15 – Mack – Sim to June 10
Wed., 6/17 – Nate – Sim to June 15
Fri., 6/19 – Mack – Sim to June 20 (Amateur Draft)

Nate and I are planning to change the remaining offseason schedule slightly. It looks like free agents have started dropping their demands, so it makes sense to give people more time to try to sign them. Also, Spring Training in this version of the game looks like a very useful development time that we don’t want to rush through. We’re thinking of breaking it into seven-day sims to allow people to use the seven-day line-up feature and make the most of the time.

If we do change the schedule, it will push the first regular season sim from next Monday to next Friday. The schedule will look something like this.

Tues, 5/5: Mack sim to Feb. 10
Wed., 5/6: Nate sim to Feb. 20
Thurs., 5/7: Mack sim to March 2 (start of Spring Training)
Fri., 5/8: Nate sim to March 9
Mon., 5/11: Mack sim to March 16
Tues., 5/12: Nate sim to March 23
Wed., 5/13: Mack sim to April 1
Fri., 5/15: Nate First Regular Season Sim

Any thoughts, objections, complaints? If we don’t get the sense that people are strongly opposed to this, we’ll go forward this way.

Important note to all owners. The game’s setting was improperly set at letting the imaginary team owner control the budget instead of the players. This had some strange and improper effects. So, I fixed that, simmed a day to make it work, and re-uploaded the league file.

So, if you downloaded it between my last email/blog post and this one, you’ll need to redo it. On the plus side, you now have more money to make your contract extension offers before your players become 2006 free agents.

Here’s the planned sim schedule for 2005-06 offseason. If we’re able to hold to it, we’ll start the 2006 season in three weeks. Sweet.

Under this plan, players will hit free agency during Tuesday’s sim. So you have two only chances to make your final, best offers before players hit free agency or are awarded arbitration.

Monday, 4/20 – Sim to November 3 (all Award winners announced) (Mack)
Tuesday, 4/21 – Sim to November 13 (arbitration, players become FA) (Nate)
Wednesday, 4/22 – Sim to November 21 (Mack)
Thursday, 4/23 – Sim to December 1 (Nate)
Monday, 4/27 – Sim to December 11; conduct Rule 5 draft via draft lists (Mack)
Tuesday, 4/28 – Sim to December 21 (Nate)
Wednesday, 4/29 – Sim to January 1 (Mack)
Thursday, 4/30 – Sim to January 11 (Nate)
Friday, 5/1 – Sim to January 21 (Mack)
Monday, 5/4 – Sim to February 1 (Nate)
Tuesday, 5/5 – Sim to February 16 (Mack)
Wednesday, 5/6 – Sim to March 2 and start of Spring Training (Nate)
Thursday, 5/7 – Sim to March 16 (Mack)
Friday, 5/8 – Sim to April 1 (Nate)
Monday, 5/11 – Opening Day 2006!!! First regular season sim (Mack)

May everyone’s offseason be successful.

Nate’s simming up to August 25 tomorrow (March 20).

Then, on Monday, I’m going to run a seven-day sim that will take us to September 1 when major league rosters expand.

Just FYI.

As you know, the trading deadline is July 31 and we’re standing at July 25. So, to help everyone complete their last minute shopping, and to accommodate the commissioners’ schedules, here’s the plan for the next few sims:

Wednesday: Mack to sim three days, to (morning of) July 28
Friday: Nate to sim three days, to July 31
Monday: Mack to sim five days, to August 5

After that, we’ll be on the alternating five-day sim schedule again, although we may tweak the length of sims again so that we get the full value of roster expansion on September 1.