Alex Gonzalez Put On Paternity Leave

[Greg Ambrosius]

Well, this is a new one for us and we'll probably have to add this to our rules to prevent any confusion in the future. Alex Gonzalez was drafted in a lot of NFBC leagues, but there are leagues where he was still a free agent earlier this week. Unfortunately, the Brewers placed him on paternity leave on Friday night so that he could leave to attend the birth of his child and technically he wasn't on an MLB roster as of our FAAB deadline on Sunday at 7 am ET.

Some owners may have noticed that Gonzalez was no longer available in FAAB on Sunday and we are getting many emails to add him back to the free agent pool. But according to our rules, he has to be on an MLB roster or on the DL and he is on neither. He will be eligible to be picked up next week when he's reactivated by the Brewers. It's a very unique situation and like I said we will probably have to add a paternity clause in our rules going forward. We would handle it the same way -- he wouldn't be in the FAAB pool until he's on an MLB roster -- but at least people would understand why he wasn't in the free agent pool. Sorry for any confusion today, but I can't recall this ever happening in the past just before a Sunday FAAB deadline.

[Beans]

I agree that we shouldn't change the rules for this year, but I would think that going forward (next year) this would be treated as the equivalent of being on the disabled list. This feels more like being put on the DL than it does being sent to the minors. Personally, I'd think guys on the paternity list should be eligible for free agent pickups.

[Captain Hook]

Greg what is the rule for a player on the Bereavement List?
Seems like both of these should be available on free agent lists

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg what is the rule for a player on the Bereavement List?
Seems like both of these should be available on free agent lists

It's dealt with the exact same way as the Paternity Leave. Players are no longer on the 25-man active roster and not on the DL. I do agree that in the future we can expand the wording to include Active/Bereavement/Paternity list for available free agents, but this is obviously a rare, rare occurrence. Still, it's an easy fix in the future.

Now, someone remind me of this 5 months from now when I'm writing the 2013 NFBC rules.

[Beans]

Did this make it into the rules this year?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Did this make it into the rules this year?

No, I didn't add this to the rules this year. I totally forgot about this and it looks like everyone else did, too.

Here's our wording on Free Agents:

12. Free Agents

Any player who is not on a team roster within your league and is on a major league roster or once was on an NFBC team in your league is considered a free agent for that league. Even players on the MLB disabled list are eligible to be picked up during the FAAB bidding process. The player pool is deemed closed of new free agents each Sunday at 7 AM ET before the FAAB bidding deadline and a player must have played at least 1 MLB game to be added to the pool at that time. Participants should note that MLB unsigned veteran free agents at the time of Draft Day are eligible to be picked up or bid on in all NFBC leagues.

I guess we could say "even players on the MLB DL/Bereavement/Paternity list are eligible to be picked up during the FAAB bidding process", right? That was the confusion last year, because he wasn't on a roster at the time of FAAB, right?

I'd have to check with IT before enacting this, but let's make sure we're on the same page first. Thanks for finding this.

[Beans]

Yep, I think that makes sense