Dealing With Australia MLB Games In 2014

[Greg Ambrosius]

Major League Baseball has already announced that the 2014 regular season will open with a two-game series in Australia March 22-23 between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. This is a full week before the rest of MLB's teams open on March 30-31. As you can see from the press release, MLB is very excited about this, but I wonder if the Dodgers and D-backs are enthralled with the news. I know it certainly throws fantasy leagues for a loop.

In the NFBC, we'll handle this like we've always handled early games in Japan and other countries. Everyone will have the ability to set their starting lineups with these players AFTER the games are played and everyone will know the results. We set our first lineups on Sunday, March 30th which will include players in these Australia games and the Sunday night game, which hasn't been announced yet. Then all NFBC owners get to reset their starting lineups on Monday for Week 2. So everyone will have the opportunity to know what happened in Australia and then set their starting lineup for Week 1 either using those players or benching them if they had a rough outing. Again, everyone gets the same benefit of the doubt with these games starting so early in the off-season.

Anyway, here's the details from MLB.com:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... b&c_id=mlb

It is normally bad form to look beyond the next pitch, next inning and next game, but you can throw all that out the window when it comes to next year's schedule.

The ultimate day of looking ahead has arrived -- for Major League Baseball families, fans, hospitality staff, media and all associated with the national pastime. MLB on Tuesday released a tentative 2014 master schedule that starts in one continent's fall and ends in another's.

As unveiled in June, the season opens with the historic March 22-23 Opening Series between the Dodgers and host D-backs in Sydney, Australia. MLB has opened seasons in Monterrey, Mexico (1999); Tokyo, Japan (2000, '04, '08, '12); and San Juan, Puerto Rico ('01).

One week after the completion of that series, the 25th season of ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" will begin the rest of the schedule on March 30. That Opening Night matchup will be announced later.

There are 14 Opening Day games on Monday, March 31. Ten of them are divisional matchups, including the traditional opener in Cincinnati, where the Reds start their season with an immediate challenge from the National League Central-rival Cardinals.

The other four games that day include: an Interleague contest between the host Rangers and the Phillies; the Atlanta Braves visiting Milwaukee, the city where they were located from 1953-65, to play the Brewers; a matchup between 1993 expansion clubs Colorado and Miami, almost guaranteed to be Jose Fernandez's next regular-season start after Wednesday; and a game in Oakland between the Indians and A's, both of whom are battling for postseason berths now.

Nine games are scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, including the season debuts for the Astros and Yankees at Minute Maid Park. So begins a new post-Mariano Rivera era, meaning no player will wear No. 42 again starting with that game. The number was retired in 1997 throughout MLB to honor Jackie Robinson, and Rivera was wearing it before that declaration was made.

The final scheduled day of the 2014 regular season will be Sunday, Sept. 28, and will feature 12 divisional games. It follows this season's format, permitting a World Series end in October.

Other important dates next season include Jackie Robinson Day on April 15, the first day of the 2014 MLB Draft on June 5 and the 85th All-Star Game at Target Field in Minneapolis on July 15.

For the first time since Toronto's Rogers Centre (originally Skydome) was built in 1989, MLB is on course to go a second straight season without the opening of a new ballpark -- only further demonstrating what has been an unparalleled era of new architecture. One legacy of Commissioner Bud Selig's long tenure has been an almost constant rollout of new stadiums, never less often than every other year, with Marlins Park in 2012 the last opening. Starting with Camden Yards in 1992, the year he became acting Commissioner, 21 new ballparks have opened.

Interleague Play will once again take place throughout the season following MLB's decision to put Houston in the American League for a 2013 balanced schedule with six five-team divisions. For full Interleague series, teams rotate divisions on a yearly basis, and in 2014 it will be the NL East vs. AL West, NL West vs. AL Central and NL Central vs. AL East.

The home-and-home rivalry series format returns for a second year, with such examples as Reds vs. Indians on Aug. 4-5 at Cleveland and Aug. 6-7 at Cincinnati; the Windy City Series May 5-6 at Wrigley Field and May 7-8 at U.S. Cellular Field; Mets-Yankees May 12-13 in the Bronx and May 14-15 in Queens; and the Bay Bridge Series June 7-8 in Oakland and June 9-10 at AT&T Park.

There will be familiar sights. How about a rematch of the 2012 World Series? The Giants play Sept. 5-7 at Detroit -- site of last year's Game 4 clincher. How about a 50th anniversary of the Cardinals' seven-game World Series triumph over the Yankees? New York makes its first trip to Busch Stadium II on May 26-28, and that history will be front and center.

There will be rare sights. Pittsburgh's June 23-25 visit to Tropicana Field will mark its first there since 2003. That's the same year Tampa Bay last visited Wrigley Field, but Joe Maddon and his Rays will be there on Aug. 8-10. And it's the last year the Padres played the White Sox in Chicago, a run that will end May 30-June 1.

The Red Sox will celebrate the 10th-anniversary of the season that reversed the curse, and Milwaukee will be Boston's home-opener foe for the first time since 1975 -- when Hank Aaron played his first game in a Brewers' uniform. The Dodgers made their only previous visit to Kansas City in 2005 and were swept in three games, and they are scheduled to return with ex-Royal Zack Greinke on June 23-25. The Yankees make an unprecedented two-team Chicago visit, facing the Cubs on May 20-21 and then the White Sox on May 22-25.

Keep a close eye on Toronto, which has not won a series in Tampa since April 2007 and has a 16-44 record over that span of 19 road trips. The Blue Jays open the season with a four-game series there, perhaps a harbinger for a club that failed to meet expectations in 2013.

The announced 2014 schedule and start times are tentative and subject to change. The official schedule, with complete home and road start times, will be released in January.

[Greg Ambrosius]

This is just a reminder that Major League Baseball is opening the 2014 season with two games in Australia on Saturday-Sunday, March 22-23. These games WILL COUNT in the NFBC and everyone who drafts will get the benefit of the doubt in knowing the results of these two games before setting their Week 1 starting lineups on March 30th. No matter when you draft, you'll get the benefit of setting your starters after these games have been played.

There's no other way to deal with these two early games. We definitely don't want to eliminate the results from these two games and the games are happening during one weekend of drafts and before our big second weekend of drafts. Everyone just has to deal with the results being used after we know what happened. Week 1 will include these two games and the Sunday Night opener between those same Dodgers at San Diego. Starting lineups must be set before that 8 pm ET Sunday night game.

Why are the Dodgers in both openers? That makes no sense to me, but plan accordingly. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, PLAN ACCORDINGLY!!! This is how it's going to work with the Australia Series. Good luck everyone and enjoy.

[Yah Mule]

So Kershaw will start the first two games of the year of Los Angeles. That extra start should make him roughly 3% more valuable this year. Unless it doesn't go well.

[Deadheadz]

So Kershaw will start the first two games of the year of Los Angeles. That extra start should make him roughly 3% more valuable this year. Unless it doesn't go well.

Early on someone said Kershaw and the DBacks starter could have a 3-start fantasy scoring period.

That would be only for a fantasy league that combines the Mar 22 and Mar 30 games with the first full week of games. More of a Head-to-Head concern.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm bumping this thread back up to the top of the Message Boards so that everyone drafting now knows that the two Australia games next weekend DO COUNT in the NFBC. Week 1 starting lineups are allowed to be set AFTER these games are played and everyone will have the benefit of knowing the results. Everyone is in the same boat on these two games.

Week 1 starting lineups will be set before the Sunday Night Game in San Diego on Sunday, March 30th. Week 1 will include results of that game plus the two Australia games. Week 2 starting lineups will be set on Monday, March 31st. Keep that in mind going forward.

Thanks all and good luck.

[blazer68]

bump

[mattjb]

i am sure it will right itself but just an FYI that live scoring is not handling the stats from these games correctly if you had the players in your line-up then remove them.

[Greg Ambrosius]

i am sure it will right itself but just an FYI that live scoring is not handling the stats from these games correctly if you had the players in your line-up then remove them.

That would make sense. Nothing is officially scored until Week 1 starting lineups are submitted anyway.

And Matt, you can't tell it from your posts, but since you joined us in the teleconference league yesterday we can tell that you do have a strong British accent!! The girls were commenting on that. You came over loud and clear, but you sounded like you were on the other side of the pond!! Great job yesterday to everyone in that league.

[mattjb]

i am sure it will right itself but just an FYI that live scoring is not handling the stats from these games correctly if you had the players in your line-up then remove them.

That would make sense. Nothing is officially scored until Week 1 starting lineups are submitted anyway.

And Matt, you can't tell it from your posts, but since you joined us in the teleconference league yesterday we can tell that you do have a strong British accent!! The girls were commenting on that. You came over loud and clear, but you sounded like you were on the other side of the pond!! Great job yesterday to everyone in that league.

I figured as much. cool.

And the girls did great. I'm glad we didn't need an interpreter (not too often anyway!)