To: All ENYTB Clubs/Teams That Have Not Activated For 2009:I trust everyone had a happy holiday season and enjoyed quality family time. I know many of you keep active year-round in other sports so I want to bring to your attention that on Monday, 1/12, I will be deleting all ENYTB teams from 2008 from the website if they have not been activated for... read more

To: All Members:During the 2008 season, I had discussions with several members who operated their own house leagues under other affiliations/sanctioning bodies. In general, there was much dissatisfaction over issues such as lost territory, territory restrictions, cost, poor tournament management and organization, disagreement over playing rules and... read more

Some members have expressed dissatisfaction with various aspects of how the league's standings are currently constructed. In general, some would prefer a simplification of the standings that would result in a much higher percentage of all games played to count in the determination of the sanctioned tournament berth winners.The system that has been in place since the inception of the website (for the last six years) was a reflection of our ala carte registration system, particularly in regards to multi-sanctioning. Simply put, since not all teams were registered under all, or sometimes any, sanctioning bodies, separate standings had to be maintained for each sanctioning body and power level. This results in many games where the outcome doesn't affect either team's post-season chances. This reduces the importance of such games to exhibition status. Too many such games can cause a team to lose its competitive edge and cause competitive disadvantages where teams with relatively few tournament qualifying games can load up on pitching in those games. Numerous regular and wildcard divisions also made the system for determining which teams, in the end, actually won berths, fairly complex. In a recent update to the league I mentioned we would be making significant changes to how "standings" are determined and greatly simplifying the process whereby sanctioned tournament berth winners are determined. That work has been completed.NOTE: Any effort to reform and simplify this process so as to address the various drawbacks in the current system has to begin with registration i.e., mandatory multi-sanctioning of all teams. In the past, it would have been onerous for some member teams to pay sanctioning fees and tournament eligibility fees under all three ENYTB sanctioning bodies. However, because of recent changes made in hosting sanctioned tournaments, the league has eliminated tournament hosting and eligibility fees this year. Under the new fee structure, even with full multi-sanctioning, the average team at 13U will now pay approximately $200 less in 2009 (about a 30% reduction). Thus, it is no longer onerous to require that all teams, as a condition of ENYTB membership, be sanctioned under all three ENYTB sanctioning bodies.As a result of all-in-one registration re: multi-sanctioning, ENYTB is able to change its standings methodologies for 2009 with the desired end-results that ALL games played within a power level e.g., gold team vs. gold team, will count in an all-in-one regular division standings for that power level, and that ALL games played within an age division, regardless of power level, will count in an all-in-one WILDCARD Division where a team specific Strength-of-Schedule (SoS) factor is used to adjust each team's raw W/L PCT.NOTE: The SoS is based on the team rankings, schedules and results for the entire 2009 season. Each team's SoS will continue to adjust day-by-day throughout the season as game results in that team's age division get reported. In the beginning of the season, this factor could jump around significantly but as the number of games played increases, the volatility in a team's SoS will be less and less.The upshot of these changes is that each team will be assigned to a single all-in-one regular division and a single all-in-one wildcard division. A specific number of generic berths will be earmarked to each regular division, so that all teams, regardless of power level, will continue to have a realistic opportunity to win a tournament berth. There will be single all-in-one wildcard division for each age division that will include all teams in that age division. A specific number of generic berths will be earmarked to each wildcard division as well.NOTE: re: Generic Berths - Under all-in-one registration (universal mandatory sanctioning), any team winning a berth under the new system will be eligible to take the berth under any of ENYTB's three sanctionings. Thus, depending on availability, each berth winner will have its choice of sanctioned tournament (AABC, PONY and NABF). All regular division sanctioned tournament berth winners will be eligible for a second sanctioned tournament berth (under a different sanctioning) in the wild card division, provided there are no conflicts between the two tournament series that would prevent the team from advancing in both.SUMMARY OF HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW STANDINGS METHODOLOGIESRegular Divisions (RD):one RD for each age/color (power rating) - each RD will include all teams of same age/color;all games between teams of the same color will count in the RD (no more min or max must play requirement) - if you play a same power opponent 5 times, all five games will count;the ranking of teams in the RD standings will be determined by WIN PCT instead of accumulated points - this allows teams to play a different number of games and have them all count w/o biasing the standings;NOTE: since all teams within the same RD have the same power rating, there is no need to adjust W/L records for strength of schedule;A minimum of 1 tournament berth (depending on the number of registered teams in the division) will be earmarked to each RD and awarded to teams in that RD based solely on the results of all games played between teams in that RD;Depending on availability, all berth winners will have a choice of sanctioned tournament (AABC, PONY and NABF).Wildcard Divisions (WCD):one for each age division - each WCD includes all registered teams in the same age division;all games between teams in the same registered age division will count in the WCD (no more min or max or MPR) - once again, whether you play an opponent once or 5 times, all games will officially count;strength of schedule factor - since WCD teams have different power ratings, W/L records need to be adjusted for strength of schedule - ENYTB has developed a geometrically weighted strength of schedule factor (SoS), based on the power rating of each opponent as well as their W/L record within their own regular division. Thus, a gold opponent is counted more heavily in the SoS formula than a hi silver opponent and an opponent with a high WIN PCT (within their own regular division) is counted more heavily than an opponent with a medium or low WIN PCT;To prevent WCD standings from being biased by the number of games a team plays, WCD will rank teams by their SoS ADJ WIN PCT (rather than total accumulated points);Within each age division, all tournament berths not awarded through regular division play will be awarded based on the WCD standings;Depending on availability, all berth winners will have a choice of sanctioned tournament play (AABC, PONY and NABF).SUMMARY: Every ENYTB registered team will be placed in two divisions, a regular division and a wildcard division. Every team in every age division will be eligible for and competing for as many as 8 tournament berths to three different sanctioned tournaments (the sum of berths earmarked to their regular division and the wildcard division). ALL games between teams in the same regular division will officially count in both the regular and wildcard divisions. ALL games between teams in different regular divisions but in the same age division, will officially count in the wildcard division. Teams are free to play any number of games with the exception that teams will be required to play a minimum of 12 games total to be eligible for any sanctioned tournament berth (ENYTB rule). The number of times any two teams play each other will no longer be a fixed number determined by each team's registration choices. It will now depend on things like whether the two teams are in the same regular division, how many total games each team wants to play, and how much inter-divisional play is desired by each team. Another factor will be schedule happenstance e.g., if two teams are in the same regular division but each is so restricted in availability that no game between the two can be scheduled, then none is necessary. Obviously every effort will be made to ensure that all teams in the same regular division get to play each other at least once. Gold and Lo Silver teams will not be asked to play each other. When teams provide their scheduling inputs, they will be asked to specify the % of games they would like to play outside their power level e.g., a hi silver team could specify a 50-50 distribution of games with hi silver and gold teams or even 1/3-1/3-1/3 with all three divisions. A bronze team could select 100% bronze games and a gold team could select 100% gold games or some pct split with hi silver teams. TEAM POWER RANKINGS FOR 2009The Wildcard Division standings methodology described above was used to rank all 2008 ENYTB registered teams based on their 2008 league performance i.e., their W/L record adjusted for strength of schedule (SoS). From those rankings, teams have been reclassified where appropriate for the 2009 season and assigned to regular divisions. These rankings were recently emailed to all ENYTB members. NOTE: These classifications are only a starting point for 2009 classifications. Obviously, any team that has experienced significant material changes in its roster from last season, upgrade or downgrade, should bring that to my attention and appropriate adjustments will be made.