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How to Play

Registration

To enter, fill out the free game registration form on ESPN.com. After registering, you are ready to play ESPN Baseball Challenge. A valid ESPN member name and password will be used as an identifier to sign in to game play, and to keep track of your entry's score and standing. If you are already a registered ESPN account holder, you do not need to go through this necessary process, although if you are under 13 you must obtain the consent of your parent or legal guardian (as explained in the Official Rules). If you've had an ESPN account in the past but forgot it, here's how to find your account information.

Name Your Entry (Optional)

After you have logged in, you will be prompted with a screen that will ask you to create your entry. Once you have named your team, click on the "Submit Team Name" button.

Create Your Roster

ESPN Baseball Challenge rosters are composed of 9 offensive players and 1 pitching staff which must fit under the $50 million dollar salary cap. The 9 offensive players on a team's roster consist of one from each of the following positions: Catcher (C), First Baseman (1B), Second Baseman (2B), Third Baseman (3B), Shortstop (SS), Left Fielder (LF), Center Fielder (CF), Right Fielder (RF) and Designated Hitter (DH). For the 10th position you will select a teams pitching staff (PS). For example, if you select New York Mets for your pitcher and Johan Santana, John Maine, and J.J. Putz pitch, you will get their composite score for that day.

In order for a roster to be complete, all 10 roster slots must be filled by a player/staff while not exceeding the salary limit. Salaries will be updated once a week (on Mondays), and are based on a combination of the player/staff's season-to-date and last seven days statistics in the scoring categories. Players can be moved onto your roster by choosing a player and clicking on the "Add Player" button as shown below.

Players that are added to your team's roster by 11:59pm PT will accumulate statistics on the following day. For example, if you add David Price to your roster on Friday, June 4 at 10pm PT, he will begin receiving statistics for games beginning on Saturday, June 5. You will automatically be brought through this process when you first create your team.

The ESPN Baseball Challenge takes place over two contest periods, one before the All-Star break and one after, as described in the Official Rules. Note that every team's roster will be deleted at the end of the first contest period, and must be recreated for the second contest period.

Renegotiate

If one or more player's locked salary value (price which you paid for him) is displayed higher than his current market value (current price to attain) you can "Renegotiate" all salaries by clicking on the link in the navigation area at the top of the page. Doing so will simply drop and re-add all players to your roster automatically who are locked in at a salary higher than their current market salary. You will be re-directed to the Entry page and all renegotiated salaries will appear in your team's transaction logs. Note that you do not need to adjust your roster if your current value exceeds the $50m salary cap.

Example: You paid $5.7m to attain Kevin Youkilis and notice that his current market value is $5.2. To save the $0.5m simply click on the "Renegotiate Salaries" link. This way you can have more salary space to claim a player at another position.

NOTE: The minimum and maximum market values for positional players are 3 and 8, respectively. For pitchers, the minimum and maximum will be 4 and 9 respectively.

Create or Join a Group (Optional)

You have the option to group yourself with friends, co-workers, or completely random fans by joining or creating a group. Within each group, your entry will be automatically ranked. Most of the groups in ESPN Baseball Challenge are public and can be joined at any time. If you want to play with a specific group of people you know, create a private group and make it only accessible to those whom you have given the group password. The creator of a group sets the group's name, motto and password. Groups can have up to 50 members and you can move your entry from one group to the next as long as it is before the first game of the contest. All of this is easily found on the Group Directory page.

Scoring

The five offensive statistical categories which count in Baseball Challenge are Runs Scored (R), Total Bases (TB), Runs Batted In (RBI), Walks (BB) and Stolen Bases (SB). For each instance a player on your team's roster achieves these in a game, one point will be awarded.

BBC will also include the pitching staff slot. For this there are six statistical categories which count and note that negative points are possible. The categories are Innings Pitched (IP), Earned Runs (ER), Hits (H), Walks (BB), Strikeouts (K), and Wins (W). The following points will be awarded/deducted for each instance one of them take place: 1 out = +1 (complete IP = +3), ER = -3, Hit = -1, BB = -1, K = +1, Win = +5. There are no points awarded for saves or holds. Also please note that you are selecting an entire pitching staff, not an individual pitcher. This means you receive the entire line from a pitching staff. In the event that a player you have selected for a particular day is involved in a double-header on that day, you will earn the player's stats for both games played on that day.

Example: You select the Boston Red Sox as your staff for a night they are starting Josh Beckett. Beckett pitches 7 scoreless innings while giving up 4 hits, 2 walks and strikes out 5. Hideki Okajima comes in the 8th and gives up a walk, a two-run home run and then gets three straight ground outs. Jonathan Papelbon comes in the ninth and strikes out the side for a Red Sox 7-2 victory. This would equate to:

PITCHER IP ER H+W K PTS
Josh Beckett 7.0 0 6 5 +20
Hideki Okajima 1.0 2 2 0 -5
Jonathan Papelbon 1.0 0 0 3 +6
Team total 9.0 2 8 8 +21


Plus, you'd receive +5 for the Red Sox win for a total score of +26, which would be a very good effort for your staff. It is possible to earn negative points from your pitching staff however, if the staff you select gets roughed up, so choose wisely (BBC Hint: Don't start pitchers at "hitter-friendly" parks such as Coors Field).

Suspended/Delayed Games

A game is considered suspended when at least one pitch was thrown on the scheduled day of the game before play is stopped. When a game is suspended, the stats for the game will be displayed on the date that the game was originally scheduled. When the game is made up, the stats for the appropriate dates will be rerun to reflect the completion of the game and the effect on all team statistics. Even if the suspended game is completed as part of a double header at a later date the points will be credited to the original game date. A game is considered delayed when a pitch is never thrown on the scheduled day of the game. A game that is delayed will have its stats displayed on the day that the game is made up.

When a suspended game is completed, the stats count towards the day the game started. In most cases BBC scoring will reflect that of the official scoring decisions of MLB. This is per Major League Baseball's official rules section 4.12.

Uber Scoring

Your UBER score for Baseball Challenge 2009 will come from each individual game segment, specifically the First-half (Baseball Challenge 1) and the Second-half (Baseball Challenge 2). There is no season-long score. Each segment counts in Category B (500 pts), as defined on the UBER 2009 Schedule page.



Prizes

Play Baseball Challenge for your chance to win a $2,000 Best Buy gift card and more!
Total ARV is $2,000