This issue came up because I have Nick Johnson on my team in the 98RT2 league. It seems that, with the later start of the real-time leagues, owners with players that are hurt for a substantial amount of time at the beginning of the REAL season. Because Nick Johnson hasn't been playing, I will very likely either not be able to use him in the beginning of the season, or, if he does have a small amount of playing time by then, I may be able to use him in a limited capacity. However, because he is not considered injured by the game, I still risk losing him for an additional period of time later in the season. In this way I am potentially being double penalized for his early season injury.

All of this could be fixed through one simple addition - create a DL in the game. Let managers move players to the DL to bleed off their injury time. And, of course, if managers choose NOT to do this, then they would still risk losing the player in the course of game. Set a minimum amount of time that a player must stay on the DL once you move him there (15 games = 3 weeks exactly - how convenient!). This way, I could bleed off my injury time for Nick Johnson at the beginning of the season and not face losing him later.

I'm not expecting this to happen anytime soon, if ever. But I do think it is a good idea that would add another level of strategy to the game while allowing it to handle early-season injuries more realistically.

Chris