                       TRANSACTION NOTES by Jeff Kindig                         
                       --------------------------------

When Classic Past Seasons (CPS) are upgraded to Deluxe Past Seasons (DPS), one 
area of the Diamond Mind Baseball database that gets refreshed is the Real-Life 
Transactions. These transactions represent every roster move made by each team 
over the course of the season, as well as some non-roster moves such as day-to-
day injuries that made a player unavailable. 

To assemble these transactions, dozens of hours are invested researching 
primary sources, such as archives of "The Sporting News", Newspapers.com,  and 
the biweekly "Official Bulletins" that were distributed from the Office of the 
Commissioner to all Major League Baseball teams throughout the year. "The 
Sporting News" includes transaction information on the box score page, but more 
importantly contains hundreds of articles and notes from beat writers, which 
often reveal a more minor ailment or personal leave that may have cause a 
player to be out for a period of time. Secondary sources such as Retrosheet.org 
and Baseball-Reference.com are also consulted, with the latter being helpful 
for players who spent some time in the minor leagues. 

When all of the information is compiled, it is verified against players' 
appearance logs and also checked against roster limits that were in place for 
that point in the season. If a transaction would appear to be in violation of 
the applicable roster limit, then additional research is done to find the 
corresponding transaction that must have occurred, or to correct the date of 
the violating transaction. 

Even after the above process is completed, there is sometimes an unresolved 
discrepancy. When this occurs, weight is given to primary sources and to the 
understanding that teams were required to adhere to roster rules. There also 
may be evidence from a primary source that indicates a player's unavailability 
even when he was officially (contractually) on the active roster. Finally, the 
number, types, and nomenclature of transactions available in Diamond Mind 
Baseball may vary from other sources. Any of these scenarios may result in 
transactions in a DPS database appearing differently from a list of 
transactions published elsewhere. Here are some common examples: 

-	When a player was "placed on waivers for the purpose of giving him his 
unconditional release," that action removed a player from his team's active 
roster. To reflect this, the earlier date may be used in the database for the 
player's "Released" transaction to clear him from the roster. 

-	When a player was acquired in a trade, sometimes logistical reasons such as 
travel prevent him from being available to his new team for a couple days. To 
reflect this, the transaction in the database may be later than the official 
trade date to prevent a player in transit from being available for use in a 
game. 

-	Sometimes a player is listed in sources as being "purchased from" or "sold 
to" another team. These are generally treated as trades within the database, 
unless specific evidence exists that this was a waiver claim scenario. 

-	Trades between minor league teams and the signing of minor league free agents 
are generally ignored for the purpose of the database since the focus is on the 
active major league roster. In these situations, the only transaction shown in 
the database may be when a player was "promoted" to the active roster. 

In conclusion, it is recognized that there is a distinct possibility that one 
of our transactions in the database conflicts with information that may be 
found elsewhere. These apparent discrepancies are intentional and based on our 
research. We believe the real-life transactions included with this database are 
as complete as possible and will provide the most realistic replay of the 
season with respect to players' availability on the active roster for each 
game. 
