The 1995 CFCL Draft was held on Sunday, May 7 at 9:00 AM at David Mahlan's apartment. The Draft was postponed over a full month because of the major league work stoppage, so we were rarin' to go.
For the second year in a row, there was quite an exciting race in the Executive Committee election. Last year, there was the exciting race between Eric Lamb and Kelly Barone for the third slot on the Committee (Co-Commissioners David Mahlan and Rich Bentel are routinely elected unanimously) This time, the excitement came from some shocking ballots -- not in terms of who was voted for, but for who failed to get votes.
Once things settled down after the election, we were ready to start the Draft. As always, Dave Holian had the honor of nominating the first player for bidding.
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Clockwise, from the lower left: David Holian
(David's Ruffins), Tom Clark (Clark's Kents), Kelly Barone (Six Packs), David
Mahlan (David's Copperfields, Co-Commissioner), Ken Welsch (ForGoetz Me Nots
assistant), David Goetz (ForGoetz Me Nots), Paul Zeledon (Da Paul Meisters),
Eric Lamb (Eric's Lambchops), Matt Bentel (DoorMatts). Just outside
the frame on the right: Rich Bentel (Dem Rebels, Co-Commissioner).
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The Copperfield Method, or The Return
of Computer Mole-Man??
During ex-owner Bob Monroe's time in the CFCL, Bob was known as "Computer
Mole-Man" as he was the first owner to make extensive use of computer in
his Draft preparation. However, not even Bob ever brought a computer
into the Draft with him, which is what Copperfield owner David Mahlan did
in 1995. In previous years, David had taken quite a ribbing for his
extensive Draft preparation -- his binders full of notes and projections
were free game for commentary during the Draft. Of course, his laptop
proved to be no exception to the rule, and as usual, Dave Holian was the one
to get the ball rolling.
The ForGoetz Me Not Method
By way of contrast to the Copperfields' very structured approach to the Draft,
Dave Goetz of the ForGoetz Me Nots drafted Roberto Petagine, and then revealed
that he had a very
different strategy for determining whom to target in the Draft.
Speaking of the ForGoetz Me Nots, Dave Goetz had to leave the Draft early, so we arranged for Ken Welsch, whom we had already tabbed for an expansion team in 1996, to sit in and finish drafting the ForGoetz Me Nots. The consensus of owners after the Draft was that Ken might have very well salvaged what could have been a horrendous Draft for the Nots.
The Ruffin Method
David Holian of the Ruffins was aiming to solve a long-standing problem when
he prepared his Draft lists and research. At every Draft since 1992,
Dave was seated either next to or directly across from Tom Clark of Clark's
Kents. At least twice during each Draft, Dave caught Tom trying to
sneak a peek at his lists. Among other things, Dave tried keeping his
notes in a folder or in a spiral-bound notebook that he could quickly snap
closed, all to no avail. His strategy for 1995 -- make photocopies
of his lists with the darkness set so high and the contrast set so low that
the lists could only be read if your nose was less than a foot away from
them.
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David Holian was willing to go to any length to make
sure his results of his tireless draft research didn't fall prey to Tom Clark's
prying eyes.
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The Kent Method
As it turned out, though, Tom was too busy with his own Draft strategy to
pry into the Ruffin Files. He quickly drafted projected closer Brad
Clontz and stud reliever Randy Myers, paying a total of .98 (or 38%
of his budget) for the two of them. Everyone figured that the Kents
would be out of the market for relievers for the rest of the Draft, but Tom
kept right on buying them, getting Tom Henke (.21) and Xavier Hernandez (.01)
and going deep in the bidding for Heathcliff Slocumb, Rudy Seanez, and Robb
Nen. All in all, he spent almost half his budget on relief pitching.
As it turned out, Dave Holian was glad to be sitting next to Tom, as
it gave him the opportunity to slap Tom upside the head each time he bid
on another closer.
The Chico Incident
Revisited
One of the more famous CFCL in-season incidents occurred in 1991. It
was the middle of August, and Kelly Barone's Six Packs were battling it out
for First Place with Bob Monroe's Bald Eagles. Six Packs' minor leaguer
Jose Offerman was promoted to the majors by the Dodgers and Kelly was faced
with the following dilema: either activate Offerman and waive one of
his current offensive players or waive Offerman. In retrospect, it
would have been a wise move to cut Offerman loose rather than run the risk
of him damaging your pennant hopes. However, Kelly was hesitant to
do so since Offerman was still being highly-touted as a great source of stolen
bases. Plus, Kelly had little-used Cub reserve Chico Walker on his
active roster, so it was actually a simple decision to activate Offerman
and waive Walker. During a break in the bidding in 1995, Kelly recounted his thought
process and the disastrous results for some of the owners who weren't
around at the time.
Draft Summary
| First Player Purchased | Jose Rijo Eric's Lambchops .23 |
| Highest-Priced Batter | Brian Jordan David's Ruffins .41 |
| Highest-Priced Pitcher | Ken Hill Six Packs .32 Randy Myers Clark's Kents .32 |
| First "Penny Player" | Xavier Hernandez Clark's Kents 5th round |
| Last Player Purchased | Terry Mulholland Dem Rebels .01 |
| First Minor League Pick | Alan Benes David's Ruffins .05 1st round Rotation Draft |