DA PAUL MEISTERS reserve M Batista, activate P Shuey from the Reserve List.

COPPERFIELDS reserve R Martinez, activate A Beltre from the Reserve List.

COPPERFIELDS reserve J Austin, activate J D’Amico from the Reserve List.

COPPERFIELDS reserve F Rodriguez, activate M Crudale from the Reserve List.

COPPERFIELDS claim C Finley on waivers, reserve him, waive S Reed (waive period ends 5-30).

DEM REBELS reserve M Matthews, activate L Ayala from the Reserve List.

LAMBCHOPS reserve D Roberts, activate H Mateo from the Reserve List.

DA PAUL MEISTERS reserve R Sanchez, activate L Merloni from the Reserve List.

DA PAUL MEISTERS reserve P Astacio, activate J Fassero from the Reserve List.

TENACIOUS B reserve B Larkin, activate A Cintron from the Reserve List.

TENACIOUS B call K Robinson (.05) from the Free Agent Pool, reserve him, waive C Richard (waive period ends 5-30).

SIX PACKS call J Lopez (.05) from the Free Agent Pool, waive D Reyes (waive period ends 5-30).

SIX PACKS call J Phillips (.09) from the Free Agent Pool, reserve R Gonzalez, waive M Tejera (waive period ends 5-30).

SIX PACKS call C Eldred (.14) from the Free Agent Pool, reserve J Roa, waive J Wright (waive period ends 5-30).

RUFFINS reserve R Calloway, activate J VanderWal from the Reserve List.

RUFFINS reserve A Cook, activate TJ Tucker from the Reserve List.

RUFFINS call R Nen (.09) from the Free Agent Pool, reserve him, waive Bu Nelson (waive period ends 5-30).

HARD HATS reserve A Almanza, activate R Cormier from the Reserve List.

HARD HATS reserve T Clark, activate E Karros from the Reserve List.

HARD HATS reserve B Buchanan, activate G Kapler from the Reserve List.

DEM REBELS reserve G Rusch, activate B Neal from the Reserve List.

Click here for updated rosters in Excel format.
Click here for the 2004 Rotation Draft Pick Tracker

I’ve talked to Producer Brad a couple times in the past day. He called because the documentary was in desperate need of some high school-era pictures of Rich and I (let me tell you, you’ve GOT to be desperate to want those). In addition, he shared some information, which he asked me to pass on to everyone else.

The very exciting news is that the final cut is just about done (it sounded like the high school pictures were the final element that needed to be put into place), and it sounded like they’ll be finishing it up this weekend.

Brad is so confident that they’re nearing completion that he’s ready to schedule a time to show us the finished product. He’s going to be out of town next week, but would like to set something up for the following week. He’s asked me to coordinate the selection of a date and time, so please take a look at your calendar for the week between June 4 and June 12.

Send me an e-mail and let me know when you’d be available during that time and we’ll try to pick a date that works for the largest number of people. For simplicity’s sake, let’s stick until after 6:00 PM on weeknights, though days or evenings would work on Saturday or Sunday. If it turns out that we can’t find a date that works for a significant number of people, we can look at another week.

Get back to me as soon as you can so Brad has time to book a location. He is hoping to find a pizza-type place that has a private room with big screen TV and VCR available. He is open to suggestions for a location, both in the city and in the suburbs, but stressed he’d like to find a place that has a "closed door" area so we don’t have to worry about noise. If you know of someplace that might work, let me know.

This preliminary screening will be limited to CFCL owners only and is our "sneak-peak" in appreciation of our cooperation with the film. The official premiere will come later in the summer and it sounds like Nick and Brad have some pretty big plans for it.

You know in last week’s report how I joked about Opening Night at the Chicago Theater, etc? It turns out I may have been closer to the truth than I realized. If all goes according to plan, the premiere will be in a true theater (probably an Art House-style place like Facets or the Music Box or Three Penny). We’ll be invited, of course, as will lots of other folks who have helped out with the film. The showings will also be open to whatever public would like to pay to see it. Nick and Brad are hoping to set something up during the week of the MLB All-Star Game, figuring there will be plenty of baseball people in town that would be interested in the film. Brad was fairly confident he’d be able to set something up, so be sure to keep the middle of July free on your calendar. And make sure your tux is pressed for the ‘meet-and-greet’ afterwards – Brad rather cryptically said, "A lot of people are going to want to meet Paul after they see this."

In addition to all the exciting plans above, I was able to glean some information about the finished film:

The final cut is 50 minutes long, which is boiled down from the over 200 hours of footage they shot. That means they’re using less than half a percent of all their footage. Brad didn’t say how heavily the CFCL is featured in those 50 minutes, but I get the impression that we’re a fairly significant element. Even so, there’s plenty of our footage that will remain on the cutting room floor. It sounds like Paul is the real scene-stealer, though.

In addition to our own Paul Zeledon, I know that Dan Okrent and Tim Kirkjian are other celebrities that made the final cut (with Kirkjian providing analysis and commentary on the 2002 CFCL rosters!). While I don’t know if they’re in the final version, as of March, the following MLB players had cameos (though I don’t know if they’re still included): Doug Glanville, Todd Jones, Geoff Blum, Rich Aurillia, Javier Vazquez, Scott Servais, and Denny Neagle.

The film is no longer called "Bragging Rights". It turns out that that title is already being used for a documentary about the history of stickball in the Puerto Rican neighborhoods of New York, so Brad and Nick are looking for a new moniker. They’re open to suggestions if you’d like to send them on.

The main thing, though, is to let me know when you’ll be available for a preview screening between June 4^th and 12^th.

So, now that we’re about a third of the way into the season, are there any early impressions about the new categories or the 5x5 game in general? I’ve traded some e-mails with Rich about some of the changes, and when I talked to Matt Bentel a couple weeks ago he was very enthusiastic about almost all of the new categories, though he’s reserving judgment on Holds+Saves.

Anyway, I think we’ve gotten our feet wet enough in the new scoring environment to start talking about the changes intelligently. So what do you think – did we take our game to another level or did we royally screw it up? Or have you not noticed much of a difference at all?

Feel free to share your thoughts on the Message Board.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve added a link on the main page to the online ballot for this year’s MLB All-Star Game. You’re allowed to complete up to 25 ballots for each e-mail address, so get to work.

The hit counter on the CFCL web page is rapidly approaching the 20,000 mark, which I find simply amazing. When I put the page up 5 years ago I never dreamed we’d reach that level. I know that a portion of those hits came from people outside the league – either coming to download the Spring Training roster spreadsheet for their Draft prep, searching for a league to join, or just surfing around.

Having a presence on the Internet makes us part of the larger community of Fantasy Baseball, and that made me curious about other leagues that might have web sites out there. I started searching around and came across some pretty interesting ones. I thought it might be fun to feature some of these leagues in the Report from time to time.

In deciding which league web pages to feature, I’ll be looking at the pages from several perspectives:

Information – First and foremost, does the page provide useful information about the league to the owners and visitors?

Community – How good a job does the page do of fostering a sense of community and involvement in the league? This might be illustrated by the use of polls, surveys, message boards, or the fact that there’s more than one person producing all the content.

Fun – That’s what this is all about, right?

Extra "Stuff" – Does the page provide anything beyond what you typically find on a league web page?

History – Baseball, more than any other sport, steeps itself in history and tradition, and roto leagues ought to do the same. Pages that illustrate a league’s appreciation of its own history score big points with me (as anyone who’s seen the Draft and Season History sections of the CFCL page would know).

Personality – How well does the page capture the personality of the league and its members?

Upkeep – How often is the page updated? I come across a lot of pages that talk about how the 2001 Draft is right around the corner. I’ll only consider pages that are currently in use.

Design – Actually, this won’t be terribly important. For the purposes of this exercise, content will be weighted much more heavily than design. Besides, I’m no web design expert anyway, so I’m not going to start critiquing the work of others. That said, cool and/or intelligent design features could definitely score "bonus" points.

Ok, now that all the preliminaries are out of the way, we can get to the good stuff. The first Featured League Web Page is that of the Puget Sound Sports League:

http://www.psslbaseball.com/

The PSSL is an 18-team, AL/NL mixed 6x6 league in their 12^th season. The "credo" of the league, from their Consitution, says "The #1 goal of the PSSL and it's owners is to have fun," and their web page certainly illustrates this.

Each team in the league has its own logo (scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out the graphic that rotates through all the logos). Each team also has its own web page that provides a look at the team’s historical performance and their roster for the current year. One nice touch is the PSSL Championship graphic that is awarded to league champions. Like a championship banner that a team hangs in its ballpark or in the rafters of its stadium, the graphic gives past winners something to proudly display on their team page.

The main page provides an update on the current pennant race and other news. Similar to the original incarnation of the CFCL Internet Headquarters back in 1998, the page displays pictures of the previous year’s award winners. Another excellent feature is the PSSL Player Search in the upper right corner.

A drop-down menu bar across the top of the page provides access to the other areas of the site. Be sure to check out the Multimedia page, which features a ton of links to audio and video clips of classic baseball moments. Of course, a fast connection helps here, but it’s worth a visit even if you’re on dial-up.

Record Book

Week Ending 5/23:  For the first time this season, no weekly records were set.