The following players played out their contracts and have become free agents.  Assuming they remain in the National League, these players will be available in next year's Draft:

There was a question raised at the banquet about some of the players who were released.  Remember that any free agents acquired in September (except those acquired for .25 or more) receive B contracts and are automatically released at the end of the season.  This is to prevent teams with remaining FAAB left restocking with NL September call-ups.

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

I apologize for the slow start to the off-season activities this year.  Typically, we'd be well into Winter Waivers by this point.

Contrary to speculation, the delays are not a result of a drop in the League Secretary's interest level because of the woeful performance of his team.  Believe me, I'm looking forward to Winter Waivers more this year than perhaps any other.  No, it's simply a result of a severe reduction of available time, both at home and at the office. 

In previous years, we always pushed to get Winter Waivers started right away so the could have the first round completed by the time of the banquet, which would allow for banquet trade talk.  However we haven't had banquet trade discussions in several years, so it seems kind of pointless to rush into waivers as soon as the season ends.  The original Rotisserie League Constitution suggests starting the first round after the end of the World Series, and we're right on track for that.

With that in mind…

... let's get started.

A quick refresher – for Winter Waivers, each team must submit a list or 23 keepers from their current roster.  All players not kept will go through a waiver period lasting one week during which they are eligible to be claimed by any CFCL team.  Teams that successfully claim one or more players in a round must waive players from their 23-man roster to make room for them.  These waived players then form the waiver pool for the second round.  Waivers continue this way until we reach a round where no one gets claimed.  For more detail about Winter Waivers, see ARTICLE XVIII.  in the CFCL Constitution.

The lists of 23 keepers for Winter Roster must be submitted via e-mail or telephone (or both) by 4:00 PM on Friday, October 31.

A couple other very important things to remember:

1.  The limit of 23 players includes BOTH major leaguers and minor leaguers (M contracts).  This isn't like the cuts before Draft Day where you can keep 15 players, plus 4 M contract players -- it's 23 players total.

2.  Remember, all players who were on B contracts were automatically released at the end of the season, so make sure not to include any of them on your list of 23 keepers.  Current rosters are available in Excel format in the Download Center at the website.

3.  Once the first round of Winter Waivers is complete, teams are free to trade players without restriction.

4.  If you’re e-mailing your cuts, send them to the Roster Move address:  [email protected] and [email protected].  If you’re phoning them in, call me at (630) 605-8711.

5.  Whether you’re e-mailing your cuts or phoning them in, I highly recommend that you supply the list of players you’re keeping AND the list of players you’re cutting.  This will help make sure no one slips through any cracks.

The list of players waived will be posted by Saturday November 1, and the end of the first round of waivers will last until 4:00 PM on Friday November 7.

A while back, most owners completed the traditional End of Season Opinion Survey.  Before I get to the details of the results, I want to say thanks to everyone for taking the time to complete the survey and share your input/thoughts.  And on a personal note, thank you to those of you who wrote kind words about the way the league was run, etc.  

Since there’s a lot of material in the survey results, I’ll break it into a couple parts.  Part 2 will be published in the next report.

CFCL, 2004.  11 of 13 general managers said they definitely planned on returning for the 2004 season.  The Picts and Tenacious B are not sure yet whether they'll be able to return.

Weekly Transaction Deadline.  Mixed results, but overall mostly positive:

3 = Great – it worked fine for me
5 = It took a little getting used to, but once I made the adjustment it was great
3 = I don't think it was the best arrangement, but it was workable

Comments:

I liked having moves due at 4:00.  The extra time (compared to Noon) was very helpful.

I just liked the beginning of the week better, but it isn't a huge deal either way.

A weekend or Monday/Tuesday deadline would work better for me:  sometimes that pesky work-thing gets in the way on Fridays.  How about a noon or 11 AM on Saturdays?  Or Monday nights at 11 PM?

In a perfect world, I would prefer having the transactions done on Tuesday noon.  However, unless there is someone willing to do the transactions and David is willing to give up central authority, then Friday at 4 works fine.

Players Lost to the AL.  Mostly favorable reviews:

6 = I thought it worked great
2 = It's OK – I'm not sure it made much difference
3 = I didn't like it and think we should go back to the old way

Comments:

Though I benefited, I just don't like it.  We're an NL-only league and I think it should stay that way.

I discoursed long and often on my views.  This season did nothing to change them.  I would rather that player stats do not accrue but that owners be given the option of rostering players through the length of the contract.

I'm sure it made a difference or will at some point if we keep it in place.  At this point, I'm ambivalent about it, meaning I'm okay with keeping it.

I am a traditionalist.

This worked a lot better than I thought it would.  It makes a lot of sense.  I did kind of miss the nervous tension around the trading deadline since that was always a time MLB moves could have a big affect on the CFCL (I wasn't hoping my competition's players would get traded to the AL as I did in years past).  But then, that's a crappy way to win or lose a championship.  I'd rather do either one on my own rather than with MLB's help.

I don't like the fact that players are allowed to accrue stats in the AL.  Because of the DH, among other reasons, the 2 leagues are not competing on a level playing field.  2 possible options/alternatives – 1) allow CFCL franchise one month (or another time frame) to replace a player sent to the AL, and/or 2) allow each CFCL franchise only one player to be kept to the AL, and that player must be designated within 48 hours of his trade to the AL.  Also, I don't think that they should be allowed to be protected in the offseason.

Coming next time – the CFCL's thoughts on the new 5x5 scoring scheme.

2003 was the CFCL's first season using 10 scoring categories, after 19 years of 4x4 play.  The additional two categories meant there more opportunity for movement in the standings than in past years, and in the last week of the season, 47 points changed hands.  In the end, though, the results were the same as they had been the previous year.  

After never finishing higher than 3rd place in their first 13 years of existence 2003 CFCL Champions Eric’s Lambchops now have their second title in as many years.  In taking their second straight crown, they join David's Copperfields as the only franchises in CFCL history to repeat as champions.

After last season's victorious run, many thought the Lambchops were a long shot to repeat their success, especially losing under-priced key parts such as Bobby Abreu (.22), Eric Gange (.10), and Matt Morris (.06) to free agency.  The Chops were quick to put the doubts to rest though, opening the season in first place and never falling lower than 3rd or more than 10.5 points behind the leader.  By Period 7 (May 16), the Lambchops were in 1st place to stay.

That's not to say they had an easy time of it.  In many ways 2003 was a much tougher road to tread than 2002 - which is saying something because the '02 season had them dealing with the death of Daryl Kile only 12 hours after dealing for him.  While none of 2003's roadblocks were as tragic and affecting from a human standpoint as Kile's death was, they were much more frequent and damaging from a baseball standpoint.

Perhaps fueled by the experience and confidence that comes with being a defending champion, the Lambchops met those roadblocks head on and refused to give in when they lost Brian Jordan, Corey Patterson, and Ken Griffey Jr to season-ending injuries within a two week period.

The second place Hard Hats stood in 4th place, 8 points out of 1st at the July 31 trading deadline, when they made the surprising and controversial decision to pull the plug on their season.  They traded their ace starter Jason Schmidt (B contract) and reliever Scott Williamson (headed out of the league in 2004) to the first place Lambchops for low minor leaguers Bobby Brownlie and Brad Nelson.

Just as surprising was the fact that the remaining Hard Hats, led by Mark Prior, rallied over the next couple weeks and from time to time actually pulled into a first place tie with the Lambchops.  It would be a disservice to the work done by Lambchop GM Eric Lamb and his assistant John Lemon to say that the dump by the Hard Hats gave the Chops the championship, but there's no escaping the fact that the race would have been very different had the Hats kept Schmidt and Williamson - or traded them to a team they weren't competing with.

It's unfortunate for Hard Hat GM Matt Grage that the Schmidt trade will end up being the defining moment of the Hard Hats' 2003 season (and probably of Grage's CFCL career to this point), because other than that they had a very impressive season.  The Hats have improved their place in the standings each of their 4 years in the league, and very nearly became the first of the recent crop of expansion teams to win the Championship.

Speaking about improving in the standings, the Reservoir Dogs improved from 11th place to 3rd in just their second year.  The Dogs made a very strong run at the top spot, turning their roster over via trades at a rate not seen in the CFCL since the days of the Bald Eagles.  In all, they made seven deals and at one point pulled within 7 points of the front-running Lambchops.  They were never able to make that final sustained push toward the top, though, and finished 9 points back.  A major 4-point surge in the season's last week pulled them out of 4th place and into 3rd, however.

Like a broken record, Tenacious B ended the season in 4th place - the third straight year they've taken the last money spot.  The B spent most of the second half trading spots in the standings with the Reservoir Dogs, and the two teams went neck-and-neck in the Total Bases, Runs Scored, and Runs Batted In categories.  The Dogs came out on top in all three of the categories, beating Tenacious B out of 3rd place by a mere 23 TB, 10 RS, and 2 RBI.

In another close battle, Da Paul Meisters edged David's Ruffins for 5th place and the rights to the first pick in each round of 2004's Rotation Draft.  The Meisters and Ruffins battled back and forth for the entire second half, swapping spots in the standings and were never separated by more then 3 points after the middle of June.  This marks the highest finish for the Meisters since 1999, and is a step back for the Ruffins after three consecutive 5th place finishes.

The second six of the CFCL's 12 teams finished in a bunch at the bottom of the standings, separated by only 11 points.  Leading the second division pack were the Six Packs, who rallied from 10th place to 7th at the end of June held firmly onto that spot the rest of the way.  Steve's Stones spent much of the season nipping at the Six Packs' heels, and even rose to 7th place at one point before finishing the season a strong 8th.

The remaining teams spent most of the season shuffling in and out of the bottom four places in the standings.

A surge over the final month of the season raised Dem Rebels into 9th place, while the DoorMatts rose from 12th to 10th in the last two weeks, despite not making a single roster move after July 15.

David's Copperfields and Nick's Picts battled each other for last place, with the Picts winning out and finishing just half a point behind the Copperfields.  It was the Picts' second consecutive last place finish, while 11th place was by far the low water mark in the Copperfields' 20 year history. 

Based on the final 2003 standings, here are the teams that will receive Toppers, the number of Toppers the team receives, and the players who are eligible for Topper use.  There was a lot of dumping of B contracts this year and as a result there will only be a maximum of four toppable players in the 2004 Draft.  

Record Book

Week Ending 9/26: No new records were set this week.