No transactions.

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

A big CFCL welcome to Kenn Ruby and Teddy Scott, the 33rd and 34th owners in CFCL history.

Kenn and Teddy were selected from 9 candidates who expressed interest in the two open spots during a very difficult selection process.  We had a tough time settling on these two, and had to turn away some very solid players that I'm confident would have made great CFCL owners.  I'm just as confident, though, that Teddy and Kenn will do us proud.

The two new owners will draft their initial rosters from a pool made up of the players on the Six Packs and Tenacious B.  The draft will be a straight draft rather than an auction, with the salaries and contracts of the players Teddy and Kenn acquire will remain the same (including any long-term contract obligations and X-contract benefits).  There are about 46 players in this draft pool (though some have moved to the AL in the past couple months), so the new franchises will end up with approximately the same number of players as the existing teams.

We're hoping to schedule this Draft at a time when Teddy and Kenn can come together and draft in person, but if that's not possible we'll hold it online via Instant Messenger or chat room.  Either way, everyone's welcome to show up, meet the new owners, and take part in the fun and excitement.

Both Kenn and Teddy are at work devising names for their teams and, of course, strategies for their initial Draft.  Once a date is selected for that historic event, we'll let everyone know.

Now that we have our full compliment of owners in place, our first bit of business will be to finalize plans for Draft Day.  Our target date for the Draft is Sunday April 4 (Note:  this is Palm Sunday).  Please check your schedules and let me know as soon as possible if you have any conflicts with this date.  Our back-up is Saturday April 3, so just in case let me know about that date as well.

As mentioned in previous reports, Jason will be flying in from Arizona for the Draft, so it's important that we set the date soon and stick to it.  Unless I hear cries of protest by Friday January 16, we'll consider it final and Set In Stone.

The new CFCL Forums have been up and running for a couple weeks now and have been getting quite a workout, with threads going on a number of topics.  The forums can be found at:

http://cfcl.proboards19.com

The new Forums have several advantages over the old message board, one of the nicest of which is that old threads won't get "buried" as new threads are added.  Each time a post is made to a thread, that thread hops to the top of the list for that forum.  As long as a thread is kept active, it will remain visible.

You need to create an ID and sign-in in order to post, but signing-in also allows you to create your own "personality" for the forum.  This personality includes several elements, which you specify by clicking the Profile link at the top of the page after you sign-in.  You can customize the following elements, which will appear with each of your posts:

An avatar, which is a little graphic that appears to the left of your post.  Specify your avatar by selecting one of the standard pictures that are available (choose from the list in the Personalized Picture list on the Profile page).  There are there that came with the forum, and I've loaded a bunch of baseball team logos and cartoons, but an avatar can be pretty much anything.  If there's something particular you'd like, let me know and I can try to find it for you.

A personal quote, which appears just below your avatar.  This is set, oddly enough, in the Personal Quote field on the Profile page.

A signature, which will appear at the bottom of each post.  Specify this in the Signature box at the bottom of the Profile page.  If you'd like to include a link in your signature and don't know UBBC code, let me know and I'll help you out.

There were some issues raised during the season last year that will require additions or clarifications in the Constitution.  These issues are currently under discussion in the CFCL Discussion forum (the thread titles are prefaced with RULES.  If you haven't done so yet, please visit the forum to check these threads out and contribute any thoughts you may have.

Back in 2002 when we increased the yearly Entrance Fee to $78 we added an Escalator Clause to the Constitution.  The clause states:

Every other year the league as a whole shall vote on whether to increase the Entrance Fee by $5.  A Yea vote from 75% of the franchises is required in order to adopt the increase.  If the increase is not adopted in a particular year, the vote will be repeated each subsequent year until the increase is approved.

The Entrance Fee was $78 again in 2003, which means we're due to put the Escalator Clause to its first vote.  An increase of $5 means total fees for each team in 2004 will be $105 (assuming there is no price increase at TQStats).  That would raise the prize for first place by $30, from $468 to $498.

No need to respond right now.  I will start a thread in the CFCL Discussion Forum to discuss fee-related issues and we will vote on this via e-mail later, but you can start giving it some thought.

It's become a minor CFCL tradition (a whopping two years) for some of us to attend Ron Shandler's First Pitch Forum in February and get together before or after the seminar. 

This year the seminar is scheduled for Saturday February 21, Noon-3:00 PM, in Wood Dale.  The cost is $29 (if you register online before February 18), which is a great deal for 3 solid hours of intensive baseball immersion in the middle of February.  I mentioned this on the forum and have already heard from a couple owners who said they're hoping to attend, including Teddy.  Right now the plan is to get together immediately after the seminar, either for an early dinner or just drinks somewhere.  We'll make more definite plans once we know who will be attending.

For information about the forum, visit:

http://www.firstpitchforums.com

Also, anyone who can't or doesn't want to participate in the seminar but would like to join up with us afterwards, let me know and I'll keep you posted on our plans.

I've posted updated Excel rosters in the Download Center.  They haven't changed much since the completion of Winter Waivers, but what I've tried to do is highlight all the players that have moved to the AL during the off-season.  In the past, these players were automatically released as soon as they crossed leagues.  Under the rules put in place last year, however, they remain property of their CFCL teams.  If the players remain in the AL, they can either be released on Roster Freeze Day or protected on the CFCL team's Reserve List as one of the 15 keepers (with his salary counting against the team's Draft Day budget).

One beneficiary of the new rule was Steve's Stones.  Their catcher, Michael Barrett, spent a couple days as an Oakland A before being traded back to the NL.  In past off-seasons, Barrett would have been released as soon as the As had acquired him.

I tried to stay on top of player movement, but if I've missed someone or highlighted a player I shouldn't have, let me know.

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