Click here for a copy of this report in Word for Windows format

January 24

Click here for updated rosters in Excel format.
Click here for the 2005 Rotation Draft Pick Tracker

Mark your calendars!  CFCL owners have overwhelmingly endorsed April 3 as Draft Day 2005.  With the date now set, we’ll put Rich to work on securing Draft Day Headquarters in Oakbrook and coordinating communications with Ruffin Draft Headquarters in Greensboro.  The start time is yet to be settled, but planning on it being the same as in recent years (8:00 AM) would probably be a safe bet.

Ownership Update

From the Bad News Department:  John Lemon has had to resign as Lambchops’ Assistant GM.  Since John joined the Lambchops three years ago he’s acquired a wife and baby, and he feels he’ll no longer have the time to be involved in day-to-day operations of the team.  The Lamb/Lemon Chops had quite a run of it – two Championships, before slipping out of the money to fifth.  Eric is currently looking at candidates to fill the vacant position.  For now, the CFCL wishes John the best.

There is some good news on the ownership front: all CFCL franchises have confirmed they’ll be returning for the 2005 season, so aside from the Lambchops’ assistant position, we’re all set.

2005 Rule Changes

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.

Prior to 2004, the scheduled fee increase proposal was voted down, which means we’ll vote again prior to this season.  An increase of $5 would raise total fees for each team to $105 and would increase the prize for first place by $30, from $468 to $498.

No need to respond right now – we’ll vote on this via e-mail later.  In the meantime, though, you can start giving it some thought.

The past few years, a handful of CFCL owners have attended Ron Shanlder’s First Pitch Forum in Chicago, then met for food and drinks afterwards.  This year, there will actually be two forums in the Chicago area, one in the South suburbs (South Holland, on Saturday Feb 19), the other in the North suburbs (Bannockburn, on Sunday Feb. 20).  I’m not sure I’ll be able to attend the forum, but I would definitely be interested in meeting before or after with any owners who are attending.  If you’re thinking about going (or are interested in getting together with any owners who are), let me know which of the dates you’re looking at and I’ll keep everyone who’s interested in the loop.

For information about the forums, visit:

            http://www.firstpitchforums.com

I've posted updated Excel rosters in the Download Center.  The only real change in the rosters has been the highlighting of additional players that have moved to the AL since the last update.  Remember that under the rules adopted a couple years ago, these players 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).

I’ve 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.

There have been several questions in recent months about the implications of X contracts, particularly in terms of the options available for the season following an X contract.

Before getting into the details of how everything works, it would probably be helpful to recall the reason we came up with the rule to begin with.  About ten years ago, we realized that the long-term contract system wasn’t terribly compatible with building talent via a farm system.  CFCL owners were routinely faced with making long-term contract decisions about unproven prospects who, in many cases, had barely gotten their feet wet in the majors.  Frequently, minor leaguers would only play portions of two seasons before their owners had to decide about signing them long-term.  Owners were understandably reluctant to enter into a long-term deal after only a couple partial years, which meant the players were usually cut loose or signed for their option year only.  The player would then enter the Draft Day pool where every team had a shot at him, leaving the original owner with little to show for his original minor league pick.

We created the X-contract rule to give owners a little more time before they needed to decide about long-term contracts for players that came up through their farm system – hence the name, X-contract, or “Xtra Year contract”.

The intent of the X-contract rule was not to make former minor leaguers cheaper to keep, nor was it to allow their owners to keep them for a longer period of time.  The rule was added simply to put off the long-term contract decision for a year, giving owners one more season to evaluate the player before deciding whether or not to commit to the player with a multi-year contract.  Inherent in that aim is that when all is said and done the salary and end-date of the long-term contract should remain the same as if it had originally been signed before the option year.  In other words, that the X-year rule isn’t intended to provide any additional benefit other than the delayed long-term contract decision.

So how does it all work?  The first part is easy, and there doesn’t seem to be much confusion about it:

When a player who came up through your farm system (you owned him when his contract changed from M to D), reaches his option year, you have a fourth choice in addition to the usual three (release, sign for option year, sign long term) – you can sign the player to an X contract.

If you select the X contract option, the player’s salary increases by .02 for the coming year.  During that year, the player cannot be waived or released.

What happens next is the area where most of the questions usually come up.  For the season following the X-contract year, you have two (and ONLY two) options:

Release the player, or

Sign him to a long-term contract.  Note that there is no option to sign the player for one more season (equivalent of signing for the option year).  That means if you want to keep the player beyond the X season, you have to sign him for at least two more years.  The reasoning is that you’ve already used up the traditional “option year” during the player’s X-contract season.  You’ve taken that year to gather some more data and think things over and now you’ve got to whether decide to commit to the player or cut him loose.

If you decide to sign the player to a long-term deal, his “base” salary (for purposes of calculating the long-term contract salary) is his current amount plus .03.  From that point, the calculation of the salary is the same as a regular long-term contract -- .05 for each year of the deal beyond the upcoming season. 

In a nutshell, if you want to keep a player coming off an X contract, you’re looking at a minimum of two years and a raise of at least .08 from his X contract salary.

I think that over time the X-contract has become a little too “automatic” of a decision.  Owners see the opportunity to keep a player a year longer than usual for just a .02 increase in salary, and jump all over it without thinking through the consequences.  But X-contracts were never intended to be used for ALL minor league players.  The players they’re targeted for are potential star minor leaguers – the type of players who – if they fulfill their potential – get signed to long-term contracts.  X-contracts can also be useful for the more mundane minor leaguers, but those are usually the guys who are signed for the X year and then released (and if you’re going to do that, it would be wiser to just sign the guy for his option year rather than paying an additional .02 for an X year).

To make sure there’s no confusion as owners weigh trade possibilities and keeper decisions, here are the players currently on X contracts and the MINIMUM salary/contract they must be signed to in order to be retained.  These contracts would be through 2006.  They can, of course, be signed longer than that, for an additional .05 per year.

Note that the 2005 salaries and contracts are exactly the same as they would have been had the player been signed to a long-term contract of 3 or more years in 2004 instead of an X contract.  The X option gave their owners an additional season to evaluate the player and decide about committing to him long-term.  The trade off for that benefit was relinquishing the chance to sign the player to a shorter contract through 2005.

I hope this has all clarified some things and not caused additional confusion.  If you have additional questions or need further clarification, feel free to send me an e-mail or start a thread in the Forums.

Topper Watch

In 2005, the teams that finished in 5^th-12^th place in 2004 will receive a budget of up to .06 to use toward reacquiring players who had played out their option with the team (B-contract players). The exact amount each team receives will be based on how far behind the 5^th place team they are at the end of the year, in terms of a percentage of the 5^th place team's point total.