Latest CFCL Bulletin and Roster Changes

01/10/05

"Baseball is still the greatest soap opera in sports. That's what keeps reviving the game. It has the most detail, the most vivid characters and, even in the off-season, the most continuous "action."  Counting spring training and the postseason, baseball can grab your attention more than 250 days a year."    - Thomas Boswell

This is a Winter Waivers Flash Report

With the change to the shorter Winter Waivers periods, there's no way I'm coming up with all new content for each Report.  Likewise, I wouldn't want possibly important information to disappear after only a couple of days.  With that in mind, I'll add new info a the beginning of the report, but leave the previous stuff below for your continued education and entertainment.  Any content below that is repeated will be highlighted in light blue.

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

January 10

LAMBCHOPS claim C Lidle on waivers, waive M Lieberthal.

HOT SLUDGE SUNDAE claim S Williamson on waivers, waive G Rusch.

PICTS claim J Stokes on waivers, waive M Einerston.

SPLENDID SPLINTERS claim JD Drew on waivers, waive R Branyan.

DEM REBELS claim B Bruney on waivers, waive T Pratt.

STONES claim T Ohka on waivers, waive M Rogers.

KENNDOZA LINE claim K Matsui on waivers, waive M Belisle.

HOT SLUDGE SUNDAE claim D Bell on waivers, waive R Hernandez.

PICTS claim T Sledge on waivers, waive J Czarniecki.

SPLENDID SPLINTERS claim S Taguchi on waivers, waive D Matsuzaka.

DEM REBELS claim M McBride on waivers, waive N Perez.

STONES claim D Eveland on waivers, waive D Cruz.

KENNDOZA LINE claim F Sanchez on waivers, waive E Jackson.

PICTS claim An Reyes on waivers, waive J Baker.

SPLENDID SPLINTERS claim J Rodriguez on waivers, waive R Shealy.

DEM REBELS claim L Terrero on waivers, waive E Chavez.

KENNDOZA LINE claim A Iwamura on waivers, waive B Watson.

Click here for updated rosters in Excel format.
Click here for the 2006 Rotation Draft Pick Tracker

Winter Waivers

Here are the full details of the selections for the first round of Winter Waivers. These are the ranked lists for each team, with players who were selected by more than one team marked with an asterisk. Players are crossed off if they were already selected.

The period for Round 2 of waivers (the players waived above) will expire at 4:00 on Friday, January 13.

LAMBCHOPS
C Lidle*
T Ohka*
S Williamson*

HOT SLUDGE SUNDAE (3 only)
S Williamson*
K Matsui*
T Ohka*
D Bell*

PICTS
J Stokes*
S Williamson*
T Sledge*
A Reyes
SPLINTERS
JD Drew
S Taguchi
J Rodriguez
S Williamson*
D Bell*

DEM REBELS
C Lidle*
B Bruney
M McBride
L Terrero*

STONES (2 only)
T Ohka*
J Stokes*
D Eveland
L Terrero*
KENNDOZA LINE (3 only)
S Williamson*
K Matsui*
F Sanchez
T Sledge*
A Iwamura
S Hairston 		COPPERFIELDS
S Williamson*

CFCL Winter Market

With the completion of the first round of Winter Waivers, the trading season is now open!  Between now and Roster Freeze Day, a week or so before the Draft, you can make trades involving any number of players.  Note that if you claim a player in subsequent rounds of Winter Waivers, you must still waive a player, even if you've got fewer than 23 players on your roster. 

Worldwide Smackdown

Apparently Bobby Valentine had done some bragging about his Chiba Lotte Marines, 2005 champions of the Japan Series.  It seems Valentine claimed his team could go toe-to-toe with the best the Major Leagues had to offer.  World Champion manager Ozzie Guillen laughed it off, but the boys at Baseball Prospectus are never ones to dismiss a claim without first putting it to the test, so that's what they're doing.

In a recently-started series of articles, they're using the Diamond Mind Baseball simulation to play a best-of-seven series between Valentine's Marines and Guillen's White Sox.

The series is set up in an introductory article here:  http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=4687

When this report is posted, the first four games will have been completed, with daily game recaps being posted on the BP website.  You can access the game stories from BP's news page:  http://baseballprospectus.com/news/.  The Game 1 recap was posted on January 4, so that's where you'll want to start.

Draft Day Target Date

Here's a reminder again that our current target weekend for Draft Day is April 1-2.  Please check your calendars, and if you already now of any conflicts with either of those dates, please let us know.  At least three owners are either planning on traveling in for the Draft or will need to arrange for a proxy to show up in their place, so the sooner we can set our date, the better.

Auction Format

There's been quite a discussion raging in the CFCL Forums lately about the possibility of changing our auction from the around-the-table format to a true (free-for-all) auction format.  Well, the discussion had been raging and is just smoldering now.  If you'd like to contribute some thoughts to the thread, now's the time.  Here's a link:

Official CFCL Auction Format Thread

Ownership Update

I've got good news!  Jason has confirmed that the Reservoir Dogs will be returning for the 2006 season, which means our line-up is set for the season.  That will give us our third straight season with the same motley crew.  Welcome back, everybody!  

Owner Profile Survey

Earlier this week Rich e-mailed everyone a list of questions designed to paint a picture of your CFCL franchise and you, as both an owner and a person.  The idea for this was sparked by the profiles of owners in the Luis Gomez Memorial League.  Reading through the profiles on the LGML site really gives some personality to the league and its owners, and Lord knows we geeks could use a boost in the personality department.

Please spend some time pondering the questions, select which of the optional questions you'd like to answer (total of 25 replies max), and return your answers to Rich.  As he noted, we also encourage everyone to come up with some kind of graphic or logo - and Nick has generously volunteered to help out with the technical side.

Although there's no deadline for the project (and lord knows when I'll have the time to put them all up on the site), we hope everyone will respond sooner rather than later.

Finally, thanks to Rich for hatching the idea and coordinating efforts to get it done.

Fantasyland

 Fantasyland, due to be released in mid-February, is a book chronicling the 2004 Tout Wars season (and documenting fantasy baseball in general) through the eyes of author Sam Walker.  Walker, a Wall Street Journal reporter, had never played fantasy baseball before joining the Tout Wars AL competition and didn't do too badly for a rookie, finishing in the middle of the pack.  He should have waited a year and wrote about the 2005 season, as he took the Tout Wars AL title last year.

I was interviewed for the book (a result of Trading the Gator, I suppose), and spent maybe 45 minutes on the phone.  I don't recall saying anything noteworthy though, so I doubt neither the CFCL nor I made the cut.
 

Of course, I'm sure CFCLer Jason Grey will figure prominently, as he was one of Walker's Tout Wars AL competitors.  In fact, I think Jason was coming off back-to-back Tour Wars championships in 2004, so he was the guy everyone was gunning for.

Steve Lombardi has posted a glowing review of the book, which can be found here:

http://www.netshrine.com/walker_fantasyland.html

Sounds like it will be well worth reading.

Hometown Discount Watch

In 2006, the teams that finished in 5th-12th place in 2005 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 5th place team they are at the end of the year, in terms of a percentage of the 5th place team's point total.

Team

Points

% of 5th Place

Discount Budget

DoorMatts

76.5

100.00%

.06

Steve's Stones

68.0

88.89%

.05

Dem Rebels

55.5

72.55%

.04

Da Paul Meisters

52.0

67.97%

.04

Splendid Splinters

47.0

61.44%

.03

Nick's Picts

36.0

47.06%

.02

Hot Sludge Sundae

30.5

39.87%

.02

Eric's Lambchops

27.5

35.95%

.02

Based on the 2005 standings and point totals, here are the teams that will receive a Home Town Discount Budget, the amount of their budget, and the players who are eligible for a discount.

DOORMATTS (.06)
  B Lawrence

STONES (.05)
  G Jenkins

DEM REBELS (.04)
  D Kolb
  B Wilkerson (AL)

MEISTERS (.04)
  E Gagne

SPLINTERS (.03)
  J Wilson

PICTS (.02)
no B contract players

 SLUDGE (.02)
  J Williams  

LAMBCHOPS (.02)
  no B contract players

Record Book

Week Ending 10/02:  No new records were set this week.

Weekly Records Seasonal Records
CAT CFCL TEAM STAT PERIOD CAT CFCL TEAM STAT YEAR
TB Stones 195 7/3/04 TB Copperfields 3262 2004
R Da Paul Meisters
Copperfields		 62 7/11/03
9/17/04		 R Copperfields 1059 2004
RBI Copperfields 70 9/12/00 RBI Copperfields 1201 2000
SB Ruffins 20 7/29/97 SB Bald Eagles 312 1988
OBA Reservoir Dogs .4453 6/10/05 OBA Da Paul Mesiters .3681 2004
QS Reservoir Dogs
Ruffins
Copperfields		 10 4/25/03
8/1/03
5/13/05		 QS Da Paul Meisters 119 2005
HoSv Reservoir Dogs 12 6/3/05 HoSv Da Paul Meisters 160 2004
ERA Copperfields 0.81 9/18/00 ERA Mudville Sluggers 2.828 1985
WHIP Stones 0.675 5/30/03 WHIP Copperfields 1.15048 1992
K:BB Ruffins 8.50 7/15/05 K:BB Ruffins 3.04 2005
OFF Reservoir Dogs 58 2003
PIT Lambchops 57 2003
TOT Stones 104.5 2004

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