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.
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
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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.
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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.
