Well, it appears that things are just about through, as the Round 4 waiver pool went untested, which brings us to the end of Winter Waivers 2006.

Nine CFCL teams took the opportunity to retool a bit following the season, with a total of 26 players finding new addresses in the past few weeks. To summarize the whole thing, here’s a break down of who was claimed in the 2006 Winter Waivers:

What's Next?

In the past, the end of Winter Waivers was typically the time we moved into "Full Off-Season Mode" and pretty much shut things down for a few months.  That was when Winter Waivers took place in October, though.  Now it's January, which is historically the time we'd just start coming out of hibernation and ramping things up for the new season.

And what better way to ramp up for 2006 than announcing...

In response to me asking over the past few weeks I've heard from about half the league, and the favorite choice for Draft Day 2006 is Sunday April 3.  We don't have a definite starting time set yet, but it's probably likely to be the same as in recent years (8:00 AM).

As mentioned previously,  We've got a few owners who may be making travel plans for Draft Day, so out of courtesy to them we should consider this date pretty much set in stone.

As an update on the auction format issues that had been under discussion in the Forum, it would appear there's a fairly strong majority for sticking with our current around-the-room bidding format.   The owners who were against a switch were very firmly opposed to it, while any support of a switch was of the "I'd like to change to true auction format, but I'm fine with the current format" variety.

Lacking even a moderate show of support in favor of a change, it's looking like we'll be bidding around the room again this year.  That doesn't mean we can't tweak that process to quicken the pace, etc.  If you have ideas, feel free to share them in the Forum.

2006 Rule Changes

Sometime in the hopefully not-too-distant future, the Executive Committee will hunker down and come up with a ballot voting on potential rule changes and clarifications.  I don't believe any major changes are under consideration -- most of the proposals will probably be interpretations and clarifications of existing rules.  Many of the things have been (and will be) discussed in the CFCL Forums, so if you haven’t followed the debates over the past season now would be a good time to start catching up.  Likewise, if you have ideas or suggestions, now’s the time to let us know.

2006 Entrance Fee

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.

We voted on an increase before the 2004 and 2005 seasons, and in both cases 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.

First Pitch Forums - League Gathering?

Ron Shandler is once again bringing his fantasy baseball road show, the First Pitch Forum to the Chicago area (this time, to Oakbrook).  In past 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, the forum is scheduled for Saturday 25 at 1:00 PM. 

After missing out on last year's event, I'm hoping to be able to attend this one and  I would definitely be interested in meeting before or after with any owners who are going to be there.  If you’re thinking about going (or are interested in getting together with any owners who are), let me know and I’ll keep everyone who’s interested in the loop.

For information about the forums, visit:

            http://www.firstpitchforums.com

CFCL Rosters

Just a quick note on the Excel rosters that are posted in the Download Center.  Once we cut down to 23 players and cleared out some room in the Reserve List portion of the roster, I used that space to add some information about Rotation Draft Picks for each team.  

The first line indicates the number pick you typically have in each round of the Rotation Draft and how many draft picks you currently own.  So where it says "#3 Rotation Draft Pick (18)" for the Rebels, it means they'll typically draft third in each round and that they own 18 picks overall.

The next line indicates which draft picks you have traded away.  For the Ruffins it says "Traded:  3, 14", which means they've traded their 3rd and 14th round picks.

Finally, the lines after that list any draft picks you may have acquired and the team whose pick you'll be using.

X-Contracts Explained

Last year around this time there were several questions about X contracts -- how they're handled and what the options and requirements are for them.  I wrote a long explanation detailing how everything works and the reasoning behind it, and if you find yourself wondering about that type of thing, you can still find it online here.

In terms of this year, 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 2007.  They can, of course, be signed longer than that, for an additional .05 per year.

Note that the 2006 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 2005 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 2006.

Hometown Discount Watch

In 2006, the teams that finished in 5^th-12^th 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 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.

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.

Record Book

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