COPPERFIELDS sign T Graffanino (.07), reserve J Vidro, waive B Mueller.

COPPERFIELDS sign M Bowie (.05), reserve G Geary, waive M LeCroy.

KENNDOZA LINE reserve A Pettitte, activate T Tankersley.

KENNDOZA LINE reserve D Bush, activate J Hancock.

BULLS reserve C Denorfia, activate C Ross.

BULLS reserve P Maholm, activate C Bradford.

BULLS reserve J Sanchez, activate R King.

LAMBCHOPS reserve M O'Connor, activate O Villareal.

LAMBCHOPS sign J Maine (.06), reserve M Hendrickson, release J Keppinger.

LAMBCHOPS sign T Gwynn (.05), reserve him, waive B Sweeney.

PICTS reserve D Marte, activate B Tomko.

PICTS reserve J Capellan, activate R Wolf.

PICTS reserve T Saito, activate B Moehler.

PICTS reserve B Medders, activate B Lyon.

PICTS sign S Hillenbrand, reserve A Nunez, waive C Aguila.

RED HOTS reserve A Embree, activate R Ortiz.

RUFFINS reserve A Escobar, activate C Quentin.

Trade Deadline

The CFCL trade deadline is Noon on Tuesday August 1.  This is 21 hours after the MLB interleague trade deadline (3:00 PM Central on Monday July 31). 

All CFCL trades must be reported, along with all corresponding moves, by Noon next Tuesday.  The “all corresponding moves” part means that if you make trades on Tuesday you must:  1) be at or under the salary cap ($3.50), 2) have 23 active players that fit the position requirements, and 3) have no more than 17 players on your Reserve List.

IFAB Day

Tuesday August 1 is also IFAB (Interleague Free Agent Bidding) Day.  All players who come to the NL between now and Tuesday will be eligible for bidding (assuming they all make it onto the TQS Free Agent list).  Remember, bidding is not limited to players who just came over in trades.  Players who are currently in the free agent pool are also eligible for bidding on IFAB Day.

The deadline for IFAB Day bids is 4:00 PM Central on Tuesday August 1.  Note that this is 4 hours after the CFCL trade deadline – this will give everyone a chance who made trades on Monday morning a chance to calculate room remaining under the salary cap, etc.

If I get the chance, I will publish current salary levels and FAAB balances for all teams on the website by Monday.  If you want to be proactive, check the Excel rosters in the Download Center to make sure what I have down as your FAAB balance matches what you think it is.  Remember, you can hover your cursor over the cell that contains your FAAB balance and a list will display showing all the free agents you’ve acquired during the year and what you paid for them.

Workday

As it did last year, the CFCL Trade Deadline and IFAB Day falls on a weekday.  In the past, when the big day fell on the weekend I was free most of the day to check e-mail, send out updates, verify associated moves, etc.  During the week, however, I'm being paid to do something else, so my time won't be as free.

I'll try my best to post updates about trades as they are made, but I'd advise everyone to take extra care to make sure they've got their transactions in order.  Make sure you include all necessary associated moves, are under the salary cap, don't overspend your available FAAB, etc.  Chances are good that I won't be able to respond quickly if any of your moves are invalid, and I definitely won't be able to track you down via phone.  Likewise, I'll be sticking strictly to the deadlines -- your trades/bids/moves must be in and complete by the appropriate deadline or they're no good. 

Probably the best place to check for trade updates will be the Forum -- I can no longer post to AOL (where the News page is hosted) from the office ... though I may try to work something out.

History Lesson

Recently, during an e-mail exchange about a trade, Kenn remarked about this year's pennant race and asked if there was a history of great CFCL pennant races on the website.  

While we don't have a section devoted to that (maybe we should?), it is something I've covered in Reports in the past.   Here's a write-up I posted around this time of year in 2004:

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The CFCL has seen quite a few pennant races in its 21 years. Once (1999) we even had to go to two tie breakers before the Six Packs were declared the winner over the second-place Copperfields. Close finishes between two teams are one thing, but now we’re talking about 3 teams locked in a battle for the top spot. There have been a few examples of three-team races in our past.

At this time in 1987 David’s Copperfields (67), Bald Eagles (64.5), and Paul’s Penguins (64) led the pack. The Copperfields went on to win their first ever Championship, scoring 73 points to the second place Eagles’ 66. The Penguins finished a distant third, at 57.

In 1988, 3.5 points separated the top three teams at this point in the season. The Copperfields led, with 68.5, trailed by Dem Rebels (66), and the Bald Eagles (65.5). The Eagles soared into the lead with 5 weeks to go, only to have the Copperfields sneak by in the season’s final days, finishing once again with 73 points to the Eagles’ 72. The Rebels dropped back to finish at 62.5.

When it comes to 3-team races, though, the thrilling story is 1991. At the end of July in that year, the Six Packs were in first with 67.5 points. The Lambchops were back at 62, while the Bald Eagles and Copperfields sat in third place with 59 points. By the end of August, the Eagles had pulled even with the Six Packs at 67. The Lambchops were right on their heels at 66.5, but the Copperfields had fallen back to 56 points.

With a week left to play, things hadn’t loosened up a bit. The Bald Eagles had pulled into the lead with 67.5 points. They were followed by the Six Packs at 67 and the Lambchops at 66.5.

The suspense was even worse than it might seem. These were the pre-Internet, pre-stat service days of the CFCL when I did the weekly stats by hand. 1991 was also the year I got married. On September 28. Here’s what I had to say in the weekly report for prior to the season’s last week:

That’s just about it on transactions for the year. The only things that are allowed in the final reporting period are waiver claims and activations from the Reserve List.

Well, dudes, I am outta here, on my way to wedded bliss. Rich will be handling things until I get back, which should be sometime around the 14^th of October…Good luck to the Six Packs, Lambchops, and Eagles. As we go into the last week of the season, they all still have a chance to win it. Thanks, guys, for the best pennant race in CFCL history.

That’s it. I left town with the best pennant race in CFCL history unresolved. Of course, while I was in San Francisco on my honeymoon I made sure to pick up a USA Today so I had the final stats, but I left the Lambchops, Eagles, and Six Packs in suspense – I didn’t get the chance to compute the final standings until I got back home in mid-October, and didn’t announce the results until the Awards Banquet late that month.

And how did things end up? The three teams finished separated by a single point. The Eagles won their first and only Championship, finishing with 68 points. The Six Packs and Lambchops both finished with 67 points, the Packs winning the tie breaker for second place, 5 categories to 3.

There’s more to the story of the 1991 season, though. Back in those days, when a minor leaguer owned by a CFCL team was called up to the majors, his CFCL team had to activate him within 2 weeks or waive him. That year, the Six Packs owned Dodger shortstop prospect Jose Offerman. So when the Dodgers called Offerman up in early August, the Six Packs were faced with a dilemma. They were sitting in first place, leading by over 5 points. Even so, sticking a rookie in the middle of their infield for two and a half months was a risky proposition (this was also the days before free movement between active and reserve rosters). On the other hand, the Six Packs didn’t want to give up a Future Fountain of Stolen Bases. In the end, they decided their 5+ point lead was solid enough, activated Offerman, and waived seldom-used middle infielder Chico Walker.

CFCL oldtimers know the rest of this story. Offerman was basically a bust that first half season, and while Chico Walker didn’t set the world afire, he did produce enough HR and RBI that the Six Packs would have finished in first had they kept him active. Things were that close. Kelly’s fatal decision has gone down in CFCL lore as The Chico Incident. Several years later at the Draft, Kelly recounted the whole thing, and you can hear it in his own words by visiting the 1995 Draft in the Draft Histories section of the CFCL website.

Hometown Discount Watch

In 2007, the teams that finished in 5^th-12^th place in 2006 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.

Record Book

Week Ending 07/28:  No new records were set this week.