Most Recent CFCL Report

NOTE: Since the priority for waiver claims goes in reverse order of the standings, you might want to give a list of 4-5 players you want, in the order of preference, in case your first couple picks don't work out.

Remember, you're allowed to attempt to claim as many players as you like. If you do claim more than one player, please RANK THEM IN THE ORDER OF PREFERENCE. This ranking may determine which players you do or do not get. For details on what happens if multiple teams claim the same player, see the Winter Waivers section (Article XVIII) of the Constitution. If you don't supply an explicit ranking, I'll assume the order that you name them is the order in which you want them.

All unclaimed (non-AL) players go into the Free Agent Pool for next year's Draft. Also, remember that if you want to claim a player on waivers, you must waive a player on your 23-man roster to make room for him. All the waived players will go through the second round of waivers.

Take a good look at the list, particularly you rebuilding teams -- as always there are likely to be some hidden gems of good talent and cheap potential available.

The salary and contract status that the player will receive if he is claimed is listed. W contract players will become D contracts on Draft Day, minor leaguers will keep their M contract status until they lose their rookie status or you activate them.

With keeper lists and cuts announced, trading can soon begin. Of course, talks can begin immediately, but nothing can be made official until after 4:00 PM on January 9. At that time, the off-season trading season officially begins and it will last until Roster Freeze Day, a week or so before the Draft.

Speaking of the Draft, here's a reminder again that our current target weekend for Draft Day is March 31-April 1. I’ve already heard from a few people – if anyone else already knows of a conflict with either of those dates, please let me know. We’ll have three owners traveling in from out of town, so the better we can set our date, the better.

The Monroe Doctrine

A conversation with Matt Bentel of the DoorMatts sparked this observation. Matt was listening to some sports talk show (WGN’s Sportscentral, I believe) and the hosts were massively massaging Bud Selig’s hindquarters and telling him what a great idea introducing the Wild Card was. So many teams now had a chance to make the playoffs. Well the numbers don’t prove that true. The one thing the Wild Card does (aside from watering down the value of the regular season) is that it keeps more teams in the playoff chase. But it hasn’t let more teams in the playoffs.

by Rich Bentel

Matt looked at how many teams have made the playoffs in the 12 years the Wild Card has been in existence (1995-2006). Twenty-three of the thirty teams have made it to the playoffs during this time frame, or 76.7% of the league. Now for comparison sake, if you look at the last twelve years PRIOR to the Wild Card (1982-1993 with 1994 being sent to the penalty box because Major League Baseball wanted to kill itself) what you find is that 88.5% of the teams (23/26) made a playoff appearance. Twenty three of twenty-six, vying for four playoff spots vs. twenty-three of thirty vying for eight playoff spots.

For the sake of this comparison, I did not include the Rockies, D-Rays, Diamondbacks or Marlins in the Pre-Wild Card Era since the Diamondbacks and D-Rays didn’t exist until there was a Wild Card and the Rockies and Marlins only played for one year in Pre-Wild Card days.

The answer to solving baseball’s woes is not to dilute the playoffs. It’s revenue sharing (with a salary cap and bottom) so every team has a legitimate chance at vying for the World Series title.

Here’s a few interesting facts:

The Pittsburgh Pirates made it to the playoffs 3 times in the 12 years prior to the Wild Card. They haven’t been to the playoffs since the Wild Card started.
The Kansas City Royals made it to the playoffs twice in the Pre-Wild Card timeframe, zero after.
Milwaukee Brewers made it once before, zero after.
Chicago Cubs are equally inept, twice before, twice after.
The New York Yankees DID NOT make the playoffs in the 12 years prior to the Wild Card! They have not missed the playoffs since the Wild Card was instituted.

If Bud wants to leave a worthwhile legacy, what he needs to do; instead of trying to turn the MLB into the NBA, NHL or NFL; is fix the problem. Fix the broken window, Bud! Stop adding more curtains.