Latest CFCL Bulletin and Roster Changes

01/19/07

“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 offseason, 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 shorter Winter Waivers periods, there are only 3-4 days between transactions dates.  I wouldn't want possibly important information to disappear after only a couple of days.  With that in mind, I'll add new info at 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.

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

January 19

RUFFINS claim J Sanchez on waivers, waive R Doumit.

Click here for updated rosters in Excel format.
Click here for the 2007 Rotation Draft Pick Tracker

Winter Waivers

Here are the full details of the selections for the fourth 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 5 of waivers (the players waived above) will expire at 4:00 on Tuesday, January 23.

RUFFINS
J Sanchez

Still Running

Winter Waivers gets to hang on for a few more days thanks to the life support of the Ruffins.  Dave claims that his move this week was necessary because the Pirates acquired Adam LaRoche to play the position previously dedicated to Doumit.  I think he did it just to screw with my life, as I already had the "End of Winter Waivers" / "Get Ready for the Preseason" report written and ready to post.  Rich had even written a brand-new Monroe Doctrine.  That will all have to wait, though.

Instead, we'll have to content ourselves with one piddly waiver claim and one small, albeit very important announcement...

Draft Day 2007

While Sunday April 1 wasn’t a unanimous choice for Draft Day, it does appear to be the date that will ensure us the highest possible attendance.  While the start time is not definite, it would probably be safe to assume we’ll get started around 8:00 AM , as that’s seemed to work best in recent years.

We’ll have potentially three owners traveling in for the Draft, and since they’ll be making travel plans we should consider this date pretty solid.  Location-wise, we will most likely be at Rich’s office in Oak Brook (across the parking lot from the building we’ve used the past few Drafts.

Stat Service Musings

There also hasn’t been much response to the Forum thread about leaving TQStats in favor of a new service.  It could be that everyone that has an opinion has already posted it and has nothing new to add.  Or that people are pretty much ambivalent about a change.  Or feel they don’t have enough information.  Whatever the case, I’m still not sure what I should do when it comes time to renew at TQS in a couple weeks.  I’m tempted to forgo the “discount” period so we have time to evaluate the various services’ offerings once they become available.

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts that you haven’t shared yet, please do so.

LATE BREAKING NEWS:  While preparing this report, I noticed that CBS Sportsline seems to have their 2007 baseball sign-ups up and running.  If we sign up by Feb. 8, we not only get a $20 discount, but a bobble-head championship trophy.  I will investigate and post any findings in the Forum thread.

CFCL Rosters

The Excel rosters that are posted in the Download Center have, of course, been updated for the recent round of cuts and waivers.  In addition, now that roster sizes are down around the 23 players range and some room have become available in the Reserve List portion of the roster, I’ve added 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 "#6 Rotation Draft Pick (19)" for the Bulls, it means they'll typically draft sixth in each round and that they own 19 picks overall.

The next line indicates which draft picks you have traded away.  For Kenndoza Line it says "Traded:  7, 13", which means they've traded their 7th and 13th round picks.

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

The Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine is back again, and will hopefully continue to make fairly regular appearances throughout the season.  As noted last time, any other potential contributors should feel free to send something along. 
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.

Hometown Discount Watch

In 2007, the teams that finished in 5th-12th 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 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

Mo's Red Hots

78.0

100.00%

.06

Nick's Picts

71.5

91.67%

.05

David's Copperfields

63.0

80.77%

.04

Da Paul Meisters

50.0

64.10%

.03

Eric's Lambchops

41.5

53.21%

.03

Graging Bulls

41.0

52.56%

.03

Steve's Stones

38.0

48.72%

.02

Dem Rebels

22.5

28.85%

.01

Based on the 2006 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.

RED HOTS (.06)
   L Gonzalez (LA)
  A Everett  

PICTS (.05)
  J Schmidt
  B Looper
  M Ensberg

COPPERS (.04)
  C Reitsma
  B Schnieder

MEISTERS (.03)
  K Griffey
  T Glavine
  J Smoltz

LAMBCHOPS (.02)
  B Clark

BULLS (.03)
  no B contract players

STONES (.02)
  P LoDuca  

REBELS (.02)
  no B contract players

Record Book

Weekly Records Seasonal Records
CAT CFCL TEAM STAT PERIOD CAT CFCL TEAM STAT YEAR
TB Stones 195 7/3/04 TB Ruffins 3366 2006
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
Copperfields		 10 4/25/03
8/1/03
5/13/05
5/26/06		 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 Stones 13.00 7/14/06 K:BB Ruffins 3.04 2005
OFF Ruffins 59 2006
PIT Lambchops 57 2003
TOT Ruffins 111 2006

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