"We
used to go to the racetrack after spring training practice in my
day. Four of us would chip in fifty cents each to go to the
two-dollar window. Yesterday I asked a player how he did at the
track. He said 'My horse won.' I said, 'How much did it pay?'
The player said, 'No, coach, I didn't bet on the horse, I own
it.'"-
Mickey Vernon,Yankee
coach, 1985
RUFFINS trade E Byrnes (.09D) to DEM REBELS for C Hart (.05D)
and the Graging Bulls’ 8th round Rotation Draft pick in 2007.
January 29
GRAGING BULLS trade M Jacobs (.06C) and Paul Maholm (.04D) and
their 2007 5th round Rotation Draft pick to the RED HOTS for C Young
(.16D) and their 3rd and 13th round Rotation Draft picks.
In recent voting, the CFCL
owners elected to change nothing much at all.All franchises except the DoorMatts, Splinters, and Da Paul Meisters
participated in the voting.
In
a fascinating development, two of the owners who chose not to submit a ballot were the owners
responsible for developing and submitting two of the proposals under
consideration!Just when you
think you’ve seen everything…
Despite
the odd participation, here are the results of the bidding:
In
nearly unanimous votes the CFCL decided to retain Total Quality Stats as the
league’s stat provider and to continue the practice of e-mailing all roster
moves to the League Secretary rather than requiring each owner to enter their
own moves at the stat service.
In
a close 5-4 vote, the owners voted to continue discussing the D+ contract
proposal for extending the ownership period of former minor leaguers.Discussion will continue in the existing
thread on the Forum.
Fees
for 2007 will remain the same as they were in 2006.As per the Constitution’s Escalator Clause, we will vote on raising
the fees by $5 prior to the 2008 season.
Draft Day 2007
By
now everyone should know that Draft Day 2007 is scheduled for Sunday
April 1.Rich has secured the conference room in his company’s Oak Brook office.Note that this is different building than the one we’ve used in the
past.Not too far away, though –
it’s just across the parking lot.
Our
planned starting time is
8:00 AM
, but happily Daylight Savings got moved up a few weeks, so we won’t be losing
out on that hour of sleep (or Draft prep) that we did in years gone by.
As always, everyone is responsible for bringing his own lunch
and drinks for the day. The office
environment precludes alcohol, of course...There will be limited fridge space available, plus a microwave for
warming things up.I will provide
the traditional Old Gold pretzel rods and Twizzlers.
If
you plan on bringing a PC to the Draft, make sure you also bring an extension
cord and a power strip.There are a
limited number of outlets, and not everyone will be able to sit right next to
one.
There will be plenty more Draft Day information coming your
way as the date draws near.Speaking
of dates…
Pre-Season Calendar
Along with Draft Day, here’s a list of other important
dates you should know:
Roster cut sheets will be
sent out
Roster Freeze Day
List of Keepers released Draft Day
Opening Day Rosters must be set
First Regular Transaction Reporting Deadline
Wednesday, March 21
Monday, March 26, 6:00 PM
Wednesday, March 29 Sunday,
April 1, 8:00 AM Monday, April 2, Noon
Sunday, April 8, 6:00 PM
The Administrative Pre-Season will kick off on March 21 when
Roster Cut Sheets will be sent to CFCL owners.Roster Cut Sheets will be sent via e-mail in Excel Format.If you do not have Excel on your computer, you can download a free Excel
reader from Microsoft -- there's a link in the Download
Center of the website.
If you have Excel and it would be easiest for you, you’re
free to edit the Roster Cut Sheet and send it back to me.Otherwise, you can type the players you're keeping and cutting, plus any
contract information into an e-mail.
If there are any questions about how the process works, check
the relevant portions of the Constitution or contact me.
Total Quality Stats
Once the votes on a possible stat service change were
compiled, I signed us up with TQS for 2007 and updated all the rosters to
reflect Winter Waiver action. If you haven't done so yet, please
head on over to the site and check to make sure I've got your rosters correct
in terms of players, salaries, and contracts.A couple owners have already contacted me with
things I needed to fix, so make sure you take the time to check.
Also,
Bob noticed a thread on the RotoJunkie message boards about some leagues having
problems with their rosters after renewing with TQS – problems such as the
rosters being, like, gone.Ours
appear to have come through OK and have remained in place as I’ve updated the
rosters with waiver claims and trades.This
is something to keep an eye on, though, as it seems the TQS support folks
aren’t being nearly as responsive as they have in the past.For the curious, here’s the thread:
Finally,
while we’re on the topic of rosters, here’s a reminder that the official
rosters of record – especially in terms of salaries and contracts – are the
Excel rosters posted in the
Download
Center
.That’s the source I’ll be
using to create the Roster Cut forms, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to confirm
the accuracy of your roster there as well.
Money
When I registered with TQS, I had to pay the renewal fee of
$89.While far from healthy, my bank
account as able to bear this burden, but if anyone would like to get a jump on
paying their 2007 fees, I wouldn’t mind being reimbursed.
Remember that you’ll be required to send a check to cover
all your expenses by Roster Freeze Day.Your
cuts won't be processed until your fees have been paid, which means if Freeze
Day rolls around and you're not paid up, we'll start cutting players from your
roster at random until you're down to 15. If you'd like to be assured of
avoiding such a fate, you can pay your fees now and get it out of the way.
Here’s a breakdown on what you're paying for:
Entrance Fee
Banquet/Trophy Stat Service Total
$78.00
$15.00
$ 7.00 $100.00
Make
checks out to David Mahlan and send them to:
David Mahlan
1431 Palmer
Downers Grove
,
IL
60516
You can also pay via PayPal
by sending $101.50 to [email protected].
The extra $1.50 is to cover the cost of PayPal cutting a check and mailing it to
me.
First Pitch Forum - Pre-Draft Gathering?
At least one CFCL owner has already registered for the
BaseballHQ First Pitch Forum in Oak Brook on Saturday March 10, and it sounds
like a few others are considering it, including the Co-Commissioners.
Last year Eric, Teddy, and I got together for a late lunch
afterwards and I imagine those of us who attend will do the same this year.If you’re thinking of going to the Forum, or even just want to meet up
afterwards (approx.
3:00
), let me know.
According to the official league records, the following
players are eligible to be signed to X-year contracts this spring:
Zach Duke (Da Paul Meisters)
Chris Burke (DoorMatts)
Brian McCann (Graging Bulls)
Ian Snell (Graging Bulls)
Jeff Francouer (Splendid Splinters)
JJ Hardy (Splendid Splinters)
If you think I've missed someone (entirely possible), let me
know and I'll look into it.
In order for a player to be eligible
for an X contract, he must meet the following requirements:
He must have been drafted as a minor
leaguer (M contract)
He may have been traded while a
minor leaguer, but he must still be owned by the team that owned him when his
contract changed from M to D
If you’ve got X contract-eligible players, see the CFCL
Constitution for details about your options for signing these players at roster
cut time.It would also be worth
taking a look at the treatise X
Contracts Explained, which appeared in a previous report, so you’ll know
what you’re getting yourself into.
Draft Picks
We’re coming to that point in the pre-season when Rotation
Draft picks can start changing hands at a pretty rapid pace.Keep in mind that there are a few tools available on the website to help
keep Rotation Draft picks straight:
At the end of the Roster Changes
section of this Report, there is a link to the 2007Rotation
Draft Pick Tracker.This
is a web page that lists all of the draft picks owned by each team and also
indicates those picks that have been traded away.
The Excel roster sheet (available in
the Download
Center) lists all of the draft picks that have been traded away and been
acquired by each team.The number in
parenthesis at the top of the list is the total number of draft picks owned by
that team.
The
Download
Center
also includes the full
listing of all 2007draft
picks, broken out by round and fully updated for all trades to date.This can be found under the 2007 Draft Prep section.
2007 National League Spring Training Rosters
Speaking of the Draft Prep
section in the
Download
Center
, the spreadsheet with the NL Spring Training rosters has been posted.I’ll update it nearly daily to reflect demotions, etc. during March,
and the file will form the basis of our Draft Pool on April 1.
The
Monroe Doctrine
The
rebirth of the Monroe Doctrine has provided a few things.
It
has provided me many flashbacks to the early days of the
CFCL where I would sit at my pretend job at the Savings
and Loan and do the serious work of cranking out the
Monroe Doctrine, looking for any way possible to insult
the resident CFCL punching bag, Bob Monroe.
It
has re-opened a creative outlet for the few remaining gray
cells between my ears which I am hoping you all will enjoy
over the course of the season.
by Rich Bentel
In
fact, I have been overwhelmed with the kind words about my
early submissions.Amazingly
… these kind words have been immediately followed with
trade offers and proposals.
And
mind you the e-mails don’t lead with the trade proposal
and follow with a cast off line of “Oh yeah, read the
Monroe Doctrine.Nice.”The lead-in is how much the Monroe Doctrine is
being enjoyed:“Can’t
wait to read the next one,” “I skip past the rest of
the report to read the Monroe Doctrine first”, and then
the trade offer comes.So while I’m awash in the glow of adulation,
I’m thinking “Gee that Matt is a swell fellow.I should do business with such a nice guy.”
And
I know that you vultures KNOW THIS!!!So here I am looking at Augie Ojeda for Derek Lee
and Prince Fielder, thinking “Hmm, this seems a little
lopsided.But
I must be missing something because he wouldn’t be
trying to screw me.I
mean ‘He likes me, he really likes me!’”
So,
just as I am about to pull the trigger on the deal, my
five year old (Kristi [named for Mathewson] Grace [named
for Mark]) glances over my shoulder and says “Papa are
you nuts?You
have to at least get a 4th round draft pick in
return as well!”And
then … the spell is broken.
I
come to my senses and say “Hah!Your flirtatious overtures WILL NOT work!Oh sure, I traded a young stud in the making to the
Current CFCL Champions for a guy that couldn’t be
successful in
Colorado
before they installed the humidors.But last year he found himself!He likes the dry, desert air instead of the thin,
mile-high air.271
Totals Bases and 25 steals.I know, I know, past performance is not indicative
of future returns, I mean I’m not a total idiot.And Dave even said how much he enjoyed reading the
Monroe Doctrine and that if I ‘was able to crank them
out amid life’s other distractions he would read ‘em.’Can you get over that?A tenured professor, busy trying to make sense of
the crazy Presidential Race that will be decided in 22
short months saying that he will find time to read my
meager words.How
can you not trust a guy that a UNIVERSITY has entrusted
with the minds of the next generation?”
Helloooo
my all-too-familiar home, 12th place.
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.
