Moore Better - Stones Trade

Another CFCL rookie makes his debut in the CFCL trade market.

Moore Better has sent Derek Turnbow (2-9) to Steve's Stones for Tony Gwynn Jr (1-9) and Will Inman (5-M).

2008 - Fee Increase!

For the first time since we put the Fee Escalator clause in place (7 or so years ago), CFCL owners have used it to raise the annual entrance fee. By a vote of 8-2 (the DoorMatts and Moore Better abstained), league owners elected to raise the fee by $5 to $105 per team. The full $5 amount for each team will go directly into the prize pool.

Those teams that have already paid their 2008 teams can pay the additional $5 on Draft Day.

For those who haven't ponied up for this year, an e-mail will be sent with information on paying 2008 fees.

IMPORTANT: CBS Sportsline News

A few important notes about CFCL happenings at our stat service:

• I have moved all players on each team to the Reserve List. I've read in various forums that unless this is done prior to a new season position eligibility won't be updated for the new season. In other words guys who qualified at a position in 2007 based on 2006 games played would still be allowed there even if they didn't play the required 20 games at the position in 2007. Just to be safe, I thought it would be best to reserve everyone and hopefully reset position eligibility for 2008.
• This moving of players to reserve has an additional benefit -- it will allow a kind of Spring Training for each of you. With the new transaction processes, you will each be responsible for making your own active/reserve moves each Monday and Friday. I know many of you have never done this before, so this will give you some practice and moving guys between Active and Reserve and setting positions. You should all have access to do this on your team page at Sportsline, and it should be pretty intuitive -- on my view there are simply drop-down boxes at the far right for each player: one to set Active or Reserve, and the other to set positions. Give it a try and let me know if you have any questions.
• I've also turned off the ability to set keepers at Sportsline - we'll be using the traditional (for the CFCL) method of the Excel cut sheets. There are a couple reasons for this - first, as Commissioner at Sportsline, I'd be able to see your keepers and cuts prior to the cut deadline, which wouldn't be fair. Also, there seems to be a pretty hard and fast number of keepers, and we allow more flexibility than Sportsline does (variable number of minor league keepers, etc). While I originally thought using Sportsline for keepers would save me a ton of administrative overhead, it now looks like it would be a lot more trouble than help.

Ruffins - Bulls Trade

Things continue the heat up on the trading front, as the Graging Bulls send recetnly-acquired Rich Hill(10-8) to the Ruffins for Mark Reynolds (9-9).

So this is the first trade report using the newly-proposed contract status system. Is it clear to everyone? Hill's salary is .10 and his contract is up for renewal in 2008, while Reynolds is at .09 and will be up for renewal in 2009. In the old parlance, Hill is .10C and Reynolds is .09D.

Bulls - Clowns Trade

The Candy Colored Clowns make it a trifecta, with their third trade of the day.

This one has them acquiring Stephen Drew (.02C) and the Graging Bulls' 10th round Rotation Draft pick in 2008 in exchange for Rich Hill (.10C) and John Maine (.06C).

Copperfields - Clowns Trade

Hot on the heels of this morning's announcement, the Clowns completed a second deal, sending Jimmy Rollins (.38D) and their 9th round Rotation Draft pick in 2008 to the Copperfields for Ken Griffey Jr (.13D) and Aaron Rowand (.24D).

Red Hots - Clowns Trade

Mo's Red Hots and the Candy Colored Clowns have combined on the first deal of the CFCL pre-season, and the first in Clown history.

The Hots sent Kelly Johnson (.20D) and Jason Hirsh (.05D) to the Clowns for Chris Snyder (.01C) and Bronson Arroyo (.06C).

Draft Day Housekeeping, Pre-Season Calendar, Etc.

Draft Day 2008
By now I hope you've all seen the Draft Day Countdown Clock on the main CFCL page. Matt G's favorite spring tradition is now winding it's way steadily toward 8:00 AM on Sunday March 30, otherwise known as Draft Day 2008.

Rich just recently got confimation that we can once again use the large conference room at his company's Oak Brook office for our Draft Day HQ, which is good news. As has been the routine in recent years, everyone will be responsible for brining his own lunch, snacks, and drinks for the day. If the need to stay sharp and focused for a steady 8 hours wouldn't dissuade you from bringing alcohol as your beverage of choice, the rules of the office certainly should, so as always, keep the drinks soft. We'll have access to a limited amount of refrigerator space, as well as a microwave for heating things.

And it wouldn't be Draft Day without the official snack foods of Rold Gold pretzel rods and Twizzlers licorice, so I'll bring some of each for the gang.

If you are going electronic and plan on bringing a laptop to the Draft, make sure you also bring an extension cord or two and a power strip. There are a limited number of outlets available, and not everyone will be able to sit next to one. If I recall, we had cords criss-crossing the room last year, so be sure you come prepared (or ensure your laptop battery is on PEDs).

More on Draft Day to come in the next few weeks as the date approaches. Speaking of dates...

Pre-Season Calendar
Here is a list of important dates for the next month or so:

Roster cut sheets will be sent out:
- Wednesday March 19

Roster Freeze Day:
- Monday March 24, 4:00 PM

List of Keepers released:
- Wednesday March 26

Draft Day:
- Sunday March 30, 8:00 AM

Opening Day Rosters must be set:
- Monday, April 1, Sportsline Deadline

First Regular Transaction Reporting Date:
- Friday, April 4

We'll kick off the Administrative Pre-Season on March 19 when roster cut shees will be e-mailed out. These will be the Excel forms we've used in the past, and you can either enter your cuts and keepers directly into the form and e-mail it back or you can type your info into an e-mail and send it to me that way.

I do notice there's a feature on the Sportsline site that allows you to enter keepers there. I'm not sure if we'll be using that because I don't know enough about how it works. For example, if someone submits their cuts a few days early, do those become visible to everyone? If we do decide to use it, though, it may affect the timeline above a little.

2008 Fees
All fees must be paid in full 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.

I recently sent out an e-mail calling for votes on fee increases (as called for by the Constitution). Once that vote has been completed and we know exactly what the 2008 fees will be, I'll send out another e-mail with payment information.

The X-Files
Based on a perusal of the CFCL records, the following players are eligible to be signed to an X-tra Year contract this spring:

• Prince Fielder (Dem Rebels)
• Lastings Milledge (Bulls)
• Connor Jackson (Bulls)
• Stephen Drew (Bulls)
• Chad Billingsley (Bulls)
• Matt Cain (Picts)
• Russ Martin (Kenndoza Line)

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 leaguers, 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. I also suggest you take a look at X Contracts Explained so you'll have an idea of what you're getting into.

Hometown Discounts
A number of CFCL teams own Hometown Discount rights for certain players available in this year's draft. I will be posting details on this soon, so keep an eye out for it.

Some Nice Things You May Have Missed
Notable Front Office blog posts that appeared since the time of the last formal report:

• Say Hello to Michael and Tim
• NL Spring Training Rosters
• The Monroe Doctrine Returns