Early Draft Considerations

As you know, this year the CFCL will be conducting our Auction and Rotation Draft over a week earlier than is typical. Usually, we’re drafting the day before the season starts, so most NL rosters are fairly set - we have a good idea of which players will be opening the season on the major league rosters, who’s starting on the DL, and who will start things off in the minors.

This year, we’ll not only will we be drafting with a full week of spring training remaining, but we’ll need to submit our keepers, cuts, and contract information a week earlier than usual as well.

In order to ease the strain caused by the early draft, the Executive Committee recently discussed and agreed on some adjustments to our usual rules surrounding roster freeze and other Draft Day guidelines. In creating these provisions, we looked back on the experience from 2002, the last time we were forced to draft early.

In some cases we’re making exceptions to our usual rules, but in most cases we’re just clarifying and emphasizing our current rules so everyone is aware of the implications.

Pre-Season Calendar
To start, here’s what our Pre-Season and Opening Week Calendar will look like this year:

Tue Mar 16 - Roster Cut Sheets e-mailed
Mon Mar 22 - Roster Freeze Day (cut and keeper lists due)
Wed Mar 24 - Keepers/Cuts announced
Fri Mar 26 – Hard Roster Freeze (no more adjustments for demoted or DLed players)
Sat Mar 27 - DRAFT DAY
Mon Apr 4 - Opening Day rosters set
Fri Apr 9 - First regular season transaction date
Sun Apr 11 - First free agent acquisition date


Roster Freeze
Typically, lists of keepers and cuts must be submitted a week before Draft Day. We’re allowing a couple more days than that this year, with the Freeze being the Monday before the draft. The schedule calls for keepers and contract/salary changes to be announced by the Wednesday before the Draft. Rich will do his best to get this information out as soon as possible, but you can help considerably by ensuring that the information you submit to him is complete and correct, eliminating the need for him to track you down to verify your intent or fix errors.

If you have players sent to the minors or placed on the DL after Roster Freeze Day, you will have the opportunity to place them on your Reserve List up to the Hard Roster Freeze on Friday evening. Note, however, that you will NOT be allowed to move players from Reserve to Active during this time.


Placing Injured Keepers on Reserve
According to our rules, players on major league contracts can only be placed on the Reserve List if he has been officially placed on the Disabled List by his NL team. Unfortunately, major league teams routinely wait until the end of Spring Training to place players on the DL, even in the case where it is known weeks in advance that the player will miss significant time.

We will address these situations as we did in 2002. The Executive Committee will evaluate potential DL players on a case-by-case basis. If the EC concludes there is a preponderance of evidence that the player will open the season on the DL (torn rotator cuff, broken leg, knee surgery), the player’s CFCL owner will be allowed to place him on the Reserve List prior to the Hard Roster Freeze. Note that there will be a significant standard of evidence required for such consideration. The EC will review online news stories in evaluating each situation, and statements such as “will likely start the season on the DL”, “won’t be ready for Opening Day”, “might miss the first week” will probably NOT be enough to allow a player to be Reserved.

To keep things transparent and above board, we will probably set up a thread in the Forums for discussion of cases like these.


Minor League Keepers
In a similar vein, CFCL owners will need to decide earlier than usual whether to place their minor leaguers (Mx contracts) on the Active Roster or Reserve List going into the Draft. Our current rules sufficiently address the hazards of drafting early, but we’re mentioning this here to ensure all CFCLers understand the implications and consequences of where you place Mx contract players. For the full details of the rules, be sure to read the section titled “Protecting Mx Contract Players” in the Constitution – the rules covered there will be in effect for this season without change. The two situations you need to be aware of:

1) If you place an Mx player on your Active Roster at the freeze deadline and he does NOT make his NL team’s Opening Day roster, the player can be reserved and his contract will be reset to Mx (if the player is sent down before the Hard Freeze deadline, this move can be made before Draft Day).

2) If you place an Mx player on your Reserve List at the freeze deadline and he DOES make his NL team’s Opening Day roster, you will not be allowed to trade or activate him until July 1. The player’s contract will remain Mx until he reaches the minimum number of plate appearances or innings pitched.

As noted earlier, this is not a change from our standard rules, but given our early Draft, it’s more important ever to carefully consider where you place players on Roster Freeze Day.


Contracts of Players Acquired On Draft Day
This is another item that is not a change from our standard rules, but something we wanted to make sure everyone understands prior to Draft Day.

The player pool on Draft Day will be loaded with players who will end up getting demoted before the season starts. Players acquired in the Auction portion of Draft Day will receive a major league (12+) contract, even if they are subsequently sent to the minor leagues before Opening Day. So don’t come to the auction expecting to load up your roster with a bunch of Mx contract players for a penny each.

Players acquired in the Rotation Draft will have their contract determined by their status on Opening Day. Rotation Draft players who are on NL Opening Day rosters or disabled lists will receive a major league (12+) contract, while players who are in the minors, still meet the rookie PA and IP rules, and have never been active on a CFCL roster will receive an Mx contract.


Post-Draft Roster Moves
The salary cap will increase to $3.00 immediately following Draft Day. This will allow teams to do any shuffling between Active and Reserve to prepare their rosters for Opening Day. Likewise, trading will be allowed starting immediately after the Draft.

The first day for Free Agent Bids will be Sunday April 11, a full week into the season.


If you have any questions or concerns about the information we’ve covered here – or think we may have missed something, please let the Executive Committee know.