Saturday, February 26, 2011

2011 Pre Draft Schedule and Fun

Alrighty boys, despite all the snow on the ground progress is being made in Florida and Arizona to bring us baseball at the end of next month! That means it's almost time for the best day of the year - - DRAFT DAY!!! Below is a bunch of information regarding timelines, fees, and some new things I think you'll enjoy. Grab yourself a beverage and a snack bar and settle in. It's a long post.

Batting Leadoff - House Cleaning.
A while back I sent you your Owner Profile with new questions for 2011. If you haven't responded, please do (and if your name is Stranger Danger - a full Team Profile would be greatly appreciated).

Batting second - Timeline. Here's the timeline we're going to follow:

Roster Cut Sheets E-mailed - Monday, March 21, 2011
Roster Freeze Day - Sunday, March 27, 2011 (Cuts are due back and no more trades allowed)
Keeper/Cuts Announced - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 (Announcement probably sooner, but this will be my deadline).
Hard Freeze Day - Friday, April 1, 2011 (No joke - no more movement on the roster)
Draft Day - 1pm Saturday, April 2, 2011 (PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE plan on arriving at noon or shortly thereafter. The Ruffins will invoke their Privilege at 1pm SHARP!)

Batting third - Draft Location
We will be drafting in an opulent building in downtown Naperville. The exact address will be e-mailed at a later date. However we will have access to a fridge and microwave. The room we're drafting in has plenty of outlets for laptops though we'll need to bring extension cords/power strips. THERE IS NO INTERNET ACCESS AT THE BUILDING!!

Hitting Cleanup - Fees
This year the fees remain at $120 per team. Since OnRoto isn't making us pay until sometime in May, there is no need to send your payments in early. Please bring a check or cash to the draft. Kenn, if you want to make your brother pay for you (not unlike Tom Sawyer) feel free to do so.

Now for the fun part!!!!

Something Old
Your Executive Committee has been hard at work this off-season. We have discovered that OnRoto will allow us to have both FAAB and Waivers. All of us know what FAAB is. But only those long in the CFCL tooth know what Waivers is. I sent out an e-mail recently asking you to vote on whether to reinstate waivers [thank you to the seven owners who voted, giving us a simple majority to bring back waivers]. Here's a quick synopsis of waivers - we'll talk more in detail at the draft.

When you need to get rid of a player from your roster (due to a lopsided trade or acquiring another player via FAAB) we used to simply "release" or "drop" that player back into the Free Agent Pool. Now that we have waivers, that player will be "waived". Waiver period runs from when transactions are announced on Sunday through the following Sunday 3pm transaction deadline.

Players that are on Long Term Contracts (even in their final year) may not be waived. Players traded to the AL during the season may not be waived. If their original CFCL team doesn't want that player any longer, the player is released and cannot be reacquired unless he comes back to the National League.

Players that are acquired via waiver will retain their contract status. Their salary will be their current salary or .10 which ever is greater.

Waivers work in reverse order of the standings. As I said - We'll talk about all the details on Draft Day. The specific verbage regarding waivers will be added to the Constitution once David gets a chance.

Something New

This one come from the Creative Department of the DoorMatts.

K Wood Day - Each season, startng in 2011, the CFCL team whose active pitching staff records the most strikeouts on May 6th wins a $25 gift card to mlb.com.

The Natural Day - Each season, starting in 2011, the CFCL team whose active roster produces the highest aggregate total of total bases + runs + runs batted in on June 23rd wins a $25 gift card to mlb.com.

Lights Out Day - Each season, starting in 2011, the CFCL team whose active roster produces the lowest number of points on August 8th will be named Lights Out Loser and have that moniker posted on the CFCL Internet Headquarters marquee for the remainder of the season.

The above three dates symbolize significant dates in Chicago Cub history since the CFCL has been in existence. We've chosen to commemorate Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout performance, The Sandberg Game and lights being turned on at Wrigley Field with the above rewards.

Something Borrowed

To cover the gift cards for K Wood and The Natural Days, we will use the money we saved from switching from CBS to OnRoto. Here's a breakdown of costs.

Stat Service $99
Trophy Ball $7
Trophy $14
Prize Pool $1030
Gift Cards $50

Total $1200 ($120 per team). The cost for CBS is $160, so by spending $100 on OnRoto and $50 on gift cards we actually are able to increase our prize pool by $10 without increasing fees.

Something Blue
I've got nothing here. Cub fans, think Cubbie Blue. Reds and White Sox fans . . . look at the sky.

That's it for now. Thanks for getting to the end of the post - hope it was worth it.