Christmas Comes Early to the Line

The Kenndoza Line benefitted from some fortunate timing as well as heads up team management to secure two potential big pieces of their 2013 puzzle at very reasonable rates.

With 27 hours to spare before the Free Agent Bid Deadline for the week, the Red Sox and Dodgers completed a massive deal that sent a lot of Dodgers and Beatniks to Boston in exchange for four major leaguers.  We'll come back to the significance of the deal being done on Saturday versus, say Monday, in a moment.

With an influx of talent into the CFCL Free Agent Pool, bidding promised to be interesting.  Alas, it wasn't as interesting as it could have been.

The DoorMatt and Clowns had already spent themselves dry, so they had to sit on the sidelines for this one.  The Revenge (.10) and Ruffins (.07) also didn't have much fire power available for the bidding it would take to pick up Gonzalez, Crawford or Beckett.  That didn't stop them from making a Hail Mary bid, but they didn't have enough to be successful.

The big spenders that had a chance to pick up some 2013 pieces were the Beatniks (.35), Killers (.84) and Danger (.40).  The Line walked into the day with .39 left in their budget as well.  What figured to be a bidding war between the 10th, 8th, 6th and 5th place teams turned into a true silent auction as only the Line submitted bids out of the four teams.  The only stiff challenge came from Dem Rebels who pushed all in with their .20 budget for Adrian Gonzalez.  That wasn't near enough to beat out the Line who picked up Gonzalez for .26 and Carl Crawford for .13.

The amazing thing about the timing of the trade is this.  By the bids being submitted on Sunday, August 26, 2012, all players acquired (Gonzalez .26, Crawford .13 and Beckett .20 to the Rebels) receive a two year renewable contract.  Gonzalez has to be kept for 2013 lest the Line sacrifice .13 of their 2.60 on Draft Day.  Somehow the Line will suffer penciling in Gonzalez at first for .26.  This would have happened whether the Dodger/Red Sox trade took place Saturday or Monday.

Now, if the trade had been finalized on Monday, those players wouldn't have been available for bid until Sunday, September 2nd, 2012.  Any player acquired after September 1st receives an S contract and is released at the end of the 2012 season.  So Beckett and Crawford would not have the chance to be with the Rebels and Line, respectively, in this case.  Most likely, having just had Tommy John surgery last week, Crawford would not have received any bids anyway.

So if the Line finds themselves to be contenders next year they can thank the Dodgers and Red Sox for the 27 hour gift.