Draft Day 2013

The clock is ever ticking toward Draft Day 2013 (CFCL Turns 30!) and thus we have our Pre-Draft Preparation to take care of.

An e-mail has been sent out with your Roster Cut Sheet.  Please complete it and return it to me no later than Sunday, noon, March 24th.  My goal is to have updated rosters posted by that evening.  Whether or not that happens depends largely on you.  Did you turn the sheet in on time?  Did you fill it out correctly?  Are you within salary and positional limits?  If the answer to those questions is yes, then you all will see who was kept and whom was cut by Sunday night.  If I have to chase someone down to clarify a keeper or cut, or correct a long-term salary calculation or whatever, then that just leaves the league with less draft prep time.

** REMINDER**  Once you submit your Roster Cut Sheet back to me IT'S FROZEN!!!  No changes allowed!!  If you plan on making any trades, the trades must be complete and legal BEFORE the Cut Sheet is submitted.

I would encourage all of you to use the Constitution if you have any roster cut questions.  But as always I am happy to answer any and all questions you may have.  It would be better to have those questions answered prior to Sunday the 24th.

While the Constitution lays out pretty well how to make cuts, here are a couple of reminders.

1)  If at the time you are submitting your cuts, a player on your roster is on an AL roster, that player HAS TO BE CUT.

2)  When you are deciding who to put on your active roster and whom to put on your reserve list, keep this in mind.  Everyone is supposed to be on the active roster.  Many times we look for reasons to activate a player from the reserve list rather than vice-versa.  Everyone is on your active list.  If a player is sent to the minors then that player is eligible to be reserved.  But if you have a minor leaguer (Dem Rebels with Casey Kelly) who is still in major league camp at the time of the cuts, then Casey is only eligible to be on the active pitching roster of Dem Rebels.  If Kelly gets sent down between the 24th and Draft Day, then the Rebels have the option of reserving him (not releasing him).

This is how you are to approach your roster, not the other way around where you look for reasons to make the player active.  Any questions - e-mail me.

Matt Grage has once again volunteered to provide the Master Draft List.  Thank you, Matt.

Now on to fees.  Every team owes $120 in fees no later than Draft Day.  Cash or check is fine.  If you want to pay in advance, you are more than welcome to mail a check to my home.  If the Ruffins want to coerce their proxy to pay their dues, whatever.  As long as we collect $120 from each team, we're good.  According to the Constitution, fees are due with Roster Cuts.  That made sense back when everything was snail mailed.  In the age of e-mailing roster cuts we have allowed payment to take place on Draft Day.  The Constitution also states that a team not submitting fees will not be allowed to participate in the draft.  Please don't make the EC judge on that.  Matt Bentel has agreed to be Sargent of Arms and collect the fees from each team.

The fees will cover OnRoto's cost, the trophy, trophy ball, 2 $25 gift cards for in-season contests and prize pool.

Now, on the actual day of the draft.  We will draft at my office, just like last year.  Address - 4300 Commerce Court, Suite 300, Lisle IL in the Daily Herald building.  You will have use of a fridge and microwave.  There are vending machines for drinks and snacks and I will be providing the traditional fare of licorice and pretzels.  No alcohol or smoking allowed and our goal is to leave the room cleaner than we found it so be careful with crumbs.

The actual draft will start at 1pm wherein the Ruffin Privilege will be invoked.  Prior to that I will be passing out draft sheets, covering any necessary rules, taking the league photo, handing out awards from last year, having everyone sign the trophy ball (please everyone, let Coulter sign in the Position of Honor under the Cub Logo.  We seem to screw that up every year.) and electing our Executive Committee.  I would suggest owners start arriving between 12 noon and 12:30.  I will be there before noon in case anyone arrives early.  If we can begin the business side of things by 12:30, we should be able to get the draft started by 1pm.

That should be it.  If I've forgotten anything I will post an addendum here, so it might make sense to stop by the Front Office once a week or so to check on any updates.

Happy Draft Prep!