Banquet and Rule to Vote on

The ballots are in and have been tabulated.  Thank you to all  who took the time to vote and submit your ballots.  Currently the certificates are being created and so it's time to plan the Banquet.  As a reminder, the Banquet is more accurately a "gathering".  If we have enough attendees we'll plan on hitting a sports bar of some sort, standing around some high tops so it's easy for us to move around and have various conversations, rather than sitting at a long table making diverse conversation almost impossible.

With Thanksgiving looming, it looks like we'll be shooting for December.  I have some commitments the first weekend of the month so for now let's target Sunday, December 13th as the date.  Shall we say 7ish?  Keep in mind, by no means does my schedule restrictions trump any of yours.  Since the prize money has been mailed to our out of state winners and the trophy will be awards on Draft Day 2016, this really is more of a CFCL gathering than anything else.  So if the majority of you can make some other day/date, we'll go with that.

We are still looking for a new owner.  Owner Emeritus Mahlan, while not gracious enough to agree to rejoin the league despite my constant badgering HAS agreed to handle Winter Waivers if we don't have a new owner in place by January.  We (and when I say "we" I mean "David) have placed an ad on one of the Fantasy Baseball sites saying we're in the market for a new owner.  So far no responses.

Your Executive Committee was hard at work during the season addressing an issue that arose for one of the teams this year and has been an issue in years past.  We have a proposal that we'll need everyone to vote on.  Here's the deal.

Last year a team had run out of their FAAB, was past the trade deadline and had an injury to a player that had no positional replacement on the reserve list.  Rather than carry an inactive player on his active roster for the remainder of the season and have it not only impact his ability to move up in the standings but also potentially have a negative impact on the pennant race, the EC came up with a solution.  This solution wasn't able to be enacted during the 2015 season, but we propose it to the league as a whole as a solution for ensuing years.

Introducing the ".00 Bid".  In the event a team has exhausted their FAAB AND it is after the trade deadline AND they have an injury or demotion or retirement or death that has occurred to a player on their Active Roster AND they have no legal positional replacement on their Reserve Roster, they may submit a .00 bid for a player from the Free Agent Pool.

Each team, regardless of injuries or remaining FAAB (or lack thereof) has a responsibility to field a competitive, active roster for the entire season.  So in the event of the above, a team will be allowed to submit a .00 bid to acquire a player to fill the void on their Active Roster.

The .00 bid may only be used if the FAAB is exhausted, there are no legal positional replacements on the Reserve Roster and it's after the trade deadline.  The .00 bid, obviously, will take the lowest priority of all bids, therefore it would be wise for the owner submitting a .00 bid to submit multiple .00 bids in order to acquire someone that can fit on the active roster.  A successfully acquired .00 bid player will be assigned a .05 salary for fairness with the salary cap.  They will also receive an "R" contract (R standing for "Release" at the end of the current season).  This player is basically a Rented Player (Hey!  Another R potential - this has so many levels!)  And since the player can only be acquired after the trade deadline, it seems redundant to say (but to close any potential loopholes) this player CANNOT be traded.  The player will AUTOMATICALLY be released at the end of the season - in the same manner as "S" contract players.

An "R" player can be released (not waived) during the current season if another player suddenly become available due to promotion from the minors or activation off the Disabled List.

This rule is meant as a last resort opportunity to help a team that has been swamped with injuries and used their FAAB faster than they intended.  So as long as there are options available to a team with no remaining FAAB on their current active and reserve roster, they have to pursue those options first.  This rule is to avoid having a team sit with an Active Roster made up of one or more long-term disabled or demoted players.

** Brilliant Reader Kenn (Yes, I am stealing this directly from Joe Posnanski.  Since I can't write like him, I'll just steal some of his words) wrote in asking what happens if a team has .04 left on their FAAB.  Since our minimum  bid is .05, having .04 is basically like having .00.  So if Kenndoza Line has .04 FAAB and Dem Rebels have .00 FAAB, we both need a catcher (assuming all the other criteria is met above), then we both submit .00 bids.  Let's say we both submit .00 bids on Tuffy Gosewich because we are just THAT desperate.  Then it basically turns into a waiver claim with the team lower in the standings receiving said Gosewich - most likely that team being Dem Rebels because being lower in the standings is just what we do.

Your comments are welcome.  Your vote is needed by Friday, November 27th.