Happy Holidays . . . But Winter Waivers Is Just Around The Corner

First of all, Happy Holidays to you Merry Gentlemen.  I hope each of you has a wonderful time with your family and the holidays are everything you wish them to be.

That being said, there's no time to snooze.  Only 13 shopping days left until Winter Waivers.

I have posted the most recent Roster Excel Spreadsheet.  There I have deleted any expiring contracts and any "S" contracts.  I have also highlighted in yellow any player that has been traded to or signed with an American League team.  While I have scoured MLB.com to look at the recent transactions, I cannot promise that the yellow highlights is comprehensive.  Please do the research you do to make sure you know what's happening with your team.

Just a reminder, for Winter Waivers you do not have to waive a player who is in the AL.  You are not allowed to waive a player who is on a LTC (even the last year of the contract).  You must cut down to 23 players (position restrictions do not exist).  Everyone you cut will go through waivers (AL players included).  You MAY NOT cut down to fewer than 23 players, no matter how bad you want to get rid of everyone (oh wait - just delved into the braintrust of Dem Rebels).

You must have your cuts to me no later than 3pm Central, Sunday, January 5th.  You may e-mail them sooner.  Whenever you send them, please put in the subject line "Winter Waivers Attached" so I know not to open the e-mail until I've submitted my list.

To keep things easy for my feeble brain, please submit a list of players you are keeping AND a list of players you are waiving.  Please, DO NOT, list any players that have expired or "S" contracts.  I've already purged those players from your roster.  So for cross-checking purposes, please just list player you are keeping and legally waiving.

As always please consult the Constitution.  Should questions still remain, please e-mail me rather than make assumptions.

One final reminder - Once the first round of Winter Waivers is complete, the Trade Season is open.  Hey Patta Matta Swing, you have been warned.  Watch out for the vultures.

Best of luck to all!

Online Constitution Updated

Taking a break from the CFCL trade fest (complete with running Critique Commentary from the Bull Braintrust), I'm happy to announce that the CFCL's online Constitution has received its first update in quite a while.

For the past couple years, we've been operating under a set of rules (including a whole new salary/contract notation) that wasn't fully reflected in the published Constitution. I've been spending my time lately updating the Constitution to reflect our current rule set, the results are now posted online: http://home.comcast.net/~dmahlan/constitution/const-fm.htm

In particular, be sure to check out Article VII., which provides a key to deciphering all those numbers, letters, and symbols that appear with the salaries on our rosters.  I've also added other notes and explanations as needed where the EC has clarified issues over the past couple years.

More revisions/clarifications may be coming, as Rich and Michael are currently reviewing the Constitution for other potential revisions, but the CFCL has waited long enough for a key to the contract indicators so I didn't want to wait to get it posted.

Finally, note that the PDF version of the Constitution that is available in the Download Center is still the old version.  This will be updated within a few days - I will post a notice when it is ready.

If you discover any problems with the Constitution, have trouble understanding any of the additions, or find anything missing, please let the Executive Committee know.

Constitutional Updates

As CFCL action ramps up with Winter Waivers and the opening of the trade market, the Executive Committee is undertaking a review of the CFCL Constitution. It's been a few years since the online version of the Constitution was updated - which is unfortunate because we've undergone a few significant changes (including a new contract identification structure) that aren't reflected in the currently-available Constitution.

We are making sure that we're bringing it up to date, simplifying things where we can, closing loopholes, and adding clarifications to head off any potential Constitutional crisises.

If there is anything you feel is missing from the Constitution or is particularly confusing or cumbersome, please let us know so we can address it now as we're going through this process.

Good News in Team Management

Each year the CFCL teams are required to amass at least 1000 Innings Pitched and 4250 ABs in order to qualify for the points on offense and pitching. These rules were instituted thanks to the Bald Eagles who long ago thought about having nothing but relief pitchers so that he could sweep Saves (before we added Holds), ERA and WHIP while tanking the Wins (before Quality Starts) category.

This year everyone looks to be in good shape. Below is a synopsis of each team. If you would like to track your team's progress, you can see if on Sportsline on the Set Lineup page.

Innings Pitched; At Bats
Clowns: 109 needed (On Pace); Met
Copperfields: 96 needed (On Pace); Met
Ruffins: 85 needed (On Pace); Met
Dem Rebels: 22 needed (On Pace); Met
DoorMatts: Met; Met
Bulls: 106 needed (On Pace); Met
Kenndoza Line: Met; Met
Red Hots: 113 needed (On Pace); 181 needed (On Pace)
Moore Better: 176 needed (On Pace); Met
Revenge: Met; Met

A Correction To Your Scorecards

With less than 12 teams in the CFCL, the payout goes to the top three finisher (50/30/20). The Maximum Home Town Discount and 1st pick of the Rotation Draft goes to the Fourth Place Finisher (from here on to be known as the Sweet Spot - courtesy of M. Coulter). The sweet spot gets .06 for the HTD budget. Teams five - ten get a percentage of that based on their point proximity to the Sweet Spot.

As of the standings July 15, 2009, here are where things stand.

Bulls 66.5 pts .06 HTD
Clowns 57.5 pts .05 HTD
Rebels 50 pts .04 HTD
Moore Better 45 pts .04 HTD
Revenge 40 pts .03 HTD
Ruffins 38 pts .03 HTD
Red Hots 26.5 pts .02 HTD

September Happenings

September 1 is just a week away, and reaching that date means two things:

1. CFCL active rosters can expand by one player. You can activate a player from your Reserve List effective next Monday (happily, this year Sept. 1 corresponds to a regular transaction date) or on any Friday or Monday through the rest of the season. The extra player can also be a free agent acquired during the regular Sunday FAAB bidding, but remember that free agents acquired on or after September 1 receive an S contract (unless the bid is .25 or more). Players with S contracts are automatically released at the end of the season, but are not eligible for Home Town Discounts next year.
2. In order to accomodate the extra player, the salary cap increases by .10 to 3.60.

Keep in mind that it's the ACTIVE ROSTER only that expands on September 1 - your full roster can still only be 40 players total. This means that if you activate a 24th player for September Roster Expansion, you are limited to 16 players on your Reserve List. Keep this in mind when you bid on free agents - don't assume you have an extra roster spot to play with and can acquire a player without releasing someone to make room.

Salary Cap Increase

Tomorrow is All Star Game Tuesday, which means 1) we're in the middle of a period during which no meaningful baseball will be played, and 2) the CFCL in-season salary cap increases to $3.50. It will stay at that level until September 1, when it nudges up to 3.60 for the final month or so of the season.

Some clarification on what the salary increase means ... or more specifically, what it doesn't mean.

It does not mean that you can make roster moves on Tuesday in order to take advantage of the increased salary room - Tuesday is not a transaction day.

Nor does it mean that you were able to make roster moves on Monday (our usual transaction day) that put you over the $3.00 cap with the anticipation that your roster would become legal when the cap increases on Tuesday.

Although the cap technically increases on Tuesday, the earliest you can make roster moves to take advantage of it is on Friday (aside from a trade, which can be effective any day).

For clarification, please refer to the Constitution: "The fact that the salary cap may increase in the middle of a transaction period does not imply that mid-week roster moves are permitted in order to take advantage of the higher cap."

FAAB Update

With big (in a couple senses of the word) free agents like CC Sabathia and Rich Harden hitting the market this weekend -- and more possible in the next couple weeks -- now is a good time to do a little refresher on some of the rules and elements surrounding FAAB processing.

Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) Balances
Wondering how much you've got left in your FAAB? The official balances are included on the Excel roster sheet that is available both from a link in the sidebar to the right and in the Download Center.

Your outstanding balance is listed up near the top of your roster where your name, e-mail, and phone are listed. Note that if you hover your cursor over your FAAB amount, a pop-up will display listing the free agents you've acquired so far and their salaries.

If you think there may be a discrepancy in your balance, let me know. All this is updated manually - often late at night - so there's always the chance my math may be off.

Consequences of High Bids
This is just a reminder that if you acquire a free agent with a bid of .25 or higher, he'll receive a guaranteed contract for next year. This means you'll have to keep him at that salary on the following Roster Freeze Day or pay a buyout fee (assuming he is still in the National League). The amount of the buyout fee is half of the player's salary, and this amount is deducted from your Draft Day spending limit. For example, if I had cut Mark Teixeira and his .42 salary prior to this year's draft I would have had only $2.39 (2.60-.21) to spend on Draft Day.

This obligation is entirely transferrable, so if you trade a .25+ free agent, the team acquiring him will have the same obligations/restrictions next Draft Day.

IFAB Day
Interleague Free Agent Bidding Day is coming up in a few weeks. We'll get into more detail on the event as the day approaches, but essentially it is a special non-Sunday free agent bidding day to handle all the free agents who came over from the American League between the usual Free Agent Sunday (July 27) and the Major League interleague trade deadline (Thursday July 31).

IFAB Day will be Friday August 1, with bids due by 3:00 PM Central time. All players listed on the Sportsline free agent listing are available for bidding on IFAB day, including those that were traded to the NL on the previous day.

Constitution
There is additional detail on all this stuff in the Constitution. Speaking of which, now is a good time to remind everyone that the what's in the Constitution and how the Executive Committee interprets it supercedes what I post here in the blog or elsewhere (unless those posts specifically state an exception is being made to the Constitution). Just on the off chance that I accidentally misrepresent a rule while posting on the fly here. It's everyone's responsibility to know what is in the Constitution.

Trade Reporting Rules

When Tim and Mike e-mailed me about their trade this past weekend, they said they weren't sure about the proper procedure for reporting a trade. They actually did a fine job of it, but since we've had some changes to our transaction reporting procedures for this season, I thought it would be a good idea to go over the process for trades (it's that time of year...).

After you and another owner agree to a deal, here's what the two of you should do to make things official:

1. You should both report it to the League Secretary (David M.) via e-mail.
2. Your e-mail should contain the details of the trade, as well as specific moves you will make in order to ensure your roster is complete and legal following the deal. This might involve:
   • Releasing players to get your down to 40 players if you acquired more guys than you gave up
   • Activating and/or reserving players in order to meet the positional requirements

Until all parties involved in the deal send me an e-mail that meets the above requirements, the trade will not be considered official - even if the deadline passes, pushing the effective date for the trade back a day.

Once the necessary e-mails have been received, I'll enter all the transactions (the trade and the associated moves) at the Sportsline site. This will help ensure that the trade meets all the requirements - if I can't get legal and valid active rosters based on the e-mails I was sent, the trade will not go through.

Other things to keep in mind about trades and associated moves:

• Owners cannot propose/accept trades themselves at the Sportsline site. We have some special requirements and restrictions involving trades that Sportsline is not able to monitor, so we require all trades are reported via e-mail to ensure we can do a validity check before the stat site is updated.
• When you acquire players in a trade that will put you over the salary cap, you CANNOT make associated moves in order to get your active roster under the cap. You'll have to reserve the expensive player(s) for the time being, then activate them at the next regular Monday or Friday transaction date.
• You cannot make a trade that will leave you unable to fill an active roster position. If you have a guy on your Reserve List that you can activate as an associated move, that's fine. But you cannot leave an open spot after a deal figuring you'll pick up a free agent to fill the roster spot later - even if you make the trade on a Sunday. You have to have the replacement available on your roster prior to making the deal.

For more explaination or additional details on the rules on trades and reporting them, refer to Article XIII. of the Constitution.

HEADS UP: Positional Error at Sportsline

This problem with CBS Sportsline was noted in a posting on a fantasy baseball forum, and it will be an issue for our league.

It appears Sportsline is not determining eligibility correctly for the "combo" infield positions: Middle Infielder (MI) and Corner Infielder (CI). According to our rules (and those of most other leagues), players qualify for MI if they had played 20 games or more at 2B or SS the previous season, and qualify for CI if they had played 20 game or more at 1B or 3B last year.

Sportsline is correctly determining eligibility under those rules, however they are ALSO qualifying players for the "combo" positions if they played a total of 20 games at the two individual positions combined, which should not be the case.

For example, Rich Aurilia had the following Games Played counts last year:

1B - 55
2B - 9
SS - 12
3B - 22

Under our rules, Aurilia should qualify at 1B, 3B, and CI on Draft Day.

At Sportsline, however, he is also listed under MI because he played a combined 21 games at 2B and SS. He does not qualify at either 2B or SS, but Sportsline would allow him to be placed at the MI position. Our rules do not currently allow this - Aurilia would need to qualify at either 2B or SS to be placed at MI.

This won't be a huge deal for Draft Day, as we'll use the position eligibilty information in the Draft Pool listing (see the 2008 Position Eligibilty or 2008 NL Spring Training Rosters files in the Download Center if you have elgibility questions). It might be a problem if you're using the free agent listings at Sportsline to do draft prep -- keep in mind that the listings for MI and CI may include players who do not actually qualify there.

Where it WILL become an issue is during the season when owners will be making their own roster moves at Sportsline. You'll need to be extra careful when assigning players to the CI or MI positions to make sure they actually qualify for one of the individual positions under that combo umbrella.

It sounds like a number of leagues have already contacted Sportsline about this error, so hopefully it will be straightened out before it causes problems.

Constitutional Updates

At long last, the Constitution has been updated with the changes that were voted in earlier this year. Both the online version and the PDF version available from in the Download Center were updated.

A couple notes:

• The Constitution still reflects the letter-based contract statuses rather than the new approach we've been discussing in the Forum. It seems like there are still some things to settle before the proposed changes become official, so I wanted to wait before making updates that might not reflect the final approach.
• I'm the only one who has really reviewed/proofed the changes to the Constitution. Since I'm also the one who drafted them, there's the chance that I may have left something out, misrepresented a rule, left a loophole open, etc. I mention this just to stress that while the Constitution represents the "official" rules, we should all keep in mind that I'm only human and I don't always think of everything. We should all be aware of what the new rules are and the reasons/intent behind them, so if something in the Constitution seems at odds with what we intended, the written word will have to take a back seat to common sense until we can revise the Constitution as needed. I know that's not the way it works in court, but that's the way we operate.

That second bullet point (which is basically about the human frailty of the League Secretary) is an important one, and we've added a blurb to the Governance section of the Constitution to spell out how we'll handle things when I slip up (like when I included the Stones' Pedro Martinez in the Winter Waiver list and awarded him to the Red Hots before anyone noticed the error).

Also, the sections of the Constitution that were most-heavily revised or contain changes you'll want to make sure you understand are:

• ARTICLE XXI. Transactions
• ARTICLE XIV. Movement Between Active Roster and Reserve List
• ARTICLE XV. Signing Free Agents

If, in browsing the Constitution, you notice anything that seems inaccurate or inconsistent with your understanding of the rules, please let me know.