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. 

Off Season Business

We have officially entered the Off Season and there is stuff to do and remember.

Here is a breakdown of the Home Town Discount.  One twist to things this year.  The Bulls finished in the Sweet Spot (trademark of the Candy Colored Clowns).  The new owner taking over that franchise DOES NOT receive HTD benefits.  So Strasburg, Garza and Rondon are eligible to be acquired at next year's draft with no discount.  Here's the rest of it.

Bulls  64 points

Swing 58 points (.05 HTD budget):  None

Revenge  49 points (.04):  None

DoorMatts  48 points (.04):  Anthony Rizzo; Corey Dickerson

Kenndoza Line  38 points (.03):  Michael Wacha

Twin Killers  35 points (.03):  Marlon Byrd; Wilin Rosario; Charlie Morton

Candy Colored Clowns  19 points (.01):  Julio Teheran

Rosters
Quick reminder all "S" contracted players are officially released from your teams as well as all "15" contracts.  The Excel Roster Spreadsheet will be updated in the next week or two to reflect the purging of those contracts.

Winter Waivers
While Winter Waiver cuts aren't due until the first weekend of January 2016, keep in mind, as you evaluate your team, that you must cut down to 23 players.  There is no salary cap restriction or positional restriction during this process.  The only restrictions are no LTC players may be waived, and no "*" players may be waived at this time.  You MAY keep players currently in the AL (i.e. Mark Trumbo of Dem Rebels) or you may waive that type of player.

The key component is to think of this as a "retention" effort rather than a "cutting" effort.  Going into yesterday's games we all had 40 men on our roster.  So if you view this as a "cutting" effort you may think you have to actively cut 17 players.  But an "S" or "15" contract is automatically purged from your team so you only have to actively cut (17-"S" and/or "15") players.  A few years teams have submitted 17 cuts even though when they only had to actively cut 13 or 14.

CFCL Banquet
Two of the three money teams most likely will not be able to attend the banquet, so handing out money won't be the main event of the banquet.  It will be to recap the season, hand out awards, maybe talk trade and just have overall engagement and enjoyment.  If you plan on attending (or would like to depending on when it is), please e-mail me with you intent to attend as well as dates that do or don't work for you.  If you have no intention of attending, that's fine.  Just let me know so I'm not chasing you down to see if you can attend.

New Owner
We need to find someone to take over the Bulls franchise.  David Mahlan has been kind enough to help post a notice on a fantasy baseball website about our opening.  But as he pointed out, a lot of times those postings aren't read or responded to until late winter or early spring as guys start thinking about the upcoming season.  Ideally I would like to have a new owner in place by early December so they can acclimate themselves with their team and be involved in the Winter Waiver process.  If you know of anyone you feel would be a competitive, involved owner, please have them contact me.

Draft Day
Major League Baseball has slated Monday, April 4th as Opening Day.  So we typically would try to draft the previous Saturday (4/2) or Sunday (4/3).  Because of our out of town owners and their travelling needs, we usually focus on Saturday.  If anyone knows at this point that Saturday, April 2nd will absolutely not work, please let me know so we can figure a work around.  Right now I have a potential conflict with that weekend, but I'll look into changing things so that we can draft that day if that day works for everyone else.

Awards Ballot
An awards ballot will be arriving in your InBox soon (in a few weeks, perhaps).  Anyone that would like to help cull together the information for the ballot, please contact me.

Congratulations once again to David's Ruffins!

CFCL 2015 Is A Wrap

Congratulations to David's Ruffins on nailing down their 5th CFCL title in dominating style.  Following their trades before the trade deadline they moved out to a commanding double digit lead for most of the rest of the year.

Special recognition goes to the Eukennott Beatniks for their first 2nd place finish in another dominating performance.

Coming soon to the Front Office will be a break down of the Home Team Discount and other off-season information.

For now, two assignments.

Email me with 1) your interest in attending the CFCL Banquet and 2) if you plan on attending, dates that you are available and 3) names of anyone you think would be a viable owner to fill our vacancy.

Congratulations to all on another successful season!

September Reminders

Most all of the CFCL teams have taken advantage of September Roster Expansion.  Here's a couple of reminders for September.

1)  Connected to SRE, if you acquire a player via waiver or FAAB in September, OnRoto may prompt you that you can fill an "Open" slot.  Make sure the math is correct.  You are allowed 40 players on your team.  Usually (and how OnRoto looks at it) it's split 23 (active) and 17 (reserved).  BUT for September your split may look like 24 (active) and 16 (reserved).  OnRoto see 16 and thinks "Hmm, they are allowed 17" and offers you to fill a reserve "open" slot.  That's OnRoto's mistake.  If you have 40 players already and don't waive someone you pick up, the move is invalid and will be rejected. 

2)  If you pick someone up in September their contract is "S" and they are automatically waived from your team at the end of the season.

3)  Your Executive Committee has been hard at work justifying your votes and has a proposal to present to you pertaining to teams that use up their FAAB during the season.  That will be presented for your consideration and vote at the conclusion of the 2015 season.

4)  We need to fill an owner spot and in a perfect world it will be done before Winter Waivers.  If you know of someone you think would be a good candidate to join us, please let me know.

5)  Start looking at your calendar in October/November for potential dates for the CFCL Banquet.  Once we have the Award Ballot sent out and returned we'll try to lock in a date to get together.

Beatniks on the Prowl Again

Showing they are not afraid of the Ruffins and, in fact, willing to do whatever is necessary to chase the Ruffins down, the Beatniks made a deal with the Revenge.

Beatniks trade Dee Gordon (.10 16!), Matt Holliday (.27 16+) and Arismendy Alcantara (.10 16x) to the Revenge, receiving in return Carlos Gonzalez (.37 17+), Daniel Murphy (.13 15) and Mike Foltynewicz (.08 17+).

Rebels are on the clock.

Interleague Free Agent Bid Day

Here is a quick recap of the 2015 Interleague Free Agent Bid Day (IFAB).

First, the verbage from the Constitution:


On the day immediately following the MLB Interleague Trading Deadline, the CFCL will hold a special sealed bid auction. Players who were traded from the American League to the National League on the day of the trading deadline, as well as any other free agents, are eligible to be bid upon on IFAB Day.

MLB's trade deadline is Friday, July 31st.  That means that our bidding takes place on Saturday, August 1st.  ALL Free Agents are eligible to be bid on - anyone in the Free Agent Pool - not just players having been traded from the AL.

Any bids .25 or over will require that team to keep the player going into the 2016 season.  Bidding on August 1st will close at 3pm.  Unless you hear otherwise, the bidding is the same as every week - via OnRoto.

Questions?  Check the Constitution or e-mail the Commissioner.

Clowns - Beatniks Trade

Fresh off a 4000 mile bike ride and not wanting to take the Ruffins charge lying down, the Beatniks traded with the Clowns who are proving to be an equal championship run opportunity trader.

The Clowns sent Andrelton Simmons (.10 15!) to the Beretheads for Julio Teheran (.02 15).

Five days, one and a half hours remain in the trade deadline.