Hey gang, it’s that time of year again. We’re signing contracts and getting ready for the season.

Well, at least some of you are. I’ve been so busy that I live at the coast, with one of the hottest Spring Break hotspots 10 minutes away, and I haven’t even been to the beach yet. And I had the line ready to go too; "Yes ma’am, I’ve got another. You are old enough to drink, aren’t you?"

Anyway, this is gonna be short, so I’ll get right to it.

Sunday, April 1 is Roster Freeze Day (yes, that’s this Sunday). Your protected rosters are due to me by 6 p.m. Central Time. Your long-term contracts and farm-team protections are due at that time as well. Don’t forget, if you keep one of the players currently on your reserve or farm roster, it’ll cost you $5. In case you need to brush up on long-term contracts, read the appropriate section of the Constitution, which is linked off the main page.

As to how many players can be saved by each team, the count is:

Fraser – 11

Spencer and gang – 12

Me – 13 (Yeah, right)

Kerr and Thompson – 14

Everybody else – 15

Draft order (by team #) is: 12, 1, 2, 14, 11, 5, 13, 7, 3, 4, 6, 9, 8, 10.

For the minor-league draft it’s: 3, 7, 13, 5, 14, 2, 12, 4, 6, 8, 10, 9, 1, 11

In case you are curious, Teams 3, 4 and 7 all finished with 75 points, but Terry and Bill took fifth on categories. Glenn and Dennis then finished ahead of Doug head-to-head in categories. Four owners also got pre-season money in after the deadline. You can probably figure out who they are by looking at the minor-league draft order.

Rosters are also updated. As always, I didn’t remove guys in the AL, as they could always end up in the NL by Sunday.

You will notice a couple of changes on the roster page, I traded Jim Edmonds and Todd Pratt to Doug for Peter Bergeron and Scott Ellarton and Fraser shipped JD Drew and Ron Belliard to Kerr for Curt Leskanic.

The draft is Saturday, April 7 at the Imperial Palace. We’ll start at 10:30 or 11 Vegas time.

We’ve got a new owner. Steve Farabee now has a partner, Keith Ellery. Keith will be in Vegas, so y’all can meet him there. Of course, that means the Retinas might actually be a threat. Steve has always drafted well, but then he let the team run on autopilot. Keith might actually make Steve spend some money during the season. Keith’s info has been added to the address page.

Two other things to note on the address page: Doug and myself both have new addresses and phone numbers. I’ve updated our info. Also, Ken and Look have changed their team name to "Nice Tie," obviously forgetting what happened the last time a season went into extra innings. (Hey Ken, that’s the year you lost to me.)

Speaking of winning, you’ll notice I haven’t updated the front page with pictures of Fraser’s victory celebration. I mentioned it to Fraser and he told me that I took the pictures. Silly me, I must have forgotten to develop the film. Someday I’ll get around to getting that done. Of course, I’ve got to find the camera. I did move, and it might still be packed.

Don’t forget, Steve Torrens has a proposal out there to lower the salary of pitchers picked in the minor-league draft to $2.50. We also need to discuss what we’ll do if there is no baseball in 2002.

Se ya in Vegas.

Play Ball!