CRL News
November 21, 2006
Deck the teams with lots of homers – back, back, back, back, back … back, back … back, back
That’s right gang, it’s the Holiday Season. And you know what that means – it’s time to start planning for next season!
As I sit here basking in the glow of my victory bottle of champagne (which is about all I got – one tip, never tell your significant other how much money you actually won) I realized that we have some business to take care of. There’s news, there’re rule changes, there’re actions you need to take, and there’s stuff to vote on – not the least of which is when/where the draft will be held.
First, the news. I’m sad to report that one of the CRL’s original members, Steve Spencer, has decided to hang up the cleats. Big Balls, aka, Team 8, will continue with his two partners, Scott and Dan, sharing the ownership duties. Scott will be the primary point of contact. Unless someone else wants to take on the responsibility, Scott will assume the reigns as league bookkeeper. Should someone else desire that task, it means you must have Microsoft Money on your PC (or be able to convert my check-and-balance files to Quicken or some other personal accounting software). If you are interested, let me know.
The next thing on the agenda is Rules Committee membership. As you all know, in the off-season, we solve everything by majority vote. But when questions arise on Monday nights, I can’t poll all owners and need three of you that I can call to give me a decision. The Rules Committee was originally Spence, Glenn and Fraser. But Spence resigned his post last year and Glenn is doing the same now (and, frankly, since I didn’t use them at all last year, I don’t remember who is on the damn thing anyway). I think there was discussion of Terry and Weve assuming two of the spots, but don’t remember for sure. Before the ’07 draft, we need to decide on who these three guys are – even if it’s a Draft Day vote. One stipulation – I need for the Rules Committee members to know the rules backwards and forwards. If you need a refresher, read the Constitution – print it out, make flashcards, quiz yourself – I really don’t care, you can put it on the back of the toilet and read it again when you shit. But you have to know the rules to be on the Rules Committee.
Finally on the news front, Steve Hutcheson has been relocated by his employer to Minnesota (cold, Steve?). I’ve updated his and others’ contact info on the CRL Addresses page. If you have any other changes, please let me know.
Now let’s get to rule changes. The three below are not up to a vote, they are merely cleaning things up from a record-keeping perspective. (Read that last sentence to mean this – these are not open for discussion. I’m making a decision as the guy that basically runs this league to make my life easier.)
The first change deals with replacing players after Sept. 1. As you all know, teams do not utilize the DL or the farm system after rosters expand. We’ve always said that players must be declared out for the season in a national publication or on the All-Star Stats website to be eligible for replacement. This is tricky to monitor, as the phrase most used is something along the lines of “likely done for the season.” Starting in ’07, “likely” won’t cut it anymore. But I will give you guys one out – if you can look at the All-Star Stats site and show that the player has not appeared in a game in 10 days since Sept. 1 (the “statistics for the last 10 days” section), then the player is eligible for replacement. In all cases, either declared out for the season or not appearing for the past 10 days, the player being replaced must be reserved and not waived. That way, if he makes a miraculous comeback and gets in a game, he can be retroactively added back to your roster (as the Constitution states) and his replacement retroactively dropped, without creating the possibility of someone else claiming the player on waivers and me having to go back and figure out who should have had what player a couple of weeks ago.
The next change has to deal with linking multiple players together. I’m not sure I was able to keep this straight this year. As such, I’m mandating that you may have no more than two players tied together. What that means is, if you have a guy go down and you reserve him and pick up someone else and then the replacement goes down, you will have to choose between the original player or the replacement player when you pick up the third guy – you will have to waive either the original player or the guy you replaced him with when you pick up a replacement (meaning your newest guy would be tied to whichever one you keep on your reserve list).
The last record-keeping change deals with money. Because of our differing time zones and busy schedules, it’s not always easy for Glenn and I to sync up and see who has paid and who hasn’t. So, starting with 2007, all regular-season payments must be made out to Glenn, but sent to me. Once I receive them all, I will then put them in one envelope and forward them on to Glenn to deposit into the account.
Now to my proposed rule changes. These have nothing to do with record-keeping, so I can’t arbitrarily change these – they must pass by majority vote. What I’d like to see changed is the practice of picking up players from the Free-Agent pool that are either on the DL or in the minors. I think you should only be allowed to pick up players on an active National League roster (the only exception being at the draft, where we normally draft guys on the DL). Talk to/lobby other owners with your position on this if you’d like, but please let me know your vote by New Year’s Day.
The second rule change I’d like to see is extending the proposal above to also include waiver moves. If all of you feel very strongly about addition by subtraction (grabbing a pitcher on the DL because you’ve got a guy that’s killing you) I’m OK with scaling back this proposal to exclude them and make it where you can claim active or DL players, but are still prohibited from picking up guys in the minors, out of baseball, or in the AL. Again, please get me your vote by New Year’s Day.
Now to the really important stuff – the draft. When and where?
Opening Day is Sunday, April 1 (no fooling). The next weekend is Easter. I personally don’t have a problem with Easter, but then, I don’t have kids. The following weekend, Apr. 14, I’m busy. So that leaves March 31 (the day before the season opens – no betting on baseball), Easter weekend (Apr 7 – one week into the season, when we normally like to draft) or (what I consider two bad choices) March 24 (two weeks before the season opens) and April 21 (three weeks after the season opens). I prefer either Easter weekend or March 31, but I’ll leave it up to you guys. (I will point out one drawback to March 31, it’s Final Four weekend – that means big crowd and probably not many reasonable hotel rooms.) I need your choice by Dec 9 so we can plan, buy plane tickets, make hotel reservations, etc.
Now comes the question of where. Judging by the email below, Ken is getting tired of Vegas.
-----
Original Message -----
From: Ken
Alexander
To: Jim Purcell
Cc: Mike Look (hm)
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 7:12
PM
Subject: Draft Location
Welder: I just got back from a business trip to Vegas - and at the risk of sounding like Otis, I have the following observation: Vegas is starting to suck.
and I think what is really turning me off ....
Enough of the rant. What do I propose to do differently?
Let each team, on a random alternating basis, select the draft location. The location could be anywhere, so long as it meets the following criteria:
That's my proposal. Let's put it out for a vote.
So you can all see Ken’s sentiment. I’m sure he’d be OK with Lake Tahoe, since he now owns property there. There is one issue with moving the draft, however. Glenn has worked out a relationship with Harrah’s and can get us the meeting room without breaking the bank or spending a fortune on catering. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time to debate the merits of various locations, so please get back to me with your vote by Dec. 9 so we can plan. This vote is simple – Vegas or not Vegas. If the result is “not Vegas” then we’ll take another week to see exactly what that means (please send your alternate selection – if you have one – with your Dec. 9 vote).
Now to our action items. Below is a list of all linked players on each team’s rosters. I need each of you to select which of the linked players – listed together, separated by a slash (/) – that you intend to keep. You do not have to keep any of them on Roster Freeze Day, but you do need to make a decision now. The player listed first is the active player. If you keep one of the reserved players, and subsequently keep him on Roster Freeze Day, you owe a $5 activation fee for bringing the player off reserve (if you don’t keep him on Roster Freeze Day, you owe nothing). As usual, I have deleted all players who have played out their option or contract and can’t be kept anyway. I have not deleted those players traded to the other league, since they may come back before the season starts. If you want to see everyone’s full rosters, they are here. Please get me a list of your keepers by Dec. 9.
Team 1
Aaron Miles/Omar Quintanilla
Ryan Theriot/Alberto Callaspo/Jeff DaVannon
Team 2
None
Team 3
Eli Marrero/Junior Spivey
Chris Duffy/Carlos Lee
Gabe Gross/Sal Fasano
Mike Pelfrey/Brandon Claussen/Tim Worrell
Team 4
Eric Young/JJ Hardy
Shea Hillenbrand/Corey Koskie
Andre Ethier/Ryan Klesko
Brad Hennesey/Mark Mulder
Team 5
Reggi Abercrombie/Jeff Baker
Team 6
Cody Ross/Larry Bigbe
Aaron Sele/Ezequiel Astacio
Team 7
Henry Blanco/Michael Barrett
Enrique Gonzalez/Chris Reitsma
Oscar Villarreal/ Elizardo Ramirez
Tony Armas Jr./John Patterson
Team 8
Todd Greene/Mike Matheny
John Mabry/Craig Wilson
Team 9
Jason Jennings/Henry Owens
Team 10
Tony Graffanino/Rickie Weeks
Angel Pagan/Sean Casey
Randy Wolf/Zach Jackson/John Thompson
Team 11
Nate McLouth/Felix Pie
Tony Pena/Mark Prior
Team 12
James Loney/Jeff Bagwell
Now pardon me while I go look at the final standing again. (I wonder when the frame shop is going to call saying it’s ready?)
Jim