CRL News

March 30, 2014

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adeptly explained by incompetence.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

This is not an editorial comment related to recent doings in the CRL, merely an interesting quote I found while perusing today’s Sunday paper (how timely). I thought I’d share.

You should know by my previous emails, but rosters are updated on the stat service. I just finished a couple of fixes, namely all farm players should have contract statuses of S2 and farm pitchers should have a “salary” of $2.50.

Couple of tidbits of news:

In a deadline deal, Ken shipped Jason Grilli to Otis & Hutch for Andre Either.

We’ve had a couple of name changes since we last met – Ken’s charges are now the Homewood Homers and the Rons have switched their moniker to Alsorons.

Now for some personal reflections:

In case you are curious why I flipped a lid a couple of nights ago, it’s because I spent way too much time digging through old emails and newsletters looking for stuff when I absolutely, positively could not be late the next day. It started with the first two teams I touched – Ken and Otis/Hutch. Each of them was saving a player that was on the other team’s roster. Obviously, there was a trade involved, but I did not recall being notified. So there I went digging through emails. Yesterday, Hutch informed me that he neglected to copy me and apologized. I’m OK with that – we all make mistakes (I’ve made plenty – James Mouton $15.50, or whatever the hell it was). But it started my night off on the wrong foot.

Then I got to Team 7. It was now well after 11 pm, and I’m only a little over half-way done. And I still had to input keepers on a stat service that I have never that on before. What do I see in the email? Just that the Rons had traded their position in the minor league draft for three players that they were keeping – and it was after the keeper deadline, which means I couldn’t “fix” it. I’m not blaming the Rons, they are new to our league and maybe that is an accepted practice in prior/current/other leagues they participate(d) in. I knew the constitution has a prohibition against trades for “Future Considerations.” But then I wondered if maybe, just maybe, we had changed that rule at some point and I’d killed those brain cells. So I went digging through emails, newsletters, my hard-copy files of past draft votes …

After almost an hour of digging, I found nothing. The constitution was correct. I looked at the clock and it was 12:30 (and I had a 6 am alarm). At that point in time, still upset by the unreported trade, I snapped – I went ballistic. Yes, I was mad at the Rons, but I was more upset with the other party to the trade – as an original league owner and former Rules Committee member, he should have known better.

In the light of day, maybe I over-reacted. I was more ticked off that I let you guys down by not being able to get rosters to you in time to have a full weekend to prepare – my lot in life as a car salesman is a burden that applies only to me. I am no longer angry at any of the parties involved (see my earlier note about killing brain cells – I’m certain I’m not the only guilty party). I hold no malice against any of them. I hope the feeling is mutual. I sincerely apologize to any offended parties.

Anyway, back to our regularly-scheduled program.

Marcus and Matt have volunteered to be the new league accountants. Not exactly a Big 5 firm, but, hey, they work cheap.

Couple of notes since it is the first time we are drafting after Opening Day in quite some time:

· We draft from Opening Day rosters – anyone called up between Opening Day and the draft is ineligible to be taken. Hutch has volunteered to download Opening Day rosters on Monday and share them with me. I will print out a copy and bring them to Vegas. He will also have a copy of the same rosters in Austin.

· At the draft, positional eligibility is based solely on last season. It does not matter if a player is the “new” starting X-baseman and has played games there this year – the draft is based on positions played last year. Thus, Michael Cuddyer only qualifies in the outfield.

I do want to have a vote at the draft – my suggestion in the last newsletter about only paying to four places. If you recall my reasoning, you can skip down to the nest bolded line. Otherwise, here’s a cut and paste:

Another thought (we need to discuss this at the draft) – since we now only have 10 teams, we should only pay the top four spots.

• Currently, we pay:
• 1^st – 50%
• 2^nd – 25%
• 3^rd – 15%
• 4^th – 7%
• 5^th – 3% or $130, whichever is greater
• With only 10 teams in the mix, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to pay the top 50% - this isn’t the NBA.
• The “3% or $130, whichever is greater” has only happened once in CRL history – the strike year.
• I had to adjust payouts for the top four teams to accommodate for the shortened season and meet the $130 minimum
• With only 10 teams, this will come into play
• Less overall money will be spent
• Typically, 3% is barely above $130
• “Winnings” will need to be pared due to total pool value
• Adjusting to only paying four places means 4^th place gets 10% and nobody gets chopped
• Alternately, we could do:
• 1^st – 50%
• 2^nd – 35%
• 3^rd – 10%
• 4^th – 5 %(or $130, whichever is greater)
• We use $130 because that’s how much a team “costs.”

Chew on this and let me know. We will discuss it pre-draft.

To those of you that skipped down, it’s time to pay attention again.

Thanks to Weve who was the only one who actually sent in his changes for the CRL owner info page (http://www.c-r-l.org/ownerinfo/CRLADS.htm ). I’ve made a bunch of changes on this page, but there is still a lot to be done (I’m looking at you Ken, Hutch, Bill, Spencers, Rons). Please let me know what I need to change. Besides, I may actually start sending out Christmas cards again now that I am gainfully employed.

Finally, a timeline:

Thursday, April 3, 5 pm – Steve and Karen Farabee are hosting a happy hour at their suite in the Cosmopolitan. Chartered bus to follow to take us to dinner. Make sure you have one of the main player’s cell numbers to find out what suite number.

Thursday, April 3, 7pm – CRL 25^th anniversary bash at Fogo de Chao. Thinking now is around $65 for owners, $100 for guests.

Friday, April 4, 9am – draft.

Ryan Braun – 50 cents.

See ya Thursday.

Jim