October 12, 2016

“This is way more fun than last year.”

--Jim Fraser in an email to me sometime down the stretch in September.

Guys,

I’m posting this to finish the last couple of pieces of business for the 2016 season before the holidays screw up my schedule.

First, thanks for all the kind words. It’s nice to be back on top. Now Mr. Fraser and myself have to figure out which seven to keep.

Two things I need to cover to put the season to bed – linked players and end-of-season accounting.

Let’s start with linked players. Since Scott is planning to rejoin the league as an expansion owner, we will be conducting league business shortly after the new year. Because of the holidays, I need to get this piece out of the way before things go nuts.

By the way, I have not talked to Scott, so I do not know when the expansion draft will occur. As we get closer to that date, I’ll let you know more details of the process (which we all voted on at this year’s draft).

Below is a list of all players currently tied together. By league rules, you can only keep one of any tied pair (or more) of players. By more, I’ll use my team as an example. As you can see, Ryan Buchter is tied to both Arodys Vizcaino and Cory Luebke. We only get to keep one of those guys and must throw the other two back.

Incidentally, I have not included any linked players that were tied to option guys. For example, Steve and Bill ended the season with Lucas Duda (on reserve) tied to Hernan Perez (active). Since Duda was an option player, he can’t be kept anyway so I eliminated that linked pair (and any others) from the list below.

So, here’s what I need each of you to do. By November 30, I need each of you to let me know which players you want to reserve the right to keep next season. I’m picking the end of November because it gives you enough time to study and I should get a slight lull immediately after Black Friday.

Keeping a player at this time does not commit you to keeping them on Roster-Freeze day, nor does it require you to protect them in the expansion draft – it only gives you the option of doing so when we get to those dates. It also does not cost you any money. Should you elect to keep a player that is currently on reserve, and subsequently keep him on Roster-Freeze day, then you’ll owe a $5 activation fee to next year’s pool.

So get together with your partner(s) and decide who you want to protect from the list below by the end of November.

Linked players
Team 1					Team 7
Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal	Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal
Daniel Descalso	D1	Col	S2	$ 5.00	Yasmani Grandal	R1	LAD	S2	$ 5.00
Tommy Pham	E1	StL	S2	$ 5.00	Freddy Galvis	F1	Phi	S2	$ 5.00
Chase Utley	A1	LAD	S2	$ 5.00	Aroldis Chapman	X1	ChC	S2	$ 5.00
Robert Gsellman	H1	NYM	S2	$ 5.00	Brandon Finnegan	Z1	Cin	S2	$ 5.00
Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal	Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal
Trevor Story	d0	Col	S2	$ 8.00	Kyle Schwarber	r0	ChC	S1	$ 5.00
Matt Holliday	e0	StL	S2	$ 12.00	Hector Olivera	f0	FA	S2	$ 3.00
Micah Johnson	a0	LAD	S2	$ 5.00	Hyun-Jin Ryu	x0	LAD	S2	$ 4.00
Zack Wheeler	b0	NYM	S1	$ 0.50	Brandon McCarthy	z0	LAD	S2	$ 5.00
Junior Guerra	h0	Mil	S2	$ 5.00
					Team 8
Team 2					Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal
Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal	Matt Adams	I1	StL	S2	$ 5.00
James Loney	K1	NYM	S2	$ 5.00	Rich Hill	C2	LAD	S2	$ 5.00
Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal	Seung-hwan Oh	E1	StL	S2	$ 5.00
David Wright	k0	NYM	S2	$ 4.00	Jon Gray	D1	Col	S2	$ 5.00
					Juan Nicasio	H1	Pit	S2	$ 5.00
Team 4					Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal
Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal	Billy Hamilton	i0	Cin	S2	$ 9.50
Antonio Bastardo	A1	Pit	S2	$ 5.00	Alex Wood	e0	LAD	S2	$ 5.00
Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal	Lance Lynn	d0	StL	S2	$ 1.50
Yimi Garcia	a0	LAD	S2	$ 1.00	Trevor Rosenthal	h0	StL	S1	$ 9.00
					Derek Law	c1	SF	S2	$ 5.00
Team 5
Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal	Team 9
Danny Espinosa	H1	Was	S2	$ 5.00	Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal
Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal	Luke Weaver	J1	StL	S2	$ 5.00
Carl Crawford	h1	FA	S2	$ 1.00	Koda Glover	M1	Was	S2	$ 5.00
					Ryan Buchter	L2	SD	S2	$ 5.00
Team 6					Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal
Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal	Scott Kazmir	m0	LAD	S2	$ 7.50
Tyler Anderson	F1	Col	S2	$ 5.00	Arodys Vizcaino	l1	Atl	S1	$ 5.00
Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal	Aaron Nola	j0	Phi	S2	$ 8.50
Adam Warren	f0	NYY	S2	$ 0.50	Cory Luebke	l0	Mia	S1	$ 0.50
					Team 10
					Active Players	Link	Team	Con	Sal
					Michael Taylor	I1	Was	S1	$ 0.50
					Bud Norris	H1	FA	S2	$ 5.00
					Reserved Players		Team	Con	Sal
					Trayce Thompson	i0	LAD	S2	$ 5.00
					Joe Ross	h0	Was	S2	$ 7.50

Now let’s talk about league accounting. Below is a wrap-up of what was spent, total pool, winner payouts and balances in each team’s account. Once the checks come in from the two teams that still have balances, I will forward them to Glenn and he can cut checks. If any of the winners want to leave money in their account to cover the $250 entry fee next year, please let Glenn and myself know. For the rest of you with a positive balance, you can opt to send in just the difference between your balance and $250 next spring. To use team three as an example, Glenn, Dennis and Craig are carrying over a balance of $163.25. That means, next spring when it’s time to pony up for the 2017 season, they only need to pay $86.75 to achieve their opening balance of $250.

By the way, the league expenses account is what is used to pay for things like the balance of the draft room (we’ve already paid the deposit) and the stat service, both of which will be paid before we collect money for next season.

If you have any questions or want a breakdown of what you spent this year, just let me know and I can send it to you. I have already done this for a couple teams.

Category Spending
All Accounts
1/1/2016 Through 10/4/2016			Ending Account Balances
1st Half Free Agent	$ 890.00		League Expenses	$ 337.70
2nd Half Free Agent	$ 940.00		Team 1	$ (125.00)
Act from Farm	$ 80.00		Team 2	$ (55.00)
Act From Res	$ 400.00		Team 3	$ 163.25
But out contract	$ 48.00		Team 4	$ 184.00
Draft	$ 1,291.50		Team 5	$ 36.50
Irregular link fee	$ 20.00		Team 6	$ 0.50
Keep on Farm	$ 40.00		Team 7	$ 62.00
Reserve	$ 670.00		Team 8	$ 70.00
Sept. Roster Expansion	$ 100.00		Team 9	$ 39.50
Signing Bonus	$ 66.75		Team 10	$ 137.00
Trade	$ 110.00		Total	$ 850.45
Waiver	$ 160.00
Total	$ 4,816.25		Total in Account	$ 5,666.70
Payouts	Team	Place	Percent	Payout
Jim & Jim	9	1st	50%	$ 2,408.13
Ken	1	2nd	25%	$ 1,204.06
Steve & Jared	6	3rd	15%	$ 722.44
Weve & Vern	8	4th	10%	$ 481.63
Total				$ 4,816.25

Thanks to all for a fun 2016 season. Here’s hoping everyone has a very happy holiday season and a productive new year.

See you all in Vegas.

Jim