CRL NEWS

March 15, 2025

“Fight for your dream. Play the game the right way. Work hard. If you don’t work, you’re not going to succeed.”

n Pablo Sandoval, guest instructor for the Giants speaking to their minor-leaguers.

Gang,

Opening Day is in less than two weeks and the draft is only 20 days away. That means it’s time to fill in some of the “more on this later” parts of newsletters from earlier in the year. It also means that I need to get this out before wasting literally minutes agonizing over NCAA brackets that will be busted by a week from Monday.

I’m going to get to dates in a moment. But I do have a plea – I’d like for someone to be a second set of eyes for determining Opening Day Rosters – especially for the Dodgers and Cubs.

As you know, those two teams will open with regular-season (stats count) with games this Tuesday and Wednesday (March 18 and 19) in Japan. Since those are regular work days for me, I’d like some help in determining the OD rosters for those two teams – If they are active on March 18, they are eligible to be drafted.

n We have at least 8 retired guys in this league, so I’d like a volunteer to help me nail down the LA/CHI OD rosters.

n It will not be until after the 2027 season that I will be joining you in the ranks of people with free time.

n My normal retirement age is 67 (2.5 years from now) to get all my money. If I retire before that, I only get some of my money. I’m greedy. I want it all. I earned it.

n I would also like a second set of eyes checking for OD rosters on OD for everyone else (March 27).

At the end of this newsletter is a breakdown of what everyone has in their CRL account as of now. Please note that the “League Expenses” account is negative because Glenn had to pay the stat service. Sometime in the next couple of months, he will also have to pay Harrah’s $500 for next year’s draft room. Because of this, I will be debiting each team’s account $55 so I can transfer that money to the league expenses account to eliminate the negative balance and have $500 in that account to pay for next year’s draft room.

If any of you have topics that you would like brought up in pre-draft discussions, please let me know so I can get it out for everyone to start chewing on it. I know at least one of you has asked that we set a date for our next scratch draft. Glenn mentioned something about us upping the pre-season buy-in to $300, but if this happened, I have no memory of it.

One thing that is great to see is the growth of draft week golf. As you can see by the picture on the front page of this website, it used to be a large group. In recent years, it’s been a foursome or less. But the interest has returned. Golf is now planned for both Wednesday and Thursday. So far, Wednesday is Farabee, Ken, Weve and Hutch. Thursday it’s the first three from Wednesday plus Jim and Caleb Fraser and Andrew (Ken’s new partner). I would be playing except for two things:

n I haven’t picked up my clubs in two years (I am going to fix that)

n I need that extra checked bag for the trophy

If you want to be included (obviously room for two on Thursday), let Farabee know.

I also got this note from Farabee, “Thanks to Karen's gambling prowess, we have a comped room at the Cosmo again this year. So, there will be a pizza party on Thursday night. Room number TBD.” Make sure Steve has your cell number (you might text him in advance 512-728-0404 so he can save your info – if he doesn’t have it already – so he can tell you what room at the Cosmo). As a reminder, we usually chip in $20-$25 for snacks, pizza, etc.

Now it’s story time. I plan on bringing a bottle to the pizza party Thursday night. It’s my favorite whiskey. I am only announcing that fact because it has a great backstory. (If you don’t care, skip the next three paragraphs.)

Nearest Green was freed slave who got a job working at the distillery of a Presbyterian church. Apparently, back then, a lot of churches had distilleries to make whiskey for “medicinal purposes.” (I’m sure that had absolutely nothing to do with that whole separation of church and state thing.) Nearest worked his way up to be master distiller at the church. Shortly thereafter, the church hired a young ne’er-do-well named Jack Daniel to work in the distillery. Jack and Nearest hit it off and Jack worked his way up to be Nearest’s top assistant (and it had nothing to do with the fact that Jack had some outside contacts and the “extra” whiskey they made could be sold on the side).

Then came the 1880s and the temperance movement was sweeping across America. The minister of the church, bowing to public pressure, decided to close the distillery. This was a huge blow to both Nearest and Jack because the only thing they knew how to do was make whiskey. So they decided to use some of their “extra” earnings to open their own distillery. But they needed additional funding and, in a sad comment on the times, Jack was the white guy and could get the loans. That’s why the distillery has his name on it. Nearest Green was his first master distiller and there is a plaque in Lynchburg, Tenn commemorating that fact.

Fast forward to this century (less than 15-20 years ago). A successful businesswoman in the South, a distant relative of Nearest Green, was going through some family effects and came across her Great-Great-Great (not sure how many greats) Uncle’s original recipe for whiskey. She opened the Uncle Nearest distillery a few years ago producing that recipe. The whiskey has won multiple awards. After tasting it, I realized it is obvious that Nearest did not teach Jack everything he knew about making whiskey.

BTW, the best tasting version is “Uncle Nearest 1884.”

With trivia time over, let’s get back to league business.

Glenn informs me that we will be in the Copper room this year. We were in there once before a few years ago. It is away from the pool (if you come up the escalator, it’s to your left) and is in the main part of the business center with the larger meeting rooms. Since it’s bigger than the room we have been in the past few years, our three additional owners in the draft – Hutch, Caleb Fraser, and Ken’s new partner Andrew Dieterich – will be able to fit comfortably. We will also be able to accommodate any CRL groupies that show up.

Since I have updated contracts on the stat service, players with a status of “O” are the ones you will need to make a decision on signing. If your need a refresher on long-term contracts, go here: The option year and long-term contracts .

Now for a timeline:

Tuesday, March 18 – Dodgers and Cubs OD rosters are set.

Thursday, March 27 – Opening Day. All other team’s OD rosters are set

Friday, March 28 – Roster freeze day. Everyone’s roster protections (including contracts) due.

n Number of players eligible to be protected:

· Teams 5, 8, 9 and 10 can only protect 7 players

· All other teams can protect 10 players

n Farm players do not count toward your cap (but you must tell me if you are keeping them)

n Remember, you can only have 3 farm players on your roster at any time and can only draft two each year

Wednesday and Thursday, April 2 & 3 – Golf in Vegas

Thursday, April 3 – Pizza party at the Cosmo.

Friday, April 4 – Draft.

Draft order: 7/1/2/4/3/6/10/8/5/9/11

Minor league draft order: 6/3/4/2/1/7/10/5/9/11/8

CRL accounting:

Off Season account totals		Transactions
Team	Beginning Balance	Description	Amount	Description	Amount	Description	Amount	New Balance
League Expenses	$ 0.31	Stat fees	$ (99.00)					$ (98.69)
1		Payment	$ 250.00					$ 250.00
2	$ 61.00	Payment	$ 639.00					$ 700.00
3	$ 58.50	Payment	$ 541.50					$ 600.00
4	$ 59.50	Payment	$ 450.00					$ 509.50
5	$ 437.50							$ 437.50
6		Payment	$ 216.50	Payment	$ 167.00	Payment	$ 216.50	$ 600.00
7		Payment	$ 600.00					$ 600.00
8	$ 334.50							$ 334.50
9	$ 506.00	T-fer to tm 11	$ (253.00)	Payment	$ 250.00			$ 503.00
10	$ 860.43							$ 860.43
11		T-fer from tm 9	$ 253.00					$ 253.00
							Total	$ 5,549.24

See Everyone Vegas!

Jim