CFCL Update: Membership, etc.

[Copperfields]

Hello All,
Well, Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and it's time for a Front Office End of Season Report Card:

Awards Ballot Complete - Grade: F
Awards Banquet Scheduled and Held - Grade: F
End-of-Season Write-up Complete - Grade: F
End-of-Season Survey Complete - Grade: F
Alltime Standings Packet Updated - Grade: F

Ok ... not so hot.

I apologize for the incredibly slow start to the off-season proceedings. Work and family have been rather busy for some time now, and clearly I've let the CFCL slip. Happily, things are slowly creeping back into action, and an Awards Ballot should be going out very shortly (many thanks to Rich for a lot of the up-front work).

I did want to post this quick update on the league membership, and sadly I have some unfortunate news to share. Three of our owners have decided not to return to the league in 2008: Teddy (Splendid Splinters), Paul (Da Paul Meisters), and Eric (Eric's Lambchops) have, for various reasons, decided to call it quits.

In addition, Steve (Steve's Stones) is currently thinking over whether or not he'll be back, so potentially we'll have 4 ownerless franchises as we head into the offseason.

The Executive Committee recently talked things over and agreed that the CFCL functions best at full capacity, so we do plan to search for replacement owners. At some point in the future we will start posting about the openings on various message boards, but in the meantime we thought we should toss things open to the current owners and check if anyone knew of good candidates for CFCL membership. The one requirement I'll mention at this point is that we do want to focus only on people who live in the Chicago area. And certainly some level of experience in roto baseball would help. Let me know if you have any candidates.

David

[MGrage]

Wow. Teddy leaving wasn't too much of a surprise, though still regrettable. Paul leaving is alot bigger surprise though his inactivity during the season foreshadowed it. Eric leaving is a complete and utter shocker. I had no idea he was even contemplating a withdrawal. It would be a dang dirty shame to lose another of the class of 2000 if Steven left too. We're losing the owners with the 4th & 5th longest tenure in the league in addition to a talented newcomer in Teddy. Here's hoping Steve can hang in there with all his banking duties (he he he).

It was a pleasure meeting and getting to know all three of you guys. I wish y'all the best of luck in your future endeavors. Paul, it was always a trip sitting next to you in the draft. From your joyful glee at picking up a random ex-White Sock to various surprised looks during the course of the day, you'll be missed. Eric, the official recorder of record for all picks, the voice of reason. Who will take your place? Maybe we can burden Rich with that too. Teddy was always quick with a joke and able to withstand intense de Aza kidding with aplomb. All three of you will be missed come next Spring.

So much for a "quick reply". Anyways, I wish you guys nothing but the best of luck and good health for you and your families. Finally, thanks to Eric for helping me personally a while back. Take care and who knows. Maybe you guys can come back in a few years like Paul Mahlan or Dave Goetz. And I'm sure you contributions to the forum will be welcomed too. Mahalo

Matt

[stones]

Hey Guys,

Matt, this may be historically significant, but I completely agree with you! Well, at least on the comments about Paul, Eric and Teddy. Eric is/was my Auction and Twizzler buddy, Paul (my personal salary enforcer) will be missed without question, and I really liked Teddy, and not only because he looked like my man crush Geoff Jenkins.

As for your comments about me, I really appreciate those. And even though they had no real influence on me, I have decided to return next season.

I am not sure if this will come as good news or not to a few of you. Even though I just watched my Packers lose, and baseball is the furthest thing from my mind, I guess I wouldn't know what to do with myself without the CFCL or some other alternative. I just sent David a reply to an email, kind of wavering, but that forced me to think about it and to get over myself. So count me in.

I will admit I didn't really enjoy this past season, and it had little to do with the Stones less than spectacular results. For some reasons that are pretty clear and specific to me, and others not, I just felt a negative vibe the from the onset, and it seemingly carried throughout the season. And while I probably contributed to the "negative vibe", I am very hopeful that will not continue into the new season. Hey, I am more than willing to admit that maybe my skin isn't as thick as I thought it was, but in any case, I going to make an effort to I find the missing "fun thing" next season.

It sounds like I wasn't the only one not feeling the "fun", but it seems we all probably had different and varying reasons for those feelings. In any case, its time to put that away and move on. I will look forward to what can be instead of what was.

On that note, it sounds like the CFCL is going to go through some significant changes with changes to some rules and owners, etc. So maybe that is enough to create renewed excitement for me (and hopefully others). After all, its just a game!

Again, best wishes to Teddy, Eric and Paul. I also enjoyed getting to know you all.

Eric, remember to give me a call as I will renew my Brewers tickets again next season.

[Copperfields]

Steve, this is good news indeed - I'm glad to hear you'll be back!

I'm probably one of those people Steve alluded to who wasn't "feeling the fun" as much last year, and since so much of the league business flows through me perhaps that filtered down to everyone else. Over the past few years the running of the CFCL has shifted from being a passion for me towards more of a chore - though my passion for the CFCL has never dimmed. There are probably a number of reasons for this, including the growing complexity of our rules which required more and more oversight, the move to a stat service that increased the complexity involved with doing tasks that had previously been a breeze and that worked in ways that were often at odds with our rules, and simply a lack of time on my part due to a change in jobs and other outside demands from pesky things like family.

Anyway, as Steve hinted, we're currently considering some changes that will hopefully address a number of these issues and will allow the Front Office to foucs a little more on the "fun" side of things. It's my hope that this won't take long to flow out to the rest of the league, though I certainly can't guarantee anything.

We'll be posting the details of what we're considering and be asking for feedback/input, so keep your eyes peeled.

David

[MGrage]

Hmm, the Illuminati are out in full force. I don't know from vibes so I didn't tune into any bad ones. I will admit to some frustration in the months leading up to the trade deadline though. Early negotiations went nowhere since half the league was within 10 points of the top. The obvious early dumper, The Meisters, were never heard from in these parts. Then a few other owners took time off in the middle of the year. I know it was brilliant move for me to schedule a trip to the other side of the world in the week before the deadline. *sigh*

From the pre-season switch of stat services to Paul's disappearance, there was a perfect storm in our real lives that suppressed involvement in the league this year. I feel this is just a one year aberration and not a jumping the shark moment for the CFCL. I still have massive amounts of cheap, young players to deal. I mean, how can one guy have 1/4 of the NL SSs on one roster (Tulowitze, Drew, Ramirez, Ryan). It's a good thing I can stick Brendan at 3B.

Anyways, welcome back Steve. It's great that you're coming back for me punishment, er fun in 2008. And now I'm looking forward to the banquet even more so I can get a sneak preview of what you guys have been talking about under the Cones of Silence. You coming to the banquest Stefan? Mahalo

Matt

[Copperfields]

mgrage said:

Early negotiations went nowhere since half the league was within 10 points of the top.

Thanks for mentioning this - I know there was some frustration among some owners about trade talks that went nowhere and some teams seemingly not being willing to give anything up, and I think this was the #1 cause, by a long ways.

Not only were there several teams within hailing distance of the top (at one point, well into the season, only the Meisters could have been reasonably counted out of the money), but the categories themselves were so tight that giving up the wrong player could have easily dropped a team as many points at they'd be acquiring in the deal -- no one had such a huge lead in any category that they could deal from a position of strength. In the end, I think people were overly-cautious about giving anything up, more willing to stick it out with what they had rather than risk hurting themselves by making a move.

[kenndoza (archived)]

Welcome back Steve. I for one am glad you're not leaving.

As for the jumbling in the standings, I know I was terrified as to what the others would do. Glad there were eventually some trades - I expect there to be more next year.

I'll miss the troika heading out. Ted came into the league with me and although he may not know this, it was always my goal to beat him every year. I enjoyed sitting next to him at the last few drafts as he worked on his gamesmanship skills by trying to get me to throw money after crappy players. Didn't always work Teddy, but I think you convinced me I need Marcus Giles this year. Yecch.

Paul was the most memorable "character" in "Trading the Gator," which was my first exposure to the league. I was happy to see that he was just as memorable in person, and I always enjoyed seeing which players piqued his interest, like old San Francisco Giants or young college pitchers.

It's a shock to see Eric go, because I felt like he was one of the more active owners in the league. Even when he was out of it, he (and Paul M.) treated every trade proposal seriously and didn't let himself get ripped off. It was always a pleasure to deal with the Lambchops. I hope Eric comes back on draft day to help run things.

[Nick's Picts (archived)]

Always glad to have the Stones at the table come Draft Day. You've been the cream of the millennial class, sir.

Sad to see Paul, Eric, and Teddy go. Eric used that nice-guy judo several times in our trading past to work me over. I gave up way too much for A. Jones in '05 when it seemed the Picts might finally finish in the money. Paul and I never seemed to get beyond looking at principals in any trade talk and I'll miss his animated presence at the Draft. Then again, we might start a bit closer to on time 8^). And Teddy made my tenure on the EC most interesting.

As for the vibes, I do think it was some odd combination of items this year. My team fell right out of the gate but had a slow, consistent climb in the standings up to the All Star break. I picked up Pujols knowing it was a rebuilding year and that I could probably flip him for some decent youth come trading deadline. I may have been over-estimating his value but I never seemed to get anything close to what I imagined I'd have to spend for him if I was on the other side of such a trade. I was also wrapping up an abysmal year and a half domestic firestorm and that kind of dampened any enthusiasm I would normally have. I'll be much better in the coming season having finally concluded proceedings a month ago.

At any rate, I wish I could make it to dine with you gents. Then again, I figure if I ever do make it to a banquet, it'll mean the end of my CFCL career. I was sort of rooting for the weekend of the October 21st as I was in Milwaukee for a convention of sorts and would have Amtrak'ed it there. Instead I watched the Indians collapse in the Hyatt bar.

[MGrage]

Looking back, it's probably a good thing that I didn't mortgage the future to take a run at the title this year. After the blockbuster Stones-Dozer deal, I doubt I could have overtaken him. Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make, like any of the Hanley Ramirez trades I never could make myself pull the trigger on. In a couple of years, I might feel the same way about Rasmus & Fernando. Mahalo

Matt

PS. Next time you fly to Milwaukee give us a holler Nick. Maybe the CFCL can meet you halfway and we can have our banquet at Great America or something.

[kenndoza (archived)]

So...what are we doing about filling the three vacanies? I seem to recall we got the ball rolling in December/January when Teddy and I came on board, and Bob was voted in on the strength of his past application (i.e. we didn't really try to recruit anyone then). Are we going to have an expansion draft, or will they just inherit their three teams?

[Copperfields]

On the vacancies - we're looking for candidates now. If you or anyone else has candidates who you think would be good for the league and enjoy the CFCL, send them our way. Rich has already identified a couple possibilities, and I'll be posting "want ads" on some message boards soon.

We'll toss the three ownerless rosters into a pool and the incoming owners will have a straight draft from among those players, with the players retaining their salary and contract status (except for Home Town Discount). This not only gives them a little practice in evaluating and valuing players for the CFCL, but is much more fair than giving one owner the 7th place team and another the team that finished a distant, distant third.

[redhots]

As the "new guy" I have to say it will be nice to not be the "new guy" any longer.

As far as the three leaving.....I wish them all luck in whatever they choose. I enjoyed the draft days spent with them.

[Nick's Picts (archived)]

mgrage said:

Next time you fly to Milwaukee give us a holler Nick. Maybe the CFCL can meet you halfway and we can have our banquet at Great America or something.

Wish I would have thought of that. While the annual meeting was pretty awe-inspiring and time-consuming, I did fly in a day early just to bump around. Instead of ending my free day at the hotel bar cursing the Indians, it would have been way cooler to end it in a hotel bar with a bunch of folks steeling themselves against the inevitable Cubs collapse and cursing the Indians.

[MGrage]

copperfields said:

On the vacancies - we're looking for candidates now. If you or anyone else has candidates who you think would be good for the league and enjoy the CFCL, send them our way. Rich has already identified a couple possibilities, and I'll be posting "want ads" on some message boards soon.

We'll toss the three ownerless rosters into a pool and the incoming owners will have a straight draft from among those players, with the players retaining their salary and contract status (except for Home Town Discount). This not only gives them a little practice in evaluating and valuing players for the CFCL, but is much more fair than giving one owner the 7th place team and another the team that finished a distant, distant third.

Is it just me or there ALOT more talent available to the newbies than there was back in Y2K when me, Steve & Nick joined up? Maybe my mind is slipping but I think Moises Alou was the highlight of my draft. I can't say for sure because I'm getting error messages for the 2000-2002 season histories & news pages. It's saying they're inactive. *shrug* Mahalo

Matt

[kenndoza (archived)]

Complain all you want, but *MY* first player was Kip Freaking Wells.