Change In My People To Drop

I previously stated that my players to be dropped are:
1) Brandon Moss, OF (Pit)
2) Ron Mahay, RP (KC)
3) Carl Pavano, SP (NYY)
4) Sergio Mitre, SP NA DL (Fla)
5) Mark Mulder, SP DL (StL)
6) Chad Durbin, RP (Phi)

I recently was told that Todd Jones was retiring. Due to this knowledge that I was unaware of, I am making a slight change to the players that will be dropped from my team.

5) Mark Mulder, SP DL (StL) to 5) Todd Jones, RP (Det)

So my six players to be dropped to get my roster size down to 24 is as follows:
1) Brandon Moss, OF (Pit)
2) Ron Mahay, RP (KC)
3) Carl Pavano, SP (NYY)
4) Sergio Mitre, SP NA DL (Fla)
5) Todd Jones, RP (Det)
6) Chad Durbin, RP (Phi)

Thanks for your time
-Andy-

Drop/Draft Confusion

My current understanding of our draft plan:

Every team must have a roster size of 24 players and must drop/trade any surplus players by the draft date.

On the draft date everyone will be allowed to draft as many players as they want, but must have a roster size of 27 by opening day - any overflow players will be relegated to the waiver wire.

In somewhat related news - I have seven closers, so you gentleman can begin the race for second in that category, as I already have it locked up.

Trade Completed

Velocirocktors send Rick Ankiel (OF, StL), Aaron Harang (SP, CIN), and Dustin McGowan (SP, TOR) to The Shoppach Camels in exchange for $350 auction money.

RE: Last Post

OK, I am confused. Connor proposed that we dont drop players during the draft right after we draft someone. Understandable. So, let me see if I understand what we are doing this year.

1) We all have to drop 3 into a pool
2) We draft from this pool and the free agent pool at the end of last year
3) We do a second draft from the new pool of free agents (Japanese, minor league, etc) later on
4) We drop players after this second draft to the free agents list
5) Season starts and we have a new list of drop 3 created from the last draft that people will want to pick up.

WTF? We drop 3, add 3, add 3, drop 3, then add and drop at the same time. If we want to do the drop 3 rule, thats cool. How about we combine all of this mess into 1 draft. So, here is what would happen:

1) We all do the drop 3
2) We take those players, last year's FA list and all the new japanese and minor league players and use this pool of player to draft from with our draft dollars.

This way, we dont have to worry about the add/drop rule during the draft because we will all have 3 spots open on our teams. Also, it makes draft dollars slightly more valuable which will make offseason trading more fun. AND, most importantly, it makes things much easier.

What do you guys think?

Droppings

So, as best as I can tell, the drop three issue is, for the moment, uncertain.

However, there's one issue with regard to dropping that I think needs to be resolved ASAP.

Dropping during the draft. We did it last year. And only afterward did I realize how much I disliked it. Players that weren't previously available for purchase suddenly were, oftentimes after some managers had already spent a gread deal of their money.

So, my proposal is that every team needs to clear whatever roster space they need before the draft. Once you've reached the limit for your team size, you're done. Thoughts?

Predictions

I thought it might be fun for everyone who wishes to participate to predict an order of finish in our league for the 2009 season. There would be no stakes of course. We don't want Zach and Steve fighting proxy wars via Nick and Kyle to settle a tiebreaker... Obviously, this would be done after the draft.

Coslett Is the New Owner

Coslett is taking over Hutchens' team.

Question to the league:

Would we like to expand to 15 teams if the new team is willing to start out only picking from our weaker players? If we would like to, then we have plenty of time to sort that out before any drafting for the season starts.

If we were to expand, then my initial thoughts on having the new owner fill his team are that every team would protect X number of players, and beyond that no more than Y players can be taken from any one team. Please chime in (I know I don't really have to ask) with thoughts regarding whether we should expand, and if yes then how the general layout that I provide here sounds.

Drop Three Vote?

I thought this might be a good place to organize our sentiments on the "drop three" since Steve said we could nix it* if everyone hated it.

On the question of whether or not we should amend the rules to require league rosters to be no greater than 27 players instead of the previously agreed upon 24:

Representative Tapp from Illinois votes Yea


*nix it (v.) what you do with an inept defensive coordinator (see: Nix, Tyrone)

New Owner

I've been intentionally mute on the new owner. Coslett at one point agreed to do it, but I need to confirm his interest and commitment. I will do that this week and if it turns out that he is not going to take a team, then as a league we will have to work together to find someone who can keep up with us. Please, everyone encourage Coslett (or discourage, however you feel so inclined) and if he hasn't committed by the end of next week (Dec. 12) then we will move on and find someone else.

Official Drop/Dont Drop Players Argument

Ok. So this has been a point of conflict for a while now. Some people complain about a bias against the north. I don't really agree with that, but you have definitely had less say in the issues over the past 3 years since you have lived so far away. Now, we are all spread out so I don't think that argument really has any basis from now on. So, lets move on from that. We all have the same forum now to voice our opinions.

I want to voice my opinion about the drop 3 rule. I do not like it at all. Last time I talked to Connor, he didn't like it (might be different now, idk). Now, eric an Andy said they dont like it either. Who does like it? Im sure JRoss doesnt want to drop any of his young players to pick up some scrubs from other teams, and Elliot probably wont care until the season is nearer. There really is no point in doing it. It wont shift any power at all. However, to counter my own position, I dropped rickie weeks at the end of the year because I thought I was going to have to do it anyway with the drop 3. So, if we dont have to drop 3 anymore, I want him back. I traded away Saito because I valued +1 waiver spot over losing him in the drop 3 (btw, I would have won the league if i didnt do that trade...I wouldnt have without the drop 3 in place). So, everything is kinda screwed up now. Im sure other people made moves under the assumption that we were doing the drop 3. So, how about lets drop 3 this year and from now on we dont add or drop any more positions. If we want to change the format and add more DL spots or positions, thats can be discussed.

BTW, I know this has not been discussed at all, but I would even be in favor of doing something as drastic as abandoning the keepers league for a yearly league if it meant more day to day participation. I think that would be fun too. Comment back everyone!

Lame

I know that my opinions are usually shot down in this league, but I plan to make a huge effort on keeping my mouth shut after this...

A lot of what has happened with this league was done so without the vocal opinions of those in the north and done in south carolina including this decision of expanding the roster by 3 and then dropping players at the end of the season. It is my opinion that this was extremely unfair because we did not get to vote on the matter. Although an open webchat was avaliable, I feel as if there was not a huge effort to make sure we were going to attend. I actually lost Soto as a catcher because that was my number 1 person I would have bid all my money on to get last year if I was not able to get brynes in the auction. Nevertheless, I cant really sit here and try to persaude everyone because there seems to be no means of persausion as well as a huge bias anyway, but I still think it is stupid that I am required to get rid of an extra person when I will be starting the season with a roster of now 23 because I will immediately move one of my players to the DL.

My players to be dropped are:
1) Brandon Moss, OF (Pit)
2) Ron Mahay, RP (KC)
3) Carl Pavano, SP (NYY)
4) Sergio Mitre, SP NA DL (Fla)
5) Mark Mulder, SP DL (StL)
6) Chad Durbin, RP (Phi)

Interested in a Bowl Pick 'em?

You can sign up with a group of other Gamecock fans/bloggers here: http://leftoverhotdog.blogspot.com/2008/12/lohd-bowl-pickm-challenge.html
Just thought this group might be interested in something like that.

Roster Question and Trading Block and Drops

So one of the roster questions that I have is whether or not we can carry players on the DL into the next season. I currently have 3 players sitting on my DL that will not be back until mid-season. I know we have to get our roster down to 24 players and my roster is sitting at 30 players with 3 of those players sitting on the DL. Do I have to get my team down to 24 regardless who is sitting on the DL? Because when the season starts those players are just going to go to the DL opening up my roster to three more players add(which would probably be the players I would be required to drop if I have to drop 6 players). Therefore, those teams that have players on the DL that wont be back til mid season, I would vote to not be required to drop that player.

For those who may be interested in Ben Sheets in a possible trade I am open to possible trades. I am looking for a power hitter, preferibly an Outfield. I am also open to hearing any possible trades for Tim Hudson and Josh Willingham. Although Tim Hudson won't be back til Mid Season he still holds value for when he comes back. If someone sees any value in any of these players or wants to group them together for someone, let me know.

Three Players that I am dropping as of now is:
1) Brandon Moss (Pit)
2) Ron Mahay (KC)
3) Carl Pavano (NYY)

Bored at work/Trade Block

1) Victor Martinez
2) Matt Holliday, the Rockies version
3) Chris Young
4) late 2007, pre 2008 Clay Buchholz
5) 2007 Justin Verlander
6) Zach Miner, Cha Seung Baek, Tim Wakefield and Kevil Millwood because wtf are you guys doing on my team

Wish List:
1) 3B eligable player (Miggy, Wright, Longoria, etc)
2) SP - Tim Lincecum and Rich Harden! (j/k Steve, my love affair for Harden is long gone)
3) OF - I heart BJ Upton and Grady Sizemore...and as you can see from above, I do not heart Matt Holliday...hmmm...
4) Massive amounts of young talent

The Block

I feel like we need to get some trade dialogue going.

I'll start by laying out the players I have on the trading block. If you wish to join the discussion on my players or put your own players on the block, please do so in the comments section.

I'm always willing to consider a trade for any player; the below are players that are being blocked by other players at their respective positions.

On the Block: Velocirocktors (Connor)
Torii Hunter (OF, Angels): .278 AVG, 21 HR, 19 SB, 85 R, 78 RBI... A model of consistency. I found he was very useful for filling in the injured OF spot that I had at what seemed like all times last season (what more could you expect from Milton Bradley, Rick Ankiel, and Elijah Dukes?).

Cody Ross (OF, Marlins): .260 AVG, 22 HR, 73 RBI, 59 R, 6 SB... I think I probably like Ross's potential more than most, so he's somewhat of a borderline call for being on the block

Billy Butler (1B/OF, Royals): .337/.417/.564 at AAA, struggled a bit in the bigs... is only 22.

Dexter Fowler (OF, Rockies) .313/.431/.515 at Double-A with 20 SB... Even though I'm trading the future for the present, Fowler might be too good for me to give up.

Paul Maholm (SP, Pirates): 3.71 ERA, 1.28 WHIP in 206 innings. Should be the Pirates' #1 starter, for whatever that's worth.


Needs:

I need a catcher, starting pitching, steals, auction cash, and I am (as always) interested in highly speculative deals. In particular, I might be willing to speculate on an enigmatic 2B (ahem, Rickie Weeks) since Utley may miss the beginning of the season.

However, I'll always entertain trade offers in areas where I don't claim to have a need.

Three suggestions one question.

1) Everyone in the league should get facebook. Seriously.
2) Teams should have to announce which players they are planning to put up for auction before the auction period begins. Otherwise, auction strategy is severely altered.
3) Let's we get some more LOLZ CATZ on here.

1) Who is the new owner going to be?

Welcome

Please use this blog as a means of communication. Not all league members have facebook.