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Welcome back, once again. I was thinking of sitting out this season, or demanding a trade, because I don't feel like having to put Wilson Alvarez back in the Draft, and I want to be able to keep 16 players. Sure, I won the League, and I should be happy with that, but this is just how I feel, and you can't make me...
Actually, I just figured out where John Valentin is going to play in 1998: the Arizona Diamondbacks. He won't be protected in the November expansion draft, and the Diamondbacks (or that other team, the one in Florida) will pick him up, and Duquette will be rid of another player that he can't take credit for drafting or signing. That only leaves Vaughn, whom Duquette will "regretfully" lose to the Yankees as a free agent after next year, and then it will truly be Dan's team.
As you can tell, I'm not happy with either side in this dispute. Valentin is acting like the consummate crybaby athlete, but Duquette is continuing to establish himself as an egomaniac cold fish. It must have been a major bummer for Duquette that the Red Sox won the Division in ‘95, long before his "plan" could come to fruition, and he could be acknowledged as the genius he thinks he is. Similarly, he decided to fire Kennedy around May of last season, and it really screwed things up when the team went on to have the best record in all of baseball over the second half. Do you really need to mess with a team that played as well as the Red Sox did over the last 2-1/2 months in ‘96? Why not keep Frye at 2nd and Valentin at short, and let Garciaparra play himself into a job when there's a legitimate opening? Why not open talks with Clemens earlier and try to keep him with the team for his whole career, with a legitimate chance of winning right away? Why not sign a good center fielder instead of re-tread Shane Mack, keep Canseco and Kennedy, and see what happens? The answer to all these questions is that Duquette wants this team not to win right away, so that he can "rebuild" it himself, and then take all the credit.
League Stuff. Enough whining. This is really just a quick pre-Draft note to get us all on the same page. We have scheduled the Draft for Saturday, March 29 at 6:30 PM. I believe everyone is aware of this by now, but please contact me immediately if there is any problem. Unfortunately, co-GM of the Boomers, Don Legere, won't be able to be there, as he will be completing important business in Orlando, Florida. However, we are holding out hope for a late evening appearance, or at least a telephone call, around the time Mike is about to bid $10 for Jason Grimsley. Also, John Wilk has sold his interest in the Jay Jays to a newcomer, whose name I forget, who will join Joel Freedman in the quest for more $1 starting pitchers like Juan Guzman. So long and Godspeed to John, welcome to whats-your-name.
Location: This year we'll be at Chuck Goldman's house, 356 Puritan Road, Swampscott (598-2133(h)/322-2350(w)). It's not far from my house, but call Chuck for directions, please. For those of you in office pools, Chuck has agreed to put the NCAA Finals on TV in the family room. But eat dinner first, because we don't want to go past 1:00 AM.
Keepers are due one week before the Draft, Saturday, March 22, by 8:00 PM. Please fax (593-4707), voice mail (586-9407), and/or e-mail (DNTownsend@Prodigy.com) your keepers by then. I will attempt to have them re-transmitted to everyone by Monday or Tuesday, somehow. I will be generally unreachable between now and then, because I'm going on a week-long scouting mission to Tanzania, where I hear they have some great young pitchers playing in the Kilamanjaro League.
By the way, there are a few important little items about some rosters. First of all, All Star Stats for some reason screws up players in the last year of long-term contracts, so its database shows Manny Ramirez (Skids, $20) and Jose Mesa (Boomers, $6 or 5-to-10 years) as free agents, which they are not. Frankie Rodriguez is a free agent, not $7 S1 on the Pets, as indicated. And the Jay Jays made two moves at the end of last year that never got recorded, but are legit. They dumped Kelly Stinnett and picked up Todd Greene for $5 at catcher, and they signed free agent Hideki Irabu for $5 as well. Yes, that's the same Irabu who's obnoxiously seeking to join the Yankees from the Padres these days; he was an unsigned free agent at the time, and IF he signs with the Yankees or another American League team, he'll be Jay Jays property. Please don't get worked up over this, guys.
Web/Money: Most of you have found the new All Star Stats Web Site, and our own Good IV League home page (http://www.allstarstats.com/baseball/0294), which I think could be a great new resource for most of us. It will cost us $100 extra for the whole league ($10 per team), but as a result we can get daily team and league updates on-line, plus post messages to each other and see all transactions, etc. This won't replace the regular printed reports, unless you want it to. That is, you can choose not to pay the extra $50 to receive a separate mailed report, and only follow your team's performance on-line. That will be each team's decision, which can be made at the Draft.
On another point, I am ashamed to acknowledge that I still owe the 2nd and 3rd place teams their prize money from last year. This is bad, and only reflects my continued antipathy for dealing with the financial side of this game. If anyone wants to volunteer to be league treasurer, please do so. I am including checks in this mailing for the Lippers and Skids, despite the fact that they will have to pay most of it right back. Please accept my apologies. Also, to the one team that neglected to pay last year, please plan on bringing enough cash or check to cover two years' fees to this year's Draft; everyone else please plan to pay at the Draft, too, either to me or a new treasurer. The amount will depend upon whether you're getting a mailed report or not, and what type of report, somewhere in the range of $185 per team at the most. I propose that we work out the financial issues at the beginning of the Draft.
Okay, see you all on the 29th, if I'm not eaten by a lion...
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