Off-season dates/deadlines 2013-2014

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

Hey all. Andrew came up with the following schedule of to-do's. I added in #7 as that's also a critical decision for all teams. I think it looks pretty good. Let me know what you think. We can always tweak as needed (dates, details, etc.).

1. Trading resumes: Nov 3
2. Deadline to promote players who are no longer minor league eligible to the 40 man roster: Dec 15
3. Deadline to promote players who were outrighted the previous year back to the 40 man roster: Dec 15
4. Deadline to release minor league players: Dec 15
5. Deadline to exercise club options: Jan 5
6. First year player draft, slow draft begins: Jan 5
7. Deadline to designate Restricted Free Agents and declare Franchise and Prospect Tags: Jan 5
8. Deadline to release players before free agency: Jan 19
9. Free agency begins: Feb 15

Explanations of each:
1. Hopefully a few days after the end of the world series.
2/3. A few days after the real Rule 5 Draft. This helps add some new players to the free agent pool earlier in the offseason. I tried to split up roster decisions so no one gets overwhelmed at once.
4. This is to determine the maximum number of selections a team can make in the amateur draft. I think 10 rounds is a good max. If anything, I'd go 12 or 15.
5. This is the second big addition to the free agent pool, a few days after new years
6. The amateur draft begins, it can last all the way up to opening day if need be.
7. Important part of determining what players coming off contracts you're going to choose to control
8. This may not be necessary
9. Later than we did it this year

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't been in touch for a little bit. Most of my free time was being allocated to running my postseason Playoff Parlay, which involves all manual stat entry and then some Roto calculating. But.... now I'm ready to get back into the swing of things for Diamond Duos season 2!!

First off, we have several new owners - a few of which took over late in the season, and a couple more who have just joined us in the last 3-4 weeks. We welcome:
Jason Wallin - taking over Pittsburgh Orioles
Rob Jenner - taking over Washington Nationals
Doug Gale - taking over Cincinnati Twins
Stephen Milne - taking over Detroit Brewers, taking over a 6th place finishing team
Ray Gabner - taking over LA Mets of NY, taking over a 5th place finishing team

Returning owners:
Defending champion Steve LeBlanc - Texas Giants
Runner up Andrew Appelbaum - St. Louis Cardinals
3rd place Taylor Baggett - Seattle Braves
4th place Adam Schumann - Colorado Rays
Brett Chafin - Chicago (AL) Dodgers
Scott Greene - Boston Padres
Drew Bonner - Chicago (NL) Blue Jays
Eric Davidson - New York (AL) Diamondbacks
Kirk Kellam - KC Marlins
Chuck Schneider - Philadelphia Astros

TRADING IS NOW OPEN! Any trades that are agreed upon need to be posted on ProBoards in the Trades section. I will be archiving most of our 2013 season threads and creating new 2014 ones. I just haven't gotten to that yet so please bear with me.

Below is the schedule for this offseason and deadline dates, draft dates, free agent dates, etc. Please be advised that the deadline to designate your one Franchise Tag player is not until January 5th, BUT, it's probably in your best interest to figure out who you want to Tag sooner than later because once a free agent signs with a team in real MLB, you will not be allowed to then deem that player your Franchise Tag. If you have any question to what a Franchise Tag is, please refer to the League Rules, Constitution. Basically it's one of your players going into Free Agency (contract was through 2013) that you can keep as your Franchise Tag and will then assume his new real-life MLB contract, with whatever team and for however much money it's for.

Our schedule:
1. Trading resumes: Nov 3
2. Deadline to promote players who are no longer minor league eligible to the 40 man roster: Dec 15
3. Deadline to promote players who were outrighted the previous year back to the 40 man roster: Dec 15
4. Deadline to release minor league players: Dec 15
5. Deadline to exercise club options: Jan 5
6. First year player draft, slow draft begins: Jan 5
7. Deadline to designate Restricted Free Agents and declare Franchise and Prospect Tags: Jan 5
8. Deadline to release players before free agency: Jan 19
9. Free agency begins: Feb 15

PLEASE, in the next week or so, start modifying your Team Roster page on ProBoards to update for 2014. I am going to create a new 2014 Team Roster thread so please begin to add your rosters and current contracts in there once I set it up.

I think that's all for now. If you haven't sent me over the $15 to hold your place in the league which covers our Fantrax site fee for life, please do that via PayPal. Email to use is [e-mail]. I've mentioned this before. If you are sending via PayPal, please check Send Money to family or friends, and then from bank account or PayPal balance so there are no fees taken out. I have not decided if I'll be using LeagueSafe again in 2014. Fantrax has a new Treasurer option that I'm going to look into.

Lastly, a reminder about Spring Training March 7-9 in Florida. I'm taking my son Adam, my cousin-in-law Jim is bringing his son Matthew, and I'm hoping some other guys are able to make it down. It's an amazing schedule so please consider if you want to have some baseball fun in the sun.
Friday 3/7 - Arrive Orlando 9:00AM. Drive to Viera, FL for Astros/Nationals game. Stay over in Viera/Cocoa area.
Saturday 3/8 - Drive to Lakeland, FL for Mets/Tigers afternoon game. Then drive to Sarasota, FL for Red Sox/Orioles night game. Stay over in Sarasota or Tampa area.
Sunday 3/9 - Rays/Yankees game in Tampa. Fly out of Tampa Sunday night.

Any questions or concerns about anything league or Spring Training-related, let me know.
Thanks,

Scott

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

Hi guys. Quick update here. It looks like Steve Milne is out. I haven't heard from him in over a month and I removed his name from ProBoards and Fantrax.

I am hoping Ray agrees to take over Chicago Dodgers as I have my cousin-in-law Jim Vogel set to take over LA Mets of NY and his buddy Ed Orgon is grabbing the Detroit Brewers. Once I hear from Ray and we know about the Chicago Dodgers franchise, hopefully we'll be all set.

Update to the list of dates above - 1st Year Player Draft will be on ProBoards in a separate thread. All players drafted in the June 2013 MLB 1st Year Player Draft that have signed with a major league franchise are eligible to be drafted, as well as any International signees that have agreed to terms with a major league franchise.

Also, once we get to Free Agent contract offers, most people have told me they'd prefer to do what we did last winter and have those offers on the board. We'll determine if it's similar format as last year (2 players nominated on board per owner at all times) or if we'll go by position. Either way, it'll be on the board and not via blind bidding. In-season free agent contract offers will remain via blind bid.

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

FROM MY EMAIL TONIGHT:

Hi guys,
First off, there are several of you who still need to post on ProBoards your 2014 Team Roster. There's a new thread I created and you can copy and paste your 2013 roster and then make your changes as needed. Teams that still need to do this are:
• LA Mets of NY - new owner Jim Vogel
• New York Diamondbacks - Eric D.
• Seattle Braves - Taylor B.
• Colorado Rays - Adam S.
• KC Marlins - Kirk K.
Detroit Brewers - I posted the team roster but new owner Ed Orgon needs to check it over and total salaries.

Quick owners update - Ray Gabner has graciously accepted the switch to take over Chicago Dodgers and has already been working on his team. This is Ray's first dynasty league and one with any sort of salaries involved, so let's please help Ray out if and when he needs some assistance. Welcome Ray! My cousin-in-law Jim Vogel is taking over LA Mets of NY. Jim's a big Mets fan and lives on Long Island. Finally his lifelong buddy Ed Orgon is a big Tigers fan and will be taking over Detroit Brewers. As things stand we have 15 teams filled and all owners have confirmed they're in for 2014.

In addition, I still have yet to receive the $15 Fantrax site fee from several of you. This is the amount I need now please to secure your spot in the league. The $40 league fee for our winnings pot will be due in January/February. If you haven't sent me your $15 please reply and let me know when I can expect that. I do not want to and will not chase people for payment. If we go another couple weeks and there's been no response, we'll have to address the issue.

Now to this week's deadlines. They're all coming up this Sunday night 12/15.
• Deadline to promote players who are no longer minor league eligible to the 40 man roster: Dec 15
• Deadline to promote players who were outrighted the previous year back to the 40 man roster: Dec 15
• Deadline to release minor league players: Dec 15

Please check over your rosters and decide what you're going to do. I have a post on the board which shows for each team the players currently in Minors on Fantrax that are no longer eligible for Minors. These guys have to be promoted to Majors or released. If there's a player in the Minors who is a Majors contract, remember you're responsible for 25% of each year's salary if released.
**Any players that are released (Majors or Minors) PLEASE make sure you post on the board, preferably in the thread below your team roster, or if you have a separate team Roster Moves thread that's fine too. I have to keep track of all players' released so I can compile a list of available players before we get into FA contract offers and Minors drafts over the next couple months.

Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or need anything. Thanks!
Scott

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

I've heard from everyone in the league that hasn't posted their 2014 roster except NY Diamondbacks (Eric).

Kirk (KC Marlins), Adam (Colorado Rays), Taylor (Seattle Braves) and Jim (LA Mets) all told me they'd be working on theirs tonight.

I've been emailing and sending direct messages via Twitter to Eric for a while now and haven't received any response. If I don't hear anything within the next week or so, we may have to go in another directions. Deadlines are deadlines for a reason, and I've communicated all of these deadlines to the league on several occasions over the last month.

[Deleted]

So, now that the Jan. 19 deadline has passed, is it too late for me to drop anyone and be responsible for 25% of their annual salary? The FA period begins on 2/15, so there'd still be plenty of time for other owners to consider them before FA signings begin. Or am I forced to hold them all season now if they are signed for 2014?

[Deleted]

I thought it didn't change to 50% till the season actually starts. Am I mistaken?

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

If you sign a player this coming year 2014 and in the future, AND drop during the SAME season, that will be 50% that you're on the hook for.

Any other remaining years on contracts, or any guys from last year that were released up until current time, is 25% that you're responsible for.

Having said that, I have no problem with extending that 1/19 deadline. Seems like as long as a player is dropped at least a week or so before we begin free agency on 2/15, gives plenty of time.

Anyone have objections to this? We'll have to tweak next year's off season deadlines.

FYI - We are NOT dropping Minor Leaguers at this point to open up more Minors draft positions.

[Drew (Chicago Blue Jays)]

I am down with that. I've got one more I'd like to drop.

[Deleted]

It was my understanding the Jan 19 deadline was for players with options and deciding whether or not to keep a player during their arbitration years. Then we would have until FA opens to drop the rest of our overpaid scrubs.

[Scott (Boston Padres)]

I think we had January 5th as the deadline to exercise options and decide on keeping arbitration players. The 19th was supposed to be for all other releases, but...

This all sounds fine to me if we extend the ability to release players until February 8th. We'll just need to clarify these differences for next year. I know several guys have asked me if they're still able to release players and assume some salary responsibility.