Thursday's Transactional Highlights

Some of the more notable moves.

The Dummy Hoyas, who ought to take ownership of explaining their catalogue of transactions dropped Dana Eveland and picked up perpetual prospect John Danks. Hoya management thought the Hoya clubhouse would be mature enough to handle having a guy named "Dana" on the roster. They weren't. Faced with the embarassment of a potential sexual harassment law suit, the Hoyas decided to cut their loses before the players shaved off all Eveland's pubes. Also from the Hoyas, Daniel Cabrera came and went. First for DH Billy Butler, then for 3B surprise Edwin Encarnacion.

The Bookie Mribblers dropped Joe Blanton who would be one of those under-the-radar fantasy gems if he played on a team worth a damn and got frenchman Eric Gagne.

Websters, The Lenny dropped 2007 postseason manna Brad Hawpe for 2B Orlando Hudson. This will be my litmus test of how patient one should be in this league.

The Sal Buteras seem to have lost SP John Smoltz. Replacing him may or may not be RP John Smoltz. John Smoltz, you might remember, spent a few seasons in the Atlanta 'pen when ace SP John Smoltz was on hiatus. It's a little like how Clark Kent and Superman are never seen in the same place. Congratulations, Sals, in advance if this happens. You probably just acquired a front line closer without making a deal. Lucky dog.

This Week In NECCO #4: Talkin Bout Sweet Seasons

As 9 of 10 guys are sick of seeing the same couple of teams leading off the weekly wrap*, we'll instead take a look at Period 4's biggest gainers and losers.

*The 10th guy shouldn't be too comfortable with it either, since who actually believes a team could go wire-to-wire in first place throughout an entire season?

Buckner's Boys! +16.5 points (5th overall)
Homer-rific week lifts BB's from cellar to mid-cellar. (Optimist: mid-penthouse. (Pervert: Mid-Hustler.))

The Lenny Websters -17.0 (10th)
Pitchers held their ground for the Websters this week, pretty much (-0.5). Quick math will testify to the unspeakable offensive performance.

The Sal Buteras +6.5 (3rd)
If the Buteras were a grocery store (and rumor has it they once were), the special of the week: sockeye. 12 HR, 42 RBI led league.

Le Fleur De Fragile -9.5 (9th) The thin line between fragile and limpwristed gets tested. 2 HR, 23 RBI trail league.

Mookie Dribblers +6.0 (2nd)
Like throwing noodle-arms at the wall, seeing what sticks: 12 games started, 4-5 record reflects performance.

The Dummy Hoyas -2.5 (8th)
Defying conventional logic, the Hoyas have more runs scored than 4 of the 9 teams above them in OBP.

last place robots +3.0 (6th)
Barring an uptick in innings pitched, the LPR are the only team on pace to forfeit their ratio categories in pitching.

Somerville Squires -2.5 (4th)
Top 3 in 5 of 6 hitting categories; bottom 4 in 4 of 6 pitching categories. It's a balanced team, in a way.

The Wookiee Squirts +2.0 (7th)
Looking at the week 4 stats of Mark DeRosa and Miguel Cabrera reminds me of the line about Moe Berg: "He can speak 17 languages and can't hit in any of them."

Medford Crackers -2.5 (1st)
No longer Mr. 100-Point Team, the Crackers still control 80% of the hitting and 83% of the pitching points available.

+/- (4/21-4/24)

The Dummy Hoyas
+John Danks, -Hunter Pence
+Joey Votto, -Mike Jacobs
+Hunter Pence, -Paul Konerko
+Jonathan O. Sanchez, -Francisco Liriano

Timing for Dummies:
Mike Jacobs -> Period 2 -> Free Agent -> .427/.826 (3 HR, 5 RBI)
Mike Jacobs -> Period 3 -> Free Agent -> .348/.682 (1 HR, 4 RBI)
Mike Jacobs -> Period 4 -> Dumb Hoy -> .222/.250 (0 HR, 0 RBI)

Needless to say, the rarely patient GM of the Hoyas jettisoned Jacobs for Joey. Alas, Votto, as a Free Agent last week, posted a .286/.857 (3 HR, 9 RBI) line. And this week to date he's posted a .417/.727 (1 HR, 2 RBI) line -- all of it prior to becoming a full-time Hoya. Let's see if Votto saved any of that patented Canadian sock for the Hoyas.

In other big Dummy news...Breaking...Francisco Liriano dropped. For Jonathan O. Sanchez. Developing...

Time to see who is Number 1 on Waiver Priority...Why...it's The Dummy Hoyas, who are in a good position in the next 24 hours should they have second thoughts...

The Wookie Squirts
+Mark DeRosa, -Gabe Kapler

While ex-Greenville Drive manager Gabe Kapler may have enjoyed a blazing first three weeks (.390/.737 -- 4 HR, 13 RBI), the Squirts got the following line from him: [insert big blank space]. Not willing to find out if Kapler's hot start will continue (hint: it won't), the Squirts give Mark "Supa" Rosa a roster slot. Here's a guy who is eligible at 2B, 3B, OF (and, of course, DH) and before the end of the year possibly at 1B, while posting a .391/.486 line to date. Nice.

The Mookie Dribblers
+Dioner Navarro, -Mike Napoli

The Dribblers originally drafted Deener and presumably enjoyed all 9 ABs (.333/.444) before Navarro's hand was stepped on. The Dribblers then settled on Plan Napoli, which consisted of 30 ABs and a .250/.433 line. Now back to the originally-scheduled catcher...

Medford Crackers
+Matt Garza, -Nate McClouth

Undoubtedly hearing word that Garza was soon to come off the DL after a bout of radial nerve irritation, the Crackers jumped up and ran to the nearest computer to pick him back up before anyone else snapped up that sweet sweet 9.00 ERA/.353 BAA/2.13 WHIP, 0-for-2 in QS pitching.

The Week In Review #3: A Century Of Progress

Having run the "_______ Scale" into the ground after 2 whole weeks, we move onward and upward. Introducing: the Who Performs Similar To Your Team Scale, aka It Really Looks Queer When Brendan Harris Has A Higher OPS Than Travis Hafner/Playing Like Richie Sexson Isn't Usually A Compliment But Take It Because It Means You're In First.

Medford Crackers
.875 OPS: Richie Sexson

Mookie Dribblers
.812 OPS:Jose Reyes

The Sal Buteras
.846 OPS: Garrett Atkins

Somerville Squires
.897 OPS: Hank Blalock

last place robots
.783 OPS: Carlos Lee

The Wookiee Squirts
.791 OPS: Edgar Renteria

The Dummy Hoyas
.725 OPS: Travis Hafner

The Lenny Websters
.819 OPS: Brendan Harris

Le Fleur De Fragile
.767 OPS: Mark Kotsay

Buckner's Boys!
.746 OPS: Corey Hart

Transaction Report: 4/20 Edition

Back to our irregularly scheduled program...

In it for the money, The Dummy Hoyas dropped: Jeremy Accardo, Troy Percival, Franklin Morales, Joe Saunders, Bobby "Bing" Crosby, Manny Parra, Jonathan Octavian Sanchez, Dana "Barrett" Eveland, Nate "LooseTooth" McLouth, Christian Guzman, Manny Parra (again!), Jeff Niemann, and Shaun Marcum.

Replacing 'em? How about: Joe Saunders, Dana Eveland, Bobby Crosby, Cliff "Spaceman" Lee, Jeff Niemann, Jonathan O. Sanchez, Shaun Marcum, Nate McLouth, Christian Guzman, Manny Parra, Scott Olsen, Mike Pelfrey, and Mike Jacobs.

The Hoyas are clearly the hardest working team in fantasy baseball on either side of the Mississippi. They are going to earn the fuck out of our pot.

Grade: The Chronic

Le Fleur de Fragile, alter ego to the plural of the english variety, dropped Joe Borowski. They didn't do anything else. No replacement.

Grade: English Breakfast mixed with some oregano

The Medford Crackers parted ways with Matt Garza, Chad Cordero, Scot Shields, and Eric Gagne. They're replacements, Chad Cordero, Nick Johnson, Eric Gagne and Nate McLouth. Not quite as incestuous as the Bastards but it's up there.

Grade: Acapulco Gold

Mookie Dribblers--who sound like a distant cousin of the Wookiee Squirts, come to think of it--replaced Eric Gagne, JJ Hardy, Kyle Lohse, Jose Contreras, Justin Speier, and Peter Moylan with Kyle Lohse, Jose Contreras, Justin Speier, Peter Moylan, Joe Blanton, and Manny Acosta. Gagne's been passed around a lot.

Grade: AK-47

Somerville Squires moved Ryan Doumit and Ubaldo Jimenez to take on Greg Smith and Ryan Dempster. Dempster might be a shrewd pick provided the Cubs offense continues to run on diesel.

Grade: Standard Issue

The Sal Buteras dropped Orlando Cabrera, Jeff Francis, and Milton Bradley for Jhonny Peralta, Joe Saunders, and Jason Kubel.

Grade: Standard Issue

Chronic slackers, The Wookiee Squirts dropped Carlos Quentin for Gabe "Welcome Back" Kapler.

Grade: Stems and Seeds

NECCO Meet-Up: Where the Dummies Meet the Hoy

Join us for the First Annual NECCO Meet-Up on June 1, 2008 from 12:30 - 3:30 PM at Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA. Come for the discussion about William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy and stay for the pie.

Special Guest: NECCO's own Hoyologist, Dummy Harmon.

Everyone in attendance gets to keep three players for next season.

The Week In Review #2: The Life of Johnston

A wide range of performances in what is known as Period 2. Some Hall of Fame, some All-Star, a couple of question marks, and a guy who looks out of place: Introducing the Johnson Scale.

Medford Crackers
Johnson: Walter
Like an out of control Big Train, can't be stopped.

last place robots
Johnson: Ban
Laissez-faire leadership puts them near the top.

Somerville Squires
Johnson: Randy
Averaging 6.8 points/category. It's a stretch, but the Big Unit stands 6'11".

Mookie Dribblers
Johnson: Davey
"He dislikes the bunt and manages according to the credos of 'pitching and three-run homers' and 'play for one run, lose by one run.'"

The Sal Buteras Johnson: Howard
Minnie Minoso played with Randy Johnson for the 1980 Chicago White Sox; Randy Johnson played with Sal Butera for the 1982 Minnesota Twins. The other Randy Johnson.

Buckner's Boys!
Johnson: Charles
Pure coincidence that Russell Martin is BB catcher.

The Dummy Hoyas
Johnson: Lance
One Dog. Good for 1 point apiece in OBP/SLG.

La Fleur De Fragile
Johnson: Reed
Reed Johnson: averages HBP every 26 AB; La Fleur: 0 HBP in 377 AB.

The Lenny Websters
Johnson: Rankin
In 1914 Rankin Johnson faced Walter Johnson five times. Rankin won the first duel between them 5-0. They then split a pair of 1-0 games. Walter took a 12-0 game and then beat Rankin 1-0 again.

The Wookiee Squirts
Johnson Jansen: Kenley
In a different league. (One where he caught Clayton Kershaw!)

+/- (4/4 - 4/10)

Picking up where we more or less left the plot, as far as I can tell, in this edition we'll cover the moves made from 4/4-4/10.

Medford Crackers
+Xavier Nady, - Stephen Drew
+Scot Shields, - Ted Lilly
+George Sherrill, - Chad Cordero

Dropping Drew, the Crackers placed their faith in the rest of the lineup to produce RBI, SLG and HR, as his departure clears the way for Rafael Furcal and his R, OBP and SB. Complementary parts, for sure, although it appears the Crackers didn't want to go too long watching Drew HR's waste away on the bench (0 for 2 they were). Although it might appear that Nady is around to provide insurance for an out-of-position Nick Swisher, the chronically sore Carlos Beltran, or the question mark that Jason Bay became in 2007, all three are currently carrying the team with exceptional averages (Bay - .421/.400, Beltran - .417/.533, Swisher - .457/.539), so that's a good sign. It also might appear that Nady is around to provide a platoon with Travis Hafner at DH, but in each of the past 2 seasons, Pronk has OPS'd higher against lefties than righties, outperforming Nady's split advantage in the process. For whatever reason he's around that I'm not seeing, he'll at least serve as the X Factor for the Crackers until Furcal gets injured and they pick up David Eckstein to be their Ecks Factor.

Somerville Squires
+Stephen Drew, -Felipe Lopez

Although he's perceived as one of the most stats-friendly managers out there ("The message was clear: 'In a nutshell...it's: Don't give away outs.' That might sound simple enough, yet staggering to Acta is the number of managers and players and teams who don't adhere to that philosophy.") Manny Acta must stagger and/or dagger Felipe Lopez owners everywhere. This is the manager who not only benches Lopez for Cristian Guzman and Ronnie Belliard, but bats Guzman - he of the .301 career OBP in 3,954 AB - leadoff. Meanwhile, a fantasy sub-sleeper with 20 HR/40 SB potential, as well as being eligible at ss, 2b, AND OF rides the pine. Inconceivable!

Mookie Dribblers
+Mike Napoli, - Dioneer Navarro
+Micah Owings, - Daric Barton

Micah Owings was the 240th and final player picked in the draft. He was thereafter dropped for Jeff Keppinger, who supplanted JJ Hardy (220th pick/22nd round) at shortstop. Owings was then reacquired at the expense of Daric Barton, free agent pickup,who took the place of Elijah Dukes, another free agent picked up when Troy Percival (200th pick/20th round) was let go. Mike Napoli was signed to replace the injured Dioneer Navarro (221st pick/23rd round). The ineffective Eric Gagne (201st pick/21st round) was dropped for the likes of Kyle Lohse. [The 18th/19th round picks of the Dribbers, Randy Johnson and Jay Bruce, have not yet appeared in the big leagues this year and it's not guaranteed either will; 17th round pick Rich Harden has already hit the DL.] If they had such poor opinion of their drafting ability, the Dribblers should've just auto-drafted. At this pace, they'll have churned their way through their roster by the All-Star Break.

The Sal Buteras
+Jeremy Hermida, -Michael Bourn
+C.J. Wilson, -Joe Blanton

Although filled with potential and pedigree, the Butera's outfield situation has been nothing short of a hot mess thus far. Enter Jeremy Hermida, who's come on to the tune of a .357/.400/.929, 2 HR, 6 RBI performance in just 14 AB this year. (It never fails to annoy me when otherwise sensible and admirable writers will point to a line such as Hermida's and say, "While he's off to a fast start, you can't expect him to keep it up." Well, thanks for the tip, Mr. Analyst. I'm pretty sure a .929 slugging percentage - currently #1 is Bonds at .863 and #2 is Ruth at .849 - would be impossible to maintain for an entire year.) Anyhow, even when Hermida's averages come down to levels that he could reasonably expected to maintain (.296/.369/.501 in 2007), and with Hanley and Uggla ahead of him in the lineup, he should provide the production for the Buteras that they've been missing.

The Dummy Hoyas
+Carlos Gomez, -Nick Johnson
+Manny Parra, -Jon Rauch
+Mark Reynolds,-Edwin Encarnacion
+Joe Saunders, -Jeremy Accardo
+Dana Eveland,-Troy Percival

While waiting for Evan Longoria to make The Show, The Dummy Hoyas have tried shuffling through a number of choices and settled on Mark Reynolds for the moment. With a little plate discipline, it's possible that Reynolds could be a big star, as his average home run distance last season of 407.9 feet was second only to Prince Fielder's 408 feet average among players with 15 or more homers. Already in a potent young lineup and in a hitter-friendly park, if Reynolds was able to make contact with the ball on a more consistent basis, he'd definitely help anyone's HR category. But, as of this writing, young Longoria has apparently received enough seasoning in the minors (2 whole weeks) and is headed to the starting lineup of the Tampa Bay Rays, so what becomes of Reynolds is anyone's guess.

The Wookiee Squirts
+Randy Wolf, -Mark Prior
+Jair Jurrjens, -Jarrod Saltalamacchia
+Carlos Quentin, -Corey Patterson

In a lineup befouled by underperformance and injury earlier in the season, Carlos Quentin easily slots into the Squirts' lineup as the player with the 2nd-best OBP and the 3rd-best SLG, as well as the most RBI. Although 3 years older than Quentin, and with 6 more seasons in the majors, Patterson has pretty much shown what he's good for on a team, and the only clear advantage he has over the man who replaced him would be in the SB category, and possibly R also. Gaining in one, possibly 2, categories at the expense of 4 others is no way to get ahead, and this was clearly a wise swap for the Squirts.

This Week In NECCO #1: I Started Something I Couldn't Finish

A wide range of performances in what is known as Period 1. Some Hall of Fame, some All-Star, a couple of question marks, and a guy who looks out of place: Introducing the Smith Scale.

Mookie Dribblers
Smith: Ozzie
Quite the smooth week, finishing lower than 5th in only one category (WHIP - 9th). Although if WHIP is any indication of the quality of a pitcher, the ERA and BAA will be sure to rise and the QS will fall.


Medford Crackers
Smith: Hilton
There was little "difference in effectiveness" between the flamboyant Dribblers and the quiet Crackers, but what little difference there was added up. 3 homers during week 1 added up to less power than that of an Appalachian junior college radio station.


Somerville Squires
Smith: Lee
Overpowering at times, as top slots in RBI and SLG indicate.

last place robots
Smith: Carl Reggie
Solid all-around, but falling a bit short in the counting stats (K, QS).

The Dummy Hoyas
Smith: Lonnie
"Always a treat if not always a pleasure to watch." Sad-sack OBP and SLG (288/317) would be fine in a Punto, Pass & Kick competition.

The Sal Buteras
Smith: Al
Fuzzy. Fielder ain't homering, Ellsbury ain't stealing, and Kemp and Sheffield ain't playing. Yet they're up there in most offensive categories, #3 overall in batting.

The Lenny Websters
Smith: Pop Boy
The season's young and so are they.

Buckner's Boys!
Smith: Brick
Something to build on.

The Wookie Squirts
Smith: Skyrocket
The only place to go is up.

Le Fleur de Fragile
SmithSmiga: Jason
In a different league.

Transaction Thursday (Monday Edition)

I'd beg forgiveness, but it's not like anyone else is posting on this blog.

The Hoyas, who should be responsible for writing about their own transactions since they make so many of 'em, dropped Carlos Gomez, Jon Rauch, Nick Johnson, Placido Polanco, Troy Glaus, Andre Eithier, and Jonathan O. Sanchez for Franklin Morales, Manny Parra, Carlos Gomez, Jon Rauch, Edwin Encarnacion, Nick Johnson, and Andre Ethier, respectively. My thoughts on this are this guy is trying to win our league fees.

An issue I would like to raise for the benefit of the few that read this other than myself: The Rules state that a team must finish *OVER* 900 IP and 4000 AB for the season. The few times I've noticed this at the bottom of team pages, everyone was under that. If you finish under, that means your averages (WHIP, ERA, BA) are tossed out. Get on it.

Transaction Thursday (belated!)

I'll be hitting the highlights and the lowlights of the transactions on Thursdays. Hopefully someone else will split duties with me, so things won't fall through the cracks:

The Dummy Hoyas, historically one of the least loyal franchises in NECCO history, made seven moves this week. Included among them: Troy Glaus replaced Edwin Encarnacion who had just recently replaced Andrew Miller; Troy Percival, unhappy with his golf game, replaced Manny Parra. Hoyas sent a dude down before he even played a game. That's harsh!

My thoughts:



The Sal Buteras who must have some clever reason for being called that but I'm too lazy to google that made a move: Kelvim Escobar, who's going to miss another year of baseball got dropped for Michael Bourn. Then they made another, dropping Hank Blalock for Milton Bradley. Blalock will be hitting cleanup for the Rangers, likely behind Josh Hamilton in the lineup.

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning of this, but I'm a Blalock Believer (not to be confused with Hank's Homies*):



Taking after their namesake, Buckner's Boys! capitalized on The Sal's foolishness and picked Blalock up off waivers. They parted ways with Julio Lugo. Of course, The Boys are proving a shrewd organization also: Bartolo Colon became Jack Cust who became Rick Ankiel. Clearly they caught that Cust wasn't a pitcher.

Based on the Blalock move, I say: Approved!



Finally, Buckner's Boys' natural rival, The Mookie Dribblers, followed the Boys' business model: Troy Percival became Elijah Dukes who became Daric Barton. Who the hell is Daric Barton. I'll call up Billy Beane and find out later.

Who could call it anything but:



I'll mention that The Medford Crackers dropped the once juicy Chris Capuano for Ervin Santana. No picture for you, Crackers!

*

...At Last...Play Ball

At last, it's the day we've all been waiting for: Tim Hudson and the Braves vs. the immortal Odalis Perez and the Nationals at Nationals Park!

Oh, and the NECCO season begins, too.

So don't forget to set your lineups today and every day for the next six months.

NECCO: [Almost] Open for Business

With a transcontinental swat, Mark Ellis posts the first stat of the MLB season with a first-inning Tokyo Dome HR off of Matsuzaka. However, it doesn't count in NECCO. Because, of course, Mark Ellis is a free agent.

HOWEVER, contrary to any information you may have heard from me or even CBS Sports, stats are now counting including these first two games (A's v. Red Sox in Japan today and tomorrow).

So, like, make sure your lineups are set and such. Even though tomorrow's game isn't showing on the set lineup page, if you change a player to active for the first available game, they will be active for tomorrow. Send me an email if you'd like to retroactively start anyone from today. I can't promise I can override CBS, but I can try.

UPDATE:
Um, the Japan games do NOT, I repeat, do NOT count. Any stats you may (or, more likely, may not have seen at 5:15 AM [CDT]) accrue on the website have since been erased by CBS.

Today: doesn't count.
Tomorrow: doesn't count.
Sunday: It counts! Set your lineups.

Sorry for any confusion. Any complaints should be sent to lmoonves@cbs.com.

Lenny

If you have a spare couple of minutes, I highly recommend an article on Lenny "Nails" Dykstra in the 3/24/08 issue of The New Yorker, conveniently linked for you here: The New Yorker -- March 24, 2008

$50 Bonus

Due to a referral program at CBS Sports, The New England/Chicago Curveball Association will receive a $50 check at the end of the 2008 season (with the usual caveats regarding rebates that they are sketchy, often appear as junk mail if they are delivered at all, etc. Otherwise I'd simply discount the amount of league fees you are paying.)

I've been mulling over how to spend this rebate, but I thought I'd open it up to you'all for suggestions.

Possibilities include:

• Give the $50 to the winner, thus making the prize distribution as follows:
• First Place: $350
• Second Place: $150
• Third Place: $50

• Split the $50 three ways equally for the three prizes, thus making the prize distribution as follows:
• First Place: $316
• Second Place: $166
• Third Place: $66

• Distribute the $50 equally to all league members ($5 apiece)

• Award $50 as a booby prize to team lowest in the standings

Please feel free to add your own suggestions (in the comments below) or comment on any of the above proposals.

Waivers

Every non-drafted player is now on waivers. You are free to make a waiver claim if you'd like. Everyone clears waivers at Midnight on Tuesday, March 18th and becomes a free agent.

The current waiver order -- which is the inverse of the draft order -- is:

1. The Dummy Hoyas
2. The Lenny Websters
3. Somerville Squires
4. The Wookiee Squirts
5. The Sal Buteras
6. last place robots
7. Medford Crackers
8. Buckner's Boys!
9. Le Fleur de Fragile
10. Mookie Dribblers

When you make a waiver claim, you go to the bottom of the list.

Just a reminder that any player you drop from your roster must clear a 24-hour waiver period before he becomes a free agent.

REMINDER: Draft This Sunday

Just a friendly reminder that the New England/Chicago Curvebvall Organization will hold its draft this Sunday.

Day: Sunday, March 16

Time: 10:00 AM EDT/9:00 AM CDT

Duration: Expect 3-4 hours of your time sucked away by this

Location: http://necco.baseball.sportsline.com/
(Look for the heading called "Draft Prep." In that section, look for "Draft Room." Voila, you're there. You can go there ahead of time and look around.)

Again, let me recommend pre-ranking your players as a fall-back position in case technical difficulties, apathy, incapacitation, or forgetfulness prevents you from drafting.

The First & Second Picks

And the first and second picks in the 2008 NECCO Draft go to...

1. Tighty Whitey Bulgers (Alan)
2. Le Fleur de Fragile (Mike)

----------------------

3. Buckner's Boys (Brad & Ben)
4. Medford Crackers (Chris)
5. Last Place Robots (Kevin)
6. Matt's Team (Matt)
7. Jonathan Team's (Jonathan)
8. Ed's Team (Ed)
9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Third Pick

And the third pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

3. Buckner's Boys (Brad & Ben)

----------------------

4. Medford Crackers (Chris)
5. Last Place Robots (Kevin)
6. Matt's Team (Matt)
7. Jonathan Team's (Jonathan)
8. Ed's Team (Ed)
9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Fourth Pick

And the fourth pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

4. Medford Crackers (Chris)

----------------------

5. Last Place Robots (Kevin)
6. Matt's Team (Matt)
7. Jonathan Team's (Jonathan)
8. Ed's Team (Ed)
9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Fifth Pick

And the fifth pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

5. Last Place Robots (Kevin)

----------------------

6. Matt's Team (Matt)
7. Jonathan Team's (Jonathan)
8. Ed's Team (Ed)
9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Sixth Pick

And the sixth pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

6. Matt's Team (Matt)

----------------------

7. Jonathan Team's (Jonathan)
8. Ed's Team (Ed)
9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Seventh Pick

And the seventh pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

7. Jonathan Team's (Jonathan)

----------------------

8. Ed's Team (Ed)
9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Eighth Pick

And the eighth pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

8. Ed's Team (Ed)

----------------------

9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)
10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Ninth Pick

And the ninth pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

9. The Lenny Websters (Dan)

----------------------

10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Tenth Pick

And the tenth pick in the 2008 NECCO Draft goes to...

10. The Dummy Hoyas (Brent)

The Rules

INTRODUCTION:

The New England/Chicago Curveball Organization (“NECCO”) is a Rotisserie fantasy baseball money league. The rules governing NECCO are included in this document.

ENTRANCE FEE:

Each owner will pay $63 for the season. This fee not only covers the use of CBS Sports’ Fantasy Baseball system ($129.95, or, $13 per team), but also provides a total prize purse of $500 ($50 per team contribution).

Please make arrangements with the Commissioner for payment of your league fee.

PRIZES:

Cash prizes will be awarded at the end of the season as follows:

1^st Place -- $300

2^nd Place – $150

3^rd Place -- $50

DRAFT:

The NECCO draft will occur prior to the start of the 2008 MLB Season (March 30, 2008) on a mutually-agreed-upon day at a mutually-agreed-upon time. The draft will take place online at our CBS Sports league page.

The draft order will be determined randomly by lottery one week prior to the draft. The draft order will "snake" at the end of each round, meaning that the team with the last pick in the current round will have the first pick in the next round.

It is recommended that, prior to the draft, you organize the Rank List according to your own player preferences. During the live draft CBSSports.com will use your Rank List as a backup in case you become incapacitated or bored and are unable to make your next selection.

On draft day there will be a "Draft Room" link at the top of our League Home page, also available in the Draft Prep column located to the left side of the screen. This link will allow entry into the draft room.

In the draft room, you will be able to place MLB players into a Draft Queue -- which is simply a list, in order of priority, of players you are interested in taking with your next draft pick. When it is your turn to pick, you will have five minutes to draft a player. If the five minutes pass and you have not manually selected a player, the player ranked highest in your Draft Queue will be automatically drafted. If the Draft Queue is empty, a pick will then be made from your Rank List.

The draft will last 24 rounds.

TEAMS:

NECCO is comprised of ten teams of 24 players.

There are no divisions.

PLAYER POOL:

NECCO is a mixed league. Any National or American league player that CBS Sports makes available for the league is eligible to be acquired. This includes many minor league players for which CBS Sports has a profile.

ROSTERS:

All rosters shall consist of a maximum of 24 players, broken down as follows:

• 17 Active Players

• 7 Reserve Players

During the draft, each team will draft 24 players.

ACTIVE PLAYERS:

On a daily basis, owners will set a maximum of 17 players on their roster as ‘active’ for scoring purposes, broken down as follows:

1 First Baseman

1 Second Baseman

1 Shortstop

1 Third Baseman

1 Catcher

3 Outfielders

1 Designated Hitter[1]

8 Pitchers[2]

There are no daily minimum roster requirements. If you choose to sit your Second Baseman on July 17, 2008 because you don’t like the matchup, you may. You do not need to substitute another Second Baseman.

BENCH PLAYERS:

Owners may keep up to 7 ‘bench’ players on their roster, which allows for substitution flexibility. The ‘bench’ players will not accrue statistics or count toward your overall ranking.

POSITION ELIGIBILITY:

A player may be assigned to any position at which he appeared in 20 or more games in the preceding season (2007). Once the 2008 season begins, a player becomes eligible at a position where he appears in at least 5 games. During the season, all players will remain eligible at their initial (pre-season) designated positions. In certain circumstances, CBS Sports may not recognize a position for which a player is eligible; the Commissioner may rule that player eligible upon verification on a case-by-case basis.

SEASON:

NECCO’s season runs the same as the MLB season: 26 weeks from 3/30/2008 through 9/28/2008.

ROTISSERIE SCORING:

In Rotisserie baseball each team is awarded points according to its order of finish in each statistical category. Your team's point totals for each category are then added together for your team's overall score, and standings are based on these overall scores. The first-place team in a statistical category (e.g., Home Runs) gets 10 points, second-place 9 points, and so on with the last-place team in the category getting 1 point. If two teams are tied within a category, each team receives an average of the total points available; so if two teams tie for first place in a category, each team gets 9.5 points rather than 10 to the first-place team and 9 to the second-place team.

NECCO is a 6 x 6 Rotisserie League, which uses the following scoring categories:

Batting Category	Pitching Category
Team On-Base Percentage	Team Earned Run Average
Team Slugging Percentage	Quality Starts[3]
Home Runs	Saves
Runs Batted In	Team WHIP[4]
Stolen Bases	Strikeouts
Runs	Team Batting Avg. Against

Rotisserie Notes:

• Each team's pitching staff must accumulate at least 900 innings pitched over the course of the season or it will be placed in last place in the team ERA and WHIP categories. Each team's batters must accumulate a total of at least 4,000 at-bats or it will be placed in last place in Batting Average.

• There will be no tie-breaker to determine Rotisserie league champions. In the event of a tie for first place, the tied teams will evenly split any prizes for which they are eligible.

• In the event that there are any regular season tie-breaker MLB playoff games, the statistics accumulated in such games will NOT be counted towards your overall Rotisserie score.

• Note: Categories that are based on percentages (e.g., Batting Average, Earned Run Average, etc.) are determined by adding the individual numbers of every active player on your team, and then computing the average. CBS does NOT compute a percentage for each individual player and then compute a team average. For example, if you have two batters -- one goes 1-for-1 (1.000 BA) and the other 0-for-4 (.000 BA), then the team BA is .200 (1-for-5), NOT .500 (the average of 1.000 and .000.)

STATISTICS CORRECTIONS:

NECCO’s web site will be updated to reflect official statistics corrections that occur up to five days after the game has been completed. For example, for a Saturday game, the official scoring change would have to be made by the following Thursday to be included in our statistics. If the change is made any later, it will not be included in our statistics and your official Fantasy scoring will be based on the original statistic.

LINEUP CHANGES

DAILY LINEUPS:

NECCO allows for daily lineup changes. A day runs from beginning of the first game of the day through the completion of the last game of the day and, once a day begins, lineups can't be changed for that day. Each day, owners can set a new lineup. If an owner does not set a lineup for a particular day, the owner's lineup from the previous day will be used. You may set your lineup in advance up to a week.

Your team will not accumulate stats for any time in which your lineup is illegal.

LINEUP SETTING DEADLINE:

The deadline for setting your daily lineup is thirty (30) minutes before the first game of the day. After the deadline, any lineup changes you enter will become effective for the next scoring day.

ADDING/DROPPING PLAYERS:

Throughout the season, you may want to improve your roster by adding free agent players and releasing players that aren't performing to your expectations.

FREE AGENTS:

Any player not on any other team's Fantasy roster and not on Waivers (discussed below) is considered a Free Agent. The deadline for submitting a Free Agent request is thirty (30) minutes before the first game of the day in order to have the transaction effective for that day.

Waivers

In order to provide an equal opportunity for all owners to add players that are new to the free agent pool, a Waivers process is used. A player is placed on waivers when he is dropped by a NECCO team. Owners' requests to add players on waivers are not executed immediately, but are put in a pending status for at least 24 hours. This allows multiple teams to request the same players. Every night between midnight and 6:00AM ET a Waivers process will be run, executing the pending requests in Waiver Rank order (explained below).

Waiver Rank

As stated, during the waiver process, pending transactions are processed in Waiver Rank order. The team with a waiver rank of 1, considered the highest, will get its first requested player. After the transaction is executed, the team's waiver rank is then set to 10 (last), and all other teams move up one. The initial waiver rank of the season is based on the reverse order of the draft. The team that selected last in the first round of the draft will have a waiver rank of 1.

If a team's highest pending transaction becomes invalid because another team received the requested player, the transaction gets deleted and the team's next transaction, if one exists, becomes that team's highest. If a team doesn't have any pending transactions because all players requested were taken by other teams, or the owner simply didn't request any players, there isn't any penalty and the team's waiver rank will not be changed.

Waiver priority immediately after the draft will be the reverse order of the first round of the draft. So Team #10 will have the highest waiver priority and Team #1 the lowest waiver priority.

TRADES:

Trade Approvals

In an effort to prevent collusion among owners, and to ensure fair competition, a trade approval process is used. After a trade is made, it will be in pending status for at least 24 hours. If 4 owners in the league object to the trade within the pending time period, the trade will not be executed, but will go to The Commissioner for final approval. If 4 owners do not object before the pending period is up, then your trade will be processed. As an example, a trade made at 5 PM ET Tuesday will not execute at 5 PM ET Wednesday, but will be processed between midnight and 5 AM Thursday morning.

Multi-player Trades

Owners can enter unbalanced multi-player trades such as trading 3 players for 1 player. However, the maximum roster size (and the position restrictions) will ultimately be enforced. If a trade is executed and your resulting roster has greater than the maximum number of players allowed, or it violates the other position requirements, you will be required to enter the necessary transactions to correct your roster. If your roster is not legal by thirty (30) minutes before the first game of the week, your players will not accumulate statistics for that day.

Trade Deadline

A deadline for trades will be imposed at 11:59 PM ET 8/21/2008. No trades will be allowed after that time.

KEEPERS:

NECCO reserves the right to convert to a ‘Keeper’ league at any point, based upon owner interest and league vote.

THE COMMISSIONER:

The Commissioner (Chris Johnston) will act as the ruling body for the league. He will resolve all disputes between teams, answer questions regarding the rules, and oversee all transactions.

A ruling by the Commissioner is final. In the event that a team owner is unhappy with a ruling, he will be allowed to appeal the decision to the entire league. The appeal vote must take place before 10:00 pm of the day of the Commissioners’ decision, otherwise the decision is final.

MISCELLANEOUS INFO:

League E-mail Address: necco@baseball.sportsline.com (a copy will be sent to each owner)

League Website: http://necco.baseball.sportsline.com/

League Blog: http://necco-baseball.blogspot.com/

Commissioner Johnston’s E-mail Address: cjohnston at gmail dot com

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[1] Any position player or Designated Hitter can be used as DH.

[2] A team may acquire and deem as ‘active’ any mix of Starting Pitcher or Relief Pitcher they choose. The only requirements are a season-long minimum number of Innings Pitched (see below). Please also note that hitting statistics will not count for pitchers.

[3] A Quality Start is awarded to a starting pitcher who completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs.

[4] ((Walks + Hits) / Innings Pitched)