This Week In CFCL History

Here’s a look at this week in CFCL history, covering the dates May 5 to May 11.

May 5, 1987	BALD EAGLES trade Kurt Stillwell to ACES TO WIN for Steve Jeltz and Eddie Milner (RL). This trade was largely a result of the 1987 rules involving injured players and free agent acquisitions (the official Rotisserie League Baseball rules). In brief:   The only way to acquire a free agent during the season was to call him up to replace a player who had been put on the Disabled List, sent to the minors, traded to the American League, or otherwise done away with by his National League team.  When an injured player was activated from the DL by his NL team, his CFCL owner had two weeks to either activate the player or release him.  If the CFCL owner chose to activate the returning player, he had to waive the player who had been acquired as a free agent to replace him UNLESS the team had another opening on their active roster they could move the player to (another injured player for example).  The Eagles had called up Kurt Stillwell a couple weeks earlier to fill in for their usual shortstop, Barry Larkin, who was injured. Eddie Milner had been on the Aces’ Reserved List, having been replaced on their active roster by Bob Dernier.    When Larkin came off the DL, Eagles owner Bob Monroe cooked up this deal, which allowed the Eagles and Aces the chance to do a little mutual back scratching via these subsequent moves:    The Eagles activated Larkin from the RL and waived the newly-acquired Jeltz. As spoils of the trade, they were left with the still-injured Eddie Milner to stash away on his Reserve List. The Aces had upgraded from the light-hitting Jeltz (.136 BA as a starter at the time of the trade) to Stillwell (not a world beater, but better than Jeltz), while also allowing them to keep Dernier.
May 6, 1997	DEM REBELS hire Katelyn Bentel as Head of Scouting and Player Development – One Week Old Division. Certainly a different type of transaction … which was explained in the Roster Change Report by the following note:  “Oh, And By The Way…” Those are the words Rich chose to introduce the fact that he is a father. Rich left a message late Monday night to report his transactions for the week and, oh, happened to mention that Kim had given birth two hours earlier. Katelyn Alexa Bentel was born at 9:42 PM on Monday, May 5. Katelyn weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces and measured out to 20.5 inches of beautiful little girl. Rich sounded pretty damn happy (and proud) in his message, and when I talked to him later he said mom and child are doing wonderfully. Dad immediately put Katelyn to work scouting out all the newborn boys in the nursery, sizing up their potential as future rotation draft picks. I’m sure there will be plenty of wonderful stories forthcoming. Stay tuned!
May 9, 1989	COPPERFIELDS trade Mike Marshall, Derek Lilliquist, and Ken Howell to PICKS for Mitch Webster, Eric Show, Pete Smith, and Dwight Smith (RL). An interesting deal in that every player the Picks acquired from the Copperfields was gone within a week.   They traded Lilliquist to the Ruffins immediately upon receiving him (see below)  They waived Howell immediately upon receiving him, filling the open spot by claiming Rick Mahler on waivers.  The Picks traded Marshall away a week later (tune in next week).  All I remember of this one is that I desperately wanted Dwight Smith. Smith was called up from the minors by the Cubs a week after this deal was completed (replacing Mitch Webster, conveniently enough). Smith ended up finishing second in the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year voting, behind fellow Cub (and also fellow Copperfield) Jerome Walton, and just ahead of the third place finisher, Gregg Jefferies (also a Copperfield).
May 9, 1989	PICKS trade Vince Coleman and Derek Lilliquist to RUFFINS for Hubie Brooks and Jeff Robinson. This trade was completed just after the Picks had acquired Lilliquist from the Copperfields. The Picks were leading the league in SB at the time of the trade so felt they could deal the premiere speed player of the day, while the Ruffins were last in the category and desperately needed Coleman’s production (and he came through – leading the league in steals with 65).  This trade and the Copperfield/Pick deal made on the same day reflect a different time in the CFCL. When these trades were completed, the three teams involved – the Picks, Copperfields, and Ruffins – ranked 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the standings, separated by just 4.5 points. These days you don’t tend to see trades between teams that close in the standings, even this early in the season.
May 9, 2010	CANDY COLORED CLOWNS trade Starlin Castro and their 8th round pick in the 2011 Rotation Draft to RUFFINS for Buster Posey and their.14th round pick in the 2011 Rotation Draft. This deal was covered in detail in the May 9 post, A Future Blockbuster.
May 10, 1994	DEM REBELS trade Darren Lewis and Pat Rapp to LAMBCHOPS for Derrick May and Chan Ho Park. At first, I thought this might have been a rebuilding trade for the Rebels … they were in 8th place at the time of the deal. Park was a highly-touted prospect pitching in the minors at the time, but on the other hand May was playing out the option year on his contract and would be automatically released at the end of the season. It’s possible this deal was all about Park from the Rebels’ perspective and May was just a throw-in to fill Lewis’ spot.  From a 1994 production standpoint, edge to the Lambchops on this one.  May provided the Rebels with slightly more power (4 more HR, 11 more RBI), but Lewis stole 23 bases over the remainder of the year for the Lambchops (20 more than May had). Park didn’t pitch at all for the Rebels, while Rapp put up a 3.33 ERA with 5 Wins after the trade.
May 10, 2000	RUFFINS trade Willie Greene (RL) to COPPERFIELDS for Julio Ramirez (RL). Nice trade, guys...
May 10, 2006	GRAGING BULLS trade Chipper Jones, Jeff Davanon, and Jeff Hancock to KENNDOZA LINE for Alfredo Almezaga, Felix Pie (M), and Gio Gonzalez (M). The 2006 Graging Bulls, in 11th place a month into the season, begin rebuilding…  Kenndoza Line were in 6th place at the time of the deal, but only 18 points out of first with five months left to play. They were dead last in Total Bases and Runs Scored at the time, so the 212 Total Bases and 72 RS that Chipper provided after the deal were much-needed. The Line finished the season ranked 4th in each category, as well as 4th in the standings overall. More on this one below…
May 10, 2006	GRAGING BULLS trade Brad Lidge to SPLENDID SPLINTERS for Juan Cruz and their 3rd and 7th round Rotation Draft picks in 2007. The 2006 Graging Bulls continue rebuilding with their second trade of the day.   The Splinters held the top spot in the standings with 89.5 points when this trade was made, but were last in the Holds+Saves category.  Lidge saved 21 games for the Splinters, helping them move into the middle of the pack in the category, but by the time the season ended, they still stood at just 89.5 points overall – good enough for second place, but they had been blown away by the Ruffins, who topped the league with 111 points. So how did the Bulls’ rebuilding plans work out? Here’s what they acquired for Chipper Jones and Brad Lidge, along with how each player/pick contributed to the Bulls’ 2007 season (or not): Wow. Lots of action. In case you weren’t keeping score, on Opening Day 2007, here’s what the Bulls had to show for Jones and Lidge: Fernando Martinez (in minors all of 2007 and 2008) Ronny Cedeno – was hitting .097 when Bulls waived him on 5/7/07 Brent Lillibridge (in minors all of 2007) Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you’d hope…
May 11, 1999	SIX PACKS trade Carl Pavano (.03), Scott Williamson (.04), Octavio Dotel (minors), and their 3rd, 7th, and 13th round Rotation Draft picks in 2000 to the RUFFINS for Ryan Klesko (.22), Ray Lankford (19 – final year), Barry Larkin (.24), Greg Myers (.10), Dave Veres (.03), and Juan Acevedo (.10). I’m not sure what to make of this one. It sure looks like it’s a dump trade on the part of the Ruffins – I’ve included the salaries to illustrate.   However, the Ruffins were in 5th place at the time - just half a point out of a money spot and 23 points out of first with a lot of baseball yet to play, so it doesn’t seem as though it would be a dumping situation. And it’s not as if the Ruffins needed to make a bunch-o-offense for bunch-o-pitching deal … they actually had 28 pitching points at the time of the trade vs only 17 on the hitting side. Puzzling.   You know what’s even more astounding? Looking at the final standings and seeing that despite this deal and another dumpish-looking trade a week later, the Ruffins ended up in third place – higher in the standings than when this trade was made. If they had kept some of that offense, who knows?   This trade makes a lot more sense from the Six Packs’ perspective. They were in second place at this time, but 8 points behind the first place Copperfields. The contributions of Myers and Acevedo were negligible, but here’s what the rest of the players produced after the trade: Klesko - .297 BA – 18 HR – 67 RBI – 5 SB Lankford - .302 BA – 21 HR – 90 RBI – 22 SB Larkin - .310 BA – 7 HR – 57 RBI – 27 SB Veres – 27 Saves  That’s a lot of fire power, and the Six Packs needed every bit of it. The 1999 season ended in a tie point-wise between the Six Packs and Copperfields, and the two tie breakers were needed to declare the Six Packs the 1999 CFCL Champions.
May 11, 2006	DEM REBELS trade Jason Isringhausen to RUFFINS for Aaron Rowand and their 14th round Rotation Draft pick in 2007. Wow – Aaron Rowand must have been the CFCL’s resident hot potato in 2006. He started the season with the Ruffins, was traded to the Rebels on May 11, traded to the Bulls on July 14, and finally was dealt to the Red Hots on July 29. The July 14th deal had the Rebels swapping Rowand to the Bulls for minor leaguer Felix Pie and the Bulls’ 8th and 13th round Rotation Draft picks. They were able to package the 8th round pick with Cory Hart in another trade to acquire Eric Byrnes from the Ruffins prior to 2007 (a nice pickup, as Byrnes stole 50 bases in 2007). They selected Cory Sullivan with the 13th round pick from the Bulls, and passed when it came time to use the Ruffins’ pick in the 14th round. More importantly, this was the beginning of the beginning for the 2006 Ruffins. In 6th place at the time of this trade, the Ruffins were pulling in only 2 points in the Holds+Saves category. The 23 Saves Isringhausen recorded after the trade helped the Ruffins climb to 3rd place in the HoSv category by the end of the year, which in turn contributed to their juggernaut rise to the top of the standings and secure their second CFCL title.