Final day to sign players and make drops - Friday, June 30

Tomorrow is the last day to sign contract extensions for players and make drops. After that all current player contracts are final. Trades can still be made after the deadline but you're stuck with the contract as is.

We plan to get together Friday night for one last chance at swapping players, most likely at Mike's place.

Also, if you want to see any Jays or your favourite players in the real All-Star game this year, today is the final day for voting online.

Trade #3

Cubs trade Maddux (SP), Casey (1B), Wise (RP), For N. Perez (IF) and R. Chavez (CA) with St.L.

Trade #2

Cubs trade: Lee (1B), Sanders (OF) and 8th Pick for Berkman (1B/RF), Casey (1B) $4 and Future pick from Mil.

Trade

Cubs trade Clement (SP) and a 9th Round pick for Atlanta's 6th round pick.

Toronto trades Loaiza (SP) and a 9th round pick for $1 and a 6th round pick from LAA.

Final Standings - Who got lucky?

Was Doug's Rangers as good as their 24-10 record? Was Nicholas worthy of the Manager of the Year award? Let's take a look at the expected wins and losses and find out:

AL STANDINGS

East           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Boston        21  13  .618   -  179 149  20-14
Toronto       19  15  .559   2  213 164  21-13
Detroit       19  15  .559   2  173 166  18-16
Kansas City    3  31  .088  18  114 233   7-27                                                

West           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Texas         24  10  .706   -  185 128  23-11
Minnesota     20  14  .588   4  158 173  15-19
Oakland       17  17  .500   7  161 154  18-16
LA Angels     13  21  .382  11  164 180  15-19

Nicholas was five games over his expected win-lose record, chalk it up to good management or good luck?

How about the NL, just how unlucky was Norm?

NL STANDINGS

East           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Chicago       25   9  .735   -  182 129  23-11
Atlanta       18  15  .545 6.5  156 123  21-13
Milwaukee     18  16  .529   7  130 135  16-18
Florida        9  25  .265  16   98 174   9-26

West           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Colorado      23  11  .676   -  202 139  23-11
LA Dodgers    19  14  .576 3.5  172 155  19-15
St. Louis     13  21  .382  10  128 154  14-20
San Fransisco 11  22  .324  12  147 200  12-22

Yup, still unlucky.

Final 2006/2007 Season Schedule

Matchups are set. The schedule is set to go. Get it from the link.

TRADE: LA Dodgers and Chicago

On Wednesday Mike traded catcher Mike Lieberthal and starter Kevin Millwood to the Dodgers for catcher Jason Larue.

Wheeling and dealing at the spring meeting

First off, congrats to Mike and his repeat WS victory, now we can retire those stinking '04 cards and get on with the juicy '05 cards.

Sunday night we held an impromptu Beer Cap League meeting at Doug's place. Unfortunately nobody invited the two Nicks.

Doug and Norm traded catchers, Doug sending Michael Barrett and $5 to Norm's Braves for Yadier "the gun" Molina. After that two blockbuster deals between me and Norm went down.

First we made a deal sending the MVP champ, Albert Pujols along with Roy Oswalt and Felipe Lopez from the Dodgers to Norm's Braves for Cy Young winner, Rocket Clemens, Todd Helton and Marcus Giles, plus $5.

But the madness didn't end there. Norm, pissed off with A-Rod's performance in his two seasons, offered him up on the trading (chopping?) block. I took him up on it and we ending up with a deal that sent former MVP, Vlad Guerrero, and the ever versatile Chone Figgins along with an '06 #4 draft pick for the aforementioned Alex Rodriguez, Norm's #1 '06 pick and $10.

There were a couple of league rule modifications agreed upon. First was in regards to the prospect pick (non-card players). We flipped around so many times that I'm not sure what we settled on. We did decide on the following changes:

• The new cards will not be opened until the trade deadline has passed. This is to avoid owners making trades during the current season based on the next season’s cards.

• After this year, the draft will take place at the end of our scheduled season instead of prior to the beginning of the next season. This will stop us from knowing the results of the next MLB season while drafting the previous MLB season's cards (we would know only the results for April of the current MLB season). So now the only sure thing when deciding on contract lengths will be for the season we have the cards for, the second and third seasons of a two or three year contract will be a bit of a crap shoot. And if we do have prospect picks we will not know their stats (except for that first month) - make's those picks a challenge and no longer a sure thing.

For at least the '06 season we will stay with the mixed card and computer game. We will evaluate whether to continue in the mixed format or switch to computer-only after next season is complete.

We also held the random draw to complete next year's schedule. I will re-post the finished schedule in the next couple of days.

When we next convene for our draft in August, we will need to decide on a statistician for the NL and one for the AL. We should also formalize other league positions (League commissioner, AL & NL presidents, treasurer).

Finally, rosters must be finalized by June 30th -all extensions and drops must be completed by that date.

Update: We will allow one optional prospect pick this year that can be taken in the 10th round. Next year we will allow 2 prospect picks that can be taken at any point in the 10 round draft.

It's Over!

Bonderman pitched a great game 6 to force a game 7 back in Toronto.

Bottom of the ninth,Min 5 Tor 4. 2 out, bases empty, Lidge pitching. Hairiston due up, in comes Mauer for a pinch hit.

202

Bang solo shot to force extra innings. Mauer with the Power.

Finally in the 12th inning a sac fly by Koreanko drove in Damon for the win.

Very close series all the way through...

So join me in welcoming the returning world series champs TORONTO BLUEJAYS. (Managed by Mike)

Hooray...

We now have till the end of June to finalize our rosters. Trading is now open.

Future Trading

Well as you all know the season draws to a close. It's almost time to wheel and deal.

I'm going to throw out some trade bait... and offers are welcome...

AL - Toronto

Guardado (RP) $8, Cordero (RP) 8$ JAM, Ford (OF), Hairiston (2B, OF), Loaiza (SP) Minor leauger. Possibly Sheiffeild for a suitable cheaper replacement.

Looking to: save/make money... a solid #3-4 starter, a great 2B, future picks.

NL - Chicago

Millwood (SP) $10 JAM/OFF, Burnitz (OF), Maddux(SP) OFF, Klesko (LF/1B) $7, Sanders (LF) $5

Looking for: A defensive catcher, Jam Relieve,

I figure if we all say what we want and what we will give we may have a great trading season ... once the play-offs are done.

Good luck all.