OFL Newsletter XXXII-10

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Matt Farmer, mefer1917@yahoo.com

Sunday, October 20th : 2 rounds of live free agency bidding @ 3pm CT

Sunday, October 27th: Phase 2 email free agency bids are due

Friday, November 1st: 2nd trade period opens (runs until about the 2nd week in March)

Saturday, November 2nd: Match/release instructions for phase 2 email bids are due to the oflpost

Monday, November 4th: Retain/Waive instructions for your free agents that did not receive a bid are due to the oflpost

Sunday, November 10th: 2nd period cut claims are due to Jason Findlay (unbid waived free agents)

Wednesday, November 13th: Tentative date for release of November NL

Live Free Agency Bidding – Sunday, October 20th starting at 3 PM CDT

For more info review Pgs 5 & 6 in your OFL Rulebook ~ Be sure you understand impact of Signing Bonus & No Trade Clause

Our two (2) rounds of Live Bidding offers the most efficient bidding process for the most coveted Free Agents. With up to 40 possible Free Agents being put up for bid each team enjoys an opportunity in Real Time to gauge the interest & market value of the most sought after Free Agents. If you cannot participate Live you must either provide instructions or select a coach to act on your behalf, otherwise you’ll automatically lose any/all of your Free Agents that receive a bid.

EVERY YEAR IS DIFFERENT depending on available funds & caliber of free agents. As a rough guide review the results from recent years available on the web page thru this link. Click on the September or October Newsletters for any year. http://sites.google.com/site/oflfootball/files-newsletters

Now is the time to review the free agents (any player in the most recent Excel roster sheet that has a contract ending in 2013), weigh them against your team needs/wants and what you can reasonably expect to obtain via trades and the January draft. Not all team needs/wants can be filled by a single venue. OFL offers teams opportunities to improve their franchise several ways and free agency is just one of those. Exercise prudence with your bidding, taking into account your long-term financial situation, including current or prospective Franchise Players.

A single bid strategy (high salary/low bonus or high bonus/low salary) generally won’t be effective across the board. The more successful bidders understand how to view the current owning team’s financial structure (including their reigning Franchise Player) and adjust their bid accordingly to improve their chances.

Bidding is completely optional. Aggressive bidders one year may sit on the sidelines the following season because of limited funds, or their needs/wants are more reasonably available to them via trades or the draft. The reverse is true also. Teams that have been passive the past couple of years may be better positioned to take advantage of their improved finances and salary structure this year. The unpredictable elements of bidding only add to the pleasure!

Once your available funds are depleted you are not permitted to place any more bids. Regardless of your Available Funds you’re permitted to match any/all bids placed by others on your players. In other words, you can match bids that put you in the red, and enjoy until March to come up with the cash.

Good luck, enjoy, and have some fun with the bidding!!! It’s an opportunity to add some value to your franchise.

As a reminder...Key Contacts

Questions/corrections regarding OFL League Files and/or the OFL Website, contact (Sacramento coach) Karl Haase: karl@haase.co

Questions/corrections regarding your roster, salaries & player contracts, contact (Prairie coach) Jason Findlay: jasonfindlay74@gmail.com

Questions/corrections regarding your Team Treasury, contact (Baltimore coach) Bobby Elder: rse0331@gmail.com

Newsletter stuff is sent to Bobby Elder: rse0331@gmail.com

Everything else, Commissioner Lance Barrate (Winnipeg coach): lance_barrate@hotmail.com

COMMISSIONER'S CORNER

Lance Barrate, lance_barrate@hotmail.com

FIRST DOWN – Live free agency is upon us. This is a great opportunity to add talent to your team. I truly believe that GM’s must take advantage of free agency, trading, and the draft in order to compete in this league.

SECOND DOWN – Colin Swanston and Jason Findlay will be coordinating the live free agency session. They will open an AOL chat room for our live free agency approximately 20 minutes before our 3pm CT start time. The nomination order is the reverse draft order (Edmonds (pick 20) starts each round and London (pick 1) concludes each round). Once a player has been nominated teams will have 2 minutes from the cue that Colin and Jason give to send their bids in. Each bid on another teams player costs you 50k and each bid received on your players earn you 50k.

THIRD DOWN – Any free agents that are not nominated will be available in the second phase of free agency. In this phase of free agency your bids are emailed in to a league officer once they have sent their bids to another coach. The bids for this second session cannot exceed your available funds and contingent bids are not permitted. You must have enough money to cover all of the bids you make. Once free agency is complete coaches will have a few days to decide whether to retain or waive their free agents that did not receive bids.

FOURTH DOWN – Now is a good time to start thinking about possible amendment ideas. It is a good idea to bounce your ideas off of other members. This can help to hammer out some of the details you may not have considered and can strengthen the amendment.

OVERTIME – If any coaches have questions about any of the off-season procedures please feel free to ask me. I am often available on AIM at WpgVigilantes18 and check my email frequently at lance_barrate@hotmail.com.

STEALS AND DEALS

Jason Findlay, jasonfindlay74@gmail.com

TRADES

6. Bronx sends OLB Wesley Woodyard and 1000k to Knightly for KC#2 and KC#4.

7. Bronx sends CB Chris Harris and S Reshad Jones to Fresno for FF#1, FF#2 and DC#3

UPDATED ROSTERS can be found online at https://sites.google.com/site/oflfootball/rosters

1ST PERIOD CUT CLAIMS

MONEY MATTERS

Bobby Elder, rse0331@gmail.com

Money Matters now includes each team's previous treasury balance and new balance. All teams enjoy until the end of the calendar year to submit a total of three newsletter articles or two articles and a photo for up to $3 million in bonus money. Photos must include the coach.

2014 DRAFT BOARD

Karl Haase, karl@haase.co

FEATURE ARTICLES

Dolphins’ Rebuild Begins: Successful Run Comes To An End

Jeff Beyel, Virginia Beach Dolphins

When Jeff Beyel Took over the Virginia Beach franchise he knew that the club had, basically, one season left in it before a major rebuild was going to be in order. To that end, the organization has set about trimming back their roster of any player they do not see as being in their future. The only players surviving the massive purge are those under prohibitive contracts like safety Roman Harper or those who are seen as being necessary for the immediate survival of the club such as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. “We knew this franchise was in some serious trouble when we gained control of it” said Beyel, ‘And now the long process of rebuilding has to commence.”

The Dolphins will likely have no more than 13-15 players under contract as the off-season work begins. They have made a series of trades that netted them a total of 13 draft picks in the league’s 8 round annual draft. “We feel a team has to build from within more than any other aspect.” Stated Beyel, “We want to be able to bring in guys this season that can help us get to our ultimate goal and the draft seems the best way to do that right now.” The gutting of the club has, obviously, left the team with an abundance of money but Beyel warned against any deals that would not fit within the team’s long term goals. We do not see ourselves engaging in free agency wars in some effort to bring in here one or two top players that do nothing for us in the long term nor allow us to maneuver in the future. We will like seek to fill out our roster, play out our seasons, and slowly build through the draft until, hopefully, the time comes when a free agent or two can help us get over the top. But, that time definitely is not now.” Even with the 13 picks, the Dolphs will need to sign a ton of players to fill out their league roster mandate and Beyel does not envision the club competing to grab talent at inflated contract values. “if we have to sign 25 or so players it is obvious we cannot afford to pay a lot of money on any free agents anyways. For now, we will have to be bargain buyers and see what we can do going forward.”

Team mascot PORKCHOP suffering through yet another BALTIMORE SLAUGHTER loss in 2013