Dear Mr. Thulean,
While I understand you may have painted a broadbrush characterizing The CBU as full of uneducated, redneck, filthy pigs, I have to disagree with you.
The rules were pretty clear, If they have a pound sign next to them, they are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. A Rule 5 Draft Pool is also published in-game and that can list the players in your organization that are Rule V eligible. Its not as if you were between a rock and a hard place, you had more than 10 spots open on your roster with which to place the players you felt were valuable.
Instead, you left some prospects with very good potential open in the Rule V draft and proceeded to have a meltdown when somebody picked a player you failed to protect. You listed reasons for demanding the return of the player, called the owners who drafted them a whole bunch of negative names (It actually sounded pretty rednecky to me). Your reasons were fairly ridiculous. "The Rule V Draft is meant for players who are major-league ready!" "Violates the spirit of the rule!"
As I pointed out in the CBU forums, major league teams have ways of getting around the "Keep'em on the roster rule". Usually they DL them with a phantom injury. Emil Brown (Pirates) Manny Lee and Lou Thorton (Blue Jays) are two examples of players who were not ready for the majors but drafted anyways and kept on the roster. Brown was a 6th OF on a horrific team and Thorton and Lee could pinch-run, easier to keep on an AL team.
I worked in professional baseball for 18 years Mr. Thulean, and I can say that a major league team will steal anything that is not nailed down from another league team if they can and if they can pry it loose, its not nailed down. The reason you don't see it very often is that most major league teams don't do something like...ohhh I don't know... like leave top prospects unprotected?
I enjoy the CBU. The league has fewer vacancies than most leagues and fills them up quickly when they happen. The hitter v. pitcher is pretty balanced and the owners are pretty active. Plenty of writing, plenty of dealing, plenty of smack talk. In good humor, of course.
I highly recommend the league to any potential owners, but one word of warning: Don't put your team in Portland, OR. There's something in the water there.
Well, thanks for reading; this redneck has to go slop the pigs, git me sum edyimikation and tell the women to go bake something.
