A ruling on Grady Sizemore

After a few days of deliberation and discussion, the rest of the league has all voted and decided that...

Chris will not be able to cut Grady Sizemore in-season.

Andy, Joe, Jack, Ken, Mike, and Shea make six votes - a majority. More inside. For the record, everyone else voted to allow Chris to cut him ONLY if he is punished by the loss of a draft pick or some sort of penalty.


One of the things that came up in the discussion was that this needed to be addressed in the offseason.

Maybe. Maybe not. To me, the rule is hard and tight - if a player suffers a season-ending injury, the manager has a right to petition the league to allow him to cut that player.

This has been in the rules for 4 years now. It's just the first time someone has actually done it. And I think the league responded correctly.

To me, the rule is in place for freak injuries off the field and deaths, something that would garner sympathy from the rest of the league. Sizemore's was a common ACL knee injury, and therefore, in my opinion, the league made the correct ruling.

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Chris wants to cut a keeper

Chris has petitioned for the league to allow him to drop Grady Sizemore, who is out for the rest of the season.

Our league rules can be read here so you can see the only circumstances we allow for a keeper to be cut.

After the jump, read Chris' petition to the league, and then e-mail me or tell me in some form what your vote is. Majority rules. I am not creating a poll for this one because Chris can't vote, and we will need everyone to vote without any chance of the poll being skewed by a multiple voter.

Feel free to comment to create a discussion if you are unsure of what is going on here.


Chris's request:

Dear League Members,

I am writing this to request that you show mercy and allow me to Drop Grady Sizemore. While I realize that he is my keeper for this season and next, he recently had microfracture surgery performed on his knee and will be out for the next 6-9 months. On top of that he has already been out an additional 21 days and just sitting on my bench. According to our League Rules, a Keeper can not be cut midseason unless there are Mitigating Circumstances. We have gone on to include in these circumstances, “If a player sustains an injury that requires him to miss AT LEAST 7 months of a calendar year for surgery and rehabilitation.” Given the time already missed on top of the prognosis given, Grady does fit within these parameters.

I realize that just because Grady’s injury meets this criterion it does not automatically mean that I should be entitled to cut him and that it is up for the League to decide. I also realize that this situation is a bit more complicated because I had originally signed Grady to a 2 year contract and thus I would be getting out of having him for next year. I also realize that we take risks when signing players to multi-year deals.

All that said, the time that I did own Grady was by no means productive, as he couldn’t even hit a home run during a game that counted, and one manager had even stated to me during our matchup, “Damn I was disappointed to see that you had Grady in your lineup and he was given an off day by the Indians.” Moreover, knee injuries are extremely problematic and there is no guarantee that he will be ready for the start of next season or that this surgery and recovery time will not cause additional surgeries during the offseason or early next season. Keepers are also a very integral part of this League and players that we turn to in hopes that they will constantly carry our teams. If I were to have to keep Grady I would be down to just 2 of these players for the rest of this season to rely on each week and this would significantly harm my chances of competing.

As a final factor in asking the League to grant my request and allow me to drop Grady Sizemore, I ask that you take into consideration I had to harbor Brandon Webb on my roster for the entire last year and didn’t even get 1 outing out of him. I have had to deal with homing a keeper who is out the entire year already in the past and request that I not have to go through that again this year especially considering the routine injuries that our teams constantly go through, except for Andy’s who team seems to walk on water.

In sum, I ask that since my keeper has met the Mitigating Circumstance requirement and since keepers play such a pivotal role in our League, you all grant my request and allow me to drop Grady Sizemore.

Thank you,

Chris McGann
Bronx Bums Manager/GM/CEO/President/Owner

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End of season review: No. 9 Adam

(Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of season evaluations based on power ranking trends. At the end, each manager will be given a final determination of overachiever, underachiever or expected achiever.)

Adam, you proved many of us wrong. You gave us an exciting run, which nearly ended up with a playoff berth.

But, you faded down the stretch. Still, there were many things to be excited about this year. Your fantastic trade of Grady Sizemore for Raul Ibanez and Dustin Pedroia was a huge steal. Derek Jeter shocked us all and validated his keeper status.

But, you still have yet to taste playoff glory - only one other manager can say that - so you suck. The rest of your evaluation after the jump.


You made it above .500 for the first time in league history. Good job? You even peaked as high as No. 3 in the power rankings. Pretty impressive, but key word: peaked. It was all down hill from there, including an embarrassing 15-2 loss to miserable Richie.

How the hell do you lose to Richie 15-2!

I had you as No. 12 to begin the season and you finished No. 9, clearly you exceeded expectations. But you went 2-6 down the stretch when the pressure was on.

As they continuously say at the end of the regular season in Adam-ville, better luck next year!

Final evaluation: Overachiever
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