[USML Announce] 2004 Participants

[Richard E. Robbins]

First of all, I want to wish a warm and happy Thanksgiving to each of
you.

At this point, it appears that all nine teams will return.

We would all be delighted if Jeff can get Brad and Mike to return and we
will wait for Jeff to report back on this matter.

If Jeff does not succeed, it would be best to get a new team.

If we fail to get a new team, we need to expand rosters and will need to
fuss with salary caps, floors, minimum IPs, ABs etc.  Let's get another
team and avoid that mess.

Jim raised the issue of whether a new owner would inherit the Riptorns
roster or be forced to build from scratch.  In the past, we've let a new
owner inherit a departing owner's roster.  In Jim's case, there was no
departing owner and therefore no roster to inherit.  I suppose if an
owner wishes to leave the league and hand his roster over to a new owner
that's one thing.  In the case where an owner departs and we need to
find a new participant I'm not sure it matters.  I have no problem with
either approach.  Can we get a consensus on this point?

There seems to be some support for expanding beyond ten to eleven -- but
it's not clear if that is a minority position.  For what it's worth, I'd
prefer to limit the league to ten teams but I don't feel especially
strong about it.

-- Rich