2026 Draft Weekend recap!

Thanks to everyone for a great Draft Weekend!!!  So much fun to catch up with league members past, present, and maybe even future that were in attendance over the weekend.   Happy to report that no one got hurt, no damage was done by various flying projectiles being tossed around the Draft Room, and that everyone made it home safely (and likely exhausted!)

We did make a slight adjustment to the rules this year, ever so slightly lowering the minimum innings needed by the end of the draft to 1225 and the positional at-bats to 525.  

The hallways were very busy Saturday as lots of trade talk led to lots of early trades, upending the draft order before we even had dinner.  

Will Willnus, the Official Bingo Ball Roller of 2026, changed the entire trajectory of the first round when he selected #47.  That gave PJ, with his ONE bingo ball, the first overall pick!  Rumor has it that Will suggested that number to PJ while we were all claiming our numbers, League officials are still looking into possible tampering and family dissension that may have resulted from that :-)   PJ then shipped that pick to Pat, sending the coveted Nick Kurtz to Kansas City.   It was a hefty cost though, as PJ moved down one spot to claim Roman Anthony this year AND added KC's first rounder next year.   This risky strategy will be a storyline all year as the Butchers better have a year good enough to justify that lucrative trade package.  

I have added links to the main draft, waiver draft, trades, schedules, AND Scott's hilarious presentation on our league mascots in the section named 2025 League Files.  Will also put a link to the main draft right here  fl2025 draft result by round.pdf

This has to be my favorite draft pick entry of all time :-)   
Those Hancocks just have to make it all about themselves
with their elaborate and unnecessarily large signatures!

Chuck came up with a very fun theme for divisions this year:  nicknames of one of the all-time great film practitioners of the pugilistic science. Apollo Creed!

I am convinced that we could never properly conduct the Division Roll-offs without Steve "The Human Abacus" Willnus and his amazing ability to keep track of the numbers and ranges that place a team in a certain division.   Changing divisions every year is truly a great Friendship League innovation, don't know of any other league that does it.  

League Dinner at Joe Kool's!

Tension is high in the Draft Room!

All the thrills and pageantry of
the Division Roll-offs!

Presentation of the Trophy and Plaque
 to the league champion Toronto Thunder

The joy of victory (and of drinking a mixture of
three different world-class beers in one
somewhat clean and sanitary trophy!

I did send everyone the preliminary LZP file, please use that to make any default lineups and rotations and send them on to me.   Can't overstate how much it helps to have those defined in the league file so you don't have to start from scratch every game.  Send those on as soon as you can.  We can always add them later but nice to have them ready for the actual start of the games.   

We will have a PLAYBALL file out soon, and the games can begin then.  Looking forward to another fun and exciting season!  Good luck everyone!