OK, I hear the concern here and suggest the following - getowtamypot please nominate a new pitcher for Stone. Then all current players will stay on the block (active bidding on these seven can continue) until 8am EST on Thursday Feb 4, when the clock will restart. The then-highest bids for each of the 7 will be deemed to have a bid time of 8am EST on Feb 4. If no more bid(s) on them are made, they would all sell at 8am EST on Friday, Feb 5. If bids are made, the clock is reset for that player (i.e. the normal bidding process is in effect with a 24 hour clock again).
Since we are in mid week, this will not cost us significantly time-wise and will improve our position if a replacement is needed.
We have two primary scenarios, I believe:
1) ldanred posts here and basically gives us an assurance that satisfies the concerns expressed by others here. If he does this we resume bidding with him as a continued participant. This may come down to a judgment call and if we elect to stick with ldanred we will use the following "Plan B" - we will field a "dummy" team (filled with FA's by a committee of our owners to meet the salary cap and roster requirements) and placed [u:7f44ca5690]randomly[/u:7f44ca5690] in the league. The team would be funded by one or more of us (Sneeze has already volunteered). [u:7f44ca5690]This would mean we realign divisions through a new randomizer. [/u:7f44ca5690] This basically happens only if ldan is a no show through the rest of the auction.
2) We recruit a replacement now and resume bidding at the same time - Thursday morning 8am - provided we have the replacement in place. If we cannot find a replacement we will default to the "dummy team" scenario above.
[b:7f44ca5690]This covers us in any scenario and we will continue either way.[/b:7f44ca5690]
I hope to be able to make this call as early as possible to allow time for Plan B if need be. Let's give ldanred until Wednesday at Noon EST to get back involved - maybe with some bids?
I will say to ldanred that I am sorry for whatever has led to this issue - we all go through complications from time to time and it is really none of my business what the reasons are - we only need to see your assurance here and some bidding and we will move forward, no questions asked. I hope that is respectful and fair to all owners. And again, sorry for so much attention to this, but I also understand the concerns expressed here and in PMs to me.
If anyone has significat objections or ideas for modification to this plan. please e-mail or PM me. Thanks all - this is a great draft and I look forward to bringing it home with you guys!
Dan "Mountain Landis" W