Oct. 17 CRVL meeting minutes

October 17^th, 2016

 

Annual Meeting Minutes

Pizza and Beverages were provided to the members and paid by the League.

Meeting was called to order by President Dave Sell at 7:14pm.

Roll call showed that all teams were represented.

Special Guests included Jeremy Stender and Chris Dammann from KGLB radio and Gerald “Beans” Roepke Region 7C Commissioner

The secretaries reports for the last 3 meetings (March, Special May Mtg and Special July Mtg) were all emailed, there were no corrections and Rich Schug (Hamburg) moved to approve the Secretaries reports as emailed, Brandon Stender (Young America) seconded, motion carried.

Treasurer Kuerschner read through some of the expenses since the last meeting in March and indicated that he would have a full report for the year in January, he indicated a balance of $1,495.73. Dustin Brockoff (Carver) moved to accept the Treasurers report as given, Craig Pexa (Cologne) seconded, motion carried.

Old Business

Secretary Kuerschner went through two specific items from the State Annual meeting held on 10-15-16. First item was the composite bat issue from earlier in the season banning all composite bats. For the 2017 MBA season all composite wood bats will be legal to use. With the beginning of the 2018 MBA season, we will follow the MLB professional Minor League rule for bats. Some examples of legal vs. illegal bats are as follows:

Demarini D-Series and all Baum Bats will be eligible for competition

The Demarini S-Series or Sugar Daddy bat will no longer be a legal bat for competition.

The state website will be posting the rule in the near future.

The other item discussed was in regards to the criteria being developed to determine a Class “C” team vs. a Class “B” team.

There are three avenues for collecting points for your team.

1. Population points – this is for your city/township or school district (each team’s choice to determine)
2. Player Points – this is in regards to any players signed that do not live within the school district or city, and have a rising value the higher the level of competition they competed at.
3. Competative Points – These are points for making the state tourney, advancing to the round of 16 (class C) and making it to the final four (Class C). Points for these are yet to be determined.

It was also said that the state board is still in the information gathering phase. There were technical challenges to the website that has slowed down the process for gather this information but the state board feels confident that they have the right people involved to solve these challenges. There will be a requirement for more information in the very near future for all teams in the state to update their roster pages through the Score Monster side of the website. Our league had 5 teams or the 49 class “C” teams that did not complete the last information request so it was reiterated the importance to get this information updated as soon as it is requested so that the board can continue to move forward in a timely manner. There was some discussion on this topic, mostly for some further clarification. Secretary Kuerschner, State Board Members Joe Kreger and Tom Lemke facilitated those questions as well as they could. The main point from the state meeting was that they are collecting information at this time and nothing is set in stone as of yet.

Region Review – Secretary Kuerschner reviewed the financial information from the past year showing the first round net profits and attendances. He then went over the 8 team tourney financial report. Then went through what could have been if the entire playoffs were equally shared as game shares. This was for information only so everyone could see where the league/region stood and if any changes we made how it could/would have gone.

Commissioner Roepke wanted to thank the hosts for this past year, St Boni and Watertown, on a wonderful job of hosting the tourney. Especially with all the rain issues that we dealt with this past year. The result was that we had the largest attendance ever for our region in the current format (2,707).

The meeting then moved into the MVP and POY for all teams and then for the League.

Team MVP’s:

Mayer	Jordan Berrios	New Germany	Hayden Meyer	St Boni	Mike Dabu
Watertown	Pat Tschida	Winsted	Matt Elsenpeter	Carver	Marc Ulrich
Cologne	Anthony Brenner	Waconia	Chris Bullis	Young America	Bryce Panning
Brownton	Ryan Grams	Glencoe	Mason Goettl	Green Isle	Aaron Biguette
Hamburg	Jeff Hancock	Plato	Matt Odegaard

The winner of the Al R. Zeiper Family Trophy for Crow River Valley League MVP for 2016 is Matt Odegaard (Plato)

Team POY’s:

Mayer	Cole Buttenhoff	New Germany	Hayden Meyer	St Boni	Adam Nichols
Watertown	Pat Tschida	Winsted	Tony Kley	Carver	Marc Ulrich
Cologne	Alex Meeker	Waconia	Kody Simon	Young America	Troy Kohls
Brownton	Dylan McCormick	Glencoe	Jaime Pauman	Green Isle	Mac Zachow
Hamburg	Taz Seibert	Plato	Chris Odegaard

The winner of the Joe Kreger provided Trophy for Crow River Valley League POY for 2016 is Tony Kley (Winsted)

Joe Kreger has agreed to provide the trophies for all the individual team winners, the league winners will receive the traveling trophies.

Norwood – At this time Jim Zellmann was given the floor to discuss the Norwood Team and the status for the 2017 season. Jim indicated that they do not have anything concrete at this time in regards to players or dedication of players. He asked if they could have until November to have a better idea regarding any potential players and then give the league a final answer. Discussion ensued between the teams and questions were posed to Jim specifically. Jim indicated that they may have about 7-8 people engaged at this point but some of these were high school aged players and they wouldn’t be available till after the High School season was completed. After further discussion Dustin Brockoff (Carver) moved to put in place a contingency plan to go back to the North/South Leagues as were in 2015 minus Norwood, seconded by Joe Kreger (Green Isle). Each team was asked for input on this, all teams agreed this was a good way to move forward and so the motion carried.

The League, through discussion, would give Norwood till Dec 1^st to come up with a team for consideration of the 2017 league schedule.

After further discussion Brandon Stender (Young America) moved to move forward with 14 teams and 2 Leagues, Norwood can play an open schedule in 2017 and a regular league schedule in 2018, Stephen Wiblemo (Glencoe) seconded, additional discussion commenced resulting in the motion carrying. The thought of the group was that with Norwood playing an “Independent” schedule this could be a selling point for them to attract players and get recommitted to baseball in Norwood. If they can accomplish that then we can move forward with them in the league and a full league schedule in 2018. It was understood that Norwood would not be included in the 2017 Region 7C playoffs.

NW Umpires – Secretary Kuerschner discussed with the group that the NW Umpires in enforcing the 1 game per team requirement to have 2 umpires, the NW Umpires did not up hold this as they did not send 2 umpires for the game requested by Young America on July 24^th, vs. Cologne. In addition it was revealed that on May 22^nd the Young America at Waconia game started 1 hour late due to the single umpire working a game in Hudson WI., earlier in the day and not being able to travel to Waconia for the game in time. There was yet another incident on July 10^th, where 2 umpires did a 2:00 pm game in New Germany vs. Watertown. As the game wore on the umpires informed the teams that they needed to keep the game moving because they were supposed to be in Green Isle for a 6:00 pm game with Plato. So these umpires were double booked and the result of these three games shows a pattern of the NW Umpires not being able to live up to the contract we agreed to in good faith last fall. This contract is set to increase the single game umpire fee from $110 to $115 and require all teams to have 2 games with 2 umpires. It was the consensus of the group to go back to the NW Umpires and renegotiate for the 2016 rates and terms, to carry over to the 2017 year. The feeling with the league was that NW Umpires have to fulfill the 2016 terms before they can expect us to agree to an increase in rates and 2 man games. Secretary Kuerschner will be remanded to contact the RVL and DRS to see how their season’s went with NW and then contact NW Umpires with our league’s concerns.

New Business

Election of Officers –

Sec/Treas – Jason Kuerschner indicated that he would continue in that capacity. Jeff Lenz (Waconia) moved to have a White Ballot for the Sec/Treas position, Adam Dammann (Plato) seconded, motion carried. Jason Kuerschner will be the CRVL Sec/Treas for the next 2 years.

As we have reverted back to the North/South Leagues we will need to elect new presidents and that will be done at the January meeting. As well as re-look at the Constitution and By-Laws.

Special Dates for the 2017 schedule, all teams were asked to have those dates into Vice President Nik Franck no later than Dec. 1^st.

Region hosts for 2017 – New Germany indicated that they have done some field improvements and expect their new press box above the concession stand to be completed and ready by the first game in May. Waconia said that their Grandstand project is on schedule and they believe that it will be completed by Thanksgiving.

Draftable Pitchers – Secretary Kuerschner brought up a concern from the previous season regarding the list of draftable pitchers. There was a case where a player was listed as available, drafted and then later found out that he was not available as he was set to go back to college before the state tourney started. This basically resulted in a wasted pick for this particular team. In the future all managers need to be sure that the information they are providing is accurate and these players are available. We all need to be more diligent in this process because it does affect all of us. This topic was discussed further by the group but was decided to table it and bring it back up at the January meeting.

At this point in the meeting Secretary Kuerschner passed out a handout regarding a League Hall of Fame and All Star game proposal. The concept was to create a League Hall of Fame and possibly coincide it with a league All Star Game. Honoring the Old Stars of the league with the New All Stars. With the concern that after every team has had an opportunity to host a Region tourney, and those fields without lights posing some concerns when games run long with light issues later in the day. This kind of opportunity could be something that the non-lighted fields could carry forward with and the lighted fields could make bids for hosting the Region Tourney. The earliest we would be looking to do this would be 2019 as Carver has already indicated that they are not going to be able to host a region tourney. It was stated that we do not need to act on this at this time but that it is something that should be discussed and potentially acted on at a later date.

Hollis Brockoff (Carver) brought up the cost of the Bar Cards, do we want to increase next year to $15, Adam Dammann (Plato) picked up the conversation and suggested going to $20. There was more discussion and it was decided to go back to your individual clubs and discuss this, then come back in January for a decision.

Denis Zabell (St. Boni) brought up a point about recruiting players from other teams, please be cognizant of the other teams. He was more so refer to Waconia and the constant contact with his players that the Waconia teams is doing. Jeff Lenz (Waconia) asked to meet with Denis following the meeting and they agreed.

Adam Dammann (Plato) asked the group if there was anyone interested in looking at possibly changing the setup of the two leagues. There was discussion regarding this and it was asked of Secretary Kuerschner to offer up his different scenarios that he indicated earlier in the meeting he had done. He read through the 7 or 8 different combinations he had put together based on different criteria, there was some further discussion but no motion was brought forth.

Jeff Lenz (Waconia) did however move to rank all 14 teams for the 2017 playoffs as we did in 2016. Seed all 14 teams 1-14, with the top 2 moving into the 8 team region tourney and the remaining 12 to play a best of 3 series to determine the remaining 6 teams to advance, Dustin Brockoff (Carver) seconded, some further discussion and the motion carried.

Joe Kreger then moved to handle the gate receipts and expenses the same as we did in 2016, Brandon Stender (Young America) seconded, no further discussion, motion carried.

There being no other new business, President Sell asked for a motion to adjourn. Steve Mielke (New Germany) so moved, Denis Zabell (St Boni) seconded, motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 9:51 pm

The next meeting will be January 16^th, 2017, pending the availability of Dubb’s

jak