Horrible Fantasy Football League Rules

[Anthony]

In my league we have a keeper auction draft. Last year was the first year we changed over to keeper format. I wanted one rule addressed because I thought it was retarded and added an unnecessary layer of difficulty. Keepers will be announced AT the draft (when the draft is gonna be is anyone's guess, most likely Labor Day weekend). I stated how retarded it is to go the whole offseason not knowing who's gonna be available, thereby making fantasy research moot, at best. I said fantasy football is such a crapshoot as it is that its stupid not to know who's available. Salaries increase by as much as $10 depending on where the player is ranked in points at the end of the season. I don't know, for example, if I should keep Randy Moss for $50 in a $175 cap - normally that'd be stupid - but if everyone keeps their best WRs leaving table scraps in the draft pool I'd now have to consider if it just may be worthwhile to keep Moss at a high price if just to ensure I have 1 elite WR. That's the kind of uncertainty that awaits me. The commish (my friend, we're all friends in this league) says it adds more strategy. I say draft day is not the time to scramble to formulate your gameplan. Like taking an important test u either know the info or not, the day of the test is no time for studying. You should walk in feeling confident that you're prepared and can handle any curveball.

Am I right, or am I being a complaining pussy about this?

[Anthony]

I should add there are hardly any trades in my league - years of insults due to bad trades have made many ppl scared to pull the trigger. Also, no add-drops. We have 3 supplemental draft on week 5,7 and 9. I complained about only having 1 supplemental draft in week 8 was stupid in a league with no add-drops. The auction draft is so crucial, that's why its important to know who's available or not. I hate this fucking league.

[DataKing]

You're not being a complaining pussy about it, I agree with you completely. I've been in a keeper league for a number of years now, and keepers have to be declared typically 2-3 weeks prior to the draft. This is done for the express purpose of giving everyone the ability to do whatever draft planning they deem necessary. I can't imagine trying to play in a league that didn't declare keepers until the time of the draft itself. Talk about making draft planning (at least for the first 2-3 rounds) virtually useless.

[Suburban Rhythm]

The trade thing I think happens in EVERY league now, because people are so paranoid about losing a trade.

The part I don't get is this-

I don't know, for example, if I should keep Randy Moss for $50 in a $175 cap - normally that'd be stupid - but if everyone keeps their best WRs leaving table scraps in the draft pool I'd now have to consider if it just may be worthwhile to keep Moss at a high price if just to ensure I have 1 elite WR. That's the kind of uncertainty that awaits me.

Wouldn't you have to submit you keepers at the same time as everyone else? Whether it be today, in two weeks, or announce them at the start of the draft?

Say everyone does keep their top WR today...I would assume you all submit those to the commish and he announces at one time, correct? If not, then I think that is as much of an issue, teams 1-11 have to announce first, and you as team 12 get to see their keepers first.

But to answer the question, as long as everyone is finding out at the same time, everyone is in the same boat. Finding out today is better than finding out in a month, but as long as it's equal for everyone, it's fair.

[Mustang]

I don't have an issue with it in leagues that are auction leagues from a planning standpoint. The planning consists of weeding out the no brainer keepers (hey, the owner with Larry Fitzgerald at $1.. gee, will he keep him?), the obvious drops and then the players in the middle. You can still do research, just different.

Why I do generally hate it though is that it is an unnecessary time sink. We used to do it in our baseball league until about 3 years ago when it became obvious that every owner could predict the keepers save for a handful and we were just wasting time.

Absolute dumbest F'n rule that I've ever experienced in a fantasy football league is that if you had a guy on the bench, you couldn't start him the next week. So, if a player had a bye in week 10, you had to bench him in week 9 to skip the bye and reactivate them in week 11.

[DataKing]

Serpentine draft in a keeper league...that was pretty stupid.

[Anthony]

Mustang - that's a completely retarded rule. Wow.

Its important to know today rather than the day of the draft who's keeping who - we'll be able to see who has what cap room going into the draft, which we can then decide "the 2 other teams who have a lot of cap room both need WRs, that's gonna factor in whether I keep Moss."

The way the keeper aspect will work apparently is we all will announce, based on where we ended in the standings, who are keepers are, player by player. So the last place team last year gets the advantage in a way since he can see who's being released back into the pool before he makes his decision.

[Anthony]

By and large I'm pissed this isn't being allowed to go to a vote. I think there's enough flaw in the logic for this rule that a vote is warranted. I can't imagine I'm the only one who isn't fine knowing which players will be available on draft day.

[Glengoyne]

Back when I invested the time in fantasy football, I would have agreed wholeheartedly. Now that I go into my drafts every year without any recognizable preparation, I'm going to say you're being whiny.

Preparation schmeparation.

[Maple Leafs]

I can understand wanting to avoid announcing keepers too early, since you don't want people getting burned by injuries or late-breaking changes to depth charts. Still, you can avoid that by announcing a few days before.

Right at the draft? Stupid rule.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Mustang - that's a completely retarded rule. Wow.

...

The way the keeper aspect will work apparently is we all will announce, based on where we ended in the standings, who are keepers are, player by player. So the last place team last year gets the advantage in a way since he can see who's being released back into the pool before he makes his decision.

I was sorta having fun before, but after seeing this description, I think I like the rule giving a small advantage to the teams that did poorly last year.

My keeper league has an odd rule or two as well, around long term contracts. Even as a keeper league there is a lot of turn over, as players are only signed for two years. Rookies are signed for three years, if you select them in the two rounds of the rookie draft. If you sign someone to a long term contract, you have to increase their salary to $5 over the position average for each year of the contract. There is no way out of the long term contract. The first example: I sign Anthony Miller to a long term contract, three years, he has a great season followed by a mediocre one. The following year, on draft day, he isn't on anyone's roster. His contract simply wasn't renewed. It was as if he retired, but hadn't announced it. I could cut him, and free up the roster spot, but his salary would still be deducted. Rock...Hard Place.

As a result of this and a couple of other deals, very few players are signed to long term deals. Chris Warren was another one. The guy who signed him to a long term deal also had Emmit Smith. The next season, they were both Cowboys.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Am I right, or am I being a complaining pussy about this?

Or? I'd say both

[PackerFanatic]

That's a pretty convoluted way of announcing keepers...if you're going to hold off that long in announcing, just do it all at once. Just seems silly.

[molson]

I don't know if it's a "horrible" rule, but I hate leagues that don't put everyone on waivers until mid-week. It kills a Sunday of football to have to worry about some RB getting injured somewhere and needing to get to a computer right away to pick up his backup before anyone else does.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by DataKing

Serpentine draft in a keeper league...that was pretty stupid.

The FOFC keeper league that has been going for about 6 years does this. We voted on it this year and people voted to keep it that way, which just baffled me.

As for Anthonys league I think that is an absolutely idiotic rule.

[DanGarion]

What should be happening is people write the keepers down on paper and they are collected and then announced all at once. That is the only fair and logical way.

[PackerFanatic]

What is the hate behind a serpentine draft in a keeper league?

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Wouldn't you have to submit you keepers at the same time as everyone else? Whether it be today, in two weeks, or announce them at the start of the draft?

Say everyone does keep their top WR today...I would assume you all submit those to the commish and he announces at one time, correct? If not, then I think that is as much of an issue, teams 1-11 have to announce first, and you as team 12 get to see their keepers first.

Originally Posted by DanGarion

What should be happening is people write the keepers down on paper and they are collected and then announced all at once. That is the only fair and logical way.

That's exactly what I am saying...any other way gives an advantage to someone. Although, if someone is getting the advantage, I guess going in reverse order of finish so the last place team gets a little extra help, as Anthony says, would be the way to go

Originally Posted by Anthony

Mustang - that's a completely retarded rule. Wow.

Its important to know today rather than the day of the draft who's keeping who - we'll be able to see who has what cap room going into the draft, which we can then decide "the 2 other teams who have a lot of cap room both need WRs, that's gonna factor in whether I keep Moss."

The way the keeper aspect will work apparently is we all will announce, based on where we ended in the standings, who are keepers are, player by player. So the last place team last year gets the advantage in a way since he can see who's being released back into the pool before he makes his decision.

I still don't get the bolded part. That is only applicable if you are the last team to submit keepers. If you aren't last year's last place team, as described above, you would have to make your keeper picks prior to at least one other team, so how can you make your decision based on everyone else's keepers?

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by PackerFanatic

What is the hate behind a serpentine draft in a keeper league?

I guess I should qualify my statement by stating this is also in a league where draft order is determined by a team's performance in the prior year, just like the NFL (not sure if that's considered standard for keeper leagues or not).

Now, a serpentine draft is meant to equalize the value of the draft picks between the team picking first (1st and 24th selections in the first 2 rounds) and the team picking last (12th and 13th selections). But in a keeper league where draft order is determined by a team's performance the prior year, the team that won it all will presumably be keeping better talent than the team that finished dead last. The idea here is to give the team that finished last the opportunity to pick up more talent in the draft and thereby level the playing field. But if the team that gets the #1 overall pick is also picking at #24, there really isn't that much difference in total value between those two picks and the #12 and #13 that the league winner receive.

The problem is exaggerated when you consider the generally weak talent pool available in keeper league drafts. Every league's available talent level is going to vary, but in mine you've got 12 teams, each typically keeping 3-4 players each year (varies based on longevity with a given team). That makes for a pretty weak talent pool, that usually drops off significantly somewhere in the late teens. So the team that finished last got double-screwed.

That's been my experience with it, at any rate. We finally voted to go to a normal draft order for the first few rounds a few years ago, with much better results IMO.

[Danny]

Agree completely assuming there is decent number of keepers per team. 2 keepers per team and there should be a serpentine draft.

[PackerFanatic]

That makes sense. In the keeper league I run, we decided to keep the serpentine style, but we do not do reverse order of last year's standings. We actually have a formula that ranks the teams 1 - 10 (based partially on where you finish in the standings, of course). Then starting with team 1, the teams get to pick where they want to draft. Makes things a little more interesting that way.