Building a better Fantasy Baseball League - Creating the Rules

[Toddzilla]

Owners:

(1) Toddzilla
(2) Suicane75
(3) Cheif rum
(4) Mustang
(5) Terpkristen
(6) packer fanatic
(7) glengoyne
(8) stevew
(9) cougarfreak
(10) cubboyroy
(11) johnny93g
(12) Oilers9911

Alternates: Danny, cmgdodgers, Icy

[Toddzilla]

Rules to vote on:

(1) Player Pool: NL, AL, or MLB - I think the consensus is NL-only
(2) Draft type: Auction or Draft - I think the consensus is draft
(3) Roster Type, 23 players starting with 2xC,1B,2B,SS,3B,CI,MI,5xOF,U,9xP,
.....(a) 2 catchers and 1 utility player, or 1 catcher and 2 utility players?
.....(b) 9 pitchers of any kind, or set number of starters and relievers?
.....(c) other (i.e. batch infield players as a group of 6 players)
(4) Scoring categories
.....(a) standard 4 x 4 - AVG, HR, RBI, SB, W, S, ERA, WHIP
.....(b) standard 5 x 5 - adds R and K
.....(c) other? (i.e. substituting OBP for AVG)
(5) Reserve players - how many reserves, picked after the draft, to serve as your bench?
(6) DL players - how many players allowed on the DL, or unlimited?
(7) Players traded out of the player pool - tough luck or keep their stats in their new league?
(8) Roster moves:
.....(a) First-Come-First-Served, Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly?
.....(b) Use a FAAB?
.....(c) Waivers?
.....(d) other? (you can't drop a player from your active roster unless they are injured or demoted)
(9) Trade Deadline
(10) Keeper Rules
.....(a) how many players can you keep?
.....(b) how many years can a player be protected?
(11) Minor League squad?
(12) How much money are we playing for and how will it be divided?
(13) Other offseason considerations.

I'll add more as we think of them, remove rules as they are decided.

Also, please keep in mind that I may have to make some kind of editorial decision on the rules based on other choices we make. For example, if we decide on weekly or bi-weekly transactions, we are going to HAVE to use a waiver wire and/or FAAB in order to be able to decide on player pick ups. Of course, these will *always* be able to be debated and changed.

[Toddzilla]

Rules FINALIZED:

(reserved)

[Toddzilla]

Here is what I think we should do:

1. NL-only. If we can get up to 16 teams, I think a full MLB pool would work.

2. Draft, of the snake variety

3. I like the original roster makeup - 2xC,1B,2B,SS,3B,CI,MI,5xOF,U,9xP. I don't like specifying what kind of pitchers you must use as it limits your strategic options.

4. I prefer the 5 x 5 but using OBP instead of AVG.

5. We should be able to have 3 players on reserve, available only from the player pool.

6. Since injuries suck, there shouldn't be any limit to the number of players on the DL you have. However, picking up DL players from the free-agent pool should NOT be allowed, as a team could grab 100 injured players.

7. If we're going to limit the league to the NL or AL, that should mean you lose a player traded away.

8. I would like daily transactions, followed by bi-weekly, then weekly. FCFS is just an awful way to play.

As such, we would need to have a waiver order. That way we don't have two teams placing a claim on the same player and not knowing what to do. Every time you claim a player and get them, you go to the bottom of the waiver list. If a team wants to sit on top of the list and not claim any players, good for them, thats a strategy that may pay off or may blow up. I don't really like the FAAB, but we can use that in addition to the waiver list as long as we can place $0 claims. I guess the way to do free-agent pick ups without a waiver list is to always award players to the lowest place team, but that's a last resort for me.

I'm also a big fan of not letting you frop any players unless they get injured or demoted, forcing you to make smart decisions on who to draft.

(9) Trade deadline = 9/1

(10) My preference would be to let a team keep as many players as they want and forfeiting draft picks in the next draft. That's always been ne of my favorite times of the year in fantasy baseball, figuring out the cost of who to keep versus the draft pick you lose. Also trying to figure out what other owners are going to keep influences who you keep or don't keep. Keeping a player should have some incremental increase in cost, so keeping a 4th round player costs you a 3rd round pick. The commissioner will need to keep track of all this, and in the offseason be able to provide everyone in the league a list of who is being kept and what picks are available - and this is VERY do-able. I do it every year in my other league.

My second preference for keepers would be to lose players off the top of the list, but it is still important to me to leave the number of keepers up to the team. This is vitally important for teams at the bottom of the standings that have the opportunity to make trades for the next year, dealing a superstar for 2 or 3 prospects. If we're tied to a maximum number, or specific number, that takes away the incentive for teams at the bottom of the list to try to improve their team in-season

Finally, teams should be rewarded for making good draft picks, so we should be able to keep players for a few years, say 3 max.

(11) I'd like to be able to draft 3-5 players NOT on a major league roster that I get to keep until the player is activated in the majors.

(12) $50 per team makes a nice pot for the winner. 50 x 12 = $600, so we give 1/2 to the winner $300, 1/4 to 2d $150, $100 to 3rd and $50 to last place as a consolation.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Rules to vote on:

(1) Player Pool: NL, AL, or MLB - I think the consensus is NL-only
(2) Draft type: Auction or Draft - I think the consensus is draft
(3) Roster Type, 23 players starting with 2xC,1B,2B,SS,3B,CI,MI,5xOF,U,9xP,
.....(a) 2 catchers and 1 utility player, or 1 catcher and 2 utility players?
.....(b) 9 pitchers of any kind, or set number of starters and relievers?
.....(c) other (i.e. batch infield players as a group of 6 players)
(4) Scoring categories
.....(a) standard 4 x 4 - AVG, HR, RBI, SB, W, S, ERA, WHIP
.....(b) standard 5 x 5 - adds R and K
.....(c) other? (i.e. substituting OBP for AVG)
(5) Reserve players - how many reserves, picked after the draft, to serve as your bench?
(6) DL players - how many players allowed on the DL, or unlimited?
(7) Players traded out of the player pool - tough luck or keep their stats in their new league?
(8) Roster moves:
.....(a) First-Come-First-Served, Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly?
.....(b) Use a FAAB?
.....(c) Waivers?
.....(d) other? (you can't drop a player from your active roster unless they are injured or demoted)
(9) Trade Deadline
(10) Keeper Rules
.....(a) how many players can you keep?
.....(b) how many years can a player be protected?
(11) Minor League squad?
...

I think you're right on one and two...although if we look at having fifteen potential owners with the three on the waiting list, how many more do we need for both leagues?

3) a-I think one catcher makes the most sense for NL only. b-The fixed number of starters relievers looks reasonable to me...but I have NO real rationale for that beyond my initial response. c- I don't like the idea of batching 2b and SS with other positions.

4)5x5 for me. R and K seem appealing to me..although again, I have no real rationale against the 4x4.

5-6) DL and reserves seem linked to me. I'd accept going with "standard" values for these, but again I don't have enough experience to have a strong opinion.

7) I'm a benevolent sort...I'd say keep their stats for the remainder of the current season.

8)Roster Moves.
a-Weekly moves
b-I'd prefer a waivers system over FAAB if we're talking about week to week moves. In the other thread, I, perhaps wrongly, inferred that there might be one method for day to day acquisitions and another say FAAB for inter league transfer situations. If this is the case, I'd say waivers for Day to day and FAAB for inter-league pickups.
9)Trade deadline...I've got no strong opinion..just need to stop a cellar dwelling team from selling their future to a contender for a run at the title.
10)Keeper rules. Again I favor retaining a set number, but I could see a minimum and a maximum as well. I'd be opposed to tying the position a keeper was drafted to a spot in that year's draft.
11)Minor leagues. Not enough experience to have an opinion.

[Glengoyne]

I should have waited a few.

1) I'd say see if we can land another manager and go whole hog. That being unless we'd lose folks interested in NL only.
2)Snake Draft...Yes.
3)One catcher if we're NL only. I'd like to see other opinions on pitching configurations for now.
4)Hmm substituting OBP for AVG. I'm just such a traditionalist, I love AVG. I do get usting OBP though. No real reason to oppose this though, I'll be a sheep on this one, and follow the crowd.

8)If there is a general preference for more frequent moves, then bi-weekly would work for me. Again I'd prefer the waiver wire, essentially as you described, as it seems to be a balanced mechanic and simple to implement. I'm also seeing similar value, for the same reasons, in a FAAB with $0 bids...how would ties be resolved..worst place to first? Also the thought of limiting pickups to replacing players that are Injured or dropped would limit the 'abuse' of the waiver wire.

10) let the debate go on.

12) The proposed amount is reasonable. What about a platform for the league? What site do we use?

[Suicane75]

My 2 cents.

1. I'm all for a full MLB pool if we get 16 commitments. NL otherwise.

2. I'm intrigued by the aspect of an auction, especially for a league starting from scratch but i'm not gonna rail for it. Snake draft is fine with me.

3. I lean slightly towards 1 Catcher and a 2nd Utility spot. Especially for a 12 team league. I do however like specific Pitcher roles, 5SP, 2RP, 1UP. To me it still offers flexability and doesn't totaly bastardize the position. Don't forget, there are a bunch of starters eligable at RP and vice versa, so flexability is there.

4. I too would prefer 5x5. OBP vs Avg doesn't really matter to me.

5. I would use reserves in this fashion. Decide what number of bench spots we want and just draft them in the normal draft, ie: 23 players start + 5 bench spots, draft 28 rounds.

6. I'd go with 2 DL spots only available to players actually on the DL. You can keep them there for as long as you like once they're on but once they come off they can't go back unless they get on the real life DL again.

7. I think we should be able to keep the stats of a player who gets traded for the rest of the season, but once the year is over he's removed from the team and player pool.

8. I'm a huge proponent of the FAAB, I just think it adds a ton of strategy to the game. In my perfect world I'd go with something like this, Transactions and Lineups every Monday, and allowing of substitutions on Fridays, all before the first games of course. So it would be twice weekly lineup changes and once weekly transactions.

9. Trade deadline doesn't much matter to me.

10. I'd like as few keepers as possible for as few years as possible. This I think is another aspect where an initial auction really helps, although Todds idea of losing draft picks in accordance with keeping a guy also intrigues me. Even so I'd still prefer a small cap.

11. I would handle minor leaguers and minor league rosters thusly. After the initial draft we could quite honestly do a slow board draft of say 5 rounds. This would be only minor leaguers who have never played a MLB game. These players can sit on your Minor League roster for as many years as you want, but once you transfer them to your bench they "lose" minor league rights, meaning they become part of the regular player pool and terms and conditions of the league. This is probably getting to wordy for the simple idea in my head but I hope yall are following me. Every year before the regular draft we can cut players from our minor league roster if we like, which then of course makes them available for the regular draft. Once the regular draft is done we simply do another minor league draft with teams drafting until they're back at 5.

12. I'm in for anywhere from $50 to $100. I think 3rd should only get their buy in back and the rest divided 80/20 but I expect to win and want as much for first as I can get.

[stevew]

What is to stop drafting wainwright on the next to last round and putting him on the IR all season?

Or Strasburg?

If it is possible can this end in early September instead of having the playoff in scrub time? Plus maybe we will have fantasy football st that point.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by stevew

What is to stop drafting wainwright on the next to last round and putting him on the IR all season?

Or Strasburg?

If it is possible can this end in early September instead of having the playoff in scrub time? Plus maybe we will have fantasy football st that point.

This is something I was going to bring up to extend Toddzilla's prohibition of picking up injured players. I believe we should also ban any acquisition of players that are injured or suspended.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by stevew

What is to stop drafting wainwright on the next to last round and putting him on the IR all season?

Or Strasburg?

If it is possible can this end in early September instead of having the playoff in scrub time? Plus maybe we will have fantasy football st that point.

What is to stop drafting someone Wainright in the 5th round and putting him on IR all season. To me it's just another strategic element.

And i'm pretty sure we're all aboard for standard roto so there would be no playoffs.

[Toddzilla]

In season, picking up players on the DL or in the minors should be a no-no. Only players on the active roster would be available. At the draft? If you want to draft Wainwright, wait until the season starts to pick up a scrub free-agent, disable Wainwrights and essentially lose a bench spot all year, go for it. I'd rather put those roster spots to good use.

[Mustang]

My notes on what I'd like

(1) Player Pool: NL, AL, or MLB - I think the consensus is NL-only

Yes. NL

(2) Draft type: Auction or Draft - I think the consensus is draft

Auction

(3) Roster Type, 23 players starting with 2xC,1B,2B,SS,3B,CI,MI,5xOF,U,9xP,
.....(a) 2 catchers and 1 utility player, or 1 catcher and 2 utility players?
.....(b) 9 pitchers of any kind, or set number of starters and relievers?
.....(c) other (i.e. batch infield players as a group of 6 players)

Only 1 catcher. No set # on starters/relievers



(4) Scoring categories
.....(a) standard 4 x 4 - AVG, HR, RBI, SB, W, S, ERA, WHIP
.....(b) standard 5 x 5 - adds R and K
.....(c) other? (i.e. substituting OBP for AVG)

5x5

(5) Reserve players - how many reserves, picked after the draft, to serve as your bench?

I'd rather not see a bench be anything other than reserve guys. All play..

(6) DL players - how many players allowed on the DL, or unlimited?

Unlimited. You shouldn't screw someone over for bad luck. I've been in leagues where I had 8 guys on the IR in May and could only DL 2. My season was done.

(7) Players traded out of the player pool - tough luck or keep their stats in their new league?

Keep in new league.


(8) Roster moves:
.....(a) First-Come-First-Served, Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly?
.....(b) Use a FAAB?
.....(c) Waivers?
.....(d) other? (you can't drop a player from your active roster unless they are injured or demoted)

FAAB


(9) Trade Deadline

August 31st

(10) Keeper Rules
.....(a) how many players can you keep?
.....(b) how many years can a player be protected?

I'd like to see a number between 8-15. So, I'll go with 10.
Max 3 years.

(11) Minor League squad?

Absolutely.


(12) How much money are we playing for and how will it be divided?

At least $25/team I think. I'm ok up to $100. 50/25/15/10

(13) Other offseason considerations.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

In season, picking up players on the DL or in the minors should be a no-no. Only players on the active roster would be available. At the draft? If you want to draft Wainwright, wait until the season starts to pick up a scrub free-agent, disable Wainwrights and essentially lose a bench spot all year, go for it. I'd rather put those roster spots to good use.

I had a bad experience with Tom Brady on IR in a keeper football league. We had a rule saying you couldn't draft anyone currently suspended or on IR, but nothing for picking a guy up mid season. That league also had a limited number of Injured Reserve players, so Brady ended up being cut.

So I say definitely prohibited during the season, whether the player is out on IR or a suspension of any kind. During the draft, I'll guess is OK. I don't think you should be able to draft a guy and THEN IR him...you draft him injured you carry his entire dead weight for the whole season.

In other words, a modified +1

I'll edit just to make an exception. If we do end up tying a keeper's draft position to the following year's draft, then we shouldn't allow the drafting of IR players.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

In season, picking up players on the DL or in the minors should be a no-no.

Not having a minor league roster with add/drops would seriously kill a keeper league for me.

[Johnny93g]

I'm gonna defer to the experts here. I'm pretty much fine with whatever you guys think is the best.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Not having a minor league roster with add/drops would seriously kill a keeper league for me.

I'm thinking a minor league squad would be good.

I'm thinking that picking up injured players is bad. Now I could be wrong here making my football connection of IR =DL, when I know they are two very different things.

When it comes down to it, this(my concern about picking up injured players) is actually a pretty small point in the big scheme of things.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Not having a minor league roster with add/drops would seriously kill a keeper league for me.

I think the idea here is - right af ther the main draft - we'd have a 3-5 round "minor league draft" where we would pick players who were not on major league rosters. This would be the basis for our minor league squads, and these players would be available to each team to promote at will. This should be a one-way process - you will not be allowed to move a player from your active roster to your minor-league team.

I think players on this team could be kept for however long they remain in the minor leagues - i.e. years - but you won't be able to add players to this roster during the season, only at the annual draft.

Now we could move this minor league draft to mid-season to better coincide with the actual MLB draft, but I think having this pre-season makes it easier on everyone to knwo who is available and manage promotions, etc.

[Chief Rum]

I'm more or less fine with whatever anyone wants to go with.

My one quibble is that maybe we should pare down the starting lineup and the roster a little, considering we're 12 owners picking from a total of 14 teams in the NL. Two catchers, for instance, seems like way too much, as does five OFs. I would go with a traditional lineup (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, OFX4, UTIL) for the offense side of it.

[Toddzilla]

16 teams

[Chief Rum]

Heh, true. I still would go with the pared down lineup, though.

[stevew]

We only have like 2 weeks before the start of the season, I think we need to start moving if the draft is going to be some sort of forum/live draft hybrid.

Something like c/1b/2b/ss/3b/4OF/Util and 5 starters/5relievers with 3 hitters and 3 pitchers as a bench would be an even 10/10 setup.

I like the minor league draft idea at a later date. Maybe only AA and below players eligible?

Regardless, we have 300+ picks to make, so we should think about getting started by monday of next week at the very latest(and we'd still be doing 2 rounds plus per day)

[Suicane75]

We're close. Plus I think we'll be doing the draft online with whatever service we choose.

[Toddzilla]

If we can't pick a mutually agreeable time, we may have to do the draft here. Otherwise, we can pick a service and use them

Should I set a deadline for rules debate? Should I post what the most popular choices are?

[stevew]

Sunday the 27th(all day) is a good draft time for me. I can go the 19th or 26th if it starts around noon EST. I'm not the most flexible person in regards to time, due to work. I can probably do lists i guess, or forum.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

I'm gonna defer to the experts here. I'm pretty much fine with whatever you guys think is the best.

Me too. I've never done a keeper league, never done anything but H2H, nor done anything with weekly plays.

If that means that you guys wanna vote me off the island, though, that's OK, too.

/tk

[Danny]

Did all 12 confirm? I'd like to be in this league, but if it doesn't work out I want to find a different second league

[Glengoyne]

I'm travelling this weekend...I could probably figure something out if we were to do Sunday, but I doubt we can pull that off.

The 21st to 27th...
I've got a commitment Saturday night(26th) Pacific time, tickets to a show. I'm free during the day.
I've got Church Sunday 27th until about noon Pacific time. After that I'm free.

After that we're looking at sporadic availability during the day at work, and evenings...Pacific time for me.

[Mustang]

I can't get to the website during work hours however, someone can just email me at work. Was hoping to draft live during a weekend.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I can't get to the website during work hours however, someone can just email me at work. Was hoping to draft live during a weekend.

I'm up for this, if we can set aside a few hours to get it done with. Let's do it. If we can't, we're looking at a long draft here or on the fantasy site we choose.

If we all submit lists to the Commish, if someone takes too long to make a pick..the commish could make the selection and then move on. That might make it possible.

[PackerFanatic]

Without looking too much at what others said (to not let it influence yet, heh) and knowing we need to get rolling soon...here are my two cents:

(1) Player Pool: NL, AL, or MLB - I think the consensus is NL-only Agreed, NL is fine
(2) Draft type: Auction or Draft - I think the consensus is draft Agreed here as well, although I wouldn't mind auction
(3) Roster Type, 23 players starting with 2xC,1B,2B,SS,3B,CI,MI,5xOF,U,9xP,
.....(a) 2 catchers and 1 utility player, or 1 catcher and 2 utility players?
.....(b) 9 pitchers of any kind, or set number of starters and relievers?
.....(c) other (i.e. batch infield players as a group of 6 players)
I would rather see 1 catcher and 2 utility, especially with the NL-only rosters. It's just not fair to have 12 teams pick from 16 full-time starting catchers and try and start 2. I also think we should knock the pitchers down to 6 of any kind and make it an even 20 roster (I mean, if we all have 9 pitchers, even without set numbers of SP and RP, that's still 108 pitchers - knocking off a few to actually leave some in FA wouldn't be terrible
(4) Scoring categories
.....(a) standard 4 x 4 - AVG, HR, RBI, SB, W, S, ERA, WHIP
.....(b) standard 5 x 5 - adds R and K
.....(c) other? (i.e. substituting OBP for AVG)
I like standard 5x5, substituting OBP would be fine
(5) Reserve players - how many reserves, picked after the draft, to serve as your bench?
I have seen talk of no benches, and with the roster sizes where people are suggesting, that is probably the only logical way to do it
(6) DL players - how many players allowed on the DL, or unlimited?
I say unlimited, but no picking up DL players - and no moves allowed if you have a player no longer on the DL still on your DL list (I think that is usually common with most formats)
(7) Players traded out of the player pool - tough luck or keep their stats in their new league?
Keep the stats but they are obviously not allowed to be kept
(8) Roster moves:
.....(a) First-Come-First-Served, Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly?
.....(b) Use a FAAB?
.....(c) Waivers?
.....(d) other? (you can't drop a player from your active roster unless they are injured or demoted)
FAAB
(9) Trade Deadline
End August/Beg. Sept
(10) Keeper Rules
.....(a) how many players can you keep?
.....(b) how many years can a player be protected?
The more players you keep, the closer it becomes to a dynasty league (which maybe isn't a bad thing). Depending on final roster size, I think 3 - 5 is a fair number. Allow for a particular player to be kept up to 3 years, then they are fair game.
(11) Minor League squad?
Never done it, never really followed minors much, maybe 3 - 5 guys would be fun. How would they play into the real roster though? And how would they be maintained? Kept until you drop them (through seasons)?
(12) How much money are we playing for and how will it be divided?
I'd say no more than $50 (which is already more than any other league I am in - but I like playing for more money, all the people I play with are prudes when it comes to that, lol)
(13) Other offseason considerations.

[PackerFanatic]

I really think we need to do a live draft, especially with how little time we have left before the season starts. I have a live draft early on 3/27 (~2PM CST) but I will be willing to do another that day.

[PackerFanatic]

Originally Posted by stevew

Something like c/1b/2b/ss/3b/4OF/Util and 5 starters/5relievers with 3 hitters and 3 pitchers as a bench would be an even 10/10 setup.

I like this suggestion for roster size.

We should really start voting on some of this stuff I suppose

[Toddzilla]

I'm away this weekend - at my rotisserie baseball live auction, natch - but I'll be back on monday and we can start voting on particulars, including a night to do the draft.

[Suicane75]

Sounds like a plan Stan.

[Oilers9911]

I prefer more than 3-5 keepers. If we have minor leaguers (which I hope we do) then 3-5 is nowhere near enough. I would like to see us keep 8 major leaguers and 5 minor leagues each year with a maximum minor league roster of 10.

[Toddzilla]

This is why I'd prefer not to limit the number of keepers. There needs to be some kind of tradeoff keeping a guy and losing a draft pick but still have a method to keep players in the draft pool, otherwise the draft becomes trivial.

Keep a guy drafted in round 5, lose your 4th round pick (or 3rd, or ?)

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Oilers9911

I prefer more than 3-5 keepers. If we have minor leaguers (which I hope we do) then 3-5 is nowhere near enough. I would like to see us keep 8 major leaguers and 5 minor leagues each year with a maximum minor league roster of 10.

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

This is why I'd prefer not to limit the number of keepers. There needs to be some kind of tradeoff keeping a guy and losing a draft pick but still have a method to keep players in the draft pool, otherwise the draft becomes trivial.

Keep a guy drafted in round 5, lose your 4th round pick (or 3rd, or ?)

You know these couple of posts triggered a thought that I really hadn't considered.

I mean the idea behind a keeper league is to feel like you're managing a franchise with continuity season to season. To do this you need to retain reasonable number of players from year to year. You also need to develop new players. So the minor league system is important.

This makes me think we need to be required to keep a certain number of players. Maybe something like 40% of the roster for the team itself along with most of or maybe an unlimited number of minor league players.

That means that year to year we will be drafting the bottom half of the league, while we keep the cream of the crop. If we limit ourselves to maximum three year contracts for our players, the next two drafts will be stirring the bottom half of players around the league from team to team. That doesn't seem very compelling to me.

Leading to a consideration of applying a cost to retaining a player...namely a system like each kept player costs a pick in the draft as described above. I just don't like that system. It seems to penalize a team for keeping a player...which is the whole idea behind a keeper league. The auction system is MUCH preferred to this, as I think it does a better job of providing a consequence for keeping a player, yet plenty of stirring the upper third of talent around as people aren't satisfied with a given player's salary.

Could you have a system with a draft where each team has a set number of 1 yr, 2 yr, 3 yr contracts that must be assigned right after the draft(before the season starts)? You could even give each team a single 4 year deal. The one year contracts cause a good amount of turn over from season to season, as many of us will certainly give our best players single season deals. I even like the idea of letting a GM release a player from their multi-season deal, at the cost of a draft pick...perhaps the round the player released was drafted in.

I'm tired and just spit balling this stuff around. I guess my point is that I do see a need to make the draft interesting, and if we all keep the best 50% of our players as well as the best of our minor league rosters...there just doesn't seem to be a lot of top talent available from year to year.

[Suicane75]

That's exactly why I was leaning towards an auction draft. That and i've never done one and a brand new long term league seems like the perfect time to start.

[PackerFanatic]

We may be SOL either way if we don't do a draft soon

[Toddzilla]

OK - I'm going to create the thread for rules voting. Instead of using the voting feature of the board and having 13 different threads, I'll have one thread with all the rules, and we'll decide in that thread by posting our preferences.

The draft will be in the next 10 days, so please let me know when you are NOT available.

[PackerFanatic]

NOT available:

Friday night (3/25) after 5PM CST
Saturday night (3/26) after 5PM CST
Sunday (3/27) between 2PM CST and 3:30PM CST

Any other weeknight (preferably after 8PM CST) works for me

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by PackerFanatic

NOT available:

Friday night (3/25) after 5PM CST
Saturday night (3/26) after 5PM CST
Sunday (3/27) between 2PM CST and 3:30PM CST

Any other weeknight (preferably after 8PM CST) works for me

I'm NOT available
Friday Night 3/25....I may have some flexibility here, but probably not
Saturday 3/26...I'm screwed all day, maybe not even phone service, and a concert that evening.
Sunday 3/27 ....unavailable before 1 Pacific, 3 Central.
Tuesday and Wednesday Evenings I'm Tied up with work and another commitment.

[stevew]

Sunday works best for me. Otherwise I probably can't make it work. I work 2nd shift and can't afford to ditch work right now.