omni, there were a lot of trades and FA acquisitions that would absolutely affect keepers. I understand why you don’t want to scrap the keepers - you suffered with Vick all last year and you want something to show for it. I like Steelerphan’s idea of keeping your top pick if you want - surely we can figure out (or remember) the best player on each team. Unless we can really nail down the final rosters (which has proved impossible thus far), I think drafting three keepers is a bad idea.
I will also add that every team should have the option of NOT choosing a keeper, and instead picking from the available list of non-keeper draftee choices at their assigned spot in the draft order. (E.g., if I’m in the 3 spot and my best player was Tiki Barber, it might be better to just take whatever non-keeper that’s available at 3 instead of taking Tiki.)
The bottom line is that because of the nature of the decision we have to make, some teams are going to benefit more than others. We’ll just have to deal with this. I believe the one keeper (optional) idea is the safest/easiest option at this point.
Re: “interleague” play, as omni pointed out, there’s no reason we can’t do original/keeper vs. expansion league.
I’m not sure how many folks are on board right now (21 or 22?), but as people continue to climb aboard that “20 person league” is looking less fun and feasible. (No offense to Munch or whoever proposed it.)
Task for the weekend: see if there’s anything free out there besides Yahoo that would be more flexible.
I would second this, and point out the primary reason for not keeping three - that it forces us into a “3 keepers, first 3 rounds” situation. A good keeper league allows you to keep players from Round 12 and only lose a Round 9 pick next season, instead of losing a top 3 round pick. That would make for a good, intelligent draft that adds value from year to year.
The chances of Drew Brees having changed hands eighteen times and someone forgetting that are much higher than remembering that blockbuster trade involving Priest Holmes and Terrell Owens. It’s a good idea, but without final rosters, gets dangerous.
Man, this sucks…as I finished last season in the middle of the pack I was salivating at the thought of a Ricky/Chambers/Vick core this year.
Since I’m the loudest voice of dissent, I’m going to argue that if we can’t get a final roster (since people have made very good points regarding a few important trades and the lack of weighting) we might as well scrap the keeper idea altogether and start from scratch. I just think that a one-man keeper compromise would just leave everyone feeling unsatisfied. New draft order, new rosters, reshuffled leagues even. Start fresh, decide if we want to make it a keeper going forward and be sure to record everything here as they develop.
And I’d be all for forgoing Yahoo! this year too if someone knows a better alternative.
It was Jamal / Troy / Daniel Graham for Shockey / Barlow / Drew Bennett.
I don’t have much to contribute to the keeper discussion - although I’ll throw out the approach that Zev uses in his keeper baseball league ( I think Weirddave mentioned it earlier too) - in that league you can keep up to five (obviously 3 would be better for football) but you are not required to do so. Any keepers you select are the first picks you make - if you keep four they are your first four. If you keep none (and everyone else keeps at least one), then your first round pick is made amongst all the non-keepers.
That draft is done by mail though - which presents its own set of problems.
I did an NFL.com league and a Yahoo! league last year, and I have to say that the NFL league, with live scoring and so forth was way better. Problem is it also cost $15 a player, and I think this year they’re charging whoever manages the league an extra $100ish. Which, I think we can all agree, sucks.
Does anyone know of anyone else who provides live scoring?
Yahoo has live scoring, don’t they, if you pay for the extra package? That’s the way it is with baseball, anyway- I don’t think I’ve ever played a Yahoo football season.
As long as you’re talking about paying, Sandbox.com (a membership site now) has an option where a member can buy an entire league for $99 and fill the league with non-members. The league size maxes out at 14, so that’s like 7 bucks per player, and they have live scoring, injury news, a bunch of different draft options, and all that crap. Sounds like it’s cheaper than NFL.com leagues, at least.
Yahoo’s probably still the way to go, because nobody wants to pay.
No one else besides Yahoo provides free live scoring, AFAIK.
Poking around a little for freeware, I didn’t find anything besides “Fantasy Football League Organizer.” However, without the $50 stats package, I don’t think anyone is going to want the tedium of manually entering all the stats from the NFL each weekend. =/
Maybe there’s something else out there. As I see it, the problem is that there aren’t nearly enough free software writing dorks who also like sports in the world. So let’s all do some big-brother community service this fall: find a dork and take him to a bar to watch a football game. Buy him beer and hot wings. Let him know the goodness that is football. And then get him to write us some slick fantasy football software.
I basically traded my entire team (Warrick Dunn, Matt Hasslebeck, Marty Booker, the Miami D, and one other I don’t remember) to The Fighting Quakers for Priest Holmes.
My three keepers were Priest, Ahman, and Moss.
also, RTSports.com is a GREAT site and it’s $90. (I think it’s 10% off of that if we sign up before X).
As one of the new players, I’m not in favor of 3 keepers. Joining a league where Amos Zereoue is my best option at RB doesn’t sound like fun. If people want to have 3 keepers my suggestion is they have their own league and the other league be a re-draft. The 2 leagues can then be set up with the same rules to allow for championship games and possibly de/promotions at the season’s end.
1 keeper I have no problem with. 3 keepers, I’ll request that I’m placed in the other league.
While not free, I did find an online league for only $70. http://www.myfantasyleague.com/purchase.html I don’t have any experience with though so I can’t say how good or bad it is.
Since we had all 14 of the original league return, all new players are going to be in a new 2nd league. So whatever we decide to do with the keeper situation in the original league won’t affect you.
Also I was incorrect about Yahoo’s live scoring - it is not free (I think it costs $15, but cheaper if the entire league buys.) However Yahoo is the only free site that I knew about, period.
Somehow, just talking about pretending to run a football team makes waiting for the season a little easier.
I just remembered that I don’t like Yahoo!'s scoring rules as much as NFL.com’s, and I’ve never been a league comissioner so I don’t know how much you can change them.
Basically, I think 10 yards should be enough for a point. Yahoo!'s default is 20.
That, and Yahoo! screwed me on the draft order even worse than NFL.com did
I see that NFL.com has begun their FF registration. I’m watching Yahoo closely so that I can sign up as soon as they go online, to get the best draft time for everybody. I’ll need to know a lot of league specifics then, so if we can get a consensus on scoring, league structure, number of players, how to treat keepers, etc… it would help get the process running smoothly.
I don’t want to have to make a lot of last minute decisions for everybody without knowing your wishes. I’ll be watching the thread, and I’ll prepare a poll for the tough questions.
Yahoo lets the commish fully customize league scoring, even in free leagues.
Also, I’m not trying to sound like “I’m taking my ball and going home” – but if it’s decided to abandon the keeper league idea, you can count me out. Considering how many redraft leagues I am already in, and how infrequently I dope these days, I’m honestly not interested in yet another redraft league.
So, whether or not I’ll retuen will depend on what you guys decide. Either way, it’s cool, and no hard feelings.
mouthbreather, I do not speak for the original league here, but it seems pretty apparent that we are not going to do the three keepers idea, as no one can produce final rosters (though we did get the draft rosters from Jimmy.) IMHO, the best you can hope for is to keep one player, and if that doesn’t interest you, well . . . then I inherit your crown since you will be unable to fulfill your duties as reigning league champ! Score!!! But if you don’t wanna play, we’ll fill your spot with someone.
Steelerphan, I am PSYCHED!!! Why is football the bestest sport ever? I don’t know, it just is.
Also, should there be a new thread for league #2? Would that make things easier?
Wow. I go away for a few weeks and look at the chaos that has popped up in here. It a tough situation, but here’s my thoughts:
A HUGE shout out to Steelerphan for taking the lead. Thanks.
I want to play in a keeper league. We had one, and the lack of final rosters should not mean we get rid of the league. Here’s my proposal:
The owners who were in last years league have until July 19th to send in their three keepers and approximate order of finish last year. We have the original rosters and, although there were some trades, I don’t forsee a problem with two owners having the same player as a keeper. Once the deadline passes, we find out who is playing in the continued keeper league and who is not. If people can’t remember their keepers, look at the original draft and pick three on your team you want. Any discrepencies will be decided by majority vote. Then we’ll have our teams with their keepers. Anyone who doesn’t submit their keepers, will be booted and a new owner brought in to peruse their team for keepers. Since it’s for fun, I can’t imagine anyone would get too high-strung stepping in to a team. Then we decide on the draft order and begin again.
While Munch’s idea of corrolating the keeper players with their draft order, I think that idea would be too hard to implement at this point. I would have no objection to naming our three keepers as draft picks 1, 2, and 3, and then having the rule in place after this draft.
If the keeper league from last year dies out, I’ll still be in for a new keeper league.
20 teams is too many for anything other than shits and giggles.
I fully expect much trash talking.
I’m running out of things to say.
I don’t want people like mouthbreather dropping out.
I need a shave.
My three keepers are Deuce, Chad Johnson, and Peyton Manning. If anyone cares.
No matter how we do it, I will finish in the top three again, and possibly crush you all. I went easy on you guys last year.
I think a list with 12 things on it is better than a list with 11 things.
Thanks to a timely email by bababooey, I am setting up the “SDMB He Hate Me Keeper League.” Yahoo is open, and I have Sept. 8, 8pm as our draft time.
I’m not certain, but I think I need to define the number of players at each position on the roster to finish the setup. Could someone remind me of the settings used last year, and if there are any changes desired?
I’m keeping the window open for a while, but I need to know soon.
Hamlet, thanks- but yer goin’ down. I won’t make last year’s mistakes!
