Upcoming SDMB fantasy football league...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

On the subject of keepers this year. As one of the “expansion” coaches, I would certainly be willing to draw by lot one of the teams from last year and choose keepers (if there are any I like) from that roster. Just a thought, but I suspect that given the nature of the Internet community there will always be some folks who do not return next year. I hate to see the “keeper concept” forever sidelined due to the fluid habits of the clicker generation.

Just a thought.

As to rules for keepers, I like a “+x system”, but I think “+1” might be better than “+2”. A 2 round penalty means that simply prudent drafting is not rewarded. Only the true “surprise superstar” or “sleeper picks” outperfrom their draft position by 35 slots (an average 2 round differential in a 14 team league with new draft positions year-to-year). “+1” still ensures that the first round is always in play again, while still rewarding the owners who spot the stars on the verge of going nova.

Really, though, I just want this season to start tomorrow. If I have to sit through one more basebal trade discussion on Sportcenter I’m going to bite my own ears off and chew them into a fine mush.

142

I’m in, and foresee no problem with next year.

143

“Deep Space Homer”. I get your first round draft pick. :smiley:

And you, for one, can bow to your new Weirdo overlords!

144

It looks like I snagged the last spot in neuroman’s keeper league. As this will be my first keeper league, I’ll just defer to everyone else on that aspect of the setup.

I do have two suggestions, however:

  1. A shorter bench. First, having 19-player teams will kill the free agent game during the season. Second, a 14-team, 19 round live draft will take approximately forever.

  2. I prefer a yardage-intensive scoring system (say, 25 passing yards and 10 rushing/receiving yards per point), as touchdowns are distributed more randomly than yardage.
    Best of luck to everyone.

145

We’re at fourteen players now. To everyone who’s already in: Should I add more slots? Is everyone in who wanted to be?

I’d like to ask one of the owners to help me with the specific rules. What shoul.d I be considering for inclusion? I have some suggestions already, but I need help with finishing the specifics. If someone is available on MSN Messenger or a chatroom somewhere, we can get together and hash this out. Post here or email me.

146

No more slots please. 14 teams is a very big league and I any further slots would overextend it, IMO. Not everyone who wanted to play got in, but there’s at least one other SDMB league they can join.

Last year we used a yards based system, 25/10/10 with fractional scoring, it seemed to work pretty well.

147

Anyone that’s missed out (or anyone looking for a second team), feel free to join the third-string SDMB league: Yahoo #80652 Passord “please.”

148

In the fall of 1978, in a small town in Iowa, a small, but tight group of 10 year old boys were thrust together to play in the local YMCA’s youth basketball league. They were named the “Bulls”, and, like their namesake, they just weren’t very good. They were all slow, not very good shooters, and, with the exception of their center, short. But they had something the other teams did not. Heart.

They struggled through the season, having fun, and pratically defining the term “gritty”. When they lost, it was expected. But when they won, their smiles could light up the darkest room. After the regular season, they were at the bottom of the league, but, without exception, they had the most fun. Back then, every team made the playoffs, and the ragtag Bulls, being the worst team in the league were slotted to play the best: powerhouse Knicks team. That team, probably by design, had the tallest, most talented kids on the team. The kids who would go on to play high school and college ball. The kids whose parents bought them brand new Nikes and basektballs. The kids who were going somewhere. They played their top five for almost the entire game, every game. Meanwhile the Bulls were in their Keds and using a half-inflated ball, made slick from overuse, and overlooked in their awkwardness. Everyone on the team played, and they all had fun.

Well, that Saturday morning started with the usual pep talk by their coach: “Go out there and have fun.” So the Bulls took to the court, and lined up for tipoff. The Knicks had the talent. They had the skills. They had the height and the speed and the shoes.

But the Bulls had the one thing the Knicks didn’t. Hope. Each and every player on the Bulls dreamed of capturing lightning in a bottle and beating the Knicks. Their ten-year old bodies were primed with Hope and hustle. As the starting five took their positions on the court, the other Bulls cheered them on and shouted encouragement. The referee was confused. How could this ragtag group of misfits expect to beat the best team in the city? But the Bulls had hope.

As the ball flew from the referee’s hands and the game started, each and every player on the Bulls knew they had a chance. They had a chance to beat the best.

They lost. 58 to 10.

Save yourselves the hassle, and just give up know. Your hopes, your plans, your dreams will be crushed by the reality that is Hamlet. Sometimes, it is actually better to not even try…

149

Hamlet, with just over 30 days until the draft, and 31 days until opening kickoff, your current roster is the best it’s going to be all season. Hope, Keds, inspiration, talent, ability, skill - your team is only going to have all of these at the same time is when you buy them a dictionary.

150

Steelerphan: Since the draft is the day before the first game of the season, you may need to stick around the draft afterwards to fiddle with draft-day trades and such. I know last year there were a few in-draft deals going on. But since there’s a waiting period on trades, we won’t be able to complete them through the usual manner.

Everyone else: If there is even a remote possibility of you working out a draft-day deal, you will need to switch your team options to “allow commissioner to edit” (or whatever the actual term is).

151

Is the real SDMB league ready to rock?

  1. Rules updated, go to the Yahoo page to see the changes.

  2. Keeper rules are here.

  3. Draft order will be chosen on Saturday, Aug. 28. Unless there is a more popular method, I plan on using Irony Games dice-roller (which emails the result to me) to choose who drafts when.

  4. Hamlet is so going down. (That’s from the player, not the Commish.)

Accept no substitutes.

152

Thanks for the update, Steelerphan.

I believe the goals of a keeper league should be fun, fairness, and simplicity. With that in mind, I offer the following comments (some of which I have said before.)

Sounds good.

I think +1 rounds for keepers is better than +2 rounds. How many mid-draft players (drafted in rounds three to eight) improve two whole rounds in draft value over the course of a season? Darn few - fewer than 10, I’d say. This means that many keepers will end up being benchwarmers drafted in round 14, which isn’t very exciting, IMO. I think drafting +1 round higher on your keepers will make it more fun for everybody.

I strongly agree that round 1 players should NOT be allowed as keepers. However I think that using round 3 players (maybe even round 2 players) wouldn’t upset the balance of fairness in the league.

A maximum of 2 times, or three seasons total, seems like plenty. Letting a player sit on the same person’s roster for four whole years is just too long.

I don’t really understand the logic of your draft chart, but I agree with the basic principle.

Keep it simple - we should designate keepers 2 weeks before draft day in 2005, and here’s why. Assume we are going to have coach turnover in the league (a safe assumption.) Will the new coaches be forced to use the old coaches’ keeper choices? That’s damn unfair. But letting a new coach make new picks would also be unfair to the other players, since the new coach would have the benefit of additional information about the offseason that old coaches didn’t have when they made their original keeper picks in December of 2004. Also ask yourself, which is more fun - making blind keeper choices in December, or making mostly informed keeper choices in mid-August? We make all our other non-keeper choices based on contemporary information - why force coaches to make an ignorant decision seven months in advance when there’s no need? Keep it simple and designate keepers shortly before the 2005 draft.

And one point you forgot to address:
No free agents as keepers!

Let’s reward players for making smart drafts, not lucky-ass “I got to my computer first” free agent pickups. If we allow FA keepers, then we have to figure out a fair spot for them to go in the draft order, which will be different for each player. Let’s keep the whole thing simple and not use FA keepers.

Finally, the “Dead Team” rule: Unfortunately, Yahoo settings make this infeasible. If someone goes AWOL we’re probably just screwed. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen.

-neuroman

153

Well done, steelerphan. Lots of things I hadn’t even thought of, like the loaner trades.

Everything I would have mentioned, neuroman beat me to. I’m kinda torn on the free agents, but I’ll go with that.

154

There is a way to handle dead teams, and that’s through the Commissioner tools. It would probably be a pain in the ass to enter more than one team’s starting roster by editing, but I’ve had to do worse (pen and paper leagues suck as far as workload.)

The draft chart can be changed, I was using an example I found on the net. I was torn between what you see and a version that broke it up 8-14 then 7-1.

No free agent keepers. Good catch.

Let’s get a few more opinions, then I’ll make the final changes.

155

As for dead teams, I’m of two minds.

  1. It’s great to be in a completely competitive league, where all teams are playing.
  2. Some real teams in the NFL give up, and are just not competitive (see: Cincinnati Bengals*, Arizona Cardinals). I certainly advocate kicking a manager out at the end of the year, but I’m pretty much against editing for the sake of competitiveness. Even the Bengals and the Cardinals pick up wins during the season despite being not good. At all.

As for draft order, last year we tossed around the idea that the last place team got to choose where they wanted to draft, the second to last picked their draft spot next, etc. But I understand (and like) the idea that just because you were last doesn’t mean you get the first pick. Your way gives the lower rung teams something to stay active for, which is brilliant.

*Yes, yes, the Bengals should be good this year, and they’ve been to the Super Bowl in the past. But historically? Not so good.

156

schoebel forever.

157

I disagree strongly about FA keepers (and hope that the fact that I’ve gone with the flow on everything else means this opinion counts…)

There is no difference between a “lucky” FA pickup and a “lucky” 14th round pick. Many fortuitious FA picks have to do with injuries; which are one of the elements of luck that apply to everyone.

I don’t see why drafting is the be-all end-all of acumen. My best move last year was spotting Domanick Davis when he was still a third-down back, realizing that sooner or later he was going to be the starter. As it wound up, I was only 2 weeks ahead of the curve, but I was prepared to carry him longer if need be because he was a rookie and I had an eye to the future.

Just count undrafted players as 10th or 12th rounders or something.

158

All right, I’ll agree that plenty FA pickups are not lucky but instead the result of a sharp witted owner’s analysis. I just don’t like it when a low profile player suddenly has a big game and is picked up by whatever coach is closest to his computer when the player makes his second big TD catche of the day.

However, using no FA keepers still makes things simpler. If we allow FA keepers and they all go in at round 10, where do you draft your keeper next year? Round 9, then round 8, etc? That strikes me as absurdly overbalanced. Just because a coach was smart enough to pick up this year’s Domanick Davis or Anquan Boldin, it doesn’t seem fair that he should get awesome residual benefits on the player over the next several years. That would put a large premium on FA pickups as keepers vs drafted players as keepers.

furt, maybe you can further explain what you think would be a good system for doing FA keepers in year 2, year 3, etc.

159

If we think that there will be a FA acquisition problem, I’ll use my $1000 system for free agent auctions.

Each team gets $1000 to use for free agent pickups for the season. The minimum cost/bid is $25. An open auction will occur if a particular player is desired by more than one owner; bidding will stay open until midnight the day prior to the first game of the week (Mid. Wednesday for Thursday games, etc…) If the bidding is still going on at midnight the commissioner will moderate the auction from that point until one bidder is left with the high bid.

FA who are picked up during the season can be used as keepers if we determine their draft value. I think we could use next year’s player rankings as a guide, and determine the draft spot by comparing the other players at the same draft position- for instance, if a FA is ranked #20 at their position, compare him to the last year’s draft places of #19 and #21, and determine his relative worth.

Oh, and how about dem Stillers? :smiley:

160

Allow me to lobby for:
[ul]li round penalty on keeper picks. (+2) is too steep.[/li][li]NO free agent keepers. Consider an inseason free agent equivalent to the “one year tender” for a restricted free agent in the NFL. You get him for cheap this year, but next year you have to pay. I would allow an exception for “post draft but pre-season” FA pickups so that folks who get computer drafted can have a chance to adjust their rosters without being penalized.[/li]Return yardage (1 point per 50 yards). I don’t like to over-vaue wideouts who pad yards on kick returns, but special teams are important and I don’t like to minimize that value either. I think 50 yards for a point is about the right balance.[/ul]