I know it's early, but...

I wanted to bounce some ideas out here about a fantasy baseball league I'm starting up. (get all the cracks about my football leagues out of you system here) After learning the do's-and-don'ts of running a fantasy league this year, I want to start a baseball keeper league and I already have enough friends that want to join. These are some rules/guidelines that I drew up and I want to see what everyone thinks. If you have any honest advice, I'm all ears. This will be long, but I'd like to avoid the mistakes I made this year.



California Penal League

Basics:
Mixed keeper league, H-2-H, 10-12 teams for two divisions (Folsom & San Quentin), 24 roster spots with 14 starters (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF1-3, DH/UTL, P1-5). --- Money is due by the start of the draft. If an owner has not paid on time, he/she may still play, but the roster will be selected by the remaining owners and ineligible to win money. --- Money is awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd-place finishers, as well as division winners. --- Scoring period runs Mon-Sun; stats: OBP, TB, HR, RBI, R, SB-CS (hitting)...ERA, WHIP, Ks, W-L, S (pitching); ties are broken according to bench points. --- Waiver priority changes weekly, going from worst to first. --- All trades and waiver claims have a one-day waiting period. Trades may be vetoed by the league (min. 3 votes against). --- Each team has two "disabled list" spots, where an owner may put a player once he's placed on the DL and pick up another player without having to drop someone already on the roster. Once a player comes off the DL, the owner must drop a player before the next scoring period to meet roster limits.

Drafts:
The draft is live and held one week before the start of the season at the commish's house/apt. and lasts 24 rounds. --- The first draft is random, but all following years, the order is predetermined by the previous season's results (see below). --- There will be a 30-minute break after the 12th round.

Playoffs:
Three-tiered playoff system with losers of semi-finals playing each other for third place (top 2 seeds get 1st-round bye if 10 teams). --- Playoffs begin second week of September, with no games held the final week of the season. --- Teams are seeded according to record (duh), with division winners getting the top 2 seeds. --- Tie-breakers for seeding: H-2-H records, power points (see CBS Sports for ref.), most categories won. --- The four non-playoff teams play one additional game after the end of the league's regular season to determine the first four picks of next year's draft. 10/12 plays 9/11 for the first/second picks while 8/10 plays 7/9 for the third/fourth picks. --- The remainder of the draft order is determined by the outcome of the regular playoffs.

Keepers:

A team is allowed to keep three players, max. Either two hitters/pitchers or one of each, plus one "franchise prospect." Non-prospects may be kept as long as the owner wants, on a year-to-year basis. --- Only players drafted after the eighth round are eligible. Free agents are not. --- Once a player is traded or released, he loses keeper eligibility for the season. -- An owner must tell the commish who he intends to keep one week prior to the draft. This allows other owners to plan their draft strategy and so they may be skipped in the appropriate round (i.e. Team A drafted Mag. Ordonez in the 10th round in Year 1, Team A is skipped in 10th round in Year 2). --- A "franchise prospect" is a player with less than one full MLB season, including minor leaguers with no experience. An owner MUST keep that player for three years, then decide to make him a regular keeper or release him into the draft pool.

Well?

 

You know, I've been looking for a keeper league. Count me in.

 

The thing that sucks with this rule is it makes it so teams who are out of the race for the title can't make trades to get keepers.

Say someone has a bad draft or a bunch of their good players turn into Sammy Sosa, well they are screwed because they will have to keep players that aren't very good. But maybe they could package a couple of players and trade for a Phil Hughes or Liriano and voila they have a solid keeper.

 

The reason why I put in that rule is because if you trade for someone and end up keeping that player, where do you skip that guy's team in the draft? Also, owners aren't required to keep a guy. If you have Jason Bay in '06, keep him for '07 and he shits the bed, you can drop him next year and take someone else, if you want.

 

I meant keep him instead of one of his other keepers.

Scenario:
My keepers going into the season:
ARod
Oswalt
Zambrano

Say, Zambrano's arm falls off and I want to keep someone else but my roster is full of Adam Everett's and Michael Barrett's. So, I trade a Barrett and an Everett to get someone like Delmon Young or BJ Upton or whoever.
I don't keep ARod, Oswalt, Zambrano and Upton. I keep ARod, Oswalt and Upton.

We may be arguing different things, I'm not really sure.

Oh, and the way I've done keeper leagues is this: You HAVE to keep players. If you allow owners not to keep players do they get extra draft picks? And if they get extra draft picks, which rounds do they get them in?

 

This is what I'm thinking of:
I select B.J. Upton in the 9th round this year. He has a monster year and a week prior to the draft, I declare him as one of my keepers. In that coming draft, my turn is skipped in the 9th round.

Now, if I decide NOT to keep a player, I simply do not get skipped in a particular round of the draft.

Also, there is no way that A-Rod, Oswalt or Zambrano would be available after the 8th round. The purpose of stopping teams from keeping players in the first third of the draft is, IMHO, to keep it fair and keep interest up. If A-Rod, Pujols or whoever is off the table right away, what's the big deal about having the first pick? If I'm going into a draft with the first or second pick, I'm a lot more excited knowing that I'll be able to get the best player and solve a major need.

It's easy to pick the studs early in your draft to keep, but it's more challenging for everyone when you're limiting the pool of players. Are you sure that young shortstop is the next Hanley Ramirez, or will he be another Kaz Matsui (Mets-era)?

 

Oh, I guess I missed the part about keeping players in the 9th round or later.

I still don't like the idea of not keeping people, but to each his own.

 

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I'd make the money due by the All-Star Break (it is a six-month season after all) and anyone who hasn't paid by the time they resume play has their players benched and roster frozen until the check is received. Why would anyone bother playing if they aren't eligible to win money and everyone else drafts for them?

Two starting pitcher positions, two relievers and one "flex" pitcher that can be either a reliever or starter.

Make sure you have an even number of hitting and pitching categories so that hitters and pitchers carry equal weight (we used BA, K, HR, RBI, S, E, OBP; and W, L, ERA, WHIP, K, BB, S).

Vetoes must require a majority vote in the league. None of this minimum three votes. It has to be egregious enough to get six people to vote to get vetoed.

For keepers, what we did was the first three rounds are used to draft your three keepers. You can't draft anyone else until your keepers have been taken. Each year, a keeper player's draft round is lowered by one -- in other words, say you draft BJ Upton in the ninth round in Year One. In Year Two, even though you're actually taking him in the first three rounds, he's called an eighth round pick. You can hold onto players until they become "second round" picks, then they're put back into the draft pool.

That essentially left the best players available year after year. A-Rod, for instance, as a first-round pick, goes back into the draft pool every year until his skills decline enough that he's getting taken in the third round or later. If he gets taken in the fifth round one year, you can hold onto him for two more years after that (the years he's considered a fourth-round pick and third round pick). Once he reaches that "second round status" he goes back into the pool.

Not sure if I explained that clearly, but it adds some strategy in that, say you have a choice between holding onto Dan Haren for three years (you got him in the sixth round of Year One and can tag him a keeper for Year Two, Year Three and Year Four before he reaches "second round status"), or Johan Santana for only one more, you might let Santana go and try to get him back in the draft.

 

I understand the point about having an equal amount of scoring categories for pitchers & position players, but I have this in that kind of a format so it reduces the chances of a tie (even though there are already tie-breakers in place).

The three-vote-veto isn't my idea, though. That's what Yahoo!'s policy is, or at least that's the way they do it in football.

As far as the pitching categories go, the only requirement is that you have at least one starter and one closer.