Auction/Keeper League idea

[bellings]

This isn't a classified (yet), so I hope that this is the right forum. I was thinking about starting a league, but I haven't seen anyone with settings like these before so I'm looking for input.

The key is that players are signed to contracts at auction time. I think that it would make the league more like real baseball, where you really have to pay for bad decisions, and trades could be more interesting because certain owners may try to unload cap space. Also, if some player unexpectingly goes on fire, you only get to keep him if you had the foresight to sign him to a longterm deal. Otherwise he is a free agent.

Okay, the details. Each owner has 3 contracts worth up to 4 years, 4 contracts worth up to 3 years, and 5 contracts worth up to 2 years. I say "up to", so that if an owner signs 5 players to 3 year deals, that's fine, he would have 2 contracts left worth up to 4 years. During auction time, the highest value contract wins. So a $100/3 year deal beats a $80/2 year deal.

During the season, dollar values don't matter. Owners can add and drop as they please, but they can't drop players with years remaining on their contracts. (Contracts can be cancelled if Yahoo shows them as NA, but if the player just starts sucking, too bad.) Whoever owns the player at the next auction time is responsible for their contract value that year.

I would have a website to keep track of keeper stuff, and use Yahoo for stats.

Okay, that's all I have. Any input? Do you guys think that this is a good idea?

[bellings]

There would be a normal size roster. All other contracts are garden-variety 1-year deals. Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Tavish]

You might want to point this thread out to JTSlugger, IIRC he is running a contract heavy keeper league and should be able to give you some of the ups and downs he has faced. It never did really catch my fancy, regular auction keeper leagues do a good enough job of draining my time.

Good luck.

[JTWood]

I did something like this for the draft of my new league at the beginning of the season. It's an auction league, but to get things going, we did a draft and assigned contracts based on draft position. There were some interesting quirks. The first pick was given a lifetime contract. The second pick was placed in the last year of an expensive contract that couldn't be extended. It proceeded like that for the next 6 rounds (until round 8) with each player getting a slightly smaller contract that was slightly less used.

You'd have to ask the guys in the league, but I'm fairly certain that it went over pretty well. It's a good way to start an auction league because the staggered contract lengths and ages make the first season play like the league has been going on for years.

Anyway, don't know if that's what you were looking for, but I thought it was similar, so I shared.

[bellings]

Okay guys, I've decided to start the league. I've placed a classified here:

http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/foru ... p?t=159714

The settings are slightly different than the ones originally proposed in this post. Please visit the classified if you are interested. Thanks!