Keeper Formats

[Mike_nyc]

Looking for some info. on typical guidelines for keeper leagues. We are making our league a keeper this year and I want to create an simple but exciting format for participants. Any info. regarding typical amount / duration of keepers would be particularly helpful.

Our current roster sizes are 30 players per team..12 teams

[slomo007]

The number of keepers are completely up to you and your league. A lot of leagues use about 5 keepers, but some use more/less depending on what you want.

As for the maximum duration...you want to set the amount at a high enough level so that it rewards players for finding the diamonds in the rough and also encourages teams to pay attention to the younger players. But you also don't want to set it too high, or else you can have one team dominate the league for several years due to a tremendous set of keepers. I personally think 5 years is about the proper amount of time.

So, 5 keepers @ 5 years max? That would probably be my preference. Although with 30 player rosters you may want to up that to 7 or 8 keepers.

[Mike_nyc]

No one else?

Was thinking of establishing a rule that managers cannot keep a player taken before round 3...my logic is that why should the first team get a guy like pujols for however long for winning the lottery...thought this might reward the manager who makes the smart late round grab that pans out.

any thoughts?

[lsommerer]

We do an auction with our keeper league, and it doesn't sound like you do, so what we do wouldn't really apply, except that our keepers have to come back to the auction after 4 years (we increase their salary by $4 each year as well).

One of the draft league rules that I've heard in these forums is that you lose the draft pick for the round in which the keeper was chosen. I always thought that was an interesting way to do it. It makes the keepers more of a give/take thing. I think I would take this a step further and lose an increasingly higher draft pick for each year that you keep them. But I tend to be on the "get them back into the draft sooner" side of the keeper fence.

We don't have any limit on the number of keepers you can keep (except that they all cost $4 more each year). We declare our keepers in two stages. Our second set of keepers is due in 4 days, and it looks like the number of keepers will range from 6 to 14 (out of 26). I can't give exact numbers because we send half by salary, not by number, for each stage.

[mak1277]

No one else?

Was thinking of establishing a rule that managers cannot keep a player taken before round 3...my logic is that why should the first team get a guy like pujols for however long for winning the lottery...thought this might reward the manager who makes the smart late round grab that pans out.

any thoughts?

I see the thought process, but personally I hate this rule. I think anyone and everyone should be available as a keeper.

I do, however, strongly endorse the idea of losing draft picks based on what round you drafted your keeper. That still gives you the ability to benefit from drafting the late round guys. In later years, they will "cost" much less than the super-star #1 draft picks.

[Mike_nyc]

I'm actually drafting up a format based on the concept of each team receiving a certain amount of years that can be designated to up to a certain amount of keepers (a bank if you will). Your own players cannot be resigned once assigned terms, and unused years are held in the bank. as years come off of guys they go back to bank

[Philly_05]

No one else?

Was thinking of establishing a rule that managers cannot keep a player taken before round 3...my logic is that why should the first team get a guy like pujols for however long for winning the lottery...thought this might reward the manager who makes the smart late round grab that pans out.

any thoughts?

Don't like this idea never have never will. Why reward one person and not the other. You might aswell not even draft a Pujols or Santana or any 1-3 value because you can't keep him. I like having more than 5 I also like having a farm system that you can run by appearances for SP's and AB's for batters. Never ruin a keeper by putting numbers values or taking away keepers because of draft round or force them to give up picks to do so.

[Ragoczy]

I'm in 2 keeper leagues but both use the auction format with the salary cap. I think your rule concerning the first 2 or 3 rounds is actually pretty good. In a league that size, the difference between #1 (Pujols?) and #12 is pretty big--I'm in an NL only and Pujols goes for $55 in an auction while the 12th best goes for $30-35. The difference between #13 and #24 is not nearly as great. And since the first pick is essentially a lottery with your draft picks, the team that lucks out and gets that first or second pick in the initial draft is going to be set if you don't have the rule. Combining it with the increased round lost for the player kept--draft a player in the 3rd, lose your 1st round pick, draft a player in the 7th, lose your 5th round pick--makes even more sense, and you will probably still end up with quite a few keepers.