Keeper Question

[cplindy]

Im starting a 12 team Roto 5x5 Keeper league this year on CBS and we will be keeping 3 players for a max 3 years. My question is what is the fairest way on keeping the keepers. Because after the 3 yrs are up some teams may trade top keepers with each other to keep for 3 more years. Id like to have them back in the pool after the 3 yrs.

[Matthias]

Easy.

Go to Setup.
Choose League Rules.
Click on Salaries/Wildcards.

Use one of those fields to track how long each player has been kept (you can edit them on the lineup page). After people announce their keepers, have people drop everyone but their keepers to free agents. Use the, "Clear Free Agents and Wilcards" option on the Draft Setup page. And then add 1year to everyone on people's rosters. Once a player is up to 3 years, he can't be kept. Easy enough.

[MTUCache]

Im starting a 12 team Roto 5x5 Keeper league this year on CBS and we will be keeping 3 players for a max 3 years. My question is what is the fairest way on keeping the keepers. Because after the 3 yrs are up some teams may trade top keepers with each other to keep for 3 more years. Id like to have them back in the pool after the 3 yrs.

I assume you're looking for a rule-set more than a website setting, correct?

If so, this is a compact version of what proposing to my new keeper league this year...

1.) Before the draft (say a month or so) each owner names between 2 and 5 keeper players.
- At least one offensive player and at least one pitcher much be kept.

2.) For each year a player has been kept, it impacts his owner's draft as follows:
- The first year a player is kept, he replaces the draft value one round higher than the previous year (with a minimum draft value of the 12th round).
- The second year a player is kept, he replaces the draft value two rounds higher than the previous year.
- The third year a player is kept, he replaces the draft value three rounds higher than the previous year.
- No player can be kept a fourth year (i.e. no player can be owned five consecutive years)

3.) If two kept players would replace the same draft position, the owner must forfeit his next higher draft position.

4.) Keeper players keep their draft position status through the trades. The only way a player's draft-value is "reset" is by being redrafted (i.e. he is not elected as a keeper).

This system works on four levels:
- No first-round player can be kept. The lowest finishers from the previous season will always have the first shot at the superstar players. (Rule #2)
- Owners attached to one particular player can retain him at an escalating cost to his team, but each year will receive more incentive to let the rest of the league have a shot at him. (Rule #2/3)
- Savvy owners who find an up-and-coming star have the opportunity to benefit from his selection for more than one season, but cannot retain him forever at an under-valued position. For an average "sleeper" player he'll be valued at round 12 the second year. A super sleeper can still be under-valued at the 10th round in his third year. A budding superstar can be retained at an under-valued 7th round for the fourth year, before he's released on the open market. This is the key to this league... owners able to find this talent early (and keep it) will usually place higher in the league, getting 2nd-6th round talent for significantly less. Eventually all these guys will be available, but the savvy owners will definitely keep their advantage by restocking their young talent. For a player like Ryan Braun or B.J. Upton, this gives this owner a HUGE advantage for at least the first two years of the player's career. (Rule #2)
- Owners looking to make a "run" in one particular year have the option of trading away young "prospect" talent in order to win that season, while players looking to "rebuild" have the option of trading away superstars for young under-valued talent. (Rule #4)

If you feel the smart owners will have too much of an advantage while drafting up-and-coming talent, you can adjust one or two variables to match your goals.

For instance, maybe you can only keep 2 or 3 players.

Or, the default minimum draft placement is the 10th round (then 8th and 5th), or even the 9th round (then 7th and 4th).

Or you could leave it at 12, but make the penalties 2 rounds, 4 rounds, and 8 rounds.

Or you could just say nobody can be kept more than two years.

Or, you could come up with some kind of a bidding system in which owners could elect not to keep players but bid on other peoples' keepers in a pre-draft supplemental, and the original owner would have to match the highest offer in a restricted-free agent manner.

[Grouperman941]

#4 above is the important one -- the 3-year limit has to be based on the original draft position, not when a team acquired the player through trade. I think it should also apply to drops/adds, but maybe that is on a case-by-case basis like serious injury.

[shappy]

i like the idea a lot. Just one question.

How you do deal with someone who keeps a first rounder?

[MTUCache]

i like the idea a lot. Just one question.

How you do deal with someone who keeps a first rounder?

Originally I thought that I would just not let anybody keep a first-rounder, because there was no way to increase the penalty for keeping them.

Then, after thinking about it for a while, I decided that since it was already complicated and convoluted, I might as well add some more twists into it, and I came up with some rules that would allow it.

1.) Each owner may choose to name one of their keepers as a "franchise player".
2.) This franchise player may be kept at the same value as the previous year, with a minimum round-replacement value of the 5th round.

You can now keep a first-rounder if he's your franchise player... but all the above rules still apply (no keeping for four times, etc). Having a fifth-round minimum is just another step towards trying to eliminate any loopholes that exist for keeping a Braun-type player with a low-round pick.

Like I said, it just makes things even more convoluted and confusing, but I can understand why some guys are most interested in keeping their first-rounder, so the rest of the system wouldn't make them happy.