Alright, in my league today, an Owner who was behind by a moderate proportion (H2H Points), added three pitchers to his team, all of which start Today. I expect those players to be cut and more starters added for Sunday, to assure the victory.
So, whats the protocol? I warned of this before the Season started, saying there would be penalties for doing so.
I've scolded the owner, who claims he did not know of the rule against doing so, despite it being on the League Page for Weeks leading up to the start of the season
But, what penalty to implement? How should Streaming be punished?
How can you impose penalties for something you just don't like (streaming), without creating settings to address it? The way you make it sound, he's playing within the rules and simply trying to win. If you limit the # of moves managers can make, then the streaming issue takes care of itself. Why not set the league up this way instead of "warning" people? Otherwise, how do you draw the line? What's considered "streaming?" Three pitchers starting in one day? Well, what about three in three days? Or two in two days? What about if Westbrook starts to suck, and I go pick up Volquez but he happens to start the next day. Is that streaming? Can a manager pick up ANY starters? Ever? Is it only streaming if you pick up starters when you are behind and trying to catch up? Please don't tell me you know it when you see it, because that just won't fly. My point is, you have to define it, or you will have arguments. You have stated to the league that they cannot stream, which has some sort of measurable pickup/drop (to you). So...why not just put this in the rules to begin with? Talk to the league, and come up with a "move" cap and add it to the settings (if possible).
I don't see how you can penalize him. Just my opinion And for that matter...why are people so against streaming, anyway? Another interesting part of fantasy baseball. And anyway, it often doesn't work (ERA, WHIP), and it can be countered.
Warn him, and if he does it again punish him. If you decided it was against the rules to begin the season then he should be punished for it, you should have came up with a punishment when you made the rule though.
Simply picking up guys who will be starting the next day isn't streaming, however if he then immediately drops them, and picks up more guys who start the next day, then your looking at streaming.
If there is a rule in place, and the rule is clear (e.g. "no more than 3 pitchers can be dropped/added in a given week"), then punish him now. If the rule was ambiguous (e.g. "no streaming") then specify the rule, give a warning, and then if he does it again punish him.
You might not be able to change the actual league setting, depending on the website you use, but you can still put a rule in place and enforce it. You just need to make it very clear, not just based on your own opinion. One man's streaming is another man's strategy.
If someone is in violation of a clear rule against streaming, then you have many options to punish them. The most straightforward seems to be just giving them zero points in all non-save pitching categories. You could also pick some sort of arbitrary number to deduct from the weekly point total, based on the number of points the extra pitchers would reasonably be able to gain him.
"The government cannot give to anyone anything that it does not first take from someone else"
If you didn't post specific penalties or give notice of specific penalties, I advise giving a simple warning for this infraction. I never impose a rule without providing the specific penalties upfront. To me, notice of the penalties are essential to any rule.
I agree, no punishment. Come up with something specific for people to follow and easy to track, like max 5 transactions per week or something. If you don't like streaming, then prevent it. How about a weekly lineup change instead of daily? An innings limit? There are lots of options here.
The punishment? Slap yourself on the wrist for being a poorly prepared commish... it's pretty obvious that you could have done something to prevent this, especially if you had thought about it before the season.
If it's not too late to adjust the rules in your league, I would re-iterate the intent of your comment before the season, and explain what constitutes "steaming", and then make a rule change to stop it.
Otherwise you're just leaving things up to interpretation and controversy. Draw a line in the sand and stand by it. This is what you should have done before the season, instead of just making an off-handed confusing comment about it that people could either ignore or mis-understand.
Who implemented this rule against streaming anyway? Was there a vote on it, or did you just decide it was wrong and post something on the message board?
What's wrong with streaming? It's a valid strategy in a daily league when the rules allow it.
It's fine if the league wants to prevent it as a league characteristic, but I don't think it should be something rammed down everyone's throat.
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by Alcooo » Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:26 pm 
And for that matter...why are people so against streaming, anyway? Another interesting part of fantasy baseball. And anyway, it often doesn't work (ERA, WHIP), and it can be countered.
