Entering the 3rd year of my 16-team H2H league... The first year the acquisitions (free agent + waiver pick-ups) limit was 40, last year we raised it to 50, and this year I'm proposing we raise it to 60.
What have you found to be a good acquisitions limit?
As I see it, there are two schools of thought. The first is that the acquisitions limit is part of the league strategy and that a manager should take pause before picking someone up. The other is that the acquisitions limit is simply in place to prevent churning and streaming, particularly in a H2H league. I am of the latter, and that was the original intent of the rule. I think 60 is still a reasonable number that allows for managers to make reasonable pick-ups without churning or streaming, save the occasional strategic spot start, which IMO is OK. What do you think?
Also, what is your opinion/experience with having separate rules on acquisitions for the playoffs? The problem we've found with a yearly cap is that some teams hoard a number of acquisitions and use them to basically stream during the playoffs, inflating their pitching stats (we have IP as a 6th category which further compounds the problem...don't ask). Should this be their prerogative since everyone was playing by the same rules and well aware of the season limit? Or should it be unfair for churning and streaming to be occurring in the playoffs with so much on the line? For example, should there be a max of 2 acquisitions a week or something? Unfortunately, ESPN has no such setting, so I would have to manually monitor and enforce it.
I'm assuming it's no-bid free agent acquisitions. IF you had a salary cap, you could assign a salary to the free agent depending on when he was picked up - making it more expensive as the season progresses. You also could make the team dropping a player retain some % of the salary until he gets picked up by another team. This may be too much record keeping for a league, but I thought I would throw it out there.
"Baizboll bin bery, bery good to me!" ~ Chico Escuela
Ours is 35 in the non-keeper and 50 in the keeper league with an 8-man minor league system.
If you have 60 add/drops, it still allows people to pick up a 2-start pitcher every single week and still have 35 moves for the year. That qualifies as churning to me.
Curtis, Thanks for the reply. Does the 50 acquisitions in the keeper league include the minor leagues (I'm assuming yes)? How large is your major league roster? Have you had issues in the past with managers complaining about the limit being too low?
50 includes minor leaguer transactions. It's an 8-man minor league system. The minor leaguers roll over each year as long as they still have rookie eligibility. The previous season's draft class is picked up each year in a supplemental draft, and then people make moves as needed beyond that.
No one has complained about it being too low. But no one in my league would churn because they realize it's a cheap ploy that reduces the value of "knowledge" and puts more weight on "I spend a lot of time at the computer and just pick up any pitcher who happens to be starting tomorrow", which makes leagues less fun
I dunno... I guess I picked 60 because the limit was 50 last year and I struggled a little to stay under it (just barely did) but I don't feel like I ever churned or anything. There were a few weeks where I strategically used one of my acquisitions on a spot start in an effort to win the week, but it wasn't a weekly occurrence.
More importantly, what do you do for the playoffs? If a team has only used 40 of its 50 acquisitions going into the championship week, can they use all 10 stream their way to a championship?
Trojan Pony wrote:I dunno... I guess I picked 60 because the limit was 50 last year and I struggled a little to stay under it (just barely did) but I don't feel like I ever churned or anything. There were a few weeks where I strategically used one of my acquisitions on a spot start in an effort to win the week, but it wasn't a weekly occurrence.
More importantly, what do you do for the playoffs? If a team has only used 40 of its 50 acquisitions going into the championship week, can they use all 10 stream their way to a championship?
If there is any kind of a bench, 40 should do. 50 is OK, but that comes out to almost 2 per week.
The answer to question #2 is yes -- if you have moves left, you can use them in the playoffs. I have heard of leagues that freeze rosters for the playoffs, though.
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by Trojan Pony » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:38 am 
