I'm in a free keeper league, where we base the next year's draft on the previous year's regular season standings, worst to first. The thing I hate about this type of draft is it can reward deadbeats. Has anyone done something where they change the draft order to reward the teams in the middle of the standings? E.g.,
I can see where that might have its problems as well (big incentive to tank a few weeks to drop from 6th to 7th possibly), but just trying to come up with something different. Thoughts/experiences?
We do almost exactly what you suggested in my league. Some differences:
1. The Top 5 teams (instead of Top 6) automatically get the 8th-12th picks in reverse order
2. Instead of being slotted into the 1st through 7th spots, the Bottom 7 teams go into a lottery for the right to get the 1-7 picks. The team that finished in 6th place gets 7 "ping pong balls", the team that finished in 7th place gets 6 "ping pong balls" etc. with the last place team getting 1 "ping pong ball".
However, our league is not a free league and the Top 5 get paid out, so there's little incentive anyways for a team to tank to finish in 6th place because they'd take themselves out of the money. The lottery is just added insurance, since there's no guarantee tanking will get you anything.
If you are in a straight keeper league (no draft pick penalties), I'd argue that you should let the draft order follow the standings all the way, with the 1st place team getting the first pick and the last place team getting the 12th pick. You have to figure the best teams traded good keepers to the poor teams in that previous year anyhow, so the poor teams should have already loaded up on keepers and have an advantage the next season. Plus if its a straight keeper league, then the best players are already out of the draft pool and the picking 1st or 12th is not a huge difference - this depends on how many keepers you use.
"The government cannot give to anyone anything that it does not first take from someone else"
Straight keeper league, each team is allowed to keep between 4 and 7 players, and each keeper can be kept up to 3 seasons. I like the weighted lottery idea for the bottom teams. But, it is true that most of the good players are already keepers.
I used to run a keeper league with 12 teams where the draft order would be as follows:
Picks one through five decided by lottery between the teams that ended 8 through 12. Picks 6 through 10 decided by lottery between the teams that ended 3 through 7 11 team that came in second 12 team that came in first
The league lasted 6 years but unfortunately didn't make it through my third international move in 2 years.
He once hit a ball between my legs so hard that my center-fielder caught it on the fly backing up against the wall.
If Satch (Paige) and I were pitching on the same team, we would clinch the pennant by July fourth and go fishing until World Series time.
Our method for establishing the order each year is unusual. Use some random way to assign each owner a picking order. First pick gets to decide what position he wants in Round One. Second pick does the same, etc. We then use a snake draft order. I always try to get in the middle. I feel that it gives me a better chance of getting a good team. It makes for some strategy.
Here's what we do in my 12-team league and it works really well...
Instead of setting a draft order, we set an order for Draft Position Selection Priority. Basically, all this means is that whoever has "first pick" actually has first pick of their draft position. For example, if the guy with #1 DPSP would prefer to draft from the 6 hole, he claims that draft spot. The order of priority is determined as follows:
1. Consolation bracket in order of finish. 2. Championship bracket in reverse order of finish.
Doing it this way makes the consolation bracket actually count for something and doesn't reward bum managers as they are likely to do poorly.
bigmck wrote:Our method for establishing the order each year is unusual. Use some random way to assign each owner a picking order. First pick gets to decide what position he wants in Round One. Second pick does the same, etc. We then use a snake draft order. I always try to get in the middle. I feel that it gives me a better chance of getting a good team. It makes for some strategy.
This actually isn't that unusual... we used to do that exact thing. I agree it adds a bit of strategy, but in my league it was going straight down the line almost every year so I didn't bother after a couple of years.
"The government cannot give to anyone anything that it does not first take from someone else"
Bwanna wrote:I'm in a free keeper league, where we base the next year's draft on the previous year's regular season standings, worst to first. The thing I hate about this type of draft is it can reward deadbeats. Has anyone done something where they change the draft order to reward the teams in the middle of the standings? E.g.,
I can see where that might have its problems as well (big incentive to tank a few weeks to drop from 6th to 7th possibly), but just trying to come up with something different. Thoughts/experiences?
That is our exact draft order. Though instead of just getting the draft order given to them - the 7th place team gets their preference of draft spot. So if you finish 7th and want to pick 3rd, that's your spot. The winning team from the previous year normally picks in the 8-11 range (12 team league)
In one of my leagues, the fifth place finisher picks first, then the sixth place finisher, etc. When we get to the last team, the fourth place team chooses and we work our way up. The bottom line, though, is that if you have owners you know and trust, all of these anti-tanking ideas are unnecessary
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by Bwanna » Tue Jan 27, 2009 1:49 pm 
