Question with Keeper Cap

[MMBosstones86]

Alright guys, I want to try and implement this for next year, but need to start this year.

Right now (12 team roto 5x5) and we keep 8, no restrictions.

I want to use the ESPN auction values from the year the player was drafted to determine their price, but don't know how much is enough for 8 keepers. Any of you who do this in your leagues have any advice?? Thanks in advance!

[Matthias]

I want to use the ESPN auction values from the year the player was drafted to determine their price, but don't know how much is enough for 8 keepers. Any of you who do this in your leagues have any advice?? Thanks in advance!

This is a bad idea. If someone has been keeping Howard for 3 years, his keeper price when he was drafted will be very different from his value. What you would have to do is figure out your keeper escalation (I use $3, $5, $10, $10, $10, $10...) and apply that for how many years they've been kept.

As far as a total keeper cap, I don't know why it would be necessary, but if you feel like you have to have one, then I don't know..... $150? I'm guessing your budget is $260, right?

[MMBosstones86]

well right now we are in the second year of a draft league. The problem is, one guy pretty much has the whole first round as his keepers.

As it is right now, he could just keep these guys forever, which i think is slightly unfair to the rest of us. I just want a way to spread out the talent amongst the rest of the 11 teams ya know?

[Matthias]

No, actually, I don't.

So he built well and now you're trying to cut him out by the knees? That sounds lame.

[brtnsbs]

There has to be some sort of escalation system for keepers. For most keeper draft leagues the best thing to do is give up one higher draft pick than he was acquired for, that increases every year.

For example...

Bobby Abreu is drafted in the 5th round in 2009.
To keep Abreu in 2010 the team would forfeit its 2010 4th round pick.
To keep Abreu in 2011 the team would forfeit its 2011 3rd round pick.
Etc, Etc.

If a player is a 1st round pick (say Hanley Ramirez), he can only be kept for 1 year and then automatically enters the draft and can not be kept. If a player is drafted in round 5 and is kept until he requires a round 1 forfeit than the player can not be kept the following year (say a Lincecum being drafted in round 7 but being kept for 7 years until reaching round 1.

If a team has two players that both require the forfeit of a pick in the same round, only one player can be kept or a pick in that round must be traded for.

It is also a good idea to escalate the process. Say a 10th-15th round pick has their round required to forfeit increase by 4, 6-9 rounds increase by 3, etc etc.

[Trojan Pony]

No, actually, I don't.

So he built well and now you're trying to cut him out by the knees? That sounds lame.

Agreed. It's your fault for setting up a league with rules that allowed a team to do that. You kinda have to live with it now.

I would suggest doing what I do in my 12-team league. Make players taken in the first 4 rounds ineligible to be kept. This leaves most of the elite talent in the draft and prevents the kind of situation that you've run into from happening. However, you should let current keepers stay on their teams under the current keeper rules as a sort of grandfather clause. It's no fair for those players to suddenly not be keeper-eligible when they were all along. Going this route would probably make that guy dominate even more in the short-run, but will be better for the league in the long-run.