Keeper Rules: Round They were drafted in

[SLURob]

Hello, would really like your input on this topic:

We have a league that allows us to keep 3 players every year for no more than 3 years. This year we were thinking of adding one more keeper, and as a wrinkle, allow you to keep them in the round they were drafted in. What is the best way to go about this?
Say you drafted Quentin in the 10th, then you lose that pick the next year? Then, if you want to keep them again the following year, that pick graduates up by two rounds (lose 8th round pick).
Does anyone have any ideas that I could add in/ am missing?

Thank you in advance.

[Matthias]

I would do the following.

You draft a player in Round X.

The next year you have to give up your Round X + 2 pick in order to keep him.

The year after that you have to give up your round X + 2 + 4 pick in order to keep him.

The year after that you have to give up your round X + 2 + 4 + 6 pick in order to keep him.

So if you drafted Quentin in the 16th round in 2008, in 2009 you have to give up your 14th-round pick. In 2010, your 10th. And then in 2011, your 4th.

[Houser33]

I have a few questions about this formula.

Do trades affect anything? Do the years reset after a trade or not? What if the rounds are the same? i.e. You drafted Kinsler in the 12th round 2 years ago. You can keep him next year, but you forfeit your 1st round pick. You then make a trade to aquire someone who was also drafted in the 12th round, 2 years ago. What happens? Do you lose your 1st and 2nd round pick or does 1 player have to be put back into the free-agent pool? Is their a good work-around for this?

If there is someone out there who has a full-length rules system for this I'd really like to know.

[Matthias]

Do trades affect anything? Do the years reset after a trade or not?

No and no.

What if the rounds are the same? i.e. You drafted Kinsler in the 12th round 2 years ago. You can keep him next year, but you forfeit your 1st round pick. You then make a trade to aquire someone who was also drafted in the 12th round, 2 years ago. What happens? Do you lose your 1st and 2nd round pick or does 1 player have to be put back into the free-agent pool? Is their a good work-around for this?

The way most people do it is if you have two players who cost the same round draft pick to keep, say you have 2 players that you have to give up your 5th-round draft choice, you have to give up that draft pick and the pick in the round earlier, so in this case you'd give up your 5th-rounder and 4th-rounder. If you ever have to spend a 0th-round (or negative) draft pick to keep someone, you can't, because you don't have it to give up.

[Houser33]

Thanks Mat.

I have a few more questions if you dont mind.

What is a good number of keepers for a system like this? Is anything more than 5 too complicated?

Is the aforementioned formula (+2+4+6) a good one or would identical increments work better (i.e. +3+3+3)? Does it matter?

And finally, is there a proper way to implement this rule to an existing keeper league? We currently keep 5 players. Is it fair to say that next year, every team would only be able to keep 2 of their keepers from the previous year if the +3 increment was used (round 5+3 spots=round 2, round 4+3 spots=round 1, round 3+3 rounds=0) ? Or should I simply say that there is no penalty to any team who wanted to keep the exact same players they kept this year, aside from losing their 1st 5 round selections?