Need Help with Streaming Pitching

[Gaze]

Bear with me, but I'd like to give you plenty of back story here...

Streaming as you guys call it, or "Pimping" as my league has always called it is a major topic of discussion right now in my league.

We've been around since the early 90s (yes, for many many years we were doing things by hand and mailing out weekly stats!). Our group is a 50/50 mix of Old Timers and Younger guys. 12 teams, and for the last few years run through Yahoo's free scoring system. The internet and the instant availability of information is still a new concept to a handful of our guys and they're beginning to get restless when they see pitchers being picked up on a daily basis by whichever guy gets to work the earliest and checks the waiver wire.

We use The Sporting News as our pricing sheet, and utilize a straight 13 player team: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP. No bench, 5 DL spots. It's a standard 5x5 Roto style scoring system. Our salary cap is done manually but works out to be pretty tight so teams always must have a few "unheard-ofs" to get under our dollar value.

In an effort to get payouts to a wider variety of teams last year, we implemented a system of "Category Payouts" where you would pocket $25 for each category your team won. Naturally this got the wheels spinning for some guys and one team had nearly 200 moves (more than 100 more than the next most team) and ran away with Wins and Strikeouts. We've since eliminated "Category Payouts," but I've already gotten word from a few managers that are upset over the unlimited streaming/pimping that occurred last year that basically handed 3rd place overall to a team that had no offense and all pitching.

We go with a $100 entry and $1 fee for each move so technically the money pot grows with each move, but I'd still like to put a cap system on moves this year. Personally, I think 75 moves should be enough considering the small size of our rosters. We've always taken the policy that DL moves and demotions to the minors count do not count against the cap. That would put as much as $2100 in our end of the season pot. The first couple hundred of which goes to our hall rental, trophies, and beer/food, but would still lead to some pretty substantial payouts. Plus I've promised some creativity with payouts this year including $25 to the leader at the all star break and $25 to the "Draft Winner"

In a 13 roster spot 5x5 roto league, 75 transactions should be plenty, right?

[SumG]

I'd be hesitant about transaction limits, but I know most roto leagues have innings pitched caps for SPs and RPs and AB caps for position players. If you look at a standard Yahoo league, you should get some ideas.

[Spimothy Leary]

personally, if you have a fool with 200 transactions, at a whopper junior apiece, let him.. !!!! He's building the pot. If you have old timers that are tired of that, then perhaps consider this.
Increase the fees to $1.50 from 76-150
$2 from 151 and up...
or....
consider a weekly limit....

you and I know that the old timers have to get 'with the program" but I understand the drill.

I know of a league that i used to play in with no waiver's at all so literally if a guy got hurt at 3pm on a Wed, his replacement was picked up at 3:15 and then the old timers really beeched up a storm ! Commish had to remove that option since not "everybody" had internet access at work. (and i agreed)

[Gaze]

Upping the cost as the moves go up is actually a pretty solid idea. Thanks!

[FantasySportsMaven]

I too like the idea of having an incremental cost per move. Then again, in one Roto league where most owners were limited as to how often and when they could access the internet to stream pitchers, we moved to a weekly format where all owners could still stream pitchers but they had to do it for the following week by midight on Sunday.

[Kimbos Beard]

In a 13 roster spot 5x5 roto league, 75 transactions should be plenty, right?

To answer your question 2 years ago my 10 team league implemented a 75 transaction limit and it turned out to be plenty. Noone complained.

Although the idea about incrementally raising the cost of a move seems like it would work as well.

[Gaze]

The incremental transaction cost has turned out to be a hit with my league... This might be the first rule in our 10+ year history that everyone has agreed on!