Looking for Award Category Suggestions...

[Gaze]

In previous years, we've given about $25 to the winner of each of the 5 categories in our 5x5 Roto league. But this past year, a few owners got upset by the way guys who were all but out of the running for 1st-3rd Place went out and sniped a few dollars from the category winnings.

What I'm looking for is a handful of ideas for some fair, balanced, and difficult to manipulate award categories so we can toss around a few extra dollars to the winners.

The two ideas I've come up with so far are:
Mid Season Leader (league leader at the All Star Break) - $25
Draft Winner (compile stats at the end of the year based just on the players that were drafted) - $25

Any other thoughts?

[Matthias]

Well, the reverse of the Draft Winner is Most Improved which would be who moved up the most points, overall, from the All Star Break to the end of the season.

You could also set penalty floors, so if someone finished more than X Stolen Bases or Home Runs behind the guy who is next to last in that category they have to pay in $25. I'd set X to be pretty high but low enough that someone who gives up in a category gets hit with it. It would reduce the incentive to just give up and try to win 1 category exclusively.

[Gaze]

I'd like to avoid any additional penalties, but Most Improved is a pretty good idea!

[Gaze]

Any more ideas? I could really use one more award!!!

[rails80]

How many do you need?

I like these:

1. All-Star Break Award (or Mid-Season award) - best team to date.
2. Most Improved Award - what team made the best moves, or had his team come back to help him move up. This could prevent teams from giving up all together on their team and make the league more fun/competitive for everyone.

[Kimbos Beard]

How many do you need?

I like these:

1. All-Star Break Award (or Mid-Season award) - best team to date.
2. Most Improved Award - what team made the best moves, or had his team come back to help him move up. This could prevent teams from giving up all together on their team and make the league more fun/competitive for everyone.

I like both of those.

The All-star break is a good award because I have ran a team from Opening day till the end of August in first place only to loose it all in September, so maybe I am bias.

The most-improved award is also a great idea but I think it may be harder to calculate. Maybe you can go by which team makes the bigges move in scoring from the All-Star Break until the end of the season.

These awards seem good but I can also see how managers in your league would get upset about teams in last place just streaming so that they can get some of the winnings.