Changing Rules Mid-Draft?

[FantasySportsMaven]

I am in a new Dynasty Cafe League with both a Major and Minor League Roster.

We finished our Major League Draft and were several rounds into our Minor League Draft when the Commish and a few owners decided we should move from a 24 hour time limit on picks to a 6 hour time limit... without any clock stoppage for sleep hours.

We never had a vote on it, and although I objected to it and still am objecting to it, overnight it was enforced on another owner and two owners have now picked instead of him. He is still within the original 24 hour limit, but he DOES know about the new 6 hour limit.

I am a purist and absolutely disagree with changing ANY rules after a draft/season has begun, especially without holding a formal league vote to do so.

What do you folks think?

[RDD15]

I agree completely. You can't change rules mid-stream.

In a slow draft, there is no way (NONE) that you can slow draft with a 6 hour timer. Anything less than 12 is too little for a slow draft.

[FantasySportsMaven]

To make matters worse, we are not even using a draft room for this draft but doing it via email.

That means that there is no public "players taken" thread which is updated by the Commish, and before you make your pick you need to shuffle through all the emails which have occurred since your last pick , one by one, and eliminate those taken players from your cheat sheet. Of course, there are emails with league chatter too, so sometimes I need to weed through dozens of emails to eliminate players before i can pick.

At the same time, they don't want to go to the Cafe Chatroom and finish the draft LIVE in an hour or so either. It looks like some of the owners have email on their phones and can access it 24 hours day without a PC so I'd guess the 6 hour limit gives them an advantage?

[Kimbos Beard]

This sounds like a deal breaker to me. I wouldn't be interested in playing in any league where the commish and managers pull the type of shenninegans that you are describing.

I would look for another league.

[FantasySportsMaven]

And so are you suggesting that I should do what... just stop adjusting my lineup and trying to win on Yahoo? Announce that I am dropping out of the league now, or at the end of this matchup week? Drop all my players and let the remaining owners scramble to figure it all out and add the players back on Yahoo?

If the season hadn't already started and especially if I hadn't already drafted my major league roster, I could see dropping out. But, I can't do it and wouldn't do it to any league no matter how unfair.

[joejlitz]

And so are you suggesting that I should do what... just stop adjusting my lineup and trying to win on Yahoo? Announce that I am dropping out of the league now, or at the end of this matchup week? Drop all my players and let the remaining owners scramble to figure it all out and add the players back on Yahoo?

If the season hadn't already started and especially if I hadn't already drafted my major league roster, I could see dropping out. But, I can't do it and wouldn't do it to any league no matter how unfair.

It's something to consider. You joined under a pretense that has since changed. Moreover, you have a renegade commish who changed this rule without consulting the other owners. How long before he does it again. I threaten to quit. See what he says. Maybe he will come around. If he doesn't, than you should probably consider actually quitting. Playing in a league with a tyrant for a commish isn't fun.

[FantasySportsMaven]

So far, instead of quitting, I have been trying to educate the Commish and a few of his buddy owners on why changing rules midstream is wrong and bad for the league.
For example,
- During our Major League Draft, you could pick a minor leaguer but you then had to keep him on your Major League Roster(taking up a roster spot) or you could demote him to your Minor League roster but then you lose your first round pick in the Minor League Draft. So, within the rules(there WERE none regarding this), when I went OTC for my 5th round pick in the Minor League Draft, I logged onto our Yahoo League site, dropped the rookie on my Major League Roster, filled the spot with a MLB SP who was starting the following day, and then returned to the Minor league Draft where I then re-drafted the player I just dropped onto my minor league roster.
Of course, some other owners wanted to do the same thing, but other owners (including the Commish) who had previously given up their 1st round Minor league pick to demote their rookie were incensed. They had no choice to allow my pick but then added a rule which disallowed it for all others.
- Last night, I was at my son's track meet and almost missed my pick... but got it in with 20 minutes to go in my 6 hour pick limit. Then, when the next guy made his pick at 11pm, I knew that might cause the following ownr to miss his pick limit... so, when I got up as I always do at 5am to get the kids up and ready for school, I checed the email thread to see if the next guy missed his pick... which he did. So I emailed the next guy up and he and then one more owner quickly picked before the sleeping owner woke up andeven saw he was OTC and missed his pick

Sometimes, making others pay for their cheating is better than just packing up and quitting.

[FantasySportsMaven]

The latest is that the owner who slept througn his pick is really peeved and now they are considering changing the rules again by moving to a more logical 12 hour window.

[Fantasy Sports Genie]

Easy answer: changing rules mid-stream is a big no-no. They shouldn't have done it, but that is apparently water under the bridge.

The one thing I can add is that if it stays this way, and you are displeased enough that you don't want to play under these conditions, a middle ground to abandoning the team is to find a replacement for yourself (possibly with the help of the commish). If you do so, while you can't do it yourself, Yahoo! customer care can hand your team over.

[Kimbos Beard]

Wow...to me it sounds like this league is a disaster.

I would have no problems quitting this league and just leave them high and dry. (although it seems that you have been using the rules now in an effort to take advantage of the ridiculousness).

Either way, the minute the Commish and some other managers decided on their own that they were going to change the rules so that other managers would essentially get screwed out of picks, I would see no reason to play in the league anymore.