League Settings... need YOUR help & advice!!!

[clubhouseotter20]

don't know exactly how you combat this, but it doesn't seem to take many years for the best managers in auction leagues to acquire the best players and the best prices. Guess its supposed to work like that to some extent. I'll never forget playing in an auction league when Vlad was starting out. He ended up keeping him 7-8 years and always at a huge discount. Longoria was another guy recently that gave owners a huge return often at a bargain price.You want to reward their foresight, but I always wondered if it was good for a league to have $25-30 players only costing $4-5. Good for the guys who got the Cargo's & Posey's on the cheap, those teams could contend for as long as the contracts allow. Anyway you can put provisions in to help the unlucky or less skilled teams rebuild seems like a good thing to keep in mind. Its more fun to think about the best teams assembling great teams and winning, but you as commish want to have a strong league from the bottom up. Auctions seem to have a way of seperating the have from the have-nots; great if you have a very evenly matched group of owners

The good thing is I've assembled a group of guys from around the country who know their stuff and who I've been playing against for almost a decade so competition should be high. Plus from what I've been told the less keepers the better (I think between 5-7 is a good number).

[bigmck]

If you have a good salary escation, it should take care of those players that were won in the first year for a dollar and turn out to be great players.

[clubhouseotter20]

I would just like some feedback on my league settings and rules. All members of the league have chimed in with suggestions and ideas and this is what we have come up with. They asked me to get feedback through this forum so that is what I'm doing (I would've done so anyway).

Our league is a 5x5 mixed auction roto keeper league. There are 14 teams in the league and each team has a 30-man roster. And, more importantly, it is our inaugural year.

Roster positions are as follows: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, MI, CI, OF, OF, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL

We allow a maximum of 40 free agent and waiver wire transactions for the entire season, but have no limit on the number of trades. Since we have a transactions cap, we don't have games or an innings limit. We're using Yahoo! so our FAAB will only apply to waived players (everyone's hoping Yahoo! will apply the FAAB to all players next year, including free agents).

Our FAAB budget is $100.

Since we have a large roster size (30 players), our auction budget will be $300. To prevent huge dump trades our in-season salary cap will be $320-$325 (still deciding).

We have decided to keep a minimum of 3 players and a maximum of 6. There are NO limits to the number of years a team may keep a player.

Our keeper escalators are as follows:

1st year: $3
2nd year: $5
3rd year: $7
Each additional year: $10

Keepers plucked from free agent pool have an initial keeper value of $5 plus the keeper increase, giving them a total keeper value of $8.

The keeper value of players claimed off waivers will either be their FAAB price, original auction price, or their keeper price if they were kept; whichever is higher.

If a released player clears waivers (i.e., is not claimed), then he becomes a free agent. If he is subsequently acquired, his original auction price or keeper price, whichever is higher, will determine his salary.

Auction/keeper values remain attached to players if they are traded or waived.

Trades involving auction money, salary cap money, FAAB money, real cash money, waiver claim positions, players to be named later, or "future considerations" are strictly prohibited. In short, the only trades permitted are players for players. No exceptions.

Our pay out is as follows ($700 total prize pot):

• First, $25 to the leader at the All-Star Break.
• Second, $25 to the most improved team, point-wise, from the All-Star Break to the end of the season.
• Third, $375 to the first place team in the final standings.
• Fourth, $150 to the second place team in the final standings.
• Fifth, $100 to the third place team in the final standings.
• Sixth, $25 to the winner of a lottery for teams finishing 4th-11th. The bottom three teams are not eligible for the lottery.


Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The reason for the lottery is to encourage all teams to stay active throughout the season. One question I have is how do I go about conducting the lottery? I'm not sure how lotteries go about determining how many "ping pong balls" each team gets so that's where I need help. Here's what I have drawn up thus far, and it's probably unfair, which is why I'm asking for your help:

4th place team: 80 ping pong balls (8 teams x 10)
5th place team: 63 ping pong balls (7 teams x 9)
6th place team: 48 ping pong balls (6 teams x 8)
7th place team: 35 ping pong balls (5 teams x 7)
8th place team: 24 ping pong balls (4 teams x 6)
9th place team: 15 ping pong balls (3 teams x 5)
10th place team: 8 ping pong balls (2 teams x 4)
11th place team: 3 ping pong balls (1 team x 3)

Again, I have no idea how to set up a lottery so any and all help will be appreciated.

Please give feedback on my league's rules and settings. Myself and my leaguemates would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

[NickyEyes113]

Does ESPN maintain an in season salary cap or is that something I would have to calculate and monitor throughout the entire season?