End of Year / Playoffs Ethics Question

[FantasyAddict123]

Hi All,

First post here, sorry for the length. Been reading the forums for a while, but finally had something worth asking/posting about.

So here's the deal. I am in a 12 person, 5 x5, daily update, head to head fantasy baseball league with some friends and work colleagues. It's a fairly significant money league. We have a 50 transaction max, 6 people make the playoffs. People get paid for 1st to 3rd in the regular season and 1st to 3rd in the playoffs. First and second place teams in the regular season get first round playoff byes, so significant interest in getting to second as you get more money and a bye week which makes it easier to get paid in the playoffs.

Going into the last week of the season, I was in second place with a .5 game lead over the guy in third (call him Team A). Team A was matched up in the final week against another team that has been out of it for a while but only until last week was mathematically out of it (Team B). Team B has been managing his team fully the last few weeks, utilizing the waiver wire and making sure to sub in players on off days, etc. He made a few moves on Monday through Wednesday of the final week as well. Point is, Team B has been competing and actually doing well of late, although still out of it. Note that I have a significant interest in Team B beating Team A so that I can maintain my .5 game lead.

As of Wednesday, Team A was beating up on Team B pretty bad (8-1) but most of the pitching stats were very very close. I decided to take a look at the roster moves to see what my chances were of Team B coming back and noticed that Team B had not started Roy Halladay (his best pitcher) and had moved Derek Holland out of his lineup. Both ended up pitching great games. Also, he moved Encarnacion off his lineup in favor of both Hosmer and Michael Young at 1st/3rd. On Saturday, he sat Chris Capuano (another nice start) and continued to leave Encarnacion out of the lineup. He did nothing to insert any of his subs in to cover for players who ended up not playing. Additionally, he had Brandon McCarthy who basically got knocked out for the season. Despite earlier in the week dropping another DL'ed player and picking up JA Happ, he did nothing with McCarthy.

Needless to say, he lost 8-2 and I tied my week at 5-5, giving Team A second place. Had Team B managed his team appropriately, he would have also tied (I did the math) and I would have finished 2nd.

On Wednesday when I first saw what was happening, I immediately brought to Team B's attention and the commissioner's attention that he needed to field his team and play his pitchers at this was an important week. He had played hard all year and even the first two days of this week, and suddenly he was either disinterested or intentionally tanking. Nobody did anything.

What are your thoughts on having someone who participated the whole way but then decided to tank the last few days? I cannot accuse him of collusion with Team A, because I can't prove it, but it seems very odd that he would so suddenly quit managing his team. I thought it was pretty bush league and it cost me money and key playoff positioning. I have no problem with people who don't pay attention, as there is always one or two dead money teams in any league and we usually kick these teams out the following year. But to utilize the wire and then move your team around to make it worse? That seems like tanking to me.

The commissioner thinks he just decided to not pay attention, and that's part of daily aspects of the league. We have agreed to discuss possible ways to solve this problem next year.

[bigmck]

I got through the first two paragraphs and decided the post was too long to read. Try making your posts just a few lines.

[ayebatter]

He's out of the running , you tell him not to tank , he tanks . end of story/

[fast dogs]

he was there till the end, looks like he just ran out of gumption. teams losing interest late in season is common. pretty much you tell everyone to keep their teams playing until all the playoff teams have been decided; its up to them to do it.
maybe the 2nd week of the playoffs you draw a team having an off week

[Quackman]

Sucks but nothin you can do. Pretty standard even in expensive leagues.

[Pogotheostrich]

If he didn't touch his roster then I would figure he lost interest. That is unfortunate but it happens. No harm intended. Now if he was actively moving players to the bench I think that is a serious issue.

[Element]

Agreed. I'm in one league that is pretty active, but the 2nd place team hasn't made a roster move since week 2.They had a heck of a draft and for whatever reason decided to not follow through with the ownership of the roster. It's too bad. They could've easily won. Nothing you can do about it.

[WaCougMBS]

I got through the first two paragraphs and decided the post was too long to read. Try making your posts just a few lines.

Just don't bother posting when this is all you have to say? Maybe a less curt, more helpful PM to the OP instead?

If he didn't touch his roster then I would figure he lost interest. That is unfortunate but it happens. No harm intended. Now if he was actively moving players to the bench I think that is a serious issue.

As for the original question, I agree with the above completely.