How To Stop Teams From Tanking

[BDevil]

Someone already mentioned this but looks like it got ignored. This is very easy. Only players who were drafted are eligible to be kept. People can not simply wait until the second half and scoop up prospects with this setup. I have run an auction dynasty league for many years and this does 2 things. 1 it solves the problem you have 2 it encourages drafting/stashing away prospects early in the year which adds an added element.

[RotoValue]

Only players who were drafted are eligible to be kept. People can not simply wait until the second half and scoop up prospects with this setup.

I like that!

But I wonder if "tanking" also means doing stars-for-prospects trades. If I'm in a keeper league and not in contention, then sure I'd consider trading stars for low-prices young players whom I can control for a while.

Of course that's arguably much of the point of the keeper format in the first place - playing the game and balancing win this year versus build for the future, as real MLB teams do.

[DanTacular]

I am in two leagues, one draft and one auction, both keepers, and am commissioner of the draft league. Although you said you are going to auction, I have found that preventing trades for picks until mid-June prevents some players from tanking or at least keeping decent players for a bit. Also, you can create a "Can't Cut List" to prevent it, especially if you are commissioner. Another way is to establish a date in mid-August that players must be on a roster by in order to be kept--perhaps the keeper date is a week after the trade deadline?
All in all, while you want teams to be competitive, you have to understand that if you are losing and intend on being competitive next year, you should do all you can to make sure you have as good a chance as any to get high draft picks and good prospects. You can also limit yearly acquisitions with penalties against the cap if they go over on the year. You can add caveats such as injured players and related movement not counting toward the cap, but if it is an obvious salary dump you can penalize them a buck a move, perhaps.

[converge241]

League I run I have a deincentive, bottom 3 teams in standings have to kick in extra for next years entry fees.

That deincentive pool goes to a random lottery winner of the teams above the bottom 3 but outside of the guaranteed money spots. The higher you finished the more ping pong balls you get in this drawing for the extra kick in money

It has worked well, as either
a) Teams motivate themselves to do better
b) They stay bad but are paying more for it
c) They leave to avoid paying it

Either way you accomplish the goal of avoiding tanking or continuous bad performance

[oleredb]

I like having "smart" managers in my leagues. I encourage managers to think ahead and I like to see managers move up and down the rankings from season to season. I also believe in setting limits to help maintain competitive balance.

One tool I prefer to use is an "undroppable player list". This keeps teams from dumping their best players.

Since you are using FAAB the problem of mid-level talent in the FA pool is self correcting, provided that a sufficient amount of time is given for all managers to bid on the dropped player (I like a minimum of 48 hours after the drop).

I would also encourage you to set a weekly transaction limit even though you are using FAAB. If you limit acquisitions to 5 or 6 per match it will take a team several weeks to turn over a roster near the end of a season.

Another option I am trying in one league is to not allow any acquisitions after the end of our league's regular season. We have deep enough benches for playoff teams to add depth before the end of the season to cover for injuries during the playoffs. That also provides non playoff teams the opportunity to add prospects without dumping talent since we have more bench spots than our minimum number of keepers (each team must keep 9, but may keep as many as their budget allows after salary increases).