Is Spot-Starting Multiple Pitchers Unethical?

[AKhomebrewer]

If you're within the league rules, you can do whatever it takes to improve your standing.

That said, I'm with Madison, Mobius, et al ... After a couple owners did this in our first season, we adjusted the categories to install some risk (walks allowed, hits allowed, etc.)

Hey, I'm willing to grab a favorable starter for a struggling guy at the bottom of my rotation once in a while, but this puts a stop to the mass-volume churning.

[Nails]

i hate it, dont do it, usually it blows up in the owner's face that spots anyways

If it usually blow up in the owners face, why do you hate it.

I always hear people complain about spot-starting, but they usually follow it up with, "it normally blows up in the owner's face"

If I feel I need to do it, and the rules allow it, I do it.

[great gretzky]

i guess it is like winning on junk balls, not calling glass or anything else -- it is ugly. and it really doesn't demonstrate anything other than you can pick up and add. I think ip limit is good.

[thetongueofire]

its not "illegal" and how moral it is depends on your own standards but id personally rather not play in a league whose setup allows for it.

anyways, spot starting works a lot better in the beginning of the season when people are still trying to figure out the sleepers and theres a few good guys out in the FA pool, but as the league trade deadline comes closer people have picked up all the better players and youre likely to find less valuable players amongst the FA's.

[LCBOY]

It takes away the point of the game. H2H is supposed to be team A vs. Team B. Not Team A vs. Team B plus the free agent pool.

Innings caps, ratios instead of countables, more negative catagories for pitchers, etc., all help to eliminate the "loophole" in the system that some owners attempt to exploit.

Madison and I agree again! In our H2H, the first year we had unlimited picks/drops and it got ridiculous. One guy had almost 300 pick/drops! The next year we instituted a 40 pick/drop limit and it was much better. Since people wanted to hold on to their picks/drops for the postseason this was little action during the season...

[mikemcj55]

don't hate the player, hate the game. Its not wrong if there's no innings cap. Create the league more carefully next time

[MadMobius]

Not that I condone this behaviour (even though I did it last year), but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

Last year this became a problem so what I did was, I looked up all of the best (or favorable) matchups and just pre-empted the churners. I would grab one guy, drop him and add the next guy, drop him and add the next (obviously this only works with a decent sized waiver period (at least 2 day)). Anyway, you see the effect, how many good FA pitchers are there, doesn't take much to block the marginally good ones...

They claimed adding and dropping pitchers wasn't expressly forbidden so I countered by essentially "blocking" the better FA pitchers by having the waiver request extend over their real life starts...

Like I said, that was pretty underhanded but I think it got my point across.... we instituted an add/drop limit with $$ per tranny after so many. The rule was put in place because people were mad that I blocked players, they didn't mention the adding and dropping... Oh well, point served...

[LBJackal]

I did the same thing as you, Mobius; add all the players 2 days before their starts so they were on waivers when the churner went to add them for a single day. It's within the rules since I was trying to worsen his team, in effect making my team higher in the standings. People might not like it but it's within the rules, just like churning was. Everybody got really pissed though, and both me and the churner stopped the nonsense. I'm not in that league anymore though..... it was more trouble than it was worth.

[cannonarm21]

It takes away the point of the game. H2H is supposed to be team A vs. Team B. Not Team A vs. Team B plus the free agent pool.

Perfectly said, but as everyone else said, if it's in the rules go ahead. I'm sure other teams do it.

[john gardner]

i hate it, dont do it, usually it blows up in the owner's face that spots anyways

If it usually blow up in the owners face, why do you hate it.

I always hear people complain about spot-starting, but they usually follow it up with, "it normally blows up in the owner's face"

If I feel I need to do it, and the rules allow it, I do it.

Nails "hit the nail on the head" I hope my opponents do something that blows up in their face.

Understand the rules and play by them and do all you can to win!!