League keeper problem (or is it?)

[Mordraken]

I'm looking for some help in developing rules for a keeper league I run. We've been fiddling with the rules each year, and I thought I had it all solved last year, but that turned into our worst year yet.

The general idea is this: 20 man rosters, at the end of each year you can keep 5 players at the previous year's price plus $5. Players added off the waiver wire are considered $1, so can be kept for $6.

Now here are the problems (and solutions I have come up with):

1) One team had 3 injured players and only 1 DL slot. He ended up droping Richi Sexon so he could field a competitve team. Sexon was picked up off the waiver wire by a healthy team so they could have him for $6 next year. My solution to this was that players out for the year could not be kept if picked up off the waiver wire. Someone else suggests that they should be able to be kept but at half their aucion value. Any suggestions?

2) Some big name players just suck. Take Jason Giambi for example. He was dropped towards the end of the season, and quickly snatched up as a $6 keeper... should this be allowed?

3) Teams without many keeper prospects started making wildly lopsided trades at the end of the season when they were "out of the running". We have our trade deadline set 2 months before the end of the season (i.e. beginning of August), so that is still very early. We had trades of people like Javier Vazquez for Zach Grinke. Only problem was that there were about a dozen players moved - TO 2 teams and FROM 3 teams. The result is that there were 2 teams of all-superstars and 3 teams of all prospects. For the rest of the season, the top 2 teams went on to have the best records while the last 3 teams were pretty much 2-8 every week. This affected the playoff run of many teams who had to face a greater proportion of "haves" vs. "have nots".

My solution there was to limit only 2 of the 5 keepers could be waiver-wire pickups, decreasing the incentive of teams to trade too many real stars for prospects (like for example Jeff Kent for Khalid Green).

What do you think? Will these solutions work to fix the problems? Or am I over-reacting to perceived problems?

[Amazinz]

1. I would only allowed true free agents to be had for $6. If Sexson was on a roster to begin the season he should be counted at his original bid amount.

2. See #1. Although in Giambi's case I am not sure $6 is a bargain.

3. I'm not sure if this is a problem. It's part of the allure of keeper leagues. Even if you're out heading into the playoffs/home strech you can still try to build your team for next year. If the league is together long enough it will work itself out I think so that the last minute trading isn't so severe.

The WW limit of 2 of 5 keepers seems OK to me but I don't understand how that would effect the trades (like Kent for Greene) because they aren't waiver wire acquisitions.

[crapshooter]

why not use the official Roterisse rulebook to develop keeper rules.
Have to keep 7 first year in effect...after that don't have to keep any but can keep up to 15. Only players who's salaries increase are the ones you want to extend after their second year. If you don't extend at that point you lose them after the third season.