Commish advice requested

[theeohiostate]

Situation 1-

It's the 5th round of a keeper draft, in essense the 13th round. I get a pm from the owner that is picking, he states he would like Mike Bell but couldn't find him on the player list. I could not find him either and made the call that no player unlisted can be drafted. Now, his pick is made. I relay this information to the player picking behind him in small talk and he selects Mike Bell, as he found him in a player search function of CBS Sportsline, at this point i tell him Bell must be awarded the the other owner as he was requested first and i was unable to locate him for the owner. After an hour of argueing, i made the call to take Bell off the board all-together(put into Waivers) with the support of the initial owner who seeked him.

Did i make the right call? What would you have done?

 

 

Situation 2

I had informed the league that when all keepers were submitted a slow draft would start with an 8 hour timer. The draft was set to begin on the 10th. Keepers were submitted early and i sent out notice that the draft would begin early with no timer and thus began the draft.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

 

 

 

Situation 3

An owner had his auto pick function engaged, and when his turn came around, A.Brook and Bills D was selected. Once the Bills were selected, i felt this was in error to his intentions so i halted the draft as soon as i could, however several players were picked in the midst of this. I called the owner to let him know i thought there may be a mistake in his selections. He agreed that he did not want either. I made the call to allow him to pick from the availble players on the board at the time i suspended draft and he wasn't allowed to take anyone that had been drafted after his picks. He is very upset about this and threatens to leave.

Did i make the right call or should all picks have been reversed to allow him to draft.

 

 

I will be posting a link to your responses on my league site, so please be open and honest if you fell i have botched this rulings, as i know only Huddlers can be. Thanks TOS

Edited August 10, 2006 by theeohiostate

[Grits and Shins]

Situation 1.

Bell should be awarded to the owner that first requested him. Your ruling "no player unlisted can be drafted" doesn't apply as clearly Mike Bell was listed. The problem here is that the league was not really privy to your discussions with the first owner thus the resentment felt by the second owner. Taking Bell off the board altogether is not a bad solution given that the 1st owner agrees.

 

Situation 2

... why would it be a problem?

 

Situation 3

Not the league's fault that an owner had autopick on and had it set incorrectly. You didn't have to stop the draft and attempt to allow him to correct his error, but you did. No way the draft should be reversed to the point of his error. He should be grateful that he is being allowed a do over.

[Randall]

1-Tough one. Where was Bell if you coudn't find him originally?

 

I say you made the right choice since the first owner agreed. If he hadn't I would have given him to him as he wanted him first.

 

No probem with #2.

 

#3 - I wouldn't have stopped the draft. It was the owners fault that he didn't clear his picks. This happens pretty often and all you need to do is look at the drfat report to see it. It isn't your job to fix owner goof ups.

[Scourge]

You handled issues one and two fine.

 

Issue three on the other hand, you should not have handled at all.

 

It is not your job or responsibility as commish to determine another owner's 'intentions'. If he mucked up his autopicks, that was his problem. This should be a lesson not to do this in the future. And for him to complain about you giving him a second opportunity to make those picks at all is ludicrous. Tell him to suck it up and be a man, take responsibility for his actions, and stop crying like a little girl in church with a rash on her ass.

Edited August 10, 2006 by Scourge

[theeohiostate]

@Grits

 

CBS had Bell listed but not under the RB's rather the Flex players and he was #999, so unless you've got all day to find him.......i did a quick search and didn't see him, so i notified the owner he wasn't available, the owner that selected him, knew very well i had tried to locate Bell for the other owner, but didn't give me the information that he know Bell was listed. I felt that taking him off the board was the fairest thing. Thanks for the input so far fellas.

Edited August 10, 2006 by theeohiostate

[tbimm]

#1, I think taking Bell off the board is about all you can do as there is a disagreement over who gets him. Had the first owner not contacted you about his availability then he would be second owners property as he was able to find him. Since he did contact you and you deemed him undraftable it is your call on who gets him.

#2, This is fairly standard operating procedure and nobody should have a problem with this.

#3, Everyone knows there is a draft timer and all are responsible for thier own picks period. I dont think it was your responsibility to fix his screw up!

[theeohiostate]

Situation #3, like many of you i think most commishes would have said Tough Luck.

 

But this is a semi local league and we've always did live drafts , and many aren't familar with the auto pick feature as if your qued players are off the board CBS takes a player from their rankings, unlike how MFL does it whereas the que doesn't go through and the pick stays on you.

 

I feel i did the best i could to make EVERYONE comfortable with the situation and feel responsible i didn't make everyone aware of the auto pick feature, so i allowed him to pick.

 

In the end this isn't good enough for the owner and he's very pissed and posting inflamatory comments, imo.

[tbimm]

Situation #3, like many of you i think most commishes would have said Tough Luck.

 

But this is a semi local league and we've always did live drafts , and many aren't familar with the auto pick feature as if your qued players are off the board CBS takes a player from their rankings, unlike how MFL does it whereas the que doesn't go through and the pick stays on you.

 

I feel i did the best i could to make EVERYONE comfortable with the situation and feel responsible i didn't make everyone aware of the auto pick feature, so i allowed him to pick.

 

In the end this isn't good enough for the owner and he's very pissed and posting inflamatory comments, imo.

 

On the CBS site is there a section explaining the auto draft feature? If so then I still say it's his problem. If I am throwing money into a league and dont know the rules then i'm the fool. The bigger problem is that you have tried to help him out when you really shouldnt have and he is still btchin.

[Hardrocker]

Tough call here Ohio,

 

As commish you try to keep everything fair, but if you act without being required to act you risk second guessing by your fellow owners. That said,

 

 

1 I believe Mike Bell should be awarded to the first player who requested as he is clearly listed, which meets your league requirement. However, whose responsibility is it to find a player? The person drafting did not find him and though you looked, I do not think unless you previously stated that you would provide that service to the league, that it would be your responsibility. You should be able to clear this up for future drafts.

 

2 I really do not see a problem here, but you stated the draft would have a timer and then began it without one. As commish, if you are making a change, in the future you could give notice AND allow some time for feedback.

 

3 I do not know the situation for the owner who had incorrectly set the autopick. But regardless, it is never the league's responsibility to correct owner errors. Your decision to halt the draft and not reverse any picks other than the two auto picks is both generous and fair. And I would say that by fair I mean to the other owners who were smart enough to set their teams up correctly. It is a gift to the guy with autopick.

 

Good luck

 

Hardrocker

[theeohiostate]

Tough call here Ohio,

 

As commish you try to keep everything fair, but if you act without being required to act you risk second guessing by your fellow owners. That said,

1 I believe Mike Bell should be awarded to the first player who requested as he is clearly listed, which meets your league requirement. However, whose responsibility is it to find a player? The person drafting did not find him and though you looked, I do not think unless you previously stated that you would provide that service to the league, that it would be your responsibility. You should be able to clear this up for future drafts.

 

2 I really do not see a problem here, but you stated the draft would have a timer and then began it without one. As commish, if you are making a change, in the future you could give notice AND allow some time for feedback.

 

3 I do not know the situation for the owner who had incorrectly set the autopick. But regardless, it is never the league's responsibility to correct owner errors. Your decision to halt the draft and not reverse any picks other than the two auto picks is both generous and fair. And I would say that by fair I mean to the other owners who were smart enough to set their teams up correctly. It is a gift to the guy with autopick.

 

Good luck

 

Hardrocker

 

 

 

Good stuff, thanks.

[Popeye]

I was the 2nd owner that actually drafted Bell. I have no problem with Ohio taking him back. I just felt that it is everyone else responsibility to know how to draft. If I can find a player, anyone should be able to. ......For those of you who cannot find a player in the CBS draft room, at the top of the players list there is a search bar that you click and enter a players name. No matter if they are in the list or not there name will appear and it will give you the option to pick that player. ...............+1 for me...so I thought

[Big John]

1. He was in there, though not the easiest to find, so he should be awardes to the first player.

 

2. No problem starting early as long as the clock is not started until the official start time.

 

3. Autopicks can have unintended consequences, as this is a friendly league I would say fixing it was a correct call.

[Savage Beatings]

I was the 2nd owner that actually drafted Bell. I have no problem with Ohio taking him back. I just felt that it is everyone else responsibility to know how to draft. If I can find a player, anyone should be able to. ......For those of you who cannot find a player in the CBS draft room, at the top of the players list there is a search bar that you click and enter a players name. No matter if they are in the list or not there name will appear and it will give you the option to pick that player. ...............+1 for me...so I thought

 

 

 

I wish every owner in all of my leagues was as cool as you are being about this. You had an opportunity to be a real dick, but chose to be relaxed and fair instead. Seriously, good for you!

[T-Scorp]

#1 I would have given Bell to the first player who requested him. In "live draft" he would have said his name and gotten him. Just because he is not a shouldn't mean he doesn't get the player.

 

#2 No problems here.

 

#3 As a commish you always want to make the league fun and on a level playing field. Sounds like you were just helping an owner "not screw up". Instead of being upset he should thank you! Not sure why you couldn't stop the draft before other picks were made, but it seems like that was your intention. The problem with allowing him to draft from all players available at the time of his picks is he has now had a preview of what other owners were thinking. Not fair to them.

[T-Scorp]

I wish every owner in all of my leagues was as cool as you are being about this. You had an opportunity to be a real dick, but chose to be relaxed and fair instead. Seriously, good for you!

 

 

 

Just wait until UFFDA get up and running

[loaf]

#3 is obviously a lazy owner who didn't pre-rank his players. I say f'em.

[theeohiostate]

I wish every owner in all of my leagues was as cool as you are being about this. You had an opportunity to be a real dick, but chose to be relaxed and fair instead. Seriously, good for you!

 

 

 

He was a real dick at first, he's just calmed down now is all.

[Hat Trick]

Situation 1.

Bell should be awarded to the owner that first requested him. Your ruling "no player unlisted can be drafted" doesn't apply as clearly Mike Bell was listed. The problem here is that the league was not really privy to your discussions with the first owner thus the resentment felt by the second owner. Taking Bell off the board altogether is not a bad solution given that the 1st owner agrees.

 

Situation 2

... why would it be a problem?

 

Situation 3

Not the league's fault that an owner had autopick on and had it set incorrectly. You didn't have to stop the draft and attempt to allow him to correct his error, but you did. No way the draft should be reversed to the point of his error. He should be grateful that he is being allowed a do over.

 

 

This exactly what I was gonna type, so thanks for saving me the time Blitz.

[Popeye]

I wish every owner in all of my leagues was as cool as you are being about this. You had an opportunity to be a real dick, but chose to be relaxed and fair instead. Seriously, good for you!

 

 

If it wasn't my bro's league, it would have been a different situation. I am in other drafts right now that the same situation arose, and GUESS WHAT? The owner that found Bell got to keep him. No big deal...I have won the Championship twice in this league and plan on bringing the trophy home this year as well.

[Savage Beatings]

Just wait until UFFDA get up and running

 

 

 

Don't MAKE me pull this draft over and suspend your picks Mister!

[Popeye]

He was a real dick at first, he's just calmed down now is all.

 

 

I was only a dick to you on the phone. No other owner knew about it. And honestly......I could give 2 sh*ts about Bell. He is in a 3 headed monster situation.

[Bronco Billy]

Holy crap, would I hate to play in your league. I've got to be brutally honest - you act unilaterally way too often, but then you compound that grievance by waffling on your unilateral decisions and create significant additional turmoil in the league. This is serious advice & not meant to be demeaning - you need to find another commish for the league. Not everyone is cut out for the job, and a lousy commish is one of the quickest tickets to the death of a league.

 

Situation 1-

It's the 5th round of a keeper draft, in essense the 13th round. I get a pm from the owner that is picking, he states he would like Mike Bell but couldn't find him on the player list. I could not find him either and made the call that no player unlisted can be drafted. Now, his pick is made. I relay this information to the player picking behind him in small talk and he selects Mike Bell, as he found him in a player search function of CBS Sportsline, at this point i tell him Bell must be awarded the the other owner as he was requested first and i was unable to locate him for the owner. After an hour of argueing, i made the call to take Bell off the board all-together(put into Waivers) with the support of the initial owner who seeked him.

Did i make the right call? What would you have done?

 

 

Issue 1 - why did you make the call that M Bell was ineligible? He's on a roster right now. Is there a rule in your league that addresses this specifically? It sounds like you made up the rule on your own, flying by the seat of your pants.

 

If there is a rule that specifically states that UDFAs or players not on the master player database can't be drafted, then you stick by the rule & there can not be an issue with the league. If there is such a rule, the first thing you should have done was check the master player database and see if M Bell was on it. That you don't know how to access it is your fault & no one else's. If there is no rule, you had no authority to disallow the 1st owner to draft M Bell. Then you compunded the error by putting M Bell back as a FA after the 2nd guy selected him - which is going to cause a huge problem in FA when either the 1st owner or the 2nd owner is going to be pissed that the other guy gets him - or even worse they'll both be pissed off when a 3rd party gets M Bell. Take a hint - whatever you do, make sure You're not the owner getting M Bell later.

 

This whole problem is your doing, and it started with a unilateral decision by you and was componded by you undoing your erroneous decision in the first place. The 1st owner got royally screwed by both decisions.

 

 

 

Situation 2

I had informed the league that when all keepers were submitted a slow draft would start with an 8 hour timer. The draft was set to begin on the 10th. Keepers were submitted early and i sent out notice that the draft would begin early with no timer and thus began the draft.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

 

 

 

Another unilateral decision. Did you get a response from everyone in the league about starting the draft early? If even one person objected, then you can't start the draft early. If no one objects or you wait at least 24 hours until everyone has a chance to respond, you screwed up again.

 

I'm notorious with this one - I love starting drafts early if everyone is ready & I'll push for this every year. But I would never think of doing so without approval from the league. Then again, I don'tr believe in using timers on picks either. People have other things going on in their lives besides FF, and someone getting skipped once or twice because they had an emergency come up in their lives screws them over, and resetting the draft to accomodate from the point of emergency screws everyone else in the league, since they've shown at least part of their hands.

 

This shouldn't be a big problem if everyone had submitted keepers and they were ready, but again, it wasn't your place to make the decision without owners having a chance for input.

 

 

 

 

Situation 3

An owner had his auto pick function engaged, and when his turn came around, A.Brook and Bills D was selected. Once the Bills were selected, i felt this was in error to his intentions so i halted the draft as soon as i could, however several players were picked in the midst of this. I called the owner to let him know i thought there may be a mistake in his selections. He agreed that he did not want either. I made the call to allow him to pick from the availble players on the board at the time i suspended draft and he wasn't allowed to take anyone that had been drafted after his picks. He is very upset about this and threatens to leave.

Did i make the right call or should all picks have been reversed to allow him to draft.

I will be posting a link to your responses on my league site, so please be open and honest if you fell i have botched this rulings, as i know only Huddlers can be. Thanks TOS

 

 

This one really pisses me off. You're the classic mico-manager of everyone else's team. YOU made the decision of the other owner's intent. You have absolutely no authority to do so, and you stepped way over the line by making this decision. Let me ask you this - what happens now if Aaron Brooks somehow puts up top 5 QB numbers, and the Bills are a top 2/3 D? Now you've probably just screwed that owner over completely, and he has a legit beef against you that you meddled when you had no business doing so. The you call the other owner, which is fine and which I would have done, but you allow him to undo his action that he admitted was his own stupidity. Then you reset the draft, which again exposes other owners' strategies.

 

You should have called him & questioned if thaat's what he wanted to do, but ultimately he's responsible for running his own team - for better or worse. He should have been stuck with Brooks & the Bills, but at least the call would have allowed him to alter his draft beyond that point. So you helped him out greatly when he made an error, and you screwed over the rest of the league by doing so.

 

You take way too much authority upon yourself, you don't check rules and/or resources that would eliminate problems, and you determine what's best for other owners' teams. That's some really poor commish work, my friend. Please, for your sake & for the league, either get your priorities straight or step down.

 

Again, I know this is a pretty brutally frank assessment, but it is earnestly an effort to put forth some of the realities of what your responsibilities are and what I see as misuse or abuse of your commish power.

[theeohiostate]

 

Issue 1 - why did you make the call that M Bell was ineligible? He's on a roster right now. Is there a rule in your league that addresses this specifically? It sounds like you made up the rule on your own, flying by the seat of your pants. Bell is not on anyone's roster, he will be put on week 1 waivers. I made this decision as i'm in 3 other drafts where the commishes made the ruling to disallowing Bell from the draft. All 3 are Huddle Leagues by the way.

 

 

 

 

I'm notorious with this one - I love starting drafts early if everyone is ready & I'll push for this every year. But I would never think of doing so without approval from the league. Then again, I don'tr believe in using timers on picks either. People have other things going on in their lives besides FF, and someone getting skipped once or twice because they had an emergency come up in their lives screws them over, and resetting the draft to accomodate from the point of emergency screws everyone else in the league, since they've shown at least part of their hands. NO TIMER was in place, league was emailed that draft would start, but WITHOUT the use of a timer, i see no problem with this at all.

 

This shouldn't be a big problem if everyone had submitted keepers and they were ready, but again, it wasn't your place to make the decision without owners having a chance for input.

This one really pisses me off. You're the classic mico-manager of everyone else's team. YOU made the decision of the other owner's intent. You have absolutely no authority to do so, and you stepped way over the line by making this decision. Let me ask you this - what happens now if Aaron Brooks somehow puts up top 5 QB numbers, and the Bills are a top 2/3 D? Now you've probably just screwed that owner over completely, and he has a legit beef against you that you meddled when you had no business doing so. The you call the other owner, which is fine and which I would have done, but you allow him to undo his action that he admitted was his own stupidity. Then you reset the draft, which again exposes other owners' strategies. No owners stategies were exposed as all picks remained the same

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your opinon, however i completely disagree with it.

[Bronco Billy]

Thanks for your opinon, however i completely disagree with it.

 

 

I had no doubt that you would.

[rcswildcat]

THE PROBLEM i have with 2 is i wasnt able to check email for a couple days, so i had no idea. and i went to prerank players but you yourself posted on this site and you know sportsline was down all day. so i went out of my way at work to draft via cell phone with no cheat sheet (remember i think the draft starts thursday) iw work retail, no internet. came home for lunch and set my autopick to take my next 2 picks so i didnt hold everyone up, even though there is an hour 8 timer listed in our rules, which theeohiostate later says is untrue. so my autopick is still on and picks qb and d, neither of which i need. very short on wr, want mark clayton. the guy picks clayton after he tells him to make no more picks and mine are incorrect. clayton porter bruce williamson chad jackson go off board and i get stuck with v morency and sinorice moss. i know everyone agrees with theeohiostate, but rule changes are frequent and its hard when i dont live and work on a computer, a phone call would have been nice. and not the one i received from another owner and mindnight when i had to get up at 4.