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Commish Help


Cosmo-J
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I am Commish for a work league that contains at least 3 first time FFL owners; it is certainly for fun, but is a money league. One of the first time owners dropped Steven Jackson - a bonehead move, yes, but (apparently) he really doesn't know any better. This owner is 1-6 and there's no collusion going on - again, he just doesn't know any better. We do not have a "no drop" list.

 

I tell owners that it's their responsibility to set their lineups, do their own due diligence for any trades (accepting or proposing), and run their own teams appropriately. When I saw he dropped Steven Jackson, my first thought was "Sweet, I hope no one saw that so I can pick him up on Saturday waivers!" - but thinking about it more, I am conflicted between letting a first time owner make a dumb move like this or throwing SJax back on his team and telling him "hey dude, you can't do this..." My other concern is that other owners may cry foul regardless of who picks him up on waivers...

 

Any advice out there? Should this stay fair game and let the waiver wire requests take it's course (based on last to first ranking, first come first serve)? Or is this a Commissioner's responsibility to step in? Again, no collusion here...

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I would say leave it alone and don't step in. It's certainly a tough lesson, and one that won't be forgotten. But regardless of the bonehead move, it's not your job to manage someone else's team. It's their team that they paid for.

 

Hopefully from waivers standpoint, the worst teams would get first dibs at Jackson, which would lessen the impact on the league overall. Might also be worth a message out to the league that owners are responsible for their actions and you're not reversing add/drops. If the league is that close and friendly, maybe they'll take pity and let the 1-6 team reclaim Jackson after clearing waivers.

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I think alot depends on how close/tight the owners in the league are.

 

Last year in my local family league, my sister's boyfriend dropped Steve Smith from his team accidently, thinking that he was placing him on his bench in favor of another player. Another owner immediately jumped on the mistake and grabbed Smith off the WW. The new guy, who dropped Smith, called me and asked me where Smith went as he wasn't listed on his team anymore. I realized his mistake and redid all the moves after talking with the other owners. Because it was a family league everyone was understanding and realized that it was an honest mistake.

 

However, the reality is that there are very few leagues out there like this and redoing the move to put Steven Jackson back on that guys team, while giving him a kick in the arse, is the right thing to do if it was an honest rookie mistake but might create an uproar from the other owners. Have a talk with the guy who dropped Jackson to see what he was thinking and if it was an accident explain the situation to the other owners in hopes of fixing the error. For another team to be able to add Jackson at this point would be unfair and would allow for an unbalanced team.

 

That's how I'd deal with it but in the end the other owners may frown upon fixing the mistake and you don't want the league to crumble.

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I think you have to step in. As another owner, I would not want to play in a league the following season when stuff like this is happening. Perhaps you need to talk to him about the move that he made and the effect that it can have on the league. Was it a dumb move? Yes. However, he is new to fantasy football...although that shouldn't excuse him for such a dumb move. I really think that if you want the league to stay up and running, you as commish need to help these new guys to make the league respectable. Again, there really is no reason to outright drop Jackson.

 

Is it possible he accidentally selected the wrong player to drop?

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So I talked to that owner who dropped SJax... He asked, so I explained the Probable (P), Questionable, Out (O) statuses and what they mean (even though ESPN is pretty good about spelling it out for you...). I explained that, philosophically, you don't drop your high ranking players just because they are Probable for that week, you need to keep your high ranking injured players for their eventual return, and you just can't drop high ranking players in general - you need to keep them on your team (or trade them) as we need to ensure league competitive integrity. I told him that he can easily re-claim SJax because he'll have the first waiver claim on him when he's available due to last place ranking but he needs to put in the request so no one else claims him - I asked him if he knew how to Claim him, he said yes (he said he put in the request while we were talking). I told him to check his pending moves to make sure SJax is on there. Lastly I told him that this is his one and only "get out of jail free" card and he needs to run his team appropriately (sidenote: I told all owners at the beginning of the season to make sure they explore the ESPN site, if unfamiliar, to know how to administer their teams and ask me questions any time, and this was the 2nd time I sat this owner down to explain to him how to Add/Drop, etc - it is not rocket science). I also requested a claim on SJax just in case, for whatever reason, the other owner's SJax claim didn't go through (it was a longshot as I am ranked high) - but I walked him through it thoroughly, so I expected it to go as planned. I figured that another owner would try to pick up SJax as well - at least another cellar-dweller team would benefit from this owner's HUGH gaffe.

 

Fast forward to this morning... The Owner's transaction goes through (again, he is last in rankings at 1-6, so he goes first): Drop Donald Driver, Add Isaac Bruce :wacko: (Bruce was also frozen to be released on waivers this morning as someone dropped him on Thursday). I told him to check his pending moves status, but apparently he did not do so. The next transaction that went through was me picking up SJax - I am 6-1 and ranked #1 - so not only did that 1-6 owner not pick up SJax as I told him to, but in the 2 days that SJax was frozen on waivers 8 other owners didn't even put a request on him! :D And here is the last punchline: the 1-6 Owner's next transaction after that - Drop Ronnie Brown, Add Eli Manning (someone dropped Eli on Thursday). :D

 

So needless to say, I am not inviting that Owner back next year... And now I have Steven Jackson. The problem with me giving back SJax to that 1-6 owner is that although I did everything to make sure he got him back, he didn't do it - so lesson learned. And what would have happened if another owner grabbed him off waivers instead of me? In the spirit of laissez-faire, telling everyone to run their own teams, and they are responsible for doing their homework before any and all transactions they make, I couldn't tell the other owner to give him back as they would likely cry foul. And would another owner trade SJax back to the 1-6 owner? Likely not...

 

But at this point I don't even feel bad about grabbing SJax because I went out of my way to make sure the 1-6 owner picked him back up, and if the other 8 (mostly saavy) owners aren't cognizant enough to go to our League site on both Thursday and Friday to see who was Dropped/Added in their own league and make a break for the player when he is available (or get updates, or check their rosters, etc - would you ever NOT go to your league site for 2 days in a row?), then well... At this point it all seems fair in love and war... :D

 

This is a pretty wild situation, so please let me know if anyone feels differently on this - I want to be fair about this, but at the same time, I want to be fair... Know what I mean?

Edited by Cosmo-J
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I think you did everything you could. Make sure league-mates are aware of your actions so there aren't any questions of your good intentions. Besides that, carry on. Not everyone brings the same passion to fantasy football, and in a young league, you're going to go through some trials in building up a solid owner base. I agree with your assessment not to invite him back in 2009. And keep an eye on the owner if he appears to be tanking and dumping his roster. You may need to step in again. Good luck.

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I think you did everything you could. Make sure league-mates are aware of your actions so there aren't any questions of your good intentions. Besides that, carry on. Not everyone brings the same passion to fantasy football, and in a young league, you're going to go through some trials in building up a solid owner base. I agree with your assessment not to invite him back in 2009. And keep an eye on the owner if he appears to be tanking and dumping his roster. You may need to step in again. Good luck.

 

100% here!!

 

You did all you could do to help the guy out and he still blew it and then added insult to injury by dropping Ronnie Brown too. Nothing more you can do. Enjoy Steven Jackson. By the way, I too am shocked that no one else put in a bid for Jackson.

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Being commissioner is a thankless job most of the time. Being commissioner and an owner simultaneously is a drain on your ownership resources too. You can't hand hold all year on guys like this. Just find another owner for next year. The bottom line to being commish is to operate in a way that does not upset competitive balance of the league through some owners stupidity.

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Well, if you do let that stupid owner back into the league next year, just make sure that you are drafting next to him!!!

 

I'm the commissioner of our league, and last year we had a girl former coworker play, it was her first time playing FFL. She'd do stuff like that all the time, as she'd just hit the sort button and grab lessor known players who had high points YTD, and discarding known stars who were off to slow starts. Well, we have an 8 team playoff system, and she ended up making it to the playoffs as a 7 seed, and ended up beating me for the championship!!!! I guess a few of her 'random' pickups, like Brendon Marshall & Patrick Willis, decided to light things up towards the end of the season.

 

She did it earlier this year too, dropping Roy Williams a couple of weeks ago to pick up Miles Austin or something like that. The guy with the #2 waiver priority got Williams, and others in the league shook their heads about her dropping him. Well, Williams is essentially worthless now, and she's 5-2 and in 2nd place, so maybe she knows something that the rest of us don't....hahahahahhha.

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