Keeper Conundrum

[Rimmytose]

I participate in a 10 team league that implemented keepers last season. The keeper rules were written as follows and agreed upon by the league:

 

• Managers will be allowed to keep one (1) player from their FINAL roster from last year.
  • Drafted players will be kept at a value equal to their last season's draft position.
  • Undrafted players will be kept at a value equal to a last round pick.

Later at the draft a discussion was had regarding keeping players multiple years and it was agreed that if a manager keeps a player for a second year in a row that player would cost a 1st round pick.

 

Prior to the start of this season an email from the commish was with proposed rule changes to be voted on. One of the changes included adding an additional keeper, but buried within this vote to change were what appeared to be the original stipulations of the rule with one slight difference. Instead of being based on the final roster from the end of the season the rule was now drafted to state that the player being kept had to be on your roster at the end of the trade deadline. This rule modification was never mentioned until this email, approximately 2 weeks to the draft, and had not been voted on to my knowledge.

 

The reason for the modification to the rule is that I picked up two players at the end of last season that were injured and not on a roster. One player was drafted and injured during the season and the other was injured from the start of the season. They were Jamaal Charles and Jordy Nelson. Per our rules Charles would still cost a 1st because he was drafted as a 1st rounder last year, but Nelson would cost me a last round pick since he was an undrafted player.

 

When I confronted the commish via email I was told that the moves not being in the "spirit of the rule" and him basically callling me a cheater in an email. He wants to keep the league as "fair and competitive as possible".

 

I would like honest opinions from my fellow huddlers regarding this. While you may not agree with the moves I made, I firmly believe that they were well within our written rules and that "spirit of the rule" is an interpretation. I also believe that a commish's job is to be fair to the league itself, meaning that he upholds the rules and standards set forth by the league and not cater to the opinion of those in the league. If he is allowed to make changes to rules as he sees fit, what is the point of having rules at all?

[Cowboyz1]

Look, it seems pretty simple to me. Would anyone consider Jordy Nelson a first or even second round pick. If so the rule is bad and should be voted on prior to the year to clear it up. The rule now says it's not cheating to pick up an Elite player after the league playing year is over and use that player as a keeper but not forfeit his respective draft position in next years draft. Meaning what the commish says is true, the spirit of the rule is in violation. Why because I could pick up several available Elite players then keep them and draft more Elite players to have a monster roster. Now if your league wants to play a first come first serve on this rule issue fine but some in the league are going to have stacked rosters. Assuming no injuries and the players perform to expectations of their ADP.

 

The rule is bad not what you did. Unless the league votes the rule change you're golden.

[Lukester2181]

I think you have an argument. All rules should be voted on by the league and not put into an email by the commissioner. I am the commissioner of my league and anything that changes is voted on by the league- with a majority needed to pass the rule.

 

I love the moves you made, it shows you are paying attention and a manager that is involved. I run a keeper league as well. We can keep three keepers and you lose the round that you drafted the players in. Like your league, if they were not drafted or picked up off of waivers they cost you a 15th round pick. Last year my brother did something very similar- He picked up Jamaal Charles and Josh Gordon off of waivers in the last week of the season (both were there because of injury and suspension). You never know what can happen in fantasy football so picking up players like that shows you are paying attention- so great moves! Fight the ruling!

[Big Country]

Look, it seems pretty simple to me. Would anyone consider Jordy Nelson a first or even second round pick. If so the rule is bad and should be voted on prior to the year to clear it up. The rule now says it's not cheating to pick up an Elite player after the league playing year is over and use that player as a keeper but not forfeit his respective draft position in next years draft. Meaning what the commish says is true, the spirit of the rule is in violation. Why because I could pick up several available Elite players then keep them and draft more Elite players to have a monster roster. Now if your league wants to play a first come first serve on this rule issue fine but some in the league are going to have stacked rosters. Assuming no injuries and the players perform to expectations of their ADP.

 

The rule is bad not what you did. Unless the league votes the rule change you're golden.

 

Where do you see anything about picking up players after the season was over? The OP pretty clearly states that the players were picked up towards the end of the season, presumably during a typical waiver run.

 

OP, what you did was basic keeper league strategy and IMO well within the spirit of keeper leagues and the rules as written. Kudos to you for making those pickups so that you had the option to choose to keep those players coming off of injury or one of your other players. You definitely should have the option to keep either of those players as they were on your roster at the end of the season.

 

The only thing I have issue with, other than the random changing of the language of the rule by the commish, is that the rule change to add an additional keeper, if adopted, should not go into effect until the following season. Roster moves were made for the entire season under the premise of only being able to keep one player - making a change after the entire season has played out is not fair to the owners. What if a savvy owner overpaid (say by giving up 2 or 3 high quality players) for a stud player with a decent keeper price because he knew he could not keep those 3 players and would rather have the 1 stud player? A move he may not have made if he had the option of keeping more than 1 player.

[Rimmytose]

Thanks for all the feedback. Putting responses inline with each comment below. Although it seems as though the consensus is that the rule is bad, completely agree, but that I did follow the rules as written. My commish is unlikely to change things, but I am going to see what I can do. I still have plenty of great keeper options without these guys, but at this point with the way it was handled I'm going to have to say my peace. This type of behavior is complete crap as far as I'm concerned.

 

Look, it seems pretty simple to me. Would anyone consider Jordy Nelson a first or even second round pick. If so the rule is bad and should be voted on prior to the year to clear it up. The rule now says it's not cheating to pick up an Elite player after the league playing year is over and use that player as a keeper but not forfeit his respective draft position in next years draft. Meaning what the commish says is true, the spirit of the rule is in violation. Why because I could pick up several available Elite players then keep them and draft more Elite players to have a monster roster. Now if your league wants to play a first come first serve on this rule issue fine but some in the league are going to have stacked rosters. Assuming no injuries and the players perform to expectations of their ADP.

 

The rule is bad not what you did. Unless the league votes the rule change you're golden.

 

I agree the rule is poorly written and am all for voting to change it, but to take it upon himself to change the rule because he didn't like what I did should not be allowed. The spirit of the rule is nothing but interpretation. Someone has one idea of how they think the rule works vs. how others do.

 

I think you have an argument. All rules should be voted on by the league and not put into an email by the commissioner. I am the commissioner of my league and anything that changes is voted on by the league- with a majority needed to pass the rule.

 

I love the moves you made, it shows you are paying attention and a manager that is involved. I run a keeper league as well. We can keep three keepers and you lose the round that you drafted the players in. Like your league, if they were not drafted or picked up off of waivers they cost you a 15th round pick. Last year my brother did something very similar- He picked up Jamaal Charles and Josh Gordon off of waivers in the last week of the season (both were there because of injury and suspension). You never know what can happen in fantasy football so picking up players like that shows you are paying attention- so great moves! Fight the ruling!

 

This is where I have the most issue with what happened. Why would the commish try to slip this into an email drafted to the entire league without at least approaching me about it? Why not put it up to a vote? It makes me not want to be a part of this league or at least push for a new commish.

 

 

Where do you see anything about picking up players after the season was over? The OP pretty clearly states that the players were picked up towards the end of the season, presumably during a typical waiver run.

 

OP, what you did was basic keeper league strategy and IMO well within the spirit of keeper leagues and the rules as written. Kudos to you for making those pickups so that you had the option to choose to keep those players coming off of injury or one of your other players. You definitely should have the option to keep either of those players as they were on your roster at the end of the season.

 

The only thing I have issue with, other than the random changing of the language of the rule by the commish, is that the rule change to add an additional keeper, if adopted, should not go into effect until the following season. Roster moves were made for the entire season under the premise of only being able to keep one player - making a change after the entire season has played out is not fair to the owners. What if a savvy owner overpaid (say by giving up 2 or 3 high quality players) for a stud player with a decent keeper price because he knew he could not keep those 3 players and would rather have the 1 stud player? A move he may not have made if he had the option of keeping more than 1 player.

 

You make a great point about the rule change BC. I will bring this to the attention of the league. I don't think we have this issue since no one ever trades though.