I do agree that things have gotten a tad stale lately. However, I don't think that an auto draft is the answer. For me, the draft is by far the funnest part of the season, and I don't want to eliminate that. I am definitely open to any suggestions about stirring things up a bit, though.
I was disappointed in the lack of trades last year. But I don't think getting rid of the draft will help.
I don't think mandatory trading will necessarily work because people will just trade super-crappy players back and forth so that they have the required # of trades. Here are some ideas I came up with: - change the scoring system. Perhaps a return to roto scoring would make things more interesting - change the scoring system throughout the season. (ie: have head-to-head the first two months, roto the next two, and FP for the last two. The overall winner is determined from an average of final standings). - same as the previous one, except we actually change the players on each team by having three separate drafts. Obviously, the 2nd and 3rd drafts would have to be fast live (ie: take place in one or two days). - here's a radical one... every month, each team in the league gets randomly matched up with another team and gets to take a player of his choice from that team. ie: DarkHorse gets matched with Smeg... DH claimes A-Rod (who was on Smeg's roster) for himself. Meanwhile, Smeg gets matched with Phi and decides to claim Randy Johnson. This happens every month, ensuring that good players are passed around from team to team. - same as the previous one, except you get to claim two players instead of one. This will ensure even more player movement. Do any of these appeal to you at all?
The thing is we are all too smart for trades. I'm suprised there is even one trade to be honest. I personally like it the way it is. The weekly game is enough action for me. But if you wanted action, you could propose a mandatory trade "feeler" rule. For example, in week 3, all fantasy players would be required to send out a trade feeler that included one of their top 4 players (by fpg). The Trade must be at least 10% point value. That way it is reasonable starting place or negotiation. For example, I would be forced to send out a feeler for Jason Kidd 51.7 for McGrady. 53.4 fpg. Fade could say no. Jamma could say no. There is no official proposal. But it would at least send some feelers out there where Fade could counter or Jamma could counter. We could even attach a poll to the email. Very interested Slightly interested Not interested ect... This would possibly generate some action without actually instigiating a trade. Then in week 6, All fantasy players would be asked to send out a trade feeler for a player in the Top 8. ok. That is all I've got. Stupid, but it could work.
Head to head is simply the best option for me. I'm not big on the other types of leagues. The only thing I would rather see is that the scores be translated down to actual baseball scores. For example if I win 1080 to 940. An apprpriate score would be something like Jamma 6 Fade 3 Simple spead sheet conversion based on scores from last year.
Hate it. Why even hold a draft if you only get to keep your players for a little while? Makes no sense to me. Keep everything as it always has been.
don't like it one of things that irks me in baseball is the way you pretty much have to concede a match-up if you only have 1 starter going against 4, is there a way to even that up?
Don't like any of the proposals. Don't mess with the draft. Don't tinker with the scoring. Mandatory trading is ridiculous. Let's just play ball! Active owners that want to make their teams better will at least make some proposals. Maybe one change to help facilitate owner participation and trades: Any trade that sits on a team's trade desk longer than 5 days is automatically approved. 5 days is plenty of time for an owner to accept or reject a trade. I'm not sure if the software will allow for this or if the commish would need to keep track of it, but it doesn't tinker with the system too much.
I agree with your sentiment there ... Could there be something where you just take your best X number of starts for the week? (Not really sure what that number would be) That way, no one automatically wins because their starters just happened to stack up right that week. Just an idea.
SSG responded and unfortunately he won't be returning either. So, it looks like there is one more opening.
Thanks to phi and castor for their payments. It looks like we have a full contingent of players now. fadeaway BobFinn* SamCassell DarkHorse PhiSlammaJamma RocketsPimp SmeggySmeg Behad chrisjent Castor27 RocketmanJosh Rocketball Since the league is set, I'm going to go ahead and do the draft lotto this weekend. It will happen on Friday evening at 7pm EST in the chat.
