Kicking Rocks: Bringing Out the Dead

I received an email a few days ago with an ethics question regarding the fantasy game and given some of the discussions this column has prompted in the past, I thought bringing it here might help the person out  little more. Obviously I have my own opinion on the matter which I happily shared, but also mentioned that I might put it in more of a public forum to garner additional thoughts. After mulling it over for a bit,  I thought the FanGraphs/RotoGraphs community would be a good group to provide further insight.

Mark B. is currently sitting in 2nd place of his 17-team, mixed, 5×5 roto league. They use a standard format with two catchers, both a corner and middle infielder, one utility player, five outfielders and nine pitchers. An eight player bench with two DL slots is available. The categories are the usual fare but with OBP instead of batting average. But one of the more interesting aspects is that once the August 15th trade deadline passes there are no waiver claims allowed. The player pool is closed. You’ve got who you’ve got.

Shortly after the trade deadline passed, Mark noticed that three of the teams near the bottom of the standings who were considered dead teams as none of them had made a roster move since mid to late June, suddenly made moves. They had gone more than a month with DL’d or demoted players in their active lineups and hadn’t made a single waiver claim in that span. After doing some investigating, Mark learned that the owner of the team in fourth place had actually contacted each of the dead teams and asked that they set a proper lineup, citing league integrity as the reason for his request. All three owners complied.

But what Mark had also noticed was that by activating players, the three teams could suddenly affect the current standings within a number of categories, particularly ones where his team and the team in first place would be affected negatively  — ERA, WHIP, OBP, strikeouts and saves to be specific. He immediately cried collusion, which we all know is the dirtiest word in fantasy sports. He was joined by the other teams in the top five, but met some resistance from other members of the league when he requested that the moves be reversed and the league play out as it had been for the past two months.

The dissenting opinions cited that there was no conspiracy, no money changing hands, no roster moves being paid for by another owner (roster moves are free) and no coercion of any kind. All he did was ask them to field a complete lineup. They were of their own free will to either comply with the request or leave things as is.

So where is the line of collusion drawn and just how grey of an area is it? Is it acceptable behavior to encourage a dead team to rise up again, knowing that the only person who will benefit from it is you? They have already ruled on the validity of the moves, but I now pose the question to all of you with the hope of gathering enough intelligent opinions to help this league amend its constitution accordingly.

Discuss…