The Unwritten Rules
Many years ago I met the woman who would become my future wife while we were standing in line to get into a bar. While I had been to that bar on a few occasions before, I was only there because a friend of mine had been invited to a toga party on the following night by a coworker of his and asked them if I could come along since I was new to the area and he wanted to meet me first. As I was waiting to enter the establishment, I heard the woman in front of me talking about this party. I looked up to see the most beautiful woman standing in front of me, so I used the party as an opening.
“You’re going to a toga party?” I asked. “I’m going to a toga party too! I hear it is like a frat house. I can’t wait! It should be crazy.”
That is when I got the answer I was not expecting.
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
“IP minimum is a fair rule” Are you playing fantasy Craig Kimbrel or fantasy baseball? Of course it’s a fair rule, you’re lucky they don’t implement a more restrictive rule. I have no problem with punting categories, but I do have a problem with punting an entire position.
Why? That’s a weird way to put it. Would you admonish an owner for punting saves, which is also an entire position?
I think Bounty is just saying he wants to play in leagues where the structure rewards rostering both SPs and RPs (whether or not they are closers). In my opinion, it’s a matter of taste – not of unwritten rules.
the way he put it though, it really only applies to SPs, and it only applies to this one strategy. I get not being a fan of the strategy, but I agree with Justin that it should never break a league in its own right. People have been using it forever and it’s never really proven to work that well. Maybe Matt A, has just been the better owner? And he mentions it’s a keeper league, not crazy for one team to dominate 3 years in a row when they have good keepers.
Agreed. That was my take, at least. I like that rule because I like to think I’m playing fantasy baseball to (in some small way) imagine I’m a GM and put into practice all those time I said “I could do a better job than [the current moron running my favorite team]!” So I tend to prefer league rules that require some semblance of team building that is somewhat similar to real life.
I wouldn’t fault someone for preferring a different type. I guess you could play in a league where every team consists of only hitters, has no positions, and only gives points for HR (to give an extreme example).
I wouldn’t like that, personally, and it sounds like the other league owners in this league think like I do. And I don’t think there’s anything unfair about changing league rules based on a consensus of the owners. Especially when, realizing the rule change will disproportionately impact one owner who was not breaking the previous rules, they delay the implementation a year to mitigate (though, I’m sure not “eliminate”) the level of impact on that one owner. I would only find that unfair if the commissioner implemented the rule change surreptitiously without discussion or it was made effective immediately.
I’m not sure how having a pitching staff made entirely of relievers is any less “true” of real life baseball than having 2-3 starters throwing every day. I would actually think it’s more realistic, as several jamokes throughout history have floated the “why not just have an all-relief staff?” idea, while probably no one ever has suggested “why not have 3 starters pitching simultaneously off the same mound every day”
Amazing point
If the league as a group wants to institute an innings maximum or innings minimum to shape roster management, I think that is totally fair and reasonable. I don’t really care if the motivation is sour grapes.
And within a league’s innings minimums or maximums, I also think it is totally fair and reasonable to employ an RP-only or SP-only strategy.
Thealsonwheels – I would totally do that. Is it against the rules to not contact an inactive owner? Hell no, take all of the advantages you can.
Right. I mean being really active– including checking in on what everyone is doing when they play a rival and maybe poking a deadbeat– is an advantage and should be. Is it a big waste of time that should be spent saving the world? Sure. But that’s not the issue. Waking up an owner who’s playing a rival is not cheating.
It’s not cheating, but is it ethical? The ethical thing to do would be to wake them up when you first notice it, not when it benefits you.
Ethical schmethical. It would be the nice thing to do, but that doesn’t help you win.
Anyone can contact anyone in the league at anytime to tell them to stay active. Don’t overthink it.
If you think anyone or the commissioner is picking his spots, then take the initiative and contact the other owners when needed, or arrange for anyone else in the league to do so.
The inactivity question is something of a personal judgment call though. Frankly, if a team does something like miss their IP minimums for the week or something, one time might be a fluke, but if there’s other evidence to support the conclusion that the player left their team idle for an extended period of time, then it’s time to call them on it.
Usually in my case, I rarely take matters into my own hands, but instead give the commissioner a heads up when I really start to notice that there’s a problem; i.e. a DL’d player starting in favor of a healthy player when there are open DL spots available, or when it becomes obvious that they won’t meet their IP mins, etc… I don’t believe it’s my place to enforce rules unless asked to do so by the commissioner, but I do believe in notifying him/her when there is a problem. If it happens to be the week that I’m playing that team, so be it. I’ve notified my commissioners on several occasions about multiple teams in a single week being inactive because I want as competitive of a league as possible