This time of year always reminds me of some helpful words of wisdom my granddaddy would bestow upon me; words all fantasy players, commissioners in particular, should take to heart. “Opinions are like a$$holes, boy. Everyone’s got one and most of ‘em stink.” He, of course, was speaking of the nonsensical gibberish his neighbor (and best friend) was often spouting, but I share these words with you today as they relate to the barrage of suggestions made by league mates and the subsequent wrongful changes that leagues undergo from once pitchers and catchers report to the hours leading up to Draft Day.
The fantasy baseball season ends once all teams have concluded their 162-game schedule. Depending on the season’s start date, we’re talking about the end of September/beginning of October. That leaves roughly four months before spring training opens that the members of the league can propose ideas for changes in the rules. Four months. Yet for some reason, brains seem to go dormant until mid-February. It’s difficult to say why. Perhaps it’s the fantasy football mentality which seems to suck the IQ points right out of a fantasy baseballer’s head. But whatever the case may be, the proper time to make changes to your league is rarely utilized.
Take this one league: For the last four years, this league, a 12-team keeper league at that, has used a standard snake-style draft. The inflation for keepers is a two-round jump from where the player was drafted the year before. Pretty standard stuff, right? Well suddenly, some chucklehead in the league who has kept his players for the last three years and has lost most of, if not all, the bargain value potential climbed atop his soapbox and lobbied for a switch to an auction-style draft instead. Chuck all the players back into the pool and start from scratch.
Now some of the owners were obviously against the idea as they had made moves last year and during the offseason, based on the league’s current keeper format, to set themselves up for this season. But a few of the owners who weren’t as enamored with their keeper options helped lobby for the change. With the draft just two weeks away, the commissioner succumbed to the pressure and took a vote in which majority ruled and the format was changed.
How about another league which, just a month until their draft, implemented the use of contracts after eight years of unlimited protect time? Or what about one reader’s league where the commissioner scrapped keeper policies altogether to turn the league into an annual re-draft just weeks prior to their draft? I’ve even heard of a case where just a week prior to the draft a league went from standard roto to head-to-head.
WTF???
Aside from the sheer stupidity of rules changes at this time of the “season,” you have to also look at from where these changes are being lobbied. Ninety-nine times out of 100, the guy who is proposing the rules changes is doing it for his benefit. Whether he’s looking at his crappy keepers or he believes that his auction skills will devour the drunken buffoons who take part in the league every year, his proposal of a rules change has only his best interests in mind. I won’t say that all proposals have a personal agenda, but before you start changing the rules, understand why these changes are being proposed.
If you play in a keeper league, you need to give a full year’s notice for any and all rules changes. The bottom half of your standings in 2014 started their prep work for 2015 at the trade deadline. You can’t suddenly tell them that their late-season efforts were all for naught. It’s a little easier to make adjustments in a re-draft league, but you still need to give ample time for preparation. If there are owners in your league who have never played in a points league before, you have to give them more than just a couple of weeks to learn the nuances between that and a category-based head-to-head league.
And if you’re one of those owners who hounds your commissioner for changes year after year, maybe it’s time to just drop out and start your own league with your own set of rules. You’re not helping anyone else out with your self-serving agenda.