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Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 21st, 2017, 8:26 pm
by Medwardsou
Hi all at Mastersball,

I have enjoyed following the site and had a scenario come up that I wanted to get your expert opinions on. I'll try to keep it short not to waste too much time, in hopes of a response.

My league is 5 years strong with daily active participation amongst team owners. It's a FAAB waiver wire that in the past has allowed waiver wire pickups to be 25th round keepers. (Each year keepers move up a round)

We follow ESPN undroppable rules and had an interesting scenario play out today.

The team owner of Bryce Harper dropped him today as he was taken off the espn undroppable list and it so happens that he has retained the most auction money to this point of the year and plans to pick him up tomorrow by out bidding all other teams and thus Bryce Harper becomes a 25th rounder for his team.

How would you guys handle a situation like this?

We have already come up with solutions going forward but team owners aren't thrilled allowing Bryce Harper to become a 25th rounder, however no rules were broken, should we allow this (as it was beautifully planned and executed within league rules) and make change in the future season?

Any thoughts, comments, questions would be appreciated.

Thanks for your consideration.

Mike

Sent from my iPhone


Sent from my iPhone

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 21st, 2017, 8:43 pm
by Todd Zola
The canned answer is rules are rules and the league should live with the consequences and fix the loophole. My guess is that would be the majority answer.

The ploy had to be in the conscious of the league since that's what the no-drop protects.

That said, if the league is more for fun, with just bragging rights on the line, I'd approach the team and ask them to reconsider, even if it means adding Harper back, reversing the drop.

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 21st, 2017, 10:53 pm
by brian
Todd likely knew what I was going to say. The rules are the rules and they were not broken. The owner in question saved his money all year, passing up other players. He had no idea if/when ESPN would make Harper droppable. There is no chance there was cheating or collusion.

As you said, you already have plans to close the loophole going forward, but in the interim, there is no reason he should not get to do what he is intending to do. Whether the league is for fun or for money does not matter. Either you back your rules or you don't. Personally, I don't want to be in leagues in which rules are made up on the fly.

P.S. If you want to give the league these kinds of powers to circumvent the rules in the future, you should add a "for the best interests of the league" clause to your constitution. I would highly recommend you not put this in the hands of any one person, however. Consider league majority or maybe even better, three quarters vote.

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 22nd, 2017, 7:39 am
by Medwardsou
Thanks guys. I really appreciate your responses. The statement about being a league commish that backs the rules in place really made me set in how this should be handled. As you said a league that can make rules on the fly could be a slippery slope for precedent and other unique situations in the future.

Thanks again!

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 22nd, 2017, 7:12 pm
by da_big_kid_94
The late Bill Veeck stated; "As I see it, my job as owner, is to give my team the greatest opportunity to win within the rules". He built retractable fences, fences that could be positioned in different configurations, sculptured infields, etc. ...didn't make him popular with his co-owners but that wasn't his job.

That is what your owner did and he should be commended for it. And if you really choose to look at it with an analytical eye, he didn't cause the problem ... your rules and ESPN did. You based your can not drop list for a keeper league on a provider that is only concerned with season to season and not continuity. Your owner saw the flaw in that thinking and it appears you trusted ESPN to handle this for your league. Just remember Otter's famous line from Animal House; "Face it. You f****d up. You trusted us."

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 24th, 2017, 11:52 am
by CubFan
Can't penalize this owner just because he thought outside the box. Close the loophole during the off season. I'd also suggest polling the rest of the league to see if they really want to change the rule. Maybe an owner with a team knows he can't compete in a given year and would have no other reason to play for than to rebuild via this tactic. Maybe it keeps a team or two more interested in playing. Adds another element to the game. Then again maybe the majority don't want a rule like this. Just another thought to consider.

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 25th, 2017, 4:22 pm
by Medwardsou
The league wasn't allowing it and gave him a 7th round value. Booo

Re: Allowing Bryce Harper 25th round keeper after waiver wire pi

Posted: August 25th, 2017, 7:21 pm
by da_big_kid_94
Speaks volumes.