Just getting some input for my research on keeper leagues. Do any of you set a limit on number of years a team owner can protect a player? I didn't see any setting within FF that allows you to set this, so it seems like it would be a manual process to track how long a team has owned a specific player and clearing him after a certain number of years. Thanks for your feedback!
Yeah, we do in my league. It's been around for about a decade. When we started, most of us were newbs. Additionally, from time to time (every few years), we have a member leave/join. Limits on keeper lengths make it a friendly league in case of new members and keep owners excited about draft.
Owners can keep 3 in our league; keeping a player costs the round in which the player was drafted (or a last-round pick, if free agent pickup). Lineup is QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1RB/WR, 1TE, K, 2DL, 2LB, 2DB.
Our rules: A player, once drafted, can be kept for up to 3 consecutive years (including the draft or free-agent pickup year). Once this "timer" is up, the player cannot be kept. The timer follows players through trades - so no trading studs with another owner to get 2 more years of ownership.
There's great incentive for finding late-round or free-agent gems (Foster and Morris were FA pickups of mine, though the timer ran out on Foster). The hard limit on a player's keeper timer meant I couldn't keep Foster for a 21st for his career (or the original AP drafter couldn't keep him for a 4th, along with Rice for a mid-rounder).
One other benefit of having a richer draft (from keeper timers): Combined with our draft order system, owners have strong incentive to play actively all season, no matter their record. This is because 1st pick goes to the non-playoff team with the highest points scored over the season, and onward from there. Draft order for playoff teams is done like you would normally expect (e.g., champ is last, runner-up is second-to-last, etc.). We use points scored for draft order because it is a better indicator of how active you are - ever seen people win games with players on BYEs because of dumb scheduling luck? Actual games and playoff seeding use head-to-head record.
I should note that, while this is a friendly league, it is competitive. There are essentially no trade vetoes because those are almost never justified (and we know each other - no one will sack their team to help another team win). Make a dumb trade? Your loss. Think someone is taking advantage of another player to make an unbalanced trade? Those who think so are regularly wrong - people just aren't nearly as good prognosticators as they think they are.
Waivers? Blind auction budget, of course - we don't want to reward people for bad drafting, nor do we want to punish those who are active on the waiver wire (in the normal "rolling" waivers, your waiver rank is a dang resource, which drives me nuts).
And, of course, the aforementioned system for draft order. It wouldn't work in a dynasty league, but in our league, if you don't field your team, you (have a slightly increased risk of consequences, to avoid hyperbole).
To be clear though - are you actually able to choose a 3 year limit timer inside of fleaflicker? Or do you have to keep up with this and manually clear out players from rosters after 3 years?
The best way is to have your owners pick their keepers X days before the draft. Then the commish uses the "clear all [players from rosters] except keepers" button. That will make it easier to keep track of the player history-they show up as kept, and when you mouse over the player's name, it will show how the current owner acquired the player. Even if you don't do it that way, though, it keeps track of player history over the lifetime of the league, so you can always investigate (by clicking the player's name, then player history) to see when someone was first drafted, etc.
TitanMikeMon 8/26/13 10:09 AM
Just getting some input for my research on keeper leagues. Do any of you set a limit on number of years a team owner can protect a player? I didn't see any setting within FF that allows you to set this, so it seems like it would be a manual process to track how long a team has owned a specific player and clearing him after a certain number of years. Thanks for your feedback!
El_DictatorSat 8/31/13 1:06 PM
Yeah, we do in my league. It's been around for about a decade. When we started, most of us were newbs. Additionally, from time to time (every few years), we have a member leave/join. Limits on keeper lengths make it a friendly league in case of new members and keep owners excited about draft.
Owners can keep 3 in our league; keeping a player costs the round in which the player was drafted (or a last-round pick, if free agent pickup). Lineup is QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1RB/WR, 1TE, K, 2DL, 2LB, 2DB.
Our rules: A player, once drafted, can be kept for up to 3 consecutive years (including the draft or free-agent pickup year). Once this "timer" is up, the player cannot be kept. The timer follows players through trades - so no trading studs with another owner to get 2 more years of ownership.
There's great incentive for finding late-round or free-agent gems (Foster and Morris were FA pickups of mine, though the timer ran out on Foster). The hard limit on a player's keeper timer meant I couldn't keep Foster for a 21st for his career (or the original AP drafter couldn't keep him for a 4th, along with Rice for a mid-rounder).
One other benefit of having a richer draft (from keeper timers): Combined with our draft order system, owners have strong incentive to play actively all season, no matter their record. This is because 1st pick goes to the non-playoff team with the highest points scored over the season, and onward from there. Draft order for playoff teams is done like you would normally expect (e.g., champ is last, runner-up is second-to-last, etc.). We use points scored for draft order because it is a better indicator of how active you are - ever seen people win games with players on BYEs because of dumb scheduling luck? Actual games and playoff seeding use head-to-head record.
El_DictatorSat 8/31/13 1:12 PM
I should note that, while this is a friendly league, it is competitive. There are essentially no trade vetoes because those are almost never justified (and we know each other - no one will sack their team to help another team win). Make a dumb trade? Your loss. Think someone is taking advantage of another player to make an unbalanced trade? Those who think so are regularly wrong - people just aren't nearly as good prognosticators as they think they are.
Waivers? Blind auction budget, of course - we don't want to reward people for bad drafting, nor do we want to punish those who are active on the waiver wire (in the normal "rolling" waivers, your waiver rank is a dang resource, which drives me nuts).
And, of course, the aforementioned system for draft order. It wouldn't work in a dynasty league, but in our league, if you don't field your team, you (have a slightly increased risk of consequences, to avoid hyperbole).
TitanMikeSat 8/31/13 4:57 PM
To be clear though - are you actually able to choose a 3 year limit timer inside of fleaflicker? Or do you have to keep up with this and manually clear out players from rosters after 3 years?
El_DictatorSun 9/1/13 11:37 PM
Sorry. Manually.
The best way is to have your owners pick their keepers X days before the draft. Then the commish uses the "clear all [players from rosters] except keepers" button. That will make it easier to keep track of the player history-they show up as kept, and when you mouse over the player's name, it will show how the current owner acquired the player. Even if you don't do it that way, though, it keeps track of player history over the lifetime of the league, so you can always investigate (by clicking the player's name, then player history) to see when someone was first drafted, etc.