new "experts" league $125 for first season, serious owners only

[do rag 0]

This is the email I sent to new, prospective owners....

here are my thoughts on setting up a new fantasy league. Keep in mind that this is meant to differentiate this new "experts" league from the older, standard leagues.

There are few things more important when setting up a league than determining the right number of roster spots.

The overwhelming emotional temptation is to have big, big rosters so you can get all the guys that you want on your roster. There are few things more important than having a small roster. Here's why- you want to crown the champion of your league based on who's been the best owner that year. I feel there are 3 components to this:

1- who drafted the best

2- who made the best trades, and

3- who worked the waiver wire the best

when you give owners the luxury of 22 roster spots (and 15 of those are bench spots), now there's nobody on the waiver wire, there's no tough decisions to be made, and if you drafted badly, it's very hard to "course-correct" because there's no talent left on the waiver wire. Everybody who's any good is already on another team. So your effectively just turning your whole league into who drafts the best, because your putting such a premium on draft day. To me, that's not fun. You may as well just have a draft and hold league. I think the right number of roster spots is somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-16 players. Good players will be available on the waiver wire, and you want that, because your going to challenge your owners to have to make a tough decision about dropping guy X for guy Y. The waiver wire will have "actual talent" on it so that bad teams can get better. Really a good rule of thumb is you want 2 less bench spots than people who are starting, but I tend to believe as we start out this new league, so if you are having 9 starting roster spots, the roster size should be 16.

Also, here is an article which generally explains the FAAB waiver wire system.

I personally believe the old waiver system we use in our leagues is archaic and unfair, especially in the first few weeks of the fantasy season, where it still hasn't shaken out who has the best and worst team, and you may actually have one of the "best" teams, even though you got off to a bad start.....

What is FAAB?

FAAB stands for Free Agent Acquisition Budget. As the name implies, you are given a budget (typically $100-500) at the beginning of the year to use on acquiring free agents. Free agents are awarded to the highest bidder. In the case of a tie, the winner is normally the player with the worse record and/or lowest point total.

“Use FAAB or watch CSPAN. The choice is yours.” -Kyle Borgognoni

How Does FAAB and Blind Bid Waivers Work?

Each week, players are given a window that ends on Tuesdays or Wednesdays to place bids on free agents similar to the more common waiver priority (worst-to-first) system. All bids are placed in the blind. No other players will know how much you bid and you will not know how much they bid. This is how the bidding may have looked in a fictitious league when David Johnson finally got his opportunity last year:

Team FAAB Player to Acquire Bid Player to Drop FAAB Remaining if Processed Team A $12 David Johnson $0 Matt Jones $12 Team B $76 David Johnson $44 Tony Romo $32 Team C $43 David Johnson $35 LeVeon Bell $8 Team D $21 David Johnson $15 Jimmy Graham $6

Player B won the bid with $44. Even though a $36 bid would have won it, the full $44 would have been deducted from Player B’s FAAB. No players will be dropped and no money will be deducted from the players with losing bids (I’ve never played in a league that did, but it would be an interesting twist if losing bids were deducted from the FAAB).

Notice that Player A put in a bid of zero. Many leagues have an option for a $0 bid that allows a waiver claim by players who have exhausted their FAAB which keeps them more involved through the year. This also allows you to pick up players that others probably don’t want without eating into your budget. Obviously, a $0 bid will not win if anyone else places a bid for $1 or more so it’s risky.

Every player has a shot at every free agent each week. Bid too little and you miss out. Bid too much and you get your free agent, but you crush your budget and may miss out on a waiver-wire gem later in the year. The point is, a Blind Bid system will reward smart players and make it nearly impossible for weaker players to luck into acquiring top free agents. Good fantasy players want to take out the luck factor wherever they can.

Blind Bidding also introduces more strategy to your league. Would you be willing to plunk down 33% of your FAAB in the first few weeks on a RB that gets an opportunity because of injury? If the second or third WR on a rush-first team goes off in Week 1, are you willing to put in a bid and how much should the bid be?

You might also snag a player you don’t need because you know your opponent does need them. Imagine how much fun it would be to add an unnecessary TE to your team when your buddy desperately needs a TE heading into a playoff matchup against you. That type of shrewd move is the stuff of lore that will be rehashed for years to the chagrin of your opponent.

FAAB systems are also great for mind games especially if you’re in a league with friends. If you let it slip that you bid $12 on a defense when you actually bid $3, will someone take the bait and bid $13 or will they not bid at all if they think you actually bid $12? Can you incite a bidding war on a mediocre talent? If you express your undying love for a player on the waiver wire, will your league-mates think you don’t like them when you actually do? Will you ‘accidentally’ leave your computer screen on around your friends showing a fictitious low or high bid? The opportunities to play mind-games are endless.

“If you don’t use FAAB, you’re one of those people that still wear a fanny pack.” -Brandon Sanders

Common Blind Bid Waiver Settings

• If there’s an option, I prefer allowing $0 bids, but many leagues start with $1 bids
• Most FAABs are set at $100-1,000 in the beginning of the year. I prefer a larger budget since a kicker or defense acquired for $1 is a lot cheaper as a percentage of your budget with a $500 or $1,000 FAAB than it is with a $100 FAAB, but the Footballers strongly prefer a $100 FAAB.
• Waiver processing ends on Tuesdays in most leagues, but I prefer blind bidding until Wednesday nights. Making the blind bid waivers open until Wednesday allows one extra day to input bids. More importantly, there’s a smaller chance someone gets a waiver-wire gem for free because of a mid-week injury since free agents become FCFS between the time blind bid waivers are processed and kickoff.

“FAAB is the worst waiver system you can use, except for all of the other ones.” -Keaton Denlay

Conclusion

This is a setting that’s a no-brainer for your league. FAAB and Blind Bidding add an element to leagues that Waiver-Priority and FCFS systems just can’t. Your leagues will involve far more strategy, flexibility, and gamesmanship once you convert to Blind Bidding.