How do you guys work keepers?

[WhiteWonder 2,172]

I see that alot of you guys who have keeper leagues put a 3 year max on a player being kept. I am all for this but what I am curious about is for those that do the 3 year maximum for keepers is it 3 years max in a row by 1 owner or 3 years in a row total?

 

I bring this up because we have had a few trades involving keepers in my league where the player was kept by one owner 1 year and another owner the following year.

 

also when certain players come up for their "contract year" I could see owners trying to trade them for other, equal keepers if their status resets upon changing teams. This would effectively keep them out of the draft which is kind of what the three year rule is supposed to guard against.

 

and if the rule is 3 years regardless of the owner keeping the player, then it makes these players almost untradeable after their third season as a keeper. I suppose someone looking to win now might give you value for them but their trade value has to take a hit with other owners realizing they only have them for the rest of that season.

 

so how do you guys work it?

[lambert58 56]

We use a 3 year keeper rule in my league. Some of this might apply to you and some might not.

 

 

We are allowed to keep every player on our roster but every player has an increase of 20% against the cap if kept. (this allows for significant turnover in the league).

 

Kept players are under a three year contract. If the player is traded to another team the contract remains in place. If the player is dropped and picked up by someone else then the contract starts over. (A player can not be picked up by the team who dropped him for 2 weeks).

 

We allow (2) "franchise" players per roster. A franchise player is a player whose 3 year contract is up. The player then goes back into the auction and is bid on. At the end of the bidding process the original owner of the player has the right to match the final bid. (the winning bidder has the option of increasing the price on the player before the original owner decides. For example, if team A. wins the rights to Larry Fitz at $20.00 he has the right to increase the bid to $30.00 in order to keep the original bidder from exercising his rights to Larry Fitz. This adds some strategy to the process.)

 

If a player is franchised he can be kept for another 3 years with the annual increase of 20% in effect. After the 3 year franchise a player must be returned to the auction pool.

 

 

 

Good Luck.

[rdrs4life 0]

The way we do it, it is actually a 2-year keeper, but you in essence get the player for 3 years because the first year you own them they are not labeled a keeper. Once a player is labeled a keeper, each manager designates keepers in the offseason, in 2 years they will re-enter the draft pool regardless of trades. The only way they enter the draft pool early is if they end the season on no one's roster, but as a FA. They cannot enter the draft pool any later than when their 2 year contract expires.

 

This year was our first year, I got AP, so I have him this year and the next 2 years (through 2010). If I trade him next year then whoever receives him will only get him for the rest of next year and the 2010 season. That's how we do it, not sure if it's totally standard though.

 

Edit: They also re-enter the draft pool if the player was kept a previous season (by anyone), ends the current season on any roster, but is not designated a keeper during that offseason. And we do an auction draft.

[phillybrawlr 0]

I run a 10 team league with a 16 round draft. We consider rounds 12 - 16 "keeper" rounds. A player drafted in those rounds is eligible as a keeper as long has said player remains on the roster for the entire season (never involved in a transaction...drop/trade). Teams can only keep 1 player and if they do decide to keep a player then the team would get them 2 rounds earlier in the next season's draft. For example I drafted Witten in Round 15 last year and got him at 13 this year. Next year I can get him at 11...after that he's back in the player pool.

[WhiteWonder 2,172]

good responses so far.. im specifically looking for people who run a 2, 3, 4 etc.. year rule. I like this alot better than losing the round a player was drafted in. I was never quite sure how you deal with players being kept multiple years in a row in that kind of format.

 

but my main question with the X years in a row was what resets them.. obviously anytime you decide not to designate a player as a keeper, they are reset.

 

it sounds as if a trade should not reset the amount of years...

 

basically i run a 3 player keeper league and we decided to finally put a limit on the number of years an owner can have the same players. this is our third season so if we do a 3 year rule, alot of players will only have 1 more year of eligibility as a keeper before they MUST go back into the draft.

 

there was just a bit of confusion on what would happen if some of those players get traded between now and then.

[Hazmatt 0]

In our league we keep everyone. We have a 2500 pt cap. We started by bidding on players and when you won a player you could keep them for 4 yrs max. You could choose 1 year(at winning bid) 2nd year add 10% 3rd 20% and 4th 30%. The following year anyone whos years ran out would be a free agent. You are allowed to tag ONE guy every year but had to pay him top 5 avg salary at his position and get him for 2 years(he is not refranchiseable after that). Anyone who was not tagged would go into a bidding pool. We would go around the table bid on anyone available till all free agents were gone. Then we will do a draft for any rookies or players that are not currently on a team. It really works out nice , we get to bid and draft every year. We are in our 9th year this way.

[dietz 0]

we are in the EXACT same situation in our league right now... optional 2 player, 3 year keeper - keepers act as your round 1 & 2 picks - going into 3rd year now.

nobody had ever traded anyone worth keeping before, and two keepers were traded before the draft this year... one player was going on his third year and one was going on his second year.

 

do the new owners get them for 3 years now? or do they only get the remaining time left on the contracts? its an argument...

i think we are going to let this trade slide and make a new rule... something like you can only trade a keeper in the first two years and the contract will carry over to the new owner... that way you're not able to just trade away a quality guy in his last year for 3 more years of talent - and it ensures the keepers will get put back in the draft pool for everyone to get a shot at...

 

not sure yet though - we need to hash it all out...

make sure you let us know what you end up doing - i'll keep this thread bookmarked

[WhiteWonder 2,172]

we are in the EXACT same situation in our league right now... optional 2 player, 3 year keeper - keepers act as your round 1 & 2 picks - going into 3rd year now.

nobody had ever traded anyone worth keeping before, and two keepers were traded before the draft this year... one player was going on his third year and one was going on his second year.

 

do the new owners get them for 3 years now? or do they only get the remaining time left on the contracts? its an argument...

i think we are going to let this trade slide and make a new rule... something like you can only trade a keeper in the first two years and the contract will carry over to the new owner... that way you're not able to just trade away a quality guy in his last year for 3 more years of talent - and it ensures the keepers will get put back in the draft pool for everyone to get a shot at...

 

not sure yet though - we need to hash it all out...

make sure you let us know what you end up doing - i'll keep this thread bookmarked

 

yup, the exact same problem we are having... weve only had one trade made involving a player who was kept by one owner and then kep by the new owner the following year.

 

i think the main issue now is trades in that contract year where many players will be in their 3rd year of being kept. If contracts don't carry over with trades I could see alot of trades being made to mutually acquire new keeper talent without having to put those players back in the draft pool. I would like to avoid this so i think the only logical solution is for the 3 years to carry over for trades.

[boblpobl 0]

We have 3 year contracts (so you can keep a player twice). Our contracts do not expire, regardless of transactions. This prevents players from trading keepers just to renew their eligibility.

 

Dropping a player does not renew eligibility either, also to prevent people cheating the system. We use a waiver wire order, so technically, if the bottom two teams in the waiver wire order wanted to trade keepers, they could just drop the players they wanted to trade, then pick up the player the other team dropped. You'd hope people wouldn't stoop to such levels, but who are we kidding?!?

 

Also, this makes sure that every player will be available to draft at least ever three years, keeping some freshness to the teams.

 

In the end, do what you think will work best for your league. I've had to keep the rules very specific, as people in my league are really good at finding loopholes, and this has worked for us.

 

Hope that helps...

[drd0g 0]

Keepers are forever in our league. And for every example of a player beneficial for 10 years there's another "star" keeper who's career flames out in 3 or less. Wasn't there a thread recently on the average length of a career for RB's? Or did I read that somewhere else? Anyway, as I recall, the average career was less than 4 years. QB's and WR's careers are longer but the majority of keepers are RB's.

 

If the idea is to make fantasy football reflective of the NFL, how can you require owners to drop players after 3 years? Well, I know how - I'm wondering why.

[rotisserieking 34]

We instituted the 3 year keeper rule awhile ago and it's been great.

 

If Y1 is the first keeper draft, each team may protect up to 3 players (10 teams total in our league). Same rules for Y2. But in Y3 we have a redraft. Not only do we redraw for draft position, but you may only protect 1 player that year, and it can't be the same person who you protected in the last redraft.

 

For example, the guy who drafted LT as a rookie has had him since Day One. This year was a redraft and since he protected him in the 2005 redraft he could not keep him this year, meaning LT was finally off his roster and a free agent, although he was able to trade him before the draft began.