Keeper rules

[NotoriousGIB 0]

This is the first season our league is keeping one player and losing the draft pick from the round in which that player was drafted last season. Is it best to determine the draft order, then have the teams declare their keeper? Or do you recommend doing the opposite--declaring your keeper and then determining draft order?

[petekrum 20]

No one way is really better than the other. I like to know my draft order as soon as possible, but the best thing is usually to leave it to a league vote.

[weepaws 2,452]

Draft order first

[Dr Hook 6]

you don't do reverse draft order from final standings? I would add that as a new rule.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

you don't do reverse draft order from final standings? I would add that as a new rule.

We do a lottery where the champ gets 1 chip and last place 10 chips in a hat.

[Super Cubs 132]

Let the league vote on it.

[Cretins 21]

you don't do reverse draft order from final standings? I would add that as a new rule.

 

We ditched this a couple if years into our keeper league. We found that there were certain cases where this was actually a disadvantage to the last place team? How? Our keepers are worth round +1 from the year before. Let's say you were last place last year and decided to keep a player that you drafted in the second last year. He would then be your round 1 pick. Now you don't get to pick until the last spot in round 2, and you're stuck sitting there watching everyone else scooping up all the decent free agents. With up to 40 players being kept every year, the pickings are already a little slim by the end of round 2.

 

For the past decade we've instead had everyone choose their draft spot mid summer (we're going through the process now). The last place finisher from last year picks first, typically going with first or last depending on whether or not he's keeping someone in round 1. Then second last finisher picks his spot second, etc etc. In the end the previous year's champion's draft spot is dictated for him, typically ending up around #6 or #7. So to go back to the example above, if last year's loser wants to keep a round 1 player, he can take the last spot and he gets to pick first in the second round.

 

We've found this to work extremely well and adds a little extra strategy in choosing your draft spot. It's been fun doing it this way and we haven't had a single complaint.

[jaxjag 43]

 

We ditched this a couple if years into our keeper league. We found that there were certain cases where this was actually a disadvantage to the last place team? How? Our keepers are worth round +1 from the year before. Let's say you were last place last year and decided to keep a player that you drafted in the second last year. He would then be your round 1 pick. Now you don't get to pick until the last spot in round 2, and you're stuck sitting there watching everyone else scooping up all the decent free agents. With up to 40 players being kept every year, the pickings are already a little slim by the end of round 2.

 

For the past decade we've instead had everyone choose their draft spot mid summer (we're going through the process now). The last place finisher from last year picks first, typically going with first or last depending on whether or not he's keeping someone in round 1. Then second last finisher picks his spot second, etc etc. In the end the previous year's champion's draft spot is dictated for him, typically ending up around #6 or #7. So to go back to the example above, if last year's loser wants to keep a round 1 player, he can take the last spot and he gets to pick first in the second round.

 

We've found this to work extremely well and adds a little extra strategy in choosing your draft spot. It's been fun doing it this way and we haven't had a single complaint.

 

How about making things really simple and have teams keep their "n" best players and then everybody drafts NFL style? Do you need to associate a "keeper" to a draft round?

[Flgatorguy87 160]

We keep true value for where the player was selected for any draft pick that was selected 6th round or after up to 2 players. We also just started a early trade deadline for players who can be kept so we have 2 different trade deadlines. The keeper trade deadline is I think week 5 and the idea is to prevent all the players to be auctioned off at the end of the year at the standard trade deadline. We had no rules against it so it basically split into 1 group of really strong teams and the other group who had 2 awesome cheap keepers and extra accrued draft picks. The rule basically states any player traded after week 5 isn't keeper eligible. It could limit a few players but it's universally limiting and shouldn't be an issue.

 

This rule should be early enough that everyone is competitive and puts more emphasis on your own drafted players to be keepers.

 

We also use reverse finish for the draft and keepers are due 1 week before the draft. Most people make their keepers aware the deadline is just a week before the draft.

[edytwinky 1]

Would your league be opposed to switching to an auction draft?