Late Scratches and Possible Solutions

[killersquids 3]

Between jobs, kids, family, etc., there will probably come a time where you miss the late breaking news that one of your players is inactive for a game. It almost happened to me and it got me thinking....there must be a better way. The best solution I've thought of so far is that if an inactive player is in a team's starting lineup, they are automatically replaced with the bench player who has the highest avg. I'm in a highly competitive league that has been in place for 15 years. We already have a rule in place that it's a $20 fine per position for any incomplete lineups (assuming there is a viable option on the bench). Usually there are only a couple fines a year in total between the 12 owners, so this isn't a major issue.

 

The downsides to this rule would be more duties for the commish, and it could create lazy owners that would not bother to check the latest news prior to kickoff, even with a fine in place.

 

Does anyone here do anything out of the norm when it comes to incomplete starting lineups for their league? Having an incomplete lineup could easily affect the outcome of a game, which could alter who makes the playoffs.

[Challenger 72]

The loss for the person with incomplete line is enough.

 

Personally, it's just another excuse for people that didn't make the playoff. You either had shitty players or shitty luck, no one else to blame. It happens.

[tanatastic 2,061]

Commish replaces inactives/bye with an active bench player is the best way. Yes the guy gets a loss but his opponent can get a free win too wich sucks for teams competing for playoff spots.

[barber2309 26]

The downside to that rule is that it is best to keep your inactive players in the lineup so you don't have to make lineup choices - your inactive players will automatically be replaced for those with the highest average. As Challenger said, a loss is punishment enough. As long as you have incentives for people to still compete down the stretch even when their team isn't a playoff contender, you should be fine. We rarely have an issue in our league with this.

[KSB2424 3,085]

Between jobs, kids, family, etc., there will probably come a time where you miss the late breaking news that one of your players is inactive for a game. It almost happened to me and it got me thinking....there must be a better way. The best solution I've thought of so far is that if an inactive player is in a team's starting lineup, they are automatically replaced with the bench player who has the highest avg. I'm in a highly competitive league that has been in place for 15 years. We already have a rule in place that it's a $20 fine per position for any incomplete lineups (assuming there is a viable option on the bench). Usually there are only a couple fines a year in total between the 12 owners, so this isn't a major issue.

 

The downsides to this rule would be more duties for the commish, and it could create lazy owners that would not bother to check the latest news prior to kickoff, even with a fine in place.

 

Does anyone here do anything out of the norm when it comes to incomplete starting lineups for their league? Having an incomplete lineup could easily affect the outcome of a game, which could alter who makes the playoffs.

 

The past two or three years with kids and whatnot I've found myself in this position on occasion. The answer is that you have all freaking week to set your lineup and if you have a normal starter who is questionable in any way, and you know you will not have access to a computer or smart phone on Sunday then you bench him and start a guy who is definitely playing from your bench.

 

For example tonight I have Crockett Gilmore starting right now and John Brown on my bench because I have a function after work and may not be in the loop if Brown plays. If I catch it, I'll adjust. If not at least I have the guy who I know is playing in there.

 

Part of, actually one of the biggest parts of fantasy football is not skill, its not luck. It's simply paying attention and caring enough to keep up with it all. Managing your squad is THE part of fantasy football that separates some teams from others. Around byes, and injuries and breaking news. Creating some automatic fail safe negates that imo and is bad form. And when everybody and their mama has a smart phone there is no excuse besides sheer laziness.

[Mike FF Today 611]

In one of my local leagues, you can designate "bench players" (one player at each position) to be used in case one of the players in your starting lineup is Inactive.

 

EX: An owner yesterday, had Antonio Gates in his starting lineup. When he originally made his lineup, he designated Jason Witten to be his replacement for the TE position. Since Gates was inactive, the commish swapped Gates for Witten and all is good.

 

Our league is hosted at MFL and this is easy to setup. You simply check a box next to your bench players as you would anyone else in your starting lineup.

[BattleshipLorenzen 3]

IMO it is a very good point to raise, especially given the OPs context (i.e., very active league with solid tenure). In the past, we have used it to help determine draft order (keeper league, 3 keepers, 3 years max before keeper must be released). The playoff teams get draft order based on finish (i.e., champion is last, etc.). The non-playoff teams were awarded draft order based on active games (actually, moved to the back of the non-playoff teams for inactive games). We switched to points scored for draft order for non-playoff teams - highest points scored gets 1st pick. This has roughly the same effect.

 

In your league, it sounds reasonable, but keep the fine, and then add some leeway for exempting the fine (e.g., one or two freebies/year, needs to be an unexpected change or other circumstance, such as a few weeks ago when Rotoworld said Mike Evans was going to be Active a few hours before kickoff, and then he was announced inactive pretty close to kickoff).

 

 

In one of my local leagues, you can designate "bench players" (one player at each position) to be used in case one of the players in your starting lineup is Inactive.

 

EX: An owner yesterday, had Antonio Gates in his starting lineup. When he originally made his lineup, he designated Jason Witten to be his replacement for the TE position. Since Gates was inactive, the commish swapped Gates for Witten and all is good.

 

Our league is hosted at MFL and this easy to setup. You simply check a box next to the bench players as you would anyone else in your starting lineup.

This sounds like a great solution.

[killersquids 3]

In one of my local leagues, you can designate "bench players" (one player at each position) to be used in case one of the players in your starting lineup is Inactive.

 

EX: An owner yesterday, had Antonio Gates in his starting lineup. When he originally made his lineup, he designated Jason Witten to be his replacement for the TE position. Since Gates was inactive, the commish swapped Gates for Witten and all is good.

 

Our league is hosted at MFL and this is easy to setup. You simply check a box next to your bench players as you would anyone else in your starting lineup.

 

That is a perfect solution! Only downside is we would have to change sites. Thanks Mike.

[killersquids 3]

 

The past two or three years with kids and whatnot I've found myself in this position on occasion. The answer is that you have all freaking week to set your lineup and if you have a normal starter who is questionable in any way, and you know you will not have access to a computer or smart phone on Sunday then you bench him and start a guy who is definitely playing from your bench.

 

For example tonight I have Crockett Gilmore starting right now and John Brown on my bench because I have a function after work and may not be in the loop if Brown plays. If I catch it, I'll adjust. If not at least I have the guy who I know is playing in there.

 

Part of, actually one of the biggest parts of fantasy football is not skill, its not luck. It's simply paying attention and caring enough to keep up with it all. Managing your squad is THE part of fantasy football that separates some teams from others. Around byes, and injuries and breaking news. Creating some automatic fail safe negates that imo and is bad form. And when everybody and their mama has a smart phone there is no excuse besides sheer laziness.

 

Your example is exactly my point. You should not be punished because you have a function after work. If Brown plays and you can't make that adjustment, that's BS (not your actions, but having to be in that situation). On a side note, can't you contact the commish and tell him you have Brown in, and to put in Gilmore if Brown is inactive?

[KSB2424 3,085]

 

Your example is exactly my point. You should not be punished because you have a function after work. If Brown plays and you can't make that adjustment, that's BS (not your actions, but having to be in that situation). On a side note, can't you contact the commish and tell him you have Brown in, and to put in Gilmore if Brown is inactive?

 

No, It's my team, not my commish's team.

 

Look, maybe I'm old school because I've been playing fantasy football for damn near 20 years. But back in the day what separated the men from the boys was information, where you got it from and how fast you got it. We relied on homers to give us the inside scoop. Now everybody is a homer for all 32 teams. Now, everybody has the same information all at rapid speed due to the internet - twitter and popularity of fantasy football. Every website all has roughly the same cheat sheets for drafting and "who to start" advice. 12 guys are all drafting from roughly the same lists because the internet is now a vast knowledge base and everybody has their smart phones with injury alerts and breaking news. We're all the same, It's vanilla, its cookie cutter, its created parity in fantasy football. Luck is now the most over-riding factor, maybe the only true factor anymore in a competitive league. It's why people are going away from year long leagues and more to DFS.

 

And now we want to take away the only thing left that gives anybody an advantage. The willingness to CARE more.

 

I don't like it. Might as well just get robots to do it. And check in after week 16 to see how it panned out.

[killersquids 3]

 

No, It's my team, not my commish's team.

 

Look, maybe I'm old school because I've been playing fantasy football for damn near 20 years. But back in the day what separated the men from the boys was information, where you got it from and how fast you got it. We relied on homers to give us the inside scoop. Now everybody is a homer for all 32 teams. Now, everybody has the same information all at rapid speed due to the internet - twitter and popularity of fantasy football. Every website all has roughly the same cheat sheets for drafting and "who to start" advice. 12 guys are all drafting from roughly the same lists because the internet is now a vast knowledge base and everybody has their smart phones with injury alerts and breaking news. We're all the same, It's vanilla, its cookie cutter, its created parity in fantasy football. Luck is now the most over-riding factor, maybe the only true factor anymore in a competitive league. It's why people are going away from year long leagues and more to DFS.

 

And now we want to take away the only thing left that gives anybody an advantage. The willingness to CARE more.

 

I don't like it. Might as well just get robots to do it. And check in after week 16 to see how it panned out.

 

I hear what you're saying, but I disagree. The willingness to care is evident in playing the wire, making trades, starting your best lineup, rooting for your players, rooting against your opponent's players, etc.

 

If I have a guy who is a game time decision, I don't want to worry about checking his status an hour before game time.

[KSB2424 3,085]

 

I hear what you're saying, but I disagree. The willingness to care is evident in playing the wire, making trades, starting your best lineup, rooting for your players, rooting against your opponent's players, etc.

 

If I have a guy who is a game time decision, I don't want to worry about checking his status an hour before game time.

 

That's cool. I'm not arguing with you per se, just offering my opinion.

 

Fantasy Football is becoming more and more "auto-pilot" each and every year. First the internet made it where we all had the same information. Then the hosting sites give their weekly projections. A person can literally know zero about football, fantasy football, anything. Print an ADP cheat sheet out, draft a team, then just plug their starters in based on the hosting sites projections. each week. And now if they don't feel like worrying about injuries the website will switch out players for them.

 

The plane is flying itself killersquid. No pilot's license or knowledge needed anymore. It's an Easy Bake Oven, just set it and forget it. We might as well be flipping coins in the back alley.

[killersquids 3]

 

That's cool. I'm not arguing with you per se, just offering my opinion.

 

Fantasy Football is becoming more and more "auto-pilot" each and every year. First the internet made it where we all had the same information. Then the hosting sites give their weekly projections. A person can literally have know zero about football, fantasy football, anything. Print an ADP cheat sheet out, draft a team, then just plug their starters in based on the hosting sites projections. each week. And now if they don't feel like worrying about injuries the website will switch out players for them.

 

The plane is flying itself killersquid. No pilot's license or knowledge needed anymore. Set it and forget it. We might as well be flipping coins in the back alley.

 

It's all good. It is frustrating when a co-worker who knows nothing about football, much less fantasy, auto drafts a team and wins the league. This is my work league obviously, not my real league.

 

You have a point about auto-setting lineups and how it would be robotic. Hhmmm, I'm actually leaning towards not enabling that feature if it were available and having the commish manually do it if needed.

[KSB2424 3,085]

 

This is my work league obviously, not my real league.

 

 

Honestly after further thought, this is the over riding factor. If this is just a bunch of goobers from work and the league is a way to have a little fun at work and stuff then, yeah, make it as easy as you can for everybody. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

 

If this is a competitive league that's been around a bit that we are playing for a decent amount of prize money then, IMO, the auto-pilot is disengaged and people need to fly their own damn plane.

[giraldi02 470]

Inactives come out an hour and a half before kickoff.

Very seldom does something like Reggie Bush snow game actually occur.

 

If you can't take the heat, don't go into the kitchen

[stonewall 647]

Ya snooze, ya lose.

 

End of story.

[killersquids 3]

Inactives come out an hour and a half before kickoff.

 

Very seldom does something like Reggie Bush snow game actually occur.

 

If you can't take the heat, don't go into the kitchen

 

The issue is handing another team a win, when it should have been a loss. This isn't a sour grapes thread, it's trying to tweak rules to make a league better. When there are teams battling it out for a playoff spot, a team should not get a freebie win because their opponent was called into work on Sunday morning and didn't see the late breaking news about their player.

[stonewall 647]

 

The issue is handing another team a win, when it should have been a loss. This isn't a sour grapes thread, it's trying to tweak rules to make a league better. When there are teams battling it out for a playoff spot, a team should not get a freebie win because their opponent was called into work on Sunday morning and didn't see the late breaking news about their player.

 

Listen, I have been playing this game a long, long time. As a result, I have won a few and lost a few because of a scratch. It happens. However, 99% of the time, you know in advance that a player is iffy. Gates this week, for example. I sat his butt and didn't even think about starting him.....made other plans, which was Green, and it worked out fine. Heck, I understand about being called into work, or some other event popping up....I have been known to call my wife, mom, or friend to check a status for me. This very week I called my wife to double-check on Maclin (who I already had on the bench and replaced with someone else). Preparation.

 

I have no issue if a league wants to make rules such as the one discussed here, but I think it unnecessary....and I wouldn't play in it. With this game becoming so automated and vanilla, it's nice to have some old-school unpredictabilities....IMHO.

[Challenger 72]

Stonewall, I think the term you looking for is mastery. We all becoming a nation of zombies, we are addictive to shortcuts and stopped thinking.

 

We just want to be told what to do by our boss, what to belief by our religion, and how to policy by our politician. I don't understand why people post who should I play thread. That's the whole point of this game! You select a player.... that's all fantasy football is about.

 

Enough of my rant. Carry on.