How do you rule? (1 Viewer)

[ChinaTown]

These are consecutive emails made on a rules thread in September. We are using waivers for the first time in this league. (Please don't ask why... but there was some confusion at the beginning.)

September 13th: Waivers have now run. Starting at 1 PM EST today, we will have open add/drop, meaning you can add players without going through waivers. That will end at noon EST this Saturday, and the waiver process will run again early next Thursday morning.

And then this, after the week was done:

September 16th: For the rest of the season, we'll follow the same waiver schedule as last week - waivers run very early Thursday morning, then open add/drop starts at 1 PM EST Thursday. Add/Drop stays open until 11AM EST Saturday, when we switch back to the waiver process.

The start and end of add/drop have to be done manually, so it's possible I might be off by a few minutes at some point. If there's more of a delay, I'll send out an email.

So the question at hand is when is the cutoff for transactions? It hadn't really come up throughout the season.

This week, someone made a transaction at 11:30am because there had been no manual shutdown (not me or anyone I was playing) and at 12:06pm the commish emailed the league and cited the email above and questioned the legitimacy of the transaction, asking whether or not the player should be allowed in the person's lineup. To complicate things, noon is both the auto-deadline for add/drops if they aren't manually shut off, and in this case, the time when that particular player's game tipped.

What would you do?

 

[Billy Bats]

They added someone 11:30am when? Today?

 

[ChinaTown]

They added someone 11:30am when? Today?

It has been pointed out to me I should have clarified. This is college league, but I posted here since I've seen college discussed and this is the only real place I know to post it... The transaction was made this last Saturday at 11:30am. Whether or not the transaction stands determines playoffs.

 

[Hoosier16]

September 13th: Waivers have now run. Starting at 1 PM EST today, we will have open add/drop, meaning you can add players without going through waivers. That will end at noon EST this Saturday



September 16th: For the rest of the season, we'll follow the same waiver schedule as last week

To me, it looks like that was the intent and the 12:00 time should stand.

 

[Billy Bats]

September 13th: Waivers have now run. Starting at 1 PM EST today, we will have open add/drop, meaning you can add players without going through waivers. That will end at noon EST this Saturday



September 16th: For the rest of the season, we'll follow the same waiver schedule as last week

To me, it looks like that was the intent and the 12:00 time should stand.

This. Seems like someone got their times confused, but clearly states what times were intended to be followed.

 

[daveR]

One sentence says noon, the other says 11. If any player has been added between 11 & noon, ever, then the precedent has been set for noon.

 

[renesauz]

Fire the commish. Silly to set yourself up to have to turn it off/on manually if the league management software can be set to automatically lock it up at a certain point.

 

[Quibbler]

September 13th: Waivers have now run. Starting at 1 PM EST today, we will have open add/drop, meaning you can add players without going through waivers. That will end at noon EST this Saturday



September 16th: For the rest of the season, we'll follow the same waiver schedule as last week

To me, it looks like that was the intent and the 12:00 time should stand.

This. Seems like someone got their times confused, but clearly states what times were intended to be followed.

Agreed

 

[rockaction]

With an iron fist in a velvet glove.

 

[TakiToki]

Very tough call, as the information is directly contradictory and the move in question falls right in the hot spot. I don't think there's a good answer, but a decision obviously must be made. I'd lean toward allowing the move as it was before the Saturday games had kicked, but it would be nice to know if there's any relevant precedent or if it involved Johnny Football.

 

[DoubleG]

The wording in the emails is confusing at best, contradictory at worst. The claim went in before the game started. It seems that the point of the rule is that an owner not gain an advantage by claiming guys that are playing - as no such advantage was gained, the claim should be allowed to stand. Make the rule clearer and make it automatically enforced by league mananagment software.

 

[ChinaTown]

Thanks all for your replies. In the situation at hand, the player in question was on a 2-8 team playing the commish's team. The commish said the rule invalidated the transaction. (The transaction was to put Devin Gardner in after Denard was announced injured.)

Gardner makes the difference and the commish loses if Gardner is in 2-8 guy's lineup, and in fact, I picked up the phone and texted the dude suggesting he play Gardner when I saw Denard was out, so I immediately objected to the idea he could invalidate the transaction.

After heated arguments all day that became especially heated when it became clear this was going to determine a playoff spot, the 2-8 guy capitulated and said void the transaction. I said no way, and we appointed a neutral 3rd party who just handed down a decision. Which was that the objection to the transaction was made in a reasonable time and the rule was, although not entirely clear, an 11am cut-off -- and that had it been two other parties, that would have been how it was adjudicated.

I obviously think I got jobbed (like, monumentally) but appreciate all the feedback.

 

[Billy Bats]

Wow, doesn't sound like a neutral party made the decision. You should've used all of our replies as evidence. Sorry you got jobbed because of it.