Interesting Keeper Idea being kicked around (1 Viewer)

[TheNext0]

There has been about a 50/50 split of people wanting some sort of keeper strategy involved in our league. We have a PPR 10 team redraft league, with a 17 round draft.

The idea that is being discussed at the moment is that we would allow each owner to keep 1 player that they drafted after round 10 (so rounds 11-17) from one year to the next. This is a single year keeper, you cannot keep this player for more than one year.

Some problems we've run into already:

1. An owner mentioned throwing in free agents as well. My idea of keeping this one player after round 10 is to reward owners for drafting well later in the draft.

2. Restrictions have to be in place to keep an owner from drafting a handful of rookies, then immediately dropping them for other players after the draft. I was thinking that you must have the player on your team for something like 9 consecutive weeks after the draft for the player to be eligible to keep.

3. Should the owner have to forfeit their 11th round pick to keep this player? Should they forfeit the pick in the corresponding round that they selected the player?

What do you guys think of this? Is there some kind of similarly accepted keeper league style out there that I could refer to? Sound too complicated, or will this perhaps unbalance the league in any way?

As a working example...I drafted both Marion Barber III and Brandon Jacobs last year in late rounds (maybe 13 and 15). They both remained on my team all season long. Say I want to keep Jacobs for this year, do I give up my 15th round pick? Do I give up my 11th round pick or 15th? Will this cause an problem balance-wise in the league, since I essentially have a 3rd-4th round pick for the price of an 11th or 15th? Or is this an acceptable reward for drafting a very deep, talented team the year before?

Just looking for some opinions, thanks very much!

 

[heckmanm]

2. Restrictions have to be in place to keep an owner from drafting a handful of rookies, then immediately dropping them for other players after the draft. I was thinking that you must have the player on your team for something like 9 consecutive weeks after the draft for the player to be eligible to keep.

Do you mean that an owner would draft a rookie, drop him, then pick him up late in the year and want to keep him? At a minimum, the keeper has to be on your roster at the end of the season, I would think. Maybe I'm not understanding the concern here.

3. Should the owner have to forfeit their 11th round pick to keep this player? Should they forfeit the pick in the corresponding round that they selected the player?

If you limit keepers to players selected that late in the draft, there's not much point in giving up a pick. Although if it's an optional keeper, then SOME draft pick would need to be forfeited. A lot of leagues require you to forfeit a pick X rounds higher than where the player was drafted, so each year a player is kept, it becomes more expensive to do so.

 

[TheNext0]

My concern with #2 is that someone might fill their roster by round 14 and just take 3 shots in the dark on rookies that may get more playing time the following year...then immediately dumping them when the season starts, because they don't have much value this year. I want to make sure the owners have to hold on to the player for a reasonable amount of time.

If you limit keepers to players selected that late in the draft, there's not much point in giving up a pick. Although if it's an optional keeper, then SOME draft pick would need to be forfeited. A lot of leagues require you to forfeit a pick X rounds higher than where the player was drafted, so each year a player is kept, it becomes more expensive to do so.

It would def be optional. I think we'd focus on keeping players for just one year, then you can again choose a player picked after round 10 to keep for the following year.Your thoughts on making it more expensive are interesting, though. Maybe I could average the ADP of the player on draft day and the pick he was taken, and charge the owner that price.For instance, say Marc Bulger was taken in the 11th round last year. This year his ADP ends up being 4th round. Average together and round down and the owner must forfeit a 7th round pick to keep him. Does this reward him for making a solid pick the year before, or was he already rewarded enough last year since Bulger treated him well? Does this idea add extra strategy to the draft for keeping next year in mind when we're late in the draft? I'm still not sure if this will cause more problems than actually add something interesting to the league. Any other thoughts?

 

[LongDuckDong]

I think the easiest way to do this is allow one keeper and forfeit the draft pick in the round the player was selected in the previous year. You can decide what the default round is for a FA or not allow it.

We only allow a player to be protected for one year.

 

[heckmanm]

My concern with #2 is that someone might fill their roster by round 14 and just take 3 shots in the dark on rookies that may get more playing time the following year...then immediately dumping them when the season starts, because they don't have much value this year. I want to make sure the owners have to hold on to the player for a reasonable amount of time.

Well, I think at minimum your 'keeper' has to be on your roster at the end of the year. If you want to drop him for part of the season and pick him back up, then you expose yourself to the risk that another team will grab him before you can do that. If you're talking about being able to declare someone a keeper that's not on your roster, just because you originally drafted him, that's just crazy. You could potentially name a keeper who is on another team's roster.

 

[TheNext0]

My concern with #2 is that someone might fill their roster by round 14 and just take 3 shots in the dark on rookies that may get more playing time the following year...then immediately dumping them when the season starts, because they don't have much value this year. I want to make sure the owners have to hold on to the player for a reasonable amount of time.

Well, I think at minimum your 'keeper' has to be on your roster at the end of the year. If you want to drop him for part of the season and pick him back up, then you expose yourself to the risk that another team will grab him before you can do that. If you're talking about being able to declare someone a keeper that's not on your roster, just because you originally drafted him, that's just crazy. You could potentially name a keeper who is on another team's roster.

Sorry for being vague. You're right though, owner A could draft a player, drop them, then owner B picks them up. Owner A then want to keep this player at the end of the year because they drafted them.Very useful insight. I could be super-restrictive and say you have to draft the player and keep them on your roster the whole season or I could be very hands off and just say:"An owner may keep any player who is on his team at the end of the season and was drafted after round 11 in the draft."Then decide on what it will cost each owner to keep said player. Seems to be getting pretty complicated though, thanks for all your opinions!

 

[Lehigh98]

My suggestion:

You can keep anyone as long as:

- They are on your final roster

- They were added to your team before the trade deadline

- They were drafted after the Xth (your choice) round or undrafted.

If acquired via draft or trade, you keep them at a cost of their original draft position minus X rounds.

If acquired as a free agent (even if they were drafted and dropped), you keep them at the price of a Xth rounder.

- Or -

If acquired as a free agent and was not originally drafted, you keep them at the price of a Xth rounder.

If acquired as a free agent and was originally drafted, you keep them at a cost of their original draft position minus X (your choice) rounds.

 

[Lehigh98]

I would also change the cutoff from the start of the 11th to the start of the 10th or 12th.

No reason to give the guy with LT first pick in the keeper round too.

 

[GregR_2]

Personally I don't like this kind of keeper system as much as others. I think the main purpose of adding keepers should be to create more strategy in the game, and so that should almost always be the answer to "why should we do it this way".

If "rewarding owners who draft well" is the goal, then the stated goal amounts to trying to stratify the league and take the teams who already are doing well and make them do even better. I don't think that's the goal a league should be striving for.

Teams who do well will already have an opportunity to do better when you create more strategy options. They will have more resources to employ in those choices, but the crux of the rule change to me should be to create a situation where owners have to think, and even better, to interact with each other.

I tend to prefer an open keeper system where you can keep anyone on your roster, but at some cost. It could be a pick at the top of the draft (1st keeper costs you your 1st, 2nd your 2nd, etc). Or it could be you can keep a guy but have to spend a pick that is 2 rounds better than where he was taken, with free agents considered as being some set round. The goal to me is to create more choices and strategies, and especially to include trading amongst teams as viable options. Limiting it to guys after the 10th round cuts down on the players worth being kept. Limiting it to a single keeper also limits just how much strategy can be employed.

My 2 cents.