Keeper league rules (1 Viewer)

[PinkydaPimp]

Our league is moving from a standard redraft to a keeper league. It has been proposed that we do a 2 player keeper league. People are proposing a number of rules and i wanted to see if anyone has any experience with any of them. our ultimate goal is the prevent any 1 team from dominating.

1. if you keep 1 player, you lose the 1st round draft pick, if you keep 2, you lose the 1st and 2nd.

Now, we have another owner that wants to propose the following:

if you keep a player, you only lose the draft pick for the round they were drafted in. So if i drafted ADP last year in the 4th, this year, i would only lose a 4th round draft pick.

THoughts?

2. Can only keep a player for 2 or 3 years max.

thoughts?

3. Teams should pay their next years league fee by December in order to be able to continue to make transactions in order to prevent teams from tanking.

thoughts?

Any other rules that you have used that you think might be helpful would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Mene]

A league I am in is changing from Redraft to keeper this year, here is a small outline of our keepers rules.

First, there are two drafts, a 2 round Rookie Draft, involving.... rookies. Then, the main draft, of 15 rounds. Teams can keep 3 players from season to season. You may keep 1 player selected during the rookie draft, and 2 players from the main draft.

The players selected from the main draft may be kept for 3 total years ( the year you draft them + 2). You may keep one player you selected in rounds 3 - 8, and another from rounds 9+. There no picks lost for next seasons draft, we just limit the impact by seperating them into the pools.

Players selected from the rookie draft may be kept a total of 4 years, at escalating value. The first year you keep him (his second year on the team) he counts as a player kept from the rookie draft. The second season that you chose to keep him, he counts as a player selected from the rounds 9+ pool. The third and final year you can keep him (which would be his fourth season on your team), he counts as a player selected from the rounds 3 - 8 pool.

As I said though, this is our first year trying this, so we're still fine tuning and trying to think of all possible loopholes or problems. It's supposed to be a hybrid I guess, leaving the first two rounds with plenty of inrigue due to players selected there being unkeepable, but also adding the element of a couple of guys being "your" guys, who will be there for a couple years for you.

Good luck.

 

[GregR_2]

Our league is moving from a standard redraft to a keeper league. It has been proposed that we do a 2 player keeper league. People are proposing a number of rules and i wanted to see if anyone has any experience with any of them. our ultimate goal is the prevent any 1 team from dominating. 1. if you keep 1 player, you lose the 1st round draft pick, if you keep 2, you lose the 1st and 2nd.

This is the method that I prefer. This way teams without 2 worthy keepers will use their draft picks normally and have first crack at the rest of the field, which does help balance things out. And it also creates some decisions and strategy which are the kind of things I think you want to try to add. Have a person not in the league collect the keeper lists so no one knows who anyone else is keeping. You have to guess is there goig to be a better player available than my 2nd keeper, for example. After the deadline, then the list gets compiled and sent out to the league.

Now, we have another owner that wants to propose the following:if you keep a player, you only lose the draft pick for the round they were drafted in. So if i drafted ADP last year in the 4th, this year, i would only lose a 4th round draft pick. THoughts?

This is a really bad way to do it. I don't like keeper costs based on where he was previously drafted at all. You get some ridiculous player values vs the pick that it cost, enough so that I don't see how it makes a league better. I think the goal of having keepers should be to increase strategy and interaction. I don't see how this does so vs having the compensation be in the ballpark of the player's value, as your method #1 does.But even if you do go with the original pick way, you really should have it be some # of rounds earlier than the round he was drafted, not the same round, to at least limit things like a Clinton Portis who was an 8th or 9th round pick in many rookie drafts. That way sooner or later the pick needed as compensation catches up with the player even if he's a rare longterm top guy like LT (who went in the 3rd or 4th round in most drafts when he was a rookie).

2. Can only keep a player for 2 or 3 years max.thoughts?

When I first took my 2 main leagues from redraft to keeper, a few owners pushed for this. In discussing it, we went out and made lists of the top 10 players at each position for the last 5 seasons. We would see at least 50% turnover in the top ten over just a year or two span. As soon as people saw how much those players changed, pretty much everyone decided that it wasn't necessary. As an example, two years ago the top RBs were SA, LJ, Tiki, LT, and Edge. Those guys currently have average draft positions in redrafts of 21.05, 1.11, retired, 1.01, and 4.06. Only 1 still in the top 5 and only 2 who are first rounders. Go back another year (Tiki, SA, LT, Curtis Martin, Domanick Davis) and you only have LT and 3 guys who are retired and SA who still doesn't have a job.It just isn't very necessary to limit them because of the turnover. Even players with longevity like LT end up changing hands after a couple of years because the owner who has him is looking to trade him off before his production drops (I'm saying that from what I actually saw in my two keep 4 leagues, where LT has been traded twice in each league already... Priest was traded multiple times when he was at the peak, etc).

3. Teams should pay their next years league fee by December in order to be able to continue to make transactions in order to prevent teams from tanking.thoughts?Any other rules that you have used that you think might be helpful would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm sort of undecided on that. I don't see that it will prevent tanking. Tanking only does me good if I play next year to take advantage of it. If I wasn't going to play the next year I wouldn't bother tanking, so I don't see how paying in advance would bother a tanker.I'd rather just have a rule that someone who gives the appearance of tanking may be called on to justify how his moves are to his team's gametime benefit. The punishment for being judged to have intentionally tanked should be something that will negate any advantage he could have gained as well as extra punishment. He gets the last pick in every round and is given whatever seed in his playoff bracket the other teams in the bracket don't want, basically letting teams below him move a slot if they want, or not.

 

[GregR_2]

Oh, and if you go with your method one, consider implementing a version of the NFL's Al Davis rule.

One year the Raiders signed some restricted free agent where they had to give up a draft pick of a certain round as compensation. So Davis traded his pick for the last pick in the round and some other stuff, since it would still meet the compensation rule.

If you want to allow that, it's fine, one of my leagues chose to. So people with the 2.1 who are keeping someone will trade it to a team who isn't keeping 2 guys and has a later pick in the round... normally all the get out of it then is a minor swapping picks in another round.

If you don't want to allow it, the pick used on the keeper should be equal to or greater than your normal pick in that round. You can also cut some leeway and allow picks acquired in trade before the previous year's trade deadline to be used regardless of where it falls in the round, since they didn't know where the pick would end up when they got it.

 

[Road Warriors]

Our league is moving from a standard redraft to a keeper league. It has been proposed that we do a 2 player keeper league. People are proposing a number of rules and i wanted to see if anyone has any experience with any of them. our ultimate goal is the prevent any 1 team from dominating. 1. if you keep 1 player, you lose the 1st round draft pick, if you keep 2, you lose the 1st and 2nd.Now, we have another owner that wants to propose the following:if you keep a player, you only lose the draft pick for the round they were drafted in. So if i drafted ADP last year in the 4th, this year, i would only lose a 4th round draft pick. THoughts?2. Can only keep a player for 2 or 3 years max.thoughts?3. Teams should pay their next years league fee by December in order to be able to continue to make transactions in order to prevent teams from tanking.thoughts?Any other rules that you have used that you think might be helpful would be appreciated. Thanks.

I play in a Keep 2 system that uses the previous draft position as a basis for what round your keeper slots. Effectively, you slot your keeper 2 rounds earlier than where they were drafted the previous year. This works on 2 levels, by keeping the 1st and 2nd round picks in the pool, teams will still have top tier talent available at the draft and can be competitive year to year without great keepers and by continually moving keepers earlier and earlier in the draft, eventually the keeper will return to the pool, either because their slot to keep is no longer providing value or they've gone in round 1 or 2 the previous year.

 

[madd futher]

We Play a deep (keep 7 or 8) keeper league with 16 player rosters (including D/ST and K). Converted it last year from re-draft with no problems so this is year 2 as keeper. Our owners span 3 time zones. For a copy of our rules, just email me at bill@byreninsgroup.com

edit: I've played in both and deeper keeper leagues are much more fun than shallow keepers as long as there is a way to get a little 'parity' for the weaker teams......I think we've found a perfect solution for that problem.

 

[fridayfrenzy]

Our league goes by the method where you go down each round each year from when they were drafted. (I.E. If you draft Braylon edwards in the 6th, he would be your 5th round pick the next year and the 4th round pick the following year.)In addition to this, we make it so that you can not keep any players drafted in the first three rounds.Reason we went with this is because we wanted the draft each year to be more fun than just being able to keep all the studs and basically starting the draft with a first pick overall of Roy Williams. It also adds more strategy into the drafts rather than just having a regular draft and just having the no-brainer choice of selecting your 1st and 2nd round players.

Every player on a team’s roster will be assigned a keeper number (KN). If the player is kept, a draft pick equal to the (KN-1) will be given up at the next year's draft. The Keeper date each year is at rules meeting and at that time, draft picks for that years draft are lost per the KN of the players kept. The draft lottery will be picked after keepers have been declared by all teams. Late Keeper submissions will be dealt with by the entire league with a vote.Specifics-Original KN will equal the round the player was drafted in, 16 is the maximum number.-Players with the KN at the draft from 1-4 cannot be designated as keepers .-A KN of 9 will be assigned to all free agents.-This KN will be reduced by 1 each year a player is kept.-Maximum of 2 players per year can be kept, no position limits, no limit to the number of years kept.-A players KN will stick with the player if traded-If a player is dropped and picked up (see transactions section), the player's KN's status will remain as when drafted unless they were chosen after the 8th round, and in that case they will receive the KN of a free agent (KN=9). (i.e. Michael Bennett is drafted in the 15th round and then dropped during the season, his KN will be 9)-If you want to keep 2 or more players with the same KN, you will lose the next higher draft pick if you decide to keep more than 1. Example: 2 players with a KN of 8 will cost you your 8th and 7th round picks to keep both. The player picked up first will be assigned the lower KN (ie. You pick up Anquan Boldin in Week 1 and Rudi Johnson in Week 9, Boldin will be your 7th Rd. pick and Johnson will be your 8th).The draft pick you give up is your "natural" draft pick. Example: If you have two 8th round picks, one via a trade, your actual draft pick is given up, not the one you received in a trade. If you have no draft picks that were originally yours but only those acquired in a trade, your next highest pick will be lost.If you have no draft picks in a round, then the next highest round will be used. Example: A player has a KN of 6. You have no 6th round picks. If you want to keep the player, you will lose your 5th round pick. KN will stay at 6 however.Roster freeze for all teams happens at kickoff of Week 14. The team that you will be going into the off season with will be set on Week 14, no free agents can be picked up during the playoffs. This is to ensure that teams cannot pick-up the injured players for their keepers for next year at the last moment, if they wish to do this; it must be before the kickoff of Week 14 but will take up a roster spot for playoffs.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

Our league is moving from a standard redraft to a keeper league. It has been proposed that we do a 2 player keeper league. People are proposing a number of rules and i wanted to see if anyone has any experience with any of them. our ultimate goal is the prevent any 1 team from dominating. 1. if you keep 1 player, you lose the 1st round draft pick, if you keep 2, you lose the 1st and 2nd.Now, we have another owner that wants to propose the following:if you keep a player, you only lose the draft pick for the round they were drafted in. So if i drafted ADP last year in the 4th, this year, i would only lose a 4th round draft pick. THoughts?2. Can only keep a player for 2 or 3 years max.thoughts?3. Teams should pay their next years league fee by December in order to be able to continue to make transactions in order to prevent teams from tanking.thoughts?Any other rules that you have used that you think might be helpful would be appreciated. Thanks.

I play in a Keep 2 system that uses the previous draft position as a basis for what round your keeper slots. Effectively, you slot your keeper 2 rounds earlier than where they were drafted the previous year. This works on 2 levels, by keeping the 1st and 2nd round picks in the pool, teams will still have top tier talent available at the draft and can be competitive year to year without great keepers and by continually moving keepers earlier and earlier in the draft, eventually the keeper will return to the pool, either because their slot to keep is no longer providing value or they've gone in round 1 or 2 the previous year.

this is interesting. so if you draft someone in round 16 you can keep them for like 6 years then? what if you trade a keeper? what about players picked up on waivers?

 

[TLEF316]

we keep 5. 1 must be a rookie. Keepers count as your first 5 picks. All non-keepers and incoming rookies are drafted together. Draft order goes from worst-first in serpantine fashion.

 

[Tanner9919]

I'm in 2 keepers, one in particular, is run like a Swiss Clock..

we allow up to 8 keepers, but here's the catch..the league entrance fee is $100...for that $100,you can keep up to 5 guys..for players 6-8, its $50/each..so you could potentially pay $250 ( keeping 3 at $50 each + $100 entrance fee) while other GM's might only be paying $100..it REALLY grows the pot like mad!

we allow draft picks to be traded for players from season to season ( I traded my 2008 #1 for Portis midway thru 2007 season - and won the Championship because of it!)..

I've always believed that a keeper league is a keeper league, meaning limiting the number of players you can keep to ,say, 3, is just plain boring..its not really a keeper league that way..allowing guys to build nearly full rosters, is much more fun...we allow 8 keepers in one league, 9 in the other..

we don't use a taxi squad or any fancy BS like that...we all know that for the most part, if you like a rookie WR, you'll need to wait 3 years to see him develop as most WR's bloom in yr 3..

thats the fun of the whole thing...limiting GM's to just 3 keepers is nonsense..either you ARE a dynasty league, or you're not..there's no happy medium here..

 

[PinkydaPimp]

I'm in 2 keepers, one in particular, is run like a Swiss Clock..we allow up to 8 keepers, but here's the catch..the league entrance fee is $100...for that $100,you can keep up to 5 guys..for players 6-8, its $50/each..so you could potentially pay $250 ( keeping 3 at $50 each + $100 entrance fee) while other GM's might only be paying $100..it REALLY grows the pot like mad!we allow draft picks to be traded for players from season to season ( I traded my 2008 #1 for Portis midway thru 2007 season - and won the Championship because of it!)..I've always believed that a keeper league is a keeper league, meaning limiting the number of players you can keep to ,say, 3, is just plain boring..its not really a keeper league that way..allowing guys to build nearly full rosters, is much more fun...we allow 8 keepers in one league, 9 in the other..we don't use a taxi squad or any fancy BS like that...we all know that for the most part, if you like a rookie WR, you'll need to wait 3 years to see him develop as most WR's bloom in yr 3..thats the fun of the whole thing...limiting GM's to just 3 keepers is nonsense..either you ARE a dynasty league, or you're not..there's no happy medium here..

yea i wanted to switch our league to a dynasty. but so many owners are scared of it for whatever reason. :-/ so we are trying to find a way to slowly ease into it. Some really good ideas in here!! Thanks!

 

[strykerpks]

We took our rules from an 2004 article here. It has seemed to work pretty well for us since then.

LINK

WE'D LIKE TO LET OWNERS KEEP PLAYERS BY GIVING UP A DRAFT PICK, BUT WE'D LIKE TO MAKE THAT PICK BETTER EACH SEASON. DO YOU HAVE ANY CREATIVE IDEAS HOW TO DO THAT?

We were faced with this question several times last year. Most leagues wanted to both make owners pay a healthy ransom for protecting a player AND reward owners for finding diamonds in the rough. We think we found a solution that fits everyone's needs. It requires a bit of math, but provides a comfortable solution that meets the requirements.

In order to protect a player, a team must give up a draft pick that is the square root of the round in which the player was selected. For instance, in order to protect a player selected in the 16th round, you must give up a 4th round pick (4 is the square root of 16). Since 1 is the square root of 1, you can always keep your first round pick. The number of players you may keep is dependent upon the size of your roster. Leagues with a roster size of 36, could keep 6 players, for example. Here is a chart of the required compensation for players:

Round Drafted Pick Forfeited to Protect 1st - 2nd 1st rounder 3rd - 6th 2nd rounder 7th - 12th 3rd rounder 13th - 20th 4th rounder 21st - 30th 5th rounder 31st - 42nd 6th rounder 43rd or higher 7th rounderAs you can tell by the chart above, you'd only be able to keep one of your first or second round picks since you only have one first round pick to give up. If you trade away your first round pick, you may not protect a player in that spot. Keeping players would be optional. If you elect to keep no players from a particular slot, you'd retain the draft pick. Players picked up off the waiver wire would be treated as a pick in the last round of your draft. Finally, the calculation would be redone every year and the revised assigned draft pick value would stick with the player. For example, a player is drafted in 2004 with the 25th round pick. He is golden so you protect him in 2005 by giving up a 5th round pick and for purposes of that season, this player is viewed as a 5th round pick. He continues to develop so in 2006 you have to give up a second round pick. If you choose to retain this player in 2007, you'd have to give up your first round pick. Teams may not trade for extra picks for purposes of keeping more than one player in a given slot. Traded draft picks that result in multiple picks in a given round are required to be used for purposes of drafting a player, not protecting a player.Under no circumstance would a player be able to be kept for four consecutive years without costing the team a 1st round pick to retain him. A separate category would need to be added on your team rosters - ROUND. This will assist the Commissioner in keeping track of that designation.

Although not perfect, the Square Root Solution allows teams to get a year or two of tremendous value for players they draft late or pick up mid-season. It also allows for them to retain their studs. Yet, it also ensures that the draft is populated with exceptional players each year, also. We feel it escalates compensation and restricts uncompetitive dynasties in a way that is healthy for your league.