What's the best way to expand a keeper league? (1 Viewer)

[strykerpks]

We started a local league this year with only 8 teams. It is a keep-5 HTH league. The keeper rules are (1) 3 yr contract, (2) 2 yr contracts, (2) 1 year contracts, one of which must be a rookie.

We've had some interest from other GBs and will be expanding to 12 teams. We've had some discussions about the best way to add these 4 teams. I've had 2 ideas that have been met with some resistance.

1. Scrap keepers this year and start fresh with the 12 next year. This was the inaugural year anyways and the keeper talent spread through those 8 teams doesn't leave much for the 4 new teams (top 40 already gone before they have one player).

2. Have a 4 person, 5 round expansion draft to mirror our keepers (1st round = 3 year contract etc) prior to the rest of the draft. The talent is still spread thin, but at least they will have a fighting chance with some of the scraps.

2a - Possibly during that expansion draft allow the 4 new teams to take only one 2 year contract from another team. Once a team has a 2 year contract taken, no one else can take another player from that team. They then get a supplemental pick as a 2 year keeper.

What's the best way to keep the talent spread so the 4 new teams aren't starting from behind the 8ball? Or are the new owners SOL? I prefer option 1, even though I have great keepers.

 

[Wrigley]

1st year? Go with option 1

 

[strykerpks]

1st year? Go with option 1

My thoughts exactly...now, to convince the other owners and the commish

 

[Captain Hook]

There is just NO equitable way if you have the eight teams keep their best players - nobody in their right mind should enter for full entry fee under those conditions.

This happens a lot with "young" leagues - yours will have to decide if the possesivness of the current owners means you stay at 8 teams or whether for the benifts of a larger league they can see the big picture and agree to "start over" with their friends and share the league.

GL because you WILL get some arguments

 

[strykerpks]

There is just NO equitable way if you have the eight teams keep their best players - nobody in their right mind should enter for full entry fee under those conditions.This happens a lot with "young" leagues - yours will have to decide if the possesivness of the current owners means you stay at 8 teams or whether for the benifts of a larger league they can see the big picture and agree to "start over" with their friends and share the league.GL because you WILL get some arguments

Thanks Hook and Wrigley for validating my concerns. I guess that's my whole argument. It just isn't good for the league as a whole if we get to keep the Pujols/Braun/Howard type players while their first pick will be the Grandersons and Derek Lee's of the world. I guess thats my FF commish ideals coming out. I'm in for a long battle methinks

 

[TLEF316]

gotta start over. no brainer.

 

[Buckfast 1]

My 14-team long-time "keep 10" keeper league just expanded to a 16-team league this past offseason. After much debate and analysis, we came up with this plan.

1. All teams Protect 4

2. If a team loses a player to expansion, they Protect 4 more

3. A team can lose a maximum of 3 players to expansion

4. Expansion teams are eligible to select any player from the Free Agent pool instead of from an existing team

Our Commissioner analyzed what players would be available under this plan and tried to find a sweet spot where decent talent would be available for the expansion teams. Our league is a bit top heavy, so some teams have pretty solid #5 players, which would be 2nd round draft picks if we re-drafted entirely. Based on his analysis, he found that under this protection plan, there would probably be 2 exposed 2nd rounders, 3 exposed 3rd rounders, 3 exposed 4th rounders, and 1 exposed 5th rounder. According to his number crunching, he found that this plan would allow an expansion team to be able to start off with a fairly average group of 10 keepers for 2009. No First Rounders, a couple of Second Rounders, and balanced talent after that through Round 5. We then sent the Commissioner a list of our top 9 keepers ranked in order, so that when one of our players was taken the additional players would be protected.

The expansion teams ended up with the following rosters to start the season:

Team 1: Justin Morneau, Nick Markakis, Carlos Lee, Joe Mauer, Jacoby Ellsbury, Ervin Santana, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Michael Young

Team 2: Carlos Quentin, Aramis Ramirez, Stephen Drew, Yovani Gallardo, Carlos Zambrano, Andre Ethier, Magglio Ordonez, Erik Bedard, Brad Hawpe, Joakim Soria

Team 1 is currently in 8th place out of 16. Team 2 is currently 10th out of 16. So it seems to have succeeded in giving them at least average teams to start the year.

Obviously, you would have to manipulate this model to fit your own league settings, but this could serve as a guide if you want to try for an expansion draft. Perhaps each team would protect 2 to start, and then protect 2 more after one of their players is taken. You'd have to figure out where that sweet spot is given your league settings.

Personally, I would just re-draft the league entirely since it's only one year in.