Dynasty League (the established one) update.
Long message but makes sense to have it all together.
SiteFirst things first, we're transferring from Yahoo to
Sleeper. This seems to be a unanimous view. Thanks for your responses.
Commissioner updateThe intention last year was that Tighty and I would look after the commissioner role for last season, with a view to reviewing it this time round.
As we're moving to a new site, and given neither Tighty nor I are familiar with Sleeper, it makes sense to have a co-commissioner who knows what they're doing with the mechanics. I've spoken to Tighty and to ForthThistle and we've agreed that
I will stay on as Commissioner, with
ForthThistle coming in as co-commissioner because of his familiarity with the site. Thanks to Tighty for your help last year.
In the event of any disputes, I will make the decision (in consultation with Forth if needs be). If the dispute involves me, Forth can make the decision (in consultation with Tighty, if needs be).
SubsTime to get your wallets out. Entry fees are normally £20 and I see no obvious reason to change that.
Bobby1's in charge of the purse strings, as normal, so
please send your £20 to him (his wife's account that you've sent to before). Message Bobby1 if you don't have the details.
PrizesThis has been a simple first and second prize in recent years and, again, I see no obvious reason to change that.
£200 collected.
First prize: £160
Second prize: £40Bobby1 will settle up after the season finishes.
League formatThe regular season has moved from 17 weeks to 18 (still one bye per team). To reflect that, we're having an extra game each, too.
The playoffs start in week 15, with a three week playoff period. There will be no games for us in week 18, given the likelihood of players being rested for some or all of the game.
DraftWe're starting the draft on the Monday after Preseason Week 1 (not including the Hall of Fame game). This will logically mean, by the time we get to rounds 3-5, there should at least be a couple of games done for each team, so we can get a sense for the shape of teams' depth charts. The problem otherwise is it becomes goes from a high variance task to a total lottery in deciding whether the WR4 for a team is really the WR6.
The startup league draft we did recently on Sleeper in the other blonde league worked well, so I've agreed with Forth that we'll stick to that format: 24 hours per pick to keep it nice and easy.
Start date for the draft will be
Monday 16 August. The order is in my copied post a few posts above, but it's also in the Sleeper site already (thanks, Forth), so this should all be fairly automatic.
I believe the process will need you to wait until it is your turn to pick before you declare a pass. The usual process is for us all to pull out one by one and leave Bobby1 to decide which seven special teams players he wants to draft
Roster sizesWe've run it on the basis of squads of 30 since we started this league.
A question has been asked of whether we should reduce that, in order to make for a more accessible waiver wire and free agency pool. If you have injuries and illnesses, the well is sometimes a bit dry and we don't want people having to do a bad trade just to make up a team, or to field a player short.
My own view on this is I like bigger squads, even if at the expense of the waiver wire. If there is a swell of opinion in favour of reducing the size, I'd really only want to drop it by a couple. The good thing about dynasty for me is you can draft players who might be a RB1 or WR1/2 for their team in a couple of years' time, when the obvious guy retires or gets traded or injured.
I'm going to leave a question mark next to this one for now and take views from anyone who wants to offer them.
In the meantime,
everyone needs to reduce their roster to 30 active players before the draft starts. Then, when drafting players, you should take your player and drop someone else if you need to, in order to maintain a 30-man squad.
After the draft - or sooner if there is a strong opinion in the group one way - we'll decide on the roster size. I'm generally keen to keep the status quo. As we've run it with 30 since we started a few years ago, that's my default position, but I'm open to views. If we then need to drop another one or two players each after that, so be it.
Injured Reserve slotsOn that note, IR slots are currently available for players designated by Sleeper as:
- IR
- Covid-19
- Suspended
- Did Not Report/Holdout/Opt out (I don't think anyone has done the last of these this year)
There is an option in the league settings for players to go to IR if they are listed as:
- Out
- Doubtful
- N/A (presumably this is where a player is not on a roster)
I've said No to these. I am inclined to add Covid-19 to the No list, too, but I'm open to views. We're likely to see players only be on this for a week or two at most, unless they're seriously ill (in which case, they will go on IR). The idea of the IR slots is to mirror real life. Teams have to decide whether they are going with 53 healthy guys or whether they'll carry an injured player for tactical reasons.
We have 5 IR slots, as before.
Bear in mind that the IR rules are correlated to the depth of the waiver wire and free agency pool: if you put a player on IR, you can take someone from free agency, so that reduces the pool; if you can't, you have 29 fit players and have to swallow it, if you're not going to drop anyone to find cover.
Should Suspended players be allowed to be in the IR slots?
Using IR slots before the season startsIf you have a player on the PUP now, I think it's fair for them to go into the IR slots now. Again, this is consistent with the real life situation. I am not treating these as part of your 30 player roster for the purposes of the pre-draft cuts.
I think that's everything for now.
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