10-Team NL only, H2H pts, CBS Keeper league Needs 1 - $100

[Bmasar]

Our CBS league is looking for 1 committed owner to join our 6-year-old league. We want someone that won't neglect their roster and will be a friendly member of our community, and an active member would be even better.
10-team NL only keeper on CBS. Head-to-head points with two periods per week: Mon-Thurs & Fri-Sun. Buy-in is $100 not including the cost of 6 optional but highly recommended keepers. Players cost $5-15 depending on circumstances. Payouts are big for a $100 league, winner took home over $800 last year, plus an additional $25 for rostering the MVP, Cy Young and ROY.
Our league also does a "hot stove" week prior to the draft that enables teams to beef up their keeper options and picks can also be exchanged. We allow trading players to acquire additional picks, as well as swap picks. This is a great chance to acquire good players from owners that have too many keeper options to keep them.
Please email if interested brenden [at] masarjohnston.com

[Bmasar]

Here is the roster available:

Notes-
-Keep up to six players
-Number in parenthesis represents the round you forfeit a pick to keep the player, if keeping multiple players from the same round the pick(s) drop down to next round (3 players in 20th translates to 20th, 21st, 22nd)
-Players drafted in minor league rounds (rounds 26-28) with rookie eligibility can be kept for free, as noted
-Cost to keep player is $5 in addition to $100 league dues unless otherwise noted
-25 round draft, 3 round minor leaguer draft (rookie eligible only)
-I'm omitting inconsequential players (e.g. Andrew Toles)

Arizona Diamondbacks
picks 5th of 10 each round, non-snaking

Notables:
Clayton Kershaw (2 - $15)
Stephen Strasburg (1)
Anthony Rendon (13 - $15)
Manuel Margot (20)
Matt Carpenter (12 - $10)
Yasiel Puig (11)
Greg Holland (10)
Wade Davis (1)

Rookie-Eligible:
Corey Ray (26 - free)
Jose Albertos (28 - free)

Assorted Others:
Tyler Glasnow (20)
Scott Kingery (20)
Dexter Fowler (6)
Gerardo Parra (11)
Adam Lind (20)
Sean Newcomb (20)
Carl Edwards (20)
Taijuan Walker (8)
Jeff Hoffman (20)

[Ken]

Out of curiosity primarily, why doesn't the draft snake? Also what determines if a keeper is $15 or $5?

[Bmasar]

The draft doesn't snake because good teams/managers tend to be much better than poor managers (with poor philosophies) in our format so non-snaking is a way to restore some competitive balance.

Keeper cost is determined by number of consecutive years the player has been kept. The cost resets if the player is re-drafted or traded during the regular season.

[Bmasar]

To get a little deeper into the competitive balance aspect, I should explain that teams that have planned, traded and drafted well have a distinct advantage going into the start o each year. For example, for years one team has had Arrieta, Blackmon and Corey Seager as very late round keepers due to grabbing them when they were undrafted many years back. As a result, teams with a poor set of keepers can be a project that can take time to fix, which is why we use non-snaking drafts similar to the MLB. Our league is designed to reward competitive windows. The team mentioned above (which is mine, actually) has probably seen the last useful part of Arrieta and Blackmon could sign with an AL team next offseason. So my window closes in some ways and I'll need to identify my next "core" soon.

[Ken]

Keeper cost is determined by number of consecutive years the player has been kept.

So 1 year = 5, then 2 years = 10 and 3+ years = 15?

The cost resets if the player is re-drafted or traded during the regular season.

Redrafted makes sense. But traded? That seems like a bad idea. Two teams swap rosters and suddenly both teams get better out of thin air (and every other team in the league is relative worse). That seems... off.

To get a little deeper into the competitive balance aspect, I should explain that teams that have planned, traded and drafted well have a distinct advantage going into the start o each year.

Seems like this is the case in every league. I'm not sure that a non-snake draft fixes that problem.

[Bmasar]

So 1 year = 5, then 2 years = 10 and 3+ years = 15?

Correct. Caps out at $15.

Redrafted makes sense. But traded? That seems like a bad idea. Two teams swap rosters and suddenly both teams get better out of thin air (and every other team in the league is relative worse). That seems... off.

There's a trade fee for each transaction that helps offset the benefits of such a trade. If there's a sense that two owners are colluding to artificially keep costs down, trades can be vetoed. We haven't run into any issues with that.

But even if that was allowed to happen, how would both teams be getting better with a swap of players between them? And how would the league be worse off if players are shuffled around? There's no salary cap. An owner decides how much they want to spend on keeper fees based on their own personal financial decision.

Seems like this is the case in every league. I'm not sure that a non-snake draft fixes that problem.

A draft isn't going to fix all of a team's problems. They're going to need to trade well and make savvy adds. But non-snaking is still going to go further toward that goal than snaking.

[Bmasar]

Still looking for one