Dumping early is a bad strategy

[hacko]

I'm in the middle.

In general I agree that keeper leagues are keeper leagues and there will be dumping, it is just part of the game.

However I've participated in leagues where, in order to compete for the top 3 spots, you HAVE to churn 1/3 of your roster from dumping teams. If you don't, you have no chance because the dumping teams dump so early and so dramatically that *not* participating in the dumb trades means you lose.

There's a middle ground there somewhere that we always try to find.

MY 30 plus Al only league (15 keepers - 7 farm) has trading rules in general 24 hr trade rule. August trades with teams you are connected to ( 2 spots away)
plus we have Dump rules : No dump trades until July- CAlled the dumping season. * rule during dump season

Plus some other rules that tend to keep dumping in check : September expansion - we keep players traded to NL until the end of the season. freeze NL coming over.
4 year title/ payout
and of course who ever comes in last must use "Assmonkey " in team name the following year. My team name this year " Marauding Assmonkey's"

[hacko]

15DB8AA0-D24E-43AF-A9D9-C77CD0415456.jpg Draft day

[Ken]

Wait, I think he was good in odd years

Exactly... it checks out. Saberhagen was busy playing fantasy baseball in the even years.

[chancellor]

Did you write about it back then? I have a vague remembrance of this.

I think so. Before that, I'd never dumped before mid to late June. I think I asked about the risk of injury to Price given his heavy workload up to that point.

[chancellor]

" Marauding Assmonkey's"

I kinda like that team name - way to make lemonade out of lemons!

[Judge Jude]

In a couple of my leagues, the salary cap ends up being something of an incentive to dump early. I've seen a lot of instances where teams are already up against the cap in June, so you can't deal away high priced assets without a corresponding dollar drop, You can make it work, but it's not a lot of fun.

a rule that incentivizes owners to dump ASAP - that doesn't seem like a great rule.

I have noted that I am in total rebuild (roster below, and in last place today, coming off having zero keepers in a keeper league), but I'm still inclined to wait at least until May 15 before I review where I stand and what my chances are. roll out the baseballs and have a little fun for six weeks.

Also, a 6th-place finish gets me the first pick in the April 2022 farm draft (I am getting SF Luciano with that pick on Thursday), while 11th-place (last) saddles me with the 6th pick.

I'm sure I'll dump eventually, but I won't sell off everything that's isn't nailed down, either.

[hacko]

I kinda like that team name - way to make lemonade out of lemons!

So do I - my regular team name in this league has been “ Meek Marauders” name after my college roommate who I lost 30 years ago to cancer.

[Teenwolf]

Some really interesting answers.

I'm familiar with Hornsby's response, that it can be tougher to deal a high salary later in the season because contenders are bumping up against the salary cap already. This happened to me in 2019 in RJEL, where I had a $56 DeGrom that I hung onto until a few days before trade deadline, and all of the top 5 teams were up against the cap, unable to fit DeGrom. I believe Hornsby offered to take him off my hands for pennies on the dollar and I just kept him, but I have a bad memory. In any case, I was super annoyed at myself that I didn't realize all the salary caps were spent. So that's a factor if you're in a league with stricter salary cap rules. RJEL, it's because there's 18 teams, 4 money spots, more dumpers than the usual 12 team league.

[GwynnInTheHall]

I hate having to dump, anyone in a league with me know I always try to find a way to contend even if I don't always start out that way. However, some seasons you just have to look at the writing on the wall and draft a plan to put your squad in position to contend ASAP and that might include early dumping. leagues are all unique in construction and composition of owners so YMMV when it comes to dumping (early or otherwise). I'm currently in that position in one league, but I have company so it isn't going to be easy for any of us to garner the capital we believed we would going into the auction. So I agree with most of the posts as the impact and validation of early dumping is really dependent on so many variables and all we can do is find the right set of rules to mitigate any negative impact this might have on our leagues. But as a strategy, early dumping does indeed, at times, have merit.

[Teenwolf]

I don't think I was very clear in my initial post. What I meant more specifically was, I believe we don't place enough value on how much we've gotten to see from a player.

I follow the minors much closer than majors, so my perspective is a bit different. I want to see at least 3 weeks of minor league play before I dump for prospects, or before I deal them. Either way, after over 1 year of no video, no stats, only vague assertions of who "stood out on the developmental squad", that's not enough for me. New stats are going to shift prospect rankings dramatically, and it seems like a huge advantage to see some stats accrue, who hits the ground running and who falls flat early on. It's also much easier to get an accurate ETA waiting for stats, and ETA is huge for me.

Depends how much you follow minor league stats. I hadn't considered that a lot of people probably operate very differently than I do. Personally, it's the studs that I struggle with knowing their value. If a player is a blue chip prospect that I never get a share of, when they're suddenly available to draft 5 years into their careers, I have to research them. I guess I'm better at following and taking advantage of the secondary prospect market than studs. I usually trade my high picks, and sometimes I'll even trade a Wander.