I joined a new dynasty startup this year and I was excited. The first year is especially fun, a full draft of mlb + minors, several different strategies in play, win now vs build for later, etc.
I tried to toe the line and ended up with some exciting youth but ultimately my team sucks for 2022. Such is dynasty, if you want to play the exciting long game there's short term pain. In the draft I got Kyle Tucker rd 1, Bobby Witt rd 2, Brandon Lowe in the 3rd (oops), Freddy Peralta (ugh), Joey Gallo (oops - it's OBP but... oops). Anyway, not the best draft but fun young players.
Oh well, I'm still active every week and picking up players to try to move up in the standings (14th of 16), and at the same time regularly evaluating my minors to catch risers. I put in a huge bid for Morel a few weeks back and couldn't be happier.
This week one team really started rebuilding. In fact he just traded a large number of his active players. He's missing a catcher. He has only 6 pitchers on his MLB roster. I shot the commish a note saying is this right? Every league I've ever been in requires you to field a team even when rebuilding.
Then I started looking around and noticed another team, lets call him Aaron, who was fielding minor league players in his active roster. Lewin Diaz at 1B, Oneil Cruz at SS. Huoscar Ynoa and Matt Brash have been in the active pitching lineup for months.
That's strange -- I didn't think you could do that.. or my strategy would have been different. So I checked the rules - brand new league, constitution written this year.
OK clearly not allowed. So I brought it up in the group chat with the league.
I posted:
First thing that happened, "Aaron" said that I was wrong and as long as the player had a mlb ab or IP ever they could be on your roster.
I showed him the rule and he said no, the commish had told him different.
OK... I couldn't believe that to be the case, I scrolled up in the league chat and he himself had already talked about this.
Aaron in a previous message on this topic had said "Not sure why it would matter how people want to use their benches as long as they're fielding a 23 person lineup of active MLBers."
So Aaron clearly knew he couldnt use minor leaguers in active spots. Ugh one of those guys. Says whatever it is that helps his team at the moment but intellectual consistency be damned. Oh well just another guy in the league. I can just ignore him.
I pushed back but ultimately I waited for the commish to respond.
It did not go how I expected.
Commish:
OK. I've never known the term "active MLBers" to be an unclear term... This seems ridiculous.
I've put a ton of time in this league and enjoyed it and I don't want to lose this fun team. But ... this is terrible. Or am I the ass??
The commish offered to cash me out. But it's not about cash I love the team I spent many hours on. What would you do in my shoes?
** Note, this is a league full of experience players with many years playing and some fantasy writers. It has a minimal entry fee, but enough to be exciting to win. Not at all a free yahoo league.
I tried to toe the line and ended up with some exciting youth but ultimately my team sucks for 2022. Such is dynasty, if you want to play the exciting long game there's short term pain. In the draft I got Kyle Tucker rd 1, Bobby Witt rd 2, Brandon Lowe in the 3rd (oops), Freddy Peralta (ugh), Joey Gallo (oops - it's OBP but... oops). Anyway, not the best draft but fun young players.
Oh well, I'm still active every week and picking up players to try to move up in the standings (14th of 16), and at the same time regularly evaluating my minors to catch risers. I put in a huge bid for Morel a few weeks back and couldn't be happier.
This week one team really started rebuilding. In fact he just traded a large number of his active players. He's missing a catcher. He has only 6 pitchers on his MLB roster. I shot the commish a note saying is this right? Every league I've ever been in requires you to field a team even when rebuilding.
Then I started looking around and noticed another team, lets call him Aaron, who was fielding minor league players in his active roster. Lewin Diaz at 1B, Oneil Cruz at SS. Huoscar Ynoa and Matt Brash have been in the active pitching lineup for months.
That's strange -- I didn't think you could do that.. or my strategy would have been different. So I checked the rules - brand new league, constitution written this year.
Lineups must contain 23 active players (14 hitters, 9 pitchers), and each position must be filled by an active major league player. However, no penalty when a player(s) is benched based on matchups.
Stated another way, players on 25-man MLB rosters need to be in 14/9 spots. Prospects can take up bench spots.
Stated another way, players on 25-man MLB rosters need to be in 14/9 spots. Prospects can take up bench spots.
I posted:
The constitution states that each active roster spot must be filled by an active major league player. There are a couple teams that are definitely not doing that. I’m curious if there is something I’m missing. As a team not in contention I have still tried to follow the rules and field a real team but it seems like other teams are breaking them in order to get advantages with basically more than 25 minor leaguers. Am I missing something?
I showed him the rule and he said no, the commish had told him different.
OK... I couldn't believe that to be the case, I scrolled up in the league chat and he himself had already talked about this.
Aaron in a previous message on this topic had said "Not sure why it would matter how people want to use their benches as long as they're fielding a 23 person lineup of active MLBers."
So Aaron clearly knew he couldnt use minor leaguers in active spots. Ugh one of those guys. Says whatever it is that helps his team at the moment but intellectual consistency be damned. Oh well just another guy in the league. I can just ignore him.
I pushed back but ultimately I waited for the commish to respond.
It did not go how I expected.
Commish:
To me, the definition of active MLBers was and is loosely defined and that's what I thought we ironed out before we started. I never wanted players to have to dump a guy from minors just because some other players keep getting shuttled back and forth from parent team to minors (in real life). So it was guys who have at least one AB and IP. I do feel badly because I didn't properly clarify / update the Charter from our discussions.
Part of my problem has to do with playing in other dynasties that operate this way and assuming it was standard. Maybe it's not.
I'm going to let league precedent stand. We can discuss this soon regarding future seasons and how to handle it. I'll put a notation soon in the Charter that this may or may not be updated for Year Two and beyond.
Ken: I know this won't make you happy. You have a valid argument given the Charter not getting the final update.
Part of my problem has to do with playing in other dynasties that operate this way and assuming it was standard. Maybe it's not.
I'm going to let league precedent stand. We can discuss this soon regarding future seasons and how to handle it. I'll put a notation soon in the Charter that this may or may not be updated for Year Two and beyond.
Ken: I know this won't make you happy. You have a valid argument given the Charter not getting the final update.
I've put a ton of time in this league and enjoyed it and I don't want to lose this fun team. But ... this is terrible. Or am I the ass??
The commish offered to cash me out. But it's not about cash I love the team I spent many hours on. What would you do in my shoes?
** Note, this is a league full of experience players with many years playing and some fantasy writers. It has a minimal entry fee, but enough to be exciting to win. Not at all a free yahoo league.
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