In a league where with one game to play, there are still 6 teams fighting over the last 3 playoff spots in this Keeper league.
Last week, the team which is in last place, dropped their only kicker to pick up a longshot WR off FA. He said that his team is so bad that it doesn't matter if he doesn't start a K because he will lose regardless, and it is good gamesmanship for him to drop his K and his D for anyone who might have a shot, even if it is long, to be one of his keepers. In the end, if he had started Longwell as his K, his team would have lost by less than two points.
This week, his team is playing one of the teams competing for one of the remaining playoff spots, and he has already dropped his Def and is refusing to start a K or a Def in his game this week. Coincidentally, he is playing the league Commish's team.
Is what he is doing good gamesmanship or bullship and if wrong, what should I do about it?
2011 FFB Totals Terrible at everything, and a liar.
In my opinion this is bush league. The starting posistions are not "recomendations" but rather requirements. You are required to start a player in each position each week, at least this is my interpertation of the rules and is spelled out as thusly in our our by-laws. In money leagues I know people charge $$ fines for not fielding a complete teams in "for fun" leagues you have to be a bit more inventive with the "penalty" for such shenanigans. but usually just making it known in the league rules that such as this is frowned upon is usually enough for leagues with reasonable people.
If the league doesn't have any rules explicitly stating as such and the commish hasn't made any waves already I think your only recourse would be to make a league message about your feelings and see about instituting an official rule for next season regarding this type of play.
I don't know if it will help or not, but here is what I posted on our league site in response to his claim that going without a K and D in this weeks game is just good gamesmanship and it wouldn't matter anyway since he probably would lose regardless.
Good Sportsmanship and following league rules have nothing to do with whether or not your team wins or loses.
According to our rules thread on the Cafe: "Starting Roster will be QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, RB/WR, TE, K, D and 9 bench spots." It says nothing about allowing a starting roster without a K and D or about allowing 11 bench spots.
Violations of league rules, especially purposeful ones, usually carry a penalty of at least a lost draft choice in the following year.
Since your absence of a starting Kicker didn't impact the outcome with regard to last weeks game, I don't see any need for the Commish to penalize you unless you continue to go with an illegal roster in this weeks game.
Hopefully, even if you decide to go with an illegal lineup, the Commish will manually add a Def and Kicker since I am sure he would not like to make the playoffs by allowing your so called "gamesmanship" illegal roster, thereby giving him a bye week win in this weeks game with your team.
I would also guess that anyone whose team missed the playoffs due to your gamesmanship would be very unhappy with you.
I also sent emails to each of the 6 teams who are playing this weekend for the remaining 3 spots and have asked them all to voice their opinions on this issue on the league site.
2011 FFB Totals Terrible at everything, and a liar.
Lol, just about to post a thread about this. I'm actually the commish of the league in question and I realize in hindsight that it was an error on my part not implementing rules to prevent this. What I want to do is tell the owner that he must field a starting lineup and force him to do so if he doesn't comply. Overstepping my bounds here?
If your league had rules stipulating that a valid full roster must be fielded each week, the entire situation could have been avoided in the first place.
The Lung wrote:If your league had rules stipulating that a valid full roster must be fielded each week, the entire situation could have been avoided in the first place.
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda... But I didn't. Unfortunately this is the situation now.
I would ask him what good are keepers if he isn't invited back to the league. He's free to do what we wants with his roster this year, but next year's invite depend upon him not being bush league.
Matthias wrote:I would ask him what good are keepers if he isn't invited back to the league. He's free to do what we wants with his roster this year, but next year's invite depend upon him not being bush league.
This is an interesting topic that speaks to many points in the fantasy season's endgame. We are going to talk about it in the Cafe's Locker Room Logic podcast, which airs on Thursday morning, if you want to take a listen
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by FantasySportsMaven » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:11 pm 
