As LM I want to do what makes everyone satisfied

[Brees#1]

So i have decided to set 1 keeper for my league last year. However, the bigger problem is many people did not get the memo early enough, like I had thought, so I am facing a dilemma here.

First of all here are the likely keepers(All but 1 I set myself since no one set them)
Peterson
McCoy
Forte(owner needed for team may move another owner to team)
Charles/Lacy
Brees/Lynch
Megatron
Murray/DThomas
Rodgers(or LBell)
Graham
Seahawks(set by owner himself)

And then there are these highest value players
Bryant/Ball
Antonio Brown(Spiller, owner's first pick last year is 4th rd, Johnson the 2nd pick is 4th)

Its those last two that bother me and the owners may feel that they will be at a disadvantage. The Bryant owner had dropped Rodgers not knowing it was a keeper. And then I traded Megatron in a package for him and Desean to the person who picked him up. And the other guy is in a bad situation, he has no player worth early second round value. His best player is Antonio Brown who is third round at best.

So I am wondering if I should do one of these three things..........
Upgrade their top keeper with whoever is not kept out of Lacy/Charles, Brees/Lynch, Bell, Murray/Thomas, AJ Green
Move the ones with low value keepers(seahawks, brown, bryant or ball) to top of draft
Or have it set for more than one keeper that way it would look like this
Peterson/Stacy or Manning
Charles/Lacy
Brees/Lynch
Rodgers/Bell
Murray/Thomas
Ball/Bryant
Megatron/Marshall
Forte/Green
Seahawks/Reggie(owner dropped Foster)
Graham/Tate(rather weak)
McCoy/Fitz
Spiller or Johnson/Brown


I had sent the league message before the draft it was going to be a keeper. I originally was planning 3 keepers. But people obviously did not read their email messages or didnt remember when I said it and were dropping players that were strong early on when they got hurt. The Rodgers owner though its possible I forgot to bring up the keeper to him and he may not have seen league discussions. He and his wife(who owns Murray) were the last two to join the league and it was a couple weeks before the draft. I thought I said something but idk. One guy said at the start of the draft, "If it were a keeper league last year, I would have AP" in the chat area but maybe that wasn't enough of a giveaway. Bottom line is everyone knew before season was over it was a keeper. Now its up to me to be as fair as possible.

 

[SmokingMonkey]

as fair as possible, since this is the first season you have tried to do keepers, would be to not do keepers at all, and start this year as the first season it's a keeper league. That way everyone knows what is going on, especially if you don't have any emails stating that it was a keeper league to the last couple that joined the league.

Also, this way, you can get an established set of rules around the keeper format, and everyone will be ready for it.

things to consider:

-full roster dynasty or set number of keepers?
-how many keepers?
-do keepers have draft value implications (cost your 1st rd pick, or round according to when you drafted them)?
-will there be a set number of seasons, or a 'contract length' that any one owner can own a given player?
-if doing multiple keepers, will there be a minimum # required by each team?
-will subsequent drafts be snake or previous season standings order repeated each round like real NFL?
-will you allow trading of draft picks? what about future seasons' draft picks?

Once you get all of the rules and settings how your league wants them, put it all in an email and send it to them all at the same time.
**Keep a draft of this email saved for quick reference throughout the years. Trust me, you will be referring back to this document to make changes or answer questions**

And that's just from running a 4 player keeper league for a handful of years. Others on here (Sam I know for sure) have been in much longer running keeper leagues, and will attest that the rules need to be understood by all to keep them competitive

 

[TREFF]

Monkey is dead on. . Can't change the rules now. Should've been brought to a league vote before last year's Draft

 

[DuffBeer Doug]

Once you get all of the rules and settings how your league wants them, put it all in an email and send it to them all at the same time.
**Keep a draft of this email saved for quick reference throughout the years. Trust me, you will be referring back to this document to make changes or answer questions**

Spot on Monkey.

Get it all down in writing and voted on before the draft and have everything spelled out and e-mailed before owners know who they have on their rosters. We always take rule change suggestions during the year and then during the season we debate over them instead of spending the off-season trying to get responses from everyone (it's easier for all owners to be involved in the discussions when you have everybody checking roster transactions and league message boards daily during the season).

At the end of the season, we get e-mailed our rule changes to vote on and all voting closes the day before our keepers are due sometime in early August. We go with a simple majority wins. The commish can't vote so we can have 11 votes. If there is a tie due to someone not voting or saying either way is okay (aka abstaining), the commish gets to vote and break the tie.

At the next draft, we are handed a copy of the rule changes now in place.

So, I'd give you three options:
1) Hammer out the keeper details quickly before this draft so as to have no bias based on rosters
2) Plan for next season and make next year a re-draft (aka Year Zero) so that again nobody trades for a ton of keepers at the expense of this year's roster and record
3) Make this Year Zero and work out the details during the season and hopefully just a few weeks into the season before the majority of trading is done so that all have equal chance to take advantage of the rules.

 

[SteelersPride]

no keepers this year bud, set down solid rules........

I run a league of friends, very few problems...........

I set rules up, then let them voice opinions at the draft, then we made changes as a group......then the rules were immediately e-mailed and posted.........if any changes are done they are talked about prior to the draft and voted on, pretty simple.........last year PRIOR to drafting for the first time in 5 years we decided to do keepers, and it changed some things at the trade deadline, like the guy moving me calvin for rodgers......in setting up for next year since he was eliminated, but still making a legit trade.......and no one vetoed.......

 

[Brees#1]

I was thinking of not doing keeper. I have to pull up my old emails and discussions to see if I said something. But its not just me that was wanting the keeper, so did a couple other people. One guy thought the keeper would be after 2012(and I planned for it then but something changed) and he was really excited to keep AP. He picked third and still drafted him(I picked Lynch thinking he would be better with Seattle's defense and the first picked McCoy) and he is probably really anticipating keeping AP. Plus, he won the championship. I didnt expect to bring the couple in. One guy decided not to return, and another pulled out after the 2012 season and I had to reinvite him. He didnt respond back soon enough and I thought he was not interested in coming back and thats when I invited the couple. That guy is back this year though.

 

[Brees#1]

Actually, maybe for the Bryant owner it may not be that bad. My fb friend who owns Megatron is a huge broncos fan he may actually want Ball over Megatron and that trade could go down after the draft. So its now down to the Brown owner, who surely knew it was a keeper. He's the one who is out of luck.

 

[wilwhite]

For me it's simple: if 100% of the owners say they want to switch to a keeper you can, otherwise you can't because you're changing the rules for last year (that's where the keepers come from).

An easier sell is to say you can keep a guy from this years' rosters for the 2015 season and it's a keeper league from then on.

 

[Brees#1]

I have over three weeks before draft happens. I'll see what people decide in about a week or so.

 

[SteelersPride]

you kinda gotta make up your mind and go with it........

 

[SteelersPride]

so what u end up doing here brees

 

[ZepTepi]

I agree with everyone else who's chimed in on this. If your going to decide to become a keeper league that's fine but to do so on the verge of the start of the new season is not the way to go. Let everyone know that next season will be year 1 of the new format and things will go much smoother. Good Luck however you decide to implement it.

 

[Brees#1]

I am waiting on a email reply from the champion from last year on what he wants he said he'll message back in a week he's on a vacation. i have also emailed the guy who got gipped with dropping Rodgers on whether he's ok with it being a keeper. I have 1 new guy that joined and he knows its a keeper I said so before he joined. He has the Forte team, I didnt give it someone else.

 

[ZepTepi]

I've been commish & co-commish of numerous leagues over the years and there are a few lessons I've learned in that time that I believe have made me a better commish over all.

-For returning leagues I almost always use the league page as my primary form of communication regarding league business. I still use emailing the league as a way of getting the word out but I always tell the league members to respond via the league page/message board. This works out better because everyone can keep up with the conversation where as email can be troublesome because while you can send a message to the entire league you can never be sure if people get them and their responses are often only seen by the commish, not the other teams.

-For potential league changes I almost always use a poll of the league with a 50% or majority needed to pass the change. For something like transitioning to a keeper league I require that the decision to do so be made before the end of the current season and, if implemented, it goes into effect AFTER the following season. So if during this upcoming 2014/2015 season there is a desire to become a keeper league by a majority of the league then that would take affect for the 2016/2017 season so everyone can draft accordingly in the 2015/2016 draft.

Just some food for thought for you.

 

[Brees#1]

I agree with everyone else who's chimed in on this. If your going to decide to become a keeper league that's fine but to do so on the verge of the start of the new season is not the way to go. Let everyone know that next season will be year 1 of the new format and things will go much smoother. Good Luck however you decide to implement it.

I didnt decide on the verge of this season, everyone knew by December of last season I had planned for it being a keeper. Only 3 people did not know before dropping keeper eligible ones and one of them(not part of married couple) thinks I should maintain keeper and thats the one who owns Seattle.

 

[Brees#1]

Its a keeper. The person I needed to hear from let me know he's fine with it last night.