Summer - Winter Keeper League - RULE CHANGES?

As you know, I've been looking for ways to help this league perform more like the others I'm in, with a wide variety of managers winning from year to year and rare dominance by any one team for an extended period.

Responses to proposed rule changes have been lukewarm, at best, so I thought I'd see if other changes might be useful. Interestingly, it looks like promoting more aggressive trading might be worth considering, too.

As we all know from his endless advertising of available players, lakeviewdave is one of the most active traders in this or any other league. I was curious to see how his team crashed and then quickly rebounded, and here's what I found:
- 2016 to 2020 cardsets: 10 consecutive playoff appearances with 6 titles and an average of 103.5 wins per season
- 2021 cardset: 47 wins in each season
- 2022 cardset: 97 wins in each season, with 2 playoff appearances and 1 title

* * * * *

So how did Dave crash so thoroughly and then rebound so quickly?

He must have seen the writing on the wall after a record high of 116 wins in season 2020-2. He dropped 12 players and then made 4 trades in which he gave up 9 players and 1 pick in exchange for 3 players, 1 prospect, and 8 picks (mix of free agent and prospect).

Between seasons, he followed that by trading 6 players for 4 1st rd supp draft picks. And then, prior to the 2022 draft, he traded 7 players, a prospect, and a lower pick in exchange for 3 players and a better pick.

Dave played his remaining stars in the 2021-1 season and was soundly defeated in a potent East Div. He tanked in the 2021-2 season in the West Div, playing his stars only half of the time, but that did not really improve his draft position. He finished 21 GB his nearest rival and would likely have done poorly even if he had played his stars routinely.

So, massive trading along with a focus on draft picks...

And presto/change-o! From champs to chumps to champs again:
- 10 of the 23 batters on the 2020-2 team were still there for the 2022-1 season,
- However, only 1 of the 17 pitchers survived

The moral of this story? Maybe if the rest of us maintained the same focus on improvement, then perhaps we could give Dave and JF a run for their money.

Let's make a deal!

Key elements include:

- 24 to 28 players active in game engine: fine with this

With salary cap of $130 mil : this is what I'm most wanting to see go through. It's straightforward and should do a lot towards making the league more competitive. If I have a 120mil team I'll feel I at least have a shot against the best teams at 130mil where it feels hopeless when they're at 160.

- And salary floor of $100 mil: OK with this. Maybe it's a little too high.

- 35 players on full roster, including prospects: Too low a number if including prospects. 35 and leave the prospects the way they are would be reasonable middle ground. Definitely too big a change all at once. Maybe over the course of a few seasons it would be ok.

- Draft any player (MLB/MiLB, college, foreign) to full roster: This would hurt anyone not into the whole research thing who I would think would tend to be some of us who already struggle to do as well at prospects as some of the better managers.

- Prior to FA draft, drop 7 to 10 from full roster: see comment on 35 total players

- 2-round supplemental draft between seasons: Ok with this

OK, so feedback in ILC and in messages is that I tried to go too far, too fast. Let's vote on incremental change now, instead of sweeping changes all at once.

RULE CHANGES, EFFECTIVE WITH 2023 CARDSET
- 24 to 28 players active in game engine, all season (instead of current 24-26 early on and then 28 later)
- With salary cap of $130 mil for those active in the game engine (instead of $200 mil)
- 2-round supplemental draft between seasons (instead of 3)
- 3-round prospect draft, following FA draft (instead of 4)

coachteel924
damien666
denorien
ironwill1
jflatour99
JMP1
kihoover
lakeviewdave
oldmansmith2
tcochran - YES
tpiercersn
willmurr24

OK, so feedback in ILC and in messages is that I tried to go too far, too fast. Let's vote on incremental change now, instead of sweeping changes all at once.

RULE CHANGES, EFFECTIVE WITH 2023 CARDSET
- 24 to 28 players active in game engine, all season (instead of current 24-26 early on and then 28 later)
- With salary cap of $130 mil for those active in the game engine (instead of $200 mil)
- 2-round supplemental draft between seasons (instead of 3)
- 3-round prospect draft, following FA draft (instead of 4)

coachteel924
damien666
denorien
ironwill1
jflatour99
JMP1
kihoover
lakeviewdave
oldmansmith2 - YES
tcochran - YES
tpiercersn
willmurr24

Re: Summer - Winter Keeper League - RULE CHANGES?
PostSat Apr 27, 2024 10:56 am

OK, so feedback in ILC and in messages is that I tried to go too far, too fast. Let's vote on incremental change now, instead of sweeping changes all at once.

RULE CHANGES, EFFECTIVE WITH 2023 CARDSET
- 24 to 28 players active in game engine, all season (instead of current 24-26 early on and then 28 later)
- With salary cap of $130 mil for those active in the game engine (instead of $200 mil)
- 2-round supplemental draft between seasons (instead of 3)
- 3-round prospect draft, following FA draft (instead of 4)

coachteel924
damien666 - YES
denorien
ironwill1
jflatour99
JMP1
kihoover
lakeviewdave
oldmansmith2 - YES
tcochran - YES
tpiercersn
willmurr24

Re: Summer - Winter Keeper League - RULE CHANGES?
PostSat Apr 27, 2024 10:56 am

OK, so feedback in ILC and in messages is that I tried to go too far, too fast. Let's vote on incremental change now, instead of sweeping changes all at once.

RULE CHANGES, EFFECTIVE WITH 2023 CARDSET
- 24 to 28 players active in game engine, all season (instead of current 24-26 early on and then 28 later)
- With salary cap of $130 mil for those active in the game engine (instead of $200 mil)
- 2-round supplemental draft between seasons (instead of 3)
- 3-round prospect draft, following FA draft (instead of 4)

coachteel924
damien666 - YES
denorien
ironwill1 - YES
jflatour99
JMP1
kihoover
lakeviewdave
oldmansmith2 - YES
tcochran - YES
tpiercersn
willmurr24

Re: Summer - Winter Keeper League - RULE CHANGES?
PostSat Apr 27, 2024 10:56 am

OK, so feedback in ILC and in messages is that I tried to go too far, too fast. Let's vote on incremental change now, instead of sweeping changes all at once.

RULE CHANGES, EFFECTIVE WITH 2023 CARDSET
- 24 to 28 players active in game engine, all season (instead of current 24-26 early on and then 28 later)
- With salary cap of $130 mil for those active in the game engine (instead of $200 mil)
- 2-round supplemental draft between seasons (instead of 3)
- 3-round prospect draft, following FA draft (instead of 4)

coachteel924
damien666 - YES
denorien
ironwill1 - YES
jflatour99 - YES
JMP1
kihoover
lakeviewdave
oldmansmith2 - YES
tcochran - YES
tpiercersn
willmurr24