Daily Player Moves

[Demreb]

The most recent poll on Sportsline asked if we would like to allow daily moves to our rosters.

Eight owners responded. Overall 75% of the respondents indicated they didn't think a change was necessary.

Fifty percent of the respondents felt, even though they had their preferences, it was worth discussion. So here we go.

From one perspective allowing daily moves would take the burden off of Sportsline Czar Coulter's shoulders of making sure that all transaction moves currently made are done with the right effective date. All he would need to monitor is position eligibility, contract status and a few other smaller things.

The other side of the table is that with daily moves allowed, it could provide a competitive advantage/disadvantage for those owners who do and don't have access to the computer each day all day.

Theoretically we could all make moves for the next day the night before. But if, say, the Rebels can sit in front of their computer all morning while the Killers are in class all morning, then any changes to the Rebel's player status in the morning could be acted on, while any change to the Killer's player status couldn't be addressed until the next day.

Mike C. had some insight to being in leagues with daily moves and hopefully he can provide those comments here.

Keep in mind that if daily changes were to be made it would need to be voted on by the league for approval and the change wouldn't take effect until at least 2011.

[redhots]

I guess I will be the first to respond. I am on the side of the coin that feels that with daily moves allowed there is an advantage to those owners who have more time in front of the computer on a daily basis. Having moves only twice each week evens that playing field for everyone. Having daily moves, I feel, puts owners at an advantage or disadvantage depending on your specific situation which I think is bad for our league overall.

Are we sure that CBS cannot support only allowing moves on specific days? I would think that it would be able to support moves on only one specific day each week and if that's the case I would rather go that direction in order to save time and effort of our sportsline czar rather than the other route of allowing daily transactions.

That's a couple of my initial thoughts.

I look forward to reading other owner's thoughts and ideas.

Bob

[davidsruffins (archived)]

The Sportsline poll didn't include my most preferred option, which is something along the lines of: "Uninteresting concept. In my mind (and my kneecaps, fwiw) I know I'm against it, and I don't want to discuss it." But in the spirit of, you know, democracy...

Besides the excellent point about creating a competitive disadvantage for some owners through no fault of their own, I have no desire to take on the psychic burden of daily transactions. I worry about my job every day. I'd prefer not to worry about my greatest vice -- leaving all that heroin aside, of course -- on a daily basis.

If the primary motivation for the move to daily transactions is to lift some of the Sportsline burden from Mike's shoulders, I'd rather find another solution, in which I'd happily participate.

[Copperfields]

I really could have used this rule this week, with reports this weekend that Ryan Zimmerman would miss the first few games of the week (it would have been nice to reserve him for a couple games then have the option of activating him), Jayson Werth getting hurt on Monday and being replaced by Fransisco who is sitting on my reserve list), and Mitch Stetter getting send down mid-week. I had quite a few guys putting up zeroes this week, whom I would have been able to replace had we had daily transactions.

That said, I'm almost in the Professor's corner on this one (the only difference being that I'm at least willing to allow debate about it). Personally, though, I'm against the idea.

Rich had mentioned a possible advantage for owners who had more computer access during the day, since they'd be able to immediately respond to changes in player status. It goes far beyond just responding to injuries and demotions, though.

With daily moves, you would only have to have your starting pitchers in the line-up one or two days a week - whenever they're starting - then replace them with another starter or a reliever on their off days. That's something all of us could probably manage, since it doesn't take much time to check the next day's starting pitchers. Likewise, sitting your hitters on those Mondays or Thursdays their NL teams have off, even if it's just replacing them with a scrub who might only get one AB. But it would also allow you to play the match-ups - benching your lefties who are facing a tough southpaw that day, even to the point of researching hitters' past performance against the starter they're facing that day. Fantasy info services like Rotowire or BaseballHQ provide tips based on daily match-up, giving an advantage to those owners who can afford to spring for them. Or you could check the weather in each ballpark on a daily basis looking for possible impacts on performance. Absurd? Maybe, but not unrealistic. It's not so much having constant computer access to make moves based on late breaking news, but all the computer time spent researching match-ups, ballpark effects, and all the other plethora of variables that come into play on a daily basis.

I could definitely see myself going to those extremes in the past when I had time to do so. The thing is, I don't anymore (clearly, I don't even have time to prepare for the draft). To be competitive in a daily transaction league, that's how you'd have to play the game, and I wouldn't be up for that.

Also since both Dave and Bob mentioned the "Sportsline burden", we ought to point out that it's minimal at best. Having performed the role in the past, checking the owner-entered roster moves each day takes very little time, and Michael will be the first to agree to that. Sportsline provides a report highlighting any teams that have illegal rosters (salary cap, too many/few players, players out of position, etc), and it's just a matter of seconds to scan the transaction listing each day for moves made on invalid dates. True, if problems ARE found, it can take time to correct them, but owners have done a pretty good job of entering their moves in recent years.

I have a feeling Michael would agree that the Sportsline oversight shouldn't be a driver in this discussion - and certainly not the primary one, but I certainly hope he'll chime in if he feels differently.

[mcoulter2008]

My turn.

Let me put one thing to bed really quick. The "chore" of "sportsline guy" is one I enjoy. It is not at all overly burdensome. It keeps me connected to the league. It allows me an added forum to keep emailing each owner on occasion, which makes it a bit of a social position for me. I love doing it. I don't mind doing it. And I will volunteer to continue doing it so long as it is needed and my schedule of working nights and tending to tots during the day allows me the time to do the job efficiently and effectively. This conversation should not be about "sportsline guy" duties. Not even a little bit.

As a member of the executive committee, I feel it is healthy for a league -- especially one that has been in existence as long as this one -- to occasionally look to the future and send out feelers for how the owners are enjoying their experience and if there are any changes that might make the game more engaging, enjoyable or challenging. And since the league's franchise ownership has seen a 30+ percent turnover in the past three seasons, exploring issues such as daily moves seems only fair.

So as sportsline guy and his workload, this is not an issue for daily moves. As an EC member, I think it is nice to open debate on things to get a pulse of the league's owners.

But as a franchise owner, I couldn't be more against daily moves. I voted that I felt I wasn't interested in daily moves, but that it warranted debate. I have been in leagues where daily moves can be made. The leagues tended to be a LOT more cutt-throat competitively. Which can be fun and I am not averse to. My trouble with daily roster moves is how it perverts the scoring system and changes the game. It becomes not about who assembled the best team on auction/draft day (something the constitution speaks on as being important and something we've bantered about during recent "dump trade" discussions). It becomes about who can compile the highest number of transactions, thus pushing cummulative stat categories beyond the realms of reason.

A real team certainly can make a move or two every day. But do they? They make them on an as-needed basis. When you open transactions up to the daily grind, it won't take long before owners will start shuffling players in and out of the lineup and rotations based on games played, bloating the stats. Trades and free agent moves tend to get squirrelly too, with owners dumping players they might ordinarily keep reserved to help play matchups.

The argument that people who have more time/computer access is a valid one as well. We all pay the same into the pot. We all draft the same number of players. We all work under the same restrictions of salary and roster spots. But if we allow transaction times to be unconstrained, it WILL give a competitive advantage to someone who can spend more time in front of their computer than others. With the twice a week transactions, this limits the number of moves a team can make in much the same way roster and salary rules keep things even. And in my opinion, it is a LOT more fun to play in a league where you get to measure yourself on equal terms with 9 other owners than in a league where even one rule change can tip the competitive balance.

The only arguments I've ever heard FOR daily transactions tend to be of the anecdotal variety (I could have activated so and so to replace wounded Willy...). Injuries are a part of the game that cannot be controlled and make each season, in my opinion, unique and challenging. They can become another equalizing force in a way. Taking that out of the game would lessen its appeal to me.

Guess I've said my peace. My biggest hope is that the sportsline guy aspect of this will no longer enter into the debate. It is inconsequential compared to the other issues that daily transactions can bring to the league.

[MGrage]

I agree with the previous two posters. I can't see it being a chore like dusting, washing dishes or doing the laundry. dang, I really need to find a bang maid ...

As one of the few in the league with unlimited online time and nearly as much free time, I like the current situation we have now. Just remember way back in the dark ages when we only had one transaction day a week. I can't even imagine how we were able to survive back then. BTW, I too feel your pain Dave. Montero, very unthoughtfully, tore his meniscus the day after a TD.

I think there's really nothing left to discuss. Though I don't think it would change the character of the league THAT much. It's a pretty da*n cutthroat already despite what Mike thinks. Just trying to make a trade is as tough as any of the 12 Labors of Hercules. Free agent bidding is ultracompetitive as well. Finally, trying to draft the best player in the ML draft is getting harder too. I knew I wouldn't get Harper as soon as he took his GED to play CC ball. I had planned on taking him with a 13th round pick since he wouldn't have been eligible for the draft until 2011 but could only hope to pick him up with a 7th rounder after he did that. At least my backup plan worked and I was able to claim next year's #1 pick later in the draft. Now hopefully Houston will do the sensible thing and lose 100 games and go over the slot to sign Rendon ...

Matt

PS. I thought you looked like you had that whole heroin chic thing going for ya at the Draft Dave.

[Demreb]

When I brought this up for discussion I thought I was in favor of daily moves. The more I have read the wisdom of the league (and Matt G as well ;D) I have been swayed.

I hadn't thought about the DAILY MOVES. I simply considered that I could have activate Brad Penny when St Lou decided to move him up a day causing me to miss his first awesome start.

Mike C brings up a brilliant point about this league being judged mainly on how a team performs on draft day. Although, I will submit that if you compile a strong, deep team on draft day, then making daily moves would further reward the team that prepared and executed well.

That being said, making moves twice a week does seem sufficient until a player gets demoted (Bonafacio!) on Tuesday. But that's ok, because even having daily moves wouldn't have allowed me to do anything since he's MY ONLY SHORTSTOP!!! What was it that I mentioned about preparing and executing?

If we wanted to change the purpose of the league, then moving to daily might make sense. But the reason many of you joined and the rest of us has stayed is the comaraderie and competition without the maniacal cutthroat activities.

Unless the remaining four silent owners have strong arguments that would allow us to reconsider, I think this issue has been put to bed.

[kenndoza (archived)]

Late to the party...

By the way, I'm one of those people who made my move on the wrong day last week. Did we ever get the Chipper/Belliard thing straightened out?

I'm in two leagues, and in both I'm dominating Coulter. The other league is a daily moves league. I can't keep up. It's so frustrating. What, two stolen bases on my bench? I forgot to activate Jonathan Sanchez for his start? It's just...annoying. Even the limits at each position, presumably used to prevent the "bloating" of which Coulter spoke are kind of annoying.

Twice a week is fine. Even once a week would be fine, although I'll admit it's interminable when your guy gets hurt on the first day. Didn't we used to have a "middle of the week" rule in this league, or am I thinking of another one. When your guy gets sent down, you can replace him in the middle of the week. I thought it was a nice rule, but the two times a week transaction period takes care of that better.

I'm all for change in this league when the situation calls for it, but I agree with everyone else - we don't need this change.