Claim rules?

[matiuste]

Hi everyone,

I would like to know if you have specific rules/restrictions concerning Claims in your leagues?

In my league some people want to change a few rules.

FYI, we already have a maximum of 40 claims yearly, unlimited trades.

A guy is proposing having 15 free claims then each claim would be 1$.

I'm the king of guy who claims a lot, following breakouts and so on. I finished the year with 3 claims left. So I'm not too thrilled about that.

[PenguinHunter]

Sounds like this might be the classic case of managers who are not willing to put as much effort into the league are trying to change the rules so that the more-active managers can't have an advantage.

I would not be in favour of this if I were you and you like to make the changes.

I guess if I was you I would want to know the reasoning as to why they want to reduce it? What are the reasons? If they want to reduce the in-year management of the team, they should join a box-pool where there is absolutely no management.

[LawMan]

In our league you are limited to 2 waiver wire claims per week (head-to-head league), no year-long limit (22 weeks + playoffs). 2 a week allow for a decent amount of activity but prevents teams from all out "streaming" their bottom roster spots.

Having more claims allows teams to, well, make more claims, which will lead to increased turnover on the waiver wire. This will benefit more active managers and teams will be able to take more flyers on breakout stars.
Having fewer claims makes each claim more valuable and would lead to less turnover, this would force teams to think harder about each particular claim and would benefit teams who are good at separating true breakouts from hot streaks.

Both have arguments in favour. That being said I think the current number is pretty reasonable for your league setup and would need to be presented with good reasons to change it.

[ericdaoust]

Having a higher amount of claims favors hardcore people who are participating multiple hours every day. Putting limitations on claims puts more emphasis on the draft and trades. It also evens things out if you have managers that don't want to get involved every day. There's no right or wrong answer here - depends on the crowd.

[Rockies & Hockeys]

We only have 8 claims a YEAR, and we actually really like it.

1) It doesn't make it so that only the obsessed ones (I would be one, haha) have a chance at winning.
2) Also, it's been awesome for making trades happen a lot more, as those are unlimited.
3) It adds a really neat dynamic to the decision of jumping on someone with a hot streak vs. saving a couple of claims for late in the year, after trade deadline.

We started with only 2 a year and that wasn't nearly enough, but 8 is one a month and it's been super successful.

[Moses]

Sidebar: I think that the there is a relationship between IR spots and WW claims that isn't always recognised. The more claims allowed then less IR spots should be available. On the flip side, fewer WW claims in a season should increase the number of IR spots available.

If you want a league with lots of movement and turn over then increase claims and decrease IR spots. Force managers into tough decisions around injured players. If you want more stability in the league then allow managers to have a place to put injured players but limit the number of players made available (volume) to replace them.

EDIT: Personally I like 2 claims per week and a small-medium number of IR spots. Capping the weekly claims prevents hyperactive managers from claiming anything with a pulse, while at the same time making the WW claims have value.

[lucafen4]

I have a variety.

50 claims a yr - 4 per week
1 FA & 1 WW per week
3 per week
25 per year - 2 per week.

The most challenging one for me is the 25 per year league. Also has the largest prospect system (30)... Most of the movement is there.

One thing fewer claims does is eliminates waiver churning. Add in payment for moves and you really need to make good decisions.

as mentioned above, it also does even the playing field a bit for the more casual GM vs. the hardcore GM.

If this is a group of friends, I'm more in favour of reducing moves.
This is the reason we dropped from 50 to 30 to 25 per year and 4 to 3 to 2 per week.
I wanted the twice a week GM to feel as included as the 15 day a week GM (hyperactive like I am).
Now I've added twice as much research into each claim I make, hoping I make the correct short & long term move.

It reduces one advantage, but if you're already spending the time, you just shift how you spend that time and create a new advantage.

[Referee3083]

We only have 8 claims a YEAR, and we actually really like it.

1) It doesn't make it so that only the obsessed ones (I would be one, haha) have a chance at winning.
2) Also, it's been awesome for making trades happen a lot more, as those are unlimited.
3) It adds a really neat dynamic to the decision of jumping on someone with a hot streak vs. saving a couple of claims for late in the year, after trade deadline.

We started with only 2 a year and that wasn't nearly enough, but 8 is one a month and it's been super successful.

How do you handle injuries with so few claims? I easily have close to 8 guys a year hit IR.

[Rockies & Hockeys]

How do you handle injuries with so few claims? I easily have close to 8 guys a year hit IR.

We have FOUR IR+ slots, which if you're smart, make it a lot easier. You can, in essence, use these guys for replacements many times. You DON'T need to clear them off the IR as soon as they get healthy.

Heck, I even intentionally traded for two guys who were hurt in January to be able to use them as backups in case of future injuries!

[butch]

in a roto/point only leagues theres usually a gp limit per position of 82 games so you dont really need too many adds per week ; especially if theres a bench size of 4-5 .

otoh , 3 per week in h2h seems about right if your league has fellas that like to stream a bit with their bottom 1 or 2 depth spots .