Yahoo League Question

[Rooster]

Hey guys, I’m the commish in a 10 team H2H one win league. We have a 20 team roster and keep

The teams that don’t make the playoffs are locked instantly.

A GM on the bottom came forward today asking for his team to be unlocked so he can pick guys off the waiver wire to improve his team.

I put it out to the other GM’s. Responses I’ve got are

1) No f@cking way, they’ll steal players to hurt playoff teams.

2) yeah but open it after the season.

We’ve been going for several years but this GM is stirring up shit to stir up shit.

My question for you guys:

1) do any of you do this on Yahoo? If so how
do you handle it? I’m not saying there is collusion that is going to happen but I am cognizant of it.

I’ve proposed putting the non playoff teams at the bottom of the waiver list so any players who get dropped and go on waivers for 2 days, if they make it through, could be open for everyone.

Thoughts.


Thanks

[Eskimo Brother]

Huge disadvantage to the bottom teams if they can't add/drop for keepers. Absolutely no way they should be locked. And not just at the back of the waiver list. Full stop.

Generally rules should be fixed in the offseason, but something like this to address fairness is necessary to do immediately.

[Rooster]

I took over this league as commish last season. It’s never come up before. Hence the reason I am asking. Thanks for any responses.

Just looking for people with knowledge of Yahoo and its capabilities.

[hockeyrobot]

Huge disadvantage to the bottom teams if they can't add/drop for keepers. Absolutely no way they should be locked. And not just at the back of the waiver list. Full stop.

Generally rules should be fixed in the offseason, but something like this to address fairness is necessary to do immediately.

Yep I'd never lock a keeper league. It only makes sense in a yearly league.

[Referee3083]

Our league does the complete opposite. During the playoffs all non-playoff teams are locked from making any adds / drops. This is for the reasons stated (teams were trying to help which playoff teams they wanted to win. For example, if I’m in the playoffs and my goalie got hurt, a non-playoff team would try to grab the backup goalie before I did, solely for the purpose of making it harder for me to compete).

That said, we have it very clearly laid out in our rule book that we lock things during the playoffs.

I’m a big believer in not changing anything in the middle of the season unless it’s mission critical and a unanimous vote. I say keep the settings the way they are, and vote on whether or not to change it in the off-season.

[Pengwin7]

For me, this situation is a "it depends".


Case A: This GM has been in the league WITH this condition in the past. If he knew the rule was the rule... then NO - it shouldn't be changed. Any other "locked out" teams may have strategized their players knowing they'd be locked out.
Case B: This is new GM, first year, and there is no printed league rules where he was clearly made aware this would happen. If that's the case - league/commissioner didn't educate him on this clause and you have to figure out some compromise.

IF teams are going to be "locked out" from adding players, then the league should also have a clause that ANY ADDED PLAYERS by ANY TEAM after the "lock" are ineligible to be "kept".
So, if a playoff team adds a guy like... say Cutter Gauthier signs with PHI and is added to Yahoo! database... it would obviously NOT be fair for a playoff team to add and possibly keep this player and for your "locked out" GMs to not.

There's a fairness that can still be achieved here...
Just gotta discuss & settle on it ASAP.

[Rockies & Hockeys]

I think it's a good idea to unlock the teams, but probably not until it's put to a vote in the off-season. Then in future years keep it unlocked until season end, and locked all summer.

[rjfisher83]

IF teams are going to be "locked out" from adding players, then the league should also have a clause that ANY ADDED PLAYERS by ANY TEAM after the "lock" are ineligible to be "kept".

This is exactly the compromise I was going to suggest. Allows playoff teams access to all players in free agency to help them compete but does not put locked teams at a disadvantage and missing out on potentially dropped keepable players.

[LawMan]

I’m of a few different minds:

1. Generally speaking teams should not be locked out of improving their teams, especially when other teams CAN improve their teams:
a. Giving the non-playoff teams a little chance to minorly improve is a good idea. Helps competitive balance and engagement
b. It’s unfair because playoff teams CAN improve during the playoffs.

2. The argument moves will be made specifically to hurt playoff teams is weak, IMO. Also, if that happens it is hilariously petty, so I would allow it.

3. Unrelated, rule CHANGES generally should not occur in season for known or potentially knowable situations. Sometimes things come up on the fly (hello COVID-19). This is not the case. So in this case, whatever happened previously (teams were locked upon elimination) should continue thru the end of the playoffs.

4. For what it is worth, our league is on ESPN and eliminated teams can and are adding/dropping players currently.
Finally, while everyone wants to gain every edge they can (as they should try and do) in reality almost never do any of these end of season adds amount to anything. You did not say how many you keep, if it is 6 or less than adding a college player who signs a pro contract, or a guy on a heater, is not going to amount to anything substantive long-term.

[chuckcouples]

In a keeper league of any sort, it makes no sense to lock some teams but not others. If playoff teams can add players, then non-playoff teams should be able to add players. There is no one who could convince me differently as this would put the teams out of the playoffs in a huge disadvantage.

When young players (ie players leaving NCAA after their college season) sign NHL contracts and get activated in Yahoo, you are not only allowing playoff teams to add these guys to their keeper list. This is ridiculous.

[loppantorkel]

We lock teams that are out of the playoffs. If these teams aren't locked, there's nothing preventing them from emptying their teams of players who aren't keeper eligible - McDavid, M Tkachuk, etc - which would be no good for the playoffs, for the opportunity to pick prospects.

Playoff teams want to remain competitive which means they aren't trying to secure prospects for the next season, and the slight chance that some prospect would be picked when a team is about to be eliminated is acceptable.

I'd say it depends on the rules in the particular league. In a keep 6-8 league, it's fairly unlikely that a prospect goes from irrelevant to keeper worthy in the final weeks of the season.

edit: making sense

[LawMan]

We lock teams that are out of the playoffs. If these teams aren't locked, there's nothing preventing them from emptying their teams for players who aren't keeper eligible - McDavid, M Tkachuk, etc - which would be no good for the playoffs, for the opportunity to pick prospects.

Playoff teams want to remain competitive which means they aren't trying to secure prospects for the next season, and the slight chance that some prospect would be picked when a team is about to be eliminated is acceptable.

I'd say it depends on the rules in the particular league. In a keep 6-8 league, it's fairly unlikely that a prospect goes from irrelevant to keeper worthy in the final weeks of the season.

Your league obviously has unique rules (top round picks cannot be keepers??) In that case it makes sense to lock eliminated teams.
That does not appear to be the case for OP's league.

Agreed on the bolded part. There is often a lot of hype on NCAA free agents but those guys panning out as NHL regulars, let alone top-50 players in year 1 is insanely rare.

[loppantorkel]

Your league obviously has unique rules (top round picks cannot be keepers??) In that case it makes sense to lock eliminated teams.
That does not appear to be the case for OP's league.

Agreed on the bolded part. There is often a lot of hype on NCAA free agents but those guys panning out as NHL regulars, let alone top-50 players in year 1 is insanely rare.

It's a limited keeper league, and yes - top round picks can't be keepers (keeper eligible from round 11). As for the rules in OP's league, not a lot is explained. They 'keep'..? For a fair playoff, locking the non-playoff teams seems reasonable to me. What do the non-playoff teams realistically miss out of? Again it very much depends on the rules in the specific league.