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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Feb 15, 2006 17:32:28 GMT -5
A few of us discussed a little bit about maybe expanding the league either now or sometime later -- in one of the other threads. What are others thoughts on it?
Personally, I'd like to see us expand to a 16-team league in the long run. That would probably make things more interesting all around.
However, it'll probably be tough to recruit enough new owners for that w/out offering some serious concessions.
One thought that just occurred to me is maybe we can do what we did back in 2004 and create upto 4 dummy/expansion teams w/ the expectation for them to be taking by new owners either later this year or during the following offseason. That would probably help make a smoother transition from 12 to 16-team league and would probably make it easier for recruiting new owners for expansion.
However, unlike what we did in 2004, perhaps, we should do some minimal add/drops for these dummy/expansion teams during the year instead of leaving them completely untouched. Simple waiver claims for well known top prospects would make sense. And since Yahoo now lists individual players w/ their Points value as a stat, it's also a bit easier to do automatic proxy picks for these teams during the draft.
So what do y'all think?
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Post by prhood on Feb 16, 2006 9:18:11 GMT -5
My concerns with rostering (even if only partially) 4 new teams as a preliminary to expansion is that it effectively removes certain players from the trading pool. Personally I would prefer, I think, a process designed around an expansion draft but one that was fairly reasonable in terms of providing players to the expansion teams. It seems to me that most owners want to become as competitive as quickly as possible. So a process which minimized the number of players that the existing teams could protect (max 2? perhaps) and then operated on a "lose 1- protect one" basis might be more acceptable and better in the long run. just a few thoughts from a "newbie" owner.
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Feb 16, 2006 11:09:57 GMT -5
Not sure if everyone's keen on an expansion draft. I have no problems w/ doing one myself. However, if one were to be done, I'd probably want it to be done so that the strongest few existing teams should not have to suffer much greater losses than the weakest few teams. Sure, the strongest few will very likely suffer greater losses, but there should be enough protection for them so that an expansion draft does not take away a large majority of their strength over the weaker teams -- it'll probably be reduced some, but it would be a bit unfair if it's largely eliminated. Your suggestion might make a good start for a workable expansion draft although I would probably suggest somewhat more protection than that. Maybe start w/ protect 3 and then protect 2 more for each lost player. There are probably enough decent-to-good FAs that maybe only the top 18-20 players on most teams in a fully active 12-team league would be better than what's available in the FA pool (beyond the top few FAs that are released due to loss of keeper status). A starting point of protect 3 and then protect 2 more for each loss would mean that the 12 existing teams will lose a total of upto 12 x (21 / 3 - 1) = 72 quality players, which would yield upto 72 / 4 = 18 quality players for each expansion team while leaving at least 21 - 6 = 15 quality players for each existing team. To even out the numbers a bit, I guess we could do a 16-round expansion draft, instead of 18, so that each existing team should not end up w/ fewer quality players than the expansion teams. Since the expansion teams will also get first crack at the top FAs in the FA draft, that should easily justify giving each existing team an initial protection of 3 players. I think though that if we go w/ such plan for expansion, then it might be preferable to wait til next year to do it.
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Post by The Birds (Davey Johnson) on Feb 16, 2006 13:50:14 GMT -5
I don't like the idea of additional dummy teams with full rosters. They reduce the entertainment level of the current season by holding a set of players hostage. If you want to maintain flexibility to add teams in the middle of the season, maybe you can add dummy teams with empty rosters. That way, new expansion owners can start play immediately by stocking their teams with free agents and building for the future with prospects, then we can evaluate at the end of the season on a possible expansion draft for these teams. If no expansion occurs, then the empty dummy teams do not interfere with the actual play of the game.
As for the details of how an expansion draft may be executed, how about a system like this: * All existing teams must reduce their roster to size N. * Run a special draft to get all rosters to size N. * Run a normal draft. My guess is that N would be something between 15 and 20.
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Post by Former Goodbye Slicers (Kiwi) on Feb 17, 2006 3:53:38 GMT -5
Not keen on expansion. I don't want to share the love around.
Signed,
George Steinbrenner
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Feb 20, 2006 12:13:00 GMT -5
Sounds like we will put the idea of expansion on the shelf for now -- maybe wait til 07 instead. But I would definitely like to expand the league at some point, so do keep that in mind. We will probably revisit the idea later this year to see if 07 expansion would be viable.
On 2nd thought, I guess we could go w/ The Birds' suggestion to keep 2-4 expansion teams w/ empty rosters set up in Yahoo in case we want to add expansion owners later in the year around midseason. As suggested, at that point, they can just join and spend their time adding decent FAs and good prospects that are called up, and then go from there.
What do y'all think?
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Feb 20, 2006 17:17:09 GMT -5
Another consideration is adding a minor league component at the same time as we do expansion -- as I suggested in the other thread. I think the addition of a minors component would appeal to new expansion owners enough to help offset the initial disadvantages of running expansion teams. Certainly, if I were to join the league as an expansion owner, having a minor league component where I can get top picks in the minors draft would help.
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Aug 31, 2006 12:20:51 GMT -5
So what do y'all think about going for league expansion at this point?
The subject was brought up and discussed before the season began, but we sort of decided to table the idea until later, if at all. Still, we did set up Yahoo to allow for the possibility of mid/late-season expansion, and now would probably be a good time to work that out so that the new expansion teams could make use of Sept call-ups in addition to the existing FA pool.
Also, what did you guys think of the new draft system we went w/ this year? If we stick w/ it, that would probably work well for the expansion teams much like it has worked well for those who took over dead teams going into this year.
Thoughts?
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Post by prhood on Aug 31, 2006 13:42:47 GMT -5
Are you talking about expansion even while we are still competing? I'm in favour of adding at least 2 teams if we can find good GMs. I'd be prepared to see the new teams initiated and able to make waiver claims and pick up FAs if they so desire. Actual stocking of the teams could and should wait until aftter the season is finished.
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Post by Former Center for Ants (Garf) on Aug 31, 2006 20:49:01 GMT -5
I like the expansion idea. And I really liked the draft system from last year. If it can help a team like mine with practically no talent become a serious contender within one year, it worked. I think the expansion draft could be worked into our regular draft. Most of the top free agents this year would be gone by the time the "old guard" owners drafted, but it would give the expansion teams the opportunity to get some top talent without diluting the talent from existing teams as much. In fact, some existing teams might not lose any players that they truly wanted with this system.
So, I would say yes, but with the caveat that there probably is no need for a separate expansion draft.
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Sept 1, 2006 2:24:56 GMT -5
Yes, if there would be any expansion draft at all, it won't be during the current season. But as Center for Ants pointed out (and The Birds elsewhere in the past), there might not be a real need for a special expansion draft given the new draft system we adopted this year. And even if we have such an expansion draft, it probably wouldn't need to be any more than what The Birds suggested in an earlier post.
FYI, I already know of one person who'd be interested to take over an expansion team. A few of the team owners here also know him from one or another dynasty league we also participate. It would be great if we can fill in all 4 expansion teams that I already set up (w/ blank rosters) in Yahoo, but 2 would be a nice start also.
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Post by prhood on Sept 1, 2006 9:58:17 GMT -5
Several comments:
1. Perhaps we should start a new and separate thread for this discussion.
2. The draft system adopted seemed to me to be appropriate for the situation. There were a number of new GMs taking over franchises that hd been neglected to a greater or lesser degree.
3. With a true expansion, e.g. adding more teams, I would suggest that a separate expansion draft be held with the existing teams being allowed to protect 6 or 8 or 10 players whatever is deemed appropriate and then having a draft on a lose-one keep-one basis.
4. The spring draft, I would suggest, should then follow a normal drafting process with every team being able to draft in the first rounds and only stopping when their roster is completed.
5. To enable the weaker teams to access players we should draft each round in reverse order of standings. Thus the new teams would get the first picks in each round.
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Sept 5, 2006 10:57:56 GMT -5
Any other thoughts on expansion, especially from those who have not spoken up recently?
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Post by The Birds (Davey Johnson) on Sept 25, 2006 9:07:53 GMT -5
I don't have anything new to add to this thread, except that I would welcome expanding the league to include more owners who enjoy playing fantasy baseball.
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Post by SultansOfSquat (Man) on Sept 25, 2006 15:44:23 GMT -5
Ok. Since I didn't hear any objections for over 3 weeks, I will go ahead and recruit some new team owners for the reserved expansion teams that were already set up for this in Yahoo. They will be allowed to pick up whatever's available in the FA pool right now, and then, we will see about formulating a suitable way to help them become competitive sooner rather than later though I'm inclined to think the draft system we went w/ this year might be good enough for this. We shall see...
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Post by grid on Sept 25, 2006 16:27:35 GMT -5
I vote no on expansion, things are great the way they are.
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Post by Former Sneaker Pimps (Graham) on Sept 27, 2006 3:07:54 GMT -5
I vote only every second expansion team should be kept.
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Post by prhood on Sept 29, 2006 9:08:43 GMT -5
Who let these 2 dingbats into the league? he should be taken out and made to listen to a 2 hour speech from Mr. (just call me President) Bush. ;D
Standards in this league are dropping even more than they did when I joined.
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Post by Former Sneaker Pimps (Graham) on Sept 29, 2006 15:39:28 GMT -5
That low!? Oh man, I thought when things bottomed-out that much the only way was up..?
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Post by grid on Sept 30, 2006 15:18:19 GMT -5
Curse me kilts!
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