DT.com Fantasy Football League

[RUBE]

No. That would not be right. Having a Dynasty league means accepting mistakes you made in past seasons as well as this one. I will be fine with my team and build it into a winner.

Confirmed:
Lud Grays (SpaceMan)
Merlin's Giants
Ben Staad Bears
Garrell's Raiders
Walkin' Dudes (LookWhoItIs)
Rube's .45s

Assumed:
Death By Snu Snu (because of SpaceMan)
La-Z-Boys (because of Garrell)

Not Coming Back:
Square Pegs (ELazansky)

Unknown:
Underhax Breadcrumbs (Robert Fulman)
Cormier (sgc1999)
Equus Asinus (SkippyDO23)

So actually it is not as bad as I thought. We need to hear from three on here and Garrell and SpaceMan need to tell me if their friend and brother, respectively, are coming back. I will send another email in a week if I still haven't heard from everyone.

I now have confirmation from everyone but team Cormier and the La-Z-Boys. Soon we can start talking draft method and date.

[RUBE]

Cormier has confirmed and I have sent a message to Garrell about the Laz-Z-Boys, so all we really need is a replacement for ELazansky. Since no one has just popped in here to volunteer, I need all of you guys to help me recruit. I would like to try to get someone from the site first. If we can't make that happen then I will consider other options. Please send a PM to anyone that you think might be interested and tell them to PM me their email address. First PM I get wins the second place team in our league.

[DoctorZaius]

If you guys need a new person, I can always fit in another league. I'd want to change the team name of course. Let me know.

[Ben Staad]

Cool. If you are interested please send Rube a PM.

If you guys need a new person, I can always fit in another league. I'd want to change the team name of course. Let me know.

[Robert Fulman]

As per usual, I'm excited to play along but will rarely show up here because I can never remember where anything is outside of Calvin's Corner.

[RUBE]

If you guys need a new person, I can always fit in another league. I'd want to change the team name of course. Let me know.

It sounds like we have a new member. As soon as I get your email you are in.

That means that we can start talking draft date and time or any possible rule changes. The first thing that I want to confirm everyone is OK with is that the draft will include free agents along with rookies. The reason for this is because there are a few decent free agents out there and I think it would be more fair to include them in the draft than to put them on the waivers after the draft. If that happens then the highest people on the waiver list will snatch them up. If they are included in the draft the people will have to decide between choosing a rookie or one of the free agents instead of being able to grab both by drafting and then having a high waiver pick.

[Merlin1958]

Sounds good to me.

[Ben Staad]

Free agents and rookies in the draft sound great to me. Just looked at my team and realized again that I need some help. LOL.

[SpaceMaN]

For dynasty leagues, free agents with the rookies in the draft is the norm. Just have to trust everyone not to add/drop before the draft to pick up those free agents.

Again, I'll probably just autodraft my 3 picks since they likely won't be immediate impact players. I'll ask my brother but I'm guessing the same thing unless he's first or second pick. So whenever you want to do our supplemental picks and get the league open, I'm all for it.

[DoctorZaius]

I'm the newbie, so I will just go with the flow. I just gotta get used to the ESPN format - I am in two yahoo leagues, so this is a bit different.

[RUBE]

Yeah, I am running my local league through Yahoo! and it definitely has some nice features that ESPN is missing. In fact, that is part of the reason that I am going to make the following argument. I do not think we should use ESPN's draft software to do our rookie/free agent draft. I have two main reasons:

1. SpaceMan mentioned that he might just let ESPN auto-draft for him. For a re-draft league I think it is OK to do an auto-draft but I think a dynasty league requires more attention. Based on what the current rankings on ESPN are I don't think anyone will be happy with an auto-draft. I did a mock draft and all of the rookies were way down the list. If you let ESPN draft for you, you could very well end up with a draft of one actual offensive player (probably a third-tier QB), a defense, and a kicker. I know the rankings will get better closer to the season but I am still strongly advising against auto-drafting. For one, you only get three picks and therefore need to make sure you get players that fill positions you are weak in. I understand that they may not help you until next year but that is part of the challenge of a dynasty league. You need to plan ahead. If we do an online draft, I know some people will auto-draft so I think we should do an offline draft to help prevent this.

2. The way ESPN is setup, you cannot change the format of the draft away from a snake draft. ESPN says that a keeper draft will not snake but that is only the rounds where there are keepers. As soon as those rounds are past then it snakes automatically again. Again this is great for a re-draft league but I think that in a dynasty league where every team has the same players coming back that the weakest teams should get the early picks in each round. This will help the parity of the league and keep everyone interested. (This is something that could be adjusted in a Yahoo! league.)


I understand that planning a date, time, and method for an offline draft will be more difficult but I think it will be worth it. To combat these issues, we could do something that I have heard mentioned before called a slow-draft. What that means is we would pick a forum (could be here but Garrell and SpaceMan would have to proxy for the two who are not on this board or it could be in the message board for our league) and a start time. Then each person would post their pick in turn. There would a 24-hour time limit on a pick so that means that people who have to draft around their jobs can find time on their lunch break or after work to submit their pick. This could take around a week to complete but with only three rounds it shouldn't last too long. Of course to make this happen we would not want to risk scheduling too close to the season so I would propose early August to start.

Please let me know what you think about this idea. If the majority would still like to use ESPN's draft software then we will but please chime in so that I know what everyone is thinking. Once we decide the format of our draft then we can plan the specifics.

EDIT: I created a poll on the league home page so that everyone can vote on this option.

[SpaceMaN]

When I said auto-draft, I meant I'd set up the list for the first 100 guys or whatever so it didn't pick a defense or kicker for me. I just figure 3 picks, whatever, my team doesn't need anything THAT badly to make it a must draft.

Honestly I don't check this every day so a slow draft might work but it could also backfire on me, and therefore my brother as well. I don't mind the snake for just 3 rounds, seems even enough for me.

[RUBE]

I am honestly disappointed that only a third of the league voted in the poll. The four people that did vote voted 3 to 1 in favor of doing the draft on ESPN. Based on that and that the other eight either don't care or aren't checking in enough to do a slow draft, we will use ESPN's draft program to do our draft.

Now we need a date. I would prefer sooner rather than later. How would you all feel about Saturday, August 9th? I know that is before preseason games but I think that is more appropriate for a dynasty league. However, I am open to other dates, preferably on a weekend since I normally work a lot in August. Please post suggestions for draft dates or dates that you absolutely cannot do.

[Merlin1958]

8/9 works for me.

[Lookwhoitis]

i'm game for any type of draft at any time. Sorry i forgot to vote in the poll, I could do a slow draft if we choose it. why not open a thread in the message board and have folks pick on here?

I mean it is only three picks!

I have the first pick right?

Im ready to make it now, lol

[RUBE]

You do have the first pick but we could not have a slow draft here. There are two people who aren't members here. We could have done it on ESPN's message board but that doesn't matter because we are just going to use ESPN's draft software.

[Ben Staad]

Been busy and missed the message. I'm up for whatever.

[RUBE]

I found out today that I have to work the 9th but I could still have the draft that night if we have it a little later. Maybe 8PM CST. What do you all think about that date and time?

[Lookwhoitis]

works for me

[Ben Staad]

That should be fine for me as well.

[DoctorZaius]

Sounds good.

[Garrell]

works for me and lazy boys

[Merlin1958]

Can the date and time be "Officially restated"? I believe I am an "Auto-Draft" guy, but I want to remain competitive for other league members.

[RUBE]

The draft date is August 9th at 9PM EST (8PM CST).

I set it up on the ESPN website already and I believe it sends an email reminder when the date draws near.

If anyone must auto-draft, please do as SpaceMan mentioned and edit your player list. That way you will get someone you want not a kicker or a player you hate. You can do this by going to your team page and clicking "edit pre-draft player rankings."

[Lookwhoitis]

so is the draft going to be a snake draft?

Those are usually set up for re-draft leagues, not keeper leagues.

In an unusually deep draft the advantage goes to the fellow picking in the back half of the draft order.

I who have the worse record get penalized by having to wait to pick again until the 24th pick?