Advice on Fantasy Football Keeper Leagues

[treyso]

I have a group of 10 that has a keeper league going. This is our 2nd season. I would like some advice and how you think a Fantasy Football Keeper League should work.

Basically, after last season was over, we picked 6 players that we would like to keep on our lineup. This year we are going to cut it down to 3 or 4 players, but we have someone in the league that thinks we should be able to keep "up to X players." Meaning, he would be able to keep 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 players. That would obviously give him higher draft picks than everyone else if he were to keep just 1.

If anyone is in a fantasy keeper league, please let me know how it works, or what you think about how I might handle mine. THANKS!

[Pub Guy]

I can't really answer your question, but I did want to say how opposed to keeper leagues I am.

If you have owner turnover in your league (almost all leagues do over time), new owners get stuck with old owners picks(usually bad because those are the ones who typically drop out) or none at all. Also, if I have a bad year, I want to start from scratch the next year with fair competition (which is hard to do with the Warners, James, etc not available for the following draft).

This proposed rule change gets brought up in our league every year, but thank goodness it always gets shot down.

[My Name]

I think that keepers leagues are one of the best ways to make the league more fun. There is something to be said about forcing somebody to hold on to a player so that is out for the season in order to get them next year. Also, there tends to be more work required for the draft because you need to know more about the rookies. Also, you get more trades late in the season - If I am fighting for the championship I may trade one of my young players with a lot of future potential for an older veteran who isn't a good keeper, but putting up big numbers this year.

There are probably quite a few ways of doing it. You need to try to make sure that players can't be kept forever. You can say that any player you keep has to be taken a round earlier than the year before and run your draft in the usual manner other than that (so you will not be able to keep them after taking them in the first round).

[VP]

I run my keeper league like the first poster describes. You can keep 0,1, or 2 players. If you keep 1 you lose your 1st round pick, and if you keep 2 you lose your first 2 picks. If you keep a player in consecutive years, you lose 2 picks.

[treyso]

Anyone know of a website that handles keeper leagues? We use Yahoo, but they don't have that capability.

[Flying Squirrel]

I am in a keeper league that handles that by requiring 0 or 3 players kept. The reason being that it forces some managers to keep players not worth keeping in order to hold onto a stud. That makes the manager have to make a decision about the worth of his stud. For example, I kept Bettis so I could keep Moss. If I could have just kept 1 it would have been Moss and I basically would have had a top 4 pick from my 9th spot, plus the 12th pick. Others decided they could get better value by drafting the first 3 rounds than if they kept. Overall, I think it levels the field by negatively impacting teams who have studs by requiring them to keep players that could be drafted in later rounds.

As far as websites, there has to be some but I don't know of any.

[Macroman]

I only play keeper leagues...It keeps most people from doing stupid (collusive) tricks when they realize they are out of the playoff chase near the end of the year.

The leagues I'm in have a simple 3 keepers for everyone rule.

I would like to try some system where there is a tradeoff or a choice. I think giving up your highest draft picks for each keeper is one good idea. Another good one under an aution/salary cap game would be to give kept players raises from the prior year...If you want to discourage keepers it could be 50% (or some flat dollar amount that would be prohibative), otherwise it might be 10%.

[Oliver Klozov]

Our league only allows you to keep up to two players, one offense, and one defense.

The following year you lose a pick in the draft. The round of the pick that you lose is calculated as the round that the protected player was drafted minus four rounds (e.g. protecting a player drafted in the 5th round would cost one a first round pick in the following draft).

The benefit of this is that nobody taken in the first four rounds can be protected, so the Warner's and James' are still there. This system rewards owners that pick up the sleepers in the draft.

Free agents picked up throughout the year are not allowed to be protected.

[Flying Squirrel]

Back to the website. Anyone know of one that can handle keepers?

[AL THE LAB]

Always go for the home run