Gopherball Decision Time

[Seattle Mariners GM(Pete)]

I love the idea of keeping 30 teams, but I really really don't want to own two teams, so since active owners seem hard to find and keep, I guess I am for contracting to the right number. I think a snake draft for the remaining players at their current salaries/contracts makes the most sense.

I also think we should keep the first right to our real team's draft picks and IFAs, then do a short three round slow draft for those open teams.

By contracting the league, limiting roster sizes might be a challenge. I'd suggest keeping roster sizes set and wait to figure out how that works with only 20 teams.

I am also in favor of standard caps and tags, but not sure how to do that. Do we all go up to the highest or meet in the middle? It wouldn't be fair for some teams to automatically be over if they are cut but giving some teams a huge bump will cause inflation right away. Maybe meet in the middle with a one year waiver for teams going down to figure out how to get under the cap? Especially if we do the contraction draft.

Here are my suggestions
1) everyone gets a couple of free drops, helps teams get to the new caps
2) everyone can only protect a certain number of players which will force open roster spots for the contraction draft, all non protected are free drops
3) contraction draft is for abandoned teams players at real life salaries, anyone not drafted goes into the Gopher Ball FA pool
4) as mentioned, caps all go to the midpoint, teams coming down get a small waiver period or % allowed over for one year
5) as mentioned, I'd keep roster sizes the same until we figure out what the adjusted player pool looks like
6) each year after first choice to keep our own draft pick or IFAs, we hold a 3 or 4 round slow draft for other unowned teams draft and IFA picks

Also a BIG thanks to the team that has agreed to step up and run the league with Ashley.

[Cleveland Guardians (NickL)]

Thank you Pete, all of your ideas are very well thought out and offer good compromises to some of our upcoming hurdles to figure out. My vote on the matter is to contract, reluctantly. So, out of 15 active owners 6 voted to contract, 3 voted to stay at 30 and have each owner run 2 teams, and 2 teams posted but were noncommittal. Contraction is coming, sorry to those who would prefer not to contract. However, there will be opportunities for volunteers to foster a 2nd team until a new owner is put in place.

As far as a # of teams to contract, once we do take teams away it is not something that we would want to reverse. So I would rather contract 6 teams than 10 for example and try to fill the unowned teams. My thoughts were to eliminate the teams in the worst shape regardless of league or division, which would also affect our playoff system (I know, another major change). If anyone has thoughts on which teams to eliminate please feel free to share. I know there are a few teams that have less than 10 major league players under contract.

Also, as we sort things through, now may be a good time to check our Fantrax rosters vs the spreadsheet. We can work on any issues with the spreadsheet in the time being. We can't make any roster moves on Fantrax until the league is renewed, but we can still view the rosters. I have pecked away at the spreadsheet over the last couple of months and can look into any issues. You can message me directly or post in the pending corrections.

Please keep logging into proboards because, as Rick said, we should move quickly.

[Reds GM (Tim)]

Well, I have given this some long deep thought. Honestly, as much as I love the game. Realistically I don't even watch much anymore. Couldn't tell you the last time I watched even the world series. I am so far out of touch with players and teams. I asked for access to the spreadsheet over a month ago, got it. Haven't even had the time to open it. I just work to much and quite honestly at this point in my life I don't need the hassle to have to babysit a team for fantasy that plays for as long as baseballs season is. So unfortunately please count me out of the league. Good luck to all! Thanks!

[Seattle Mariners GM(Pete)]

Feb 2, 2022 18:27:22 GMT -5 Cleveland Guardians (NickL) said:

Thank you Pete, all of your ideas are very well thought out and offer good compromises to some of our upcoming hurdles to figure out. My vote on the matter is to contract, reluctantly. So, out of 15 active owners 6 voted to contract, 3 voted to stay at 30 and have each owner run 2 teams, and 2 teams posted but were noncommittal. Contraction is coming, sorry to those who would prefer not to contract. However, there will be opportunities for volunteers to foster a 2nd team until a new owner is put in place.

As far as a # of teams to contract, once we do take teams away it is not something that we would want to reverse. So I would rather contract 6 teams than 10 for example and try to fill the unowned teams. My thoughts were to eliminate the teams in the worst shape regardless of league or division, which would also affect our playoff system (I know, another major change). If anyone has thoughts on which teams to eliminate please feel free to share. I know there are a few teams that have less than 10 major league players under contract.

Also, as we sort things through, now may be a good time to check our Fantrax rosters vs the spreadsheet. We can work on any issues with the spreadsheet in the time being. We can't make any roster moves on Fantrax until the league is renewed, but we can still view the rosters. I have pecked away at the spreadsheet over the last couple of months and can look into any issues. You can message me directly or post in the pending corrections.

Please keep logging into proboards because, as Rick said, we should move quickly.

I'd suggest
1) decide which owners are committed to staying and which teams are currently vacant
2) then, maybe based on reverse standings, give staying owners the right to keep their existing team or switch to take over an open one. If people switch, then those old teams go into the open pool if someone next in line wants to swap. Sort of like a one week slow draft for teams.

I also think knowing the rules would help, for example, as the Mariners owner, will I still have future first rights to Mariners real life draft picks or are all going into a draft pool? I'd vote for keeping first right, then open teams picks/IFAs go into a three or five round slow draft

Some teams may not look good in the standings, but some of us have spent time building the farm system and might want to see it through.

[Astros GM (Cruson)]

Are we doing something or ?