Entries from October 2007 ↓

Q:  I am in a 16 team keeper league in its inaugural season.  A trade was recently proposed (by a fantasy football rookie; call him Team 1) that would send Edgerrin James and Jeff Garcia to another team (Team 2) for Stephen Jackson.  This trade was accepted by both teams.  League rules allow the trade to be vetoed if six teams deem the trade to be unbalanced.  Within the 48 hour review period, six teams voted to veto the trade while three teams voted to allow the trade.  Other teams were not heard from.  Once the trade was vetoed, a post was made in our league message board from Team 2 stating…

“You have no business vetoing somebody else’s trade unless it’s clearly collusion (2 owners trying to help only 1 team win). I guess you didn’t feel like the other owner’s offer was fair, but what you really did was prevent me from getting a backup QB to cover my bye in week 8.

So I will be vetoing all your trades now, since I feel my trade was unfairly vetoed.”

I would like your thoughts on this.  Was this a valid trade that should have been allowed?

Also, as commissioner of this league, should I post any sort of rebuttal, say something face to face about this petty post, or just let it go?

A:  Thanks for your question.  First lets establish if the trade is fair.  Look at the stats from the first 5 weeks of the season:

S.Jackson: 229 yds, 0TDs, 57 yds receiving (3 games)
James:  442 yds, 3TDs, 68 yds receiving (5 games)
Garcia:  914 yds, 4TDs, 0INTs (5 games)

From this perspective the trade in question seems heavily favored towards team 2 (who receives James & Garcia).  Now step away from the stats and think about how great Jackson has proven to be in the past few seasons.  Exactly - it is still way too early in the season and if you look at the big picture, Jackson clearly has the most potential of the bunch.  Team 1 receives an absolutely stud RB1 (who is simply off to a rough start) and team 2 receives depth at QB and a decent RB2.  Different risk levels are involved for these two teams but this trade is absolutely fair. No questions.

I pulled this excerpt from one of my previous posts but I think it is very applicable here:

… you have to realize that there is a difference between an unfair trade (that should be vetoed) and an uneven trade (that favors one team but should still be allowed).  Uneven trades still stink, and can affect the balance of your league, but that’s why you hopefully limit the number of idiots in your league.

Now on to the “I will be vetoing all your trades” comment.  I love this comment because it accurately and honestly describes how 95% of all fantasy league participants think.  Everyone wants to believe that they can prevent their personal interest from affecting how they evaluate a trade.  I’m going to respectively call BS, everyone votes based on which scenario will benefit their team the most.  This is why trade vetoes are the single most disputed over issue in fantasy football.  This owner is trying to bring this subjectivity out into the open - he’s just not doing it tactfully.

Going forward, the most important thing to do as commissioner is to set a precedent that will allow you to rule fairly and swiftly on similar issues in the future.  You could back the current policy, regardless if malicious owners are vetoing trades simply for personal gain - at least you are adhering to the rules set forth by your league.  You could require all owners that veto to explain why and then make a final ruling based on whether their arguments have merit.  Or you could treat our decision (or that of a similar objective third-party service) as the final judgment.

Q:  Shaun Alexander for Derrick Ward.  Please resolve this for me!.

A:  Thanks for the inquiry.  This trade is fair.   Through 5 weeks here are the statlines:

Alexander:  378 yds, 3.7 ypc, 2 TDs, 10 recs, 37 yds receiving
Ward:  409 yds, 4.8 ypc, 2 TDs, 20 recs, 122 yds receiving

Ward has better stats but will share time with Brandon Jacobs.  Alexander has a better name but is clearly on the decline (or “in the winter of his career” if you’re a romantic).  Both have the potential to add value to a fantasy team or to become busts.

Q:  Someone in our league is punting on their season and trading away their talent for next year.  This trade is BS and its all so they can keep Joseph Addai next year.  Please help my league see the light.

Team 1 gets:  Addai, Derek Anderson, Lee Evans, Terrell Owens and Packers DST
Team 2 gets:  Marvin Harrison, Greg Olsen, Willie Parker, Vince Young and Pats DST

A:   Sorry, this trade can’t be overturned.  Sure its a blockbuster with both teams moving close to a half of their teams but its perfectly fair.  If I had to choose a side I would want to be Team 2 as they are clearly upgrading at QB, DST and possibly TE while staying competitive at WR and RB.

Let’s see how ESPN’s Eric Karabell’s week 5 recommendations turned out. Here are my rules on how Eric and other fantasy football experts are measured.

Week 5 Fantasy Football Expert Review: Eric Karabell, ESPN

Recommended starts:
QB - Schaub, Campbell
RB - Henry, LJ, Bush, Portis, Ward, Morris
WR - Colston, Bowe, Evans, Randle-El, Jennings

Recommended sits:

QB - Brees, Garcia, Rivers
RB - Benson, J.Jones, E.Graham, Lewis, Dunn/Norwood, Any Packers
WR - Crayton, D.Jackson, R.White, Jurevicius, V.Jackson, A.Gonzalez

Karabell was 2 of 5 on his QB recommendation, 7 of 12 on RBs, and 5 of 11 for WRs for a total of 14 of 28 or exactly 50%. Interesting results. I love this guy’s logic but in regards to Week 5 you could have saved your $6.95 per month ESPN Insider subscription and simply flipped a coin.

Ok, so obviously this blog doesn’t pay the bills and since I haven’t figured out how to get drafted by the Dolphins or market myself as a popstar, I have a real job. Right now I’m collecting data on identity theft. I setup a quick survey on Survey Monkeys. Fill it out if you have a moment. It would be greatly appreciated and seriously it takes less than three minutes.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RBqq6g6E67kkb3_2f4dsLcyA_3d_3d

Q: i had 2 people play each other on ESPN. 1 of them won by a half of point. this led the other to manually check. They found what appears to be a discrepancy with Romo. Hopefullly you can help me out.I’ve copied our scoring below along with the breakdown from the person who lost. Of course their break down might be inaccurate. any help you can shed would be greatly appreciated.

Okay on Sunday night around 11pm Romo had 38 points then on Monday he had 40 points. So I added it up and only come up with 38. See my results below.

339 passing yards = 13 points
4 touchdowns = 24 points
1 td over 40 yards = 1 point
24 rushing yards = 2 points
1 (one) interception thrown = -2 points

That totals 38 points NOT 40 points.

A: Hi Frank. Happy to help. In general, you open up the proverbially “can of worms” by allowing manual decisions to override your league scoring system. It causes less of a problem to agree that the score posted to ESPN (or whichever fantasy service you use) is final, than to allow your league owners the option to dig through each week of stats looking for a way to turn an ‘L’ into a ‘W’. Sure, by this logic someone could receive an unfair loss if ESPN calculates the score incorrectly, but at least you have uniformity.

That said, look at the calculations below which include partial points.

Tony Romo: Week 4 Stat Line:
339 yds passing @ 25 yds per pt = 13.56
3 passing TDs @ 6 pts per TD = 18
1 interceptions @ -2 pts per INT = -2
24 yds rushing @ 10 yds per pt = 2.4
1 rushing TD @ 6pts per TD = 6
40 yd passing TD = 1

= 38.96 or 39 pts

This legitimately explains 1 of the 2 points in question, although from what you have said, this still doesn’t resolve your issue because the difference in the matchup was decided by half a point. You should reach out to ESPN and try to get some clarification on how they compute final scores in regards to partial points. Its possible that they simply round up to the next whole number once a particular stat exceeds the lower whole number by any amount. If this is the case, the 2.4 pts for 24 rushing yards would become 3 points (simply because it is any amount above 2) which gives you the 40 total. Try to get a straight answer on this from ESPN (you can submit a scoring related inquiry at the following link: http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/csmail by selecting “League Scoring/Standings” on the submission form).

If you hear back from them then treat their response as the final ruling. If not, the current final score should stand as you need to defer to the scoring system you have in place (and all owners have agreed to use by joining your league) as opposed to allowing manual overrides - regardless of fairness.

Q: RU losing to the terps (which i’m sure was welcomed by some), Mets out of the playoffs, and after tonight my 4 fantasy teams will be a combined 1-11 which brings me to my question: are you aware of any computer virus that will cause the internet and all fantasy football records to be destroyed so that we can all just start over next week? Think about it, a week full of drafts, etc, etc. and yes i realize the conflict of interest in posing this question to a website, but i digress. thanks.

A: Ha. Great question. If you’re a Rutgers fan, you must know a number of other losers who have already been mathematically eliminated from fantasy football contention so just round up the old crew and start the “Rutgers Will Never Rank in the Top 10 Again Memorial League for the Fantasy Challenged”. In lieu of money, you could all play for the chance to adopt a more respectable college team next season.