Last Week's Question: Can you tell me
how your commissioner leads by example?
It happens every year as we approach the midpoint of the season.
I start getting emails from disenchanted FFers who think that their
league is being mismanaged by the commissioner. In some cases, I
get to strike up a correspondence with the commissioners in question
(so as to find out their version of events). But most of the folks
who write to me with such complaints are unwilling to give me contact
information for their commissioners. I suspect that a fair number
of FFers are more interested in complaining than they are in solving
whatever problems supposedly prompt the complaints.
So instead of reprinting an especially embittered note from a reader
last week, I decided to
ask for examples of how commissioners can lead by example. The funniest
response came from Colin, who sent me a link to a
YouTube video. He claimed it was footage of his commissioner
"ruling with an iron fist," but I have my doubts. In any
case, it's great to know that FF is so popular with the German military.
Of the more serious answers, the one that stood out the most came
from Jake, who shared a story of his draft night:
We hold our draft at the commissioner's house
every year, but one owner is always late. This year, the commish
told everyone we would start at 8 p.m. [whether] everyone was there
or not. Anyone not present at the time of their pick would be assigned
the player rated highest by [our league-hosting service. And the
same would go for] anyone who took longer than two minutes to make
their selection.
Mr. Tardy wasn't there at 8, so the commish assigned him his first
pick (just like he said he would). This went on for the next few
rounds.
Then, when it was the commish's turn to pick in round 4, he got
a call from the owner who was running late. The commish explained
that we had started without him, and the guy started yelling [obscenities].
We could all hear him over the phone, and we were laughing. Then
he asked what players he had been assigned, and that just made him
cuss louder, which made us laugh harder.
He was still arguing with the commish when the timer ran out on
the commissioner's pick and he got assigned the next player according
to the projections. It was Toby Gerhart.
Then the commissioner hung up and started cussing, and we all said
it wasn't his fault. No one would have objected if he had used his
commissioner powers to override the system and undo his pick, but
he just said, "Rules are rules," and let the pick stand.
I also heard from a number of readers about managerial tactics that
have been covered in this column in the past. Jeff loves the way
his commissioner uses a waiting list (of people eager to get into
a league that is over 20 years old) to keep the owners in line:
If you start a player who is suspended or on
a bye, you get booted, and the person on top of the waiting list
gets to buy your team. If you try to collude with a buddy, you both
get booted, and your two teams get sold to the next two people on
the list. No muss; no fuss; no arguments; no exceptions. Next man
up!
Brandon applauds his commissioner for making a point of executing
a trade by Week 4 every season because "Even if he doesn't
need to make the trade, he still likes to remind everyone that finding
mutually beneficial trades isn't hard to do."
Thanks to everyone who sent in positive commentary on their commissioners.
And thanks especially to all y'all commissioners out there who do
one of the world's most thankless tasks.
This Week's Question: How does your
league handle it when owners go AWOL?
Now that we've done our due diligence on the warm, fuzzy end of
the spectrum, let's move in the other direction. I won't go all
the way to the bitter extreme (mentioned above), but John wrote
to let me know that his league seems to be in trouble as a consequence
of a midseason rule change:
My league put up a poll to vote on a waiver
wire pick up. We have been for years letting the persons with the
worst record pick first and better records last. Whether or not
you use you pick that week does not matter. Best team in league
always picks last that week. The vote was to go to a waiver that
if you don’t use it you move up the list (by the way I like
that better). Out of a 12-team league, 4 voted for it 2 against
it and 6 no votes (not everyone was aware of the post). So the commish
changes [the] rules, which ticks some people off and 2 teams dump
their players. Now what? I posted that rule changes should only
occur mid-season with 100% approval. It's Thursday, game on tonight,
2 teams blank. How do we finish the year?
I welcome feedback from readers who want to respond to John's quandary.
I'll consider including responses to any part of his note in next
week's column, but I'm less interested in the first two points he
makes (the waiver wire modification and the fact that it was implemented
midseason) than the major question at the end. What can a commissioner
do when owners just quit on the league?
John was obviously stressed and in a hurry, so I gave him my recommendation
before I had a chance to solicit the feedback of readers in this
week's column. I suggested that the teams of the AWOL owners be
rebuilt to whatever they looked like before the "dump"
and the rosters essentially frozen for the remainder of the season.
To select the weekly lineup, the commissioner should consult the
projections of some neutral source (such as FFToday) and use the
players expected by that source to do the best--because the last
thing you want to do is ask the commissioner to make a gut call
on whether an absentee owner shoulda woulda coulda started DeMarco
Murray against the Seahawks. Whichever source John's league selects,
it's imperative that the source be identified in advance and used
consistently for the remainder of the season.
But what if one of the abandoned teams gets riddled with injuries
and/or suspensions? My suggestion isn't built to handle that contingency.
Can you folks think of a better plan for helping John's league manage
the rest of the season? Agreeing that midseason rule changes are
a bad idea doesn't really help solve the more immediate problem
of keeping the league alive, but I look forward to reviewing (and
sharing) all forms of constructive feedback.
Survivor Picks - Week 7 (Courtesy of
Matthew Schiff)
Well folks, one week after saying we were going to try for a perfect
season with our #1 pick, we over-estimated Seattle's home-field
advantage--and the Cowboys decided to dunk our prognostication in
the Puget Sound. Apologies to those of you who used that pick and
are still reading this column. If it's any consolation, almost 1/3
of most survival pools were eliminated last week, so you weren’t
alone. The good news is that if you used my second or third pick,
you survived to Week 7. So let’s get to it.
Trap Game: Green Bay versus Carolina:
The line on this game has the Packers winning by over a touchdown.
But the Green Bay offense isn’t playing up to its potential,
having barely won last week’s game on last-second heroics.
Moreover, the Panthers have already won two games against NFC North
teams with solid quarterbacks (Chicago and Detroit). If Cam Newton
had a reliable running back, this writer would all but guarantee
an upset victory at Lambeau. Why? Because a good offense is the
best defense, and Newton is being asked to do everything on his
own with a play-action option offense. I expect the Panthers to
beat the line on this one, and I won't be surprised if they pull
off the win, especially since (as those who have been reading this
column this season already know) Green Bay is no longer the “home
lock” it used to be for the last 10 years.
#3: New England over NY Jets (5-1: Pit, NO,
CIN, SF, CLE, SD):
Even though this contest has all the makings of a trap game, I am
compelled to take it as my third choice. If you haven’t seen
the highlights from the last time these teams played, then you haven’t
done your homework. The Patriots will be without Steven Ridley due
to a torn ACL and MCL, but it is linebacker Jerod Mayo as well as
concussions to offensive linemen Connelly and Stork that may cause
more problems for the Pats. Unfortunately for Rex Ryan's squad,
it won't be enough for the Jets to contain the New England offense;
they will have to generate offense of their own, which is something
that Chris Johnson, Chris Ivory and Geno Smith haven't proven they
can do. Knowing Belichick’s knack for finding talent in strange
places, not to mention having players step up for this coach even
when they should sit out the game, should give you confidence that
New England will win this one at home--though probably not by the
large margin that the line predicts.
#2: Cleveland at Jacksonville (2-4: CHI,
Sea, NO, TB, DET, Den):
Brian Hoyer has quietly amassed a 6-2 record as the starter for
a resurgent Browns unit that has really taken to Kyle Shanahan’s
offense. Hoyer is currently leading the NFL in yards per completion
with 13.5 and boasts a 99.5 passer rating at the helm of a team
that drafted Johnny Manziel as the QB of the future. The Jaguars
have their own rookie sensation (you know, the kind that actually
takes the field) in Blake Bortles, who continues to hone his skills
on a Jaguar offense that is dead last in yards per game and next-to-last
in points per game. And with an offense that can't stay on the field,
is it any wonder that the Jacksonville defense is yielding the third
most yards per game? Take the Browns on the road as they slowly
prove to the rest of the league that they just might be the 6th
seed in the AFC by season's end.
Image by Tilt Creative (Ty
Schiff)
#1: Baltimore over Atlanta (5-1: PHI, DEN,
NE, SD, GB, SEA):
In case you haven’t heard, Joe Flacco is pretty good. Last
week he set a record (for QBs in the modern era) by scoring five
TDs in just over 16 minutes, which beat the previous record set
by Ben Roethlisberger by more than twelve minutes. Since we've
already seen Teddy Bridgewater and the woeful Vikings light up
Atlanta for 41 points (back in Week 4), it's only reasonable to
wonder what kind of damage Joe Flacco can do. Yes, these teams
have scored on average the exact same points as each other, and
you could possibly use a different choice this week that might
give you less angst, but as most NFL coaches say, you have to
ride the hot hand. And that hand is Joe Flacco at home.
Mike Davis has been writing about fantasy football since 1999.
As a landlocked Oklahoman who longs for the sound of ocean waves,
he also writes about ocean colonization under the pen name Studio
Dongo. The latest installment in his science fiction series can
be found here.
|
