Stacked Teams - Keeper League

JaeTM

Registered User
Dec 3, 2009
1,646
76
Long Island
Just curious how you guys in keeper leagues prevent stacked teams. What I mean by this, is my league a lot of managers are selling off their players to grab picks for next season.

Our league settings are keep 3 players per year and the player can only be kept for 3 seasons. After this season, many of the top end players like McDavid, Crosby, Ovechkin, Stamkos, Tavares, Burns, etc. are all up on their contracts and have to go back into the pool for next year.

One particular manager has been very active and has 4 first round picks, and then 2 picks in rounds 3-6. He was able to trade a ton of his picks last year at a shot at a Championship, fell short, and sold off the likes of McDavid, Ovechkin, Burns and others for picks for next season which will allow him to keep 3 superstars for up to 3 years.

We've seen trends like this in the past, basically giving up on a season to obtain as many picks as possible and while a legitimate strategy, can be frustrating to some managers.

My fantasy baseball league has players kept based upon the round they were drafted which I like, but we wouldn't be able to do without completely resetting the league which would be unfair to those managers who have played for the future.

We're thinking about limiting the number of picks you can own per round to 2, but if there's any other suggestions you guys may have, I'd appreciate it.
 

Brockon

Cautiously optimistic realist when caffeinated.
Aug 20, 2017
2,304
1,769
Northern Canada
My dynasty league implements a salary cap of NHL cap + 35 mil (110 million this season) and uses the actual total salary for the year (IE Patrick Kane costs me 13.8 mil this year, not his 10.5 mil AAV).

This doesn't exactly eliminate stacked teams, as a few GMs have absolutely loaded farm teams (farm teams don't score) - but it makes the FHL NHL roster parity much better because you can't pay everyone. The challenge in managing the cap is very real year to year, and makes playing enry level contracts incredibly important. Middling players like Jason Zucker and his 2 mil cap hit need to be used to balance out the super stars. The league scoreboard is 204, 202, 192, 178, 168, 167 in playoff positions with the other 4 being seriously handicaped by multiple injuries or underperforming players this season. To be noted, I'm currently 3rd after finishing 10th last year (losing Quick for the year killed me).

The league leader can't afford to pay all his superstars right now. He has the strongest farm team largely due to drafting incredibly well during the entry drafts in the later rounds. Because he has the likes of PK Subban, Kuznetsov, Letang, Fleury, Giroux and other notables in his farm team he frequently sells vets for multiple 5-8th round picks to continue loading his pool of available players. But, in turn that evens out the talent on other GMs rosters.
 

JaeTM

Registered User
Dec 3, 2009
1,646
76
Long Island
Thanks for the input. I unfortunately don't think my league is knowledgeable enough to be able to manage a team under a salary cap and/or switching to a dynasty league where you're drafting players on ELCs. A salary cap would also likely need to require a "reset" and start from scratch anyways.
 

rangerssharks414

Registered User
Mar 9, 2010
32,311
1,648
Long Island, NY
I honestly see nothing wrong with selling off players for picks, especially with your format that you can only keep a player for so long. You might as well get something for that player instead of having to throw him back for nothing. But if they're throwing in the towel before the season starts or in November or whatever, that is a problem.
 

klassic

Registered User
Jul 30, 2014
578
24
Part of the game. We have a Keep 5 league (no term limit). 2 teams have already sold off. Both have no picks after round 6 (15 round draft). Team A has 4-3-2-1-4-1, Team B has 2-3-3-5-1-1. They are likely gonna dominate next year.
 

JaeTM

Registered User
Dec 3, 2009
1,646
76
Long Island
I honestly see nothing wrong with selling off players for picks, especially with your format that you can only keep a player for so long. You might as well get something for that player instead of having to throw him back for nothing. But if they're throwing in the towel before the season starts or in November or whatever, that is a problem.

Neither do I. It's part of the reason we switched to a keeper league, to keep those that are out of it by the end of the season to continue playing and making deals. Having 4 first round picks though seems excessive. There's nothing he's doing wrong considering the rules we have in place. I'd just like to prevent this in the future where people would rather sell off all of their pieces in the beginning of the year to benefit themselves for the following 3 years.
 

pheasant

Registered User
Nov 2, 2010
4,226
1,376
Just curious how you guys in keeper leagues prevent stacked teams. What I mean by this, is my league a lot of managers are selling off their players to grab picks for next season.

Our league settings are keep 3 players per year and the player can only be kept for 3 seasons. After this season, many of the top end players like McDavid, Crosby, Ovechkin, Stamkos, Tavares, Burns, etc. are all up on their contracts and have to go back into the pool for next year.
[...]

I know this might sound counter-intuitive, but you might want to up the keepers from 3 to maybe 5.

Having only 3 keepers makes it sound like anyone could win next season, because all the teams get evened out so much when almost the whole roster is dropped. But by keeping only 3 players each, you put way too much talent back into the draft. Especially since players must be dropped eventually.

You could have a team with 3 good keepers and a pile of early picks end up with an all star team. Meanwhile, another team might have had his 3 year limit hit for his best players, get stuck with mediocre keepers, and not make a pick in the first few rounds.
 
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