For those wonks like me who think too much about fantasy rules, this has been the most interesting off-season in years — and it is about to go completely haywire for some of us.
First, we all had to deal with the new reality of a legitimate two-way player, Shohei Ohtani. Should he be a pitcher only, or a hitter, too? Is he one player or two? How many roster spots should he take? What can my stats provider support?
Now, we have the unprecedented situation in which heading into spring training camps, dozens of major league free agents remain unsigned.
For those in mixed leagues, the uncertainty is concerning, but not hugely. Sure, at-bats and innings-pitched are situation-dependent, but a player like J.D. Martinez is going to get his plate appearances anywhere he lands. It may be much less clear for late-career free agents like Matt Holliday and Jose Bautista, for example.
But where this unsigned free agent uncertainty looms as a major disturbance in the force is in American League-only and National League-only formats.
Because we all think of ourselves first, I quickly consulted my industry league constitutions. After all, industry leagues, designed as showcases for others, traditionally draft early. In fact, the CBS Sports Leagues begin drafting this week.
Tout Wars
I start with Tout Wars, which goes the latest. Its AL and NL drafts are scheduled for March 17 in New York.
Here is the relevant section of the Tout rules.
“Major League free agents may be drafted. Once they are signed by an MLB team, however, they can only be retained by the Tout team in the league in which they are signed. If they sign with a team in the other league, they must be released immediately.”
OK, that is very straightforward. If you are in the AL league and want to gamble that Jake Arrieta is headed for the Junior Circuit, bid away. But be prepared to lose your player and any money spent if he ends up staying in the NL.
On the other hand, can you really afford to wait? What are the chances a player who in a vacuum would be worth $15 or $20 or more would still be around in the reserve rounds — where the format is simply a snake draft of $0 players?
Someone is going to bid a dollar (and more) on the top free agents — but will it be you?
If your league rules are comparable with Tout, you need to think this through — in advance. Do not wait until draft day to develop your risk-reward plan for dealing with free agents.
If nothing else, make sure you select a reserve at the same position as any free agents you draft so you are not stuck with an empty roster spot if a signing does not occur in a timely manner or, even worse, does not go your way.
LABR
Next is LABR, set to go on March 3 and 4 in Phoenix.
Here are the relevant sections of the LABR constitution.
“The pool of players that may be bid upon includes all members of MLB 40-man rosters for the league in question (American or National) as well as players on the disabled list in that league, as well as non-roster invitees still in major league camp in that league and any unsigned free agents at the time of the auction.
“However, if a player who is a free agent at the time of the draft is taken in the reserve round in one league (e.g. LABR NL) and later signs with a team in the opposite league (in this case, the AL), he must be dropped immediately from the roster of the LABR team that selected him in the reserve draft.”
Notice the loophole?
The second paragraph does a great job of spelling out what happens when a free agent signs. However, the wording is specific to the reserve rounds only. By a lack of any information about the main draft, one might conclude that a free agent selected during the auction phase would remain legal no matter where he signs later on.
It would not be unreasonable, since LABR does allow players traded out of the league in-season to continue to be eligible.
Being a good team player, I checked with the league commissioner, Steve Gardner. He recalled precedent in which an auction drafted player was required to be dropped from the other league immediately after he signed (Ervin Santana).
Even so, Gardner readily agreed to clarify the constitution. In addition to removing the reserve round stipulation, I also suggested it be rendered specific that there is no FAAB reclaim allowed for these players (as it is for those injured).
So, in the case of LABR, the intent of the rule was clear, but the rules themselves were less so.
My message for you is to check your rules now and get any issues or ambiguities worked out early. Don’t expect yourselves to remember past precedent — get it written down and incorporated into the rules.
CBS
That brings us to the third and final industry league covered here, the CBS Sports Analysts Leagues. The AL version drafts this week with the NL following on Feb. 20.
Though I am not in these leagues, my Creativesports comrade Pasko Varnica is. He shared his NL-only league specifics with me. The CBS leagues do not have a formal constitution document, but have a series of rules documented on the site.
There were again some ambiguities. The pool is clearly defined as NL players only. However, it did not specify eligibility for the reserve rounds. Pasko checked and learned that free agents can be selected in the reserve draft, but if they later sign with an AL team, they become ineligible.
While clear enough, that immediately raised another question on my part — how is the selection sequence for the reserve rounds decided? All of a sudden, this becomes extremely important — and under no circumstances should what may normally be an afterthought be left to draft day.
For example, as I recall, in LABR, we simply draw numbers out of a hat just before the reserve draft begins. Usually, that would be fair, since the turn of a snake draft tends to balance things out. However, in 2018, with a number of very valuable players being made available for the first time in the reserve rounds, getting the first reserve picks in this scenario would really, really matter.
Though I do not get a vote, if I was running the CBS Leagues, I would consider using the prior year standings to set the reserve round sequence. As these are re-draft leagues, it would be one small but important way to recognize the prior year’s success. This is the approach Tout uses, which is documented in its constitution.
I know I read like a broken record, but crawl into your rules and think ahead to the next step, as I did here with the question of the reserve draft order. Get it all crystal clear now.
Update: After asking again, this time specifically about the auction draft, Pasko learned that free agents are in fact eligible, with the same related rules as the other leagues. However, free agents will NOT appear in the draft pool as eligible. Drafters have to track free agents manually and select dummy placeholder players on the site.
While this minimizes the concern about the inflated importance of the reserve draft sequence, the overall approach still has obvious weaknesses. The earlier lesson remains – to ask the relevant questions ahead of time, and keep asking them until they are all clearly answered. After all, this could be your league.
But ideally, why did Pasko even have to ask? If the rules were fully documented and readily available, no one should have to.
A parting consideration
Before I conclude, there is one other factor I would like to touch on – your projections. Make sure that you understand how your source of projections is dealing with free agents. Don’t assume your player pool is complete.
Are these free agents included in the only-league pools? And if not, and they are draft-eligible in your league, you had better be prepared to factor in the price of inflation/deflation — or all your auction estimates will be skewed — and you could be screwed.
Brian Walton was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, scoring the most points in the league’s history. He also holds the all-time NL Tout single-season records for wins and saves. His work can also be found daily at The Cardinal Nation. Follow Brian on Twitter.
