My Own Medicine Doesn’t Taste Badly

In the eloquent words of one of my industry friends and league competitors, I have a reputation as being “punctilious”. I guess that is one reason why writing a column about fantasy baseball league rules seems to suit me so well.

The tables were turned on me this past week when I became the owner in a dispute asking for common sense to prevail – while an owner on the other side of the table was citing the letter of the league constitution against me.

Strange territory, indeed.

When all was said and done, my point of view prevailed because I had done my homework in advance. However, I got a good laugh at my own expense when the other owner closed with this well-aimed retort:

“It makes sense to me, but it also makes sense that the Constitution should reflect that rather than what it does.”

How could I argue with my own oft-repeated message?

Here is how it played out.

One of the few small benefits of being the last-place team in the Xperts Fantasy League (or XFL) is that the first pick in the monthly free agent draft goes with it. A particular owner, whose team is in contention, approached me last week to gauge my interest in a trade. The deal collapsed when his co-owner pulled their only prospect off the table who had caught my attention.

In all fairness, in parallel, I had also lost interest in a swap after looking at the available free agents.

In the XFL, any players initially acquired with fewer than 50 at-bats or 20 innings pitched in the majors receive lifetime +$3 status each year, rather than the standard +$5. The farm, or +$3, designation means both a lower annual salary and a longer useful life to his original owner.

My two primary choices were reliever Seranthony Dominguez and outfielder Franmil Reyes, both emerging talents not recognized on the national prospect lists coming into the season and unowned in the XFL. The former is striking out players at a rate of over 11 per nine, but he doesn’t clearly hold the closer role in Philadelphia. Reyes has been a nice power source but is also striking out and not hitting for average.

Yet, if they both reach their potential, the hitter will be more valuable longer in this format. Further, my keeper pitching is deeper than my hitting. So despite Dominguez having one of the coolest names in recent memory, my decision was to take Reyes. (As you would expect, Dominguez went no. 2.)

Of potential concern was that he had earned regular playing time with the Padres and was rapidly approaching the 50 at-bat limit.

The league rules dictate that the standings coming into Sunday set the draft sequence for that evening. It only stands to reason that player status coming into the day would also apply.

However, the rules state that the at-bat and innings pitched limit “at the time of the draft” apply. Not the “morning of the draft” as is intended.

In an oddity in itself, the Padres were on Sunday Night Baseball and Reyes was slated to make his 50^th at-bat during that game – and during our draft.

Sensing the potential turbulence ahead, I contacted the league commissioner before the draft. He ruled in my favor, apparently supported by a past precedent. Reyes is a $+3 player.

After all, it would be totally impractical to try to monitor changing player status during a draft. The league’s snapshot on Sunday morning applied across the board as common sense prevailed.

Yet, even though his objection was overruled, the other owner had a point. The rules needed to be clarified – and in reality, they should have been back when the first occurrence was still fresh.

So, at least one of this week’s lessons is old. Don’t rely on memories of precedents. When questions come up because the rules are unclear, fix them then and there.

Another lesson is to anticipate potential problems and bring them forward before they come to a head – if at all possible. In this case, no matter how the rules might be interpreted by others, I already had a positive ruling in my hip pocket, ready when the objection was lodged several days later.

Note: Though the cool kids explain absences by saying they are on assignment, the truth is that I will be on vacation next week and back here on Thursday, June 21.

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 TheCardinalNation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.