IMO...this would be a huge mistake. You are compounding the problem. Not only are you still going to win, you pay less.

I am a commish too. I do it because I want to create a great league with friends. All rules need to be equal for everyone. You need to hit reset on your league. I don't think you can fix it at this stage.....the only route I see as helping you solve the problem you have is Pengwin's suggestion....but mybe even more exaggerated.....

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"Add Your Voice" - mindcheck.ca
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Oh... I feel so worthless.
I guess the answer was outside the box after all. {silly Pengwin}

Year 1 I drafted Ovechkin in the 1st round. Stamkos in the 6th round. Tavares in the 3rd I think. (way early)

I made a trade for crosby that was offered to me...(before his goal scoring ways appeared).
Gave Gaborik, Briere, Rafalski and Khabibulin. Back then they were my top at each position. That guy won his division and lost to me in the finals.

Lundqvist I acquired in the Ovechkin GIVEAWAY trade.

Malkin I acquired last summer after his horrible year and knee injury. Gave Lidstrom, Kane and Lecavallier.

The thought of resetting a keeper league used to anger me like you couldn't imagine. Now it only just pisses me off when we talk about it. I mean seriously...its frustrating as hell that we do something and I do things right but yet we have to start over cause others aren't as good at this as me. All owners are decent now.

The argument that I have an unbelievable team is fine...it looks amazing when you look at it from a rankings point of view. But how come every year is close in the standings? Cause Crosby gets hurt, malkin missed games cause of knee....lundqvist was sitting more for biron so he's rested for playoffs...In a weekly lineup setting, ANYTHING can happen. The odds are in my favor I'm not denying that, but have a look at other teams keepers here and tell me that ANYTHING can't happen in a given week.

Henrik Sedin
Giroux
Benn
Landeskog
St Louis
Letang
Luongo
Byfuglien
Huberdeau

or

Skinner
E. Kane
Eberle
Gaborik
Hossa
Boyle
Peiterangelo
Rinne
Schenn

or

Spezza
Staal
Toews
Kovalchuk
Seguin
Chara
Fleury
Moulson

or

Datsyuk
Carter
Perry
Sharp
Semin
Miller
Howard
Erickson

or this non playoff team:

Getzlaf
Krejci
Thornton
Callahan
Doughty
Suter
Smith
Schneider
Havlat

Each week all these players will be in the same ball park as my players...it just seems that way anyway. If I was winning by a mile every week or in the standings by more than 4 games...change would be a MUST. But I'm not winning easily every week...and not winning by far in the standings.

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Contract Fantrax 14 teams, 8 keepers. 4 max lifers +/-
3C, 3LW, 3RW, 1F. 5D,2G....5Reserves.
Goal heavy. G=3.5 A=2 Add 0.5pts for D.
Goalies:W=3,SO=4,start=2,Save=.1
Shootout Save=.2
C:CROSBY,STAMKOS,TAVARES,
LW:Sedin,MARCHAND,TLUSTY,ELIAS,Whitney
RW:MALKIN,YAKUPOV,Jagr,Brunner
D: BYFUGLIEN,YANDLE,VOYNOV,Carlson,Visnovsky
G:Lundqvist,lehtonen,Pavelec
Minors: Granlund
Baseball
Votto,Cano,hanley,longoria
McCutchen,Stanton,Bautista.
Verlander,Cain,Felix

I started a basketball league with quite a few different owners. Targeted lads who knew basketball. Last year I don't know anything about basketball, I won my division and lost in the finals. We were going to keep 3....but I decided to go to 1 cause I thought teams like myself would be way ahead with our top 3 vs the bottom teams. (pool is FREE). This year I got a few more knowledgeable trash talking boys to join. So far, I can't be touched. I'm winning by MILES.

Maybe I should somehow take this to another level...is there a professional league business for fantasy pools? I should quit my day job.

__________________
Contract Fantrax 14 teams, 8 keepers. 4 max lifers +/-
3C, 3LW, 3RW, 1F. 5D,2G....5Reserves.
Goal heavy. G=3.5 A=2 Add 0.5pts for D.
Goalies:W=3,SO=4,start=2,Save=.1
Shootout Save=.2
C:CROSBY,STAMKOS,TAVARES,
LW:Sedin,MARCHAND,TLUSTY,ELIAS,Whitney
RW:MALKIN,YAKUPOV,Jagr,Brunner
D: BYFUGLIEN,YANDLE,VOYNOV,Carlson,Visnovsky
G:Lundqvist,lehtonen,Pavelec
Minors: Granlund
Baseball
Votto,Cano,hanley,longoria
McCutchen,Stanton,Bautista.
Verlander,Cain,Felix

That's the thing... those trades that you made, shouldn't really have been accepted in keeper leagues if you're playing with any reasonably knowledged guys, those deals wouldn't have been made.

That's the thing with keeper leagues is that the consequences are long lasting and you need to trust the guys you're playing with in order to make the "right" choice than to make boneheaded deals that ruin the league.

At the end of the day, in a keeper league, NO OWNER SHOULD OWN ALL OF Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Lundqvist, Tavares... and you had Ovechkin too.

You say that the standings are relatively close, and that they're competing on a week to week basis, so what's the problem? The problem is they're competing because your players are getting hurt. If all of your boys are healthy and firing, you'd be blowing them out of the water, because you own 4 of the top players in fantasy... They're close because of the settings in week 2 week aren't as apparent as over a whole year.

Yes 1 team might have Sedin, Giroux and Benn, will it be close to what Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos produces? Sure they will, but will it be enough to beat you more times than not... probably not. That's what I'm getting at, how do you expect "good" competition to even compete with you when you hold all the cards. That's like entering a poker match and your holding 4 aces, and it'll take a straight flush for them to beat you... Can it be done? Sure, but more often than not, they're going to be on an uphill climb even from the get-go.

It's been awhile and I've forgotten what your initial question was, I think it was something about fixing it? My answer is how can you fix something when you hold all the cards, reducing the keepers down to 5-6 isn't really going to do anything as you're still holding 4 aces. You did mention that owner turnover is a problem, but getting replacements isn't really a solution, even a great manager will need to build from scratch and wait till all of your boys exit their prime or get hurt before they would get a sniff at the title. You'll likely run out of patience watching a team with Crosby, Stamkos, Malkin and Lundy tear it up year after year, before you see the light at the end of the tunnel...

__________________
Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Think yahoo now has some $ leagues but not sure if Canadians eligible. the serious fantasy players go into betting on pro sports. There is this guy from Winnipeg who made a ton initially on NBA. http://www.haralabosvoulgaris.com/

Also winning in fantasy can be random luck tho. I won my first football pool too 2 yrs ago, finished 6th last year when AP was hurt, and autodrafted a team this year (predicted to be last) and is now tied for first. I've barely watched any NFL this year.

I would say winning one year leagues may be more challenging than having a super Allstar keeper team that always wins. I've won my main league 4/7 seasons and it was all one year leagues until this last year. And I was dominating so much that halfway through the season I was the only team above 0.500.

Our entry fee has gone up from $25 to $50 to $200 last year. Even though I've won more than 50% of the time, still don't think I'd be willing to bet over $500 (which one guy suggested).

Attached Images

407854_10151033780465618_1739576010_n.jpg (41.6 KB, 6 views)

__________________
Current: 3 NHL, 1 NBA
NHL winner '05,'07,'09,'11 (4/7)
NFL winner '10, '12 (2/3)

I remember seeing your team roster in your occasional posts over the years and thinking "man that guy must be playing with a league of sheep to amass a team like that".

For you to be able to accumulate a team like that, there must be a HUGE discrepancy between you and the other GMs with respect to knowledge and skill. This is probably the biggest single reason why I only play in one-year pools. Most of the solutions proposed so far only temporary address the issue by narrowing the current gap, but as time goes by it will simply widen again.

If I'm you, then the answer really depends on what I'm looking to get out of this league:

-Is it social league or is it a competitive type of league where you're looking to challenge yourself?

If it's a social league where you guys know each other in real life and just participate to stay in touch and talk some smack over beers, then, if it were me, I'd just opt for the HARD RESET. OR I would convert the format to a one-year league. Your objective is for this to be fun socially, and somehow, I doubt this league would be much fun for your buddies, and when you start dominating too much year after year, people will just stop caring since they're already so far behind at the start of the season.

If it's meant to be a competitive type of league for you, then quite frankly I would just quit because the level of competition is clearly beneath you. That's just me personally anyway - I would want to test myself against the best and I enjoy the challenge and suspense of battling it out for the top spot.

I don't really subscribe to the whole "I work harder than everyone else so I deserve the advantage" mentality... I think that is something people say when just enjoy winning, even if it's over a league full of bottom feeders, and they're looking to maintain as much advantage as they can. At the end of the day, I play fantasy hockey for fun, and personally, I wouldn't find being in your position in that league fun at all. What's so fun about already knowing the outcome before the season has already started? Not only that, but your dominance stifles competitiveness and breeds complacency among ALL the other league owners... half of them simply won't dedicate the time and attention they should to improving their teams, because what's the point? And honestly, I don't blame them.

To be honest, judging by your description of the situation and your answers and biases to some of the proposed solutions, it sounds like you actually enjoy beating up on everyone in this league year after year and it doesn't really bother you at all that there is no challenge. If that's your modus operandi, then by all means implement one of the "band-aid fixes" to temporarily curtail the bitching from the other owners in the league, but at the end of the day, the problem will persist.

Yes. I do enjoy beating 5 or 6 of the 13 other teams. They have high knowledge and good teams. This league is mostly of friends to socialize. It's only $25 to enter. Think of this aswell, yes there is a good chance I'm going to win my division...but it's not because of who my keepers are. It always ends up being my depth. In weekly lineup settings, guys that manage their lineups properly can easily win every week. Think about this. I know I will do well, but as commissioner i placed in a larger divided pot so that more people can win. I can only win 2 of 5 spots and winning the finals is not easy when your stars are sitting. This is why small change should keep most owners happy for a few more years anyway. I know what you guys are saying....but I just can't help but feel what is the point if doing a keeper league if you just god damn reset it after 3 yrs!??? Getting new better owners has helped avoid horrible trades. I'm leaning towards one more year lime we are and during the year we come up with a different format. I'm open to all suggestions its just there hasn't been one that us top dogs like.
One of the ones I think could work is drop two of your top 4 and keep even more....but likely my bottom half of team will be much better than others.


Have to run for now....but guys please try to come up with something creative and not just a hard reset. For the guys asking if I'm challenged....I am actually, I said it's always close. I remember being frustrated cause my games were always so. Close when like you I thought I should be smoking everyone.

__________________
Contract Fantrax 14 teams, 8 keepers. 4 max lifers +/-
3C, 3LW, 3RW, 1F. 5D,2G....5Reserves.
Goal heavy. G=3.5 A=2 Add 0.5pts for D.
Goalies:W=3,SO=4,start=2,Save=.1
Shootout Save=.2
C:CROSBY,STAMKOS,TAVARES,
LW:Sedin,MARCHAND,TLUSTY,ELIAS,Whitney
RW:MALKIN,YAKUPOV,Jagr,Brunner
D: BYFUGLIEN,YANDLE,VOYNOV,Carlson,Visnovsky
G:Lundqvist,lehtonen,Pavelec
Minors: Granlund
Baseball
Votto,Cano,hanley,longoria
McCutchen,Stanton,Bautista.
Verlander,Cain,Felix

But wouldn't you want more competition than just from 40% of the league? For a competitive league you kinda want everyone in the running, not just half of the league... That would be my biggest worry. The things that everyone has suggested is find and dandy, but like I mentioned in my earlier posts, it doesn't really address the root of the problem which is fantasy hockey knowledge, which has affected the "keeper quality" in and has given you a big edge. You can add anyone that's "knowledgeable" into this league, don't care if its Dobber, Angus, Blayze or me, if you own Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Lundy, there's little that we can physically do to gain ground no matter how "close" we can compete with you... So dropping you down from 8 keepers to 6, isn't going to solve that issue, cause you still own the "big 4"...

Brings it back to the chicken or the egg question. Is it your depth that is really putting you over the top? Or is it because that you own Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, Tavares, Parise, Sedin as your core where you can just find roster fillers to "coast" to victory?

Which is fine and dandy, but to me that seems like a "false hope" type of move... I'll add more "cash places" so you don't feel bad for losing, but I'll hang onto my edge for winning.

Because "keeper" leagues, you can't just throw a bunch of people together and hope that it all works out. In my close friends league that we've been running for close to 10 years, I still don't trust playing with those guys in a keeper league. I've seen first hand how a "keeper" league can be ruined if "bad trades" are made without knowing the consequences and it's not fair that the rest of the league has to pay for the mistakes of others. I mean if you look at the deals, Gabby, Briere, Rafalski and Khabibulin for Crosby... I mean there's no way in hell that any "knowledgable" keeper players should make that type of trade, certainly not in a keep 8. Ok so they made a bad trade, then they get booted from the league, you bring in a new and more "knowledgable" player, well they don't have Crosby anymore and your lineup is stacked, how long will they suffer for a boneheaded trade made by someone that's left the league?

This statement kinda irked me, you can't just look for a solution that the "top dogs" like... If you want to find a solution to "better" this league, you have to think of what's going to benefit the "entire" league, not just something that will "cater" to the top dogs.

Your situation is a two-folded problem.

1) You need to address the discrepancy between the "fantasy hockey knowledge" of your league. Is everyone happy with the players in the league? Are other owners happy with the rest of the people they're playing with? That's probably the first step to address, and it's not just the teams that are benefiting from the "bottom feeders", it's got to be everybody! What you want to prevent is further trades that will disrupt the balance of the league.

2) If it's competitiveness that you want, what you need to consider is mechanism to re-distribute the talent among the haves and have nots in your league. From the 6 teams that you've listed and their keepers, you've pretty much covered most of the top 50 fantasy scorers (I'd hate to see what the rosters of the rest of the 7 teams actually look like), but if you want true competitiveness, you need to find a way to re-distribute those players among the league. The best way to achieve that is a hard reset...

I've mentioned hard reset only because I think that's kinda the most fair way and quickest way settle point #2. You could do your option of keep 2 of top 4 and add more keepers, but as you said, if the bottom half of your team is still going to give you an edge over your opponents then that's not a viable solution and does nothing really to re-distribute the talent, it just appeases others without really re-distributing anything...

__________________
Dobber Expert Pool Champion 2011-12

Never knew it was a giveaway giving up OV for the best goalie in the league

__________________
Current: 3 NHL, 1 NBA
NHL winner '05,'07,'09,'11 (4/7)
NFL winner '10, '12 (2/3)