ANDY'S SHUFFLE/KEEPER LEAGUE

ANDY'S SHUFFLE/KEEPER LEAGUE, with all subsequent edits

I want to start a keeper league with a twist. The twist is, your keeper may not be available in the next shuffle season, or may only be available with a totally different card.

LEAGUE RULES
First Season will be a 1,500 card shuffle, with DH, 100m cap

Subsequent Seasons: Title-winning manager selects the shuffle size (between 1,000-2,000) and whether DH will be utilized or not. The same shuffle size cannot be repeated for subsequent seasons. The winning manager will also select cap for upcoming season. Caps may be 75m, 80m, 90m, 100m, or 110m. Caps may not be repeated in subsequent seasons. This will be announced in League mail at the end of the season.

Keeper Selection: I will create a new shuffle for the upcoming season, which each manager will need to join and check the new player set.
1.After this process, each manager will select 3 keepers from their previous season's roster.
2. After 3 keepers are selected, there will be a 1-round steal draft(in reverse order of finish).
3. Managers Select 2 more keepers from their roster.
4. Finally, there will be a 1-round Free Agent/Steal Round(in reverse order of finish), where managers may select a card from the new shuffle that was not on anyone’s roster OR steal another player from a manager’s roster. There can only be a maximum of two players stolen from any managers roster.
5. Then, Autodraft and Waivers…

As far as limits on keeping a player, there will be NONE. The likelihood of being able to keep a player forever will be greatly mitigated by the shuffle. And, just in case, no, you can't "keep" a player who is not in the current season's shuffle.

Stadiums: Use any stadium; the shuffles will always contain all stadium choices. NO STADIUM RESTRICTIONS.

Divisions will use the new randomized selection process.

For example, you may have Hugh Duffy in season 1 and plan on him being one of your keepers, only to find only the .90 Duffy card available in season 2's shuffle. Conversely, you may decide to carry Duffy's .90 card on your bench one season in the hopes that his good card will be available for you to grab as one of your keeper's in the subsequent season's shuffle set. Luck of the shuffle, so to speak.

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1. andycummings65
2. bontomn
3. thetallguy747
4. Zimharry
5. george barnard
6. visick
7. dukie98
8. majicmg
9. motherscratcher
10. DOHowser1
11. Roosky
12. emart

My thoughts on keeping players for consecutive years:

I have only been involved in one keeper league over the years, so I don't have lot of experience with them. I don't want something to hard to keep up with, though I don't think we'll have any trouble with this fine group of managers.

I'm thinking as we begin Season One, we can designate one player as a 5 season keeper, two players as 4 season keepers, and two players as 3 season keepers. In other words, you will have a 5 season "Contract" to offer, 2 4-season "Contracts" to offer, and 2 3-season "Contracts" to offer.
These contracts do not bind the player to you; He can be stolen if you don't protect him in one of the two protection rounds, or you can simply choose to drop him if you choose or if he does not appear in the next shuffle.
For example, you have Ty Cobb on a 4-year contract, but you do not protect him and he is stolen. You now have a 4-year "Contract" to use on another player.

I do think that, since this will be a shuffle league each season, if one of your "Contracts" on a player expires, although you may not protect him, you conceivably could grab him again in Waivers. In this way, he would be available to other managers, but you could still grab him if he is not Drafted.

What do you guys think? If this is too bundlesome, we could just say you can't keep a player over 3 years. I was just trying to do something different in regards to keepers for consecutive seasons.......

I'm for whatever you guys want to do. That said, the more simple the better IMO.

I would be ok with live drafting five keepers and having to rebuild the rest of the roster each season from the shuffled player pool. Keep your keepers period, must use one of their cards each new season, no trades or dumps.

I'm up for trying anything. But I do think that simpler is better and the 3/4/5 year contract aspect might be difficult to keep track of. I'd try it, though.

That would be interesting Eric. I guess you could choose a new keeper at some time if you'd like.

I think you're right though, it would call for a draft............

We could Live Draft 6 players to start the Inaugural Season, then do my protect3, steal1, protect2, draft-or-steal1 in the run-up to Season 2.

I think the fact that, with a shuffle, the chances of someone holding a player forever are fairly slim.

Eric's idea is also simpler, which I like.

I've never been in a keeper league where I HAD to hold a keeper. There were always keeper rules and penalties if you wanted to get rid of them. Might be interesting to pick 6 and the only way you could lose a keeper was if they weren't in the shuffle pool.

I'm good with the protect/steal/protect format, but it does add complexity to getting each new season going; you end up with essentially three one-round drafts on the boards, which can take several days, sometimes each.

What I like most is the idea of having a few keepers then having to rebuild most of your team from an autodraft with a shuffled pool each time.

I think the variable length "contracts" are more complex than is necessary, especially since the seasons will presumably be a few months apart. Moreover, I don't think it's necessary -- while some players may remain in the set most seasons, a star with 2-3 cards could easily be left out of the shuffle for some years. Plus, since we are having variable caps, a keeper at $110M may not be a good value at $75M.

Instead, I prefer a simpler rule-- either an across-the-board 3-year maximum per player, or alternatively, 4 years per player but no more than 2 with any particular card. (The likelihood of a particular card being in the shuffle 3 years in a row is pretty low).

I still like the keeper-stealer rounds for Seasons 2 and beyond. I also support a live draft (or board draft) for Season 1 -- something like 6-8 rounds. Just a few thoughts on my end...