Different format today. There's a couple outstanding topics to discuss from the past week, so I'm going to recap them all in separate posts here.
Game-Time Waivers
Ned pointed this out in an earlier blog post... Yes, last week I played within the rules dropped a couple players who had already played that were on my bench to pick up players that had not yet played.
Per Yahoo, when you click on Help > Commish Tools > Game-Time Waivers:
I was not the first person to take advantage of this rule, as Gow picked up Geno Smith by dropping Dennis Pitta on Monday, Sept 22. Pitta had already played, and I believe that was the weekend he got injured. Gow needed a QB for the next weekend and picked up Geno.
Similar to Ned, I was not aware that this was the rule. I actually looked up the page linked above to be sure that I had the settings correct, which I do. This isn't something I can specifically adjust - it's how Yahoo has it set up.
This even led me to texting Gow:
I know Ned is saying I did nothing wrong, but he's doing so with sort of a wink-and-nudge inferring the there's somehow some sort of collusion here. I do personally take offense to any sort of collusion inference. I didn't realize this was the way the rules were written until Gow made his move, but I didn't fault Gow for taking advantage. I also don't think I should be at fault because I noticed the move Gow made, when everyone else apparently didn't.
I don't think it's my responsibility to ensure everyone understands every single nook-and-cranny of every single rule. For example, did you know bye-week players go on Waivers as of the start of the the MNF game? I didn't either, but only learned of it by reading the note above. Do the research (or don't) but don't complain when others play by the rules to their advantage. I even checked with Yahoo and apparently it's always been this way. Shame on all of us for just now learning.
Regardless of me getting defensive... what do we do now? As far as I can tell, there are only two options:
- We play out the rest of the season with the rules as they exist and are written, and now everyone is fully aware of them. Drop bench players all you want.
- We all agree that players who have played cannot be dropped until waivers process on Tues night. Any players that have been picked up via this rule thus far haven't been impactful, so they don't really matter.
To be honest, I don't even know what we need to achieve option #2 as we've never done a rule change mid-season. During the offseason, I try to stick to a league majority for major changes... but mid-season (to me) needs to be a higher threshold, possibly unanimous.
Somewhat-related note: I'll work to write a League Constitution in the offseason to ensure we have our league rules all documented. That said, one of the notes will say something like "When the rule isn't specified, we will default to Yahoo rules." So even if we had one today, we'd still be in this situation.
Without a League Constitution and no precedent for midseason changes, I'm much more in favor of Option #1. We can deal with this in the offseason if people truly would like to change this policy.
That's my 2 cents, but I'd love to hear from all of you.
As a Commish in my work league, I believe if we select the waiver rule option of 'First game of the week - Tuesday' AND under Process Waivers on... select 'Wednesday'. This should get to what Ed and everyone else thought was going on.
ReplyDeleteLet's straighten out some things here: I wasn't accusing you of collusion. I was just saying the fact that only you and Gow knew about the ability to drop bench guys and had discussed it with each other seemed "colusiony" to me. I don't like only being able to pick up players once a week, so I'm against Gow's comment. I like the ability to pick up players before their individual games start. I don't think it's that hard to just not drop a guy if you know he's already played. I also don't think we need some "constitutional" amendment to do this. For goodness sakes, we're all friends and no one is trying to really screw anyone (in the sense that we're not in some cut-throat public $ league).
ReplyDeleteOk so I wasn't accused of collusion, just that I was acting "colusiony". Got it. I disagree with both, but that's your opinion.
DeleteRegarding the change:
1) I don't think that everyone necessarily wants to make this change. I do think there will be some on both sides. So this isn't a unanimous debate where everyone wants the same thing.
2) It's more about setting a precedent. Midseason changes (small or large) are something we've never done, and I'm just considering future issues. We make offseason changes, but once the league starts, we play it out, whatever the rules/settings are. This would be a midseason change, and I don't think a simple majority (if that even exists) should be able to overrule the existing settings midseason.
Another option would be the 'Sunday-Tuesday' waiver rule w/the 'Wednesday' Process. This would allow for (if elligible) non-waiver add/drops, up to the Sunday games.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think Rob and I are 'colusion y', especially if he is going to refer to me as NooShoo in his phone. As if I was an informant that he couldn't devulge my true identity.
Gow just stop. We're not changing (via Yahoo) any waiver settings for this season. The only change we're debating is if we need to have the "Gentlemen's Agreement" to not drop bench players to pick up players that haven't played. We either do that or we don't. But stop with the completely changing the waivers. We're midseason, we're not making major changes.
ReplyDeleteAnd Gow, commish of another league or not, so many things you just said are wrong, so I'm not going to even debate them with you here. We can talk tonight, but we're not changing waiver settings this season, and I'm skeptical of changing anything for the future. I'm very much of the belief that GameTime Waivers is the best option.
Better to be accused of colusiony than have to receive a colonoscopy.
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with the rule as is. I don't love the idea of picking up hand cuffs/lottery tickets in case someone in front of them goes down injured but I do like that you can wait until late in the week to pick up a player and play them if someone else is questionable and a game time decision. I'd rather deal with someone streaming lottery tickets (that everybody can do) than make it harder to manage around injuries.
I'm not changing the GameTime Waivers. FA's will be available to up until their respective games start. This is not up for debate.
DeleteThe question on the table is if, in order to pickup one of those FA's, you can drop a player on your bench that has already played. That's the rule that is written by Yahoo that Ed has raised concerns with.
All this other nonsense about Thursday or Sunday or Continuous Waivers is just noise. Those aren't happening this season, and hopefully ever.
I understand. My point is that for instance if you have a player like Calvin Johnson (no way you're cutting him) and he is a game time decision for MNF you may wait until Monday to see if he is going to play before cutting someone and picking someone else on MNF. If we made it so that you couldn't cut players on your bench that had played on Sunday then your choices may be very limited on Monday night.
DeleteSure, you could cut someone earlier in the week and pick up somebody for MNF but that could hurt your roster if you're cutting someone that is better than your plan B on MNF.
We're completely on the same page here.
DeleteExcuse me letting folks know that the capability exists within Yahoo. I didn't say that we should change. Just that the possibility is an option.
ReplyDeleteThe possibility to change the specific rules regarding bench guys does not exist. Changing the waivers completely raises more issues than we currently have.
DeleteFor example Sunday-Tues waivers allow for guys in the Thursday games to be picked up at any time up to Sunday. We had this a few years ago and people hated it.
And none of this pertains to this situation right now. This is a discussion for the offseason.