It's that time again!Here is my take on an offseason schedule.Please get me any thoughts or comments asap.
10/4: 1st Trading Period Begins 10/25: Rule Proposals Due 10/29: Votes on Rule Proposals Due 12/31: 1st Trading Period Ends 1/1: Dues Due 1/10: Rosters and Salaries Due 1/10: League Officer Vote 2/26: C/FA Auction (night) 2/27: 2nd Trading Period Starts 3/12: Inverse Order Draft (night) 3/19: Roster Cutbacks Due 3/23: Waiver Draft 3/28: 2nd Trading Period Ends 3/31: Rotations and CMs Due
Please let me know asap if there are any issues with the above. Thanks.
I would once again like to suggest email fa bidding and drafting. I rarely participate in the chat room versions anymore due to the length and time commitment that with kids makes it difficult. Other leagues successfully do this by email spaced over time so that all can participate evenly. Maybe owner investment (apathy) would be different if full participation in this "by mail" league was possible. Too often team owners who can't be present in chat room have to participate by proxy. That puts those teams at a competitve disadvantage. Each year I decide whether to continue my participation in ARBA and each year it increasingly becomes a toss up because it is increasingly frustrating. I am member of and have been member of other leagues that do things in a much less frustrating manner and I find myself devoting more time to those leagues than ARBA. Maybe contraction is a short term answer, but maybe making the league more user friendly would limit turnover.
I am 100% in favor of using email for the IOD. There is no reason that one needs to be done in "real time." If everyone is willing to commit to paying attention and making effective use of proxies, we can knock that draft out in a couple weeks. We have a nice long offseason and there will still be plenty of time for post-IOD trading after the draft ends.
I'm less certain about the auctions. An email version of our current auction seems really rough.
If we were going to do an email auction, one thing that has worked for me in another league is a "Sealed bid" auction. Everyone submits ONE bid. The commissioner compares the bids and the player is awarded to the highest bidder. And yes, sometimes that means you end up outbidding the field by a crazy amount, which never happens in our live auctions.
