Apolyton Fantasy Football (not soccer damnit)

[snoopy369]

IDP benches are far too large. DST benches are a player or two too large for my tastes, but they're a reasonable compromise. The money league I play in is a DST league with 5 bench slots plus two IR slots. I think that's just right - either one backup at each position of value (QB/WR/RB/D) plus one speculative player, or trade a backup at a position of value for a second speculative player (or backup TE). They also don't have a flex spot (3WR 2RB), which I think probably adds some difficulty to the strategy (taking away the option of going 3 RBs early on, meaning you have to make the difficult choice of good RB backup or not, particularly if you have an iffy RB1/2).

But IDP benches are the primary reason I won't play IDP. I believe that the free agent pool should have some "average" players in it, to make injuries less painful (in football, injuries while part of the game take away from the fun, since many of them are random); and the decision of 'do I take this speculative guy' should be interesting, not obvious. When you have a bench of IDP's size, it allows you just to take lottery picks with all of your bench slots - take 4 WR lottery picks, one of them is bound to succeed.

[Ben Kenobi]

My team at the end of last year:

*Russell Wilson QB1*
Philip Rivers QB2
*Sam Bradford QB3*
Joe Flacco
Ray Rice RB1
Steven Jackson RB2
Michael Turner RB3
*Rashad Jennings RB4*
Stevie Johnson WR1
*TY Hilton WR2*
*Cecil Shorts WR3*
*Andre Roberts WR4*
*Nate Washington WR5*
*Brian Celek TE1*
*Jared Cook TE2*

9/15 slots were undrafted players. Only 6 drafted slots remained.

Starters, 4 slots were starters, RB1,RB2,RB3, and WR1. WR2, TE1, QB1 were not starters. So 3/7 starters were players that went undrafted, Hilton, Celek, and Wilson.

There are starters available off the waiver wire even with the long benches.

Also, Zopp won despite losing his number 1 pick.

[-Jrabbit]

Off to Milwaukee for the morning. List sent to Sloww and snoop.

If that list doesn't work, then BAPAY me the next available kicker.

[Zopperoni]

But IDP benches are the primary reason I won't play IDP. I believe that the free agent pool should have some "average" players in it, to make injuries less painful (in football, injuries while part of the game take away from the fun, since many of them are random); and the decision of 'do I take this speculative guy' should be interesting, not obvious. When you have a bench of IDP's size, it allows you just to take lottery picks with all of your bench slots - take 4 WR lottery picks, one of them is bound to succeed.

I like the larger bench size, because it makes bye-week planning less of a headache.

I do see your point that it depletes the FA pool. Particularly for those who have injured players or players who don't perform, it can cause a large disparity, which makes trading near impossible.

In the FFZ live drafts, the large roster size (25 slots) and the short clock (45 seconds) also produce funny results because there's always someone who inadvertently drafts 11 WRs.

[Ben Kenobi]

I'd like to discuss adding a new position next year - Team Defense, with scoring for yardage, points allowed, 3-and-outs, and turnovers, similar to Jag's current system. Maybe dropping one bench slot at the same time (or adding another?). A lot of IDP leagues do this.

What's the point of having IDP then? If you want Jag's system, that's what DST is for.

[snoopy369]

I like the larger bench size, because it makes bye-week planning less of a headache.

I do see your point that it depletes the FA pool. Particularly for those who have injured players or players who don't perform, it can cause a large disparity, which makes trading near impossible.

In the FFZ live drafts, the large roster size (25 slots) and the short clock (45 seconds) also produce funny results because there's always someone who inadvertently drafts 11 WRs.

I consider the headache part of the strategy/fun. In my small bench league 2 years ago I had to accept that half my team had week 8 byes, so I'd have to either give up on someone or go without a spot filled for a week.

[Zopperoni]

I'd like to discuss adding a new position next year - Team Defense

Add a punter too. Just for kicks. Heh.

[Zopperoni]

I consider the headache part of the strategy/fun. In my small bench league 2 years ago I had to accept that half my team had week 8 byes, so I'd have to either give up on someone or go without a spot filled for a week.

Accounting for byes is definitely part of the whole experience.

It's just nice to not have to deal with it, but I admit that it's not a very compelling reason

What did you do with your team that year? (Personally--if I was happy with my team's performance--I would have been happy to "tank" a week although it's not competitive or fair to do so.)

[snoopy369]

I had to pick a QB to drop, but it wasn't too painful by that point. IIRC that year (2011?) I had Bradford and Cutler and someone else (Schaub? Don't recall) at QB, all with w8 byes, plus a RB and a WR with byes, or something like that. I think I ended up dropping Bradford, which was sad as it was a keeper league, but I realized he wasn't really going anywhere, so got over it quickly

[Ben Kenobi]

Add a punter too. Just for kicks. Heh.

That was terrible Zopp.

[snoopy369]

I'd like to see Punters ahead of IDPs, to be honest - you could easily score based on distance of punts, punts inside 20, etc. Probably easier to do than IDPs, who seem to be practically random.

[SlowwHand]

Random? Tackles, sacks, and picks are random to you?

[MRT144]

I like large benches, in part because they tend to benefit players like me.

Inactive owners?

[snoopy369]

They allow Jaguar to take advantage of his knowledge of 'deep sleepers' to largely tank a position early (WRs in this case) and take a half dozen deep sleepers later on to make up for it.

Sloww, when you pick DST, msg me as I have Koy's pick.

[Jaguar]

Inactive owners?

What, I'm an inactive owner because I don't rush to the waiver wire every time some obscure Browns receiver has a 105-yard game?