2012 MacRumors iOS NFL Fantasy Football League

rick snagwell said:

your the commish and your doing the unfair trading. let the league vote on a trade you do. that is complete BS that you get to deem your trades fair. they are not. and for all the others, check this 'fair' trade out he wants to do with me. whatta joke.

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rick snagwell said:

I'm talking about how the commish deals with trades, and deems them fair, not letting the league vote on it. and then i gave an example of how I believe the commish is unfair. and backed it up beyond belief!

this is a PPR league, mccoy is 100x better than eli manning. why is the commish trying to make me think this is a fair trade? seems a bit bully'ing to me.

and just to shut you up ucfgrad, a fair trade for mccoy would be another 1st round RB. why in the hell would i ever want to trade my 1st pick RB commish? lol
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our league is PPR., a man like mccoy is untouchable. cmon mo, you gotta see this as unfair.

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Rick, with all due respect, your comments are exactly why I don't allow open voting from all team owners on trades. Someone has to be an impartial judge and as I've laid out, the criteria by which to judge is whether collusion is taking place.

Since you obviously don't think I have any credibility then maybe you will listen to these fantasy football experts.

Chris Weeks, fantasy sports writer for FFToolbox.com – Free Fantasy Sports Info, published an article on trades. He writes:

That Trade's Not Fair!?!? First off let me start by saying I don't have the answer to the never ending 'Is this a fair trade?' dilemma. I'd even go so far as to say I have yet to see a league that has the answer. If you're league has solved this problem please pass along the solution. It would save us commissioners a lot and I mean a lot of headaches. I can't remember how many times I've heard the phrase 'If this trade goes through I quit'. Well crybaby thanks for your money and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Nothing irritates me more than the league crybaby.

So how do we determine if a trade is fair? As I said before there's no hard fast rule we can use to determine if a trade is fair. So lets look at why we make trades. The answer is pretty simple. To improve our starting line up. Why else would we trade our stud WR and a backup RB for two mediocre RBs? We may lose 2 or 3 points a week at receiver but you'll gain 5 or 6 at running back. Notice how I didn't throw players names into the equation. Many times we get caught up in who's being traded instead of why they're being traded. It doesn't matter who is being traded for whom. What matter is does this trade improve all teams involved? If the answer is yes then it's a fair trade. Usually this sucks because it means the best team in the league traded some bench player to the worst team in the league to improve his starting line up. So long as this trade improves both teams the commissioner has to let the trade go through.

This now begs the question how do we determine if the trade improves both teams? Again there's no clear-cut answer. I wish there was because believe me it would make my job as commissioner a lot easier. Just because at first glance a trade doesn't appear fair doesn't mean it's not a fair trade. Take a step back and dig a little deeper. Consider strength of schedule, some players tendencies to perform better late in the season, and the all mighty injury. When you take these three things into consideration you'll have the answer right? Not really. There's always some unknown that you won't account for which determines if the trade is fair. No matter how you much you analyze a trade you'll never come up with the right answer.
So what is the right answer? How do we know when to veto and when to shut up? Unless the trade is a back up kicker for the leagues top running back it's best to let the trade go through.

Next season when it's time to start up your league conveniently leave the crybaby off the list. Your job will be a lot easier and the league will be more exciting.”

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John Zaktansky, a featured columnist for the bleacher report (bleacherreport.com) wrote an article in 2009 to both league commissioners and players about the subject of trades. He states:

Veto Power: A Guide to Evaluating Pending Fantasy Football Trades:
Here are some tips on handling pending trade approvals in your league, while keeping your sanity intact:

1. Before you do anything else this season, take a moment to double-check your league’s pending trade approval process. 

This procedure varies from league to league. In some leagues, the commissioner has sole power of veto. He/she will decide whether a trade is kosher, or if it requires some extra research. In other leagues, this process is left up for league review (or voting).

2. When a trade is approved by both teams involved, and is up for approval, don’t panic. Ask yourself a simple question...does the trade seem equal to you for both teams involved? If so, approve the deal and move on. End of story.

3. If you have some concerns about the value of players exchanging teams, than you need to consider if there was any collusion involved (collusion is when a team in your league knowingly trades away more value than it receives as a way to help out another owner).

At this point, the only thing you should worry about is the collusion factor. One red flag of possible collusion includes if both owners involved in the trade are family members or really close friends. 

Another involves looking at the standings...is one team tanking its season to help another gear up for a playoff or championship run?

4. If you are concerned about collusion, share those concerns with the commissioner. A fair next step is to request that both owners involved publicly defend why they accepted the deal. If both can convincingly defend their actions, then approve the deal and forget about it.

5. If either owner does not respond in a stated amount of time, or offers a pathetic excuse for the deal, than the commissioner and league needs to discuss the next line of action—In all fairness, the deal is suspended until enough evidence can be collected that the trade was made without collusion concerns.

Notice that throughout all of this, I didn’t recommend approving or vetoing a trade based solely on your opinions of whether or not it was fair. As far as I’m concerned, this is ways too subjective to be a determining factor for trade approvals.

For example, let’s say last season someone in your league attempted to trade Joseph Addai or Larry Johnson straight up for DeAngelo Williams or Thomas Jones right after your draft. 

In every draft and every ranking heading into the 2008 season, both Addai and Johnson were ranked well ahead of Williams and Jones. If you were someone who vetoed trades because they seemed one-sided, than the Addai-for-Williams deal would have never went through. Except, we all know how things wound up last year. Williams and Jones smoked Addai and Johnson in fantasy production.

Killing a pending trade just because you may not see the value of both sides kills any chance for an owner take risks and try to build an empire. It is sort of equivalent to fantasy communism. So, when push comes to shove, the only true way to evaluate a pending trade is through the litmus test of collusion—nothing else.

Keep it simple, and your fantasy experience will be much more fun.

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Football Babble (footballbabble.com) is a website devoted to the discussion of American football from every aspect. Fantasy football is a popular subject upon which they have many articles. In one article entitled, “How To Manage a Fantasy Football League” they offer the following advice regarding trades:

Probably the most contentious part of fantasy football is fantasy football trades. Teams making a trade can almost always justify why a trade is fair, while competitors are going to look at their rivals’ trades with their own playoff hopes in mind. In either case, players let their own hopes and expectations get in the way of rational decision-making. That’s where the fantasy league commissioner has to be the rational one.

Before you veto a trade, try to understand the expectations of your league’s owners.

If league owners only want you to make sure both teams are trying to make their team better, you have to look at a trade and see if both teams have some reasonable expectation of making their team better. Look at both team’s weaknesses and see if those teams are addressing weaknesses. See what both team’s starting lineups will look like with the new players added in. If you can see the logic behind the trade, allow the trade. If there is no seeming logic, reject the trade.

If league owners want the commissioner to keep league balance, then your job becomes even murkier. That is, you have to figure out if a trade is so one-sided that it ruins the competitive balance of the league by allowing the trade to happen. “Competitive balance” is always iffy, because any team can beat any other team in a league. But if two buddies make a buddy-buddy trade and one of the teams is out of the playoff picture, you’re probably justified in one of these leagues to veto the trade.”

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I've been a fantasy football commissioner for many years and have gotten positive feedback from players across the world who have played in my leagues. I can assure you that I strive for excellence and a positive playing experience for all involved.

Let's look at some facts now.
- LeSean McCoy is undoubtably a top RB in the league and as you correctly point out he will benefit from the PPR scoring system. He is projected to score 307 points this year according to the iOS league scoring system.

- Eli Manning is undoubtably a top QB in the league and will benefit from the fact that QB's score 6 points per touchdown in our league. He is projected to score 387 points this year according to the iOS league scoring system.

- Looking at projections for all NFL players, this year Eli will be the 6th highest scoring player in the iOS league where as LeSean McCoy is projected to come in 16th.

- My trade offer of Manning for McCoy was based on the fact that you are loaded at RB and weak at QB based on your draft results.

- Your current starting QB is Carson Palmer who is only projected to score 255 points this season which would land him the 31st spot in overall scoring and 21st among QB's.

- Outside of LeSean McCoy your current team roster consists of the following RB's: Darren McFadden (projected to finish 12th in RB scoring), Ahmad Bradshaw (projected to finish 17th in RB scoring), Adrian Peterson (projected to finish 18th in RB scoring), Stevan Ridley (projected to finish 25th in RB scoring), CJ Spiller (projected to finish 26th in RB scoring), Felix Jones (projected to finish 40th in RB scoring), and Beanie Wells (projected to finish 41st in RB scoring).

- If we look at scoring alone, changing from Palmer to Manning would improve your team overall by 132 points for the year or 8.25 points per game if we figure you go all the way to the championship.

- If we look at scoring alone, losing McCoy and starting McFadden and Bradshaw would cost your team 103 points for the year or 6.4 points per game if we figure you go all the way to the championship.

- Looking at the above two statistical projections, accepting the trade of Manning for McCoy would potentially benefit your team by 1.85 points per game. That doesn't sound like the outrageously "unfair" offer that you made it out to be now does it? In fact, it's pretty much a wash, which is why I asked if you were comfortable going into the season with Carson Palmer as your starting QB.

Plain and simple, I saw where you had a weakness (for goodness sakes man, you don't even have a back up QB) and offered a solution that could be of benefit to both of us. If you think McCoy is untouchable then make me a counter offer (I was kinda hoping you would). Nothing about what I've offered you, or the trades that have already been completed in our league, is "unfair". They have been legitimate trades or offers that could benefit both teams. There is no bullying taking place here.

Sorry for the long post everyone, but I don't like my integrity being challenged and I felt giving a reasoned and detailed response would benefit all involved. If you have any questions about anything I've said then please feel free to ask.

All of that being said, Rick, I take it your answer to the trade offer of Manning for McCoy is a no, huh?

MacNut said:

Can you split off the 2 leagues, I am tired of listening to Rick.

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I will post up a thread for the other league later tonight or tomorrow.

ucfgrad93 said:

How long do we have to make changes in our lineups? Is it game time for each of the players involved, 1 hour before game time etc. Also, I downloaded the ESPN fantasy app for my iPhone. Is there anyway to have the game times listed in MDT instead of EDT?

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Sorry I didn't answer these before. Each player on your team will lock at the respective game time they have that week. In other words if they play on Sunday at 3:00 then they will lock at that time and can't be moved in or out of your starting line up after they lock. This becomes important when looking at what to do with injured players. Don't get stuck with an injured player being pulled right before game time because all of your other players locked and you can't make a change. Plan ahead each week.

As far as the iPhone app goes I'm not sure about the time zone thing. I'm in US Central time and the starting times for games and such are listed in EST. I guess I never really paid attention to it because I knew games started at Noon and 3PM my time. I looked around the app to see if there was a way to change the settings, but didn't see one. Sorry, but I don't know how to change to your own time zone, but I'll let you know if I find out.

The Season is Underway!

So, with the Cowboys vs. Giants game last night the NFL season is underway. From this point on this thread will be the official thread for the MR iOS NFL Fantasy Football League.

Those playing in the iOS League this year include:

iOS League:

1. creator2456
2. Dandaman
3. einmusiker
4. fireshot91
5. iVeBeenDrinkin'
6. mscriv
7. munkees
8. ucfgrad93
9. rhett7660
10. rick snagwell
11. stonyc
12. wvuwhat

ESPN has a new draft report card this year where you can use Matthew Berry's fantasy expertise to rate your draft. This doesn't take our PPR scoring system into account, but it's still kind of fun to look at.



Let the games, the trash talking, and the fun begin. Don't forget to set your line up this week.