Prospect Insider Keeper League

[bedir than average]

Guys, some of you only used the boards to track this league, but Jason posted this on the sidebar over at his site I'm posting it in full here, because Jason won't mind.

Prospect Insider Fantasy Baseball - 2007
Welcome back, for those returning, and welcome to, for those who are new, or will be new to the league this year. Last year turned out to be pretty fun, even though six teams fell by the wasteside.

Here are the basics:

The stat categories will primarily remain the same. Only minor changes will be made, if any, and they will be made by the end of February so owners can start prepping for the draft.

We will have 14 teams this season, down from 16 a year ago. We will have four new onwers, and we are still in need of one good, competitive player.

We will again use Yahoo's Free Fantasy service, mostly due to the lack of other options and partly due to the fact that we are all familiar with the system. It's easy, it's free and we won't have any user issues.

The draft is set for Friday March 23 at 7 pm. This could change, but if it does those changes will be made before the end of February to give everyone ample time to set things up, such as days off, etc. I know that sounds odd, but I know some of you will want to be off that night, or the next day. Fantasy baseball rules, doesn't it?

The four "expansion teams" will draft 6th thru 9th and the order will be determined by a simple but unknown formula to be chosen at a later date. Something like "alphabetical by last name" or" birthdates, earliest to latest in the year," something totally random.

Those same four teams will also participate in an expansion draft the previous Friday, March 16. Those four teams will be choosing four players each, from the rosters of the teams that are now extinct. The top 100 players from those six teams will be made available to them prior to the regular draft.

They will NOT be able to choose players from any of the returning 10 teams. This concern was brought up to me a week or two ago when I was considering it, but the point made was valid. If the new clubs get to choose four players from all 16 teams’ rosters from a year ago, how is that fair? The returnees get to choose their keepers from their own 25-man roster only. Hence the 100-player alotment.

The expansion draft will take place live via Google Spreadsheet. I will email the four expansion teams the player list and each will take their turn picking players from that list by typing the players name under their team name until each team has four players. For those who do not have gmail or access to the Google Spreadsheet, it’s that tough to figure out. The easiest way is to just get a gmail account (email me if you need an invite to gmail), and I will email you the invite to the spreadsheet itself.

That same day, the 16th of March, returning owners must email their choices for their four "keepers" -- send those four names to churchill@prospectinsider.com. To be fair, I will send my keeper list to Dave Clark.

Keeper Reminder: When we started this keeper league, we established the regulations on keepers as a four-player maximum, and with a contract-like keeper limit. This means that a player can only be “kept” for four consecutive years before having to return to the draft, kind of like free agency.

But, this season we have added a little catch, and I feel like it’s ok to change this up now because we still have three years before this becomes an issue.

Instead of having to give up the player who is added back into the draft, the team owner can choose to forfeit a first round draft pick to keep that player for another year. You can choose to do this for as long as you wish.

There will be no trading of draft picks, and the teams that wish to exercise this right will have to do so before the draft order is randomly selected. In the future, the draft order may be slotted according to reverse order of record from the previous season, but for 2007, it will be random, with the exception of the four expansion teams, who will draft 6th thru 9th in each round.

Yahoo fantasy opens on February 15, so shortly after that date, I will send out the league name and password to the returning 10 teams, the three new owners already in place, as well as the 4th new owner, if one has been secured by then. As soon as you receive the info, it's up to you to sign up and get things rolling for yourself.

The returning champion, Goose, is probably talking all kinds of smack already, and we hope to get more of that going this year by way of my alter-blog that I have created. More details to come, but it's just a place for us in the league to go and chat without having to use the yahoo posting system, which isn't the best way to do things.

If anyone has any suggestiong, questions or concerns, or just wants to ***** at the rules and regulations, feel free to email me.

Will all 10 returning owners email me as soon as they read this, please? I have everyone's roster, but somehow did not save the email addresses they were attached to, which is why I posted this here instead of sending out a mass e-mailer.

Thanks.

[bedir than average]

UPDATE: I've yet to hear from five of last year's teams, and if I don't get emails from you five, your spot will be given away to those on the waiting list.

I'd rather stick with the returnees, but I have to make sure we have 14 teams EARLY in the process. I do NOT want to have to worry about adding anyone later than March 1.

So, the deadline for confirming your spot in the league is February 23. After that date, I will start handing out your spots to others who have emailed me about the one open spot we planned on having, which has been filled.