As the 2006 fantasy baseball season winds to its close, it is the perfect time to step back and express appreciation to those who are in the normally-thankless job of managing our transactions in non-automated leagues, while we also look ahead to next season.
Regularly sorting out confusing transaction requests while fairly administering the wide variety of rules from waiver priorities to Free Agent Allocation Budgets (FAAB) to potentially lop-sided trades across a diverse confederation of up to 14 or more anxious owners week after week is no easy task.
Add to that the invariable differences in owner experience level, commitment and interest in the league and the job is made even more arduous. Owners who study the league constitution and push the transaction guy at every turn to follow it to the letter might be called lawyers (or worse), can create even more angina for the person in charge.
Whether you choose to label this role - Commissioner, transactions guy, Secretary of Waivers and Transactions (SWAT), Commissioner and Secretary of Waivers and Transactions (COMSWAT), statman or whatever - take a few minutes now to call that person out and express your appreciation for their hard work this past season.
Now, I know that a small minority of you are a bit unsettled, and I don’t mean because you didn’t win your league. Perhaps your statman didn’t entirely perform up to your expectations this season. I can relate.
After all, I am one of those detestable lawyer types noted above. And in all honesty, I have clashed with several well-intended statmen in recent years who didn’t fully execute their duties, allowing myself to get overly-upset as a result.
Most everyone who joins a fantasy league says they play for fun, but who doesn’t also want to win? There is no easier way to enable a fun league to unravel than to allow otherwise avoidable arguments to sprout over uneven administration of league rules, no matter the reason.
As a friend reminded me, while it doesn’t happen often, a league championship should not hinge on a transaction mix-up any more than a big game should be decided on a missed call by the officials.
That doesn’t mean that problems in our fantasy leagues won’t occur – we know they will. But, what separates the best statmen from the rest is an ability to untangle messes quickly and avoid future problems by being proactive and direct.
Here are four examples of completely hypothetical situations where the man in charge may not have entirely met the perhaps overly-lofty expectations of some of his league owners:
1) The “I’m In Control” Guy (IICG). This statman is likely very successful in his career endeavors and expects to be the man in charge wherever he goes. More than likely, he founded the league and knows best, or at least insists he does. The fact that he may have never won any leagues, including his own, seems to be lost to him.
Unfortunately, IICG also regularly misses his own league transaction deadlines, leaving owners in limbo regarding the status of their waiver bids. In other cases, the confirming email goes out, but the league website is not updated to formalize the changes, fooling owners into thinking nothing is amiss.
Usually, the problem isn’t mistakes. Instead, it is lack of follow-through. More often than not, no explanation is given. But, when pressed, IICG waves it off by pointing out that he was called to The White House or had to assist Erin Esurance fighting evil doers or something equally important. When the heat is really, really on, the IICG will sometime acknowledge the problem, but promises it was a one-time event. Yet it recurs like clockwork seven days later.
The reality is that IICG is far too self-absorbed to run a league well, but he would never, ever admit it and will surely never change. Trying to dislodge him is difficult, but needed for self-sanity. Something as organized and dramatic as a coup may be necessary, and could eventually be successful.
2) The “I Never Say No” Guy (INSNG). This statman has all the best of intentions, but is working three jobs, has a boatload of screaming kids, is on every community and church board known to mankind and is otherwise extended beyond belief.
Accustomed to functioning every day in a world of tight timeframes, INSNG usually waits until the very last minute to process transactions, often in the middle of the night, leaving the rest of the league no time to correct his mistakes until the next period.
In addition to overachieving, Mr. INSNG has also become skilled at compromising at every turn in order to survive. So, when transactions go awry, his approach is to point out that in the overall scheme of things, one week’s worth of stats for a player or two doesn’t really matter that much. Of course, that is easier for him to say because he never screws up his own team’s transactions.
To soothe the angry, INSNG volunteers to keep track manually of any stat differences and make the corrections at the end of the season, but then promptly forgets all about it.
Extending league transaction deadlines has proven in some cases to be effective in minimizing the disruptive impact of INSNG, because the last thing he would ever do is say “no” and surrender his statman role.
3) The “Absent-Minded Professor” Guy (AMPG). This statman is a brilliant thinker, but can also lose his car keys and glasses with amazing frequency. He is quite aware of this and acknowledges that the likely route he would take to get next door involves a walk around the block.
Like the others, AMPG can be a great friend, a person who can always be counted upon in times of need. But, he is also a frustrating statman in any but the most informal of leagues. Starting off the season, his drafts can run in fits and starts over multiple painful days and nights.
AMPG regularly forgets his own transaction deadlines and is known to send short, unpunctuated and oblique messages to the entire league, inadvertently creating an avalanche of confusion. Yet, everyone loves AMPG, so any anger is always appropriately muted.
One might experience limited success helping AMPG types by augmenting them with more organized assistants. While AMPG doesn’t want to give up the keys to the car any more than INSNG or IICG, he is more inclined to accept riders. In fact, he is often relieved when the offer of help is made. So are his league-mates.
4) The “We’re All Buddies” Guy (WABG). WABG doesn’t take anything too seriously, especially his role running the league. But, he’s a great guy to go out drinking with because he is too busy bragging to notice he has bought the last four rounds.
On the downside, WABG has been known to allow some very imbalanced transactions, especially when his drinking buddies are involved and shrugs off objections by pointing out that we’re all playing for fun.
I joined a local mixed league where I quickly learned that one of the other owners has an irrational and extremely deep-seated dislike of the American League. Why he was in this particular fantasy league, God only knows, but I think it had to do with the fact that he is pals with WABG.
Of course, Mr. NL-Lover missed the online draft and hadn’t set up his autopicks properly. Despite the lack of prep, his roster actually ended up looking better than my hand-picked edition, with a nice balance of power and speed, starting pitching and closers.
But there was a big problem - evil AL players were sprinkled all over his roster. Mr. NL-Lover’s first action was to put all his AL stars on waivers. When the complaints became so loud that WABG had to answer, he took action. Unfortunately, his Plan B was to allow his pal Mr. NL to engineer a series of lop-sided trades that totally ruined the league almost before the season began.
The only way to address this is to exit this type of league as soon as humanly possible, while still honoring one’s commitments, which is what I did.
We’ve had a bit of fun with these examples, perhaps exaggerating matters at the expense of some good friends to illustrate the points.
Now, it’s time to turn the tables. Take a good hard look in the mirror at yourself. Are you the only one upset? Maybe you are not in the right league.
If that is the case, do something about it. In other words, you should still take action if the problem in your league is you, not the statman.
If you can’t drive the changes you want to see or if your views are out of balance with a majority of your league mates, make the decision now to find a new league where the approach is more aligned with yours. You don’t have to make it a messy divorce, but giving your current league more time to replace you for next season is also a nice courtesy.
On the other hand, the vast majority of the statmen in the leagues I participate in are like:
5) The “Good” Guy (TGG). TGG is on top of the schedule and when the inevitable snafu occurs, he goes out of his way to ensure the problem is fixed and that it doesn’t happen again. He communicates in a timely manner and builds respect. TGG isn’t afraid to remind league owners of the rules and bring them back into line when necessary.
Again, if your statman is one of the tens of thousands of Good Guys who only get notice when things go awry, take a moment now to express your appreciation for their hard work.
Here’s to you, Mr. Fantasy Stats Guy!
In closing, for those leagues in which you’re continuing, also consider this to be the right time of the year to evaluate and vote on any appropriate changes to both clean up loopholes or omissions in your league constitution as well as how your league handles its transactions. In fact, in one of my local leagues, one owner keeps a running log of potential constitution changes for easy organization and presentation at season’s end.
Waiting until next spring will only increase the likelihood these matters won’t get addressed until they rub you the wrong way again.
So, after you say thanks, look forward now.
Brian Walton’s work can be read daily at stlcardinals.scout.com.