I’m in three existing leagues and had a suggestion.
Even though the payment deadline is 1/31 (which is fine), I would like to have a hold on any teams trying to make cuts or make trades until they pay. I feel arbitration should be that way too, but it’s fine if that’s not added to the mix. I remember last year a team that cut players then the manager quit. When the new manager took over, he wanted half the cut players back (and I thought yeah, that was unfair huh). By requiring payment before making trades/cuts, we can encourage early payment and also weed out who really is committed to returning.
In some of the leagues I’m in this year, managers from last year did arbitration, made trades and cuts (up through 1/31), then didn’t renew. Just bad form. The commish can undo the cuts but not the trades… I’m a huge advocate for a freeze button added to the commish pages to lock rosters (from drops/trades) until they’ve paid. Ok to do arbitration, but once that ends, pay to participate (you won’t lose your team, you just can’t manage it unless you re-take ownership of it, or if claiming and abandoned team, pay before you make moves).
And I’m up to 5 leagues and 3 seasons so I’m starting to have a better understanding of that process and how I could offer the suggestion to make it better…(for all users)
This isn’t something I’ve considered a problem across my time playing in Ottoneu, and I really don’t think the solution to your issue is giving every commissioner across every league the right to freeze a team’s roster. Undoing transactions also can impact the rest of the league, as they could have been running their teams based on those transactions that had occurred.
I think best thing you can do (always) is communicate within your league to set expectations, especially for new managers. If it’s a problem for you or your league, you should talk with the rest of the league about what you want to do about it.
It’s not just my leagues. If you look at available H2H teams to claim, you’ll find a lot of teams where a prior manager trimmed the roster before abandoning. I checked out those teams to see if I wanted any there was only one I’m a maybe on (out of like 50). Then I see that there were drops of players that I would want back (for many of those other teams). I chatted briefly with Niv about that remedy (adding back players) which is an option, but as you said, maybe other teams dropped guys after another team did and that’s going to ruffle feathers. My proposal stops all of that. And my existing managers are on board – No teams should be dropping players or making trades (for the new baseball year) unless they’ve paid. We’ve all heard managers say “I’m good for it” but then things change and they disappear or something comes up and they have to drop some leagues.
The fix? They should either pay up, or the league should have the option of a freeze until paid. I can freeze in yahoo (and likely in many or most or all other platforms). If a team is going to play, then just pay…don’t make cuts/trades before paying. To me it’s simple and easy (and the same rule we have in all my non Ottoneu dynasty leagues to help ensure that we don’t have gutted teams that potentially puts the league at risk-- if we can’t find a new owner because no one wants the team that has been cut and abandoned)
I really don’t think you should be reversing transactions. Ottoneu is not Yahoo and treating it as such is only going to make it harder to maintain leagues.
All of this is a non-starter for me.
If you want managers in your league to pay before playing in the off-season they already paid for, you should tell them that.
My proposal doesn’t make this a yahoo platform. It makes Ottoneu better (IMO). And, it would just be an adjustment to the dates of the league year.
But, if I don’t have Niv’s support, my alternative is (if I want to continue commishing and playing in O’ leagues next year) to ask my league mates for payment first – though, of course, there is no guarantee that everyone will comply.