Ian Allan's Mailbag
Posted Jul. 03 at 09:23 AM
Publisher Ian Allan fields your questions on strategy, how to run your league, player ratings -- and whatever else you think of. Updated every Friday during the season; Tuesdays and Fridays during the last two months of the preseason. You must be registered and signed-in to submit a mailbag question. After you sign in at the top of the page, the link to submit a mailbag question will become visible.
Question 1:
First off I love the magazine; I run an auction keeper league with a rookie draft. Please help me out with a rookie wage scale as I want to incorporate contracts into the league. Rookies are free, I'm thinking about allowing owners to than put a drafted rookie on a two-year contract after their rookie year is over (so a contract for a player's 2nd and 3rd year in the league) with a team option for the 4th year. I'm having difficulty coming up a with a fair wage scale for year 2 and 3, what are your thoughts?
Kent Bailey [PUYALLUP, WA]
A:
I don't think you need a rookie wage scale or a rookie draft. If you're running an auction, seems to be everyone should be bidding on these players. The standard way to run these leagues is to let every team have a $100 or $200 payroll. The team that pays the most gets to have Trent Richardson or Doug Martin. Teams clear salary cap by cutting players. So if some team really has its heart set on signing Richardson, Martin, Andrew Luck or RG3, maybe it releases all of the players on its roster. Some leagues work in automatic increases in player salaries each year. Others limit the length of those contracts to about 3 years.
Question 2:
We play in a dynasty league where you can't pick up players during the year. The 20-man roster is all you have. There are always a few good players we miss. This year Cruz, Murray, J.Nelson, D.Moore, S.Smith and Torrey Smith. If you want to add any other players who you think may have been missed in other leagues, you can throw those into the mix as well. Would you give me your opinion on where the rookies stack up with the players mentioned above.
Tom Pasquini [REDDING, CA]
A:
I really like this year's batch of rookies. Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, I think, belong in the top dozen at their position in a dynasty format. I've got Luck up at No. 2 in the magazine, behind only Aaron Rodgers. In a keep-them-forever format, I would rather have Luck than Brady, Brees or Cam Newton. At running back, I think you put Richardson in the top 5 and Martin in the top dozen. The rookies don't look as appealing at wide receiver or tight end. To see the complete long-term rankings, see the keeper (er, "dynasty") cheat sheet on page 27 of the magazine.
Question 3:
Look forward to getting the hard copy magazine this year. What are your thoughts on the value of Ben Tate. To me, he is the 2012 version of Larry Johnson from the days when Larry backed up Priest Holmes in KC. One injury away from being the top back in the league. I guess the difference is that Holmes was older while Foster is in his prime. But Foster seems to be injured a lot.
David Hanley [WEST HARTFORD, CT]
A:
I don't see any strong parallels between Tate-Foster and Johnson-Holmes. With Johnson, when he came in for the second half of the 2004 season, it was clear he was better than Holmes. Bigger, faster, stronger, younger. Heading into the 2005 season, Holmes was a 31-year-old back, and it was pretty clear Johnson was going to wind up with that job. That's not really the case with Tate and Foster. In this case, Foster is 25 and entering his fourth year. He's the better back. He's bigger and a lot more rugged. He's a better runner between the tackles, and he's way ahead of Tate as a pass catcher. He had one injury last year - a bad hamstring - that flared up a few times and caused him some problems, but he's not an injury prone, brittle back. Foster is the main back there, and I expect him to have a big year. Tate is good No. 2 back. He'll be a top-5 back if Foster gets hurt. But he's not a player I'm targeting strongly in drafts.
Question 4:
Here's a suggestion I guarantee will improve your website. Why I'm trying to help you, after you blatantly, deliberately sabotaged my attempt to meet the Affordable Trophies girl last year (your own "Fred Lance incident" if I may), is beyond me. In any case, here goes: All "Who should I keep" or "Should I trade..." mailbag submissions are hereby BANNED, as I find them annoying and uninteresting. OR, continue to allow them, but charge a $19.95 fee per submission. The cumulation of fees would then be divided among registered website users at season's end, as compensation for having to endure the exasperation of all those "keep/trade" letters. Also, I demand that the "Dynasty" Cheat Sheet be changed BACK to a "Keeper" Cheat Sheet.
Jacob Wilson [CRANDALL, TX]
A:
I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know who Fred Lance is. I googled "Fred Lance incident", and the No. 2 listing to come up was the Minnesota Vikings boat party scandal (with "Fred" Smoot and "Lance" Johnstone). That's not a good sign. I will try to do a better job this year of weeding out the "who should I keep" and "who should I trade" questions, but some weeks I'm light on letters.
Question 5:
Beanie Wells seems to have been left off some of the running back stats in the back of the magazine.
DAVID GARRICK [Coronado, CA]
A:
I'm not sure what happened there. I got another email saying Ryan Mathews wasn't in there either. I obviously screwed up, but I'm not sure how. I will re-post the affected charts on the website. Apologies.
Readers' Comments
Add a Comment
Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.
To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.
Question 1: First off I love the...
Posted by Scott Anderson | Jul. 04 at 05:29 AM
What we do is have a rookie draft each year before the auction (in reverse order of prior years standings) - we have a 4-player practice squad; the only way to fill slots on the practice squad is via the rookie draft. When you choose to 'elevate' a player to the active roster, our league website (myfantasyleague.com) has a search function that lets you get the average salary for said player in similar leagues (12 teams, $200 salary cap, 16 roster spots, similar scoring system) - that's the contract amount he is signed to when he is activated. We use 3 year contracts with 5% increase 2nd year & 10% increase 3rd year, so even though this is a 'dynasty' format, there is still a lot of player movement due to contracts getting pretty bloated that 3rd year.
Question 1: First off I love the...
Posted by ADAM HOLTZ | Jul. 04 at 07:46 AM
I run a league that allows a number of 2- and 3-year contracts to be placed after our auction. This year, we are going to have a rookie draft right before the auction. Each rookie drafted over two rounds will have a value of $1, and after the auction is over, it's as if those rookies were bought at auction for $1 each. Contracts can be placed accordingly; I imagine all rookies will get 3-year contracts placed on them, locking them in at the $1 for longer. We also allow a franchise tag for a 20% raise (or top 5 average) on players whose contracts are expiring at the end of a season.
Question 2: We play in a dynasty...
Posted by Shaun Hawkins | Jul. 09 at 06:09 PM
Ian, is there any place you have a dynasty cheat sheet of ALL players rather than solely rookies? This is year one of my dynasty league.