New Fantasy Judgment decision – fantasy baseball issue (FAAB)

SUPREME COURT OF FANTASY JUDGMENT

A-Holes & Pujols v. Mad Cow Disease 

ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI FROM THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ALL-STAR FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE

Decided June 27, 2011

Cite as 3 F.J. 44 (June 2011)

Factual Background

A rotisserie fantasy baseball league called the Southern California All-Star Fantasy Baseball League (“SCAFBL”) is a mixed NL-AL non-keeper league comprised of 12 teams utilizing the standard 5×5 scoring categories to determine the standings and prize money.  For offensive players, the five categories are: (1) batting average; (2) homeruns; (3) runs batted in; (4) runs scored; and (5) stolen bases.  For pitchers, the five categories are: (1) wins; (2) earned run average; (3) WHIP (walks+hits/innings pitched); (4) strikeouts; and (5) saves.  Statistics are cumulative throughout the course of the season and there are no head to head games contained within the Roto league.

The SCAFBL operates under a written Constitution which outlines all of the league’s rules and guidelines.  Each league member was provided with a copy of the Constitution prior to the league’s draft which took place on March 27, 2011.  Included in the rules are provisions regarding the process and method of inputting transactions, including add/drops, placing players on the disabled list, and making trades with other teams.  The SCAFBL employs an auction bidding process for free agents where each league member was allotted $100 to use in bidding for available players throughout the season.  The following represents a condensed and concise summary of the pertinent Constitutional language that governs the transaction process:

• Each team is given a budget of $100 to use on players available on the waiver wire.
• Teams are restricted to a maximum of five transactions per week.
• All bids on free agents must be made before the conclusion of the final Sunday night game of the week.
• Teams must make their transactions in conformity with the league’s roster and lineup requirements.
• The bidding process will be managed, controlled and administered by the CBS Sports internal commissioner service.
• The bidding process is blind and no team shall have access or knowledge of other teams’ bids.
• The SCAFBL commissioner shall not have access to other teams’ bids.

On Saturday, June 25, 2011, A-Holes & Pujols placed a bid on free agent Dustin Ackley (2B-SEA) for $12 using the CBS Sports free agent auction bidding process.  As his corresponding move, A-Holes & Pujols sought to drop Ben Francisco (OF-PHI).  A-Holes & Pujols made no other free agent auction bids or any other transactions for the remainder of that week.

As usual, the free agent auction bidding process was run by CBS Sports on Sunday night, June 26, 2011.  Once the auction was complete, Mad Cow Disease (also the SCAFBL Commissioner) was awarded Dustin Ackley by winning the auction with a bid of $14.  As a result, A-Holes & Pujols’ bid for Ackley was denied and Francisco remained on their roster.

Procedural History

On Monday, June 27, 2011, A-Holes & Pujols sent out an email to the entire league accusing the Commissioner of abusing his power and outbidding him for Ackley.  The basis for A-Holes & Pujols’ contention is the allegation that the Commissioner has access to everyone’s bids and can manipulate the system where he can outbid any team for a free agent he so desires.

In response to this email, the Commissioner emphatically denied such accusations and reminded the league of the provisions laid out in the league’s constitution (which are also delineated above in the Factual Background).  A majority of league owners responded to the emails as well affirming the Commissioner’s decree and lashing out at A-Holes & Pujols for the undeserved accusations. 

A-Holes & Pujols still refused to accept this explanation and requested a league vote to resolve the issue.  The Commissioner rejected this request, so A-Holes & Pujols have contacted the Court to rule whether the Commissioner’s acquisition of Dustin Ackley should be upheld due to his alleged capability to see all competing bids.

Issue Presented

(1)   Should the Commissioner’s acquisition of Dustin Ackley be upheld?

Decision

The Supreme Court of Fantasy Judgment is a strong advocate for having written Constitutions that govern fantasy sports leagues.  See John Doe v. Fantasy Football League Commissioner, 2 F.J. 21, 22 (October 2010).  Having a written league constitution or charter helps ensure that “all league members are aware of the rules and guidelines in place, and it shifts the burden onto the league members to read, understand, and adhere to the rules that are delineated.”  See Shawn Kemp is My Daddy v. Fantasy Basketball League Commissioner, 2 F.J. 24, 25 (October 2010).  Here, the rules explicitly stated what the procedures are for the FAAB process, including the fact that the bidding is blind and not even the Commissioner has access to other teams’ bids.  Not only were they delineated by the Commissioner in the league’s Constitution, but they are also the fixed settings set forth by CBS Sports in their League Commissioner package.  See Green Eggs & Hamels v. Megan Fox is Hot, 3 F.J. 4, 6 (April 2011). 

The Commissioner does subject himself to added scrutiny simply by having such inherent power as making the rules and having access to the league’s internal structure and settings.  However, those who choose to participate in a fantasy league run by a Commissioner should presumably have implicit trust and faith in that Commissioner – otherwise it would be foolish to entrust one’s money and time in a fantasy league run by someone that is not trustworthy. 

Here, the Commissioner is also a league member, which is often the case.  As Commissioner, he must make decisions that are in the best interests of the league.  However, he is also entitled to manage his team to the best of his ability and try to win.  The Commissioner is subjected to the same rules that apply to everyone else, including the provisions of the free agent auction bidding process.  The Commissioner is allotted the same budget as the rest of the league, and he must go through the same bidding process as everyone else.  Additionally, there is no way for the Commissioner, or anyone else in the league, to have access to other people’s bids pursuant to the settings that were input.  Any bid placed by the Commissioner is as blind as A-Holes & Pujols, and every other member of the SCAFBL.

Further, there is no way for a team to track when another team actually makes their bid.  A-Holes & Pujols stated that he placed his bid for Dustin Ackley on Saturday, June 25.  It is unknown when Mad Cow Disease placed his bid.  Irrespective of that, it simply does not matter when the bids are placed so long as they are placed prior to when the auction runs, which is typically just after 1:00 AM EST.  At that point, the only thing system cares about when running the auction is who bid more for a certain player.  Based on the blind bids placed on Dustin Ackley, Mad Cow Disease won the auction and successfully acquired the Mariners’ young second baseman.  

A-Holes & Pujols went to the rest of the league to appeal this.  The Commissioner, despite being involved in the situation, denied A-Holes & Pujols’ request for a league vote on the issue.  The Supreme Court of Fantasy Judgment advocates for league Commissioners to have a certain amount of authority and autonomy to run and administer fantasy sports leagues.  See FlemishUSA v. League Commissioner, 2 F.J. 35, 36 (October 2010).  In this case, the Commissioner appropriately ruled on the issue by denying the request for a league vote, and instead adhered to the clearly established rules and guidelines that govern the league and the FAAB process. 

The league’s FAAB rules clearly demonstrate that Mad Cow Disease (a.k.a. the league Commissioner) properly acquired Ackley.  The Court hereby upholds the Commissioner’s decision and rules that the subject transaction should be upheld. 

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Passing Judgment – Free Agent Auction Bidding Works Best

One of the most important aspects of playing fantasy baseball is a team owner’s ability and skill at making transactions and adding free agents before and during the season. In most cases, the team you draft is not the team you will ultimately end up with. Undoubtedly, regardless of how many teams are in your league or how many roster spots are required, there will always be players that go undrafted and emerge as viable fantasy options later on. The key to success in a fantasy baseball league is the ability of teams to make those moves at the right time. But the analysis of whether a transaction is good or not will be left for another day. Instead, this edition of “The Verdict” takes a deeper look into the various procedures for how transactions are processed.

For some background, I have been the Commissioner of an 18-team, head to head, points league since 1999. For the first 10 years of the league, team owners would submit their add/drops to me and I would process them. All transactions had to be submitted to me by a certain time, and then I would manually go through the lists and figure out who got who. In the event two teams claimed the same player, the team with a worse win-loss record or on the short end of a tiebreaker would have the rights to that free agent. Upon moving my league to CBS in 2008, the free agent process was handled automatically with a waiver priority order based on overall record. Generally speaking, the process of handling transactions this way worked.

The reason for handling transactions in this manner was obvious – to help the less successful teams get better and make the league more competitive since they had a better chance of obtaining the best free agents. However, this also had the detrimental effect of penalizing the more successful teams and preventing them from bettering their team as well.

In 2010, I decided to even the playing field and change the way transactions were handled by implementing a free agent auction bidding process (“FAAB”). I assigned an arbitrary budget for everyone ($250) where each team could bid on available free agents. The team that bid the most money on a player was awarded him, regardless of where that team stood in the standings. This afforded the best teams and the worst teams the same opportunity to make improvements while not handicapping or penalizing anyone else. It also required people to make strategic decisions on how they wanted to spend their fake money. Despite being met with some skepticism and trepidation, my league members enjoyed this new process and have embraced it.

As the Commissioner of the league, FAAB made my life infinitely easier since I no longer had to manually handle any aspect of doing add/drops. The bidding process is completely blind, so no one will know what you have bid on a player. This means, in theory, that you could spend $25 on a free agent when no one else even bid $2 on that same player. But that is the nature of the process, and I personally approve of the fact that the process is entirely blind. It really adds another element of strategy and competition when pondering what the appropriate value of a free agent is in the context of your league and fellow league members. Since the bidding process is completely blind, I didn’t have to worry about any improprieties when I made my own transactions. As a word of advice for you fellow Commissioners, anything you can do to remove ANY semblance of impropriety is beneficial. This means relinquishing control over certain things that can be handled automatically.

Another positive aspect of FAAB is the fact that it does provide checks and balances to prevent teams from dominating the entire process. Once a team wins a bid on a free agent, that team is then moved to the bottom of the waiver order. This means that they would essentially lose a tiebreaker to another team bidding the same amount on another free agent. Of course, if a team chooses to bid enormously high on multiple free agents in the same week, then they would win all of those players. But that is a conscious choice by a team to spend their money in such a way.

No matter what format or style your league uses, transactions are going to be an important factor. How you choose to handle transactions is also one of the most critical decisions a Commissioner can make because it has a significant effect on all league members and the way they play the game. The verdict is that implementing an auction process to bid on free agents is the fairest, most efficient, and most thought-provoking manner in which to handle transactions. If your league has never tried it before, it is something you should seriously consider.

The Court wants to hear your feedback.  Feel free to send an email to michael.stein@fantasyjudgment.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter (@FantasyJudgment).