Fantasy Baseball Problem

[tbach24]

So I'm following the Mets-Reds game today and see that Dae-Sung Koo has a nasty inning in setup work. I go to see if I can pick him up, but he's not on the player database. I post in the league I'm in that I call dibs on him, and IM the league commissioner to tell him. However, him and one other player are disputing whether or not I get him. They say that I have to wait for him to clear waivers first. I think that that's crap and that he's mine.

Also, I called Loopers BS today. That's why I want Koo, because Looper sucks.

[MrFeelNothin]

Nice try, but there is no "dibs" in fantasy baseball.

That is what the waiver priority rankings are for.

[tbach24]

But if he was already in the database (like he should've been), he would've been on my team. No one had thought about him or talked about him, so therefore he should be mine, right? If my thinking is off, please explain why because I'm a bit confused.

[MrFeelNothin]

I have encountered this situation before in yahoo leagues. If a player has never played in the majors before they are usually slow in adding him to the league after he makes his debut. A system where the first person to dibs said player would own him would get way too complicated and controversial. This situation is slightly different because it is the beginning of the year and Koo is on the roster from day one. HOWEVER, IIRC he is an import straight from Korea and has no major/minor league experience. This is another situation where online leagues are not perfect, you just have to accept the fact that it will take a couple days to add him.

To wrap up the rambling, waivers are simply a much less controversial way of settling disputes such as this. The player being added to the league is treated as if he were dropped from someone's team, after two days on waivers, if unclaimed he is a FA. Sorry buddy, but every commissioner in the world will just point to the waiver rankings on this one.

Also, one bad outing is not going to cost Looper the closer position. Right now we are 1/162 into the season and nothing has changed regarding Looper's status since last week. YES, at some point Koo could supplant him, but it is far from a sure thing. Unless this is a deep league, I think it unlikely that I would even waste a roster spot on Koo at this point.

[MrFeelNothin]

Also, if you had simply kept quiet about it, you probably could have waited for him to clear waivers and then picked him up without anyone noticing. I haven't seen much talk about him on fantasy boards anyways, so if you really thought that highly of him you just had to be smooth about it.

[tbach24]

How about this...

Houston Street was drafted in one of the later rounds but wasn't in the database, so therefore when he comes up he should be open to anyone just like Koo, right?

[hutz]

In the league I run (via Yahoo) we account for just the situations you've asked about. Under our rules, if Street were drafted but not in the database, the team drafting him would retain his rights so long as they kept an open spot on their roster. If he were cut before being added to the database, then he'd revert to the rule governing undrafted players missing from the database -- nobody could claim him until he was added to the database, in which case it's the first person to add him to their roster who gets him (we have no waivers in our league). The previous poster was right when they said you shoulda kept your yap shut and you would have likely been able to add him without any fuss in a few days. He's a major longshot, anyway.

Just how deep is your league that Huston Street and Mr. Koo are valuable commodities (unless you're in a keeper league)? I'm in a nine team NL-only league that has thirty-deep rosters and Koo isn't anywhere on our radar screen.

[tbach24]

There is VERY little chance of my landing Koo if I didn't call him. Closers are very, very important in the league (way too much so) as they can earn up to 3-4x as much as a SP in an average inning. That comes out as a lot of +EV for those with more closers. The kid who wants Street is somewhat retarded. Even if Koo isn't the closer, he'll still get hold and win situations (which are worth 5, vs. 7 for saves, wins are 10). I think that drafting a player off of the database is essentially calling him because he's not there to be placed on your team and you're banking on him being placed on your team.

[hutz]

Ah, your scoring rules are very non-standard. We play regular 4x4 roto scoring. Closers are very important, but holds and fantasy points per inning don't really matter much. Good luck with your war over Mr. Koo!