At this point in the fantasy baseball season, one of the biggest problems we have to deal with is how to handle the quitters. Every league has at least one or two owners who have mentally checked out for the season, usually because their teams are sitting in the basement with little to no hope of climbing out. Whether they haven’t made a waiver claim in several weeks or they continue to leave injured players in their active lineup, these owners, once lauded for their annual donations, are now tearing leagues apart with their absentee mindset.
How many times have you sat and watched an owner ignore their team for weeks, then suddenly throw down a six-player trade with a team contending for the title? And how often is that trade skewed considerably in favor of the contending team? Probably 99 times out of a 100. While technically there isn’t any cheating going on, an owner seeking out a trade with the last-place team is relying on that owner’s apathy to sneak a bad deal past the league and put themself in a better spot to win. If collusion didn’t require a second person, this would be it.
The problem has persisted over the years despite many commissioners’ attempts to keep all league owners engaged and incentivized. We’ve seen yearly punishments doled out ranging from losing draft picks to the last-place team having to pay the first-place team’s entrance fee the following season, yet it never seems to be enough to keep every owner engaged. And while keeper or dynasty leagues tend to minimize the damage, the egregious dump deals for prospects are a whole other issue with which to contend.
Simply put, if you quit on your league, your power as a fantasy GM should be stripped immediately. Commissioners can put a time-frame on what constitutes quitting — maybe no waiver or roster moves for a month is the limit — but something needs to be done. You cannot expect those contending for the title to police themselves. Their drive to win will keep them hunting for trades. You have to attack the problem at the root, and that is to strip the quitters of their rights as an owner. Yes, they pay their entrance fee and should be allowed to run their teams as they see fit, but if they aren’t running their teams at all, they should lose everything.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy baseball advice.