Fantasy Baseball Fun - As Long as the Commissioner is Not a Cheater

I have been in countless fantasy leagues over the years and have been the commissioner in over 20 leagues myself. Commissioner is unfortunate job that no one seems to appreciate. Setting up the scoring, preparing the draft, collecting fees and paying out winnings are all things that take time away from the rest of your life, but someone has to do it and those who love the game find the time.

In the 20 leagues I have commissioned myself never has there been a situation where I was accused or even hinted of cheating. There has been a couple disputes between other managers about loop holes, but that's business as usual in the fantasy world. When you combine competition with money people get hot headed and being I never support mid season rule changes any issue that is being exploited must be addressed the following year.

I remember the time in a fantasy football league when one of the tops teams quarterback when down, the manager playing that top team the next week decided to pick up the top four quarterback free agents and put them on his bench for the following week. That created quite an uproar, but certainly legal as there was no rule in place to prevent someone from the sneaky tactic.

However, now I am a manager in a baseball league which has a commissioner running the league like a dictator stating whatever he wants goes?

I joined the league East vs. West about 6 years ago. It is a 5 x 5 rotisserie keeper league with Josh Friedland at the helm as commissioner. I liked the league right away as everyone was a skilled fantasy player.

Well that is until I had my first taste of Josh Friedland's ability to dictate and cheat. The keeper league worked like this, any player you draft in rounds six or higher can be kept on your team the following year, they would just move up four spots in your draft in the preceding year. So if you draft a guy in round 15 and then that guy turns out to be a stud you can secure him on your team the following year, but he would count as your 11th round pick. You may keep up to five players.

I drafted Evan Longoria his rookie season in round 14, the next season he was a great keeper for me and should of been my round 10 draft choice, however my free agent Ryan Ludwick was also a 10th round keeper, which means Evan Longoria would just become a 9th round pick which I decided to do. The year goes by and Longoria has a dynamite season, Ludwick not so much.

The next season Longoria was picked to be an early second round pick by the fantasy experts, great for me as I can draft him in round five. But wait, this is where the commissioner Josh Friedland decides to flex his power. Josh Friedland just decided to change the keeper rule from being able to keep players drafted in round six or higher to round 10 or higher. At first Josh Friedland tried to say that it was always 10 or more and he is not changing anything, but being we have a league of people with connected brain cells that was quickly shot down and proven false.

Josh Friedland then just said he does not care, it's now round 10 or higher and if you don't like it that's tough for you. Josh Friedland happened to have no keepers worth keeping in rounds six to nine, so it was no skin of his back. But for me I could no longer keep Longoria, the sad thing is if I would have known about this rule the previous year I could have not kept Ludwick and still been able to draft Longoria in round 10 making him eligible for my team the following year. And for the record there was no vote by other managers, no nothing, the commissioner Josh Friedland decided I could not keep a guy I should have been able to keep hurting my chance to win and at $150 a season borderline theft.

Fast forward to the present Josh Friedland is at it again making up rules as he goes to hurt my team. For the past several seasons East vs. West allows free agent pickups once a week on Monday. So every Sunday night or Monday morning I check which players I want to add to my roster. Well this year nothing has changed, our fantasy league has a constitution in writing in which states bidding will be weekly on Monday.

This year the baseball season runs from March 31, 2013 – September 29, 2013, Josh Friedland the commissioner did not draft a middle infielder. So instead of starting the season with no one in that slot Josh decides that we should have the Friday before the season as a free agent pick day, at no point at any time does Josh Friedland or anyone else say we are changing Monday to Friday. Sunday is the first day of baseball season 2013. I put in my bids for that next Monday which would be the first bidding day for free agents as did another manager.

As it turns out news came out the first day of the season, Sunday night March 31, 2013  about a young super star named Jose Fernandez. This  20 year old has been dominating at every level he has played at and possibly the next big thing in the game. And whomever picks him up will be able to keep him on their team for years to come, a possibly huge pick up. If you did not read the news Sunday night you would have missed it. I did not miss it, I saw it and put in my bid.

So guess what, Josh Friedland decides we are not going to do free agent picks up the first Monday of the season after they should have already been processed, we are just going to skip that one. What? Yes, even though the constitution of the league states we will do free agreement picks ups on Monday and on a weekly basis we will be skipping the whole first week of the season. Josh Friedland does not even follow his own constitution that he personally wrote.

When questioned why in the world would we skip a Monday when at no time ever was it said we would do that Josh Friedland replays " I have the right to do wtf I feel is best for all involved and will continue to act as such." This happens to be perfect timing for Josh Friedland as he decided to go on vacation this first week when we would have had free agent pickups. When I go on vacation I don't get to turn off free agreement pickups, either I check in and pay attention or I don't get the player. However, Josh Friedland, the commissioner of East vs. West is allowed to do WTF he wants with this league as he has clearly stated on the message board. According to Josh Friedland he can turn off free agent retroactively without telling anyone just because he was on vacation and did not bother to check the news.

So he is basically just skipping my free agent pick up which could have been a great keeper for me for years to come for no reason at all. So now everyone in the league is going to know about this player and the edge I got for paying attention to the news that first Sunday night is totally wiped out.

After two big cheating offences against Josh Friedland I now feel this league that I thought was once a quality league is just an outlet for Josh Friedland to fill his own ego. It's not hard to win when you cheat at anything. East vs. West I use to consider to be my main league I paid the most attention to, now it is just a joke just like its commissioner.