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Monsters of the NL News and One League Too Many are loosely-affiliated online keeper leagues, although there are slight rules differences between the two. (For the most part, the rules are based on the Book rules, although OLTM goes with 13 hitters and ten pitchers now, because it's difficult to find FAs at some positions in a standard league, given the team compositions in the real American League.) Monsters goes back to the late eighties, I believe, and OLTM is entering its seventh year. Monsters is NL-only and OLTM is AL-only. Both are 5x5 leagues with standard categories.
Both conduct their auctions in live chat rooms and there are no fees for transactions beyond the initial membership buy-in. These are low-stakes leagues, so you aren't going to be out much if you want to try out a strategy that you'd be reluctant to use in a league that called for payment of serious money.
The only thing a bit quirky about these leagues is that we use a transactions system that operates over a two-day stretch each week. On Mondays, we announce successful waiver claims and FAABs. On Tuesdays, we allow owners to pick from the remaining free agents for natural roster openings. (The rationale is that, with weekly transactions, an owner whose FAABs and waivers all were unsuccessful might find himself or herself without an active player in an open spot for a full week. The Tuesday FA claims opportunity lets the owner see how he or she does on Monday before filling in on Tuesday if necessary. It's not complicated and, I promise, you'd get the hang of it quickly.)
Monsters needs to replace a resigning owner who wants to concentrate on his local leagues and another who stiffed us for fees and then went AWOL. The fee in Monsters is $50 plus your pro-rata share of the Onroto.com service, which was $9 last year. We presently have ten teams returning and could go with ten owners and 25-man rosters, but the preference is to replace the departing owners. The auction usually occurs on the Sunday of "traditional" draft weekend, i.e., the first full weekend after Opening Day.
OLTM, candidly, is in tougher shape. FIVE of twelve owners have resigned for various reasons. I'm shell-shocked, and now am looking for owners who don't mind taking a chance on a dicey proposition where they could have an immediate impact. Frankly, I've been in up to four rotisserie leagues per season since 1987 and I've never seen such an exodus from any league at one time. In this case, I hope nothing can be read into the mass departure since the league ran as it has since its inception with no major hiccups, and, over the years, we've never lost this many at one time due to reasons other than non-payment of fees. (Just for the record, here are the stated reasons for departure: one is the guy who resigned also from Monsters because he wants to do only local leagues, one was a snake draft veteran but rotis newbie who did not find an auction keeper league to be of interest, another said he has too many leagues to support, one provided an unusual excuse that may have been disingenuous since he did not always buy into our rules' rationales, and the final one did not provide a reason.)
As with Monsters, we could go in OLTM with ten 25-man teams even if we'd prefer to remain at full complement if possible and, realistically, I have to assume that would be the best I could do. In any event, the fees are peanuts, i.e., $25 plus the pro-rata apportionment of Onroto's charges. The auction date "officially" has been the Saturday or Sunday of Opening Day weekend, but, most years, we've actually drafted on a midweek evening. Because that goes really, really late for guys in the Eastern timezone, I'd like to shift the auction back to a weekend day. However, we'll decide this one way or the other in a few weeks. Also, with so many teams needing new owners, we'll have to do a dispersal draft sometime before the start of the season.
We have some HQ guys in each league and they do well. If I had to pick one league as the more "sophisticated," I'd have to say it's Monsters, but there are some excellent, attentive owners who remain in OLTM and you'd be proud to beat them.
If you're interested, please private message me or email me at MikeRubin2@aol.com. Thanks for your attention, especially if you're the stalwart sort who'd be willing to help rebuild a league that just got walloped by owner departures.
Both conduct their auctions in live chat rooms and there are no fees for transactions beyond the initial membership buy-in. These are low-stakes leagues, so you aren't going to be out much if you want to try out a strategy that you'd be reluctant to use in a league that called for payment of serious money.
The only thing a bit quirky about these leagues is that we use a transactions system that operates over a two-day stretch each week. On Mondays, we announce successful waiver claims and FAABs. On Tuesdays, we allow owners to pick from the remaining free agents for natural roster openings. (The rationale is that, with weekly transactions, an owner whose FAABs and waivers all were unsuccessful might find himself or herself without an active player in an open spot for a full week. The Tuesday FA claims opportunity lets the owner see how he or she does on Monday before filling in on Tuesday if necessary. It's not complicated and, I promise, you'd get the hang of it quickly.)
Monsters needs to replace a resigning owner who wants to concentrate on his local leagues and another who stiffed us for fees and then went AWOL. The fee in Monsters is $50 plus your pro-rata share of the Onroto.com service, which was $9 last year. We presently have ten teams returning and could go with ten owners and 25-man rosters, but the preference is to replace the departing owners. The auction usually occurs on the Sunday of "traditional" draft weekend, i.e., the first full weekend after Opening Day.
OLTM, candidly, is in tougher shape. FIVE of twelve owners have resigned for various reasons. I'm shell-shocked, and now am looking for owners who don't mind taking a chance on a dicey proposition where they could have an immediate impact. Frankly, I've been in up to four rotisserie leagues per season since 1987 and I've never seen such an exodus from any league at one time. In this case, I hope nothing can be read into the mass departure since the league ran as it has since its inception with no major hiccups, and, over the years, we've never lost this many at one time due to reasons other than non-payment of fees. (Just for the record, here are the stated reasons for departure: one is the guy who resigned also from Monsters because he wants to do only local leagues, one was a snake draft veteran but rotis newbie who did not find an auction keeper league to be of interest, another said he has too many leagues to support, one provided an unusual excuse that may have been disingenuous since he did not always buy into our rules' rationales, and the final one did not provide a reason.)
As with Monsters, we could go in OLTM with ten 25-man teams even if we'd prefer to remain at full complement if possible and, realistically, I have to assume that would be the best I could do. In any event, the fees are peanuts, i.e., $25 plus the pro-rata apportionment of Onroto's charges. The auction date "officially" has been the Saturday or Sunday of Opening Day weekend, but, most years, we've actually drafted on a midweek evening. Because that goes really, really late for guys in the Eastern timezone, I'd like to shift the auction back to a weekend day. However, we'll decide this one way or the other in a few weeks. Also, with so many teams needing new owners, we'll have to do a dispersal draft sometime before the start of the season.
We have some HQ guys in each league and they do well. If I had to pick one league as the more "sophisticated," I'd have to say it's Monsters, but there are some excellent, attentive owners who remain in OLTM and you'd be proud to beat them.
If you're interested, please private message me or email me at MikeRubin2@aol.com. Thanks for your attention, especially if you're the stalwart sort who'd be willing to help rebuild a league that just got walloped by owner departures.
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