Frequently Asked Questions
How
fast does my league get a recommendation on a disputed trade?
All resolutions from the RotoUmpire are guaranteed within 72 hours. Most
resolutions are returned within 24 to 48 hours. Our new express service
guarantees a resolution within 24 hours.
What
is an incident?
An incident is a disputed trade or some other issue that your league needs
some guidance with.
What
if we don't like your decision?
Keep in mind that though we perform statistcal analysis and take many
factors into consideration, there is no "magic formula" that
tells us if a trade is fair or not. By necessity, our decisions are almost
entirely based on our opinions as students of the games of baseball and
fantasy baseball. You may or may not agree with our opinions and analysis
- it's happened before. Because it is our opinion based
on the facts available, nothing that we could hear or read will change
our minds on the subject. (Note: Of course, if we make an error in terms
of players or scoring categories or any other specific league rule, we
will be more than happy to reanalyze the deal at no extra charge to you
to correct our error.) Much like an umpirein real baseball calling balls
and strikes, we at RotoUmpire are just telling you how we see it. And,
just like said umpire, we won't change our call. Just about every trade
sent to us is going to have one party that does not like our decision.
A couple of times, we've had several owners in a league not like our decision.
But our job is not to make every owner in a league happy - it's simply
to call deals as we see them to the benefit of the entire
league - not the benefit or happieness of individual owners.
How can our league best use your service?
Please keep in mind that most leagues use our service because they are having problems keeping the peace. The number one thing you can do is to have the entire league vote and approve the use of the RotoUmpire service.
Some of our leagues have adopted this payment schedule as a way to control the use of the RotoUmpire: If a trade is protested by someone in the league and the trade is upheld, then the protester should pay for the incident. If the trade is overturned, then the teams involved in the trade pay for the RotoUmpire fees. This has seemed to have a good affect on the leagues in which this payment plan is used and we recommend other leagues adopting this as well.
Are
just player stats used to determine if a trade is fair?
Many factors are considered when deeming whether or not a certian trade
is fair. First and foremost, the players' current performance as well
as their performance over the past few seasons is evaluated. Player salaries
play a large role if your league is a keeper league. League standings
are also considered, especially if a team at the top of the league is
dealing with one at the bottom. Also considered are things like injury
history, potential playing time for the rest of the season (maybe a big-time
rookie is headed to the majors soon to take someone's job away) and anything
else that may possibly effect the deal are taken into consideration. The
bottom line is that the opinions of our experts are used
in combination with all these facts to result in a recommendation for
the good of your league.
What's
the catch with the new Express service?
If using our express service, a resolution is guaranteed within 24 hours,
but the express service will cost one additional incident from your account.
Please note though that the express resolution contains far less written
analysis than a regular resolution would. There will be no individual
player blurbs, and the analysis itself will be abbreviated. This does
not mean that we spend less effort in determining the equity of a trade,
just that the ability to get you a trade quicker comes from us spending
less time in explaining it.
Does
the RotoUmpire Service resolve disputes other than trades?
Absolutely! The RotoUmpire Service is designed to resolve ANY disputes
in your league. While the majority of problems we deal with involve trades,
other problems regarding rule interpretations or any other issues can
be submitted to the RotoUmpire for a recommendation. Basically, whenever
an important decision needs to be made in your league and you need an
unbiased ruling, we'll be there.
My league
uses some non-standard rules, can the RotoUmpire help with our specific
rules?
When you sign up for our service, we have dozens of settings that you
supply that give us all the information we need to make a ruling for your
customized league rules. Different scoring categories, keeper rules, AL/NL
only leagues, points-based leagues and plenty of other options are available
for your choosing.
Are
contracts and player salaries factored into the recommendations?
Absolutely. All keeper information is considered while we evaluate all
trades. When you sign up for our service, you select a"dump trade
philosophy" that your league wants to use. Based on the "dump
trade philosophy" your league chooses, different deals will be rated
differently.
What
are the different ratings given to each trade recommendation? The following is a general description of the criteria for the ratings each trade
will receive once an incident is submitted. Based on a combination of the rating
given and
the
league
stance on dump trades, the trade will be recommended to Pass or Fail. For example, if a league determines that they want all trades of rating 4
or higher to be passed, any trade that we rate a 4, 5 or 6 will come with a
recommendation that the trade be allowed to stand. If we rate any trade as
a 1, 2 or 3, we will recommend that the trade not be allowed to stand.
The chart below describes how your league's "dump trade philosophy"
factors into our recommendation:
Rating
Description
Who Should Use This Rating?
1
The worst possible trade in terms of equity. There is almost nothing
good to say about this for either the current season or future seasons.
A deal of this level might warrant investigation as collusion.
2
A very bad deal where one team is getting a very large edge.
A league would want to select this rating if they want to allow nearly
every deal to be passed. Selecting this rating will prevent deals that
are only the most lopsided and/or collusional.
3
A bad deal where one team is getting a large edge. 3 and 4 ratings are,
for the average league, the difference between a pass and a fail recommendation.
There is usually a tough sell to make a case for the team getting the short
end of the stick.
A league would want to select this rating if they want to give owners
a lot of leeway to get a steal that might have some impact on league
balance, while curtailing most of the really bad and/or collusional deals.
4
A not-so-good deal where one team is getting a sizeable edge. A trade
rated a 4 usually involves a decent-sized difference, but the return package
for the short end team is not perceived as enough to tip the scales of
league balance too heavily.
A league would want to select this rating if they want to give owners
a little leeway to get a steal that doesn't have a major impact on league
balance, while curtailing most of the really bad and/or collusional deals.
5
A good deal where the sides are relatively equal, but one team is still
getting a slight edge.
A league would want to select this rating if they want to restrict all
but the most fair dump type deals and most non-dump deals.
6
A perfectly even trade. Less than 3% of all deals submitted last season
were deemed perfectly even.
A league would want to select this if they want to restrict almost all
trading, and only let the most equitable deals pass.
Why
are the services considered 'unbiased'?
The RotoUmpire staff has no affiliation with any individual owner in your
league and we have no interest in which team wins your league. No matter
how fair your league commissioner is, some owner will consider his or
her rulings as biased and unfair. That aspect is completely eliminated
by using our services.
Who
are these "experts" that recommend trade solutions?
Our main two experts are Scott Pisani and Robert Burghardt. Each has been
playing rotisserie/fantasy baseball (and football) since 1988. Mr. Pisani
has placed in at least one league in every single season, with the pinnacle
of winning all five leagues he participated in during a single season.
He has been a regular contributor to the TG Fantasy Baseball site, including
a one-year stint as the "Roto-Sherpa", and has had articles
featured on other fantasy sites. Mr. Burghardt is the creator and owner
of the TG Fantasy Baseball web site, which he has run since it was created
as a tiny Geocities site in 1994. Mr. Burghardt has participated in numerous
expert leagues including CBS Sportsline's Writers league, PROFL and Fantasy
Sports R Us National League. Each has turned his 15 years of baseball
experience to the benefit of the RotoUmpire customers.
When
a trade dispute is entered, what kind of response is given?
The recommendations provided are not a simple yes and no answer. We evaluate
the deal thoroughly and provide complete opinions on all players involved
in the deal as well as the thought process involved in reaching a recommendation.
Here's a sample.
How
many trades do you recommend being overturned?
While we don't set a quota or number of trades that we overturn, it has
been our experience that about 2/3 of all deals sent to us are recommended
to stand. That means we recommend that only 1 out of 3 trades sent to
us actually be overturned.
Why
aren't dump Trades in the majors a good justification for dump trades
in fantasy?
Reviewing as many trades as we have over the years, we've heard countless
arguments why a trade should be considered fair. One that comes up from
time to time is the argument that a major league team made a trade of
similar return, perhaps even involving the exact people, and thus it should
be fair.
Despite what may happen in real life, we have a long-standing rule of
thumb when it comes to fantasy baseball - an unproven minor leaguer with
no immediate path to the majors has far less value than an active, contributing
major league player. There's a lot of justification for this school of
thought. Especially considering guys who are several years from the majors,
there is so much that can happen that can lower a players value. He can
get hurt, the major league club could make moves that block his path,
he could get traded into a worse situation, he can simply not acclimate
to higher levels of play, etc.
Why aren't major league teams concerned about this? Well, first off, they
have the luxury of actually controlling the fate of that player they are
acquiring. Of course they can't control injuries - but if they want that
player to make the major leagues, he makes the major leagues - whenever
they want him to. They most often actually have a strategy then can enact
concerning that player when they acquire him that will maximize their
investment. Fantasy teams have no such ability - owners are at the mercy
of the players major league club.
Another justification for major league dump trades is finances. Even these
trades undergo close scrutiny from the ML commissioners office, but profit
and loss is a fact of life for an actual business. The only financial
loss in a Rotisserie league is not winning. There are no actual day to
day business expenses, and not winning is a fact for over 75% of most
league participants. So if a fantasy team dumps a bunch of high salary
players for some cheap players, they get absolutely no guaranteed benefit
back. It's not like they can immediately start turning a profit from the
decreased expenses. Sure, it's a move that could perhaps turn a theoretical
profit a year or two down the line, but there is nothing close to a guarantee
it will be so.
That's not to say that there's never an argument for a dump trade to be
fair in fantasy. We will often consider blue-chip prospects - usually
the consenus top 3 or 4 prospects in the minor leagues, who are relatively
close to the majors - to have value near or at that of a major leauge
player. In some cases, especially if they call up and dominate, higher.
But this exception applies to a very small minority of minor leaguers
in any given season.
The bottom line remains - Only an active, productive major leaguer can
help you win your league. With just about any minor leaguer, there's no
guarantee how active or how productive he will be - and that uncertainty
increases exponentially the further away he is from the bigs. Fantasy
Baseball is a form of gambling, so we don't mind seeing a bit of a gamble
now and then when a trade is made - but far too often we're seeing sure
things for huge risks being exchanged, and more often than not, depending
on the league settings, that will get squashed.
Registration is now available! If you have any questions about this service, please feel free to contact us.