We all make mistakes in life. Heaven knows I’ve made some whoopers in my lifetime. As they say, s- -t happens. Same time though, and I’m about to get deep folks so sit down and get ready for it, we’ve become soft. We consistently make excuses, which are consistently accepted at a far too frequent pace. Make a mistake? Own it. Be better the next time. However, that’s just not what the majority of people seem to be doing/thinking in the 21st century. Folks want to be given mulligans or do-overs. I mean, why not give everyone a second chance at everything in life? Where is the role of personal responsibility? Based on the results of a poll I ran Wednesday it’s pretty clear that this line of thinking, that we should all get participation points, has infected the game of fantasy baseball.
I ran a poll on Twitter. Here is the question I asked.
I admit to being completely stunned by the results. Nearly 2,500 votes were case, and the majority of folks thought that the dropped player should be added back to the original owner.
Here are some of the myriad of responses offered by the two camps.
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THE REVERSE THE MOVE CROWD
It’s happened to me before. I pocket dropped Jeimer Candelario, saw it within minutes and had the commish add him back.
Let’s not forget the fun aspect of fantasy. A guy hits a wrong button, immediately notifies the commissioner, clearly it was a mistake. Easy to make mistake when doing transactions on phone.
To me it depends on when it was caught. If they caught it right away, within 5 minutes, they can have them back. Any longer than that, it they are SOL IMO.
Depends on how quickly they notified the league about the “accident” if it was immediately after, then I’m good faith I would say yes.
I was on the app on my phone and set it down for a minute, and my 3 year old picked it up and somehow dropped AJ Pollock in the middle of his hot streak at the beginning of last season.
We have a rule in our league, you can ask for a reverse within 12 hours of the drop if and only if you have not made any other move in that period.
$300 entry fee. We would def add player back if there was an immediate issue. Sometimes the mobile apps have glitches.
Shocked that anyone would vote no. It’s pretty easy to figure out intent – a guy isn’t cutting a player and 90 seconds later sending a panicked email. I wouldn’t want to win a league because someone else accidentally cut a player.
Commissioner must be informed quickly b/c a pocket drop can happen with cell phones. The longer the time after the drop the less likely for mercy
Voted yes. Play for money and it’s happened twice in our league in 15 years. Player was restored both times.
There has to be a statute of limitations to when the drop happens and how quickly they alert the commish/league. like within 10 minutes.
We’ve done yes but with an FAAB penalty. Literally notified a minute after the transaction was recorded and the person intended to drop a different player.
We just had this happen. The guy let us know the second he ‘accidentally’ dropped him. We agreed he should get the player back. If the notice was over 12 hours later, I would have said no way.
Enough shared last names that mistakes happen that way. Last season, dropped Aaron Hicks instead of Jordan Hicks and league annoyingly held me to it.
Would say mulligan but I’m commish of a friends league so we all know each other and this has happened. If it were a public type league of strangers I can see how that would be different.
If your kid goes on your phone and does it then yes.
I think it’s pretty simple…are you playing fantasy baseball professionally, or in a high stakes league? Then no, you don’t get your mistake undone. Are you playing for fun, with friends, for modest money? Then let circumstances dictate, and be reasonable.
I agree with adding him back. How we handle it in our leagues is to send a league wide email out asking no one to add the player and the person who dropped him by accident uses some faab budget to add him back.
Even in my most competitive leagues, if this happened, the guy who insisted the transaction stands would be the one who would be called out. Everyone else is fine with immediately correcting a mistake.
Depends on circumstances, I guess. Last year, my toddler nephew accidentally dropped Chris Sale from my brother’s team while fooling around with the phone haha.
Only if every manager in the league agrees to it. I would be the “bad guy” and vote no.
Case by case basis. If it’s someone obvious like Bryce Harper, of course return him to the team.
About 7 years ago, My 1 year old grabbed my phone from me when I was trying to select a player to drop, when I got it back, I had dropped Pujols (when he was in his prime).
As commish, I say yes of course. Don’t want to be cut throat. I’ve dropped a player in my pocket by accident with the Yahoo app opening and it somehow happened.
Yep but with penalty. Charge’em $10. Accidents stop happening when money involved.
I’m playing for money and definitely would say yes. There’s some sportsmanship involved.
The only way this is an issue is if the person didn’t immediately recognize the mistake and reach out to correct it, or if the person has done it multiple times. If someone is willing to screw a person over an honest mistake, maybe they’re taking a GAME a bit too seriously.
THE TOUGH LUCK CROWD
I haven’t had an “accidental drop” but if they do it’s on them. How do you not know who you’re dropping? It literally asks you before clicking.
In my league, I’m the Commissioner, and I am all about caveat emptore…we don’t give out participation trophies.
If it’s for money, no. No way in hell. There’s no such thing as an “accidental” drop.
I had this happen years ago. We decided that If owners want the responsibility of independently running their rosters they must live with their mistakes.
Every site I play on gives you multiple chances to cancel a transaction. Pay attention people!!
You or the other league members are not responsible for technical errors or execution. Besides the owner could have said “it was an accident” but really just had second thoughts on cutting Mallex. You don’t know.
I think the dropped play should be subject to the waiver wire rules ur league has. The “accidentally” dropped play should be fair game to anyone. Most league programs make you confirm the drop. You drop your lose! Be smarter!
Hell no they dont get the player back. pay attention to your squad and your actions ffs.
The problem is how does one know if it was an accident. I guess if the owner immediately posts on the league page.
Has happened to me and to other owners in leagues ive been a part of in the past. our ruling is that player is fair game for the rest of the league and said manager needs to take more care when modifying their roster. make your bed, sleep in it.
No matter what, owners should be extremely careful and mindful of their drops. Next thing you know, leagues will have to install two-step verification. #payattention
Guy drops a guy by “mistake” you give him a pass? This is a big boy game. Own up to it and move on. Can’t take it back after the fact when guys are putting in waiver claims.
Someone in my league brought up a 1 time exception but I said no. If you made a mistake then that’s on you. Take responsibility and double check your transactions
How do you accidentally drop someone?
Yahoo even gives you a confirmation page before you drop a player. Don’t be dumb if you want to be competitive.
How do you accidently drop a player?
I’ve played in hundreds of leagues over 2 decades. I have never accidentally don’t anything. No sympathy. Be better.
MY THOUGHTS
I’m truly stunned by the results of the poll. With such a huge number of folks voting, I would have to think it’s fairly representative of what the fantasy universe thinks, and that’s just flat out scary to me.
Let’s dive in.
Most commissioner products have some sort of fail-safe built in. By that I mean you have to click on multiple buttons to make a move. You have to say you want to make the move, and then you have to confirm you want to make the move. It’s rare that one button makes any drop move complete. However, even if one button makes the move in your league here’s my main rub… WHY AREN’T YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING?
I can’t tell you how many folks pulled out the violin and creating a sad song – woe is me. This whole thing could be clarified if you did just one simple thing – take a breath. Look at what you are doing. Pay attention to the details of what is happening. Make sure what you are doing is what you want to do. More directly, be present and in the moment. If you look at the screen, be it on your phone/tablet/computer, you can read what it says right? So, read it. Verify what move is being made. Be sure. Make the move. After the fact, if you didn’t bother to verify what you were doing as you were doing it – tough titty. This is where personal accountability needs to be factored in. If you’re just wily-nily doing things without taking a moment to make sure that what you’re doing is actually what you want to do – then tough. You are creating the problem by not being present. You are not making a mistake, you are being lazy or, more likely, you are doing six things at one time and not focusing on any of them.
Most folks said – as long as you realized immediately and let the league know, it should be overturned. My question is – what is immediately? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes? Three hours? Twelve hours? Twenty-four hours? How about you pay attention to what you are doing in the first place, and don’t make the mistake of dropping someone you had no intention of dropping? Instead of needing a Constitution, or league votes to overturn a move, how about we just keep it simple and say – we are all responsible for our actions? When I said something along these lines on Twitter Wednesday the response that frequently came up was yet another stunner in this eye-opening discussion. The excuse as to why they should be given a do-over… People blamed their kids.
This response, repeated over and over, floored me. Talk about a lack of personal accountability. You’re blaming your kids? ‘You must not have kids Ray, you just don’t get it.’ I heard that from multiple folks as well as a retort. Here’s what I have to say to those that said that.
1 – If you let your child use your phone, whatever they do is 100 percent on you. Period.
2 – Lock your phone. The government can’t open an iPhone of a terrorist, but your six year old can get into your phone? The only way they can is if you teach them how to.
3 – ‘But my kids play games on my phone.’ I didn’t have a cell phone until I was in college, and I turned out just fine, as have literally billions of other children. Moreover, for 200,000 years children grew up without cell phones and tablets. Pretty sure your kids don’t need your cell phone to make it through childhood.
#PersonalAccountability
At the very least, if you are going to return the player to the team that “accidently” dropped the player, there has to be some kind of penalty. Loss of FAAB? Loss of wavier-priority? There has to be some penalty, even if you’re going to accept whatever lame excuse is offered (child, pocket phone, etc.).
A final note, and a fair point to address – what happens if the player is left on waivers? What if someone dropped Walker Buehler as an example? As I’ve always maintained, no league should be open waivers that use waiver-wire priority. All leagues should be FAAB based. In a FAAB scenario, everyone in the league would be able to bid whatever they want on WB. That’s a better way to handle any drop, versus the lame-ass open waivers or waiver-wire priority thing. You could also investigate setting up rules for dropping players, though again, this requires more time by the owners in the league. Maybe, no drops of players drafted the first three rounds unless the player is injured? Maybe the top-five rounds? Any player currently ranked in the top-100 overall cannot be dropped? This would create homework for the owners, but perhaps it could help to avoid a truly mistaken drop that could shift the balance of power in the league if owners in the league aren’t paying attention to what they are doing.
Ultimately, you and your leaguemates should use the above discussion to create a plan. That way, if there is a mistake made like this, at least you will have predetermined how best to handle things in your league.
