IMPORTANT: My Status In The League Moving Forward

[Nationals GM (Preston - Old)]

My Fellow GMs,

As I’m sure you’ve all been able to tell, my availability to run the league this year (beginning last fall with my semester in Barcelona) has declined. While I currently intern this summer and enter my senior year in college faced with job recruitment and/or law school applications, I have determined that it is time to move on from an administrative role with the league.

I’m proud with what we’ve built – it has certainly been a collective effort - and have been encouraged by the current activity in the league, despite my inability to be as hands on as I used to be. We weathered several significant storms in the past, and have emerged stronger as a league. We now have a great group of GMs that seem to recognize that while the league is competitive, it is ultimately about having fun. Naturally, however, teams will come and go as people either lose interest or also have new responsibilities like myself. Likewise, conflicts are inevitable. Unfortunately as new challenges and opportunities arise in my life, I simply do not have the time to afford to give the attention required to continue what is necessary as the commissioner of a 30-team league in managing such challenges.

A lot of responsibility falls upon the commissioner and the staff to remain impartial and compassionate yet strong to make crucial decisions. I like to think that I’ve done a decent enough job with that as we remain in our fourth year with an active league. As mentioned before, though, it is time for me to pass the torch to someone else.

And in many ways it has. Years ago I had the task of monitoring rosters and doing free agency on my own, before Mac joined in a significant capacity. More recently though Pat (Reds) and Mike (Pirates) have done an incredible job at roster and contract monitoring through the audits and spreadsheet, while we’ve had Mike and others step up to complete free agency every week. I believe we have a group on hand already, if interested, to complete a seamless transition the rest of the season to continue the league in the future. While I will be leaving from my administrative role, I will remain in the league with the Nationals and can be consulted when need be with questions or advice. The responsibility to act on issues in the league will reside with the new staff, however.

On that note, I welcome those with access to this thread to open the dialogue on how to proceed. If you are interested in continuing in an administrative capacity and/or seek an even greater role, by all means say so. If not you, then who do you think would make for a strong candidate for such a role? The forum is yours.

- Preston

[Nationals GM (Preston - Old)]

Moving forward, perhaps the best option is to have members announce their candidacy for positions and then holding elections. Should we go with a multi-man panel to run the league? Who will make important decisions regarding discipline? The fairest way is once we have that determined (the admin structure) we can then vote on who we think would be best for specific roles.

Reminder on the tasks of various admin members:

• League recruitment.
  
• Dealing with conflict.
  
• Roster maintenance - spreadsheet work, evaluating Proboards rosters, Fantrax rosters.
  
• Processing free agency, waivers, and trades. Trade Panel reviews trades.
  
• Examining ties on Fantrax.
  
• Proboards maintenance - initiating new members, correcting code to maintain appearance (colored in names in correct format, boards displaying accurate information, etc.)
  
• Miscellaneous other tasks/responsibilities.
  

Given that we remain active and are past a bulk of major tasks that require attention (offseason tasks), I believe this is a great time for the transition, as most people's attention will be tuned to that as opposed to worrying about their rosters. Again, post in this thread your comments and interest in gaining an administrative role in some capacity.

[Nationals GM (Preston - Old)]

An additional idea would be assigning small tasks for many people. Perhaps one individual in charge of waivers, one on trade review, one on free agency (or one on all three? one to cover both waivers and trade review?). Individuals with trade panel responsibilities. Individuals with roster checks/maintenance, etc.

Clearly, holding onto many tasks for as long as I did was a mistake, and I should have delineated responsibilities sooner. I think that while I had the time to have as much control, it was a positive for the league, as things remained organized. But as I lost the time to do all of that, that's where holes started to appear.

I think it could be in the best interest for the league if a lot of people take on a small amount of responsibility. Everybody could have a little power, if they're interested of course, which would only generate interest and accountability.

[Pirates GM (Hollar)]

I'll kick things off here. My team is thoroughly awful and I'm still having a blast in this league, which is a testament to what's going on here. I am willing to take on additional responsibilities to make sure things run smoothly going forward, but I very much agree that this league will be better with some sort of division of duties. A commissioner and an assistant commish seem like necessary roles to handle all the things that come up on a day to day basis here and to help avoid having things degenerate into some sort of Lord of the Flies-based anarchy, but it is probably better if they aren't in charge of all the legwork. Having one person responsible for free agency, one person handling waivers, one handling trades, one for Fantrax checks, one for roster checks and one for the spreadsheet seems fairly reasonable. Essentially a commish and an assistant commish who each take on one of these roles as well, along with four other members who also handle a task apiece. The trade panel can be made up from this group. With clear delineation of duties, the load should not weigh too heavily on anyone, and if someone knows they have a time conflict preventing them from handling their task, they can ask the commish or assistant commish to take care of it for them that week.

Now, let's get everyone else's opinions in here so that we can straighten this out to the best of our collective abilities, and then we can all go back to what baseball season should really be about: Watching Jeff Pearlman hurl unverified PED rumors at every Latino player he can name.

TL;DR - Jeff Pearlman is bad at his job.

[Cubs GM (Beau)]

First, congratulations PB on all the positive life events! It takes a ton of work to run deep leagues and to build 30-teamers is an accomplishment. They are a fantasy baseball unicorn.

Second, I'll be back next year. I commish a deep league myself so cannot take on commissioner duties. I however am on enough where I would be willing to help process and vote on trades or run waivers or something.

Third, I think PB should be permanent Treasurer. The league is built under his name and he remains the most appropriate choice to handle the cash.

[Former Giants GM (Richard)]

I joined this league in 2009 and it was my first experience with the dynasty format. I made some mistakes along the way and my team is in rough shape but I've had a blast and look forward to continuing my rebuild. Congrats and big thanks to you PB for putting this all together and running it as long as you did.

My free time is too limited to take on any league duties but I like the idea of a commish and assistant rounded out with four other members as Mike described.

[Former Twins GM (Robin)]

I'd like to say thanks as well, PB. I haven't been around long enough to appreciate your previous work directly, but the structure and depth of this league is really great. I'm looking forward to seeing how my team develops over the next few year.

As I am invested in the long term health of this league I would volunteer for any of the positions you mentioned except treasurer. I'm all for PB keeping that if he's willing.

My preference would be for some league maintenance position, recruiting has never been my strong suit. Free agency, Waivers, Fantrax or whatever.

[Deleted]

I also TY PB for your hard work. I unfortunately have very little time other then to set my lineups and basicly check in for a minute everyday. I look forward to seeing the direction of this league and hope it becomes stronger as it moves forward!!!

[Rays GM (Donavan)]

I also thank PB for his work in setting-up the league,, managing it for the 4 years (making it stronger in everyday each year).

My 6 kids keep me pretty busy most of the time.

Having said that, I would be happy to complete he free-agency each week. Living in Australia, the Friday midnight cut-off timing works out great (Sat afternoon).i would certainly get to complete FA bids within 8 hours of the cut-off.

I a also happy to still be involved in the trade voting process.

Thanks,
Donavan (Rays)