We are ten days out from the draft. League dues are salaried, board members are signed up, and the Sleeper site has been sorted. Despite my previous promulgation, I will not have the ability to place retired players in the Vampire’s draft queue. However, the Vampire’s draft picks have been manually set for them and they will automatically draft minimal players on draft day. Most are fourth string Miami Dolphins players and the Texans Defense – so don’t fret.
I will send out a Zoom invite 30 minutes before the draft for pre-draft banter and raillery. Exercise vigilance and post station early. Virtual drinks and drollery on me.
Greener eyes may have observed some activity from our league on ESPN. I have proactively fired up our COOP site there in case of emergency, i.e., if this Sleeper experiment doesn’t pan out, I have a backup plan. This is a first class institution; we will maintain continuity of operations.
DRAFT PICKS TRADED
I applied the draft picks that were traded last season in Sleeper.
- Hot Chubb Time Machine traded away his 2022 4th Round Pick to Filthydelphia.
- Lambeau Calrissian traded away his 2022 7th Round Pick to UWLtoDISNEY.
- Hot Chubb Time Machine traded away his 2022 7th Round Pick to Coming Tua America, however, this will be carried over to the 2023 season due to the fact that the trade involves the current Vampire.
FREE AGENTS and WAIVERS
Following the conclusion of the draft, the Vampire will immediately begin to fill their roster with any available free agents not drafted. All non-vampire teams will have less than 24 hours to complete any last minute changes to their rosters. At 7:00pm EDT Thursday, September 1st, all free agent activity stops for the non-vampire teams. The waiver process will be turned off so the Vampire can add/remove player at their discretion for the first five weeks of the season. Following the conclusion of Week 5, waivers will be activated and non-vampire teams will have access to free agents. The Vampire will retain #1 waiver priority each week, or until they achieve their first six wins.
Fair warning: any team caught using the free agent pool during the first five weeks, regardless of roster status, will be fined one lottery entry and the transaction will be automatically reversed by the League Commissioner.
SCHEDULE and PLAYOFFS
The top four draft picks will be the four teams to play the Vampire twice this season. The schedule will be manually set to play those games the fist four and last four weeks of the regular season. Please read and understand the Constitution regarding “protection” options for these four teams.
Only the top eight teams make the playoffs this year. The bottom two teams will still play each week through the playoffs as losing teams get folded in to the consolation bracket.
SCORING
I cleaned up the scoring settings to match our normal setup the last few years. I changed the Sacks to 2 points, versus 3, and I set the Field Goal (FG) points to 0.1 points per FG yard. For example, if your kicker makes a 24-yard FG, you get 2.4 points for it – if they kick a 57-yard FG, you get 5.7 points for it. Easy math.
LITTLE LOMBARDIS
Lastly, I scratched the Little Lombardis AGAIN this year. You guys tell me you have people that want to play, but when I set their league up and sent out invites all I hear are crickets. Not a huge deal this year as we wouldn’t be doing relegation under the Vampire format anyway, but we do miss out on another season of these new players learning our league standards. Oh well…less for me to deal with and manage.
That’s it until draft day. If you have questions or concerns hit me up on the chat board in Sleeper.
The Lombardi Three 