The Most Charitable Draft
The charitable spirit has always been alive and well in Fantasy Football. Stories of recurring league donations are commonplace. Recently, Fantasy Football generosity has gained even more momentum with the […]
MLB Homerun Derby
A Rule About Draft Randomization
This Draft Order Randomization rule mashes up three of America’s favorite pastimes: fantasy football, gambling, and watching steroid-riddled men crush lobbed-up baseballs deep into left field. The MLB Homerun Derby provides a great opportunity to use an outside event to determine the draft order for the upcoming season. The widely televised event gives league members a chance to watch the drama unfold before their very eyes. We can’t think of a better way to enjoy the MLB All-Star break than to co-opt it to kick off the fantasy football season.
How It Works
Similar to our Horse Race Draft rule, the MLB Homerun Derby Draft pairs each league owner with a participant and the draft order is determined by where that participant finishes in the competition. In the case of the MLB Homerun Derby Draft, names of the sluggers are drawn from a hat and paired with each league owner. The head to head format of the Homerun Derby adds an exciting element as league owners are competing directly with another owner during each Derby round. A good tiebreaker to consider before the Homerun Derby begins, is to have each owner predict the distance of the longest homerun hit that night without going over.
The Homerun Derby is limited to 8 players which may have you asking how this will work with your 10 or 12 owner fantasy leagues. A common remedy is to double up two owners on a single batter, however you see fit. One example would be to place the bottom two finishers on the same batter, or pair up arch-nemeses in the league for some additional personal entertainment as Commisioner. To determine who gets the higher pick between the doubled owners, the owner who was closest to correctly guessing the longest homerun gets the higher pick.
As the Derby plays out, the owners eliminated in the first round will be ranked based on the number of homeruns their player hit. If there is a tie, determine which owner gets the higher pick based on the longest home run prediction at the end of the Derby. In the second and third rounds, the players eliminated should be ranked based on the total number of homeruns their player hit throughout the whole Derby.
Nuts and Bolts
- First, If your league has more than 8 owners, determine how you will double up owners on batters.
- Once owners are paired together as you choose, draw names of owners and batters from two separate hats.
- Prior to the beginning of the Derby, have each owner make a prediction on the distance of the longest homerun that will be hit throughout the Derby.
- After the first round, the owners who have been eliminated from the competition are ranked based on the number of homeruns hit by their matched batter. Tiebreakers may come into play.
- In the second and third round, the eliminated owners are ranked based on how many homeruns their batter has hit throughout the entire Derby. Tiebreakers may come into play.
- Any doubled up owners should be sorted based on their predictions of the longest homerun of the derby. Example: a doubled up set of owners have a batter who finished fourth in the standings. The owner who guessed closest to the longest homerun gets the fourth draft pick while the other owner get the fifth draft pick. All other owners lower in the standings get bumped down one spot as a result.
Change Ups
This rule is easily transferable to any other competition where participants are eliminated on a round-by-round basis….like watching an entire season of Survivor, you’ve got time for that, right? The change ups for this randomization rule mostly involve how you double up owners on batters. Here are some options: Closest birthdays, inter-league relationships, bottom dwellers (two lowest finishes previous year), or literally any way you’d like.
Related Rules
March Madness Draft
We here at MyCommishRules.com think that the best time of the year – outside of the fantasy football season, of course – is March Madness. With the thrill of rooting […]
Beer Pong Draft
Throwing it back to the ol’ College Days, the Beer Pong Draft rule is exactly what you think it is. Get all the boys back together in someone’s dirty basement […]
Pick Picks
Finding out your draft order can be like opening up a Christmas gift from your great-grandmother. You can never be too sure what you’ll get but it is likely you’ll […]