Possible Waiver Draft Rule Tweak
Option A - The current rule in the DDL is that owners cannot hold extra MLB assets during the waiver draft. A team keeps 20 players and is given 5 waiver picks. Any additional acquired waiver picks disappear - go poof - at cutdown (unless the owner keeps less than 20 players, which has never happened.) The other application of this rule is that if trades occur during the draft a team's waiver picks that are made superfluous similarly disappear and go poof.
Why did I think this was a good rule? Waiver drafts are pretty boring and a bit of a pain to administer. When I first created the DDL rules I had outlined a trade "freeze" that ran for the duration of the waiver draft, so commissioners didn't have to deal with editing a whole whack of exchanged picks on the fly on a spreadsheet. With free-market trading it's easy to get unorganized and miss stuff. Our current rule is not a freeze, but it does but a bit of a damper on trades for the duration of the draft and I do think it makes the whole thing slightly easier to administer. Essentially, whenever there is a trade of MLB talent, I encourage the teams to balance it out with waiver picks or at least inform them that if they don't that waiver asset disappears.
Option B - The other leagues don't make your extra assets disappear. You cut down to 20 players but you can have as many waiver picks as you want and trading for MLB talent during the draft does not immediately affect your waiver picks. You are allowed to use your DL and NA slots during the draft to make additional waiver picks. Your surplus picks only disappear when they come up - if your roster is stuffed and you can't use them.
Why might this be worse? The draft could be a bit longer. It might be a bit less equitable - in the DDL every team leaves the waiver draft with 25 players, and then the waiver roll happens. In the other leagues a team that is lucky enough to have a few DL or NA players, and has acquired extra picks, can leave the draft with more than 25 MLB assets. There seems to be more trading of picks in the other leagues, including while teams are on the clock, which makes the thing a bit harder to facilitate for commissioners. When a pick comes up and an owner is on the clock, there is no need for anybody else to check to see if their roster is full, or wait for them to confirm - if a pick comes up you know the guy on the clock will be making that pick when he comes around.
Why might this be better? Arguably there is more flexibility and would be more activity during the waiver draft. Teams could use the draft to get more specific waiver assets that they want. Commissioners wouldn't have to "police" all the trades during the draft to make sure exchanged assets are equal, etc. Other reasons?
Let me know what you think about Option A and Option B. We might change the rules a bit for next year, if I am convinced.
Not a big deal IMO either way though. Small thing!