I’ve been participating and running leagues on Yahoo for almost a decade now, and this has been a problem, especially in regards to baseball, from the beginning. I understood when something like this happened a few years ago, when the fantasy leagues were making their initial transition from paper to the internet, but now there’s no excuse not to have the Reds third starter (!) and fantasy sleeper du jour, Johnny Cueto, available in their player pool. At first, I assumed it was because he had yet to make his major league debut, but that doesn’t appear to be the case because owners were able draft all of the following before the season started: Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, Kosuke Fukudome, and Hiroki Kuroda, all of whom had yet to play in the pros (MLB) prior to this season. Clearly, it’s just an oversight.
What most likely will happen is, after Cueto makes his debut on Thursday, Yahoo will add him (probably on Friday, but it’s no guarantee) to their player pool, at which point, depending on your league’s rules, he will most likely be placed on waivers (the default waiting period is two days), meaning owners will not only have to wait another two days to add him, but (again going by default rules) also have to use their waiver priority to acquire him. As opposed to CBS, where commissioners have the power to create players themselves. So for instance, if you’re in a deep keeper league, and you’ve got a hot tip about a 14 year-old Puerto Rican who’s tearing up his Roberto Clemente league, your league’s commissioner can manually add him to your roster, if you were so inclined (I also promise that will be the first and last time I ever use the phrase “hot tip on a 14 year old”). I’ve never done a league on ESPN.com, so I can’t speak on their rules and features, but I’d be willing to wager a week’s salary that, at absolute minimum, Cueto is available in their player pool.
With that said, I acknowledge that in all likelihood Johnny Cueto probably isn’t going to make or break an owner’s fantasy success this year, but as someone who has ran his fair share of leagues, it’s enough of a pain in the ass trying to come up with a draft time that works for 10-16 working adults, to collect money from the deadbeat owners and to go over rule changes etc, without having to deal with unnecessary headaches, trivial as they may be, like this one.
UPDATE (04/02): Cueto was added to the fantasy pool today. That’s the kind of pull I have.
