We play by the Ultra rules from the original handbook - you're allowed 15 protects, plus up to 3 players who can be stashed on your ultra list if they've (a) never cracked 140 AB/50 IP, and (b) never been activated in our league. That means stashed on your ultra even if they start the season in the majors, like Cozart, can stay on your ultra roster without taking $'s out of your budget.

Check your rules closely - you may find that this option exists for you as well.

The Ultra thing is weird. Case in point: I'm rooting for Bryce to get demoted. I need his $15 at the auction, and I'd rather have him stashed on reserves to start. He'll earn his keep over the long haul, but probably even this year, methinks. And he'll be a huge bonus if he starts at AAA. So, Bryce, whiff whiff whiff---until, say, April 15.

It's quite different from my home league, using mostly original rules, where if Mike Trout gets demoted I lose him and his $6 tag. Big fly, Mike, big fly!

With Harper limping, my dream scenario (since I don't own him at all) is for him to be on the major league DL until after my drafts meaning that I either get to bid on him or people in each of my drafts have to eat 15 units off of their 260, possibly without knowing if he'll even play in the bigs after he's off the DL.

And, yes, I know this will add to my time in purgatory.

Ah, the days of deep reserve lists. We used to go 18 rounds deep, and we did it the same day as our auction . . . you saw some nodding heads as we got into Round 16.

Now, we go six deep. More stuff available in the FAAB, and more entertainment.

We play 17 man reserve list ultra, and I'm already petitioning to change the utility position to be a "swing" between hitter and pitcher. It seems to me that mid-season, there are always a handful of useful pitchers to be had in FAAB land, but no useful hitters. It does help somewhat that to pick up a player, you have to waive an active player - that leaves a little more in the pool, but it still gets tight already. With 25 Astro actives sucked out of the league, it will get even tighter.

My home NL league already had only 12 teams, so we have 25 active spots, which we can reduce back to 23 next year if we still have 12 teams. (We're also starting from scratch next year.) Reducing from 23 to 21 might be rough, though.

We're kicking someone out of Tout Wars NL next year and going with 12 teams. Drafting 13 roto teams out of 15 ML teams just seems like torture.

In your situation, Texpope, it's a tough call. You could play with NL+Astros until someone decides to drop out.

In a league where everyone is taken, there is no positional scarcity adjustment. In a league where nearly everyone is taken, like regular AL or NL roto leagues, the adjustment is very small and applies only to catchers. You want a $20 catcher and $1 OF rather than a $1 catcher and a $20 outfielder, but not enough to pay $21 for the catcher.

I wrote about adjusting for smaller Roto leagues a few years ago.

I hope this helps.

Speaking of which ... what's the angst level for NL leagues with the Astros departing next year?

We've had very low turnover in my home league - and I have no reason to suspect we'll be losing anyone next year. I guess believers in positional scarcity should already be thinking about the impacts on next year's talent pool?

For all three of us, the bids assume 13 NL teams and 12 AL teams, with standard fantasy league rosters (14 hitters, 9 pitchers) and budgets ($260 per team).

So if your NL league has 12 teams, there will be 23 extra players with bids. (Or more. I always include at least 10 extra $1 hitters and as many as 20 extra $1 pitchers, because, as they say, you never have enough pitching).

For one less team in your NL league, you'll want to pare things down a bit. Some of the $2 players will become $1 players and some of the $1 players will become unemployed. The pricing of the other players isn't much affected at all.