I don't know what a "butte-shapped system of the number of keeps" is ...

And I don't know if you're saying the 5th place team get the first reserve pick and then the seventh reserve pick ... or if you're saying the 5th place team get the first reserve pick and then the 7th place team gets the second reserve pick???

The single most effective salary dump rule: Traded players whose price is less than $15 the next year see their price go up to $15 if they are traded inseason.

It sucks the air out of the hyperventilating over cheap keeps, and sensibility reigns.

Well, we also use butte-shaped system of the number of keeps, and the fifth place team gets first reserve pick, followed by the seventh.

We also have a salary cap for our whole 40 man roster that increases $25 twice during the season as well as a $320 cap on the active roster. Makes it much harder to dump.

I am amazed at how fantasy baseball mirrors life sometimes.

My league has dumping rules, though they are straight-forward. In season soft salary cap. That's it. Number of incredulously stupid trades last year? One at most, and I'm not sure it fit the incredulous category. Of course, it did tip the scales in favor of the ultimate winner.

Dumping rules: legislate to protect the stupid, which I am against; interfere with the free market, which I am also against; and place limitations on how rich the rich can get and how poor the poor can get, which I am also against. On the flip side, the poor can also not get richer, because they cannot benefit from what is perceived to be a bad trade.

Oh, wait, am I talking about Congress or fantasy baseball??!!

I forgot to add one thing to our rules. It's the year they are bought in the auction or through FAAB, or activated from a minor league contract, and then option or extend. There's no free year before the option/extend decision. Eliminating the free year reduces a lot of dump value.

I wonder if just simply adding $5 to every players contract each season would eliminate most dumping?

I guess it also eliminates any value for your minor leaguers at that point.

Our anti-dumping rules are:

1) No trading of minor league prospects
2) In season salary cap of $360 including reserve players (minors, reserve major leaguers, and DL)
3) Only 5 major league keepers per team
4) Only 2 minor league keepers per team
5) Reserve draft 5-12, 4-1; total 4 picks, only two may be non-rookie eligible players

I have played in a league that uses a rule similar to rule 3 (it was anyone over $11!) and we added a clause where you can release the player the following but we subject to paying a penalty in cash of $50 + the players' salary (up to $50 or $100 total). One guy had a $58 Matt Holliday the season after he came back from the AL.

Our anti-dumping rule that has worked is just part:

1) Draft order for following year: 5-12,4 to 1.

2) Salary cap limit in season to 330.

3) We also have a FAAB rule that if you FAAB a player at > 24, he is on a guaranteed contract for the following year.

Rule 3 nerfed a guy who FAABed Westbrook at 26 two seasons ago when he came over and then had to carry him.

Some interesting thoughts. The three year pot made me think of an idea:

Why not limit the amount of money a team can win based on their finish the season before?

Example: 12 team league, pays out 1st - 4th

Under this plan, if you finished 12th in 2011, you can only take home 60% of your winnings in 2012. If you finished 11th in 2011, you can only take home 70% of your 2012 winnings. 10th place can take 80% and 9th place can take 90%. Any team that finishes in the top 8 can get their full winnings.

Say your league has a $500 1st prize. If you finished 12th in 2011 and then won it all in 2012, you'd only win $300. The other $200 that you can't take home gets divided evenly between the top five teams. (I add the 5th place team because this would further reward strong finishes).

What makes this so brilliant is that the more a team carelessly dumps for the next season, the less benefit he would get from it. And the penalties assessed to the bottom 4 teams should insure spirited competition throughout the entire league- top to bottom.

And yea, I just called my own idea brilliant, that's just how I roll.