On a recent podcast I heard a fantasy ethics question that was worth discussing.

Last week, in the run up to Labor Day, I was listening to the MLB.com Fantasy 411 podcast, one of the podcasts that I listen to daily, along with ESPN.com’s entertaining Fantasy Focus podcast. Someone emailed in with a question about a situation and wanted to know if what was proposed was unethical.

Since I have addressed fantasy ethics here in trade discussions, I thought this was a good topic. Here was the scenario presented:

Team A is in second place in a head to head league. He wants to play the current sixth place team in the first week of the playoffs. But since he is in second place, he will have to play the current seventh place team, who he incidentally also happened to be playing in the last week of the regular season.

So, he wanted to know if it was “unethical” to rest his entire team and take a zero for the week. (I am not sure how he would do this on an internet based league but that detail wasn’t provided). This would guarantee a victory for the seventh place team, who might be able to overtake the current sixth place team. If this happened, then he would get his matchup against the current sixth place team in week one of the playoffs.

There is nothing against the rules in doing this apparently. His argument was that it wasn’t really that much different than teams playing out the string with minor leaguers, or resting guys for the playoffs in football in week 16 etc.

There must be some pretty shady characters out there. It should be obvious that no justification other than “win at all costs” could be a legitimate basis for doing these shenanigans.

Only short-sightedness and a complete lack of regard for anything other than one’s own fortunes can justify this. Yet, as can plainly be seen, there is no shortage of players trying to “out-lawyer” their league mates, outright collude and baldly cheat if given the chance. Moreover, many players believe that this is OK. In response to one of my columns at The Hardball Times Fantasy Focus blog, someone emailed me to say that anything that is not against the rules is OK, end of discussion.

This attitude is appalling in my opinion. Fantasy baseball should be a fun game, and moves like this take all of the fun out of it. Plus, if you will be in a league with the same owners, it will easily end up to your detriment. Owners will not trade with you, will conspire against you, will actively seek to screw you over should the opportunity arise. It has all happened in my high stakes league this year and likely in many other leagues.

Much like Faust, you are only cheating yourself when you make a deal with the devil. If the owner above did this stunt and won the league, it would only matter to him. No one in his league would give him full credit and it would be tainted. Self-satisfaction would have to be its own reward, unless you think that winning a few hundred dollars is worth the enmity and scorn of your league mates.

There is no reason to take a “win at all costs” attitude in fantasy baseball. It is a fun game generally played for small stakes and bragging rights. What good is it to win by cheating or by unethical means? Like the golfer whose best wood is his pencil, you are only deluding and cheating yourself.

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