"Brace yourselves, fantasy baseball veterans. Following the upcoming 2012 season, we're going to see our first franchise league switch in 15 years, and only the second since the American and National Leagues formed one major league in 1903.
Beginning with the 2013 season, the Houston Astros will switch from the National to American League, giving each major league an identical 15 teams.
Those of you in AL- or NL-only keeper leagues might be familiar with the impact of a player switching leagues, but it's rare that a franchise does it. Ubaldo Jimenez's NL-only owners this past summer can attest; those who played in leagues that do not allow a player's statistics to be carried over when he switches leagues simply lost Jimenez with no compensation in return.
Now league commissioners have to decide what to do when an entire team does it.
What's fortunate about the news is that of the 30 franchises, the Astros' current roster -- from an individual player perspective -- might represent the one with the least wide-reaching impact of a league switch, at least in those keeper leagues where the current rule set requires those players be forfeited.
Counting only currently contracted Astros players, Carlos Lee ranked highest on our 2011 Player Rater, but he finished 120th, the lowest mark for any team's leader. Only three Astros finished among the top 250 (the number of regular, non-DL roster spots in an ESPN standard league): Lee, Mark Melancon (151st) and Wandy Rodriguez (187th). Narrowing the scope to only the NL-only player pool, Lee finished 59th and those aforementioned three were the only Astros to crack the top 100, and only 10 Astros players finished in the top 250, the fewest of any National League team (Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates each had 13).
In an NL-only keeper league, the obvious answer might be to afford the owner of Astros players to void any long-standing contract on that player upon the conclusion of the 2012 season. Make no mistake: Commissioner's discretion becomes important, and such rulings need be made in advance of the 2012 campaign, while there is plenty of time for those affected owners to prepare.
As for how the Astros' departure impacts the structure of NL-only leagues, it's simple mathematics: There will be 25 fewer active players in the talent pool at any given time beginning in 2013. In 13-team NL-only leagues, such as long-standing "experts" leagues like the League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR) or Tout Wars, filling back-end roster spots will become slightly more challenging. We'll see how such leagues will choose to adapt -- if at all -- but it's possible some leagues might shed roster spots, or perhaps even a team entirely."
