Building Through FAAB

[KJ Duke]

Danny Salazar was even dropped in the league. Granted -the leading team didn't add him. In what universe is Danny Salazar dropped? I checked the team suspecting that maybe he punted SP. Nope. Sitting in 2nd to last place with SP in lineup.

He dropped Salazar before he ever pitched a game. The first FAAB run on April 3rd before he threw a pitch. He drafted Salazar as his #2 yet never started him...

My research is done here. I hate to make accusations this severe but I will .....

Kudos to Money for bringing this league to light. i don't have a horse in the race but i want the NFBC to remain strong with integrity. Glad this was caught now...

Stralsome's top 4 drafted pitchers were Archer (4), Salazar (8), Odorizzi (12) and Teheran (15). He dropped all 4 of them but is still starting all SPs. He dropped two of them in April and the next two in May.

[Ichiban]

Thank you to the people who started the research on this thread. Real eye opener that someone was able to do this this obviously for so long. Makes me worry that other people have colluded in more subtle ways and not got caught. I know how hard this all is, but after Greg and Tom do the right thing in this situation, which i think they will, they might want to think of putting more safeguards in place to stop this from happening again. For beginners, no two same last names in the same league, unless it can be proven they are not related. And maybe from June 1 on, someone from NFBC should check the FAAB record of the top ten OA teams. I know policing is not easy, but maybe this shows that more, unfortunately, needs to be done.

[Donacion]

It will be interesting to see how they put the genie back in the bottle if there was collusion. I would guess you would need to suspend league and refund entry fee.

[Money]

Going more closely through the FAAB in this league is very strange. So many bids that end in 0 and 5, unlike any league I have seen. How does Darvish get no backup bid and how does Joey Votto get picked up for $25? I have played in a ton of NFBC leagues and never seen anything like this. Very strange and feels very weird. Adam Jones was dropped, multiple closers dropped, Duvall dropped last week, Betances goes for $6 and no backup bid? Never seen bidding like this.

Sounds fishy as hell to me.

I agree with both of you. I thought I'd put it out there and let others be the judge of it. I think the NFBC should at very least look at this league. Some of these guys were 100% owned prior to being dropped. Is one player feeding all of these players back into the FAAB?

It's probably just a perfect storm, but it is a storm that should be looked at.

This is an unfortunate situation and I feel the need for some reason to explain how it came about.

Last year I used to track what teams had how much money left in the quest for overall championships because we were in the mix. Years ago prior I checked out the top teams rosters to see what they were doing that I wasn't to help me improve. So a few of weeks ago I was doing the same thing and I noticed this team and made some notes.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I am having a conversation with a very close friend who has a couple of $350 team in the OC and his best is about 50th. I told him about this team and what was going on and he looked at the roster and said "Who can beat that team?" He told me I had to say something. I told him they'd crucify me if I started accusing people of things. I decided I'd lay out the facts and let the NFBC and the players draw the same obvious conclusions that I did. I was wrong at first and the responses were very mild. I was astonished until today.

Oaktown and Ya Mule got the ball rolling. I was, its about time! I still wanted to take the high road and give folks the benefit of the doubt, but the NFBC had to investigate. The community here has taken the bull by the horns and this is pretty irrefutable.

They came within 10 weeks of pulling it off. I've had disagreements with some on these boards. I'd rather they win the contest than to have it won in this manner.

The NFBC has to take their time in these uncharted waters. We're talking about the integrity of the game. At very least the entire league has to be thrown out and the overall stats re-run as a 1632 team competition as opposed to a 1644 team contest. As another friend of me stated tonight "I wouldn't even give them their money back."

[Yah Mule]

Joe, I appreciate you calling this to light. I've been busy with renovation projects this summer and barely on the board recently. I dropped by this weekend to have a laugh over Sale's tantrum and saw this thread, but didn't really give it much thought at the time.

I play at the NFBC for a number of reasons, but two of them stand out. First, any time things break right for me and I'm able to win a league - 12 or 15 team - I feel a real sense of accomplishment because I know I'm going against the best roto players around. Second, I trust Greg and Tom to run a square contest. The place I played at prior to this was rife with loopholes in the rules and software and managed by commissioners who didn't know or care about fantasy sports. You had the choice of lowering your own standards of fair play or allowing unethical opponents constant small advantages. I chose to find a better alternative and I've never looked back.

Even at a glance, anybody can see there's no way this could be on the up and up. The complete list of drops and acquisitions Gekko compiled on the other thread, along with the total lack of competitive bids, is just damning. This owner was able to add about ten players that went from rounds 3-8 on draft day and another dozen breakout players. It would raise red flags to see one team collect a quarter of this talent off FAAB. It would cost over $1000 to acquire two or three players the caliber of Votto, Carrasco, Lucroy, Dozier, Martinez or Franco even if you wound up in a league where they somehow hit the wire. It's just preposterous to believe things could happen this way without cooperation. The matching family names and corresponding aliases remove all doubt in my mind.

At a minimum, the league should be stricken and all overall stats recalculated. I would take a hard line on this. There's no way I would issue refunds. I'm frankly insulted that anybody thought such an obvious and hamfisted operation would go undetected by the players here and I resent that they're putting Greg and Tom in this position.

I'm not concerned that it took this long to bring to light. It merely allowed more evidence to accumulate. I think the teams in overall contention down the stretch take some time to examine their opponents rosters, if only to see which players they share and which they can root against in the waning days of the season. That roster - which would have likely featured even more All Stars by late September - would have raised red flags whenever it was finally noticed.

As to whether more subtle forms of assistance (or sabotage) have occurred between players, I suppose some competitors have chosen to debase themselves in this manner. Which is unfortunate, but I don't think it's a widespread problem. An ultra vigilant approach to monitoring player moves would likely present another group of issues.

[Ichiban]

Yah Mule. Good points all around, and thanks for your work on this. I agree Greg and Tom do a great job here, and it is one big reason I like the NFBC so much. But more vigilance is always necessary, and this points out both the need for it and some things that can constructively be done to prevent a occurrence. But I do agree with most of what you said, and again, thanks to you, Oak, Gekko and the others on this thread for helping the contest out and showing pretty much without doubt that something fishy has gone on.

[headhunters]

yikes

[KJ Duke]

Joe, this was good detective work to get the ball rolling and get others on board to take a look.

Also, after seeing this brother-gate debacle and playing the OCS for the first time in several years I agree with your point regarding combining the 350 and 1500 leagues. There seems to be a clear differential in the quality of play between the higher-entry and many of the lower-entry leagues. I don't know the answer for saving the old primetime league, but the decision to combine it with the 350s should be re-assessed ... it just seems very tough for those higher-priced leagues to compete for overall money given the level of FAAB activity I see in the 350s.

[Oaktown]

Danny Salazar was even dropped in the league. Granted -the leading team didn't add him. In what universe is Danny Salazar dropped? I checked the team suspecting that maybe he punted SP. Nope. Sitting in 2nd to last place with SP in lineup.

He dropped Salazar before he ever pitched a game. The first FAAB run on April 3rd before he threw a pitch. He drafted Salazar as his #2 yet never started him...

My research is done here. I hate to make accusations this severe but I will .....

Kudos to Money for bringing this league to light. i don't have a horse in the race but i want the NFBC to remain strong with integrity. Glad this was caught now...

Stralsome's top 4 drafted pitchers were Archer (4), Salazar (8), Odorizzi (12) and Teheran (15). He dropped all 4 of them but is still starting all SPs. He dropped two of them in April and the next two in May.

Wow, that one is especially damning.

[KJ Duke]

I don't how this compares to other leagues, but comparing to my 2 OC leagues...

• Naturalbornkiller added 19 players thru FAAB
• 14 of those 19 were drafted in the 15th round or earlier of his draft
• None of those 14 players were available for pickup in either of my 2 OC leagues
• His avg cost was $35, avg runner-up $7, 6 unopposed

[Greg Ambrosius]

I don't how this compares to other leagues, but comparing to my 2 OC leagues...

• Naturalbornkiller added 19 players thru FAAB
• 14 of those 19 were drafted in the 15th round or earlier of his draft
• None of those 14 players were available for pickup in either of my 2 OC leagues
• His avg cost was $35, avg runner-up $7, 6 unopposed

None of this was normal and thanks to all of you we can clearly see that. Thanks to Joe for digging into this team earlier than we would have. Trust me, we are on this, so let us just get through all that we're working on now and update soon.

Thanks all.

[Ando]

....And should be another reason why alias' are not allowed. If your job, ex-wife, social status, local google'r, et al don't want to see your name playing high stakes fantasy baseball, then I suggest you find a different hobby.

[Deadheadz]

....And should be another reason why alias' are not allowed. If your job, ex-wife, social status, local google'r, et al don't want to see your name playing high stakes fantasy baseball, then I suggest you find a different hobby.

Same goes for profile photos, right?

.

[Sebadiah23]

....And should be another reason why alias' are not allowed. If your job, ex-wife, social status, local google'r, et al don't want to see your name playing high stakes fantasy baseball, then I suggest you find a different hobby.

" No relation."

[TOXIC ASSETS]

I have absolutely no stake in this as I'm not playing NFBC this season.

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Comical that this loser is still struggling to win, even with this crap. No shortstop all week. Can't believe Correa wasn't available, or at least Lindor.