Good News: Free Agent Additions Will Have Timeline

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:04 am

We have worked with STATS to create one more new feature this year that we think will help cut down the amount of time needed each Sunday to set your free agent listings. There were many veteran NFBC players last year who told me they were going to cut down on the number of leagues they play in this year if we couldn't somehow figure out how to make Sundays so time-consuming and cumbersome. The free agent listings we had in the past made it tough to stay on top of the latest additions right up until the FAAB deadline.

The first thing we did to alleviate some of this work was to cut off free agent additions on Sunday morning. We will no longer add free agents right up until the last hour of FAAB bidding. If they aren't on the free agent list by Sunday morning, they won't be there until the following week.

The second addition that I just confirmed with STATS will be creating a timeline of when free agents are added to your FAAB list. This way you will be able to sort free agents by their timeline and get all of the latest additions for that day or week so that you don't miss anyone. This will be similar to player content sites like Rotoworld or Rototimes where the latest news are listed in order of the postings. Our free agent additions will be available that way too so that you can find all of the latest potential pickups within five minutes.

I'm convinced that these two changes will allow you to live a normal life on Sundays and still get your FAAB bids in on time for all the NFBC leagues you enter. I know exactly what it felt like last year as I competed in the NFBC Content Panel League and always felt like I was missing something if I wasn't in front of my computer the last two hours before the FAAB deadline. These two changes should change that feeling.

Hopefully this will allow some folks to add an extra satellite league or two as managing multiple teams will be easier this year than it was in the past. Thanks for the suggestions from our NFBC veterans to make this happen and good luck everyone.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:30 pm

Nice additions, Greg. Now I'll have extra time on Sunday to...well, my wife doesn't really need to know about this now, does she?

Less than Dave · Post by **Less than Dave** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:11 pm

Thank God. I might be able to manage both NFBC teams well this year after all

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:07 am

For the main event and the mix leagues this the single best change I can remember. For AL or NL auction leagues it won't matter as much. Theres not that many players to track.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:16 am

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

For the main event and the mix leagues this the single best change I can remember. For AL or NL auction leagues it won't matter as much. Theres not that many players to track. I honestly agree John. Time is money with our group and to think that many of you spent hours on Sundays tracking new free agents makes me understand and appreciate how hard this became. The last thing I wanted was for this to become a "job" each Sunday. So this should help everyone save time, which is money in the bank.

By the way, Terry Haney and Joe Thelen pounded me to get this done. I listened from the start and was able to get STATS to add this in 2008. Thanks guys for the great idea.

Liquidhippo · Post by **Liquidhippo** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:27 am

Greg, has STATS made any progress on a java based engine for free agent additions? For me, that's the most time consuming aspect of it, as each player addition requires a number of html clicks, each of which requires another full page load. Add 5-6 players to that queue, and then multiply that times the number of teams/leagues it affects and merely one bit of news Sunday morning adds an hour or two of just clicking. In a java based system you can accomplish the same moves in a small fraction of the time. It would save me hours of time every weekend if it were implemented.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:38 am

Originally posted by Liquidhippo:

Greg, has STATS made any progress on a java based engine for free agent additions? For me, that's the most time consuming aspect of it, as each player addition requires a number of html clicks, each of which requires another full page load. Add 5-6 players to that queue, and then multiply that times the number of teams/leagues it affects and merely one bit of news Sunday morning adds an hour or two of just clicking. In a java based system you can accomplish the same moves in a small fraction of the time. It would save me hours of time every weekend if it were implemented. Agree wholeheartedly.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:53 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

quote:Originally posted by Liquidhippo:

Greg, has STATS made any progress on a java based engine for free agent additions? For me, that's the most time consuming aspect of it, as each player addition requires a number of html clicks, each of which requires another full page load. Add 5-6 players to that queue, and then multiply that times the number of teams/leagues it affects and merely one bit of news Sunday morning adds an hour or two of just clicking. In a java based system you can accomplish the same moves in a small fraction of the time. It would save me hours of time every weekend if it were implemented. Agree wholeheartedly. [/QUOTE]DOUBLE AGREE!! if u want the proliferation of owners joining more leagues, that is one of the key bottlenecks that has to be addressed.

ALL-IN JD · Post by **ALL-IN JD** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:04 am

I triple agree. That is without a doubt what make the FAAB process so time consuming.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:47 am

Originally posted by Liquidhippo:

Greg, has STATS made any progress on a java based engine for free agent additions? For me, that's the most time consuming aspect of it, as each player addition requires a number of html clicks, each of which requires another full page load. Add 5-6 players to that queue, and then multiply that times the number of teams/leagues it affects and merely one bit of news Sunday morning adds an hour or two of just clicking. In a java based system you can accomplish the same moves in a small fraction of the time. It would save me hours of time every weekend if it were implemented. I've forwarded to STATS and we'll see if they can do this. Thanks for the suggestion.

ALL-IN JD · Post by **ALL-IN JD** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:48 am

Thanks Greg

Red Sox Nation · Post by **Red Sox Nation** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:34 pm

Originally posted by Liquidhippo:

Greg, has STATS made any progress on a java based engine for free agent additions? For me, that's the most time consuming aspect of it, as each player addition requires a number of html clicks, each of which requires another full page load. Add 5-6 players to that queue, and then multiply that times the number of teams/leagues it affects and merely one bit of news Sunday morning adds an hour or two of just clicking. In a java based system you can accomplish the same moves in a small fraction of the time. It would save me hours of time every weekend if it were implemented. I think we're all in agreement that this would be HUGE!!! The recent changes are great but this would save us the most time by far.

An example of why we need this:

Pickup Thread to drop Calero

Timlin $5

Hansen $4

Lopez $3

Donnelly $2

Corey $2

Kolb $1

Micelli $1

Then all of a sudden a new closer gets the job at 6:50PM (Which has happened before: Remember Turnbow couple years ago??) Now I have to make a brand new thread with Turnbow and add everyone below. Time Consuming to say the least! I always plan ahead with FA pickups throughout the week but Sunday is crucial to tweak bidding and or add/delete.

Even if its not Java we could really use a better system for this.

Thanks Greg

Surrender Dorothy · Post by **Surrender Dorothy** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:20 pm

Greg,

Take a look at the implementation of the draft list ranking functionality at mockdraftcentral.com for a good design pattern that could be used to fix this.

Without a doubt, the FAAB process for NFBC is the *SINGLE* worst aspect. Besides being extremely time-consuming, it is great example of bad usability. In one satellite league last year, I tried for three straight weeks to pick up ryan braun (early in the season), and didn't get him - when nobody else even bid on him! Argh!

RobG · Post by **RobG** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:01 am

I agree with all. A java based drag system of the players would make the process so much easier for some of us on Sunday nights.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:09 am

Bump

Any word from STATS on this, Greg?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:14 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

Bump

Any word from STATS on this, Greg? They are looking into this, but they have told me this would be a major programming change. I'm not a programmer, so I'll have to let them make this call.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:25 am

Thanks Greg, way over my head too.

Lets just hope they can get it done.

Richie · Post by **Richie** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:36 am

As for the Braun issue, I do not think it was a system issue. If Braun was not drafted, he could not be picked up by anyone until he was brought up by the Brewers. He would not be on a free agent list till then. If he was drafted and dropped by that owner, he would be available as a free agent, but there would have been an uproar in your league as everyone would have been trying for him.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:54 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

Thanks Greg, way over my head too.

Lets just hope they can get it done. From STATS today: We are definitely going to look into building a better way of submitting bids, however, it may not be done in Java. I don't know that at this point I can give you an exact date or exact details of how it will work, but we will do something to improve it.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:37 am

THAT is great news, Greg.