Live Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

[Greg Ambrosius]

Woot woot. Thanks GREG! Just for that, i’ll Sign up for another league today

We'll take the blame here for not having this in place as Tom and I may not have communicated this correctly to the right folks. I'm glad we've got this right now, but the blame falls here.

We do like your idea about pushing the last 20 rounds with a faster clock. We're not sure what the right time period is, but there's no doubt that those last 20 rounds drag on and we all understand why. Let us talk internally if there's something we can do there. We are interested, so thanks for the suggestion.

We all are in favor of making the DC experience the best it can be. Not everyone picks as quickly as some folks would like, but technically we can do some things to spur on the 750 picks. Let's see what else we can do. Thanks all.

[Gekko]

Understood and thanks for listening. There might be some obstacles for you guys to tackle this year; however next year you guys will be in a great position with the platform already established and in place. Please pass on my thank you and congrats to you and your team. Most Everything is trending in the right direction from this customer’s perspective

[Greg Ambrosius]

Understood and thanks for listening. There might be some obstacles for you guys to tackle this year; however next year you guys will be in a great position with the platform already established and in place. Please pass on my thank you and congrats to you and your team. Most Everything is trending in the right direction from this customer’s perspective

Good to hear!! Where's that LIKE button?

Hey, and you haven't even seen the new FAAB features yet. Even if you only do one FAAB league this year, it will save you time. Final tweaks have been added there and we should be able to roll out that software soon.

Okay, talked with IT about your suggestion. We have some thoughts on this. We can certainly change the time for the last 20 rounds manually if requested and technically it's something that could be done in the future. Not for this baseball season, but something we could spell out in the rules and make happen if there's demand for it. Let us keep talking this through and we'll see where it leads us. Thanks again.

[Philippe27]

Understood and thanks for listening. There might be some obstacles for you guys to tackle this year; however next year you guys will be in a great position with the platform already established and in place. Please pass on my thank you and congrats to you and your team. Most Everything is trending in the right direction from this customer’s perspective

Good to hear!! Where's that LIKE button?

Hey, and you haven't even seen the new FAAB features yet. Even if you only do one FAAB league this year, it will save you time. Final tweaks have been added there and we should be able to roll out that software soon.

Okay, talked with IT about your suggestion. We have some thoughts on this. We can certainly change the time for the last 20 rounds manually if requested and technically it's something that could be done in the future. Not for this baseball season, but something we could spell out in the rules and make happen if there's demand for it. Let us keep talking this through and we'll see where it leads us. Thanks again.

I haven't done any DC's this year so not if it's already an option or not but I know personally what slowed down my drafting a little last year was that it wasn't possible to put in a Queue for different picks. For example if I knew I wanted a hitter with my next pick and then a pitcher and I was gonna be away for awhile, I could only queue the hitter and then the draft could get stuck on my next pick until I got back.

I think that's something that could speed up the draft pretty significantly, especially the later rounds when we all have a list but want to avoid getting too many starters in a row etc.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Correct. That is being added now to our football software. The multi-round Ques where you can select different players for each round will be part of our baseball software next season, if not sooner. We're working on it now.

[Darik B]

Ok, all, we are getting REAL close to being able to shoot a screen video on FAAB, showing all the new & enhanced features. I've been fiddling with the (almost)-finished version most of the morning and sent back two small requests to IT guys. Shouldn't take them all that long to implement. My hopes are to be able to post this over the weekend but by Monday at the latest. I'll do my best to be as thorough as possible, both for the long-toothed vets and the newbies that we have in the NFBC family. Undoubtedly, there will be questions afterward (maybe before). We'll do out best to answer each and every one of them, and if we need to do a second or third demo video for visual aid, we most certainly will. Admittedly, it's taken a little longer than we thought, but we really wanted to hit a home run with this and get it right as much as possible the first time. Thank you to all the testers out there. The feedback was beyond priceless. Our goal is the same as yours: make FAAB easier, simpler, and most importantly, less time-consuming. OK, hope to be back shortly with said video.

Just one more item to update today: We had hoped to have a video showing the new FAAB features out this week, but one of our original testers saw a couple of features that would make FAAB even easier to use. We are adding those features now and will shoot the video after we've added these tools. They were great suggestions as we will make sure Ownership Percentage is more prominent on FAAB, we are making sure that a conditional bid can't be higher than the primary bid, and we're improving the conditional bid feature to have the dollar amount change more easily.

Once we have those features finalized we'll test again and make the video. We'll then make available soon after on your team pages. Sorry for the delay, but I think these extra features will help, especially the last one. Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Yeah, give Darik and our IT man John all the credit in the world here if this is exactly what you wanted. Darik is a former NFBC and NFFC player who knows how tough Sundays can be without an improved FAAB system. He's been working hand-in-hand with John on this. John came up with the Watch List and both of these guys have been tweaking the final product this week. Our testers also made some really good suggestions to improve the Conditional Bids feature, so we've been working on those items this week.

A lot of this will be noticed once you have multiple teams. Then you'll see the Search features kick in. But let's get that video out there so that we can all see what it looks like and tweak it even more. The first FAAB of the NFBC season is just 6+ weeks away -- 44 days to be exact -- so let's get this rolling. Thanks all and enjoy.

[Edwards Kings]

44? There is just something about that number....

[Gekko]

GREG - please include eye candy in the video!!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

GREG - please include eye candy in the video!!!

HAAAAA!! Darik is doing it from Minnesota. Not sure how much eye candy is showing in Siberia these days. Everyone in his neck of the woods and my neck of the woods has long underwear on daily followed by double sweaters, a parka, gloves, hats, hand warmers and boots. Not much skin to be seen around these parts!!

Las Vegas can't come soon enough for me.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks to everyone for a great, great weekend of online drafts. You can tell that baseball is picking up because we're starting to fill up more and more drafts each day. It's great to see the Cutlines, Online Championships and even the Draft Champions Express leagues picking up.

And look at all of the new names entering NFBC contests. Obviously we are getting a lot of first-time players in the $50 Draft Champions leagues, but there's a lot of new names in the other contests as well. In fact, on Saturday and Sunday we had 9 Main Event entries and 7 of those weren't in the Main Event last year. NICE!! It's always good to see new players in the contest.

Let's keep it up. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training this week!! Baseball is almost here!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

The one player who seems to be getting a lot of varying opinions about on Twitter and on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio is Rhys Hoskins. He's a player I'm struggling to get a firm grip on as well. Through 107 completed NFBC drafts, his ADP is 48, but he has a range of being drafted anywhere from 31 to 79. That explains why some analysts say his ADP is too rich for their blood, while others feel he's a perfect 4th Round pick with upside.

Someone smarter than me give me some viewpoints and maybe we'll discuss on our High Stakes Fantasy Advantage on Wednesday night. Is Hoskins ready for an even bigger breakout season or are there too many holes in his swing to repeat for a full season this year? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.

[Philippe27]

The one player who seems to be getting a lot of varying opinions about on Twitter and on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio is Rhys Hoskins. He's a player I'm struggling to get a firm grip on as well. Through 107 completed NFBC drafts, his ADP is 48, but he has a range of being drafted anywhere from 31 to 79. That explains why some analysts say his ADP is too rich for their blood, while others feel he's a perfect 4th Round pick with upside.

Someone smarter than me give me some viewpoints and maybe we'll discuss on our High Stakes Fantasy Advantage on Wednesday night. Is Hoskins ready for an even bigger breakout season or are there too many holes in his swing to repeat for a full season this year? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.

I don't think we can expect him to keep up last year's pace but he's a player who dominated at 5 different levels over the past 3 years in almost 2,000 plate appearances. He's a power hitter who's always hit for a good AVG and who never really struggled with strikeouts at any level, those are very rare and I'll gladly take him in the 4th round.

Other power hitters who struggled at times in the majors like Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo had K rates above 25% in the minors. That's not the case for Hoskins so I don't see the same risk for him.

[Money]

On the "My Teams" page would it be possible to list the name of the high stakes events in their title? For instance Diamond, Ultimate or Super? In the overall events with multiple price points possibly the price point could be added as well.

Thanks.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, we have a couple of goodies coming in the next day or two. We have FAAB completely finished and Darik has shot a video that we'll display shortly to show the new features. We hope to get FAAB visible to team owners soon.

You'll like another new feature when we unveil it hopefully tomorrow. We're getting there. Looking forward to unveiling this one.

[Greg Ambrosius]

On the "My Teams" page would it be possible to list the name of the high stakes events in their title? For instance Diamond, Ultimate or Super? In the overall events with multiple price points possibly the price point could be added as well.

Thanks.

Yeah, I see that on your My Teams page. Those need to be identified by contest. No doubt about that. I'll request it.

IT said that will be corrected tomorrow.

[Money]

On the "My Teams" page would it be possible to list the name of the high stakes events in their title? For instance Diamond, Ultimate or Super? In the overall events with multiple price points possibly the price point could be added as well.

Thanks.

Yeah, I see that on your My Teams page. Those need to be identified by contest. No doubt about that. I'll request it.

IT said that will be corrected tomorrow.

Nice. Thank You!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just a note that we just filled our fourth Main Event league in Las Vegas on Second Weekend and we're also closing in on 250 Main Event teams. With a goal of reaching 480 teams, that's a great start. Make sure you secure your teams when you have time because the Main Event is definitely headed toward its 14th straight sellout.

Now let's see Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training and see this damn Hot Stove League start to heat up. It's as cold as a Wisconsin night in early January. C'mon, MLB, let's sign these free agents and get baseball news rolling again.

Thanks all and keep those signups coming in.

[Greg Ambrosius]

One other point today: Kudos to everyone drafting live in the Cutlines and Online Championships so far. As Tom said on the podcast, those are going without a Help call every single night. Last night the 10-team, 42-round Cutline was done in 2 hours without a single Help call. The Online Championships are finishing between 2 hours and 2 hours and 20 minutes. That's fantastic for 12 teams, 30 rounds with $100,000 on the line. Just very good drafts so far.

So again, kudos to everyone using the new software. Things couldn't be going better so far in the nightly live drafts.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, while it's not official yet, things are looking up for SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio to broadcast the New York Ultimate League again this year. We had a great talk today and the ball is rolling in that direction. This is a new hotel for the broadcast, so we just have to finalize everything with the Stewart Hotel, but it's definitely looking good.

Time to make you folks the stars of the fantasy baseball industry for one night!! Enjoy and good luck.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just an FYI that we are closing in on 300 Main Event teams now. Now less than 200 guaranteed spots available. We are getting a lot of signups for the March 26th and 27th Main Event Online leagues as both dates are starting on their third leagues. This year's new schedule is making this an interesting mix for a lot of folks, so don't delay if you want to guarantee a spot in the leagues you want to compete in.

We are shooting for 480 teams again this year, so plan accordingly. Thanks all and good luck.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, we're sitting at 299 Main Event teams. Who wants to reach the magical number of 300 wins?!!! You're automatically in the Hall of Fame when we get 300 wins, right? Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

300+ teams now in the 2018 NFBC Main Event. The countdown begins. Great job everyone this week as we are making a serious push to sell this one out for a 14th straight season. Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today "The Oakland #Athletics and Seattle #Mariners have agreed to open the 2019 season in Japan."

Oh nooooooooooo. Here we go again. Get ready for two games a week before the start of the MLB season. Begin the debate on how we handle those games (I think I know). Oh boy.

[COZ]

According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today "The Oakland #Athletics and Seattle #Mariners have agreed to open the 2019 season in Japan."

Oh nooooooooooo. Here we go again. Get ready for two games a week before the start of the MLB season. Begin the debate on how we handle those games (I think I know). Oh boy.

I think I know too.....

Again, is it ideal the way Major League Baseball does this? No. But it's part of the regular season.

And sure, we could just do away with any game....and if our stats don't match the regular season stats of MLB, so be it. Sure, all can be done. But we choose to reflect MLB regular season stats when we started the NFBC and that's what we're doing now. One way or another, we'd like to keep doing that.

Again, our feeling is that as long as Major League Baseball considers this part of their regular season we believe it should be part of our NFBC regular season.