NFBC Rules Changes For 2014

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a thread take more twists and turns in such a short period of time. From complete disagreement to a rules change to complete agreement, to arguing for it and then arguing against it, a retirement announcement, a Starbucks bash, to even a prize split proposal in a Diamond League!! Amazing first three days of posts.

I think it's told me all I need to know, but carry on. I'm learning more each day.

Baseball is definitely a marathon and you can feel the pain of 26 crazy weeks. I almost feel guilty working on next year's game when you can tell everyone needs a break from baseball, but the show must go on.

[ALL-IN JD]

Greg,

Some people have been suggesting increasing the roster size for Draft Champions to 55 or even 60. I personally do not think they will help all that much as those drafts are done before the season starts. Since the All-Star Break is torture with 4 days of no baseball how about one FAAB during the All Star break for all Draft Champions leagues? Since the injury rate continues to sky rocket it will give teams a chance to grab a few players that might help the rest of the way. Just a thought.


Jeff

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg,

Some people have been suggesting increasing the roster size for Draft Champions to 55 or even 60. I personally do not think they will help all that much as those drafts are done before the season starts. Since the All-Star Break is torture with 4 days of no baseball how about one FAAB during the All Star break for all Draft Champions leagues? Since the injury rate continues to sky rocket it will give teams a chance to grab a few players that might help the rest of the way. Just a thought.


Jeff

Now that's a worthy suggestion. See, there are good ideas out there.

I really don't want to go beyond 50 rounds for a number of reasons, but maybe a one-time add makes sense. All tie-breakers would go from lowest in standing to highest to make things fair. Just a thought, but good suggestion Jeff. I'm not saying we'll do it for sure, but it's a good suggestion.

[DOUGHBOYS]

I suggested this last year and was roundly poo-poo'ed.
It is a good idea.

[ALL-IN JD]

Sorry if I stole your thunder Dan!!

[DOUGHBOYS]

Sorry if I stole your thunder Dan!!

No problem at all!
It is a good idea.

[lrr]

I know this would never be done but it would be interesting if you offered one main event just as it is. And then offer another main event for those more control more strategy types (who are willing to spend more time if necessary) with one pitching change on Friday regardless of whether the pitcher being switched out has pitched. My prediction would be that more people would join the pitching change option. Very hard to please everyone.

[DOUGHBOYS]

I know this would never be done but it would be interesting if you offered one main event just as it is. And then offer another main event for those more control more strategy types (who are willing to spend more time if necessary) with one pitching change on Friday regardless of whether the pitcher being switched out has pitched. My prediction would be that more people would join the pitching change option. Very hard to please everyone.

I think you are correct. More folks would want to play with this rule.
But, it has already been ruled out for this year.

Just one more thought on the current rule being discussed.
Most teams would not have a pitcher on their bench available to take over for a would be Starter who gets hurt/benched/on leave.
So, what if we adjusted that rule to, if a pitcher hasn't pitched by Wednesday instead of Friday.
This would still relieve all concerns about streaming pitchers, since they all start on Mondays and Tuesdays, but still allow for relievers who may not be used those first two nights of the week.
Nah, I've tried, but I'm clutching at straws, this rule probably just won't work....

[Roger Dorn]

Greg,

Some people have been suggesting increasing the roster size for Draft Champions to 55 or even 60. I personally do not think they will help all that much as those drafts are done before the season starts. Since the All-Star Break is torture with 4 days of no baseball how about one FAAB during the All Star break for all Draft Champions leagues? Since the injury rate continues to sky rocket it will give teams a chance to grab a few players that might help the rest of the way. Just a thought.


Jeff

Interesting. Unlimited adds/drops?

[Edwards Kings]

I suggested this last year and was roundly poo-poo'ed.
It is a good idea.

I do not think it is a good idea.

[Edwards Kings]

Greg,

Some people have been suggesting increasing the roster size for Draft Champions to 55 or even 60. I personally do not think they will help all that much as those drafts are done before the season starts. Since the All-Star Break is torture with 4 days of no baseball how about one FAAB during the All Star break for all Draft Champions leagues? Since the injury rate continues to sky rocket it will give teams a chance to grab a few players that might help the rest of the way. Just a thought.


Jeff

Great idea.

[Edwards Kings]

[DOUGHBOYS]

Now THAT was hilarious!

[joshguy]

Greg,

Some people have been suggesting increasing the roster size for Draft Champions to 55 or even 60. I personally do not think they will help all that much as those drafts are done before the season starts. Since the All-Star Break is torture with 4 days of no baseball how about one FAAB during the All Star break for all Draft Champions leagues? Since the injury rate continues to sky rocket it will give teams a chance to grab a few players that might help the rest of the way. Just a thought.


Jeff

I think that defeats the purpose of the league, its a draft champions league. Not draft and 1 FAAB champions league. Ive noticed a lot of the lower teams, not even bothering to change their lineups once June or July roll around. So probably 3 or 4 teams wont even put much thought or effort into it. Then we would probably just have all the teams putting all their money on one guy. For example, Puig wasnt drafted in over 50% of the leagues this year. In the other 50% of leagues, I would guess he would go for $1000 in all the leagues hes not drafted if we do just one FAAB. I probably would just do max bid on all the best available guys and hope that I get one. What fun is that?

If we went to 55 RDs, couldnt we just change the clock to 4 hours after RD 50? Make it go by a little bit faster.

[anpyanks]

Greg,

Some people have been suggesting increasing the roster size for Draft Champions to 55 or even 60. I personally do not think they will help all that much as those drafts are done before the season starts. Since the All-Star Break is torture with 4 days of no baseball how about one FAAB during the All Star break for all Draft Champions leagues? Since the injury rate continues to sky rocket it will give teams a chance to grab a few players that might help the rest of the way. Just a thought.


Jeff

This is a brilliant idea Jeff.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Ok, totally against the rule now.
(Yes, I was always the last to get a joke, and would laugh two days later.)

Roster moves for the proposed rule change could ONLY be made on Friday.
For those on vacation who might do their hitters early in the week, they could not do their pitcher.
It works for a guy like me who is around a computer a lot and for a lot of folks, but don't think its fair to make it manadatory for everybody to check in every Friday.
(I have got to stop thinking about this stupid rule change )
Next!!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Ok, totally against the rule now.
(Yes, I was always the last to get a joke, and would laugh two days later.)

Roster moves for the proposed rule change could ONLY be made on Friday.
For those on vacation who might do their hitters early in the week, they could not do their pitcher.
It works for a guy like me who is around a computer a lot and for a lot of folks, but don't think its fair to make it manadatory for everybody to check in every Friday.
(I have got to stop thinking about this stupid rule change )
Next!!!

Dan, I think you need your own forum to think this through post by post. That might help you.

[TParsons]

I'm indifferent on the pitching rule change as long as the possible scenarios are laid out prior to the season for all that are playing and as long as everybody can make the same moves. The thing that was most absurd about the DL loophole was that not everybody that had the exact same players could make the same moves up until the designated deadline. The deadline was whenever the tech guy got off the crapper in the morning and removed the DL tag. If it's laid out for all, including those that don't visit this forum, I'm fine with it. It feels like the way Greg has laid it out opens up more scenarios, such as placing a DL or minor league player in a slot for flexibility on Friday, than would just allowing a move of any pitcher on Friday regardless of whether having already pitched, as Glenn suggested. If we're going to do it, my opinion is to keep it simple.

I also tend to agree with Money on this being a product of the end of the season. I would love his proposal of eliminating the final week. I know this would never fly, but I would even like to see it taken a step farther by eliminating the final month. It's not because I hate seeing my guys shutdown (although that sucks), but because nothing is more frustrating to me than seeing players make up league points by accumulating stats based not on skill, but on volume and surpassing dormant teams. I know this would happen regardless of whether the season were to end at the end of August or the end of September, however by ending it at the end of August, you are depleting the player pool of all call ups and pitchers that are currently being streamed from week to week. Yes I said it. I know Greg says he doesn't want this to turn into a streaming contest, but with the current set up, the final month of this contest does turn into a streaming contest as owners stream two start pitchers in order to accumulate statistics in order to surpass said dormant teams. In fact, I would go as far as to say it takes far less skill to stream pitchers under the current set up than it would by allowing pitching changes on Fridays throughout the season. By allowing the changes throughout the season you have to be on top of your game for both the ratios and the counting stats all year. You also are very unlikely to be successful by lagging behind in counting stats all year for the sake of your ratios and then streaming the two steppers at the end of the season to surpass the dormant teams as I am seeing here. By the time teams become dormant, it will be too late to catch up with this strategy. Speaking from experience, I'm much more in favor of Friday pitching changes all season long or eliminating the final month of the season. I feel like these options actually reduce the luck involved rather than increase it, as is suggested by the streaming pitchers comments.

[Rainiers]

1) I really like the idea of the rookie once up, always up and available.
2) I'm an ardent anti-streamer, but am OK with the one Friday pitcher substitution for pitchers who have not pitched. I'd even be OK with more than one. For us working West Coasters it would be nice to be able to do this before work on Fridays, because we aren't all home before the games start on the east coast in the afternoon. For example, a 5am PT start time for pitching roster changes would be OK for me, while a 6 am PT start time would be too late for me. The longer the time period for this pitching roster change is open the better and fairer to all players. Ideally rosters would be made available for change from the end of the last game on Thursday untill Fridays first pitch.

[Deadheadz]

From a programming standpoint, I think this would be easiest:

When setting your Fri-Sun rosters, any active pitcher slot currently filled with a pitcher showing the DL tag could be changed to allow any pitcher from your bench as a replacement.

This change doesn't have to be made Friday morning but any time between rosters locking Monday night and rosters locking Friday night...with the condition the player is showing the DL tag.

Manipulators will purposely start DL pitchers Monday in order to keep the slot available for a pitcher they see with 2 starts but only want the 2nd start counting. In essence they're volunteering to take a Zero for the slot Mon-Fri even when the first start might wind up being an unexpected gem. They're also rolling the dice Monday that they'll not lose the 2nd start to DL, rainout or other rotation issues.

I think the manipulators would be playing with fire and get bit in the ass just as much or more than with the current rules. If they are willing to sacrifice IP for perceived "better starts" then let them lie in the bed they made. How long before they realize starting DL pitchers gets them zero stats?

With limited bench slots and managers rarely using all bench slots for pitchers there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for exploitation of such a rule change without hurting your team in other ways. Carry too many pitchers on your bench and have no depth at batting when a hitter goes DL.

I'm okay with pitcher changes for the weekend as long as the only pitcher coming off the active roster has a DL tag.

[Deadheadz]

I'm okay with pitcher changes for the weekend as long as the only pitcher coming off the active roster has a DL tag.

While I just stated that I'm okay with a rule change, it's only to say that if the rule must change this would be the implementation I would most favor.

Let me play Devil's Advocate now...

In another thread Greg wrote:

No on Vickroy. It's called "Make the game easier for me" FAAB bidding. It's not happening here.

So isn't the variety of proposed rule changes to allow a do-over in picking which pitchers will count for your weekly stats the same "Make the game easier for me" kind of thing?

To those who say it's not "fair" that they lose a start when a pitcher gets hurt or bumped or demoted...it sure is fair. We are all taking the same risk when we set our lineups on Monday and we ALL are locked into our decisions. What becomes unfair is when Todd has no ability to make changes for the weekend because none of the pitchers qualify to be replaced but Eric does get to make changes because Dan Straily was demoted in favor of Sonny Gray.

How is that fair?

[/devil's advocate off]

[DOUGHBOYS]

Deadheads-
You may be thinking that it is just Greg that is against vickory.
An overwhelming amount of NFBC'ers do not want it either.

[CASS]

The rules in place are completely fine. if anything what should be done (like football) why are we even playing this last week? How is it any different than football where we end week 16. This would solve all these random scratches and bats sitting issues. End the fantasy season a week or 2 early.

[Gekko]

While Jeff's suggestion of having one FAAB period is interesting, I still like the draft and be done with it format the best. If the average team has 10 dead spots they'd like to replenish, that 150 free agents being picked up at one time. Imagine how much time it will take to populate and/or change the conditional bids. Even if the average team has 5 dead spots, that's still 75 league pickups. Now if an owner has 10 or 20 DC leagues, effort hours go way up.

I vote to bump up the roster sizes from 50 to 55.

[Joe Sambito]

For these DC leagues you were able to get 1,845 teams. With potentially drafting earlier, the advent of the express leagues, the east coast leagues, the west coast leagues, chances are you'll match or exceed that number in 2014. I am not sure I would tweak any of the fundamental rules in the DC-format.