NFBC Message Boards

Looking forward to the NFBC. I know how good the NFFC is and have to assume things here are run just as well. Looking forward to the day to day fun (and agony) fantasy baseball can bring. Trying to read up on the rules given the fact I am a bit behind the game in understanding how the game is played here. Still trying to figure out how to stretch 1000 Faab dolllars for 20something weeks when I struggle to do it for 10 weeks in the NFFC!

One question that maybe someone can answer. I am sure it is in the rules somewhere but I must be missing it. Can we draft players in the minors who are not on active MLB rosters or is that a no no? It looks like we can roster 7 bench players so I am wondering if they are allowed to be a player in the minors or not.

Any other tips on the gaming format (certainly no seeking tips on players!) would be welcomed...

Ps. Someone else told me to draft closers exclusively for the first 4 rounds. I appreciated that advice!

You can draft a player in the minors....but any player in the minors who isn't drafted will not be in the free agent pool until they are called up (I believe)

Correct on both fellas. In addition if you draft a player in the minors then cut him week 1. He remains in your player pool and can be picked up prior to him returning to the bigs. If he is good enough to be drafted, then he is good enough to remain in the player pool.

I appreciate the replies guys. Nice to see some good culture here and sportsmanship. Based on what Joe is saying there might be some strategy to taking a touted player who was sent to the minors, cut him week one, and have the ability to pick him up later, before he gets a call up, where other owners in my league will not YET have access to him?

Driver Love wrote:I appreciate the replies guys. Nice to see some good culture here and sportsmanship. Based on what Joe is saying there might be some strategy to taking a touted player who was sent to the minors, cut him week one, and have the ability to pick him up later, before he gets a call up, where other owners in my league will not YET have access to him?

No. Any player in the FA pool for your league is available to all owners in your league.

As to advice, read, listen, assimilate all you care, but in the end, draft and manage how YOU would, not how you think others (even veterans) would. Also, as with the NFFC, remember you are playing two competitions in one (against your league and against 419 others in the Main). But don't worry about the 419 others. Most of them are just pig farmers.

Once you cut a player he goes back into the FA player pool and can be acquired by anyone via the FAAB bid process.I am not aware of any process that lets you "protect" a player, unless you keep him stashed on your 7 player bench.Once he's cut he becomes fair game for the highest bidder. Any minors player that is not drafted onto an NFBC roster can not be bid on until they are brought up and placed on an MLB roster.

Thanks guys. I think I may have read that previous post wrong when the poster said "once you gut a player you drafted in the minors he stays in YOUR player pool..." I assume he is in the entire leagues player pool and not just the team who drafted and cut him.

The feedback is helpful. I will certainly draft the players I like and make my own decisions and evaluations. I can say one of the bigger things that can stand in the way of joining a high level baseball league is the feeling you are behind the other league owners in knowledge about the unique rules of the league. Or behind in the trends that the league generally follows... ie, is it an event where people are aggressive with starting pitchers? Or do they attack HR/RBI guys aggressively. For instance, A newcomer to the NFFC might come in with the traditional "take RB's heavy early" approach" not knowing how fast WR's and even QB's fly off the board in that event.

Not having an idea of how players are bid on or how lineups are set up week to week feels like a mild disadvantage versus owners who have been through it numerous times and know certain tricks. I know it is all part of the learning process. However, anything to do with actual player evaluation and decisions, not only would I never ask for help, I wouldn't want any... though I will say I respect all pig farmers!

Driver Love wrote: I can say one of the bigger things that can stand in the way of joining a high level baseball league is the feeling you are behind the other league owners in knowledge about the unique rules of the league. Or behind in the trends that the league generally follows... ie, is it an event where people are aggressive with starting pitchers? Or do they attack HR/RBI guys aggressively.

It is clear you are going to do very well because you know the questions to ask. I have been doing the main event since inception without fail (though I typically fail) and I can tell you the million dollar question is always how will the draft break...pitcher runs, power runs, closer runs, catcher runs, speed runs...and the answer is we never know. ADP's are fine, but as Shawn wrote as he answered a question of mine from his website, one or two guys who value pitching highly can change the whole dynamic of the draft/auction. Same with all aspects. In short, each and every league is it's own animal. The only solutions are:

1) Be prepared.
2) Be flexible.
3) Beware pig farmers.

1) Have a plan

2) Execute

3) Don't get caught watching the paint dry

4) Watch out for falling value

Well, unfortunately I will not be overly prepared. At least compared to in the past when I was into fantasy baseball. This was a last second thing and I am struggling to find time to dedicate to player evaluation on the level I would like. What I used to be able to count on (in the past) was being able to make sound decisions in mid draft as things are happening and changing that you never could have prepared for. The key for me is to have useful info available for me to quickly go through to make quick decisions.

Where I was hoping to get info (at least here) is with unique league rule things like how faab works in baseball (never did it). Or if I read the rules properly it looks like a weekly lineup is set Monday, but then Friday you can move players from your bench to the active lineup for the weekend games. I am curious as to how most winning teams set up their pitching staff. 6 starters? Five? Seven? With the season being so long I have to imagine there are lots of little $1 moves made throughout the season. Stuff like that, that has nothing to do with player evaluation, intrigues me.

With my love for ham and bacon, I find myself strangely appreciative of the efforts of pig farmers.

Driver Love wrote:Where I was hoping to get info (at least here) is with unique league rule things like how faab works in baseball (never did it). Or if I read the rules properly it looks like a weekly lineup is set Monday, but then Friday you can move players from your bench to the active lineup for the weekend games. I am curious as to how most winning teams set up their pitching staff. 6 starters? Five? Seven? With the season being so long I have to imagine there are lots of little $1 moves made throughout the season. Stuff like that, that has nothing to do with player evaluation, intrigues me.

You probably got the mechanics on how to do FA bidding from the rules. If you have any questions on the mechanics, I would reach out directly to Greg or Tom. As to general trends, most of the FA dollars seem to be spent while they can do the most good, which is earlier in the season. Some people like to have around $50 left for the last month. Me, I like to have about $100, but as always, it depends on who becomes available and what are the needs of my team at the time. Closers are the position that turn over most frequently in baseball and closer bids at times have approached lottery proportion. And there is always the hot bat that shows up. I am a fairly conservative bidder myself (i.e. I will not throw a bid that is 20% of my FA dollars at the Baltimore closer-du-jour), but also last year I wanted Hosmer when he came available and I won him with something like a $411 bid. You are right that there are more $1 and $2 winning bids and most weeks on most players there is only one bid on a player. I will leave others to give you their impressions as to what is the "norm" as well.

As to the make up of your staff, there is no one answer. The all reliever strategy is not valid here because of the minimum innings requirement. I would say MOST have at least six starters. Most try to leverage as many starts as possible with a swing position or two (i.e. try to pick up a pitcher with two starts in the future). Most go with two closers, but to really get the necessary points for closers (unless you ditch saves, which some do) typically you need 2.5 closers worth of stats over the course of the year, which means sometimes your line-up will contain three closers (if you have a third) and sometimes only two. Some do use the set-up type guy as their ninth man, but in my personal experience, not many. You can seem to get away with six starters if all yours get at least a strike out in 75% of their innings pitched, but over the last couple of years, the number we need to get the points we want (say 80% of available strike-out points), you need to finish the year with around 1,300 k's, which is very tough to do with only six starters. Many (including myself) try to have a core four or five starters they run out every week, no matter the match-ups, and rotate (via FA pool or reserve roster) the others based on quality of potential start(s) and availability. Not many answers so once again, it is kind of like choose your poison.

One more general impression. For Wins and K's, the closer you get to averaging 10 starts a week, the better your chance of hitting your targets for those counting stats. The very best starters will win around 45% of their starts and most of the rest around 35% (please accept these numbers as give or take a few percentage points). So if you average a win (toughest counting stat to plan for of all of them) on 40 % of your starts, you need at least 260 starts over the year to get close to the 100 or so wins that should get you 80% of available points in that category. Your closers will pick up a few and help bridge the gap.

One more proviso. I am a CPA and therefore percentages and numbers are my thing (though by no stretch of the imagination am I in the same league as the master, Todd Zola ). Not everyone looks at these things as I do, so if you are not one of the anal retentive types like me, don't think you are behind or something. Everyone looks at these things a little differently and even I am not sure what the color of the sky is in my world!

Edward,

Can't thank you enough for the friendly messages and feedback. I personally am not a big numbers guy believe it or not. I am more into evaluating players and their playing circumstances and aside from that I do have personal fantasy baseball philosophies that I adhere to having had success in the past with them. But I never got into what % of my $ (I used to play auctions) needed to be dedicated to pitching or batting. I never looked at how many innings I needed (aside from getting over what is required). Your info it very interesting.

It looks to me that making free agent moves week to week for individual, back of the rotation starting pitchers who may be scheduled to get 2 starts in a specific week can be an important part of this game the way it is played here. I really appreciate your thoughts and feedback. Great sportsmanship!