Tuesday Live Chat Starts Now

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:11 pm

Okay, it's 84 degrees in Las Vegas and I'm sitting in a hotel room in front of a laptop. I'm here to answer any concerns you have about the NFBC or even draft strategy. I've read all of your posts on the 13th league thread and I'll even provide answers to those before they're asked again. But fire away guys.

[ March 16, 2004, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: Greg Ambrosius ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:14 pm

Good, I'll start out: How's your daughter, Greg? Better. She left the hospital this afternoon after three days of being on an IV. She apologized last night for getting sick and I told her not to worry about it, that the guys I'm working with will understand me being out of the office the last two nights.

I think most of you do understand that. At least I hope.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:17 pm

Greg, I've heard the complaints about the mix league draft. See no problems with what your doing. The LV AL auction is another issue. It's pretty hard to figure your values unless you know the size of the league. Can we close this out tonight. Please!

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:17 pm

Greg, any idea when leagues #12 and possibly #13 will be posted for draft order? Are we talking sooner or later or is there some chance it might drag into tomorrow now?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:18 pm

Great, I get to ask another one: What's with Dave Cushard being in the partial leagues? As I just mentioned on the 13th league thread, once we posted all of the NFBC leagues, Dave e-mailed me to tell me he wasn't in any of the leagues. He wondered if he got pushed to the partial league. I was shocked and looked on our sheet and he was listed under the AL Auction League. Dave was the 23rd person overall to sign up for the NFBC and we processed his credit card on Jan. 5. He is on every NFBC list we have, but for some reason he was omitted on the list we used to pick names out of a hat. And that's the honest to God truth.

As I said on the other post, we're not afraid to admit our mistakes and this is definitely one of them. The good news is that the girl who made that mistake was taken to the back of the KP office and shot!!! She won't be making that mistake again.

Seriously, I feel bad about what happened with Dave but we still have two leagues to fill and his name will be thrown in hat with the 29 other team names and he will take his chance on these last two leagues for his draft position.

Cellar Dwellers · Post by **Cellar Dwellers** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:18 pm

We understand, there are things more important than fantasy baseball, not many but family is certainly one.

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:22 pm

Originally posted by Cellar Dwellers:

We understand, there are things more important than fantasy baseball, not many but family is certainly one. How deep into the family... we certainly don't put in-laws or extended family ahead of fantasy sports now do we?

D

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:22 pm

Dave, I was just writing about you. Glad to see you online. I'm sure the weather in Michigan is the same as it is here.

I PROMISE that Leagues 12 and 13 will be posted here before midnight EST. I have 30 names right now and I just have to confirm a few final entries. Rocky left voice messages with a couple of guys, but we have a real nice fit and I'll find someone around here to pick them out of a hat. Maybe I'll go down to the sportsbook and have some unknowing person pick 30 names out.

We will do this right, trust me. And I can HONESTLY say that of our final 30 entrants, there is no group of last minute signups. Allstar Stats helped to recruit one last signup, RotoWire is taking a last signup and we always had the three Chicago Sunday signups and the five New York signups.

nnoy · Post by **nnoy** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:23 pm

Greg, get off the laptop and enjoy Vegas. All of us trust that you guys are running the best league we have ever been in.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:25 pm

I know people want to know how many signups we had on Sunday and whether it was right to extend the deadline one day. Well, I'll take the blame for all of this lateness and you guys being mad about not knowing your draft position for 36 extra hours. But I was in the hospital most of Sunday afternoon and didn't get a chance to return phone calls and e-mails before midnight that night and then I had to leave early yesterday to see my daughter. It was impossible to follow up with everyone and then I flew out of Wisconsin at 8 a.m. today.

So I'll take the blame, but I PROMISE that you will get draft positions by midnight tonight and that will give everyone at least 3 1/2 days to study up on their opponents,their draft positions and more. All will work out.

I've talked to almost every single signup in these last two leagues. We don't have too many of one group, or too many from one city. These are people who don't know each other and we'll randomly insert them over these last two leagues.

Cellar Dwellers · Post by **Cellar Dwellers** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:26 pm

Dyv-"How deep into the family... we certainly don't put in-laws or extended family ahead of fantasy sports now do we?"

We certainly do not!

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:28 pm

So I'll take the blame, but I PROMISE that you will get draft positions by midnight tonight and that will give everyone at least 3 1/2 days to study up on their opponents,their draft positions and more. All will work out.

[/QB]Fair enough - I'll post my bio and favorite teams later as well as favorite strategies and research methodology so people in my league can get caught up on me quickly

Dave

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:29 pm

Walla Walla, I hear you. I thought we had the AL Auction League licked four days ago and then we lost two teams. Thankfully we got one more to reach 10. Plan for at least 11 teams as tomorrow I'll work the phones with our industry guys and hopefully we'll get a 12th. I hate to say this, but I didn't get any requests to join that league today and thus I can't announce anything. If you want me to draw a draft order with the 10 and promise that we'll have at least 11, I can do that. Or we trade Todd Zola back to the AL and get us at 12 and 12 somehow. Any suggestions?

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts about the Auction Leagues. Should we put that at $750 next year or $1,000? It would have smaller prizes, but maybe we'd get more teams then. I'm open to suggestions as again that was just my way of providing another game to play, one that I always thought was as popular as drafts.

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:29 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

I'm sure the weather in Michigan is the same as it is here. I will remember this, by the way...

Snowing, 20 mph winds and about 19 degrees right now.

Don't ask for any weather updates.

Freezing Dyv

Sack · Post by **Sack** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:30 pm

Greg, glad you arrived safely in Las Vegas, appreciate that 84 degrees update as I can only hope to take off on time tomorrow as old man winter gives us a royal send off. More importantly - all the best to your daughter. Glad she is doing better.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:31 pm

Cellar, there's nothing worse than seeing kids hooked up to IVs. My wife said "we gotta move out of Wisconsin as these winters are killers." I couldn't agree with her more, but my blood is Packers' green and gold and that would be impossible for me!!!

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:32 pm

Nathan, you're just saying that because somehow you got the NO. 1 pick in Chicago. You haven't stopped smiling since that was posted, right?

Sack · Post by **Sack** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:33 pm

Greg - about the auctions. Once you participate you are hooked. The Auctions are alot more fun and those that partake will be back. Lowering the prize makes the most sense, a few more would be willing to jump in and a partnership would run less than $400 per team under your new guidelines. Kind of a "warmup" for the BIG CASH on Saturday, the auction leagues should be more affordable. Not that it stopped me this year.

viper · Post by **viper** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:33 pm

Under the assumption this is a generalized question and answer session, does anyone in Vegas have an idea how many are doing a NFBC/WCOFB twosome?

Also, what is the count on auction/main event participants?

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:36 pm

Greg, I'm not worried about the picking order. You know as I the size of the league effects the player pool. That effects the prices you place on each player. So the number in the league is important. As far as the price I don't think thats the issue. AL auctions are the biggest challenge out there. A lot of people are scared of them. Even some of the so called experts!

nnoy · Post by **nnoy** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:36 pm

$1250 seems to be a price point that is a little out of reach for most since there is no “big prize.” However, I doubt there is much elasticity between $750 and $1000. From a psychological perspective an even $1000 sounds like a lot less than $1250. I’d survey the participants at some point as well. My suggestion is lower the price to $1000 next year. Dropping it to $750 will not have much impact and I’m sure below that you’ll lose people if you drop it any more because it loses a certain sense of prestige.

[ March 16, 2004, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: nnoy ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:37 pm

Sack, once we landed in Vegas this lady who was sitting behind me whipped out her cell phone and in her Bawston accent called back home to see how many inches of snow they got. I assumed it was the Bawston area and she was so happy to hear they got 6-10 inches of snow. Yikes!!! Everyone on the plane laughed.

But the key for me is that the weather looks clear everywhere around our three draft sites for the weekend. I feared a huge snowfall somewhere that would result in plane delays or cancellations or more.

Everyone should make it here and into Chicago and New York without any problems.

One more thing: Rocky and Tom have tried to call every single NFBC entrant this week to let them know they MUST be at their draft table 15 minutes before draft time. We are making sure everyone will be there, that nobody has a conflict and that they're there on time. I don't know what more we can do as we're not planning on any replacements.

nnoy · Post by **nnoy** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:38 pm

Never been an A-rod fan until Monday at about 11:30am. My wife thinks I'm on drugs or something, but yes, the feeling of getting the #1 is quite euphoric.

[ March 16, 2004, 07:42 PM: Message edited by: nnoy ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:39 pm

Sack, I have a request for you. Since we added this last league in Las Vegas, I am in need of about two more draft facilitators on Saturday. I was going to work my group at the Trade Conference tomorrow, but if there are any CDM guys who would like to be a draft sticker boy, I'll pay them to work the boards. Let me know via e-mail at ambrosiusg@krause.com. They could make enough money to place a bet and I'd only need them for 4-5 hours. We'll have a TV set outside the draft room so that they can check out the NCAA scores.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:40 pm

Man, I love doing auctions and lowering the fee is what I thought too. I'm searching for $750 or $1,000. I want to provide that for football too and thought I would start at $750 to see if guys would try their luck at that in football, too.

Thanks for the suggestion. I want to do what's right and like you said, with a partner, more guys may "play two" next year.