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One of the toughest decisions we had to make this year in the NFBC involved the first FAAB period. We have never had an MLB Opening Day with us holding live drafts on that same weekend. Before MLB switched to Wednesday Opening Days, we always held NFBC drafts a week before Opening Day. So if Opening Day was on a Sunday night like it was in 2008, for instance, we actually had our final live drafts 8 days earlier. I know that seems like a long stretch between Draft Day and Opening Day, but that's how we did it back then before we were able to enter draft results live on site.

In the last couple of years, we did host our Second Weekend drafts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Opening Day was on Wednesday. That meant the first FAAB period wasn't until Sunday, after all MLB rosters were finalized.

This year we had a tough decision to make involving FAAB. We had more leagues than ever drafting in February and March and we didn't want to have FAAB for every league on Sunday, April 8th when some teams needed free agent help to fill in for injured players before Opening Day. Once we learned that the MLB season was starting on Sunday night, we had to decide on whether we should delay FAAB for a week or allow FAAB on Sunday, April 1st, one day after our final drafts were held.

We choose April 1st because we felt confident in the fact that we could have all rosters entered on site and that we could catch any corrections there. The hardest part was knowing that MLB 25-man rosters aren't all finalized by 7 am on Sunday and that some players would still be in the free agent pool who would eventually be sent to the minors.

We were at the mercy of MLB teams who officially had their 25-man rosters finalized by Sunday. Our rules state that the free agent pool is final at 7 am ET on Sunday, so no additions or subtractions could be done at that time. In the case of Jose Fernandez, he was named to the Marlins' 25-man roster before Sunday morning and according to our rules he was not eligible to be picked up via free agency until he had at least 1 game in the majors. Thus he was not eligible to be picked up via FAAB.

In the case of the Mets' Zack Wheeler, he remained in the FAAB pool because the Mets did not finalize their 25-man roster before Sunday at 7 am. Every NFBC league had Wheeler in the FAAB pool all week long and he remained there on Sunday because the Mets hadn't officially set their 25-man roster. Some owners did pick him up, but again, he was available in every single league to be bid on.

Going forward, if MLB continues to have Opening Day on Sunday as expected, we will need to make a critical decision on FAAB. Do we continue to have it on the first Sunday of the season or do we delay it until the second Sunday to avoid these type of confusions? It's tough on the back-end of this contest because those rosters are being finalized at different times. But we do know how many teams needed pickups to have legal lineups or at least active players at every position, so delaying it by a week could hurt many teams who drafted earlier than the Second Weekend.

Hopefully this explains the Zack Wheeler pickups which were legal and we'd definitely be interested in your feedback on the first FAAB going forward. There are drawbacks to both timelines and no matter which way we go we're going to have to explain this better within our rules so that there is as little confusion as possible. Thanks for any input or help here and good luck to everyone this season.

I think the current rules work fine. Every year will be different with when MLB starts the season. So will the dates when you schedule Drafting. Everyone including you and Tom are at the mercy of the calender. With so many drafts being held months and weeks in advance of opening day, many Teams will be looking to improve their rosters through FAAB becuase of MLB roster decisions, injuries, etc.

One idea for FAAB is to load every player that was drafted on at least 5? 10? 15? teams regardless of major/minor rsoter status. Basically eliminate the rule of being on a MLB roster, at least until opening day/week.

If nothing changes thats fine too.

I like the current arrangement. Obviously can handle either way. It just becomes another factor to be addressed by the individual owners draft/auction strategy. I would, however, rather have the odd Zach Wheeler than wait a week.