NFBC vs Stats

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:11 pm

I feel for Greg, I really do! I've liked him for the last three years. But I think Stats has been screwing around with the folks from the NFBC for three years. I didn't agree with Greg about the mid week DL rule. But he went with it. You would of thought that stats would go out of thier way to make it work. A top Contest bringing exposure to the Stat site. But no! Stats has still been screwing up worse than ever. For the third year I've had to hear Greg say don't blame Stats it's my fault. After three years I know its Stats fault.

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:17 pm

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

I feel for Greg, I really do! I've liked him for the last three years. But I think Stats has been screwing around with the folks from the NFBC for three years. I didn't agree with Greg about the mid week DL rule. But he went with it. You would of thought that stats would go out of thier way to make it work. A top Contest bringing exposure to the Stat site. But no! Stats has still been screwing up worse than ever. For the third year I've had to hear Greg say don't blame Stats it's my fault. After three years I know its Stats fault.

The only thing I know is I am now scared to fly in to Seatac if they let total morons be air traffic controllers there.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:24 pm

I guess that would be a "I love Stats vote" 1.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:22 am

John, honestly, I've never been one to play the blame game. Good or bad, I've set myself up as the frontman for the NFBC and I should receive the accolades or the blame for everything. It doesn't matter if STATS screwed up or Tom screwed up or Rocky screwed up or I screwed up. Ultimately, I should be the one to take the blame because I'm the one paying everyone to follow the guidelines I set up. Obviously I dropped the ball somewhere on this DL rule as I allowed a misinterpretation to happen. You could blame a number of people (I'll start out with Derrek Lee), but in the end I have to take the fall here.

Internally, we could have done better on Friday. In New York, we could have done better with the electricity situation. In entering the lineups at the start of the season, we could have done better with that. In some of the technical setups on the NFBC web site, we could have done better there. With the Fielder eligibility situation, we could have communicated better there. In the Stardust, we could have asked for better hotel rooms (although you have no idea what I have to pay next March just to secure space on the Strip). In Tampa, we could have done better to fill that third league.

In the end, I take the blame for all of that because again I'm paying people to accomplish all of this perfectly. Yesterday Chest said that he wouldn't recommend the NFBC as glowingly as he did in 2005, which is a disappointment. Again, it's a reflection on me and my staff. STATS is part of our staff and they want this to work to perfection as well. All I can say is that we've never stopped working as hard on this competition as when we first started and our attention to every detail is still as intense as ever, even though you know we're doing more events and more magazines and more trips than we were when we started in 2004.

The key with screwing up is to solve the mixup as fast as possible, be honest with your customers about your mistakes and make sure that same mistake doesn't happen again. STATS has been great about implementing changes we've requested and our customers have requested. I hope Tom and I move quickly on implementing changes that need to be made as well. I live on e-mail, our game site and these Message Boards, so hopefully nothing gets past me.

I don't regret the DL rule as 158 owners made lineup changes on Friday in 35 different leagues that helped their teams. The week before that, 128 teams in 35 leagues made moves that helped their teams. It's a subtle rule change that I will look hard at next year, but will make sure that it's implemented better the rest of this year. Again, it worked perfectly for Ken Griffey, David Newhan, Bartolo Colon and Jeremy Hermida this week, but we dropped the ball on Lee.

The buck stops here. I'll buy the beers when I'm at fault, and you guys can buy them back when you like the product again.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:00 am

As always, very big of you, Greg. This is your baby, and I know that you take it personally when things go bad. I just hope you take it personally when things go well, too!

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:31 am

Chest also said you have a lot of time to get these problems turned around.

I believe you are blind if you do not see the consensus is things have not been up to par. We earned that by paying so much money. So I would assume you agree that at least that is what the consensus is....

I believe we are not loyal if we do not give you all more time to get it fixed. You all have earned that by working so hard and creating a great event.

Hard to tell tone in these things- I am not mad or trying to bash anyone. I am just trying to encourage frank discussion without personalizing anything.

I have said it before IMO this event gets better when every member makes an effort to make it better, offers solutions when they point out problems, and clearly makes a distinction between issues that threaten the overall event and ones that do not.

As a leader in my company I get frustrated when I have to be PC and spend time apologizing when the time would better be served correcting the issue or preventing future problems. Anyone who has met Greg knows he cares- the haters have their pound of flesh lets move on and put D Lee, Fielder to bed.

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:35 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

John, honestly, I've never been one to play the blame game. Good or bad, I've set myself up as the frontman for the NFBC and I should receive the accolades or the blame for everything. It doesn't matter if STATS screwed up or Tom screwed up or Rocky screwed up or I screwed up. Ultimately, I should be the one to take the blame because I'm the one paying everyone to follow the guidelines I set up. Obviously I dropped the ball somewhere on this DL rule as I allowed a misinterpretation to happen. You could blame a number of people (I'll start out with Derrek Lee), but in the end I have to take the fall here.

Internally, we could have done better on Friday. In New York, we could have done better with the electricity situation. In entering the lineups at the start of the season, we could have done better with that. In some of the technical setups on the NFBC web site, we could have done better there. With the Fielder eligibility situation, we could have communicated better there. In the Stardust, we could have asked for better hotel rooms (although you have no idea what I have to pay next March just to secure space on the Strip). In Tampa, we could have done better to fill that third league.

In the end, I take the blame for all of that because again I'm paying people to accomplish all of this perfectly. Yesterday Chest said that he wouldn't recommend the NFBC as glowingly as he did in 2005, which is a disappointment. Again, it's a reflection on me and my staff. STATS is part of our staff and they want this to work to perfection as well. All I can say is that we've never stopped working as hard on this competition as when we first started and our attention to every detail is still as intense as ever, even though you know we're doing more events and more magazines and more trips than we were when we started in 2004.

The key with screwing up is to solve the mixup as fast as possible, be honest with your customers about your mistakes and make sure that same mistake doesn't happen again. STATS has been great about implementing changes we've requested and our customers have requested. I hope Tom and I move quickly on implementing changes that need to be made as well. I live on e-mail, our game site and these Message Boards, so hopefully nothing gets past me.

I don't regret the DL rule as 158 owners made lineup changes on Friday in 35 different leagues that helped their teams. The week before that, 128 teams in 35 leagues made moves that helped their teams. It's a subtle rule change that I will look hard at next year, but will make sure that it's implemented better the rest of this year. Again, it worked perfectly for Ken Griffey, David Newhan, Bartolo Colon and Jeremy Hermida this week, but we dropped the ball on Lee.

The buck stops here. I'll buy the beers when I'm at fault, and you guys can buy them back when you like the product again.

Someone in the state of Washington can learn a lot from reading that...

I learned a long time ago that when coaching an employee the biggest determining factor of whether they will correct mistakes is if they do indeed get the magnitude of the mistake and accept responsility for it. Greg is not our employee but the logic still applies. I predict we have our last major glitch of the year..

Kevin D · Post by **Kevin D** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:12 am

LOL!! Hey Greg cut it Man!! You're Killing ME!!! LOL!!! IT's all Derek Lee's FAULT. LOL!!! Cracked me up!!!!

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:34 am

Originally posted by Kevin D:

LOL!! Hey Greg cut it Man!! You're Killing ME!!! LOL!!! IT's all Derek Lee's FAULT. LOL!!! Cracked me up!!!! Well, the facts are that if he hadn't gotten hurt while I was in Costa Rica visiting our sponsor trying to get more goodies and drinks in the future for you guys ......

Bama · Post by **Bama** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:24 pm

I would hope you would consider doing away with these fri changes next year. for the 10th time

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:21 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

John, honestly, I've never been one to play the blame game. Good or bad, I've set myself up as the frontman for the NFBC and I should receive the accolades or the blame for everything. It doesn't matter if STATS screwed up or Tom screwed up or Rocky screwed up or I screwed up. Ultimately, I should be the one to take the blame because I'm the one paying everyone to follow the guidelines I set up. Obviously I dropped the ball somewhere on this DL rule as I allowed a misinterpretation to happen. You could blame a number of people (I'll start out with Derrek Lee), but in the end I have to take the fall here.

Internally, we could have done better on Friday. In New York, we could have done better with the electricity situation. In entering the lineups at the start of the season, we could have done better with that. In some of the technical setups on the NFBC web site, we could have done better there. With the Fielder eligibility situation, we could have communicated better there. In the Stardust, we could have asked for better hotel rooms (although you have no idea what I have to pay next March just to secure space on the Strip). In Tampa, we could have done better to fill that third league.

In the end, I take the blame for all of that because again I'm paying people to accomplish all of this perfectly. Yesterday Chest said that he wouldn't recommend the NFBC as glowingly as he did in 2005, which is a disappointment. Again, it's a reflection on me and my staff. STATS is part of our staff and they want this to work to perfection as well. All I can say is that we've never stopped working as hard on this competition as when we first started and our attention to every detail is still as intense as ever, even though you know we're doing more events and more magazines and more trips than we were when we started in 2004.

The key with screwing up is to solve the mixup as fast as possible, be honest with your customers about your mistakes and make sure that same mistake doesn't happen again. STATS has been great about implementing changes we've requested and our customers have requested. I hope Tom and I move quickly on implementing changes that need to be made as well. I live on e-mail, our game site and these Message Boards, so hopefully nothing gets past me.

I don't regret the DL rule as 158 owners made lineup changes on Friday in 35 different leagues that helped their teams. The week before that, 128 teams in 35 leagues made moves that helped their teams. It's a subtle rule change that I will look hard at next year, but will make sure that it's implemented better the rest of this year. Again, it worked perfectly for Ken Griffey, David Newhan, Bartolo Colon and Jeremy Hermida this week, but we dropped the ball on Lee.

The buck stops here. I'll buy the beers when I'm at fault, and you guys can buy them back when you like the product again.

Greg, nice to see a stand-up guy, its hard to find people that actually take responsibility for their own actions anymore, much less others. Indeed refreshing. Leave it to a guy from WI

That said, I have asked for the same simple changes to the web site 4 times now, and they've been ignored each time.

p.s. I like the DL rule. I honestly don't understand all the complaining about it. If you're on vacation or busy at work and you miss a DL change ... so what? If you're paying attention, you don't miss it, it helps you out. I haven't seen one credible argument against it aside from a 1-time glitch which sounds like it is fixed.

[ April 26, 2006, 01:25 AM: Message edited by: KJ Duke ]

bowlingfool · Post by **bowlingfool** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:04 pm

Originally posted by KLN:

I would hope you would consider doing away with these fri changes next year. for the 10th time Gotta agree with WallaWalla and KLN on this one. Stats has done a less than stellar job overall. The mid-week roster changes are not necessary and just give Stats one more opportunity to screw things up.

Buster H, Esq. over at Creativesports.com just posted a column addressing this entire ordeal. He breaks is down much more intelligently and eloquently than I have here, as to WHY mid-week roster moves aren't necessary. If I can figure out a way to link to the column, I will.

edit: I think this is it....

http://www.creativesports.com/Staff/Bas ... Broke.aspx

[ April 27, 2006, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: bowlingfool ]

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:58 pm

I agree with that article 100%.

Greg and Tom are awesome...and had good intentions...but with the 162 game season...it was not needed.

~Lance

eddiejag · Post by **eddiejag** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:54 pm

Buster is the man. Meet him in Vegas and had a great time with him and a few other fantasy nuts.

keep up the grat work you do, BUSTER.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 3:05 pm

Buster is OK I guess. Being an Angels fan and all.

Buster · Post by **Buster** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 5:35 am

Buster is OK I guess. Being an Angels fan and all.

Hey, there is nothing wrong with being an Angels' fan. With their lack of hitting, they can finish a game in less than 2 1/2 hours, meaning I get on the road and in traffic quicker. Counting the 30 mile trek each way, I can do a game in less than 6 hours. So, what could possibly be wrong?

Hope you enjoyed the column. I wasn't planning on posting it (for fear of angering Cindy), but I guess someone did.

Buster

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Wed May 03, 2006 5:31 pm

Score one for STATS. They just put a nice improvement in place. You can now look at all team's stats at the same time.

Thx Greg & STATS.

nydownunder · Post by **nydownunder** » Thu May 04, 2006 2:47 am

Now if they could do that 'real time' (the current day's games - 'Live'), then I would be impressed.

[ May 04, 2006, 09:11 AM: Message edited by: nydownunder ]

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Thu May 04, 2006 2:51 am

Why are there more than 330 teams for singular categories such as hr's, sb's, etc?

nydownunder · Post by **nydownunder** » Thu May 04, 2006 3:13 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

Why are there more than 330 teams for singular categories such as hr's, sb's, etc? Good pickup!

cindy · Post by **cindy** » Thu May 04, 2006 5:01 am

I agree, why can we only see our team versus 1 other in the live scoring section. It would save serious time if we were able to see every teams live stats for the night at once. How about it?

Sweeteddieg · Post by **Sweeteddieg** » Thu May 04, 2006 7:00 am

I frequently read this board but rarely post and I feel I have to throw in my opinion on the great stats controversy of '06. I'm in a couple of leagues and I've got to say that STATS service is my least favorite. I understand if the NFBC has a long standing affiliation with them.I think Greg has probably honored that and the relationship has probably benefitted the NFBC in the past but c'mon, no live standings? no live/daily team comparisons? Services I have in all my other leagues and would it be too much to have actual timely player news? (It says something when I have to go on to my other sites just to get relevant news on my NFBC team.)

I'm not here to slam STATS for not providing something they have the capability to do. I'm sure they would provide these options if they could.

I just think it might not be a bad idea to evaluate other stats providers who can provide these services if that is at all an option. It very well may be that the relationship between STATS and the NFBC precludes any such change. If so, I'll continue to play and hope for the best.

Just my 1 1/2 cents.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu May 04, 2006 7:26 am

Originally posted by Sweeteddieg:

I frequently read this board but rarely post and I feel I have to throw in my opinion on the great stats controversy of '06. I'm in a couple of leagues and I've got to say that STATS service is my least favorite. I understand if the NFBC has a long standing affiliation with them.I think Greg has probably honored that and the relationship has probably benefitted the NFBC in the past but c'mon, no live standings? no live/daily team comparisons? Services I have in all my other leagues and would it be too much to have actual timely player news? (It says something when I have to go on to my other sites just to get relevant news on my NFBC team.)

I'm not here to slam STATS for not providing something they have the capability to do. I'm sure they would provide these options if they could.

I just think it might not be a bad idea to evaluate other stats providers who can provide these services if that is at all an option. It very well may be that the relationship between STATS and the NFBC precludes any such change. If so, I'll continue to play and hope for the best.

Just my 1 1/2 cents. We work on a year-to-year basis and renew our contracts at season's end if it makes sense for both companies. I've followed the complaints about stat services for many, many years not only in high-stakes events but just regular leagues and I've learned that no system is perfect in the eyes of every single participant. It's important for the company that we're working with to be hands-on with us and willing to make changes when we request them. So far STATS has been a good partner in my eyes.

I've copied all the changes you've asked for here and sent them to STATS. We'll see what else we can implement. The live standings feature has been brought up many times and I don't think it's available now, but who knows what the future holds. Just keep bringing the suggestions and we'll keep adding them as it makes sense. The posts bashing STATS don't help me as much as the ones that KJ Duke created asking for two simple changes that were then done within a reasonable time.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu May 04, 2006 7:29 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

Why are there more than 330 teams for singular categories such as hr's, sb's, etc? Fixed. Sorry.

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Thu May 04, 2006 7:48 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

Why are there more than 330 teams for singular categories such as hr's, sb's, etc? Fixed. Sorry. [/QUOTE]Greg how about being able to click on the team within the individual standings- I am down 2 k's- would like to click on the team ahead of me and figure out Tom Glavine is the reason why so no worries.