ELIMINATING THE LUCK FACTOR FROM THE NFBC

[TRAIN]

To avoid a lot of the luck, time, and stress about who to put in your lineup for the upcoming week, why not eliminate submitting a starting lineup until after the week is over?

If there were no starting lineups that had to be submitted before the week starts; but only the best stats from my 30 man team that would be submitted as a 23 man starting lineup after the week is over, think how much more enjoyable this game would be.

No more regretting that I had Michael Wacha on my bench when he pitches a near no hitter.

No more regretting that I had Madison Bumgarner in my starting lineup and now they decide to shut him down.

No more regretting that I had benched a pitcher because he was pitching in Colorado and then he pitches a gem there.

No more regretting that I had started Roy Halladay because he had a 2 start week scheduled and is now hurt.

No more regretting that a player I started is now on bereavment, paternal, injury, or any other type of personal leave and I won't get any stats from him.

If I have to be away from the computer on Friday, it's ok because I don't have to worry about submitting hitter changes.

No more spending hours researching batter vs pitcher or pitcher vs team stats from the players already on my team.

Being able to join more leagues because the time to manage teams would be drastically reduced.

The interest in the stats of all 30 of my team players would increase all week instead of mainly being interested in just the 23 members of my team that I submitted as a starting lineup before the week started.

If anyone can think of any more benefits / problems with this type of format, please post what they might be.

[Joe Sambito]

I would not be a fan of this format, atleast not in a Main Event. In a Self-contained Satellite, I'd give it a try but not in a Main. Here is why... there are two aspects to this game, the role of general manager and the role of manager. To excel at this game you need to be great at both. I feel as though you would be eliminating the role of manager. I love the role of manager!

Don't get me wrong, I have had my fair share of "What was I thinking moments!" but that is part of the game. I still recall a start/sit Friday decision were I sat Adam Lind in pitcher Friendly Minnesota only to play Dan Uggla, and his new eyes, in hitter friendly Philly versus pitcher he had 7 career homers against. (Uggla didn't homer, and Lind had a 2hr, 6rbi game...DOH!) This is part of the game, to take that away you are depriving those that like to manage, that work at managing. Just like in poker, the bad beats stay with you longer than the big wins, but I have to think I have made more good start/sit decisions than bad ones.

Draft prep, Draft Day and FAAB Sundays are for GM's. Mondays and Fridays are for Managers. For me I like them both. I like cooking the meal and shopping for the groceries. I don't think this eliminates Luck, it eliminates half the game. And as maddening as that half of the game can be, I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Money]

The nasty word "Collusion" would inevitably appear. Can you imagine down the stretch a team that is out of it decides to start his closers with saves rather than his starters with wins? You could have non competitive teams deciding categories down the stretch that determine the winner of the league and overall. The rational behind those decisions would be quite a debate. To much money on the line to even let a hint of impropriety get in the way. This could never possibly work.

I do wish there was a fair way for the computer to pick our lineups after the fact in the Draft Champion leagues though.

[BK METS]

I wouldn't mind having the DC formatted this way or in some way. With the roto format, its hard to do what we do in the football DC, where the players with the most points are automatically put in your lineup. It would have to be an "after the fact" decision on the owners part, who you want in your lineup (closer with saves, vs SP with No decision, but good WHIP, who would you choose?) Your idea is not ever going to happen in the Main Event or any of the big money leagues, but it is an interesting idea for smaller leagues or the DC.

[Nevadaman]

I like this idea and would be in favor of it in any and all formats as long as I were picking the final lineup and not the computer.

[TRAIN]

I agree Nevadaman. I would definitely want to be the one choosing which 9 pitchers and 14 hitters to submit as my starting lineup. The decision of which 23 players to submit would be very interesting as BK METS has described above. Should I submit the hitter that had 3 SB with a low BAVG. that week, or the hitter that had a high BAVG. and no SB that week?

This format would also eliminate the debate about whether or not to allow pitching changes on Fridays.

As far as Money's concern about collusion, I am sure there were plenty of concerns about collusion when the current format first started as well. Eventually these concerns were addressed and eliminated by Greg and Tom as far as I can tell. I believe they would also be addressed and eliminated in this type of format also.

[Bama]

Wow. Looks a good format for f'n losers.

[BK METS]

Wow. Looks a good format for f'n losers.

Then I suppose you are all for it, then.....

[Greg Ambrosius]

I would not be a fan of this format, atleast not in a Main Event. In a Self-contained Satellite, I'd give it a try but not in a Main. Here is why... there are two aspects to this game, the role of general manager and the role of manager. To excel at this game you need to be great at both. I feel as though you would be eliminating the role of manager. I love the role of manager!

Don't get me wrong, I have had my fair share of "What was I thinking moments!" but that is part of the game. I still recall a start/sit Friday decision were I sat Adam Lind in pitcher Friendly Minnesota only to play Dan Uggla, and his new eyes, in hitter friendly Philly versus pitcher he had 7 career homers against. (Uggla didn't homer, and Lind had a 2hr, 6rbi game...DOH!) This is part of the game, to take that away you are depriving those that like to manage, that work at managing. Just like in poker, the bad beats stay with you longer than the big wins, but I have to think I have made more good start/sit decisions than bad ones.

Draft prep, Draft Day and FAAB Sundays are for GM's. Mondays and Fridays are for Managers. For me I like them both. I like cooking the meal and shopping for the groceries. I don't think this eliminates Luck, it eliminates half the game. And as maddening as that half of the game can be, I wouldn't have it any other way.

This response is SPOT ON and what I think most NFBC owners would say as well. People love to draft AND manage their teams in-season for 26 weeks. Do we always get our in-season decisions correct? Of course not, but it's fun trying. Our Main Events will ALWAYS have this format with tough decisions by you folks, the owners of these teams.

And our Draft Champions format won't change, either. It's been EXTREMELY successful for a number of reasons. Drafting 50 rounds, 750 players is a perfect test of your skills in knowing the player pool for the upcoming season. Plus with no in-season moves it's a fun format with little time involved during the regular season. And then, of course, there are some nice prizes involved at a low price ($150). So we're not changing that.

But I am working on a possible new contest that would involve a "Best Ball" theory. Stay tuned for that. It's possible we won't be able to pull it off for this year, but we'll see. Still, the concept has merit, it would be a good addition to our slate of games and it could have a mass appeal as the original poster stated. It has to be done completely different from our other offerings and give people a reason to add this to their season of fun, not just leave one contest for this one. We're working on that and maybe we'll get it right. We'll see.

But again, we're not changing any of our existing games to make life easier for owners. Still, there might be a way to make a game concept like this work in the NFBC in a way nobody has even thought of yet. We have; now we'll see if it has merit and can be created. Stay tuned.