What Is Needed To Save Time On FAAB?

[Greg Ambrosius]

We realize that one of the most time-consuming and at times frustrating areas of fantasy baseball is the free agent process. It's a 26-week grind of picking up players and constantly improving your teams. Some owners actually take less teams from year to year because of FAAB and recently we've seen how our Draft Champions format has grown at a higher rate than other games because it doesn't have any in-season FAAB.

But rather than have all games become DCs or Best Ball games, we need to find even more ways to make FAAB easier in baseball and all of our sports. If we can make FAAB easier, if we can make Sundays more comfortable, if we can allow you to do FAAB on more devices, maybe there is a way to grow all of these contests. So let's do it together.

I know we've asked for input before and we have made some changes recently to improve the process. But give us the next steps that would save you time each week and let's see if we can't make this happen. If we can save you time then we know we can grow these contests together. I'll keep a concise list here and see what we can do. Thanks all.

[KJ Duke]

1. Be able to move first player in thread down in bid list, same as all other players

2. One-click movement instead of drop-down menus. All positions should be links rather than on a list of drop-down menus. Same goes for clicking "all" or "tracked" players, and switching stat time-frames. Make them all links at the top of the page.

3. Get rid of the clown-sized banners at the top of every page - it literally takes up 50% of the page view - so we can see more data and players without constant scrolling.

4. Have a small "Bid" icon to the left of player names as opposed to "place bid" on the far right where your eye has to travel across the width of the screen to line-up the player with the link.

5. Faster-loading pages. RTSports FAAB pages are lightening fast - you can click from position to position and re-sort on columns way faster than it takes to do that on STATS pages.

[Quahogs]

What KJ said

Also have DL be a check choice also. It would be nice to see JUST the DL players or NO DL players.

[low talkers]

#1 from KJ's list is a huge deal to me. If you fix just that, FAAB is improved 100% for me. When you have a list of bids with 10 players, and you want to move the 2nd player to the top of the list, you have to delete all and start from scratch adding back bids for all 10 players.

[KJ Duke]

#1 from KJ's list is a huge deal to me. If you fix just that, FAAB is improved 100% for me. When you have a list of bids with 10 players, and you want to move the 2nd player to the top of the list, you have to delete all and start from scratch adding back bids for all 10 players.

Dave, you can edit the first two players in the list without deleting the whole thread, but it takes a bunch of clicks and scrolling to accomplish whereas it would take 2 seconds with the move down option.

[Fourslot40]

#1 from KJ's list is a huge deal to me. If you fix just that, FAAB is improved 100% for me. When you have a list of bids with 10 players, and you want to move the 2nd player to the top of the list, you have to delete all and start from scratch adding back bids for all 10 players.

If you select "edit add" next to the lead player, you can switch the lead player with anyone to avoid deleting the entire list. Saves a ton of time.

[fwicker]

Drag/Drop/Resequence is functionality I've seen on some site's default draft lists that would seem to help here. You click on a player or cell and drag up or down and it resequences the list, all in one movement. Your IT guys would know how to implement in Java, C or whatever they use.

[Money]

A lot of good suggestions here. I'd also like to see the same screen that I just came from when I hit the previous screen (back) button. Right now the default page is for the Pitchers. If you decide to look at OF's and go to a player page from the list and then hit the back button you get pitchers again and not the outfielders even though OF is still listed in the box.

Make sense?

[Rog]

when clicking on a players name have it open in a separate window (I know you can right click and choose open in separate window option). But I usually forget when I am in a hurry.
when you click on a player and then go back to the main screen it resets your player lists and usually takes you back to the pitcher screen.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Our rosters should have benched players separated by positions. If a multi-positioned player, put him in the position played most.
Alphabetical names is of little help, especially for the 50 rounders.

With a later FAAB deadline, it would help if the wait on results was cut from 30-40 minutes to 5-10 minutes.
This would assist us in getting our preliminary lineups 'in the books' before going to bed.

When selecting our positions in FAAB, we shouldn't have to click on 'Submit', it should just take us to that position.
Submit is just a useless click.

Far and away, the worst problem is not easily changing the lead player of a thread. Maddening.

[Spartacus]

A sort by 'Team' option would be helpful for those of us with short term memory issues. Too often on Sundays, I forget, though it's on the tip of my tongue, the name of the player called up to replace an injured or demoted player earlier in the week. Funny, that I always remember the circumstance and team he's on, but struggle with the name. This option would be faster than having to run to Rotowire to look him up and cheaper than going on medication.

A sorting by eligible free agents from, say, 25 man rosters vs. eligible others might be good too. Addressing near term vs.long term needs/strategies. The shorter the lists the faster and more accurately you can scan them. Too many names (particularly pitchers) become a blur and the more teams you have the worse it gets throughout the day. Too often resulting in the results page lament: "Oh damn, how did I miss this guy on the free agent list ?????" I'm in favor of the DL category as well for that reason. The more we can fine tune the available player pool the better for player and NFBC

[Greg Ambrosius]

These are all helpful and we'll compile them into one list by next week. I remember one other request was a Bid On Player link from the free agent list. Is that still needed? How about a smartphone: Can we do more there?

Thanks for the help here. All good suggestions.

[coldwater coyotes]

Each Sunday there are about 10-20 players that I am particularly interested in. These would include 2 start pitchers, potential new closers and promising call ups. It would be very useful if, after I have ticked them in the Track column in one team, that they would automatically be tracked, if available, in my teams in other leagues.

[Money]

Each Sunday there are about 10-20 players that I am particularly interested in. These would include 2 start pitchers, potential new closers and promising call ups. It would be very useful if, after I have ticked them in the Track column in one team, that they would automatically be tracked, if available, in my teams in other leagues.

This is a Great Suggestion!! I would put this at the top of my wish list.

[whale4evr]

A search box would be nice as well. Type in the player's name and it appears on top of the list of free agents or on a separate screen, then just click on it and bid. Saves a lot of scrolling when you know who you're looking for.

[la Jolla]

My suggestion is most likely only applicable to non-overall contest leagues, but I'll throw it out there.

When I bid on free agents I'm doing so in two different approaches. One is to bid on the hot AAA call-up, or injury replacement, or new closer. These are where multiple owners target similar players each week that they "want" and just have to decide how much to spend to try and win the bid. This part of FAAB is pretty easy and doesn't take much time. The second component is where I have a suggestion. These would be the players that you do not necessarily "want," but rather "need." We are all faced with weekly situations where your middle infielder goes down or you need a 9th pitcher, and this is where the time to put in tons of contingency bids drags. You have to make sure that you get someone to fill that roster spot for the coming week.

My idea:

1- continue to have the current FAAB process

2- once the deadline lapses for FAAB, run the bids, add the players that were won, and then open up free agency again for another 30 minutes. During this time allow any owner to add any of the remaining free agents that were not bid on for $1. You could make any players in the Sunday night game off limits if there are concerns over an injury happening there and someone scooping up a key player.

I make this suggestion fully aware that the most likely counter against it will be that all 15 owners will not be able to be online at the deadline, and I understand that point, but maybe if someone can't be on at that time, they make the normal bids for the "need" players and get them that way.

I am all for any idea that shortens the time needed for FAAB. It's by far the greatest headwind I face when deciding how many leagues to enter.

[DOUGHBOYS]

My suggestion is most likely only applicable to non-overall contest leagues, but I'll throw it out there.

When I bid on free agents I'm doing so in two different approaches. One is to bid on the hot AAA call-up, or injury replacement, or new closer. These are where multiple owners target similar players each week that they "want" and just have to decide how much to spend to try and win the bid. This part of FAAB is pretty easy and doesn't take much time. The second component is where I have a suggestion. These would be the players that you do not necessarily "want," but rather "need." We are all faced with weekly situations where your middle infielder goes down or you need a 9th pitcher, and this is where the time to put in tons of contingency bids drags. You have to make sure that you get someone to fill that roster spot for the coming week.

My idea:

1- continue to have the current FAAB process

2- once the deadline lapses for FAAB, run the bids, add the players that were won, and then open up free agency again for another 30 minutes. During this time allow any owner to add any of the remaining free agents that were not bid on for $1. You could make any players in the Sunday night game off limits if there are concerns over an injury happening there and someone scooping up a key player.

I make this suggestion fully aware that the most likely counter against it will be that all 15 owners will not be able to be online at the deadline, and I understand that point, but maybe if someone can't be on at that time, they make the normal bids for the "need" players and get them that way.

I am all for any idea that shortens the time needed for FAAB. It's by far the greatest headwind I face when deciding how many leagues to enter.

Interesting concept.
You're right, you'll hear cries from folks that don't want to be a slave to those 30 minutes.
What if there wasn't a 30 minute window?
What if the secondary deadline for one dollar players was extended till when the first game on Monday begins?
This would also help with unexpected stuff happening from Sunday night to game time Monday.

[EA Sports]

Agree strongly with the KJ's #1

Another small addition that I would like to see is a games started (GS) column for pitchers. This would be a big time saver for folks with multiple FAAB teams.

[Gekko]

Another small addition that I would like to see is a games started (GS) column for pitchers. This would be a big time saver for folks with multiple FAAB teams.

That's available now

[EA Sports]

Please show me where it is available on the free agent page. Thanks

[Gekko]

Choose 'standard' instead of 'fantasy' on Faab page

[EA Sports]

Sweet! Thanks Gekko

[la Jolla]

Maybe that's the potential angle Dan. I mentioned this to another player today and he suggested the same as you. The only potential issue I see with keeping it open for that long, is that if news breaks on a player, whoever is currently sitting online gets first crack at it. Any thoughts on maybe 10-noon on Mondays?

[KJ Duke]

Choose 'standard' instead of 'fantasy' on Faab page

That's another thing, standard should be default for faab and stats pages - I get sick of switching that thing 50 times a day.

[Gekko]

Choose 'standard' instead of 'fantasy' on Faab page

That's another thing, standard should be default for faab and stats pages - I get sick of switching that thing 50 times a day.

Agreed