NFBC Message Boards

Am I the only one chomping at the bit to get a fantasy baseball slow draft going?

I'm ready to kick some ass if that means anything

Gekko wrote:I'm ready to kick some ass if that means anything

LETS DO THIS

Greg,
We have money. Please take it!

I'm game. Let's get that draft room open!

Mike

FYI - I told my wife a few min ago that it will be a heavy baseball weekend for me.

I have prelim lists for C and 1B. Working on 2B and SS. Should have tonight. 3B and OF this weekend. Pitchers next week.

Gekko wrote:FYI - I told my wife a few min ago that it will be a heavy baseball weekend for me.

I have prelim lists for C and 1B. Working on 2B and SS. Should have tonight. 3B and OF this weekend. Pitchers next week.

Yikes. I expected the Slow Draft King to be way ahead of the curve in terms of planning and preparation already. It's mildly disappointing to hear that you're still stuck in the infield

Likewhat17 wrote:

Gekko wrote:FYI - I told my wife a few min ago that it will be a heavy baseball weekend for me.

I have prelim lists for C and 1B. Working on 2B and SS. Should have tonight. 3B and OF this weekend. Pitchers next week.

Yikes. I expected the Slow Draft King to be way ahead of the curve in terms of planning and preparation already. It's mildly disappointing to hear that you're still stuck in the infield

Spending at least 5 minutes on every player adds up. Lots of times researching a player leads to researching other players or situations. I like to be as thorough as I can. I'm already seeing lots of 'value' based on my ranking and where those players have gone in recent drafts. Giddy Up!

Gekko wrote:

Likewhat17 wrote:

Gekko wrote:FYI - I told my wife a few min ago that it will be a heavy baseball weekend for me.

I have prelim lists for C and 1B. Working on 2B and SS. Should have tonight. 3B and OF this weekend. Pitchers next week.

Yikes. I expected the Slow Draft King to be way ahead of the curve in terms of planning and preparation already. It's mildly disappointing to hear that you're still stuck in the infield

Spending at least 5 minutes on every player adds up. Lots of times researching a player leads to researching other players or situations. I like to be as thorough as I can. I'm already seeing lots of 'value' based on my ranking and where those players have gone in recent drafts. Giddy Up!

I hear ya. I do the same, spending at least 5-10 on each player for my initial projections. I'm through about 1000 players currently and still working my way down the list. I then have a personal ranking system that I've devised and refined over the years that spits out a ranking for each of them. I also have quite the list of players that I have ranked much higher than the consensus seems to be, we'll see who's right soon enough

I had Bartolo Colon on 15 of my 30 DC teams last year. Have you found this year's Colon yet?

Stickman wrote:Am I the only one chomping at the bit to get a fantasy baseball slow draft going?

BUMP

Greg - I played in 30 DCs last year. Know how to get me to take on more teams this year? Dump the 3rd place league money ($125 - not even your entry fee back ) and apply all that money to the overall prize pool. Given 100 leagues, that's and additional $12,500. No one plays for $125. IMO, adding another 12.5K to overall would make this event even BIGGER!

Gekko wrote:Greg - I played in 30 DCs last year. Know how to get me to take on more teams this year? Dump the 3rd place league money ($125 - not even your entry fee back ) and apply all that money to the overall prize pool. Given 100 leagues, that's and additional $12,500. No one plays for $125. IMO, adding another 12.5K to overall would make this event even BIGGER!

+1

A constructive suggestion that didn't waste everyone's time, it can be done.

Gekko wrote:Greg - I played in 30 DCs last year. Know how to get me to take on more teams this year? Dump the 3rd place league money ($125 - not even your entry fee back ) and apply all that money to the overall prize pool. Given 100 leagues, that's and additional $12,500. No one plays for $125. IMO, adding another 12.5K to overall would make this event even BIGGER!

So you'd take 40, 50 or 60 teams for an additional $10,000 grand prize???

Sure, this is the same concept that Mikey said could easily grow the NFBC Main Event to $200,000: Eliminate 3rd place prize money there too and use that money to grow the one grand prize. I understand the marketing behind it and all, but these are 15-team leagues that already have large churn rates. Finishing 3rd in the Main Event is no easy task and eliminating 3rd place league prize money could easily eliminate more teams earlier in the season. Right now there are competitive fights for all 3 top league spots and enough incentive to keep fighting for a money spot.

We are raising the grand prize in the NFBC Draft Champions League this year from $16,000 to $20,000 and will post the rules and prizes this morning. Is the grand prize the biggest lure of DC leagues? Is that really why people are playing the DCs? If so, I should jump it to $25,000 now. Sure, we could easily eliminate 3rd place here; heck, we could make it a winner-take-all in each league if the grand prize is that important. Maybe that's worth asking the customers about in the future, but it's not in the plans for this year. We still believe paying Top 3 in any 15-team NFBC format makes sense and keeps the churn rate from falling at all. Maybe we're wrong, but at this point we do believe finishing 3rd among 15 teams is a worthy accomplishment and worth a cash prize, even if it is as low as $125.

That's just our position; I'm not saying it's the right one because we've been proven wrong before. But retaining customers is just as important as recruiting new customers each year and we feel 3rd place prize money does that.

IMHO,

Eliminating 3rd place prize money in a 15 team league would tend to see even more managers go AWOL by mid season.
Is that what we really want? Sure maybe the top 2 guys will benefit by less direct competition but it would hurt the game.

No 3rd place is a good idea in a Best Ball format though.


Cheers!

I agree. There were 6 teams in our league this year battlin for 3rd right up till the last day of the season. 2nd and 3rd had been locked up for a month so we needed 3rd place money to hold the other owners' interest.

.....1st and 2nd were locked up.

Sorry, but I think eliminating third place is a stupid idea. When did we start becoming so elitist?
Of course nobody plays for third place. That is a stupid argument. Do you think anybody in the Olympics does all that training for a bronze medal?
Hell no. But they'll take it. It's earned.
There is no shame in fighting for third place, especially in a 15 team league.
Some 'rule changers' are going about this all wrong.

No problem Greg. Just my input and yes, I would enter around 50+ teams if 3rd place was elimates. I certainly understand why others would want 3rd place to pay out. No problem there.

Gekko wrote:No problem Greg. Just my input and yes, I would enter around 50+ teams if 3rd place was elimates. I certainly understand why others would want 3rd place to pay out. No problem there.

Well, the good news is that you entered 30 teams when we proposed a $10,000 grand prize last year and this year we are starting with a guaranteed $20,000 grand prize. Right there should push you to 50+ DC teams!!

DOUGHBOYS wrote:Sorry, but I think eliminating third place is a stupid idea. When did we start becoming so elitist?
Of course nobody plays for third place. That is a stupid argument. Do you think anybody in the Olympics does all that training for a bronze medal?
Hell no. But they'll take it. It's earned.
There is no shame in fighting for third place, especially in a 15 team league.
Some 'rule changers' are going about this all wrong.

Sorry dough. I don't "sign up" for an event because 3rd place pays out less than the entry fee. To me, that is a waste. Again, my thoughts. If u think that is stupid for me to think that way, no problem.

Greg Ambrosius wrote:

Gekko wrote:No problem Greg. Just my input and yes, I would enter around 50+ teams if 3rd place was elimates. I certainly understand why others would want 3rd place to pay out. No problem there.

Well, the good news is that you entered 30 teams when we proposed a $10,000 grand prize last year and this year we are starting with a guaranteed $20,000 grand prize. Right there should push you to 50+ DC teams!!

U might be right!

Gekko wrote:

DOUGHBOYS wrote:Sorry, but I think eliminating third place is a stupid idea. When did we start becoming so elitist?
Of course nobody plays for third place. That is a stupid argument. Do you think anybody in the Olympics does all that training for a bronze medal?
Hell no. But they'll take it. It's earned.
There is no shame in fighting for third place, especially in a 15 team league.
Some 'rule changers' are going about this all wrong.

Sorry dough. I don't "sign up" for an event because 3rd place pays out less than the entry fee. To me, that is a waste. Again, my thoughts. If u think that is stupid for me to think that way, no problem.

To you it may be a waste.
In my mind, the NFBC is top heavy in terms of competition. Most that have been here a long time know who those top players are.
By squeezing out third place, you'll be squeezing out new folks from even trying to come here and beat those top players.
One of the reasons you play in the draft champions is to be a shark to their chum.
Once the chum is gone, from which third place being eliminated would be a good start, you'll be playing shark vs. shark and decreasing your odds of winning.
To you, third place is 'settling' for less money. To new players, it is hope.
It is a sign.
It is the thought that they're close to being one of the best and they should be rewarded for it so they will come back.
The long term is more important than you pocketing less than paid.

Greg - This may be slightly off-topic, but in responding to Mark you asked about whether the grand prize is the lure of the DC format. It is not for me, but that's not why I'm commenting. One of the many lures to me - in addition to genuinely liking the format, the increased reliance on drafting ability, and the ability to not have to do FAAB for every league I enter - is that the DC leagues start in November (hopefully, still waiting ). All of the NFBC's other contests, whether they are the high entry leagues, Main Event, Primetime, small satellite leagues, auction, etc., all start in the late-February or March timeframe. As you can tell from the number of folks chomping at the bit, there is real interest in drafting teams now. Toward that end, in addition to getting some DC leagues off the ground, why don't you also consider running a few satellite leagues now or soon? If you offered a couple of satellite leagues one or two nights per week starting at the beginning of December, I would think they would fill. Just a thought.

Mike

Dough - as stated b4, I understand why some people like paying out 3rd place in a $150 event. I don't, but that's okay.