Greg & Tom Live Chat: Friday, 3 pm ET

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks to Todd Zola and Shawn Childs for hosting Live Chats on the NFBC boards over the last couple of weeks. Tom and I are going to jump online tomorrow at 3 pm ET for another live chat as we're looking forward to a good gab session with you folks. We have our Online Auction League tonight, so we can definitely answer questions about that league and our teams. I'm also heading to Phoenix next Thursday and will be competing in the LABR AL and NL Auctions with Shawn Childs and we can talk about that. We can also talk about the incredible run of signups in February, where we're at and where we think we're headed. Heck, we can even talk about the Message Boards themselves if needed.

Feel free to post comments or questions in advance on this thread and we'll do all we can to get to them in advance. But at the very least, we'll be here tomorrow afternoon and answer everything at once. The responses won't be as long or as detailed as Shawn provided last week, but we'll still give it our best shot. Thanks all and stay well.

[Greg Ambrosius]

We're here today if you have any baseball questions, auction questions, NFBC questions or life questions!!

[76erfan]

What are the things you took away from last nights online auction that you want to build into the NFBC software experience? Oh yeah...and how did you like your team?

[Tom Kessenich]

I posted my thoughts on my team in your thread about the league but as far as the room I thought it was a good setup, easy to use and I didn't have any problems. They've built a very good online auction site.

[JohnP]

1) New Owners

Are you seeing influx of new players this year at a greater pace than last year?
What do you see as a way to draw more new owners? Lower price points? Advertising? Different games?

2) This Year

What has been the most pleasant surprise so far for this baseball season?
What are you most disappointed / worried about?

3) Live Draft

There is nothing like a live draft experience. Any new thoughts / ideas for this part going forward? Different cities? More cities? You like the current setup?

Power / laptops - seriously....this just bugs the crap out of me. How hard would it be to run power to each of the draft tables? I think for baseball it is more important than for football. Football drafts are so fast and are way less complex in terms of categories / positions / projections. Is this a "union / cost" issue at the venue? Extension cords and duct tape is the method we should plan on?

4) IT Questions

First of all....awesome improvements over the years. Today's game and interface is significantly better than just a few years ago. That being said....how come things never happen at the pace that you promise? It just seems like things take forever to happen. I am not an IT guy so maybe my questions are dumb. Is the task of developing the new game that you were going to roll out this year super difficult? Is the "new draft room" really a task that should take this long? Is developing software for auctions that hard? Why the delay in FAAB processing - should be instantaneous? Why the live scoring problems? I don't see those same issues in daily - is that because of the resources dedicated to such? And....why aren't these things all set for the new season? Seems like there should be a set of priorities and that the baseball upgrades should all be done by Dec 1 or Jan 1. Football upgrades should be done by April 1 or something like that. What is the underlying issue at making this all happen? Is it a matter of resources that STATS has? Is it a matter of allocation of those resources? How big of a piece of STATS is NFBC / NFFC? Not complaining...just asking.

5) Brewer Questions - Over / Under 30

K-Rod saves this year?
Braun homers?
Gomez steals?
Bratwurst victories?

[Captain Hook]

Power / laptops - seriously....this just bugs the crap out of me. How hard would it be to run power to each of the draft tables? I think for baseball it is more important than for football. Football drafts are so fast and are way less complex in terms of categories / positions / projections. Is this a "union / cost" issue at the venue? Extension cords and duct tape is the method we should plan on?

John have you ever really asked about this?
Because you have no idea what it would take/cost to get a hotel to do this especially in Las Vegas
Have to bring in EW Union workers to get it done AND they would charge you for it

Do you want that tacked on to all participants? Not fair for those of us who don't use laptops

How about we just charge the laptop users as an add on?

Get an extra battery

[Yah Mule]

This is kind of a goofy question with a similarly goofy follow-up. Over all your years of playing roto, who are some players that you've owned the most frequently?

For example, I owned Lance Berkman and Joe Nathan on a large number of teams just about every season throughout most of their careers.

Also, are there any really good players who you've just been snakebit about rostering? For example, I haven't drafted Justin Verlander very often, but I owned him on the most teams in 2008 and 2013, which were down years. I've had similar poor luck with Shin Soo Choo. His hamstrings tighten up the second I call his name on draft day.

[Tom Kessenich]

I played in an NL-only auction keeper league for a long time. Seemed like I had Bobby Abreu on my team every year back when he was a power-speed dual threat. In the earlier years of that league I had Piazza every single year. Started out drafting him as a minor leaguer then kept him every year during his peak seasons even when the price went way up.

[COZ]

Isn't it time to adjust the prize payouts out on the $400 DC's to a more "Capitalistic" and less "Socialistic" structure of maybe...
1st: $2,500; 2nd: $1,500; 3rd: $500. Seems there are a lot of quirky drafting strategies, and while within the rules, ultimately it results in many players not striving to play for 1st place but merely to "show." Please advise your thoughts on this.

COZ

[JohnP]

Power / laptops - seriously....this just bugs the crap out of me. How hard would it be to run power to each of the draft tables? I think for baseball it is more important than for football. Football drafts are so fast and are way less complex in terms of categories / positions / projections. Is this a "union / cost" issue at the venue? Extension cords and duct tape is the method we should plan on?

John have you ever really asked about this?
Because you have no idea what it would take/cost to get a hotel to do this especially in Las Vegas
Have to bring in EW Union workers to get it done AND they would charge you for it

Do you want that tacked on to all participants? Not fair for those of us who don't use laptops

How about we just charge the laptop users as an add on?

Get an extra battery

Thanks Captain NFBC. Was just asking the question. I am totally fine bringing extension cord - I just think I should be able to plug it in and not have the moderator say "you can't plug this in because it's against the rules" . That's all. Thanks for your advice.

[Edwards Kings]

Standard early fantasy question. Soooo many injuries/poor performances last year casting a pall over players we (or at least I) was very high on. Who is the guy you are willing to draft up a round or go the extra dollar on because he is your bounceback candidate of the year (one offense and one pitcher please)?

[Edwards Kings]

When you look at Baltimore, after Adam Jones, what do you see and will they be in the hunt in September?

[Edwards Kings]

Do you see the Cubs, with all of the new additions, set to challenge the Central this year, or is it "one more year" again?

And who do you see as the real winner at MI for Chicago (Castro, Baez, Alcantara, Russell, LaStella)?

[Edwards Kings]

If not answered in one of my questions above, are you a believer in Avisail Garcia?

[Edwards Kings]

Conventional wisdom has the Reds in the tank this year, but what makes Hamilton, Phillips, Votto, Frazier, Bruce, Mesoraco, Byrd so bad? Rotation of Cueto, Bailey, DeSclafani, Cingrani (who many of us liked last year) with Chapman as a closer...Personally I have seen worse, you?

[Edwards Kings]

Who the hell woke up JD Martinez and do you think he will even get close to the same numbers this year?

[Edwards Kings]

In 2016 Mike Trout is not the consensus #1 ballplayer anymore because Ron Shandler was right. Who unseated him?

[Edwards Kings]

Brewer question...are either of you going out to buy a Kris Davis Fathead? What is his over/under for 25 homeruns this year?

[Edwards Kings]

Danny Santana...by the end of the year is he OF, SS, or bench meat?

[DOUGHBOYS]

Nothing, I just like stopping runs.
This was an Edwards Kings run fersure!!!

[Wolfpac]

Conventional wisdom has the Reds in the tank this year, but what makes Hamilton, Phillips, Votto, Frazier, Bruce, Mesoraco, Byrd so bad? Rotation of Cueto, Bailey, DeSclafani, Cingrani (who many of us liked last year) with Chapman as a closer...Personally I have seen worse, you?

Cozart...that is the sole reason they are terrible.

[Edwards Kings]

Anybody besides Bulter and Lawrie going to get 500+ AB in Oakland this year, and if so, who?

[Edwards Kings]

Nothing, I just like stopping runs.
This was an Edwards Kings run fersure!!!

Gotta get a 10k out, so I thought I would strike while the iron was hot!

[Edwards Kings]

Conventional wisdom has the Reds in the tank this year, but what makes Hamilton, Phillips, Votto, Frazier, Bruce, Mesoraco, Byrd so bad? Rotation of Cueto, Bailey, DeSclafani, Cingrani (who many of us liked last year) with Chapman as a closer...Personally I have seen worse, you?

Cozart...that is the sole reason they are terrible.

I have bought in on that guy a couple of times...never quite put it together.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Earlier time for draft starts for DC's?
It'd be great if everybody woke up to find themselves in a draft room.
For those of us on the left side of the States, the 8 hour clock lets us sleep and also join in the fun when waking up.
What are your thoughts?