Optimal Scoring League Coming To NFBC In 2016

[TRAIN]

How is the computer going to know what is "optimal" for each league participant? If I am leading the league in SAVES by a large amount but need WINS, and for a particular week my team has 5 saves and 2 wins, how is the computer going to know to pick the players with the 2 wins as part of my optimal starting lineup for that week?

Why not have an option for each team to choose what lineup they want to submit after each week is complete?

If a manager does not choose to submit their own lineup, then the computer would choose it for them.

[Teufel Hunden]

How is the computer going to know what is "optimal" for each league participant? If I am leading the league in SAVES by a large amount but need WINS, and for a particular week my team has 5 saves and 2 wins, how is the computer going to know to pick the players with the 2 wins as part of my optimal starting lineup for that week?

Why not have an option for each team to choose what lineup they want to submit after each week is complete?

If a manager does not choose to submit their own lineup, then the computer would choose it for them.

Leagues are point based.

[Joe Sambito]

Ok, Bear with me on this scenario. The Indians lose Yan Gomes to injury in early April. My 2nd catcher is Mike Zunino, who is back in Tacoma. I also have Carlos Santana on my roster, the Indians have been using Carlos Santana at catcher off and on. On May 11th, Carlos has 8 games at catcher, I have him as corner eligible along with Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Pedro Alvarez. Santana catches Tuesday(5/12) and Wednesday(5/13), gaining eligibility at catcher. My optimum lineup may have Santana at corner Mon-Thurs, and at catcher Fri-Sun. Can the computer figure that out? For some reason I was thinking about this yesterday while sitting in traffic, not sure if others minds drift like that.

[DOUGHBOYS]

For some reason I was thinking about this yesterday while sitting in traffic, not sure if others minds drift like that.

I know you know of one other person, Andy!
Sometimes, I'll be taking a trip with the family, thinking about fantasy. All of a sudden, I'll scream, "SONUVABITCH!!"
1. The grandkids start laughing.
2,My wife scolds me for the language.
3. I have to pull over to write something down.
Happened often enough that the scolding is now optional.

As for the question, I think the scoring is weekly, so no Mon-Thurs, FRI-SUN is involved.
The real question is in whether positionality is counted before the coming scoring week or DURING that scoring week.

[KJ Duke]

Ok, Bear with me on this scenario. The Indians lose Yan Gomes to injury in early April. My 2nd catcher is Mike Zunino, who is back in Tacoma. I also have Carlos Santana on my roster, the Indians have been using Carlos Santana at catcher off and on. On May 11th, Carlos has 8 games at catcher, I have him as corner eligible along with Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Pedro Alvarez. Santana catches Tuesday(5/12) and Wednesday(5/13), gaining eligibility at catcher. My optimum lineup may have Santana at corner Mon-Thurs, and at catcher Fri-Sun. Can the computer figure that out? For some reason I was thinking about this yesterday while sitting in traffic, not sure if others minds drift like that.

I'm fairly certain that eligibility would "lock" beginning on Monday, so any player getting new eligibility would be considered for that position the following week. Same as it is now for manual lineups.

[mdecav]

How is the computer going to know what is "optimal" for each league participant? If I am leading the league in SAVES by a large amount but need WINS, and for a particular week my team has 5 saves and 2 wins, how is the computer going to know to pick the players with the 2 wins as part of my optimal starting lineup for that week?

There are no categories, just points. To quote Greg:

"To do this in baseball you have to go away from Rotisserie-style scoring and use a points-style scoring system."

[Asumijet]

Why is the Cutline moving away from the original plan of attempting to capture the values of roto? Seems like the new proposed system devalues Svs Whip and SB. I am less enthusiastic about the new scoring as well. Below was the original proposal.

-------------------------------------------




Teams will compete in a points-based system with the computer picking your optimal scoring lineup each week (Monday through Sunday) from the required 23 starting positions. Categories include:

For Hitters
Home Run: 6 points
Stolen Base: 5 points
Hit: 4 points
Run: 2 points
RBI: 2 points
At-bat: -1 point

For Pitchers
Win: 6 points
Save: 6 points
Inning Pitched: 3 points
Strikeout: 1 point
Hit or Walk Allowed: -1 point
Earned Run Allowed: -2 points

The Cutline Championship is a points-based league designed to approximate the relative contribution value of batter and pitcher outcomes in standard NFBC rotisserie leagues. The Cutline Championship has a regular season, which concludes just prior to the MLB All-Star Break, and a championship playoff which runs for 9 weeks beginning in the week of the All-Star Break and ending in mid-September. Cost of entry is $125 per team.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Ok, Bear with me on this scenario. The Indians lose Yan Gomes to injury in early April. My 2nd catcher is Mike Zunino, who is back in Tacoma. I also have Carlos Santana on my roster, the Indians have been using Carlos Santana at catcher off and on. On May 11th, Carlos has 8 games at catcher, I have him as corner eligible along with Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Pedro Alvarez. Santana catches Tuesday(5/12) and Wednesday(5/13), gaining eligibility at catcher. My optimum lineup may have Santana at corner Mon-Thurs, and at catcher Fri-Sun. Can the computer figure that out? For some reason I was thinking about this yesterday while sitting in traffic, not sure if others minds drift like that.

Yes. I just asked IT about this and here's how this is going to work:

Each night the computer will scan your roster and place your highest scoring players in their eligible positions and give you a current score. That's for Live Scoring and a current score, but players gain position eligibility in this game just like they do in our other games. So if in your case Santana gains eligibility at catcher on Sunday, the computer will recognize that, will calculate your best scoring lineup on Sunday night and give you the highest possible score for a legal lineup.

Santana could then be your catcher and score points at that position. On Sunday night is when your point total locks and scores for that week. Scoring periods are Monday-Sunday just like other contests, but nothing is final until Sunday's final games are done. Then your best possible scoring lineup locks in the points.

Hope this helps. Players WILL gain eligibility during the week and on Sunday night your best possible scoring lineup is registered for your team.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Why is the Cutline moving away from the original plan of attempting to capture the values of roto? Seems like the new proposed system devalues Svs Whip and SB. I am less enthusiastic about the new scoring as well. Below was the original proposal.

Correct, this is going to be a different game and it does devalue Saves, WHIP and SBs. It's not just a replica of 5x5 fantasy baseball and not just another game we hope our current players jump into.

Some here won't like that, but hopefully there are millions of DFS players who will recognize this scoring system and adjust easily to this format in the NFBC. Hopefully some of our own players who have competed in DFS will see a different, interesting format that they can adjust to. We know they have adjusted easily every day during a DFS season. Hopefully we bring in a lot of first-time players to the NFBC, while adding a unique, fun game that our own players like. That would be a winning combination.

Creating another Roto game was definitely an option. I chose to tap into another market that seems to be growing and add that scoring system to an easy draft format, an easy play format and an easy playoff format. Plus adding up your score each night is much easier this way.

But you are right. There are going to be different strategies (no more closers!!!) and a re-ranking of your player lists in this format. That might be seen as a negative, or it could be a positive. I hope the latter wins out, but I've been proven wrong before.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I haven't posted the NFBC Cutline Championship Rules yet because we are still finalizing some last items, but I think I'll do that shortly. Two recent changes:

** We will run FAAB just for the NFBC Cutline Championship on Monday nights so that owners don't have to do all of their free agent moves at the same time. This will free up some time for owners to do the Cutline FAAB a day after their busy Sunday nights. There are only four FAAB periods in the NFBC Cutline Championship, but we think by taking some of this burden off owners it will make this contest even more appealing to our die-hard players.

Scoring still runs Monday through Sunday, but since this is an optimal scoring league, and since these pickups are used for a four-week period, running FAAB after some Monday games have been played isn't an over-riding issue. The benefits outweigh the disadvantages of doing it this way.

** We also tweaked one scoring issue since I posted the rules. We are now giving Saves 5 points instead of 4 points. The 4 points worked well in the NFBC Post-Season Contest because it's a shorter time period of games, but Todd Zola helped us run the numbers and by giving 5 points in the season-long game it really brings the closers in play to be a key factor in drafts. Todd ran all of the numbers from last year and I'll post them shortly. I think you'll see with this slight improvement to the scoring that closers will be drafted on par with our Roto scoring format.

Thanks to Todd for testing out the numbers for us. I'll post those numbers shortly. Todd may also have a nice little Cheat Sheet with 2016 projections for this scoring format if anyone is interested. I'll let him promote that shortly.

We're getting closer to this game going live and Registration going live. Thanks all and we look forward to a great season with this new optimal scoring, points-based contest. Should be fun.