Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

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Greg Ambrosius
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Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Jun 06, 2017 1:15 pm

We have now survived the second and final FAAB in the NFBC Cutline Championship. Hopefully it wasn't as painful this year with two additional roster sports in early April and early June, rather than the 5 roster spot additions we had last year. Now with plenty of time to plan for next season, I'm looking for your help once again.

So let's review the basic rules again with this 10-team contest:

38 Rounds
1 Minute Per Pick
Add 2 Roster Spots In Early April for roster size of 40
Add 2 Roster Spots In Early June for roster size of 42
Optimal Scoring League

In our debut 2015 season we had 1,450 teams and last year we had 1,390 teams. It was the only national contest that we didn't sell out and after adding $20,000+ to the overall prizes our payout was over 95 percent. We certainly don't want to do that again, but I will say that all of us here are committed to the optimal scoring format and in fact we have big plans for this contest in 2017.

So let's work together to make this contest easier for you and better for all of us. The optimal scoring format works and the playoff format is really cool as owners try to survive the Cutline for two three-week periods to reach the "final table." That's where most of the money is won and every point is worth a lot of money.

The great thing about this contest is that with 10 good owners these drafts are getting done in 2 hours or less (90 minutes for one league, I remember) and never really over 2 1/2 hours. They were quick and easy drafts even with 2 additional rounds last year.

So here's a few quick questions I need help with. Let me see some answers:

1. Is the roster size of 38 players on Draft Day and 42 players enough?
2. Should we expand the draft to 40 players? Or 42?
3. Was the 2 additional FAAB pickups in April and June just right, too few or too many?
4. Could this contest work without any FAAB after Draft Day? Why or why not?
5. Are there any changes you'd recommend in the playoffs?

Again, we've had a meeting on this contest already and we're all on board to grow this format next year. We have some ideas that will improve the contest, but let's hear from you as well. With the current draft format, what needs to be tweaked and improved?

One thing I can say is that I've seen some of the early draft room designs and I think you'll see a slight difference in how you draft. We are planning on a mobile draft room, which will speed up slow drafts and make it easier for you to do these drafts on different devices. It will be much easier for us to tweak the player default list and make sure you do less searching for players by having them at the top of the list. By making it easier to select your draft picks maybe we can make these drafts quicker and easier as well.

Anyway, help us tackle the Rules first and we'll get into the draft process later. We have some ideas for the prizes as well which we will share later. But any feedback on the format would help us now. Thanks all and best of luck the rest of the way.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Deadheadz » Tue Jun 06, 2017 2:21 pm

Observation:

Two FAAB dates seems great.
Yesterday was exhilarating much like draft day, mainly because it wasn't a weekly event.
The Bill Buckner of FAAB
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by KJ Duke » Tue Jun 06, 2017 2:21 pm

After playing for two seasons a couple observations ...

(1) This is a game that I like to enter after I've been immersed in the player pool with at least one slow draft completed. The slow drafts get me going on research and I can work on projections, etc, as I'm drafting. With the cutlines that can't be done, obviously, as a fast draft. So that for me is a limiting factor for early drafts; I think this is part of the issue with respect to the earlier start date not resulting in league growth.

(2) FAAB is an issue, last year it was a nightmare and it could well have limited signups. I had 30 teams and with big roster expansion in year one it was very, very painful. This year I cut back to 23 and with less roster expansion it wasn't quite as painful, but still not fun. Doing away with roster expansion altogether would make it better. A 40-man roster seems sufficient and I'd rather just draft 40 and keep it there for the season, keeping the two FAAB periods but with pickups for corresponding drops only.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Tue Jun 06, 2017 2:47 pm

When this game was introduced, I felt that it begged to be FAAB-less (Faabuless?)
Much like NFFC DC's, it would offer simplicity with no worries about lineups or FAAB.

D&F (Draft and Forget leagues) are a kick.
Unfortunately, there are far fewer offered to the season-long players than the normal lineup/FAAB driven leagues.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Catch » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:16 pm

I think entries will go down if the cutline turns into a no-faab contest. I don't see owners drafting in December/January and being stuck with players on their roster due to an unfortunate death (Yordano Ventura) or season ending TJS (Alex Reyes). Personally, a no-faab cutline will limit me to March drafts only.
I like the cutline game the last two years and any adjustments I know will make the game better as evident to the game being improved this year from its inception year.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by KJ Duke » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:18 pm

DOUGHBOYS wrote:When this game was introduced, I felt that it begged to be FAAB-less (Faabuless?)
Much like NFFC DC's, it would offer simplicity with no worries about lineups or FAAB.

D&F (Draft and Forget leagues) are a kick.
Unfortunately, there are far fewer offered to the season-long players than the normal lineup/FAAB driven leagues.
While no FAAB would be appealing from a time management standpoint, I think gameplay would suffer so I tend to believe it has better potential numbers with limited FAAB ... and the issue alluded to above by Catch is another thing that would make faab-less hard to pull off.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:28 pm

I get and respect your opinions.
However, the same argument was made about Draft Champions leagues.
They flourish at all times of the drafting season.
There are advantages to drafting early in the drafting season(early knowledge of players before hype drives their price up) and there are advantages to drafting late in the drafting season (knowledge of deaths, long-timed injury, Spring Training).
I'm just making that point and know that you fellas want to keep FAAB.
Carry on.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:32 pm

KJ Duke wrote:After playing for two seasons a couple observations ...

(1) This is a game that I like to enter after I've been immersed in the player pool with at least one slow draft completed. The slow drafts get me going on research and I can work on projections, etc, as I'm drafting. With the cutlines that can't be done, obviously, as a fast draft. So that for me is a limiting factor for early drafts; I think this is part of the issue with respect to the earlier start date not resulting in league growth.

(2) FAAB is an issue, last year it was a nightmare and it could well have limited signups. I had 30 teams and with big roster expansion in year one it was very, very painful. This year I cut back to 23 and with less roster expansion it wasn't quite as painful, but still not fun. Doing away with roster expansion altogether would make it better. A 40-man roster seems sufficient and I'd rather just draft 40 and keep it there for the season, keeping the two FAAB periods but with pickups for corresponding drops only.
Two points:

1. It would be easy to do Cutline slow drafts as well. With 10 good owners you could get through 400 players rather quickly in comparison to 750 players in the Draft Champions format. Just a thought and something I'm sure we could design rather quickly with the SportsHub developers. New ideas will be much easier to implement going forward.

2. Would having no FAAB hurt early signups even more? It's a rhetorical question because we have discussed this format without knowing the answer. Something to consider for sure, but maybe more than 40 rounds is then needed.

Thanks for the feedback.
Greg Ambrosius
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:38 pm

KJ Duke wrote:
DOUGHBOYS wrote:When this game was introduced, I felt that it begged to be FAAB-less (Faabuless?)
Much like NFFC DC's, it would offer simplicity with no worries about lineups or FAAB.

D&F (Draft and Forget leagues) are a kick.
Unfortunately, there are far fewer offered to the season-long players than the normal lineup/FAAB driven leagues.
While no FAAB would be appealing from a time management standpoint, I think gameplay would suffer so I tend to believe it has better potential numbers with limited FAAB ... and the issue alluded to above by Catch is another thing that would make faab-less hard to pull off.
This is the type of discussion I was looking for because I know Dan and others would like to see this FAAB-less and I like that idea, too. But I just wonder who would draft early in that scenario. Look at all of the injuries in today's game and how does 17 reserves even last from January to September? I don't see it happening.

Here's my question for those in this contest: How many players did you replace in June because of injuries on top of the two free roster additions? Was it 5 or more? If not, then maybe we could go FAAB-less, but I'd love to know that number. Thanks.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:44 pm

DOUGHBOYS wrote:I get and respect your opinions.
However, the same argument was made about Draft Champions leagues.
They flourish at all times of the drafting season.
There are advantages to drafting early in the drafting season(early knowledge of players before hype drives their price up) and there are advantages to drafting late in the drafting season (knowledge of deaths, long-timed injury, Spring Training).
I'm just making that point and know that you fellas want to keep FAAB.
Carry on.
DCs have 50 players. So again, if there was a push to go FAAB-less, how many rounds would you need to cover all injuries? And how many top players would never get drafted? Would leagues not have Eric Thames, Jose Berrios, Tommy Pham, etc.? And could we do 50 rounds in less than 3 hours? Just wondering out loud.

I want to have this discussion because I think the format with just two FAAB periods is simple and enjoyable by some, but a true Draft 'n Hold league has merits in baseball. And again, our new management LOVES this format and wants to grow this rather than see numbers go down. Whatever we can do to help technologically we're going to do it. So let's slice and dice this to find the right answer. Thanks.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Catch » Tue Jun 06, 2017 7:02 pm

Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Here's my question for those in this contest: How many players did you replace in June because of injuries on top of the two free roster additions? Was it 5 or more? If not, then maybe we could go FAAB-less, but I'd love to know that number. Thanks.
I averaged 3.5 pickups beyond the 2 add-ons. Of course moves were made for non-performance (sent to minors) as well as injuries.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by ToddZ » Tue Jun 06, 2017 7:36 pm

I think the way to look at it is see when the majority of the Cutline FAAB pickups from both periods were drafted (aka their ADP) in the DC leagues.

I'd do it, but I don't have all the Cutline pickups, though, I'm in four leagues and will run it for the players picked up in 3 or 4 of my leagues.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Le Grand Orange » Tue Jun 06, 2017 7:46 pm

Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Here's my question for those in this contest: How many players did you replace in June because of injuries on top of the two free roster additions? Was it 5 or more? If not, then maybe we could go FAAB-less, but I'd love to know that number. Thanks.
I added 7, 10, and 8 to my three cutlines on top of the two freebies. I'd say half of my replacements were due to injury and the other half poor performance. However, I was very surprised at how few pickups there were overall.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Jun 06, 2017 7:52 pm

Le Grand Orange wrote:
Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Here's my question for those in this contest: How many players did you replace in June because of injuries on top of the two free roster additions? Was it 5 or more? If not, then maybe we could go FAAB-less, but I'd love to know that number. Thanks.
I added 7, 10, and 8 to my three cutlines on top of the two freebies. I'd say half of my replacements were due to injury and the other half poor performance. However, I was very surprised at how few pickups there were overall.
Good point. I'll see if I can get the pickups for both periods and post on the boards. Then someone smarter than me can sort by date and find out exactly what Todd has proposed. It makes sense. Thanks all.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by ToddZ » Tue Jun 06, 2017 8:04 pm

Data on my four Cutlines. There were 158 players picked up in at least one league. That's 15-16 more rounds to get everyone (not suggesting, just pointing it out).

Here's the data...

Player #CUT DC ADP
David Price 1 57
Steven Matz 1 164
Shawn Kelley 1 215
Jarrod Dyson 1 224
Hector Neris 1 234
Addison Reed 1 264
Cesar Hernandez 1 276
Travis Jankowski 1 278
Junior Guerra 2 282
Josh Bell 1 287
Zach Davies 1 297
Justin Bour 1 298
Cameron Maybin 1 299
Devin Mesoraco 2 304
Greg Holland 1 308
Joe Panik 1 311
Alex Gordon 2 317
Michael Conforto 1 319
Alcides Escobar 1 322
Robert Gsellman 1 325
Shin-soo Choo 1 327
Jeanmar Gomez 1 335
Howie Kendrick 1 337
Wei-Yin Chen 2 338
Steven Souza Jr. 1 347
Michael Wacha 1 348
Matt Andriese 2 350
Lucas Duda 1 352
Mallex Smith 1 354
Tyler Anderson 1 355
Pablo Sandoval 3 356
Matt Bush 2 357
Freddy Galvis 2 359
Danny Espinosa 1 364
Aaron Judge 1 368
Mike Leake 2 369
Jayson Werth 2 371
Andrelton Simmons 2 372
Nick Markakis 1 373
Luis Severino 2 374
Jason Castro 1 375
Chris Herrmann 1 376
Jose Berrios 2 377
Zack Cozart 2 378
Scott Schebler 3 379
Chris Devenski 1 381
Tyson Ross 1 382
Tony Wolters 1 383
Raul Mondesi 1 384
Corey Knebel 4 386
Alex Wood 1 387
Tucker Barnhart 1 390
Jett Bandy 1 391
Steven Wright 1 393
Ryan Zimmerman 3 394
Gerardo Parra 2 396
Sean Doolittle 2 398
Steve Pearce 3 400
Josh Tomlin 1 401
Eddie Rosario 1 403
Wilmer Flores 1 405
Shelby Miller 2 406
Tyler Saladino 1 408
Zack Wheeler 1 409
Blake Treinen 4 410
Avisail Garcia 4 412
Tyler Chatwood 1 416
Joaquin Benoit 3 419
Mike Fiers 1 422
Kendall Graveman 2 427
Archie Bradley 2 428
Joey Gallo 4 430
David Phelps 2 434
Brad Brach 4 438
Marwin Gonzalez 4 439
Ricky Nolasco 1 443
Patrick Corbin 1 444
Hyun-Jin Ryu 2 448
Yunel Escobar 1 450
Charlie Morton 2 451
CC Sabathia 3 453
Santiago Casilla 3 454
Cody Bellinger 4 455
Edinson Volquez 2 456
Aaron Altherr 3 457
Hector Santiago 1 460
Michael Lorenzen 1 461
Jose Iglesias 1 462
David Freese 1 464
Scooter Gennett 1 467
Matt Adams 1 468
Whit Merrifield 2 472
Seth Lugo 1 474
Brad Hand 1 478
Trevor Rosenthal 1 480
Colby Rasmus 1 482
Martin Maldonado 4 487
Brandon McCarthy 3 490
Adam Lind 1 496
Koda Glover 3 498
Jed Lowrie 3 501
Jimmy Nelson 3 504
Delino DeShields 1 505
Bradley Zimmer 1 507
Michael A. Taylor 1 511
Logan Morrison 4 514
Ty Blach 3 516
Brett Anderson 1 517
Geovany Soto 4 521
Jake Barrett 1 525
Wily Peralta 3 531
Mark Reynolds 4 535
Adam Frazier 1 536
Justin Smoak 3 538
Robinson Chirinos 1 546
Martin Perez 1 557
Amir Garrett 3 558
Aaron Hicks 4 559
Yonder Alonso 4 562
Ariel Miranda 4 566
Derek Holland 3 574
Jesse Chavez 1 580
Trey Mancini 1 585
Tim Beckham 3 587
Trevor Cahill 2 588
Jason Vargas 4 591
JaCoby Jones 1 596
Chase Anderson 4 617
Jeff Hoffman 3 621
Manny Pina 2 624
Jordan Montgomery 3 632
Wade Miley 2 638
Scott Feldman 1 659
Jeremy Hazelbaker 1 667
Ian Happ 3 668
Justin Wilson 4 672
Clayton Richard 3 679
Joe Kelly 1 685
Chris Taylor 1 713
Erasmo Ramirez 1 723
Tommy Pham 3 731
Mike Clevinger 1 733
Matt Davidson 2 737
Alex Avila 3 739
German Marquez 2 745
Bud Norris 3 779
Joe Biagini 1 787
Antonio Senzatela 4 804
Kyle Freeland 3 846
Chris Gimenez 1 910
Taylor Motter 1 920
Leury Garcia 3 955
J.C. Ramirez 2 965
Dinelson Lamet 1 982
Zack Godley 2 1023
Brad Peacock 3 1041
Jorge Bonifacio 1 #N/A
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by KJ Duke » Tue Jun 06, 2017 8:32 pm

DOUGHBOYS wrote:I get and respect your opinions.
However, the same argument was made about Draft Champions leagues.
They flourish at all times of the drafting season.
There are advantages to drafting early in the drafting season(early knowledge of players before hype drives their price up) and there are advantages to drafting late in the drafting season (knowledge of deaths, long-timed injury, Spring Training).
I'm just making that point and know that you fellas want to keep FAAB.
Carry on.
Dan, if a FAAB-less option would work well for this format I'll be at the front of the line fighting for it. I play far more football DC's for this exact reason, no faab AND no lineup.

My main concerns are: (1) you can only start 14 and 9 in a DC format versus having your entire roster of 40 "working for you" in a cutline, and (2) your bench in 15 teamers are mostly longshots/ platoons and role players that you hope will contribute here and there whereas most of your bench in the cutline are starting-lineup players in 15-teamers. What these differences mean, I believe, is that the stats would flow more like a draft champ league in which your entire bench plays each week (all 50 guys) in terms of the edge afforded to healthier teams. Health would play an even greater role in such a format, and we know it's a big factor even in FAAB leagues where you can buy replacements.

That said, I would still play a FAAB-less cutline, and to be honest probably even more teams if the rosters were deeper to account adequately for injuries. But would the more casual players that like quick nightly drafts and shallower player pools still play in the same numbers? If the answer is yes it could be a worthwhile switch.
Last edited by KJ Duke on Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by KJ Duke » Tue Jun 06, 2017 8:34 pm

Greg, I would love to have slow draft cutlines as an option next season! Although, faster-only versions. :D

As for some more data to add to Todd's post ... across 23 leagues I ran the numbers for pickups by all 230 teams.

January drafts • added 3.9 players per team in April and 4.1 in June.
February drafts • added 3.5 players per team in April and 4.1 in June.
March drafts • added 3.2 players per team in April and 3.7 in June.

So in total, the average team added 8 players over the two FAAB periods, so pushing the draft from 38 to 46 would give comparable depth (although it would be lesser-quality depth since roles/performance is less clear in the pre-season). Also, as you can see (and is logical) the early drafted teams added more players than the later drafts as more info on roles and injuries were apparent in the later drafts. So that would be an issue for early drafters, although the current early-DC drafters have a similar disadvantage in an overall contest but draft early anyway. Perhaps the number of rounds could be different each month (47 In January, 46 in February and 45 in March) as incentive to draft early and to improve the competitive balance of early drafters.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:14 am

KJ Duke wrote:
DOUGHBOYS wrote:I get and respect your opinions.
However, the same argument was made about Draft Champions leagues.
They flourish at all times of the drafting season.
There are advantages to drafting early in the drafting season(early knowledge of players before hype drives their price up) and there are advantages to drafting late in the drafting season (knowledge of deaths, long-timed injury, Spring Training).
I'm just making that point and know that you fellas want to keep FAAB.
Carry on.
Dan, if a FAAB-less option would work well for this format I'll be at the front of the line fighting for it. I play far more football DC's for this exact reason, no faab AND no lineup.

My main concerns are: (1) you can only start 14 and 9 in a DC format versus having your entire roster of 40 "working for you" in a cutline, and (2) your bench in 15 teamers are mostly longshots/ platoons and role players that you hope will contribute here and there whereas most of your bench in the cutline are starting-lineup players in 15-teamers. What these differences mean, I believe, is that the stats would flow more like a draft champ league in which your entire bench plays each week (all 50 guys) in terms of the edge afforded to healthier teams. Health would play an even greater role in such a format, and we know it's a big factor even in FAAB leagues where you can buy replacements.

That said, I would still play a FAAB-less cutline, and to be honest probably even more teams if the rosters were deeper to account adequately for injuries. But would the more casual players that like quick nightly drafts and shallower player pools still play in the same numbers? If the answer is yes it could be a worthwhile switch.
Plain and simple, I don't know, Kevin.
I believe it is worth a look, if not in the Cutline format, then another.
How much time would a 45-50 round, 10 team draft last?
We'd be drafting the same amount of players as a Main Event without pressure, so I would guess 150-180 minutes.
Shorter, if using a 40 second clock. Yes, I do know that it would be a lot longer than before.
At the same time, Draft and Forget with longer drafts and no FAAB, may entice drafters to 'put up' with longer draft times.
The NFBC is dominated by fewer players (compared to larger sites).
BUT, and it is a big BUT, those that do play here, have many , many teams due to no FAAB in DC's and little FAAB in Cutlines.
To the point, drafting is fun, FAAB is not.
Personally, I try to only have 'special' leagues or teams that involve FAAB.

Back to your question, if Cutline were FAAB-less, I believe there would be an influx of folks who do not wish to spend time with Cutlines now because of FAAB periods.
Would that influx offset those who would prefer a shorter draft time leaving the game?
There may be several opinions on this, personally, I don't think we'd have a real answer till it was tried.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Top Dawg » Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:45 am

I like this format and like the two FAAB weeks rule. With the 10 day DL in play, I had that little red cross next to 12 or more players at once for several weeks. Even drafting 15 pitchers I was able to fill only 7 for a couple of weeks; less than that when any of the 7 scored negative points.
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by TRAIN » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:09 am

If it were up to me, I would eliminate the playoffs from the Cutline and make it a full season long contest. By having about half of the teams eliminated at the All-Star break with approximately 2 1/2 months left in the baseball season, and then, even more teams eliminated in each round of the playoffs, it's a turn off if you want to be fantasy involved and watching baseball for the whole season and could be eliminated so early. Keep everybody involved all season and eliminate the playoffs.

If the Cutline did become an all season contest and you wanted to keep everyone still involved, maybe a 3rd FAAB could be added in early August where each team is given $500 more in FAAB money to use for just that 3rd FAAB event. I think that would be attractive to a lot of people and draw new customers as well.

I like the new 2 player roster additions for each FAAB period vs the 5 player roster additions for each FAAB period last year. Because of that new rule, I went from 3 teams last year to 5 teams this year (and thinking about adding more next year).

I am against having no FAAB at all for the Cutline. I think only the guys who can afford to have a ton of teams would be for this. Having the 2 FAAB periods seem just right for the way the contest is set up now. I especially like the 2nd one where you are forced to use all of your remaining FAAB money in one shot.

As far as growing the game, there has to be more of a marketing effort to potential new customers outside of the NFBC explaining just how the Cutline optimal scoring format works and ultimately makes the fantasy baseball experience more enjoyable. I don't know what the numbers are for new customers, but when I look at the team owners in the Cutline Overall Standings, I see a lot of familiar NFBC names.

Speaking of the Cutline Overall Standings, why are the Batting Pts. and Pitching Pts. still showing zeros? I mentioned this in Week 1 and 2 and it still hasn't been fixed.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:21 am

Again, thanks for all of the different viewpoints. This is helpful.

So the big question is this: Are the two FAAB periods so much of a barrier to entry to stop the NFBC Cutline Championship from growing to bigger and better numbers or is it a necessary part of creating winning teams that makes the contest a challenge?

For me, at a time when injuries and DL stints are at an all-time high, it seems imperative that you need some type of mechanism to counterbalance all of these lineup changes. Whether that's a draft with 45 or more rounds, I'm not sure. I certainly don't want to prolong the drafts much more as the beauty of this contest is that you can draft 38 rounds in 2 to 2 1/2 hours and basically be done with these teams outside of two FAAB periods. Or is it the longer draft where you then never do anything else after Draft Day, like we have in the NFFC Draft Champions National Championship?

So is FAAB -- even at just twice per year -- so intrusive that it curtails participation in the NFBC Cutline Championship? That's the question.

I think we all agree that quick drafts and an optimal scoring setup has merit for a national contest. And nobody is really complaining about the scoring as the Cutline ADPs are very similar to our regular ADPs for the 5x5 contests. So now it comes down to us determining a prize structure that makes everyone take a look at this format and a game format that makes drafting easier and in-season management easier. I think we can get to both points.

Dan's point of having 40 seconds per pick is out there, but we have talked about shaving some time off per pick in this format. Maybe have 55 seconds per pick instead of a minute, although few people in this format use the full minute. But even if that helped shave 15 or 20 minutes off drafts that would help. The key there is having a quicker, better draft room that even allows mobile drafting and I think we'll get there by the start of baseball.

Keep the suggestions coming. It's getting fun again.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

JohnP
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by JohnP » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:36 am

Improving the FAAB software would be helpful. It is super time consuming / burdensome to move a guy from spot 28 in your queue to spot 3. If we could click and drag - would be less painful.

I like KJ's suggestion of expanding the rosters up front but still have a couple of FAAB periods for player replacement. Keeping it on a Monday night vs. Sunday night is important in my opinion. Nice to have it separate. I also think the dates you used this year for the two periods were great. It's nice to have the early season one for those that drafted real early. It's nice to have the second one about now for all the injuries, etc. All in all - I think this is a great contest and I hope it can grow.

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EA Sports
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by EA Sports » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:15 am

Really liked the format this year. My only suggestion to save time would be to have an drop down box to make an entire group of bids the same amount. Seems like that should be a quick fix. Please keep the 2 FAAB periods.
"Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win" - Bobby Knight

Happenstance
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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by Happenstance » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:32 am

I can only speak for myself, but here's my situation:

I do 8-10 slow draft teams per year and 2-3 FAAB leagues. With other obligations (family, work, other hobbies, etc.), I'm pretty much at (or past) my capacity to make FAAB or weekly lineup changes. I've purposely declined playing in the Cutline solely due to its additional FAAB requirement. Maybe it isn't so bad in practice, but it sure seems like a lot of work leading up to those two days and I simply wasn't willing to take it on. In fact, regardless of how successful I am across events this year, I'll probably cut back a little next year on the number of DCs I'm in simply due to the weekly time requirements in setting lineups.

If the NFBC offers FAAB-less Cutlines, I will certainly do some in addition to whatever DCs/MEs I already plan on. It's unlikely I'd participate in any during the Nov-Dec timeframe, but they'd be something I'd be very interested in after most of the offseason moves were made.

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Re: Looking For Feedback On NFBC Cutline Rules

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:54 am

Just a suggestion, offer a 45 second and a one minute choice in time between draft picks.
Let the player decide the pace of the draft.
Much like the 4 hour and 8 hour slow drafts, it would be a helpful option to those that want a faster draft while keeping those that want to keep the traditional time, happy as well.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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