The Official Greg, Tom, Darik Live Chat Thread: Ask Here

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, I apologize that we didn't have more Live Chat sessions on the Message Boards. We certainly want to be as accessible as possible and I was hoping to bring in more industry writers to the forums, but the off-season just got away from us. With the live events coming soon, it's time to create one landing spot for your questions and comments. Let's use this thread to have that discussion.

I want it because there's so much to talk about right now. I need your thoughts and questions on:

Our LABR teams from this past weekend. Rip away.
Tom and I are in Tout Mixed Draft League tonight. Rip away once the results are posted.
Greg's coming to New York!!! Let's discuss everything there
Dirty Dozens have been cancelled. Let's discuss the single-entry national contest idea
Las Vegas at Park MGM. What can you expect. Let's discuss
Record year in the NFBC. Why and how? Let's discuss
March Madness Opening Weekend: Who you got to win it all?
The MTM Party: You know pictures are coming to the site!!
NFBC Site Questions: C'mon, you know you have some
NFBC Draft Champions Leagues: Have we found the happy spot yet or are more tweaks needed?

Okay, I could discuss them all, but we want your questions to get things rolling. Myself, Tom and Darik will be ready to answer everything as openly and honestly as we can. I'm sure others will chime in with their thoughts, so let's have an active thread. Let's have fun with this.

Bring on the questions. We're here.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here's the LABR Auction Boards:

https://rtsports.com/labr-al-auction
https://rtsports.com/labr-nl-auction

[76erfan]

The G/T/D auction is this Thursday at 7 pm. Darik was drafting players that had tommy john surgery last year and spending $20 to do it. What steps are being taken so that one of you can actually win this thing this year?

[Tom Kessenich]

The G/T/D auction is this Thursday at 7 pm. Darik was drafting players that had tommy john surgery last year and spending $20 to do it. What steps are being taken so that one of you can actually win this thing this year?

Darik's entire auction plan is built around snaring Sal Perez.

[Doctor Who]

Are there plans of making Fanball DFS more of a pathway to the your season-long contests? Meaning, I doubt you can compete with Yahoo, DK, and Fanduel in the DFS space, so how can you make your own DFS site to use as an advantage or is this really just seen as the ugly-stepsister and you are fine with the contests you offer there?

[Greg Ambrosius]

The G/T/D auction is this Thursday at 7 pm. Darik was drafting players that had tommy john surgery last year and spending $20 to do it. What steps are being taken so that one of you can actually win this thing this year?

The easiest way to guarantee that one of us win this league is to make it a 3-team auction league. Even then we'd probably screw it up, but I'm pretty sure one of us could win it then.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Are there plans of making Fanball DFS more of a pathway to the your season-long contests? Meaning, I doubt you can compete with Yahoo, DK, and Fanduel in the DFS space, so how can you make your own DFS site to use as an advantage or is this really just seen as the ugly-stepsister and you are fine with the contests you offer there?

Yes, we've already said that the Tuesday NFBC $50/50 Teams contest for a free NFBC Main Event entry will be returning. We did this in football through our Fanball DFS site and we sold out all 17 weeks, resulting in 18 FREE 2020 Primetime entries. It was a lot of fun, we filled it up each week with 50 teams and now 18 teams are already entered into our 2019 big contests. It's a win-win for everyone.

This is already done and we'll announce the Fanball DFS rules and more soon. But every Tuesday night this will be offered.

You will also see some other in-season contests from us using the NFBC platform. You can call them "Second Chance" leagues if you'd like, but we are ready to host drafts in May, June and July and play out the season from that point on. We even have a "Memorial Day" contest planned with an overall prize pool. So get ready for some interesting twists this year from us.

[DOUGHBOYS]

I believe we are getting a lot closer with DC events. The one, two, and four hour options have helped a lot.
The time cut in half after round 30 is also well-received.
One thing that should be addressed is a drafter constantly timing out.
No matter the time of one, two, or four hours, it drags the draft for the 14 other drafters.
A smooth DC Draft is only as good as its worst drafter.
One suggestion that may be used is the three strikes rule.
If a drafter times out three times, he remains on auto for the remainder of the draft.
The penalized drafter can still fill his queue with wanted players, but must remain on auto.
This would eliminate complaints to Greg, Tom, and Darik about drafters constantly timing out as well.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Tom and I are in the Mixed Tout Wars draft tonight at 8 ET. You can follow the draft board here as it's being hosted on the NFBC site:

https://draft.shgn.com/nfc/public/dp/473/grid

[Greg Ambrosius]

I believe we are getting a lot closer with DC events. The one, two, and four hour options have helped a lot.
The time cut in half after round 30 is also well-received.
One thing that should be addressed is a drafter constantly timing out.
No matter the time of one, two, or four hours, it drags the draft for the 14 other drafters.
A smooth DC Draft is only as good as its worst drafter.
One suggestion that may be used is the three strikes rule.
If a drafter times out three times, he remains on auto for the remainder of the draft.
The penalized drafter can still fill his queue with wanted players, but must remain on auto.
This would eliminate complaints to Greg, Tom, and Darik about drafters constantly timing out as well.

I'm not sure if we can program it that way, but I'll ask IT about the three strikes rule. Not a bad idea.

[Tom Kessenich]

Tom and I are in the Mixed Tout Wars draft tonight at 8 ET. You can follow the draft board here as it's being hosted on the NFBC site:

https://draft.shgn.com/nfc/public/dp/473/grid

My current plan for the first five rounds from the 12 hole:

1. Trout
2. Betts
3. Scherzer
4. Yelich
5. Arenado

[Yah Mule]

Yes, we've already said that the Tuesday NFBC $50/50 Teams contest for a free NFBC Main Event entry will be returning. We did this in football through our Fanball DFS site and we sold out all 17 weeks, resulting in 18 FREE 2020 Primetime entries. It was a lot of fun, we filled it up each week with 50 teams and now 18 teams are already entered into our 2019 big contests. It's a win-win for everyone.

Nice!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, some we just decided that next year's new contest will be branded the NFBC Silver Bullet. With football succeeding with this concept, it's time to brand our single-entry national contest the same in each sport.

The NFBC Silver Bullet will arrive like a bullet in 2020.

We have 6+ months to determine the format. I like the direction we're going so far. Keep the thoughts and ideas coming for this new contest.

[JohnP]

Would you ever consider changing the roster requirements from 2 C and 1 UT to 1 C and 2 UT? I would wholeheartedly approve of such a plan.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Would you ever consider changing the roster requirements from 2 C and 1 UT to 1 C and 2 UT? I would wholeheartedly approve of such a plan.

The idea behind the original rules of Rotisserie Baseball was to have us make the tough decisions of putting together a Major League Baseball team. That included filling a starting lineup of stars and having their backups. It also included having at least two catchers on each roster.

In fact, the early leagues were AL-only or NL-only leagues to assimilate how tough it was to do this. Nobody had superstar rosters and it was tough. Not surprisingly, the early founders and players thought Mixed Leagues were making this game too easy.

Finding two catchers is tough, but that's part of the puzzle. It's not meant to be easy. So while I'd never say never, I personally don't have any interest in going to a 1-Catcher format. I know the benefits of doing it, but there's strategy both ways. Just different strategies on how to use the two catchers or use two Utility spots.

More offense!! Give us more offense they say!!!

[Philippe27]

Would you ever consider changing the roster requirements from 2 C and 1 UT to 1 C and 2 UT? I would wholeheartedly approve of such a plan.

The idea behind the original rules of Rotisserie Baseball was to have us make the tough decisions of putting together a Major League Baseball team. That included filling a starting lineup of stars and having their backups. It also included having at least two catchers on each roster.

In fact, the early leagues were AL-only or NL-only leagues to assimilate how tough it was to do this. Nobody had superstar rosters and it was tough. Not surprisingly, the early founders and players thought Mixed Leagues were making this game too easy.

Finding two catchers is tough, but that's part of the puzzle. It's not meant to be easy. So while I'd never say never, I personally don't have any interest in going to a 1-Catcher format. I know the benefits of doing it, but there's strategy both ways. Just different strategies on how to use the two catchers or use two Utility spots.

More offense!! Give us more offense they say!!!

Agreed with Greg and if i can add to this, it doesn't matter if Catchers are awful offensively, we all have to draft them. What makes the 2 catchers interesting is that the replacement value is so low that there's a reason to draft Realmuto and Sanchez early. In a 1 catcher league, you could draft someone like Cervelli in the 30th round so there'd be no reason to draft an early catcher.

The way it is now, the one change that could be interesting is to find a way to make relievers more valuable. They've become an important part of the game and I think we should find a way to draft more of them. Someone like Chad Green is a very good pitcher but because he doesn't get any saves, he doesn't have much value. I'd love to see a format where a guy like Chad Green gets drafted in the top 15 rounds. The more players have value, the more decisions we have to make and thus the more interesting the game.

It's not saves + holds because too many players get holds and that just devalues all the relievers. I don't know if it's adding a category, specific pitchers slots or something else but I think that's the one thing that would make the player pool more interesting. I'd much rather cheer for Green to pitch 2 scoreless innings than play Danny Duffy because he has 2 starts this week.

[JohnP]

Would you ever consider changing the roster requirements from 2 C and 1 UT to 1 C and 2 UT? I would wholeheartedly approve of such a plan.

The idea behind the original rules of Rotisserie Baseball was to have us make the tough decisions of putting together a Major League Baseball team. That included filling a starting lineup of stars and having their backups. It also included having at least two catchers on each roster.

In fact, the early leagues were AL-only or NL-only leagues to assimilate how tough it was to do this. Nobody had superstar rosters and it was tough. Not surprisingly, the early founders and players thought Mixed Leagues were making this game too easy.

Finding two catchers is tough, but that's part of the puzzle. It's not meant to be easy. So while I'd never say never, I personally don't have any interest in going to a 1-Catcher format. I know the benefits of doing it, but there's strategy both ways. Just different strategies on how to use the two catchers or use two Utility spots.

More offense!! Give us more offense they say!!!

Agree - strategy both ways. Seems like it could be even more enjoyable the other way. Maybe even appeal to new / more players? Regarding original founders - they didn't have a team place kicker in the original football rules! Just asking if it could be considered. All good. It's a great game either way.

[Tom Kessenich]

Here's my team in Tout tonight from the 12 hole. REALLY wanted Harper in the first (this is an OBP league) and was shocked he went ahead of me, and especially fourth overall. But I'm pretty happy with this team. Hoping to get back in contention after consecutive putrid years.

C-Yan Gomes
C-Williams Astudillo
1B-Jesus Aguilar
2B-Jose Altuve
SS-Jurickson Profar
3B-Eduardo Escobar
CI-Yonder Alonso
MI-Elvis Andrus
OF-Ronald Acuna
OF-David Dahl
OF-David Peralta
OF-Randal Grichuk
OF-Trey Mancini
UT-DJ LeMahieu

P-Luis Severino
P-Patrick Corbin
P-Madison Bumgarner
P-Rick Porcello
P-Kyle Freeland
P-Jhoulys Chacin
P-Sean Doolittle
P-Pedro Strop
P-Shane Greene

B-Adam Jones
B-Starlin Castro
B-Gio Gonzalez
B-Jeremy Jeffress
B-Justus Sheffield
B-Elias Diaz

[Greg Ambrosius]

I drafted from the 7th spot in tonight's Tout Wars Mixed Draft League. I wanted to build my team around Trea Turner and get a leg up on speed. This is an OBP league, so some players went higher here than in the NFBC, but check out the draft board here:

https://draft.shgn.com/nfc/public/dp/473/grid

Here's my team:

C - Tucker Barnhart
C - Kurt Suzuki
1B - Miguel Cabrera
2B - Jonathan Schoop
SS - Trea Turner
3B - Vlad Guerrero Jr.
MI - Joey Wendle
CI - Josh Donaldson
UT - Khris Davis
OF - Andrew Benitendi
OF - Byron Buxton
OF - Hunter Renfroe
OF - Leonys Martin
OF - Kike Hernandez

P - Justin Verlander
P - Miles Mikolas
P - Tyler Glasnow
P - Hyun Jin-Ryu
P - Anibal Sanchez
P - Matt Harvey
P - Andrew Miller
P - Kenley Jansen
P - Kirby Yates

Reserves:
Ryan Zimmerman
Mike Fiers
Hernan Perez
Joe Ross
Jacob Faria
Keston Huira

[DOUGHBOYS]

One small tweak to the DC's besides the three strike rule for timing out...
Cutting the time in half after the 25th round or at the halfway point of the draft, instead of the 30th round.
By then, all teams have their starting players and a noticeable decline in attention begins among a lot of drafters.

[Red Sox Nation-]

Greg- any chance we can get the post-season contest back? It doesn't compete with the shelf space of the regular season offerings. It was fun the one year offered (KC vs NYM WS year sorry Lowy) If this comes back please open signups by Sept 1st. I can see fans of teams in a pennant race grabbing teams to make the post-season extra fun. Also teams in "the money" will be inclined to risk some of that cash. I thought you nailed the scoring system/rules the last time. If you offered this last year i would have taken down the post-season overall with my Boston 3X squad.

Jason

[Deadheadz]

Suggestion for a small improvement which every online drafter will love:

When you set the parameters for ADP and get the results you wanted, how great would it be if there was a button to “Save To Custom Rankings”??

Then it would be SO easy to load those personalized ADP ranks into the draft you’re starting right away.

I’ll bet IT could whip up such a button pretty easily. Please consider this improvement.

[Darik B]

Suggestion for a small improvement which every online drafter will love:

When you set the parameters for ADP and get the results you wanted, how great would it be if there was a button to “Save To Custom Rankings”??

Then it would be SO easy to load those personalized ADP ranks into the draft you’re starting right away.

I’ll bet IT could whip up such a button pretty easily. Please consider this improvement.

Chris, this already exists (and did last year, too) in the draft room. There is an icon with 4 little lines to the right of the player search box that allows you to create, edit, and save custom lists. They will then be there in any draft room you open.

[Yah Mule]

MLB Announces Agreement To Experiment On Rule Changes In Independent Atlantic League

Increasing the distance from the pitching rubber to home plate by two feet: The worst idea you've ever heard or simply the worst idea ever in history? How many arm injuries do you think would result from this?

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/ ... eague.html

The full list of experimental rule changes:

Home plate umpire assisted in calling balls and strikes by a TrackMan radar tracking system.

No mound visits permitted by players or coaches other than for pitching changes or medical issues.

Pitchers must face a minimum of three batters, or reach the end of an inning before they exit the game, unless the pitcher becomes injured.

Increase the size of 1st, 2nd and 3rd base from 15 inches square to 18 inches square.

Require two infielders to be on each side of second base when a pitch is released (if not, the ball is dead and the umpire shall call a ball).

Time between innings and pitching changes reduced from 2:05 to 1:45.

Distance from pitching rubber to home plate extended 24 inches, in the second half of the season only; with no change to mound height or shape.

Not sure who was calling for larger bases. I do think the radar assisted strike zone and pitchers facing a minimum of three batters are interesting.

[Darik B]

MLB Announces Agreement To Experiment On Rule Changes In Independent Atlantic League

Increasing the distance from the pitching rubber to home plate by two feet: The worst idea you've ever heard or simply the worst idea ever in history? How many arm injuries do you think would result from this?

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/ ... eague.html

The full list of experimental rule changes:

Home plate umpire assisted in calling balls and strikes by a TrackMan radar tracking system.

No mound visits permitted by players or coaches other than for pitching changes or medical issues.

Pitchers must face a minimum of three batters, or reach the end of an inning before they exit the game, unless the pitcher becomes injured.

Increase the size of 1st, 2nd and 3rd base from 15 inches square to 18 inches square.

Require two infielders to be on each side of second base when a pitch is released (if not, the ball is dead and the umpire shall call a ball).

Time between innings and pitching changes reduced from 2:05 to 1:45.

Distance from pitching rubber to home plate extended 24 inches, in the second half of the season only; with no change to mound height or shape.

Not sure who was calling for larger bases. I do think the radar assisted strike zone and pitchers facing a minimum of three batters are interesting.

That honestly might be the dumbest idea I have ever heard. Ever. And I've heard plenty. I live not far from Wisconsin.