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Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:05 am
by Greg Ambrosius
MGM announced last night that they are closing all Las Vegas properties starting today for the next two weeks. Businesses are shutting down throughout the country and if we can stop the spread of this virus and this is what we have to do then good. Let's contain this bastard and kill it.

I will try to reach my contact at Park MGM this week, but I can't imagine a scenario that they hold us to our contact now. Either way, let's all be vigilant going forward and hope that what we are doing as a country now with isolating ourselves and shutting down businesses works and we get control of this virus and our lives very soon. Once we have any clarity on the rest of our lives, we can discuss with more clarity what happens with MLB and then eventually what happens with the NFBC contests. Thanks all and STAY SAFE/HEALTHY.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:23 am
by Ultrarunner
Anyone who wants to join me on “social distancing” excursions of 10-24 miles in the backwoods of Ohio is welcome. :lol:

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:59 am
by mdecav
Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Sun Mar 15, 2020 11:58 am

And yes, bowling is a sport. In fact, if they really want to show bowling as a sport they should show Shawn Childs' league bowling live on TV. He has a 200+ average in one league bowling right-handed and a 200+ average in another league bowling left-hand. NOW THAT'S A SPORT!!! AND THAT'S AN ATHLETE!! :lol:
Bowling is not a sport. Bowling is a game.

There are four event types: sport, competition, contest, game.

A sport requires 1) defense, and 2) frequent injury risk.
A competition has injury risk but no defense.
Contests are judged.
Games have no injury risk, but could have defense.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:01 am
by Greg Ambrosius
I will post our latest announcement here so that nobody posts in our official statement thread. An email will go out to everyone as well shortly:

Everyone,

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Be safe and do all you can to keep your family healthy. Our world has changed since I last updated things a few days ago and we are all in lockdown mode right now. Baseball is secondary. Your family's health is first and foremost, so do all you can to stay safe and to stay healthy.

That being said, we want to be as communicative and transparent as we can be with our NFBC participants. The latest from here is that we have done everything possible to cancel leagues that have no chance of resuming and to put that money back on your player accounts. We cancelled and deleted all live NFBC Auction Championship leagues, the AL & NL Auction leagues, the Diamond Auction and the Ultimate Auction. All of those contests were deleted on Friday and money was put back on your accounts then. If they were put on your accounts as a credit, they are being transferred by us to money on your accounts right now. That should be done by the end of today.

To get refunds from your player account, just click the icon in the upper right where the money is showing and pull down to Request Payment. There you can get a check payment or money back on your credit card.

Today we also deleted the only full Cutline Championship league on March 26th and moved all of those entries to TBD. We also deleted 11 full Rotowire Online Championship leagues from March 21-26 where KDS had not yet run and moved all of those entries to TBD. We realize that everyone that signed up for those dates likely wanted to draft as close to Opening Day as possible and therefore it made sense to move those entries back to TBD.

There are four full future $50 private DC leagues and Satellite leagues and we've left those intact because there are no national prizes involved. Those are planned to go as scheduled. There are two full Online Auction Championship leagues still intact as well, but if you want to leave one of those contact us personally and we'll decide to find a replacement or move all of those entries to TBDs.

As for drafts going forward, we have left Registration open because people have continued to draft for what I believe are therapeutic reasons. I don't know how to explain it, but I really think people still want to be engaged and still want to stay in contact with others. We will keep the current offerings as is and we'll monitor any and all drafts/auctions that fill. We all are unsure of the future of baseball, but for now I think people see the draft/auction rooms as a comfort zone and a place for entertainment or a challenge or whatever. We will remain open for business and monitor any that take place. We haven't discussed what we offer after March 26th, but hope to have more direction in the coming days from our government, from baseball, from anyone.

As for the national contests, we know everyone has questions on how we will handle those and the guaranteed prizes. Obviously, it's impossible to get specific, but at this point it's business as usual for the NFBC Main Event, the Rotowire Online Championship, the NFBC Cutline Championship, the NFBC Solo Shot and the NFBC Draft Champions National Championship. We are not adjusting the prizes and we are hoping that one day there will be a start to the season. We have not held any drafts for the Main Event or the Solo Shot yet, but we are hopeful that demand will meet our expectations if there is a representative season in 2020.

If that happens, we will load up the last two weeks before Opening Day with Online Main Events, Solo Shots and times for the other national contests. I have no idea if we could slip in live events in one or more cities, so let's all hold off on that until we get closer to baseball resuming. I know there will be requests for that, but we have no idea about safety for everyone, hotel availability, travel availability, etc. So let's hold off on those discussions for now, but once we have a plan in place, we can move all TBDs to desired dates, times, locations.

Everything else is dependent on the future of Major League Baseball. We can't discuss the fairness of early drafts vs. later drafts until we know what "later" means. We can't guarantee there will be a "representative" season until we know what Major League Baseball plans to do. If they start in June or July, will they push the season well into November and December and host games at warm weather neutral sites? Will they start earlier than we think now and play in stadiums without fans? Will they really hold a half season or a season of 100 or less games? Will it get so bad with the coronavirus that the entire season is cancelled?

I can't answer any of those questions any better than you can, so let me stay on top of this the best I can, communicate what we are doing and then move forward after more facts are known. We are doing all we can to communicate our plans to you and we are refunding any contest that has no chance of happening. Hopefully we will get through this and get back to work, keep our families safe and eventually enjoy a baseball season.

But until then, work with us to stay on top of the situation and be flexible with your plans. If we do that and if Major League Baseball resumes, we'll be on the same page for the next steps. That's the best we can do with everything unknown today. Thanks all and stay safe.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:03 am
by Yah Mule
mdecav wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:59 am
Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Sun Mar 15, 2020 11:58 am

And yes, bowling is a sport. In fact, if they really want to show bowling as a sport they should show Shawn Childs' league bowling live on TV. He has a 200+ average in one league bowling right-handed and a 200+ average in another league bowling left-hand. NOW THAT'S A SPORT!!! AND THAT'S AN ATHLETE!! :lol:
Bowling is not a sport. Bowling is a game.

There are four event types: sport, competition, contest, game.

A sport requires 1) defense, and 2) frequent injury risk.
A competition has injury risk but no defense.
Contests are judged.
Games have no injury risk, but could have defense.
I strongly agree about defense being a necessary component. Golfers do not appreciate mention of this caveat.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:43 am
by Southern Comfort
Not sure if this has already been covered but what about drafts that have already taken place? Are we just going to keep those teams despite the drastic changes happening? Most of my teams are good but here and there I have guys that will have completely different outlooks whenever new OD is (IE will Pineda even come back from suspension this year for those that drafted him hoping for may return)

Why not just refund all $$ instead of upcoming only. Once we have a new OD i'm sure everyone will be back but atleast owners will not have thousands of dollars (that they may need right now) tied up into teams that were drafted off a march OD timeframe

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:22 pm
by Deadheadz
Hi guys.

I opened this thread and searched “Cutline FAAB” but got no results so I’m hoping that means my questions aren’t already addressed.

With the season on hold I’m assuming there will not be a FAAB run on April 7 as per the rules. If the season is shortened significantly, will there still be two FAAB periods or just one?

I’m sure most decisions will have to wait but Cutline players need to know if you’re still running FAAB on April 7 or not. If you do not, it likely means you can keep running new Cutline leagues past that date right up to the start of the season.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:56 pm
by Bronx Yankees
Southern Comfort wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:43 am
Not sure if this has already been covered but what about drafts that have already taken place? Are we just going to keep those teams despite the drastic changes happening? Most of my teams are good but here and there I have guys that will have completely different outlooks whenever new OD is (IE will Pineda even come back from suspension this year for those that drafted him hoping for may return)

Why not just refund all $$ instead of upcoming only. Once we have a new OD i'm sure everyone will be back but atleast owners will not have thousands of dollars (that they may need right now) tied up into teams that were drafted off a march OD timeframe
I do not agree with this suggestion at all. In fact, I strongly disagree, at least at this time.

First, it obviously would not be fair for the NFBC to cancel isolated drafts that were completed prior to the virus; as a practical matter, if there's baseball, the NFBC likely will either have to play all of those leagues out or cancel them all. Thus, your suggestion means that everybody's drafts would have to be cancelled (including those who don't want them cancelled), and the NFBC would have to essentially refund all of the revenues it has realized to date from baseball - a huge ask in my opinion.

Second, what about owners who do not want their teams cancelled? I fall into that boat. Not because the delayed season is working to my advantage; if anything, it is not, because I try very hard to avoid drafting injured players (who now may not miss time) and in most cases tend to value young starting pitchers who are innings limited less than most owners (and those pitchers' relative value now increases with a shorter season). Rather, I want my leagues to play out because: (a) I spent a hell of a lot of time preparing and drafting those teams (10 Draft Champions teams); and (b) I had a damn good time drafting those teams, and so feel like I've already gotten a lot of my money's worth in terms of entertainment value.

Third, while no one could have anticipated this pandemic and the delay to the season starting - least of all the NFBC - we all went into these drafts prepared for uncertainties and unknowns to work for and against us. We drafted teams knowing our players could get hurt before the season started. We drafted teams knowing hurt guys that we passed on could miss less time than forecast. We drafted teams knowing players could be traded into better or worse situations in terms of teams, ballparks, roles, etc. We drafted teams knowing any player could get suspended without warning for a variety of reasons. You say that "Most of my teams are good," so why ask to cancel all leagues and require the NFBC to refund a shitload of money? The fact is, we all rolled the dice and drafted early for many reasons - including a love of baseball and fantasy baseball - and no matter how you look at it, we did so on a level playing field, under the same rules, and knowing that the unexpected could help some teams and hurt others. Moreover, if you drafted well enough, and manage your teams well during the season, unhelpful surprises still can be overcome.

Fourth, I think we need to support the NFBC, or at least be sensitive to their predicament, none of which is its fault or doing. All of us have enjoyed the NFBC's leagues, many of us for a lot years, and also enjoy the many friendships we have made through the NFBC. For those fortunate enough to attend live drafts, those are some of the best weekends of the year for many of us. I'd love to see the NFBC remain as strong as possible and prosper. If there's some way to salvage the real baseball season in any representative form, and by doing so also salvage the 2020 fantasy baseball season, that would be a great outcome as far as I'm concerned, irrespective of whether the season is 150 games, 140 games, 120 games, etc. Greg, Tom and Darik will make a call on drafted leagues at the appropriate time based on the best available information, which is not available currently. Let's give them the space to do that.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:09 pm
by Bigperl
Well said, Mike. I totally agree.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:22 pm
by Greg Ambrosius
Deadheadz wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:22 pm
Hi guys.

I opened this thread and searched “Cutline FAAB” but got no results so I’m hoping that means my questions aren’t already addressed.

With the season on hold I’m assuming there will not be a FAAB run on April 7 as per the rules. If the season is shortened significantly, will there still be two FAAB periods or just one?

I’m sure most decisions will have to wait but Cutline players need to know if you’re still running FAAB on April 7 or not. If you do not, it likely means you can keep running new Cutline leagues past that date right up to the start of the season.
You didn't look very hard. It's posted on the Official Statement thread that all FAAB has been postponed until the week before whatever the new Opening Day is. Yes, there will be two Cutline FAABs and playoffs, but no idea at this point when that will be or how that will look because nobody has any idea how long the regular season will be...IF THERE IS A REGULAR SEASON.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:24 pm
by Greg Ambrosius
This is the thread for debates and I'm not going to dive into any of these debates until I know more about the upcoming season. But I would just like to say that "I am running for Commissioner of the NFBC and I approve of Mike Mager's message!" :lol:

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:49 pm
by Yah Mule
Mager will eventually sum up exactly how I feel about most major NFBC topics. :lol:

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:53 pm
by Southern Comfort
Inspirational.....But did not alleviate my main concerns..

--Yes drafting is therapuetic in itself (6 leagues & counting) however just like there are owners who are ok with the status quo there will be others who are not. Warm fuzzies is a secondary objective on this site we are here to win $$ doing what we love.

--Owners spend hours draft prepping based on specific format IE 162 games, 3/26 OD, etc whether its my first DC back in november or the one last week. Stating we should be "prepared for uncertanties and unknowns" is one thing in regards to injuries, trade chances, etc; even a players suspension probability can be guesstimated every player is measured on injury history, contract length trade likelihood. Its quite another thing in regards to a worldwide pandemic and mass cancellations.

--IE your example: Some owners may have an affinity for drafting young pitchers with innings limit. And since OD, as of 5min ago, is now delayed to May (and probably gonna be June based on 8 week restriction timeframes) those young guys may get a full season now, even rookies may be on OD rosters since service time concerns will no longer be in play. But what about the owners who paid premium for innings horses, 200 IP guys who may now see the same amount of innings as the capped young'ins, oft-injured guys or rookies? There is no injury history to calculate no analysis, the value of players for drafted leagues is simply no longer applicable across the board.

--I'm sure in every league there is an owner who went young and light on arms and maxed out bats. And I'm sure there is also owners who invested heavily into his staff with the understanding that his aces would be 30-40% better than average on innings and counting stats. Thru no fault of their own, no injuries nothing, one of those owners is now at an advantage and one is at a disadvantage. You can tell an owner "well he always injured you should not have drafted him" you cannot say "well you should have known that DeGrom you paid $40 for is now gonna throw the same innings and get the same wins as........Rich Hill lmao".

--In regards to the site as a whole there will be a ripple effect. Refunding all leagues brings everyone back to an even playing field and prevents future conflict. Letting owners draft now with the understanding that there is no set OD is fair, but for the previously drafted leagues there will be malcontents, owners who do not have a chance to alter and reformat draft strategy for a 100 game schedule instead of a 162 game.

And yea I like my teams, still does not change the facts. Hell I'm a fanatic the thought of having to possibly re-do drafts is exciting. I dont see nfbc taking such a big loss financially, they should have some type of $$ reserve for emergencies, plus most owners will simply put their $$ back into leagues lol nfbc owners are a different breed of fantasy baseball lovers.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:23 pm
by Doctor Who
Southern,

While I get your concerns, let me explain to you the ramifications of what you are proposing. I’m probably speaking out of turn as I have nothing to do with the NFBC and know nothing about their financials from the inside...

The “diehards” you refer to are smaller than you think. A lot of first time players or low stakes players are what makes the NFBC tick now. While the diehards May spend 10’s of thousands of dollars, I feel as though that is minute compared to the newer players they bring in and need those players the most for their bottom line.

By canceling all these leagues, the NFBC, in my opinion MIGHT be in trouble if they weren’t able to have a season. They have always paid out and am not afraid of them not refunding money like other shit establishments in the past, but would you be willing to chance the NFBC not being here next year?

Not all those first time players will want to rejoin like you say as it is chaotic as it is already, and likely just will want to avoid the season in whole.

Again, Greg will probably hate this post, and I hope I’m 100% wrong in my assumptions, but a canceled season would suck for their business going forward.

So while I get you may have legitimate concerns over a couple thousand dollars worth of already drafted teams, let’s let Greg and company take care of what they need to do first (ie a timeline from Mlb would be nice), before really going into this or that. Greg has always made the right decisions in the end, so give him time and space. I know Greg, Tom, and Darik are beyond stressed with the daily emails and the what if’s while their baby lays in the balance.

Yes, this is worst case scenario I laid out above, but how about we all just take a deep breath, spend time with the family, and let time pass where good decisions can be made in the future with more data and more of a timeline. Just my 2 cents of course.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:58 pm
by Deadheadz
“Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances” :lol:

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:31 pm
by Gekko
Southern Comfort wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:53 pm

You can tell an owner "well he always injured you should not have drafted him" you cannot say "well you should have known that DeGrom you paid $40 for is now gonna throw the same innings and get the same wins as........Rich Hill lmao".
i only drafted 3 leagues this offseason, my lowest number by far. i have rich hill on all 3 teams. degrom on zero ;)

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:33 pm
by steveymer2
There are at least two separate questions here.

The first is something like "What's the fair way to handle leagues that drafted before the season was delayed?" or "What maintains the integrity of overall contests?". The second is something like "How would canceling leagues that drafted before the season was delayed impact the NFBC financially?". I won't pretend to be able to speak toward the second question intelligently. But I expect Greg, et al. would agree that the first question takes priority over the second. What makes the NFBC stand out is in large part its overall competitions and its integrity.

They don't need to answer that first question yet - if things play out in some ways, like a tournament or canceled season, the answer will be obvious (or the question moot). But there are other ways that things could play out which will make it very difficult to answer the question of what to do with already-drafted leagues. Whenever things become clear, they'll probably want to make a decision pretty quickly and so I'd encourage them to gather opinions and start thinking about it soon (if they're not already).

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:37 pm
by Gekko
Bronx Yankees wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:56 pm
no one could have anticipated this pandemic and the delay to the season starting
Hi Mike - I stay in touch with a number of NFBC'ers throughout the offseason. about a week before NYC weekend, i know a couple of us were adjusting our Weekend 1 draft strategy and player rankings due to a possible delayed MLB start.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:39 pm
by Gekko
bringing in Chad's post from a different thread, as it's very relevant and well said...
Cocktails and Dreams wrote:
Thu Mar 12, 2020 11:11 pm
No skin in the game here, but basically the NFBC is in an impossible spot. There are guaranteed prizes that must be met in overall contests, people that will be disgruntled if they don't have the right strategy for the circumstances, and many other issues. I wish them well through these very difficult decisions they face. These are good men that are forced to make these brutal calls. I just hope that people can respect their calls and not judge them based on if it was to their benefit or not.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:42 pm
by Gekko
Bronx Yankees wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:56 pm
I think we need to support the NFBC, or at least be sensitive to their predicament, none of which is its fault or doing. All of us have enjoyed the NFBC's leagues, many of us for a lot years, and also enjoy the many friendships we have made through the NFBC. For those fortunate enough to attend live drafts, those are some of the best weekends of the year for many of us. I'd love to see the NFBC remain as strong as possible and prosper. If there's some way to salvage the real baseball season in any representative form, and by doing so also salvage the 2020 fantasy baseball season, that would be a great outcome as far as I'm concerned, irrespective of whether the season is 150 games, 140 games, 120 games, etc. Greg, Tom and Darik will make a call on drafted leagues at the appropriate time based on the best available information, which is not available currently. Let's give them the space to do that.
+1,000. well said, Mike!

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:16 pm
by Bronx Yankees
Gekko wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:37 pm
Bronx Yankees wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:56 pm
no one could have anticipated this pandemic and the delay to the season starting
Hi Mike - I stay in touch with a number of NFBC'ers throughout the offseason. about a week before NYC weekend, i know a couple of us were adjusting our Weekend 1 draft strategy and player rankings due to a possible delayed MLB start.
Hey, Mark. Was doing the same. Lots of adjustments were being made on my end that last week just in case. My sentence quoted above really refers to most of the drafting season prior to this virus really ratcheting up. For instance, I did all of my DC drafts in November through mid-February, when this wasn’t even on the horizon - at least for me - and I doubt many were anticipating a delayed start to the season when the vast majority of drafts were started and finished. We did, however, draft early knowing that stuff could change for better or worse (and it sure did). Hopefully, we’ll get some semblance of a baseball season and fantasy baseball season starting in May or June.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:56 pm
by Gekko
Bronx Yankees wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 5:16 pm
Hey, Mark. Was doing the same. Lots of adjustments were being made on my end that last week just in case. My sentence quoted above really refers to most of the drafting season prior to this virus really ratcheting up. For instance, I did all of my DC drafts in November through mid-February, when this wasn’t even on the horizon - at least for me - and I doubt many were anticipating a delayed start to the season when the vast majority of drafts were started and finished. We did, however, draft early knowing that stuff could change for better or worse (and it sure did). Hopefully, we’ll get some semblance of a baseball season and fantasy baseball season starting in May or June.
100% agree with you on the early drafts.

also, not surprised you also picked up on how serious this issue was and started to make adjustments for your live events strategy/rankings. you are a top notch competitor and nothing gets by you.

i'm keeping the knives sharpened in anticipation of good news in the coming weeks!

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 6:57 pm
by Gekko
Hey, some baseball news...

“Aaron Boone told @MLBNetworkRadio that whenever Opening Day does occur, he believes Aaron Judge, James Paxton and Giancarlo Stanton could all be healthy and ready to go.”

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:21 pm
by Frozen Tundra
It is completely unrealistic to expect NFBC to cancel the hundreds of drafts that have been completed and refund our money. I daresay the vast majority of us don't want them in jeopardy of going out of business. And I, for one, have zero interest in redrafting my teams. And any number of teams get drafted even before spring training and those owners clearly are taking their chances on what may transpire by the time the season starts.

Re: Open Chat With Greg, Tom & Darik

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 1:22 am
by rkulaski
Gekko wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:37 pm
Bronx Yankees wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:56 pm
no one could have anticipated this pandemic and the delay to the season starting
Hi Mike - I stay in touch with a number of NFBC'ers throughout the offseason. about a week before NYC weekend, i know a couple of us were adjusting our Weekend 1 draft strategy and player rankings due to a possible delayed MLB start.
That’s 1 whole week. He’s referring to a much longer time period to make this point... January DCs for example. NO ONE was anticipating this a few months ago.