Greg Will Have Live Chat, Tuesday, 11 a.m. EST

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:09 am

Have you lived in the 21st century without e-mail for FIVE DAYS? Seriously, think about it. Even when you go on vacation for a week, you somehow check e-mail, right? Well, I've gone FIVE DAYS during the most critical time of our signup period without e-mail and there's no hope in sight for it to return. Yikes.

So it looks like the best way to respond to my fine customers is via the NFBC Message Boards. Tomorrow morning I will appear live to answer any and all questions. I'm leaving for Phoenix on Friday for this weekend's USA Today LABR League auctions and will gladly speculate along with you folks what certain players will go for. I know what I have them listed at, but I have this feeling that big bucks will go for the top stars. Will we (John Zaleski is my LABR partner) pull the trigger this year on the top stars? We'll find out.

Feel free to post questions ahead of time as I'm ready to answer ANYTHING. I haven't been able to B.S. via e-mail with anyone for FIVE DAYS and I need to express myself. Have I told you yet that I've been without e-mail for FIVE DAYS!!!

Unbelievable.

See ya tomorrow and get your butts signed up for the final live events because I want to pick draft spots when I get back from Arizona. This year is filling up so nicely that I can see a perfect fit among the four cities. Let's get it done over the next 10 days. Thanks all and see ya tomorrow.

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:19 am

Ya know Greg, you can setup an email account with Yahoo that costs $10-20 a year that is very secure with tons of feature like spam-control, etc, and comes with a massive amount of free storage. It takes about 2 minutes. Just a thought.

[ February 25, 2008, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: KJ Duke ]

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:36 am

LABR Question for anyone that might want to respond...

Greg and I usually punt saves.

Would you stick with that strategy? Or not? Why?

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:43 am

Two questions...

How many years have you punted saves? In those years, how many times have you won?

Bobby J · Post by **Bobby J** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:47 am

Greg, I am sure I heard somewhere before that you have a blackberry. Don't you have your office emails forwarded to your blackberry?

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:53 am

Originally posted by Bobby J:

Greg, I am sure I heard somewhere before that you have a blackberry. Don't you have your office emails forwarded to your blackberry? Wouldn't that require the office e-mail to work?

...or are we talking home e-mail...not sure.

~Lance

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:53 am

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:

Two questions...

How many years have you punted saves? In those years, how many times have you won? We've come close with 2nd and thirds...

We've punted mainly because the costs are so high for the one cat. They have been coming down. It's more about getting some value, as opposed to doing it just to do it.

We've executed the strategy each year at draft time, just ran into some problems during the season.

The cost of another cat might being even higher in one of the leagues, and we might punt that cat instead of saves. Still working on the viability of that one.

The problem with both is that the star players go for so damn high...

Captain Hook · Post by **Captain Hook** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:55 am

Originally posted by UFS:

LABR Question for anyone that might want to respond...

Greg and I usually punt saves.

Would you stick with that strategy? Or not? Why? You shouldn't plan on punting the category John.

By the same token, I wouldn't overpay for them like some of your competitors do, but there are plenty of unsettled bullpens as of this week and pitchers you will be able to roster for very few dollars that could give you several points in saves - and BTW the only reason to punt saves is to use the extra money to get better hitters and SP - not just to try for your one point in Saves

Bobby J · Post by **Bobby J** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:56 am

there have been times when my email has been down, home or work, cannot access it but emails still forward. Not sure of the severity of the email outage, may be more than I have experienced with mine

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:57 am

Originally posted by UFS:

LABR Question for anyone that might want to respond...

Greg and I usually punt saves.

Would you stick with that strategy? Or not? Why? If what Shandler said is true...that upwards of 40% of saves come from undrafted players...now shave off, say 10% of that due to the "two plus inning-save gobblers" or day off replacements...still leaves 30% on the waiver wire.

Seems grabbing at least ONE solid 30+ save guy would help more than whatever you get from not drafting that guy gets.

You can work the wire for a complementary save guy to get you to lower middle of the cat.

Maybe.

~Lance

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:05 pm

Originally posted by Captain Hook:

quote:Originally posted by UFS:

LABR Question for anyone that might want to respond...

Greg and I usually punt saves.

Would you stick with that strategy? Or not? Why? You shouldn't plan on punting the category John.

By the same token, I wouldn't overpay for them like some of your competitors do, but there are plenty of unsettled bullpens as of this week and pitchers you will be able to roster for very few dollars that could give you several points in saves - and BTW the only reason to punt saves is to use the extra money to get better hitters and SP - not just to try for your one point in Saves

[/QUOTE]That's always been the plan... invest in a few cheapies, even those have gone too high in the past...

Are you going to be there again?

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:08 pm

Originally posted by sportsbettingman:

Seems grabbing at least ONE solid 30+ save guy would help more than whatever you get from not drafting that guy gets.

~Lance Not when they cost 10+% of the budget and you don't get that much in return.

Would rather grab two solid $13-14 SP's and help in more cats..

Captain Hook · Post by **Captain Hook** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:23 pm

Originally posted by UFS:

quote:Originally posted by Captain Hook:

quote:Originally posted by UFS:

LABR Question for anyone that might want to respond...

Greg and I usually punt saves.

Would you stick with that strategy? Or not? Why? You shouldn't plan on punting the category John.

By the same token, I wouldn't overpay for them like some of your competitors do, but there are plenty of unsettled bullpens as of this week and pitchers you will be able to roster for very few dollars that could give you several points in saves - and BTW the only reason to punt saves is to use the extra money to get better hitters and SP - not just to try for your one point in Saves

[/QUOTE]That's always been the plan... invest in a few cheapies, even those have gone too high in the past...

Are you going to be there again? [/QUOTE]

You better bid Fast - they have retained the services of THE best Auctioneer

(apologies to Brady Tinker, but he is just younger and better looking - not better)

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:40 pm

Originally posted by UFS:

quote:Originally posted by sportsbettingman:

Seems grabbing at least ONE solid 30+ save guy would help more than whatever you get from not drafting that guy gets.

~Lance Not when they cost 10+% of the budget and you don't get that much in return.

Would rather grab two solid $13-14 SP's and help in more cats.. [/QUOTE]Ugh...must be the dreaded NL or AL only stuff I stay away from!

In that case the limited supply would jack up their prices...but if everyone was paying for at least one...isn't it a "wash"?

~Lance

Hard Heads · Post by **Hard Heads** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:42 pm

Closers help in 4 categories technically since they typically have low era's and whips's and are decent in K's. The effect is minimal of course, but it is better then that $13-$14 starter that may end up with Barry Zito or Dontrelle Willis numbers.

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:48 pm

Originally posted by Hard Heads:

Closers help in 4 categories technically since they typically have low era's and whips's and are decent in K's. The effect is minimal of course, but it is better then that $13-$14 starter that may end up with Barry Zito or Dontrelle Willis numbers. Like Todd Jones? Dempster?

Even those guys go too high..

We had #1 AL staff last year with Bedard, Jer Weaver, Wang, Hughes, Speier, Shields...

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:52 pm

Originally posted by sportsbettingman:

quote:Originally posted by UFS:

quote:Originally posted by sportsbettingman:

Seems grabbing at least ONE solid 30+ save guy would help more than whatever you get from not drafting that guy gets.

~Lance Not when they cost 10+% of the budget and you don't get that much in return.

Would rather grab two solid $13-14 SP's and help in more cats.. [/QUOTE]Ugh...must be the dreaded NL or AL only stuff I stay away from!

In that case the limited supply would jack up their prices...but if everyone was paying for at least one...isn't it a "wash"?

~Lance [/QUOTE]Mariano finished 9th in saves last year... A lot to pay for that..

We'd love to pay $10 for a guy if we rec'd 4-5 points at the end..

I actually hit Timlin and Hermanson a few years ago for $1 total and walked away with the league.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:08 pm

Originally posted by Bobby J:

Greg, I am sure I heard somewhere before that you have a blackberry. Don't you have your office emails forwarded to your blackberry? I sure do and none are coming through. They blew up our server here, so nothing is coming through and there's no guarantee we'll have the ones that were being sent the last five days. I've never seen such a disaster for such a huge company like ours. I mean, this is affecting every division in our company.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:13 pm

Originally posted by UFS:

LABR Question for anyone that might want to respond...

Greg and I usually punt saves.

Would you stick with that strategy? Or not? Why? NFBC owners must realize that you can make trades in LABR, so it's possible to punt saves on Draft Day but still trade for saves during the season. John and I have tried to load up on offensive stars in the past and then trade for a reliever later so that we get 6-7 points in that category. It worked well two years ago, but last year we didn't get enough offensive production from our extra money spent on offense to make the right trades.

But in a trading league, it is possible to turn that $20 you save on saves in wins and more power and still trade for that one category later on. It's much tougher to do in the NFBC where there is no trading allowed.

That's not an answer to the question, just a little info to those who are saying not to punt saves this year.

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:13 pm

Just a buzzed thought...

Seems like although the closers values are volatile and moody...there are no more real question marks as to who will close than the "standard" year...

BUT...

This year seems to have more horrible offensive teams than in years past...and thus a better chance for more "bats" to emerge (AL waiver wire) (via playing time/better spots in the lineup/more AB's) on teams like OAK, BAL, KC, etc (even SEA and TOR seem to be changeable)...who's lineups are far from being set in stone.

Therefore drafting a reliable closer may be worth the money???

Just a thought.

~Lance

Hard Heads · Post by **Hard Heads** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:14 pm

Originally posted by UFS:

quote:Originally posted by Hard Heads:

Closers help in 4 categories technically since they typically have low era's and whips's and are decent in K's. The effect is minimal of course, but it is better then that $13-$14 starter that may end up with Barry Zito or Dontrelle Willis numbers. Like Todd Jones? Dempster?

Even those guys go too high..

We had #1 AL staff last year with Bedard, Jer Weaver, Wang, Hughes, Speier, Shields... [/QUOTE]And still 1 point in saves. Punting a category is usually good to give you at best a 3rd place finish. Rarely can you win punting a category. Never said it can't be done, but real tough. If you haven't won yet, maybe a new strategy is in order?

Chest Rockwell · Post by **Chest Rockwell** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:16 pm

Originally posted by sportsbettingman:

Just a buzzed thought...

Seems like although the closers values are volatile and moody...there are no more real question marks as to who will close than the "standard" year...

BUT...

This year seems to have more horrible offensive teams than in years past...and thus a better chance for more "bats" to emerge (AL waiver wire) (via playing time/better spots in the lineup/more AB's) on teams like OAK, BAL, KC, etc (even SEA and TOR seem to be changeable)...who's lineups are far from being set in stone.

Therefore drafting a reliable closer may be worth the money???

Just a thought.

~Lance Lance- no need to clarify that it is a buzzed thought. It is assumed.

Greg- I do not know much about these leagues. Is a mixed auction going to happen there? If so how many teams? Do they post results in the near future?

sportsbettingman · Post by **sportsbettingman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:16 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by Bobby J:

Greg, I am sure I heard somewhere before that you have a blackberry. Don't you have your office emails forwarded to your blackberry? I sure do and none are coming through. They blew up our server here, so nothing is coming through and there's no guarantee we'll have the ones that were being sent the last five days. I've never seen such a disaster for such a huge company like ours. I mean, this is affecting every division in our company. [/QUOTE]First the "spam MB signups" ruining the MB photos...now this!

Tell the truth...what computer virus making player did you **** off in years past???

Kidding...but geez!

Edited to add..."Sweet...mail just came...NFBC mag #2! Gotta go!" (No lotion!

c'mon!)

~Lance

[ February 25, 2008, 07:25 PM: Message edited by: sportsbettingman ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:41 pm

Originally posted by sportsbettingman:

quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by Bobby J:

Greg, I am sure I heard somewhere before that you have a blackberry. Don't you have your office emails forwarded to your blackberry? I sure do and none are coming through. They blew up our server here, so nothing is coming through and there's no guarantee we'll have the ones that were being sent the last five days. I've never seen such a disaster for such a huge company like ours. I mean, this is affecting every division in our company. [/QUOTE]First the "spam MB signups" ruining the MB photos...now this!

Tell the truth...what computer virus making player did you **** off in years past???

Kidding...but geez!

Edited to add..."Sweet...mail just came...NFBC mag #2! Gotta go!" (No lotion!

c'mon!)

~Lance [/QUOTE]I agree Lance, all is not good here in IT land.

Now what's worse, we haven't even received any copies of our second baseball mag yet from the printers. Our subscribers like you get them before we do. I sure wish I could see my own magazine. As Vince Lombardi liked to say, "What the hell is going on around here???"

poopy tooth · Post by **poopy tooth** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:11 pm

Now what's worse, we haven't even received any copies of our second baseball mag yet from the printers...I sure wish I could see my own magazine. You'll probably want to fire the editor once you see he has you picking the Mets to win the World Series!