NFBC Site Update Thread: Updates From Greg

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:37 am

Okay, I will stick this thread at the top of General Discussion for the rest of the week and then hopefully throw it away forever. But we need one sticky message with updates on the site so that everyone can see what is happening and just go here for the latest details. If you have questions about anything, grab a secondary thread and ask me there. I'll them summarize for you and post the reply here. Sound good?

Okay, let's get to the latest updates first and then summarize how we got there in following posts. Here's where we're at:

** We have completed all roster updates and starting lineups for everyone who contacted us should be good to go. We did not see any issues with the starting lineup changes. Most were pretty damn obvious ones, active players for guys on the DL. We also corrected the illegal rosters that included Jeff Clement at C; all of those happened through free agency this week and were corrected with drops that put their backup catcher back on their rosters. This all worked well today.

** Now that the rosters are set, John and his team are finalizing and running the league standings and we'll likely post those on your team pages tonight through Monday's games. Those standings will appear on your league home page and soon we will update the look of your league home page with standings near the top. We understand the importance of seeing that first along with a league message board. Overall standings will follow after league standings are posted. Tomorrow morning all of this should run on time like we had planned. Today was the exception as we couldn't run standings before rosters were legal and finalized.

** Sunday's stats are corrected now and everyone who had active players on Sunday and took them out this week have those stats correctly calculated in their team totals. It was displaying wrong earlier today, but is correct now. Go to Stats link, Team Stats and then pull down to Period 1 for Sunday's totals from your active players and bench players. Go to Period 2 for this week's totals.

** Week 1 is the Sunday game and weeks 2 through 27 are the regular season weeks. We do have two scoring periods per week, but this was the case last year too and we still had just one scoring period. That looks to be the same thing here on the Fanball site.

** We added league message boards for each league home page. I hope we make those more prominent soon, but they are there.

** When you go to Rosters and Set Roster, you can now set your starting lineups for the Friday-Sunday period, 4/9-4/11. Remember, this year our rules allow you to move any active starting hitter to reserve on Friday as long as the reserve you move to your starting lineup still keeps your roster legal. Hitters can be moved out freely on Friday, five minutes before the first game. Pitchers can be moved from reserve to active on Fridays but only if the active pitcher is officially on the MLB DL list.

** We will or already have added the red MLB DL designation. If a player does not have that by 12:01 am ET on Friday, then that player is not officially on the DL according to MLB. We get this feed from STATS who gets this from MLB, so even though you may have heard that this player is going on the DL, it's not official with us until the red DL label is there.

** Teams will be able to set starting lineups for Week 3 (4/12/-4/18) shortly. You will be able to do this for the next week shortly after the previous Monday's lineup is final, but this week we are delaying the timetable slightly for next week to make sure we get these rosters finalized and league standings run first. But you will get access soon to set your Week 3 starting lineup in advance of next week's start.

** We are working on Live Scoring to make this workable and Live Standings will follow shortly after we officially run league standings. We were able to support Live Scoring on Internet Explorer 7.0 last night, but some folks said it was spotty. Some said it worked on Firefox and others said it was spotty. We are looking at that now. We know how important this is to you, along with Live Standings, and we will work hard this week to get this working well.

I will add to this post and thread throughout tonight, but this is the latest update and I'll sticky this and keep it at the top all week long. Thanks for your patience all and I appreciate you allowing us to get everything straight over the last 32 hours.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:56 am

Let me just update how we got to this point:

** On Sunday night we ran FAAB around 12:30 pm and it was apparent immediately that something did not run right. The IT guys did try to correct it until early in the morning and could not get it right. We reassessed in the morning and decided to re-run FAAB a second time once the "bug" was fixed. We did that about 1:30 pm ET and FAAB winners were posted a short time after that.

Of the 1,500+ teams that had FAAB bids, the re-running of FAAB reset their starting lineups for Monday and we allowed owners to email in those starting lineup changes and manually made each of those over the last 32 hours. Seven games had started before FAAB was run and those games were locked out. We allowed teams to make lineup changes for players in games that had not started yet and we changed the rosters for any players that were locked out early. Many of the moves were like Brendan Ryan for Jose Reyes, and Kyle Lohse for Brad Lidge, etc. Tom, Geoff and myself did this and completed all transactions earlier this afternoon.

** Again, because FAAB was re-run it jumbled those starting lineups. We had to re-run FAAB to get it right and it sure looks like it ran right the second time. But setting the starting lineup for hundreds of teams was time-consuming.

** We did not run league standings on Tuesday morning because we were still entering some roster changes and because there were some illegal lineups. League standings should run tonight to cover through Monday's games and then it will run on time each morning after that.

** Jeff Clement was incorrectly listed as C last week in FAAB and we reversed those free agent pickups that made rosters illegal with only one eligible catcher. I'm not sure how he got on the list as C-eligible, but we corrected 12 teams that acquired him that way and had illegal rosters.

** Free agent lists now contain just players on MLB 25-man rosters and players who were drafted, sent to the minors and cut on Sunday. The free agent pool is now pared much more than last week's list and should flow more easily.

We are working on league standings now and Live Scoring and Live Standings. Hopefully this explains what happened since Sunday night when FAAB ran incorrectly. We eventually got it right, we got Monday's starting lineups as right as we could despite the late running of FAAB, and with no Tuesday afternoon games we seem to be catching up to the games at hand.

TRAIN · Post by **TRAIN** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:33 am

Greg - Appreciate the explanation and sequencing of events. It helps to understand what was going on.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:28 pm

** League standings are posted now through Monday's games. They are on your league pages. We'll run standings tomorrow morning through today's games.

B&B · Post by **B&B** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 3:30 pm

Greg - you keep saying standings through Monday's games. Are you also scoring Sunday's game too in League Standings and Live Scoring/Standings pages?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:25 am

I will add the problem of league standings being wrong this morning to this sticky thread and post whatever happened last night here when I learn more. I apologize that standings seem to be off from the correct totals and I will update this thread as soon as I can. Obviously everything has been saved correctly within the software and now we have to get correct totals, standings, period totals displayed properly. Sorry again.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:33 am

Okay, here's the latest update: All of the stats are correct in the system through last night's games. Obviously the function to total them up is not correct and we are re-running all league standings now. The function to total up the rank points is not calculating correctly. We are re-running those now.

I don't know exactly where we programmed wrong, but obviously this is fixable this morning and we'll have league standings correct shortly. I apologize for the mistakes, but we will correct them shortly and Tom will post here when that is done. I have to run for the day and will be out of touch, but Tom will update everything. Sorry folks, but hopefully this is the last mistake we can make.

At least scoring is all correct. Standings were wrong and the calculation of standings and some stats (BA) were wrong.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:08 pm

Remember that part of our Friday moves rule is that you can move a pitcher who is active this week to your reserve if that pitcher is officially on the MLB DL list by 12:01 am ET on Friday. Those players will have a red cross next to their names. Some already have that now.

If you have that pitcher active, you can switch that pitcher to your reserve by Friday, five minutes before the first game. You can activate another pitcher for the weekend's games.

Right now the system allows you to move the DL pitcher to reserve but not allow you to move the reserve pitcher to the active roster. That is being fixed right now. Some of you have emailed us about this and it should be active tonight yet. I'll update this thread when it's live, but it definitely will be live shortly, allowing you to make these moves for this weekend.

Good luck all. And remember that you can move hitters out of your starting lineup for this weekend's games as long as you have reserves that keep your active roster legal.

Scott Boras · Post by **Scott Boras** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:18 pm

Hey Greg, any updates on waiver history so we can track who was dropped in each league? Also what about our FAAB budget? When will be able to see how much $ teams have remaining? Lastly, will we be able to see yesterday's stats under our team stats like we have in year's past?

Thanks, Greg.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:48 pm

Originally posted by Scott Boras:

Hey Greg, any updates on waiver history so we can track who was dropped in each league? Also what about our FAAB budget? When will be able to see how much $ teams have remaining? Lastly, will we be able to see yesterday's stats under our team stats like we have in year's past?

Thanks, Greg. We are pushing on all of those requests. I had heard possibly by tonight, but if not soon. I agree we need all of this and I know it's being worked on.

I do not know about yesterday's stats, but I'll find out. We should be able to do that.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:49 pm

The Friday DL move for pitchers is not functional.

I believe unlike last year, if you do move a player from active to the DL and add a reserve, you can switch your reserve choices that you want in the active roster. This was not available last year; once you picked a player you had to stick with that player from your reserve. I think we have taken this one step further and allowed you to change your mind before the Friday deadline. Someone confirm that if you happen to do this.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:51 pm

All league free agent pools should now be correct. We had a few players missing earlier in the week, but this is done individually for each league now. Sorry for any delays on getting every player entered. Please look through your lists again before Sunday's FAAB deadline because it's possible a few players were added today.

Gekko · Post by **Gekko** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:51 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

I don't know exactly where we programmed wrong, but obviously this is fixable this morning and we'll have league standings correct shortly. I apologize for the mistakes Greg - I really feel bad for you, Tom, and Geoff. you guys are forced to pick up the pieces of a programming group that is either one of three things:

1) high school interns

2) faced with impossible project timelines because the HNIC stinks as a manager

3) given incomplete instructions on what the nfbc players need/demand because the HNIC stinks as a manager

YOU, TOM AND GEOFF TAKE OWNERSHIP FOR THE THINGS YOU GUYS DO. HOWEVER YOU GUYS DON'T DO PROGRAMMING, NOR DO YOU MANAGE PROGRAMMERS.

HOW BOUT WE GET THE PERSON MANAGING THE PROGRAMMERS ON THE MESSAGE BOARD AND ASK HIM SOME QUESTIONS?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:07 pm

Mark, there is no time for self-pity or calling out folks or even questions to those tied to the stake. We had some unfinished items that I honestly thought had been in place, especially since Fanball has been doing the commissioner side, FAAB and stats interface for years. I think everyone thought this was thoroughly tested and looked at before we unveiled everything to you. But some features certainly were not fool-proof and right now we look a bit foolish.

But I think you know me well enough by now that all I/we can do is address the problems and fix them AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Folks are saying they are disappointed in me and us and everyone involved. They are taking shots at us on other boards and rightfully so. It's an embarrassing start to presenting stats from the season's first three days. For those who are new to the NFBC, this is not the first impression we wanted to give. This is supposed to be the best of the best and so far we've been less than best.

But I do know that the baseball season is a marathon and I also know that all of the free agent bids and stats are now correct. We need to be PERFECT during these last 178 days of the season and prove that we are a winning team: Me, Tom, Geoff, John, Cory, TJ, Ryan, Charlie, Brian, Henry, Carol, Tarra, Carlos, Kevin, Jeff, everyone involved here at Fanball. If any of us drop the ball going forward, the consumer will definitely let us know next year what they think of us by not paying to play in the NFBC. The consumer is king, not Greg or Tom or Fanball.

I was never lower in my 21+ years in this industry than I was this morning. It really, really, really brought me to a point where I felt I honestly didn't even want to go into work. Thankfully, I got a reality check today of the importance of things by going to a children's hospital and realizing that I can still make a difference at work, but at the end of the day my job isn't life or death. I need to do a better job, as all of us here do, but I saw what others do every day where mistakes are tougher to handle than what I'm facing.

The site can be more functional than what we've had in the past. It doesn't look like that now, but I know it's going to get there. EVERYTHING should have been there from Day One. It wasn't, but I hope it will be soon and then it has to work like we've had it before. Every day.

I want every morning to be fun, to look at the overall standings and the league standings and feel proud. None of us have had that feeling yet and it's a shame. The season is special already. Many of you are off to great starts. We are going to make this work; we have to. And I think we'll be proud again and like what the NFBC represents. But right now after three days, we just have to focus and program and get it right. I have faith that the guys you're calling out will get that done. Give us time to prove that or you'll have an easy decision in 2011.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:24 pm

From what I hear, Transaction History should be ready tomorrow. I should be able to post Winning FAAB Bids, and cuts for all of our various contests tomorrow. We have to push to get this information to you along with the overall standings in our main event and Double Play contests. And Combined Standings. Those are on the agenda to unveil soon. Sorry for the delay, but we have the same "To Do" list as you do.

League Home Page has been adjusted today. There may be more placement changes coming. We know you want League STandings more prominent and bigger league message boards. We have some ideas to make this even better soon.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:18 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

The Friday DL move for pitchers is not functional.

I believe unlike last year, if you do move a player from active to the DL and add a reserve, you can switch your reserve choices that you want in the active roster. This was not available last year; once you picked a player you had to stick with that player from your reserve. I think we have taken this one step further and allowed you to change your mind before the Friday deadline. Someone confirm that if you happen to do this. Greg,

I believe the one-switch option was there so that nobody could game the system.

Is this addressed by the programmers?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:14 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

The Friday DL move for pitchers is not functional.

I believe unlike last year, if you do move a player from active to the DL and add a reserve, you can switch your reserve choices that you want in the active roster. This was not available last year; once you picked a player you had to stick with that player from your reserve. I think we have taken this one step further and allowed you to change your mind before the Friday deadline. Someone confirm that if you happen to do this. Greg,

I believe the one-switch option was there so that nobody could game the system.

Is this addressed by the programmers? [/QUOTE]If you mean this person could replace a reserve guy with a new non-DL guy after his DL guy went to reserve, yes, this has been programmed to be done that way. I'll double and triple check with John and Cory, but I think you see only one option to replace an active guy after you make the switch.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:24 am

I'm better with examples, Greg, so bear with me and my slowness

Gervacio is a dl'ed starter this week.

He is replaced by Oliver Perez

Are the programmers making it so that Perez is the only pitcher that can be moved out of the starting lineup? And that whoever replaces him, with a change of mind, can be the only pitcher moved out of the lineup, etc.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:35 am

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:

I'm better with examples, Greg, so bear with me and my slowness

Gervacio is a dl'ed starter this week.

He is replaced by Oliver Perez

Are the programmers making it so that Perez is the only pitcher that can be moved out of the starting lineup? And that whoever replaces him, with a change of mind, can be the only pitcher moved out of the lineup, etc. I think we're filling up this thread that we said we wouldn't fill up, but yes that's exactly what I understood and answered.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:12 am

Okay, we apologize for not having the Overall Standings live yet for the NFBC Main Event or NFBC Double Play because we know how much you want to see who is leading the national contests. We have that finished and ready for display, but we wanted to make sure we had the rosters and league standings correct before we unveiled this information. The last thing we want today is telling folks where they stand in the race for $100,000 and $60,000 and then having the facts wrong.

So we are going over all of this today and we feel like we now have the stats and standings locked in and ready to go. We may unveil the overall standings today, but Friday for sure. Sorry for the delay and it wasn't our intent to hold these standings for the first four days, but the roster changes and Sunday FAAB set us back a few days. I think we're ready to name our $100,000 and $60,000 LEADERS soon!! Let's do it and recognize our overall leaders each day. Thanks and good luck all.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:28 am

Transaction History is at the top of the agenda today to be finished. I know all of this is almost complete and we will do everything we can to have this today on all of your league pages. I will also post the complete list of Winning FAAB Bids and Cuts on the message boards as soon as I get them. We are setting this up in our Admin section so that Tom and I can copy and paste the entire transaction lists each Monday and post them in separate posts for all to see like we've done during each of the six previous seasons.

Sorry for the delays on all of this. This was another delay from the Sunday FAAB going awry and we'll be back on the right time schedule next week and all weeks going forward. Good luck all and look for your league cuts from Week 1 soon.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:34 am

We will also add a YESTERDAY drop down line of stats to your Team Stats page, hopefully as early as today. We will just add another drop down line that says YESTERDAY on it with the complete day's stats. Thanks for suggesting it and we have the data stored for all of this; now we just need to display it.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:49 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

We will also add a YESTERDAY drop down line of stats to your Team Stats page, hopefully as early as today. We will just add another drop down line that says YESTERDAY on it with the complete day's stats. Thanks for suggesting it and we have the data stored for all of this; now we just need to display it. This is part of the Period pulldown now.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:51 am

We are going to first report the Overall standings on Friday, just to make sure we have all of these working properly. Under Standings we will now have several more links active tomorrow:

Overall (NFBC Main Event, 435 teams)

Online (828 Double Play teams, Live and Online)

Auction (135 teams)

Live Double Play (540 teams)

Combined Standings (Main Event and all DPs)

Look for these tomorrow. Thanks all.

colorado · Post by **colorado** » Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:58 am

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

[qb] From what I hear, Transaction History should be ready tomorrow (Thursday)

Status on this?

[ April 08, 2010, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: colorado ]