Live Chat Today: 3 pm ET With Greg & Tom

[Greg Ambrosius]

Things are starting to come together for the NFBC live events in March and April, so let's get down to business and start having some regular Live Chats. Tom & I are free this afternoon, so post any baseball questions or NFBC questions here before 3 pm ET and we'll get the ball rolling. Lots to talk about today.

We'll try to bring in some regular guests for Live Chats starting next week. We have a live wire guest lined up for next week and we'll get Shawn on the boards before our LABR Auctions in early March. Time to get these boards humming with baseball talk and NFBC discussion.

Who's ready? Post your questions here or email them to [email protected] and we'll see ya at 3 pm ET today. Thanks all.

[JohnP]

Brewer questions:

Who closes for the Crew - K-Rod, Broxton, Papelbon, or other?

Better season - Lind or Aramis?

Better season - Lohse or Garza?

Who would you draft first - Peralta or Fiers?

Who wins the NL central?

[Greg Ambrosius]

There's some movement going on right now on the exempt states as I mentioned earlier from the FSTA Trade Conference. Peter Schoenke of Rotowire testified yesterday in Iowa as he represented the fantasy sports industry, and Montana is also looking at a bill to bring that state in line with the federal careveout language for fantasy sports. This is an interesting read on Montana, so enjoy:

http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/mis ... ign=buffer

The fantasy sports debate
By Alex Sakariassen

Fantasy sports weren't exactly a key stumping point for Rep. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, during his first-ever legislative campaign last year. But in the first weeks of the 2015 session, he's managed to spark a debate among legislators and gambling industry reps about Montana's longstanding ban on online fantasy sports betting—a ban he feels is out of balance with a majority of the country.

"When I was in college out of state I won a pay-league through ESPN, got the T-shirt and all that," Mandeville says. "I come back to Montana and can't win prizes anymore. Says right on the little disclaimer, 'If you live in Montana, you can pay for the league but we're not going to send you the prize.'"

Montana is currently one of five states where wagering on the outcome of such leagues is strictly illegal. Sites like DraftKings and FanDuel specifically caution users that state laws may make them ineligible for participation. Mandeville's House Bill 181 would amend the existing prohibition by legalizing fantasy sports leagues with a buy-in of $100 or less, including Internet-based leagues.

"We're not talking throwing in thousands of dollars on horse racing daily," he says. "Fantasy sports, low-level stuff, probably $35 average buy-in."

The state's gambling industry is far from enthusiastic about the approach. During a Jan. 16 committee hearing, representatives from the Montana Tavern Association, the Montana Coin Machine Operators Association and the Gaming Industry Association of Montana voiced staunch opposition to HB 181. GIAM lobbyist Neil Peterson said he's not opposed to fantasy sports as "I play them myself" (free leagues are not illegal), but concluded the issue needs to be vetted further before any action is taken.

Rick Ask, administrator for the state Gambling Control Division, concurs that there are problems with the bill. Some fantasy sports gambling is presently allowed, specifically through live leagues hosted by bars or the league run by the Montana Lottery. However, HB 181 raises a number of concerns, he says, including lack of regulation and the potential for credit gambling, which is also illegal. Ultimately Ask feels the measure could "open the door to some possible abuses."

"To say it's not a gambling activity is not accurate," Ask says. "It is gambling, very much so."

Mandeville isn't the only one pushing for change. Lawmakers in Washington state have proposed a similar measure this month, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association has been lobbying in statehouses in Arizona, Iowa and Maryland for years. Mandeville says he's willing to work with the bill's critics on changes, but adds Montanans deserve the same opportunities as fantasy sports fans in most other states.

"I think their concerns are largely unfounded since it's okay just about everywhere else," Mandeville says. "Federal legislation has specifically carved out fantasy sports as not gambling."



We'll keep you up to date on all of this as Washington and Arizona are also getting support for a change in the state's language involving fantasy sports. Let's hope each state adds language similar to the federal law.

[Tom Kessenich]

Brewer questions:

Who closes for the Crew - K-Rod, Broxton, Papelbon, or other?

Better season - Lind or Aramis?

Better season - Lohse or Garza?

Who would you draft first - Peralta or Fiers?

Who wins the NL central?

Sure hope it's K-Rod. I don't get the Papelbon thing at all. The Brewers have proven repeatedly in recent years you can get good closers on the cheap. Why spend big on Papelbon?

Ramirez

Lohse

Peralta

Cardinals

[JohnP]

Stats Questions:

Where are you at with quantity of slow drafts right now compared to a year ago? Seems like the pace has picked up a ton over the last week or so.

What is ETA of new draft room?

What are you pleasantly surprised at with sign-ups as January comes to an end?

What are you disappointed in with sign-ups so far?

Have you considered early drafts for a different format other than 15 team DC? While the 15 team DC contest is wildly popular....probably a fair amount of people that don't want to go 50 rounds deep or don't want to be part of an overall contest. Do you think FAAB leagues and / or stand-alone leagues or 12 team leagues will be available in the future?

Auctions - realistically when do you think STATS will have the ability to run auctions? Partnering up with one of the other sites an option?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Stats Questions:

Where are you at with quantity of slow drafts right now compared to a year ago? Seems like the pace has picked up a ton over the last week or so.

What is ETA of new draft room?

What are you pleasantly surprised at with sign-ups as January comes to an end?

What are you disappointed in with sign-ups so far?

Have you considered early drafts for a different format other than 15 team DC? While the 15 team DC contest is wildly popular....probably a fair amount of people that don't want to go 50 rounds deep or don't want to be part of an overall contest. Do you think FAAB leagues and / or stand-alone leagues or 12 team leagues will be available in the future?

Auctions - realistically when do you think STATS will have the ability to run auctions? Partnering up with one of the other sites an option?

All good questions CHAMP!!! You couldn't ask something simple like "Why Did McCarthy go conservative in the second half against Seattle? How have you avoided burning all of your Packer jerseys since the meltdown in Seattle? Why hasn't the Packers' special teams coach been fired by now?" Those would have been layups for me!!

By the way, I agree with all of Tom's answers on the Brewers. I'll be surprised if they get to .500 this year.

Last year on Jan. 29th we had 59 $150 Draft Champions Leagues and 7 $400 DCs on our way to 164 total leagues. This year we have 61 full $150s and 5 full $400s. So we're right there, but remember this year Opening Day is a week later, so we're happy with the pace of these DCs. We'll get the FAST DC item on Registration next week and hopefully that will be another area of this format that will grow and easily allow folks to jump in with like-minded drafters and complete them in a matter of days, not weeks. Prizes are based on last year's final numbers, so hopefully we will grow and will spread the wealth if that happens.

Tom and I tested out the new online draft room yesterday with the IT guys and I couldn't have been happier. We saw very few glitches and all went smoothly. We need to refine some areas of the online draft room, but we're very happy. We hope to have this ready before the majority of our online drafts start. First and foremost this gets us off Flash technology and brings us into a platform that we now can develop so that folks can draft on more technology pieces like the iPad and down the road even an iPhone. We need to get this live and then we can add pieces to it, but it has 1 Round Auto, Auto-Pick, photos of each player, sorting stat categories at each position, and an improved Chat. It's still just a draft room and there's only so much you can do with it, but it's better than before and it's on a platform that is better for the customers. We'll also have it ready for football before the drafting season gets too deep.

Obviously we are pleasantly surprised by the interest in the Auction Championship and the private high-dollar leagues. I mean, we have 4 full Auction Championship leagues in New York City and we're on pace for 6 leagues in Las Vegas. This would be a record year if we can fill up all of the auction leagues that are still available and it's not even February yet. Pretty strong start to that contest. Filling up the Diamond Auction and Diamond Draft League so early was cool, as well as filling up the Ultimate League. I hope to get some more 15-Team Supers filled and of course the Platinum League, but overall we're very happy with these private leagues.

I'm not disappointed in anything just yet. Give me a few weeks, though. I don't think people know how hard we've worked to get space in each city, especially Las Vegas, and we've worked very hard to upgrade our projectors, buying a few HD projectors for the big drafts. We obviously want to grow the 12-Team Primetime because we really believe that most people in this industry play that format and there's no reason for us to not grow that if there's interest. But you folks will tell us if it's a go or not. We based the prizes on only 252 teams and 21 leagues this year, so to me the ROI is the best in the Primetime and this is one contest that I'd love to see grow where we can get the grand prize from $80,000 to $100,000 again. I think it will happen. As for any other disappointment, my biggest disappointment was the way the NFBC Platinum went down at the end of last season. It just totally shocked me because that was such a great league and it affected some great owners who I have the utmost respect for and it obviously affected this year's signups. Hopefully we all can get past that and move on, but obviously not everyone is back yet and that's sad for a number of reasons.

Next year we'll have the NFBC Cutline Championship early in the off-season and available every night of the week. With an optimal scoring lineup setup, I really believe this format will be popular and almost ideal for folks who love to draft. I'm just so excited about this format and slightly disappointed that we couldn't launch it this year because I do think it will be a big hit. Optimal scoring lineups in baseball? C'mon, that's perfect for many of us. Heck, I want to draft one of those teams. As for FAAB leagues earlier than mid-February, probably not.

It's not on the timeline yet. We have so much else to do. I could easily reach out to any of the industry partners now who have this software and work with them to keep these rolling. Andy has taken that role upon himself and we are grateful for that, but for football we should probably do that in advance. We want to make sure they know we are doing this and even compensate them if needed. But yes, that option is more likely than us developing auction software in the next couple of months.

Hope this helps.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Just an insert ....Then the question....

I and others, joined live auctions this year because of the wonderful online experience. We were acquainted with how auctions work for a lot less dollars than the Live Drafts. We were introduced to a new way (for us) of drafting, and we liked it.
Thus, interest is probably through the roof by past NFBC standards.

IT can only do so much. Whenever fixing one problem, another problem crops up. This, all while building a new draft room and constantly updating FAAB.
It's correct, with so much on IT's plate now, an NFBC auction room would probably be a pipe dream. Especially since a human body would also have to be available to run each auction.
Using RealTime works now because we have able folks like Todd, KJ, and Andy to run these drafts. That will not last into the future.
A partnership with another entity with auction capabilities would be a solid move in my opinion.

Anyway, here is my question...
Paul Goldschmidt has hit over 20 homers, just once.
Granted, it was a break out season with 36 homers and 125 rbi.
Still, he wasnt having a top 6 pick of every draft year, even before hurt last year.

On the other hand, Edwin Encarnacion has banged out at least 30 homers three straight years. In fact, over the last three years, Encarnacion has AVERAGED more homers than Goldy hit during his break out year.
Still, Goldy is a top 6 pick and Encarnacion can be found near the bottom of the first round in drafts.
According to adp, Goldy is a six pick. The lowest he has been picked in any draft is the nine slot.
The nine slot is the highest that Encarnacion has EVER been taken in a draft.

Is it the 25-30 points of batting average that comes with Goldy?
Is it the prospects that we still haven't seen the best of Goldy?
Why is there so much separation in drafters thinking between these two first basemen?

[Gekko]

Those of us that play Fan Duel have already received our 1099-MISC for 2014. Why haven't NFBC/NFFC players received their 1099-MISC from STATS yet?

[Gekko]

Other questions...

Does Greg and/or Tom play DFS?

Give us the name of a player (other than daniel norris) that is currently being taken outside the top 30 rounds who will be a 10th rounder or better next year.

Do you think Y.petit will blue ball his owners this year.?He looks like the Giants SP7 (worse if you count any of the SF minor league SP) and Bochy is on record saying he likes him in the long reliever role and that's where he's gonna stay

[Greg Ambrosius]

Those of us that play Fan Duel have already received our 1099-MISC for 2014. Why haven't NFBC/NFFC players received their 1099-MISC from STATS yet?

These legally must go out by Jan. 31st, so I'm sure they went out this week. As employees, we received ours earlier this week. I'm pretty sure these have gone out the last week in January every year and I don't think this is any different than when we sent them from Krause's, F&W or Fanball, but I certainly understand the concern. You should see these very soon.

[Tom Kessenich]

Does Greg and/or Tom play DFS?

I played some late in the football season. I enjoyed it for the most part and ended up making a profit even after the conference championship day when I lost everywhere. That was rather brutal (thank you Donte Moncrief and Adam Vinatieri). I posted in another thread that while I enjoyed it playing Daily had more of a lotto feel to me than season-long contests and I'm not crazy about having the entire sport's player pool to use. I'm more of a "Pretend you're GM" guy when it comes to fantasy and season-long contests afford me that opportunity. I also felt that to win big in Daily it wasn't so much putting together the best lineup but finding the most obscure (and cheap) players to go off every week. Failing to win a huge prize because I started Dez Bryant instead of Danny Amendola kinda rubs me the wrong way.

But overall it was fun to have a little extra juice in the games late in the season and particularly in the playoffs so I'll probably do it again next season on some level. Not sure if I'll play any Daily baseball or not. I still have some winnings with FanDuel I haven't cashed so I'll have to spend them somewhere

I will say I am a bit bummed there aren't any Super Bowl contests on Fanduel, at least nothing I can find. I would've liked to have something going on for the game.

[Yah Mule]

K-Rod's hr/f in the second half was 32%. No way he can have continued success if one out of three flyballs are leaving the yard. I would expect regression, but his yearly trends are bad, too. I think he could still close, but I think Milwaukee might not be the best place.

I was wondering if Jimmy Nelson might not be a sneaky pick for saves if he doesn't pan out as the fifth starter. His two pitch mix might play better in short bursts.

What are your expectations for Nelson this season?

It looks like Tyler Thornburg has dodged Tommy John surgery. Do you think his problems last year were injury related and will he get a shot in the rotation this year?

Keith Law just ranked the Brewer farm system 28th in MLB. Is Doug Melvin feeling any heat? It's been ten years since he drafted Ryan Braun out of my high school in Granada Hills.

How excited are you that the Brewers might one day give MLB its first Sthervin?

https://millerparkprospects.wordpress.c ... t-3212014/

[Greg Ambrosius]

Just an insert ....Then the question....

I and others, joined live auctions this year because of the wonderful online experience. We were acquainted with how auctions work for a lot less dollars than the Live Drafts. We were introduced to a new way (for us) of drafting, and we liked it.
Thus, interest is probably through the roof by past NFBC standards.

IT can only do so much. Whenever fixing one problem, another problem crops up. This, all while building a new draft room and constantly updating FAAB.
It's correct, with so much on IT's plate now, an NFBC auction room would probably be a pipe dream. Especially since a human body would also have to be available to run each auction.
Using RealTime works now because we have able folks like Todd, KJ, and Andy to run these drafts. That will not last into the future.
A partnership with another entity with auction capabilities would be a solid move in my opinion.

Anyway, here is my question...
Paul Goldschmidt has hit over 20 homers, just once.
Granted, it was a break out season with 36 homers and 125 rbi.
Still, he wasnt having a top 6 pick of every draft year, even before hurt last year.

On the other hand, Edwin Encarnacion has banged out at least 30 homers three straight years. In fact, over the last three years, Encarnacion has AVERAGED more homers than Goldy hit during his break out year.
Still, Goldy is a top 6 pick and Encarnacion can be found near the bottom of the first round in drafts.
According to adp, Goldy is a six pick. The lowest he has been picked in any draft is the nine slot.
The nine slot is the highest that Encarnacion has EVER been taken in a draft.

Is it the 25-30 points of batting average that comes with Goldy?
Is it the prospects that we still haven't seen the best of Goldy?
Why is there so much separation in drafters thinking between these two first basemen?

I totally love the online auctions and I'm glad folks are enjoying them. I hope folks remember the early days of 2006-08 when we tried to use FantasyAuctioneer.com for online drafts. It was groundbreaking, but a horror for the drafters. We wanted this technology to work and unfortunately FA disappeared once ESPN and Yahoo mastered the online auction software. Again, I'd love to run more of these, but I really want to get permission from these sites to run them so that they know what's going on and where the leagues are run after that. But we have a lot of good friends in the industry and can do this to keep these satellite leagues growing. But building this on our site isn't in the very near future and it shouldn't be with all we want to finish up first.

I talked about Encarnacion on the Fantasy Drive last night and I like him. Over the last three years, he's averaged .274-37-104 and that's with a few injuries thrown in that cut down his playing time. His batting average has been solid, but he doesn't run as much anymore. I think Goldy's 20-30 BA points, the potential for double-digit steals and the fact that there's more potential there puts him 6-7 spots ahead of E5. But you are right, E5 can match him in the power categories and if he ever stays fully healthy a HR title is possible.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Other questions...

Does Greg and/or Tom play DFS?

Give us the name of a player (other than daniel norris) that is currently being taken outside the top 30 rounds who will be a 10th rounder or better next year.

Do you think Y.petit will blue ball his owners this year.?He looks like the Giants SP7 (worse if you count any of the SF minor league SP) and Bochy is on record saying he likes him in the long reliever role and that's where he's gonna stay

We definitely have to find a DFS message board for you.

Tom plays $1 games; I don't have the time for DFS with family and everything else going on. Impossible.

I said this on the air on Wednesday, Toronto OF Dalton Pompey seems like a good sleeper after the 10th Round. We saw him in the AFL and he's got speed and good pop. He could start in CF and lead off and the potential for 40+ SBs after Round 15 is pretty good. As for after Round 30: Maybe Joey Gallo, Texas 3B. Why not take a flyer at that point? You never know what the Rangers will be doing this year or if they will be in rebuilding mode by the All-Star break, so why not take a flyer on a power-hitter with that kind of pop?

[Gekko]

Those of us that play Fan Duel have already received our 1099-MISC for 2014. Why haven't NFBC/NFFC players received their 1099-MISC from STATS yet?

These legally must go out by Jan. 31st, so I'm sure they went out this week. As employees, we received ours earlier this week. I'm pretty sure these have gone out the last week in January every year and I don't think this is any different than when we sent them from Krause's, F&W or Fanball, but I certainly understand the concern. You should see these very soon.

BTW, just found out fan duel F'd up the amount of the 1099s. They have to issue amended ones!!! LOL. Shot themselves in the foot. Yikes

Edit - at least for the person I spoke to a few min ago

[Yah Mule]

I totally love the online auctions and I'm glad folks are enjoying them. I hope folks remember the early days of 2006-08 when we tried to use FantasyAuctioneer.com for online drafts. It was groundbreaking, but a horror for the drafters. We wanted this technology to work and unfortunately FA disappeared once ESPN and Yahoo mastered the online auction software. Again, I'd love to run more of these, but I really want to get permission from these sites to run them so that they know what's going on and where the leagues are run after that. But we have a lot of good friends in the industry and can do this to keep these satellite leagues growing. But building this on our site isn't in the very near future and it shouldn't be with all we want to finish up first.

There's a rumor going around that you and Tom might join us for an online auction this year. We appreciate how insanely busy you are this time of year, but everybody would love to have you guys if you can find a free evening.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Those of us that play Fan Duel have already received our 1099-MISC for 2014. Why haven't NFBC/NFFC players received their 1099-MISC from STATS yet?

These legally must go out by Jan. 31st, so I'm sure they went out this week. As employees, we received ours earlier this week. I'm pretty sure these have gone out the last week in January every year and I don't think this is any different than when we sent them from Krause's, F&W or Fanball, but I certainly understand the concern. You should see these very soon.

BTW, just found out fan duel F'd up the amount of the 1099s. They have to issue amended ones!!! LOL. Shot themselves in the foot. Yikes

Please help me out with this because I'm trying very hard to understand this in our industry. At STATS, we list all money earned for that calendar year and thus you have to itemize your expenses. Other competitors only tell the government how much you TAKE OUT of your account each year, no matter how much you win, which I don't think the government would agree with. Or am I wrong?

Please tell me how Fanduel and the daily games do it. Do they itemize your entries for you, in other words show on your 1099 prizes won minus entry fees (which makes sense with the volume of entries everyone has) or do they also show prizes won minus entry fees minus any money you might not have taken out yet? Do they still tax you on money in your account?

I hate to be a pain about this, but nothing could hurt the industry more than the IRS seeing hundreds of millions of dollars won and realizing that they haven't seen any of it because of creative accounting practices. It would hurt the industry, kill some game operators and have repercussions to consumers if back-taxes were owed. I'm just trying to understand this area of our business better because through four different accounting groups what we're doing was the only allowable way. Thanks.

[76erfan]

I totally love the online auctions and I'm glad folks are enjoying them. I hope folks remember the early days of 2006-08 when we tried to use FantasyAuctioneer.com for online drafts. It was groundbreaking, but a horror for the drafters. We wanted this technology to work and unfortunately FA disappeared once ESPN and Yahoo mastered the online auction software. Again, I'd love to run more of these, but I really want to get permission from these sites to run them so that they know what's going on and where the leagues are run after that. But we have a lot of good friends in the industry and can do this to keep these satellite leagues growing. But building this on our site isn't in the very near future and it shouldn't be with all we want to finish up first.

There's a rumor going around that you and Tom might join us for an online auction this year. We appreciate how insanely busy you are this time of year, but everybody would love to have you guys if you can find a free evening.

seconded and i started the rumor...blame me. I am putting the pressure on

[Edwards Kings]

Do you think Y.petit will blue ball his owners this year.?He looks like the Giants SP7 (worse if you count any of the SF minor league SP) and Bochy is on record saying he likes him in the long reliever role and that's where he's gonna stay

How many teams will Mark have Petit on this year?

[Greg Ambrosius]

K-Rod's hr/f in the second half was 32%. No way he can have continued success if one out of three flyballs are leaving the yard. I would expect regression, but his yearly trends are bad, too. I think he could still close, but I think Milwaukee might not be the best place.

I was wondering if Jimmy Nelson might not be a sneaky pick for saves if he doesn't pan out as the fifth starter. His two pitch mix might play better in short bursts.

What are your expectations for Nelson this season?

It looks like Tyler Thornburg has dodged Tommy John surgery. Do you think his problems last year were injury related and will he get a shot in the rotation this year?

Keith Law just ranked the Brewer farm system 28th in MLB. Is Doug Melvin feeling any heat? It's been ten years since he drafted Ryan Braun out of my high school in Granada Hills.

How excited are you that the Brewers might one day give MLB its first Sthervin?

https://millerparkprospects.wordpress.c ... t-3212014/

Well, it's apparent that the Brewers aren't interested in bringing K-Rod back, so they must agree. I sure hope they don't get so desperate that they trade for Papelbon and overpay him for two years. They don't need that at that price.

The Brewers say they want him to be their 5th SP and they unloaded Gallardo's contract to give him a role in the rotation. I don't think they seem him in the bullpen just yet. As for Thornburg, I've seen him pitch enough and I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing. I'm not on him at all.

Melvin drafted pitchers who should have been in the majors by now and some of his recent top picks are progressing nicely, but you're right the minor-league system is devoid of top talent. Still, he's kept this franchise relevant, so he's still seen in a good light. The entire state got caught up in Brewer Fever last year until the September swoon felt like Polar Vortex.

[Edwards Kings]

Please help me out with this because I'm trying very hard to understand this in our industry. At STATS, we list all money earned for that calendar year and thus you have to itemize your expenses. Other competitors only tell the government how much you TAKE OUT of your account each year, no matter how much you win, which I don't think the government would agree with. Or am I wrong?

This surprises me. I am not a tax accountant, but as long as you have constructive receipt (you won the money and no one else has a claim on the funds), I would think the full amount won during the year would be reportable.

[Greg Ambrosius]

There's a rumor going around that you and Tom might join us for an online auction this year. We appreciate how insanely busy you are this time of year, but everybody would love to have you guys if you can find a free evening.

seconded and i started the rumor...blame me. I am putting the pressure on[/quote]

There's no pressure. I have LABR in early March, Tout Wars in mid-March, a STATS 3-on-3 tourney in March and we're on the air on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Plus in February Tom watches most of the nightly drafts, so with family surrounding that it's not easy for either one of us. But we'll see what we can do in February (definitely not March).

[Edwards Kings]

Do you buy-in on the "Tulo plus whomever replaces him when he gets hurt equals 1st round pick" or would you let him slide to Childs?

[Tom Kessenich]

Personally, I can't take Tulo where he's going right now in NFBC drafts (late first/early second). Too much injury risk for me. The player I take there has got to play 150+ games for me. I love Tulo's talent (who doesn't) but too much injury risk for me to make him my first- or second-round pick.

[76erfan]

you guys have a thursday night show too?