NFBC Cutline Championship FAAB Pointers

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, the first of only two FAAB periods is upon us for the NFBC Cutline Championship. Remember that the deadline for that Free Agent period is Monday, April 11th at 10 pm ET. Good luck all and remember to get at least five players in FAAB because rosters expand to 41 players this week.

Here's a couple of tips for this week's FAAB:

1. Rosters expand by 5 players without cutting anyone: Your first 5 free agent pickups can be done in the Cutline without cutting anyone. Just leave it blank where it says Drop Player. Again, that's for your first 5 pickups.

2. You can pick up more than 5 players this week: Yes, rosters expand from 36 players to 41 players this week, but you can pick up as many free agents as you'd like. You can pick up 10 free agents if needed and cut 5 players. You can pick up 7 fre agents and cut 2 players. You have $1,000 in FAAB to spend in April and June, so improve your roster as best as you can. Remember that in June rosters expand from 41 players to 46 players.

If you have any questions feel free to send them to me at [email protected]. Thanks and good luck.

[mdecav]

Do we leave the DROP portion of the bid blank when we want to expand the player to our roster?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Do we leave the DROP portion of the bid blank when we want to expand the player to our roster?

Yes you do.

One other point, put a lot of Conditional Bids for those 5 players you want to expand your roster. You want to get someone for those five open spots and 9 other owners in your league are looking to do the same thing, so put a lot of Conditional Bids in there and make sure you get someone without cutting anyone. It's important to do that for those five pickups. Good luck all and enjoy.

[mdecav]

This leads to an issue.

Let's say for the first slot I want to bid 200 on a number of players. How does the system know that I only want those bids for the one slot so that I avoid using up all my FAAB money?

[jaybvl]

Hi Greg,

For Cutline, I may be be missing something, but I do not see "total points" as a category on the "new" Free Agent page. This was included on the "old" Free Agent page. Thanks

[KJ Duke]

This leads to an issue.

Let's say for the first slot I want to bid 200 on a number of players. How does the system know that I only want those bids for the one slot so that I avoid using up all my FAAB money?

Only one player should be awarded for each bid string as is the case in other leagues, I presume. Greg, confirm?

[Greg Ambrosius]

This leads to an issue.

Let's say for the first slot I want to bid 200 on a number of players. How does the system know that I only want those bids for the one slot so that I avoid using up all my FAAB money?

Only one player should be awarded for each bid string as is the case in other leagues, I presume. Greg, confirm?

Of course. FAAB isn't being run any differently here. Just have lots of conditional bids in those five free pickup threads.

[TRAIN]

If we get outbid on all of the players that we want and end up not picking up a free agent, that is ok, right? The opportunity to expand our rosters from 36 to 41 is not a requirement, I assume.

[mdecav]

This leads to an issue.

Let's say for the first slot I want to bid 200 on a number of players. How does the system know that I only want those bids for the one slot so that I avoid using up all my FAAB money?

Only one player should be awarded for each bid string as is the case in other leagues, I presume. Greg, confirm?

Of course. FAAB isn't being run any differently here. Just have lots of conditional bids in those five free pickup threads.

But a bid stream is usually determined by who you drop. If there's nobody to drop, how do you differentiate between the 37th add to your roster versus the 38th add?

[ToddZ]

But a bid stream is usually determined by who you drop. If there's nobody to drop, how do you differentiate between the 37th add to your roster versus the 38th add?

You are only awarded one player per string. You can have a string of five players - all of which are uncontested but you only get one. If you want all five you need five distinct strings/blocks.

[mdecav]

But a bid stream is usually determined by who you drop. If there's nobody to drop, how do you differentiate between the 37th add to your roster versus the 38th add?

You are only awarded one player per string. You can have a string of five players - all of which are uncontested but you only get one. If you want all five you need five distinct strings/blocks.

But what determines "the string"? In normal FAAB it's the guy you're dropping.

[mdecav]

Maybe some more context.

I've never used the contingency bid icon in the past because I cannot see the linkage between bid 1 and bid 2, if they were to be in the same "block" or "string". Given if you bid on players X Y and Z and you were dropping player A with each bid, those are a natural string.

But here I'm not dropping anybody so how do I visually know if two bids are linked in the same string?

[Yah Mule]

In my Cutline league where Matthew has already lapped me in points, I'm going to have six bids. Five of them empty and one to replace Altherr. I'm just going to copy my bid string (ranked strictly by best available player) which will contain at least 50 names. I'll modify one of them at the top to target a specific position.

[KJ Duke]

Maybe some more context.

I've never used the contingency bid icon in the past because I cannot see the linkage between bid 1 and bid 2, if they were to be in the same "block" or "string". Given if you bid on players X Y and Z and you were dropping player A with each bid, those are a natural string.

But here I'm not dropping anybody so how do I visually know if two bids are linked in the same string?

Each bid string starts with a number, contingents are letters. Who you're dropping does not dictate a bid string, you can have different drops as contingencies within the same bid string.

[ToddZ]

But a bid stream is usually determined by who you drop. If there's nobody to drop, how do you differentiate between the 37th add to your roster versus the 38th add?

You are only awarded one player per string. You can have a string of five players - all of which are uncontested but you only get one. If you want all five you need five distinct strings/blocks.

But what determines "the string"? In normal FAAB it's the guy you're dropping.

Honestly don't get what you mean by linked.

You pretty much have to use contingencies or you'll have a million single block bids, first without a drop, then with a drop if you want more than five players.

The block (string) is not defined by the drop - you can have 10 players in the block with 10 different drops. It is defined by being Block 1, Block 2, Block 3, etc. One player is awarded per block. As soon as you win the bid on a player in a block, the rest of the block is ignored.

If someone wants to pick up six players, the first block should have all six (plus more) with no drop. The second block should be the same but without the top player in the previous block (since you either got him or someone else did). Actually, if you got him, it will just move to the next player so there's no harm in leaving him there.

The first five blocks have no drops - the system just keeps moving down each block until you win a bid then moves onto the next block.

PM me with an email if you want a screen shot of how typical cutline bids will look -- maybe that will help.

[mdecav]

Ok I get it now.

When you click on the contingency bid icon, I never noticed the "Add" icon change next to the players name on the left hand side. The process is a bit illogical.

When you first click the contingency bid icon, at the very least an empty ADD/DROP should appear in the "a" layer below the original bid.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I think it's important for everyone doing the Cutline FAAB this week to create a long bid thread like Jim suggested and then copy that to your first five "FREE" pickups. Do everything you can to make sure you get five new players added to your roster so that you have 41 players on your team after Monday's FAAB. In Jim's case, he's identified 50 players to pick up, created that Conditional Bid thread and has copied that bid thread to his next four pickups.

Copying your bids is a time saver and can easily be done on the new FAAB setup. Please do that and make sure you're getting 5 new players. You can still add other players and cut some of your current players, but make sure you get at least five new players this week. You can easily do that by copying your bids.

Also, adding Conditional Bids is so easy. Once you set up your primary bid, just add Conditional Bid and every time you click on a player's bid they get added for $1. You can add 10 players in 10 seconds. Then just change the bid amount by clicking on the dollar figure, i.e., clicking on $1 and changing to $11.

There's a lot of work to be done this week, but by using some of these NFBC tools it can be a time saver for sure. If you have any questions, just ask here and some of our NFBC veterans will gladly give you some of the tricks of the trade. Thanks all and good luck.

[Rotofan18]

Some excellent points thanks!! I always just dropped the same players, have never seen the need to have the contingency bids. But in the cutline they are an absolute must. Thanks to the guys who took the time to make sure we all have a fair shot on cutline adds this Monday! Good luck all!!......Steve

[mdecav]

To confirm...

If you are adding a player to your squad, numbers 37 through 41, the "Drop:" section of your bid should stay blank like:

--------------------------------------

Add: Schmoe, Joe (C)
Drop: --DROP--

--------------------------------------

Correct?

[Greg Ambrosius]

To confirm...

If you are adding a player to your squad, numbers 37 through 41, the "Drop:" section of your bid should stay blank like:

--------------------------------------

Add: Schmoe, Joe (C)
Drop: --DROP--

--------------------------------------

Correct?

Correct

[Daren E]

Let's say a team only picks up 2 guys in Cutline tomorrow. They get outbid on other 3 or whatever reason. Can that team pick up 8 guys with no drops during the next FAAB? Or are they stuck with a short roster and can still only pick up 5 more with no drops next time? And there will undoubtedly be a number of teams that forget or for whatever reason don't put in any Cutline FAAB tomorrow.

[Yah Mule]

Let's say a team only picks up 2 guys in Cutline tomorrow. They get outbid on other 3 or whatever reason. Can that team pick up 8 guys with no drops during the next FAAB? Or are they stuck with a short roster and can still only pick up 5 more with no drops next time? And there will undoubtedly be a number of teams that forget or for whatever reason don't put in any Cutline FAAB tomorrow.

From the Cutline rules: If an owner picks up less than 5 players during the first FAAB period, they have the right to expand to the roster limit in the final FAAB period.

Personally, I think the rule should read simply: Ya snooze, ya lose.

[Yah Mule]

One improvement that would make this much easier is the ability to slide players up and down your bid string the same way we do when we rank players for drafting. Moving players one click at a time is incredibly tedious and this is compounded by the way the board resets after each click.

[lrr]

I agree. The way the lists reset or jump every time you make a move makes it very difficult.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Let's say a team only picks up 2 guys in Cutline tomorrow. They get outbid on other 3 or whatever reason. Can that team pick up 8 guys with no drops during the next FAAB? Or are they stuck with a short roster and can still only pick up 5 more with no drops next time? And there will undoubtedly be a number of teams that forget or for whatever reason don't put in any Cutline FAAB tomorrow.

Yes they can. I implore everyone to load their first five pickups with as many conditional bids as humanely possible, but if you don't get five free pickups and are left with 40 or 39 players through the next two months you can still get to 46 in June. Hope that helps.