Looking Ahead To NFBC Cutline In 2017

[jwillh9181]

Don't change a thing, wait until after next year.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Now that we have the first year of the Cutline in the books, I'm open once again for suggestions. Did we need the 46-man roster for the playoffs? Is it possible to trim that down through the second FAAB period?

From the initial feedback, I'm leaning toward a 38-round draft and maybe only 2-3 free agent pickups over 2 periods. It seems like the scoring worked well and the two FAAB periods worked well. The playoff format worked as expected and it was great to see three different teams in the lead at different times of the final day of the Championship Round. Pretty exciting.

I'm open for additional feedback before finalizing the Rules for 2017 Cutline Championship as it's definitely returning for a second season, so bring it on!!

We had 1,450 teams and a $40,000 grand prize this year. I'm not going to go overboard with increases in 2017, even though it looks like this best ball format was well received. We may jump the grand prize to $50,000 and plan for an additional 200 teams, but I'd rather sell it out than overestimate on this contest, something we learned from the NFFC Cutline.

Thanks for your feedback and look for Cutline Leagues much earlier this year. Thanks all and congrats once again to our debut champion, Jon Stadtmueller.

[KJ Duke]

Forty-man lineup seems sufficient to me.

I didn't like the roster expansion.

My first choice would be draft 40.
Second choice would be draft 36 and allow 2-man expansion for the two FAAB periods.

The roster expansions make for messy and time-consuming FAAB; I'd rather spend an extra 10-15 minutes in the draft room than an extra 45 minutes per period dealing with roster expansions.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Forty-man lineup seems sufficient to me.

I didn't like the roster expansion.

My first choice would be draft 40.
Second choice would be draft 36 and allow 2-man expansion for the two FAAB periods.

The roster expansions make for messy and time-consuming FAAB; I'd rather spend an extra 10-15 minutes in the draft room than an extra 45 minutes per period dealing with roster expansions.

I didn't play Cutline this year. FAAB, the reason.
This game is so suited to be a game with no FAAB.
Like Draft Championships in NFFC, only with fast drafting instead of slow.

If the game is changed to no FAAB this year, I would sign up for a 40 round draft or two...probably more

[Happenstance]

I didn't play the Cutline this year; FAAB scared me away. Frankly, I already feel spread thin with FAAB for traditional leagues as well lineup changes for traditional and slow-draft leagues.

I did play a one-night draft, no FAAB or lineup change league at another site. I'd much rather spend my money here, but love that I've never had to do a thing for that team.

I could see playing several Cutlines without FAAB but I don't intend on it otherwise.

[KJ Duke]

For you non-faab guys ... only two FAAB periods without roster expansion would be relatively painless.

While I wouldn't be against zero faab periods, I think it degrades the game play by making winning more health-dependent.

[ToddZ]

If you want to fill early cut-lines, you need FAAB.

Even is it expands to 40 man original rosters, that's just 400 players drafted, far fewer than the 750 in DCs.

There will be FAR too many players emerging in the spring that will be no-brainer to be picked.

I know the counter -- you get your guys cheaper in early drafts.

But this is a different dynamic - less player pool penetration and best ball scoring.

The advantage to late drafters with a better idea of who'll make rosters etc. likely cuts down on the early drafts.

Having FAAB the second Monday of the season means only one week these contributors go undrafted. That's easily palatable.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I think there is a market for some entry-level, private Draft 'N Hold baseball leagues using our Cutline scoring system. I am contemplating those for next year but at very low price points. It would be a great way to get new members to check out our site, have one-night drafts and let their rosters ride. These could be 10-team, 40-round drafts at 1 minute per pick.

The Cutline needs some FAAB or you'd never fill up early leagues. If people don't play because two FAAB periods are too many, then that happens. But I think we can make FAAB easier than we had it in 2016. Just expanding from 36 rounds to 38 rounds will help and adding just two spots per FAAB period would really reduce the pain. So we expand to 42 spots instead of 46 spots over two FAAB periods. I don't think that's a killer.

But without any FAAB, you lose all of the rookie callups and kill off all early Cutline drafts. We need to make FAAB easier in this format, but at the end of the day no FAAB would favor later drafters and kill this national contest.

I think we have a nice new national contest. It's a lottery ticket for a chance to survive the Cutline and win $50,000 next year. Let's keep tweaking the rules (FAAB seems to be the biggest one) and make this national contest even greater. Thanks all.

[Rainiers]

May I make a suggestion that we have only one catcher's stats count per week in Cutline?

This year, given the Cutline format, teams would draft 3 catchers instead of the normal 2. This caused ADP inflation for catchers in Cutline. So the catcher's ADP was up and out of whack as compared to the other NFBC rotisserie style games.

Having only one catcher's stat count would certainly mean a significant deflationary valuation on catchers' ADPs instead, but so what? At least everyone would be drafting two catchers like normal instead of three.

It would also allow the roster shrinkage being suggested above a whole lot less painful because it reduce the number of catchers by at least one on the final rosters, leaving room for at least one more position player or pitcher.

[Deadheadz]

I didn't play Cutline this year. FAAB, the reason.
This game is so suited to be a game with no FAAB.
Like Draft Championships in NFFC, only with fast drafting instead of slow.

If the game is changed to no FAAB this year, I would sign up for a 40 round draft or two...probably more

Same here. I played zero FAAB leagues this year and would surely do at least a couple of no FAAB cutline leagues in 2017.

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Is the scoring and non distinction of closers staying the same? I cannot get on board with this strange scoring that drastically inflates stolen bases and devalues saves, due to this method of trying to replicate roto, which is impossible to do. So, if this staying, I don't need to give anymore thoughts as I will never play it. As, I have said before, incredible concept. But it could be so much better. If this is still in play to change, I will give more thoughts, but don't need to waste anyone's time if it is locked in.

[KJ Duke]

SB values are not inflated relative to that of roto leagues. Closers were devalued in the initial scoring system because very deep benches allowed for more double-start SPs than the typical 7-man bench. My suggestion would be bumping saves from 6 to 8 points to bring them more in line.

[Cocktails and Dreams]

SB values are not inflated relative to that of roto leagues. Closers were devalued in the initial scoring system because very deep benches allowed for more double-start SPs than the typical 7-man bench. My suggestion would be bumping saves from 6 to 8 points to bring them more in line.

You cannot say that at all. SB in roto are completely relative to each league. Not in points baseball when they are given too may points.