Fantasy Football Catchall

Yeah, I know that training camps, for the most part, are only getting started, but I figured the time was ripe for Legion to start bludgeoning us all with his ridiculous knowledge about all things football.

So what's the deal this year? Did I already miss the forum post somehow after being on an extended vacation?

Pretty sure there hasn't been anything posted about Fantasy Football yet. Last year we held our draft really late, I think it was the week that the season started.

Yeah, not too much activity yet. I usually wait until preseason games start to even begin thinking about the FF draft.

Training camps don't even open until late July.

Preseason runs the entire length of August.

Training camp is the time to start creating leagues, the last 2 weeks of preseason is the time for a draft to be scheduled.

Right now is the time to be studying and catching up on who went where.

If you don't already know who went where, you've already lost.

Huh, what?
Oh, well I already have draft sheets done. Subject to much change.

But...but...

ok, I guess I'll wait a month or so before chewing that fat and mumbling my speculative draft chat/boast/blah-blahs for later

I've already compiled my "People to look forward to drafting" this year. Funny, last year, I was awfully nervous about my team and it turned out to be an absolute success. I can only hope for more of the same this year, sans the early playoff exit, thanks to that wonderful cast of T.O., Romo, and of all things, Westbrook taking a dive at the 1. I think I'll just refuse to draft smart/selfless players this year.

Bah, it's all luck. This year I'm drafting in alphabetical order.

It's never too early for Fantasy Football!

Let's get a league set up and start recruiting players. I agree, the draft should be held off until late in preseason. But that doesn't mean can't start getting our eggs in a row.

Jayhawker wrote:

Let's get a league set up and start recruiting players. I agree, the draft should be held off until late in preseason. But that doesn't mean can't start getting our eggs in a row.

We established a pair of leagues last season - one which was seeded by invites, the other which was open to all comers.

The idea was that the top players in the "open" league would be invited the next year to fill in the gaps of the "invite" league. (Which makes it sounds like much more of an exclusive boy's club than the setup really is)

I obnoxiously called the leagues I-A and I-AA, to commissioner Grumpicus' silent chagrin.

Although the original relegation plans were a bit more codified (and probably budding with that right-before-the-season, everything-will-go-as-planned optimism), I think the idea will be that everyone that wants to return to I-A will be invited to do so, and the top performers in I-AA last year will get invited to fill the gaps. And then the doors will be opened for anyone else that wants to join to take the vacated I-AA spots (which, I'm sure, will be plentiful enough for everyone that REALLY wants to play to get in. After all, last year, a number of us in I-A also fielded a I-AA team in order to fill all of the extra empty slots)

I think I was in the I-AA last season, but cannot for the life of me remember what site it was hosted on. Yahoo?

Jayhawker wrote:

I think I was in the I-AA last season, but cannot for the life of me remember what site it was hosted on. Yahoo?

AOL

Really, because I just found a GWJ league on Yahoo that I finished 2nd out of 12 in. Hmmm...

What? Not on espn?
Well, I want in. Call it the Oklahoma City steal a team from...I mean expansion initiative.

I've been holding myself back until training camps started but since the lid is off the can, here you go. You can keep your general FF chatter in this thread and talk GWJFFL specifics in the other one.

Thanks, Grump. To be honest, I think I was in the second AOL league, but forgot all about it. So if you are basing it on that, I'm kind of screwed. The AOL site was really off-putting, and I kind of forgot about it. I was second in the GWJ pick'em, not FFL. I was in another FFL with friends from the Poker Academy forums, and finished 5th out 8 there.

That said, I'd still like to give this season a go. Especially since it sounds like the AOL site might be out?

Where is the best place to get a good rundown on the rules for this? I do not have any experience in a league where we bid for players So any explanation on how that works would be helpful as well.

Jayhawker wrote:

Where is the best place to get a good rundown on the rules for this? I do not have any experience in a league where we bid for players So any explanation on how that works would be helpful as well.

Copied from last season's preseason thread.

8. Free Agent Acquisitions/Blind Bidding: The free agent system will be a "blind bidding" process. Each team will start with 1,000 free agent "dollars" for the season, and will be permitted to bid for free agents on a weekly basis. No team will be informed of any other team's free agent bids until after the winning bids have been awarded. A team owner will no longer be able to bid on free agents once their season long waiver wire cap of $1,000 has been reached. Awarding of free agents begins with the highest bid by any team for a free agent. Once that free agent has been awarded to the winning bidder, all other bids for that free agent are discarded as losing bids. Then the highest
remaining bid by any team for any remaining free agent will be considered. That winning bid will be awarded the free agent and all losing bids for that free agent will be discarded. This continues until the lowest valid bid remaining is considered. A team may acquire any number of players provided they remain within the maximum number of players allowed per waiver wire as set by the
commissioner and remain within the season long waiver wire bidding cap established by the commissioner. Bidding ties are broken by awarding the free agent to the team with the fewest total fantasy points to date. A team may acquire any number of players provided they remain within
the maximum number of players allowed (20). Bidding ties are broken by awarding the team with the fewest number of total fantasy points to date. All bids must be in increments of dollars (no cents). The free agent bidding system is the only means by which free agents may be acquired.

Though *Legion*'s explanation is a bit easier to read.

The idea here is that free agency is NO LONGER a "rush to your computer, whomever gets their first wins" land grab. There's no more of that arbitrary "gentleman's agreement" nonsense we had last year (which was, unfortunately, necessary last year thanks to Yahoo's limitations, which is why we're not back there this year)

Instead, owners "bid" on free agents from their salary cap (ours is a virtual $100).

Bids are processed Thursday afternoon. The highest bidder takes the free agent, and has that money deducted from their salary cap. (You are able to make "priority lists", so that if you get outbid for one player, you have a secondary bid that processes for your next choice, etc.)

Of course, since, as you said, we might be using a new site, there's no telling if we'll have bidding or not this year.

I think the best plan at this point in time is to follow the AOL leagues to FleaFlicker, which is (lack of bidding aside) the best of the free fantasy league sites.

It'll eventually get blind bidding, and it should be a hit with everyone that hated the AOL league interface.

We can use a more standard, weekly-processed waiver system, which would still help eliminate the "rush to your computer" issue of the Yahoo leagues, but removes the wonderful bidding strategy aspect of free agency.

I will follow along, wherever we go. Is there something Yahoo lacks? I've been in several leagues there, and found them to be run very well.

Jayhawker wrote:

I will follow along, wherever we go. Is there something Yahoo lacks? I've been in several leagues there, and found them to be run very well.

A decent free agency system. Any player who isn't on waivers (meaning, someone who wasn't JUST cut from someone's fantasy team) is available for immediate pickup.

Meaning, whomever gets to their PC first, wins.

It's a bad system that no serious league uses, and it's even worse for casual ones.

But going beyond that, Yahoo's (free) service is badly under-featured. FleaFlicker has SO much more functionality, it's not even a comparison. Once they get their asses in gear and get blind bidding online, even my pay leagues on sites like MyFantasyLeague (probably the very best pay service around) will transition to FleaFlicker. FleaFlicker is a bit... spartan in appearance currently, but it is simple to use.

Honestly, I don't mind a non-bidding free agent system. The bidding system was nice, but the functionality and interface of AOL had to have been created by six monkeys and Dr. Evil.

BlackSheep wrote:

Honestly, I don't mind a non-bidding free agent system. The bidding system was nice, but the functionality and interface of AOL had to have been created by six monkeys and Dr. Evil.

Has anyone checked to see if AOL have improved their interface?

trowan wrote:
BlackSheep wrote:

Honestly, I don't mind a non-bidding free agent system. The bidding system was nice, but the functionality and interface of AOL had to have been created by six monkeys and Dr. Evil.

Has anyone checked to see if AOL have improved their interface?

I'm only going on last year -- they would have to do a complete overhaul to make it remotely useable, but it could've happened.

Legion said AOL is replacing their service with FleaFlicker this year.

Legion, how much is that "for pay" site you mentioned?

LeapingGnome wrote:

Legion, how much is that "for pay" site you mentioned?

MyFantasyLeague leagues are $80.

Each, or total?

LeapingGnome wrote:

Each, or total?

One complete league is $80. There are no per-user fees.

That's only eight bucks each in a ten person league! If the site is a lot better than a free service, maybe that is feasible for us. I really don't know anything about them to compare though.

LeapingGnome wrote:

That's only eight bucks each in a ten person league! If the site is a lot better than a free service, maybe that is feasible for us. I really don't know anything about them to compare though.

The thing about MFL is that it's a pretty hardcore service. It's the Linux of fantasy league sites. It's totally customizable and if the league is being run by someone who knows what they're doing (and really knows CSS and a scripting language), then it can do awesome things that no other site can even touch. It's the perfect choice for rock-solid ongoing leagues with the same group of people, but it's probably got a bit more overhead than desired for our little informal leagues.

*Legion* wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

That's only eight bucks each in a ten person league! If the site is a lot better than a free service, maybe that is feasible for us. I really don't know anything about them to compare though.

The thing about MFL is that it's a pretty hardcore service. It's the Linux of fantasy league sites. It's totally customizable and if the league is being run by someone who knows what they're doing (and really knows CSS and a scripting language), then it can do awesome things that no other site can even touch. It's the perfect choice for rock-solid ongoing leagues with the same group of people, but it's probably got a bit more overhead than desired for our little informal leagues.

Aye, we looked at the site, but we have a couple of dingles in our league. We went with www.rtsports.com, which is a pretty easy site that has plenty of nice whistles attached to it.