Feedback Needed

I've been working on a way to allow all of you to post FNFT trades without my involvement. I can only devote about 20 hours per day or so to FNFT. If someone wants to post a trade during the 4 hours I'm unavailable, there is no way to do so. As another example, I'm going to be heading down to Indy in a couple of weeks for the race. This new system add-on would allow you to post trades while I'm gone. (What are trades, you ask? Well, back in the day...) I'm hoping to get some feedback as to whether you think this would work.

Here's my idea. Trades would still be hammered out the old fashioned way - in person, over the phone, through email, through the message board, etc. Then, once a trade is agreed upon, you can post it to the system. Somewhere on the main roster page there would be a button or link or something that says "Trade Players". If you click it you will get the following screen (with YOUR roster):

(Click on image for a larger view.)

The pull down boxes would show all of the FNFT owners (as shown). There would then be a "Submit" bottom at the bottom to complete the move.

What you are doing here is moving a player or players from your team to some other team - the team you are trading with. The person you are trading with would have to do the same thing as you - log on and transfer the players he is trading to you. Once both players have done this, the trade is complete. Follow that? Both owners would have to do the same thing for the trade to go down.

Is this workable?

There are some obvious drawbacks. The players would move immediately so you might be waiting a bit to get your players if the other guy is slow. The other issue is that like the rest of the system, this will allow you to do things that your not supposed to (like send players to the wrong team) and cause me a lot of headaches to fix. But I think were all good on that. So far I haven't had to fix anything in the database brought on by clumsiness or skulduggery.

I still need to do some programming to do all of the behind the scenes stuff like posting the trades to the transactions table and what not, but I could probably have this up and running sometime next week.

Let me know what you think.

Emailing Joe

I got in fine after you posted the message that the problem was resolved. Prior to that, I was having problems. I believe I did manage to get in once during the period you were diagnosing the problem.

I think Max may have said something to you about an issue we have at work. I’m quite sure were firewalled somehow but I just find this strange. We can gain access to fnftbaseball.com. We can open all links on the page except the LineUp/Pickups. I get an error message stating this web page is currently not available. It’s a conspiracy theory. Someone does not want me picking up players one minute after the first pitch thrown on Tuesday or Friday afternoon games.

Joe

Glad you got in. I’m pretty sure I know the reason you can’t get in from work. The FNFT website itself is hosted by a 3rd party Internet hosting service called HostMonster. I purchased the domain name fnftbaseball.com and that domain is hosted by HostMonster. The roster system however runs off of my home PC. They are really two completely separate websites. The reason you probably can’t access it from work is that my home PC is not set up as a domain name server (DNS). What that means in English is that instead by reaching the site via a normal web address (http://www.something.com) you access it by my computer’s IP address (http://69.29.23.10 or some such thing). The IT departments at many large companies block sites that are referenced only by an IP address because many of them are run by schmucks who are trying to do something much more deviant than run a fantasy baseball league. The solution (perhaps) would be for me to host the roster system on a 3rd party service as well. I’m hesitant to do that because the cheapest one I can find is $169 for the season and there would be no guarantee that your company wouldn’t block that either – that would lend credence to your conspiracy theory. It would also be a bit more cumbersome for me to run everything in that I would always need to be posting all of the files to a different site rather than just copying them to my hard drive. I may do that at some point anyway - it would probably work for you if I did. If I go through another few days like the last few, it would be worth the money to me to have the guaranteed up time that a 3rd party service would provide.

Tief

Game Tuesday

The first Tuesday FNFT game is this week on April 28. In Tuesday games, you are playing against only the teams in your own division.

In the 5-team division, one team goes 4-0, one goes 3-1, one goes 2-2, one goes 1-3, and the last goes 0-4. In the 4-team divisions the top team goes 4-0, the bottom team goes 0-4. The second team goes 3-1 if their score is closer to the top team or 2-2 if their score is closer to the #3 team. The record for the #3 team is the mirror image of the #2 team.

Tuesday games will be played every other Tuesday from here until the end of the season with the final Tuesday game being on the last week of the regular season.

FP Revisited

Most of you will find this to be minutia, but I've slightly changed the formula I use to display "FP" or 'year to date FNFT points'. The FP score is based on the year-to-date cumulative stats rather than summing each players' individual games (which would me much harder to program). Therefore it's an estimate and not an actual sum. The basic formula is the same as our single game scoring formula:

R + H + 2*RBI + 2B + 2*3B + 3*HR + BB + SB

The part that FP doesn't take into account is the bonus for getting at least one run, hit and RBI in a game. To account for this I've always added:

min(R,H,RBI)

to the score - or the lowest number among runs, hits and RBIs.

I've dumped all of the game-by-game stats from 2008 into a database and based on this figured out that the formula for FP would be slightly more accurate if I instead added:

0.5 * min(R,H,RBI)

So that's what I've done. If you've noticed that the total points (FP) for some of your hitters has gone down by one or two, that's why.

Like I said - minutia. I'll probably do something similar for pitchers to account for 10K games although that will be a much less noticable adjustment. I'll let you know.

Make The Call

I've gotten a request from Bill Hicks that I send him a list of everyone's phone number. He'd like to "make some deals." I'll leave it up to everyone's own discretion whether you want me to give him your number. He obviously has mine. The telephone is his only lifeline to the league. Imagine if that was you.

I'm not even 100% certain I have everyone's current phone number or the number at which you'd prefer to be called. I've taken phone numbers off of the FNFT directory on the website for security purposes. His phone number if (414) 456-0534 if you'd like to call him and work out a fair (and I'll be watching) trade. He doesn't have an answering machine. Either he or his brother will answer and it's easy to tell who's who.

Drop me an email or comment with you number if you'd like me to forward it on.

I've Gotta Get a Message To You

By popular demand, I've added a simple and crude message board to the FNFT roster system. You'll find it listed on the main menu as "Messages". You have very few formatting options. It's mainly just for text.

You can use it for whatever you want - propose a trade, gossip, jokes, or to leave me a note letting me know how cool you think the new online system is.

Enjoy.

FP

I've made a few small tweaks to the FNFT Roster System. Most notably, the columns for FNFT points and FNFT points per game which used to be abbreviated "FNFT" and "FNFT/G" are now abbreviated "FP" and "FP/G" respectively. It saves a little bit of space. I've also rounded all of the decimal numbers like FP/G and ERA to the same number of decimal places so that they all line up.

Amazing Grace

Before anyone asks, I'll answer.

The grace period for changing you mind on your weekly player pickup is 15 minutes. If you pick up a player and then decide to pick up a different player instead, you have 15 minutes to submit the new pickup (by cutting the player you earlier picked up.)

Today Avery picked up Orlando Hudson and then cut him and picked up Scott Rolen 14 minutes and 16 seconds later.

So he's good.

Rule Change

Unless most of you have an objection, I’d like to make a rule change. I thought of this last year but forgot to bring it up at the draft.

I’d like to rescind the Craig Haralson rule which states that once you cut a player you can not pick him up again for one month.

My recollection is that the rule was written before the dawn of the Internet – back when you waited for your results in the mail. One crafty owner made a habit of effectively having a 24 or 25 man roster by shuffling players on and off of his team before anyone else even knew they were cut. Today, everything is right there. Once a player is cut, everyone knows. The rule was also written before we started limiting pickups to one per game and before we had a 24 hour waiting period before a cut player could be picked up. With these other two rules in place, I really don’t see a whole lot of point in keeping the Haralson rule.

Another argument against the rule is that the FNFT schedule is much more compact than it was back then. Today, one calendar month is almost one fourth of the FNFT schedule. That’s a long wait. Finally, it would let me scratch one thing off of my to-do list since I don’t yet have this programmed yet in the lineup system.

Comments welcome.

Playoffs? Playoffs? Your Talkin' About Playoffs?

As promised at the draft, here is a complete rundown of how the FNFT playoffs will work this year.

WHO'S IN?

First of all, who is in? The three division winners and one wild card team as determined by win-loss record. The wild card team will be the second place team with the best record among all non-division winners.

In the playoffs, the team with the best overall record will be the top seeded playoff team and play the wild card team in the first round in a 4-game playoff. The other two division winners will play each other in a best 3-out-of-5.

TIEBREAKERS

If there are ties in win-loss records at the end of the regular season, the following scenarios will set up a 1-game playoff to be held on the Tuesday following the end of the regular season, August 25th: (Ties will be broken in this order as well)

1. If two or more teams are tied for best record in their division, the 1-game playoff will determine the division champion.
2. If two or more teams are tied for the wild card position, the 1-game playoff will determine the wild card.
3. If two or more teams are tied for best overall record, the 1-game playoff will determine the top seeded playoff team.

Here is an outrageous example of how this works. Suppose the following are the standings at the end of the year:

Division 1
Team A 90-72
Team B 90-72
Team C 90-72

Division 2
Team D 90-72
Team E 90-72

Division 3
Team F 90-72

Teams A, B, and C go into the playoff to determine the Division 1 winner. Teams D and E go in to determine the Division 2 winner. Team F must also go in to determine the top seeded playoff team. And then the playoff will also be used to determine the wild card among the teams not winning their division in Divisions 1 and 2.

Suppose the 1-game playoff goes down like this:

Team A - 96 points
Team D - 84 points
Team B - 62 points
Team C - 58 points
Team E - 42 points
Team F - 16 points

Team A would win Division 1 since they beat Teams B and C in the playoff. Team D would win Division 2 since they beat Team E in the playoff. Team F would win Division 3 since they had the best record in their division - the tie breaker doesn't even matter here. Team B would win the wild card since they had the highest score among non-division winning teams. Team A would be the top seeded playoff team since they won the tiebreaker between themselves and the other two division winners - Teams D and F. Got that? In this scenario, Team A would play Team B in a 4-game playoff and Team D would play Team F in a 5-game playoff.

PLAYOFF FORMAT

In order to win the 4-game playoff, the top seeded team (best overall record) needs to win 2 games, the wild card team needs to win 3 games - whichever comes first. The other playoff series is a traditional best-of-five. The two playoff series winner will meet in a best-of-seven World Series as usual.

Mathematically, if you assume that the chances of either team winning a playoff game are 50/50, the top seeded division winner now has a 68.75% chance of winning their playoff series against the wild card team, rather than a 50% chance if they had played a best-of-five. I still like this rule change. It makes the regular season and having the best overall record a little more meaningful, but not so meaningful as to not give the wild card a chance.

FLEX SCHEDULING

The playoffs this year will use a flexible schedule system. The days on which playoff games would take place are:

Tuesday, August 25
Friday, August 28
Tuesday, September 1
Friday, September 4
Saturday, September 5***
Tuesday, September 8
Friday, September 11
Tuesday, September 15
Friday, September 18
Tuesday, September 22
Friday, September 25
Tuesday, September 29
Friday, October 2

If there is a 1-game playoff, it will be held on Tuesday, August 25. The playoff between the top seeded team and the wild card will start on Friday, August 28. If the teams in the other, best-of-five series do not need to play a 1-game playoff, their series will start on Tuesday, August 25. If they do need a 1-game playoff, their series will start on Friday, August 28 - the same day as the other series. In this case, the series would use Saturday, September 5 if necessary to play Game 4 of their series in the second game of a Friday-Saturday doubleheader. This is the only scenario in which a double header is used in the playoffs.

The World Series will start on the next Friday or Tuesday after the last playoff series ends. The earliest the World Series could possibly start is Friday, September 4. This would happen if there is not a 1-game playoff, the best-of-five playoff series is a 3-0 sweep and the 4-game playoff is a 2-0 sweep by the top seeded team. If the World Series started on Friday, September 4, the earliest it could end would be Tuesday, September 15 if it were a 4-0 sweep.

The latest the World Series could start would be Friday, September 11 (baring a tragedy). The latest if could end if it started on this day would be Friday, October 4 - the last Friday of the MLB regular season.

If you want to keep looking further ahead, the 2010 FNFT Draft will be on Saturday, April 3 - which is also my wife's birthday so you'll have to bring her something.

Sad, Sad News

If you haven't heard this news, a fantasy baseball blog is a grossly impersonal way to find out, however duty requires that I post this. I got a call this morning informing me that Dale Johnson passed away last night - the same night he won his 3rd FNFT Championship.

I don't have many details. He apparently fell ill early last night after walking his dog and called 911. From there, his life was in God's hands.

Dale joined FNFT in 1993. He played every year except for one-year sabbaticals in 1994 and 2004. He will be sorely missed. May he rest in peace.

Millers Maulers FNFT Champs

There's a new modern day king of FNFT - and a new Buffalo Bills. Dale's Millers Maulers have defeated Jake's Wretching Weenergies four games to one to win to the 2008 FNFT World Series. It is Dale's 3rd FNFT crown and second in four years. Jake has now lost three of the last four FNFT Worlds Series.

And oh, by the way, the first ever FNFT wild card team won the FNFT Championship.

Game 5

As the offenses continue to sputter, the FNFT World Series comes down to pitching once again. Dale holds a somewhat comfortable 34-10 lead heading into today's games. He has Chris Young of San Diego pitching tonight against Washington. Jake counters with Scott Kazmir of Tampa Bay who pitches this afternoon at home against Minnesota. Jake obviously needs a good to great game out of Kaznir to keep his World Series hopes alive.

Game 4 Update

Brandon Webb has given up 3 runs so far in the first inning. Dale will win Game 4.

Game 3 Final

Alright. I lied. Actually, I was working instead of blogging tonight.

By my unofficial count, I have it:

Jake - 38 + 7 (D Lee) = 45
Dale - 33 + 9 (Soriano) + 4 (Soto) + 5 (A Ramirez) = 51

It appears that Dale's Cubs did a bit more hitting than Jake's Cub. Dale will win Game 3 and take a 2-1 series lead.

I need to go into work early tomorrow, so I probably won't be able to post an update until tomorrow night.

Game 4 is Tuesday.

What a Mess

Like most of the rest of he country, the FNFT World Series is being turned on its head because of inclement weather.

As of now Jake holds a slim 38-33 lead in Game 3. He still gets points from Derrek Lee who plays tonight against Houston, right here under the roof in Wrigley Field North. Chipper Jones sat out yesterday's double header with a sore back, so he will take a zero.

Dale still gets four hitters from today's games: Geovany Soto, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano, all of the Cubs, and Curtis Granderson of the Tigers. The Tigers rained out a double header yesterday and have another slated for today, but from the looks of the weather forecast it's very iffy as to whether they will get either game in. If the games are rained out again, Dale will take a zero for Granderson.

I'll very likely have live blog updates tonight on the Cubs-Astros game.

Rain 3

This could be the lowest scoring FNFT World Series ever. After a night of many rainouts, Dale has a 25-10 lead going into today's games.

Apparently scared off by recent bad outings, Jake kept Brandon Webb down in his rotation and instead opted for Cole Hamels against the feeble hitting Brewers. Webb posted a 23 on Friday night which will probably go to waste. Hamels is slated to pitch tonight and the weather forecast in Philly look favorable. Jake also gets a relief pitcher and five hitters who were rained out on Friday.

Dale's ace Jake Peavy took the mound on Friday and tallied a sub-par 2 points. A 12 point game by Adrian Gonzalez accounts for most of his lead heading into Saturday. Dale still will get points from four hitters plus his RP.

The Cubs' game against Houston, which affects three of Dale's hitters and one of Jake's, is already postponed today. The teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday, assuming that the power is on at Minute Maid Park and that they've had the roof closed the past couple of days. There is a provision in the FNFT rules to use Sunday games if both Friday and Saturday games are rained out so it appears that Game 3 may not be completely settled until Sunday night.


CNN actually had this picture posted on their homepage this morning - front and center. It continues to amaze me how the lines between the mainstream media and the National Enquirer have blurred.

Game 2 Update

Josh Beckett has scored 15 points in his game tonight against Tampa Bay. That's not enough for Dale to catch Jake. Baring a total meltdown by Joakim Soria or Hong-Chih Kuo, Jake is going to even the Series at one game apiece. Jake leads 45-32. He also still gets his reliever. If neither Soria nor Kuo pitch, it will be 5 points from Matt Capps.

Game 3 is Friday.

Game 1 Deadlock

Sorry for the bit of radio silence the last couple of days. Been busy with the rest of my life.

The 2008 FNFT World Series has started, but Jake and Dale's offenses have not. Jake takes a 14-11 advantage into today's games. Both teams' aces take the mound: Brandon Webb (ARI) for Jake who pitches this afternoon in LA against the Dodgers, and Jake Peavy (SD) for Dale who goes tonight against the Brewers. Also throw relief pitchers into the mix for both teams. Jake would take a -2 from Grant Balfour unless Joakim Soria (KC) pitches tonight.

Game 5

The fat lady isn't singing, but she's on stage and ready to go. Jake taken a 75-42 lead after Tuesday night's games.

Connor still gets his starting pitcher Edwin Jackson of Tampa Bay. Jackson (11-8, 3.81) is at home tonight against the Yankees. He also gets hitters Kevin Youkolis and Carlos Quentin and a reliefe pitcher; either Joe Nathan (MIN), Francisco Cordero (CIN), or Seth McClung (MIL). Youkolis was scratched from last night's game with back spasms and is listed as questionable for tonight. Quentin sat out last night due to a sore left forearm and is also listed as questionable tonight.

Jake would still get points for Chritian Guzman and Chipper Jones. Guzman was given a routine night off on Tuesday and is expected back in the lineup tonight. Jones however was scratched from last night's game with a sore knee and Manager Bobby Cox has already said that he will not play on Wednesday.

33 points is the difference. Barring a gem by Edwin Jackson, Jake will be going on to his third World Series in the last four years and would play a rematch of the 2005 Series against Dale.