My fellow JLBers:
We will be moving the JLB from ESPN to Fantrax. That’s a 99
percent guarantee. When? That's not guaranteed.
As you’ll read below, six of us tested it out and right now
it’s a 4-2 vote to move with the 2 being OK with moving, however, they just
have worries on the app, which I’ll address below.
I then reached out to our reigning champion, Brian Walter,
and he just said he is in favor of moving. Naturally, he wants to see the site
and check it out, as I’m sure many of you do, too.
Since there’s a bunch to absorb here, I’m going to address
it all in sections below.
Let’s break it down and start with the “Why?”
WHY ARE WE MOVING?
ESPN continues to lag behind in the dynasty format for
fantasy baseball. They say one thing, do another. They give you reasons on how
a player is added to the player pool, and they break those rules putting us in
unfair situations.
Last year, in mid February, ESPN made a radical move and
added all of the Top 100 prospects. Finally, a sign of good things to come.
So in April, we came up with the June draft idea to prevent
the waiver-wire free-for-all when players internationally and from MLB Amateur
Draft are added midseason — players you may have wanted in the draft, but you
couldn’t get because they weren’t there.
This June draft was made under the assumption that ESPN
would add the Top 100 in February again. People drafted accordingly. I knew and
Ol’ Country knew that our first-round June picks would be a decision for us to
weigh in February/March.
But that wasn’t the case. ESPN added only 12 guys, several
of whom aren’t in the Top 100, but a few who are. It’s left us with this unfair
situation where some teams are forced to make decisions because of
happenstance. Others don’t because… well, ESPN just didn’t come through. Lucky
for us, yes. Unfair from a League standpoint, definitely.
At the end of the day, ESPN does not provide us with the
player pool we want or need to truly run the JLB the way we all enjoy it.
That is why something has to change.
WHAT DOES FANTRAX
GIVE US OVER ESPN?
It all started with a mention by Choo in mid-February when
ESPN screwed us. Curiosity led me to test it myself, and Twitter led us to
Fantrax as they legit reached out during one of our Twitter rants at ESPN.
This early curiosity turned into a trial league. Six of us,
Choo, Gamblers, Crox, Steaks, Ol Country and me all set up a small test league,
drafted and have perused the website, mobile site and app over the last couple
days.
At first glance, the current app isn’t flashy, but it
functions. The site itself, however, is really neat with a bunch of nerdy options
ESPN couldn’t even fathom giving us.
There’s other great nuances within it, too — including, and
I just found this out hours ago, three-way trading. That’s insane.
There’s minor league spots — which will solve and completely
SIMPLIFY our June draft (I’ll explain later) — so when you add it all together,
this is truly a neat option for us.
The draft room is also better, in my opinion. It was easier
to manage and there was more information at your fingertips. In ESPN, you have
to go through hoops just to get a player card to come up in draft window. Here,
you click on player and you have access to news, notes, stats and more. It’s
easier to see who everyone has drafted, and you can pull up a window with one
click that has all 12 rosters thus far in the draft. ESPN you had to scroll one
by one.
The draft room also opens as soon as the draft is finalized,
aka, the keeper deadline. That means on March 20 you can open the draft room
and prepare for March 28 draft. How’s that over the hour that ESPN gives us?
The draft room can be open after the start of the draft for
days, too, so feasibly, if we wanted to do 10 rounds one night when we know
everyone has an hour free and the rest another night, that’s an option. I
wouldn’t do it, but hey, when you can set the time limit per pick up to 48
hours with email notifications that it’s your turn to pick and you have 48
hours to do so, that’s cool. Again, we won’t do the latter, but it could be an
option down the line to make the back half of the draft get finished up.
But I digress…
OK, SO, HOW ARE WE
DOING THIS?
As mentioned above, our reigning champ and I’m sure the other five members who are just getting this for the first time, would like to test this out, too.
As mentioned above, our reigning champ and I’m sure the other five members who are just getting this for the first time, would like to test this out, too.
I already copied our league into Fantrax. Rosters are set,
draft picks are traded.
I’m going to invite everyone in and give everyone the next
week to look it over, download the app, and check out the mobile site. As I’ve
explained to the test group guys, the app functions and will actually be
updated to look and work exactly how the mobile site does. They’re still
finishing a remodel of the mobile site, though, so that’s why it’s not launched
as a new app yet. It won’t happen before the start of the season, but it’s not
a big deal. Currently, you’ll be able to do everything you want to on your
phone.
Everyone should join the league and check out the functions.
On Friday, March 10, I’d like everyone to weigh in on your thoughts. Let me
know what you found, if anything, that will present major problems?
If there are major concerns, we will either work to correct
them or stick with ESPN if they prove to be too costly to our League’s setup.
If not, then we will move ahead with Fantrax.
PLEASE MESSAGE ME YOUR EMAIL ASAP so I can invite you in.
WHAT IF WEEK 1, THIS
FAILS?
We already know the draft works, so I’m not worried about a
draft problem. However, I can understand the hesitation of the “what if?” What
if live scoring is a mess? What if roster saving issues arise? From what I read
online, this won’t be an issue, but still… “What if?!”
These are valid concerns. It’s why, I’m going to keep ESPN
open and after the Fantrax draft, I’ll input our results into ESPN. For that
first week, I’ll set everyone’s rosters as they are in Fantrax to keep the
scoring updated. (Any kind volunteers to set both lineups for the first week
will be welcomed, but I will take this on as a project myself if it comes to
it.)
That way, if we get to the end of Week 1 and say, “This
needs to be fixed before we move on, etc.” we can all just go to ESPN and
continue with the League.
HOW DOES THIS FIX THE
JUNE DRAFT?
I’m still working on this. I have two options, and I need
more time to discuss it with the assistant commissioners, so I can’t post it here now. My apologies.
All I can say is, it will be significantly easier than what it was last summer, and I thought that was pretty simplified from the start.
Thank you for reading. I'll catch up with you all next Friday.
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