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Post by Hoyas1 on Jan 15, 2014 11:06:41 GMT -5
Please use this section to discuss the idea of moving the league from Yahoo to Fantrax.
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Post by eulogy7 on Jan 15, 2014 12:08:30 GMT -5
I understand fantrax is a more "advanced" site and that the hardcore fantasy snobs swear by it, but this is actually a pretty casual league all things considered. You can't even set your lineup on fantrax without pop-up menus and "apply to future days" menus... Even doing things such as searching for players, sorting stats are a huge pain. The research function of yahoo (% owned, % added/dropped, transactions trends, etc. are lacking on fantrax) Trading is a huge hassle as well. they literally just added the ability to trade without email, and it's still way behind. They also still have an "illegal roster" thing, where you can lose entire days stats because you have a player out of place. (I understand you can avoid this by just paying attention, but you can also avoid picking up owned minor leaguers as well...)
Trust me, I use fantrax for multiple dynasty leagues, and it certainly has some merits for large, advanced leagues with multiple player pools or for leagues that don't have an established offseason website. But for a 14 team, semi-casual league that has been running well for 5+ years? Not so much... I wouldn't be opposed to a "sister league" run on fantrax with some of the same owners, but to change sites after so many years of success in a league with "Yahoo" in the title of it doesn't make much sense.
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Post by Raindogs on Jan 15, 2014 20:38:12 GMT -5
I've been on other sites including Fantrax and I'm a big Yahoo fan. So, much easier to use with much more useful tools. It would be important for me to remain on Yahoo.
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Post by Hoyas1 on Jan 16, 2014 16:57:46 GMT -5
I am a big proponent of moving the league to Fantrax, but, I will keep my comments and thoughts fairly brief as I have an idea I would like to try this year.
Yahoo is certainly familiar to all of us and is based around the casual user. But, there are limitations that Yahoo has that hinder this league. Last year, their set up allowed a very good pitcher to be taken from a teams farm system and actively used by another owner. They have no tangible way to stop streaming and there are many other issues.
To address some of the points made above - trading for our league is hard with Yahoo because owners must message each other if minor leaguers are included in trades. Fantrax would allow the trading of major leaguers, minor leaguers and even our minor league picks if we wanted.
I have had no trouble in searching and sorting players in Fantrax. Fantrax offers many more statistics to search and does include % owned, % added/dropped, transactions trends. These are on a tab on the player menu and even includes the Average Draft Position that is very helpful and % active and % drafted.
There are many other benefits that the YEL could receive from Fantrax, none more important than having an owners complete team rostered so a player could not be picked up, current salaries showing on every team page, we could add a weekly maximum innings, and could set our finals to last two or two and 1/2 weeks!
But, this would be a big undertaking so I am suggesting this:
For 2014 we will run a mirrored league on Fantrax. I will set everything up and load all of the rosters after the auction and include minor leaguers. Each owner would have the opportunity to look at the site themselves and make an informed decision the following off-season. If an owner chooses not to sign-up or look at the site that is fine. But, if you want to try it out, set line-ups, pick up players, make trades, etc that will be fine, but that league will not be what we start 2015 with.
We will continue on Yahoo this year and that will be our official league; for records, final rosters, draft order, champion, etc.
If this sounds reasonable please post and let me know and I will prepare the site.
Thanks
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Post by paulzilla on Jan 16, 2014 17:35:42 GMT -5
Scott your idea sounds great. I am not really in a place to jump to another new website/format. I just don't have the time.Your solution is a good one as it allows us to check in and out without penalty. I say do it, but under the stipulations you used above. I'm a yahoo guy, but will look at this if set up as you say, on a trial basis.
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Post by eulogy7 on Jan 16, 2014 18:48:07 GMT -5
Can we maybe get a league vote? I'd be a lot more comfortable switching knowing the majority was in favor of moving, or even in favor of trying the 'mirrored league' thing
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Post by Hoyas1 on Jan 16, 2014 20:30:08 GMT -5
I may go ahead and post a poll early this weekend after I have seen a little more feedback. But, to make the switch to Fantrax we would need a greater number than the simple majority.
What we may do is with 7 to 11 Fantrax do the mirrored site or if Fantrax gets 12 - 14 go ahead and make the move. If we get under 6 Fantrax votes we will put this topic to rest.
How does that sound?
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Post by mudville9 on Jan 16, 2014 22:20:31 GMT -5
I'm on board with the trial.
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Post by eulogy7 on Jan 16, 2014 22:36:15 GMT -5
I may go ahead and post a poll early this weekend after I have seen a little more feedback. But, to make the switch to Fantrax we would need a greater number than the simple majority. What we may do is with 7 to 11 Fantrax do the mirrored site or if Fantrax gets 12 - 14 go ahead and make the move. If we get under 6 Fantrax votes we will put this topic to rest. How does that sound? That sounds more than fair
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Post by Marbles on Jan 17, 2014 15:35:25 GMT -5
I haven't done any leagues on Yahoo or Fantrax until this year so I don't have much of an opinion, but I would like to say that learning another format for a fantasy league would most likely be difficult for most owners, especially me considering that I'd be learning two new formats. Either way though it doesn't mean that much to me. I'll do whatever everyone else decides.
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Post by harashil on Jan 19, 2014 13:00:38 GMT -5
I think that is a good idea Scott. I like Fantrax more than Yahoo so I would like to move.
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Post by oddmanout7 on Jan 19, 2014 14:07:51 GMT -5
I have only ever used yahoo, so I have no experience with Fantrax. It sounds like switching over may help eliminate some of the problems we have run into, so I would be open to at least a trial run.
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Post by 25alive on Jan 20, 2014 19:31:48 GMT -5
I am strongly in favor of moving to Fantrax. It makes no sense to continue to run a league on a site that does not meet all the leagues needs when there is a viable option available. Not moving because change is not convenient is a poor excuse and that does seem to be the common theme.
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Post by oozed on Jan 23, 2014 12:31:19 GMT -5
i like yahoo due to its simplicity (and i use yahoo for email, so i'm already logged in, always...and i use it for other leagues..) if fantrax is as user friendly, then it probably won't matter much, but i have no problems with yahoo
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Post by eulogy7 on Jan 23, 2014 17:19:16 GMT -5
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Post by Hoyas1 on Jan 23, 2014 20:26:09 GMT -5
That would be good, if they allowed enough NA spots for each team to roster the players. It would be more appropriate if they created Minor League spots that we could add to each team
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Post by Hoyas1 on Jan 24, 2014 11:31:47 GMT -5
I just looked into the Yahoo settings for their NA position and believe this could cause more confusion and problems for our league. From Yahoo's website:
Things to remember when stashing players on NA Once in the NA roster spot, a player can stay there for the entire season, even if they return to real-life action -- but once they've been activated by their MLB team, you won't be able to complete any transactions involving adding a player to your team until you remove them from your team's NA.
So, the trouble will be, if we use NA slots for our minors, that a prospect will loose their "NA" status if they are called up to the majors and Yahoo will not let the team make any adds/drops while they are in a NA slot.
For example, the owner of Mark Appel has him on the NA roster and he is called up. The owner does not want to bring him to his roster yet because he is under the 50 IP minimum and is pitching in relief. That owner will not be able to drop or add any other player while Appel is on his NA roster!
Also, minor leaguers that are under our minimums but active on a MLB team will not have "NA" status and therefore, not able to be placed in a "NA" slot.
This will not be a good option for keeper or dynasty leagues.
Unless, Yahoo also adds minor league roster spots this will cause us more problems than before.
If anyone has any thoughts on how we can work around this I would be interested in hearing.
Thanks
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Post by Raindogs on Jan 24, 2014 12:32:11 GMT -5
That doesn't sound like a very smart way for Yahoo to implement the NA slot. Pretty surprising.
That said, I have seen Yahoo work well even for dynasty leagues with minor league rosters and even for contract leagues where a player may be dropped but still the responsibility of another owner. Normally, the commish publishes a list of taken minor league players periodically in the Recent Messages area. Owners just need to be careful to look at that list before adding a player. Worst case is someone doesn't check the list, adds a player that belongs to someone else, no other owner notices, and he racks up stats for the wrong team. Seems like we should be able to avoid that. it works fine for other leagues.
You could, of course, argue that we shouldn't be using a site that allows that in the first place. I guess it is a trade-off between using a convenient and more likeable site with this flaw versus a site that is less convenient. To me, it is worth the convenience of having everything in Yahoo. But, I totally get the other side of the argument.
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