Is There Anything Better Than Rotolab?

[Todd Zola]

Todd, note that Rotolab does NOT seamlessly track in-season performance. Yes, you can do it, but you have to hand enter the standings data daily which is a royal pain in the ass. I've also asked Merv to add in-season functionality by linking to leagues, but he pleaded ignorance that it could be done. When I told him Footballguys does it, he seemed very surprised.

Understood - but none of what I listed are in-season functions.

That said, adding in-season functionality to Rotolab would be a huge endeavor, one which I suspect is nowhere worth the cost benefit. The cost of daily stats and assorted licenses would be high. There's a big difference between getting a stat stream once a week for 16 weeks and every day for 182 days. Footballguys already has/is paying for the weekly stats. More importantly, it's a whole lot easier for someone like footballguys to work directly with myfantasyleague. There is no equivalent of myfantasyleague in baseball (a private company hosting a huge percentage of leagues). Working with ESPN/CBS /Yahoo! to hook up baseball leagues? I just don't see it. Maybe getting an exclusive with one, but even that wouldn't be worth it. The added Rotolab users wouldn't come close to offsetting the admin costs.

[revo]

Understood - but none of what I listed are in-season functions.

That said, adding in-season functionality to Rotolab would be a huge endeavor, one which I suspect is nowhere worth the cost benefit. The cost of daily stats and assorted licenses would be high. There's a big difference between getting a stat stream once a week for 16 weeks and every day for 182 days. Footballguys already has/is paying for the weekly stats. More importantly, it's a whole lot easier for someone like footballguys to work directly with myfantasyleague. There is no equivalent of myfantasyleague in baseball (a private company hosting a huge percentage of leagues). Working with ESPN/CBS /Yahoo! to hook up baseball leagues? I just don't see it. Maybe getting an exclusive with one, but even that wouldn't be worth it. The added Rotolab users wouldn't come close to offsetting the admin costs.

Is there a cost to that? You just have to enter your own login/password and it logs in as you. That's something FBGs pays CBS for?

Rotolab also does continue their downloadable BBHQ projections for the entire season, but they're worthless if you're not hand updating the standings and rosters within the program.

[Todd Zola]

There's a cost to everything.

I don't know the specifics. Rotolab, as it is now, only needs projections, for which they have an exclusive agreement with BaseballHQ. I'm pretty familiar with a site which tried to also provide projections, but Merv was adamant, his deal was exclusively with HQ and they had a bit more cache than the fledgling site of which I speak. Considering this is now Merv's livelihood, he can't be faulted for the decision.

Anyway, it's not a simple as it may seem. There is a lot necessary to do something of this nature and baseball just doesn't have the popularity as football to make it cost effective.

OnRoto has projected in-season standings based on current rosters, using HQ and Clay Davenport's rest-of-season projections, but there's no means of manipulating rosters to see what happens if....

[Pauly]

Todd...I have used mastersball software a few times in the distant past. Is it no longer available?

[Todd Zola]

Todd...I have used mastersball software a few times in the distant past. Is it no longer available?

Ah, you were the one.

No, I stopped offering it many moons ago.

[Big Tymer]

LONG time user as well of Rotolab and can't see myself switching. I view projections as directional at best for anyone's method so don't care so that they use BaseballHQ vs. anyone else. I mainly just want to keep track of statistical categories vs. ideal targets knowing that their is a high degree of variance possible on any one player. I try to draft for balance and this helps me do that while also tracking inflation (which I do a bunch of manual edits to tweak for my leagues based on knowledge of historical drafting).

In terms of Todd's question, track inflation is #1 but then I don't really pay any attention to standings or recommendations or such. Rather, I have a rough idea of where I want to end up and thus review positional and categorical scarcity to break ties or identify targets (assuming I have $ to spend since I also price enforce a bit).

[wombat104]

The ability to automatically sync rosters across multiple leagues like Footballguys offers is a huge void in the baseball landscape. Any product offering that for baseball would automatically have my business and a substantial leg-up on any competitor.

[revo]

The ability to automatically sync rosters across multiple leagues like Footballguys offers is a huge void in the baseball landscape. Any product offering that for baseball would automatically have my business and a substantial leg-up on any competitor.

Agree 100%.

[KnuckleBalls]

I have used Fantistics for many many years. I switched to Rotowire for the better website, prospect info and news. The reason for me using it is 1. I'm lazy. 2. I'm not smart enough to do my own spreadsheet. 3. Track Rosters and Money 4. Track inflation. One thing I always thought would be a nice add is a tab that showed projected starting lineups updated as guys were taken like a link to Roster Resource showing guys available.

[revo]

I ended up buying Rotolab again. Thanks all.