CBS FAAB Question

[wannabegriffey]

This is exactly the problem we were discussing preseason and everyone asked why should CBS make a change for just a couple people. We'll apparently "a couple" just went up to a few.

I'll answer Hammer for you, he's still at CBS because it is still the best overall option, but is it right for the best not to care about improvement or customer satisfaction? Especially when the fix is as simple as allowing you to prioritize your bids in order, just like CBS does for football, as opposed to FAAB priority being strictly dictated by bid amount. If I want my $1 bid for Player A to take precedence over my $3 bid for Player B, why can't I just rank them #1 and #2 in priority? Try to award me Player A first, if I fail then try to award me Player B. As I said before, several people here have contacted CBS requesting it, I'm sure there are people outside of RJ who have asked for it, and everyone who uses FAAB would benefit from it, whether they realize it or not.

We're using OnRoto for our Roto500 league and they are extremely customer friendly when it comes to customization for league setup, even if just one league needs a particular feature, and their FAAB system seems to work just right as far as prioritizing, so it is possible, but, and I hate to criticize because they are running our league for free, they are just not as user friendly on a daily basis for a league's owners. There's just no competition when it comes to CBS's service, accessibility, and feel from an owner's perspective. Also, we are having similar issues at OnRoto as mike9289 regarding FAAB bids for players with previously established salaries.

And what about the extra work of having to fix the cbs-NON prioritezed bids...trusting your league mates to be honest regarding their bids because cbs does NOT have an archive of bids. Great set up, right hammer? FAAB isn't the cornerstone of IN-season team management? Not an important aspect of league activity? Come on hammer, you know what we are discussing is important yet you write, on this topic, drivel.

[wannabegriffey]

At one point, they DID suck. Better now? Yes. Much better.

[Hammer]

And what about the extra work of having to fix the cbs-NON prioritezed bids...trusting your league mates to be honest regarding their bids because cbs does NOT have an archive of bids. Great set up, right hammer? FAAB isn't the cornerstone of IN-season team management? Not an important aspect of league activity? Come on hammer, you know what we are discussing is important yet you write, on this topic, drivel.

dude youre like an inane drone. FAAB prolly isnt used by more than 20 percent of all CBS leagues.

Again, instead of whining incessantly, why dont you call and ask?

[TopChuckie]

This has been gone over more than once but I will try to answer again. When you run a million leagues as CBS does, there are a lot of changes that need to be made. When software changes are considered, there's the financial aspect of it, the affect itll have on other functionality and the priority of it. I dont know where this ranks in those 3 aspects but its silly to say CBS doesnt care. What may seem simple to change often isnt from a software perspective. Have you called the contact number and asked them? If not, perhaps you can get clarity for this issue.

I get all that, yet a much smaller, and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess far less profitable, service like OnRoto can constantly make software changes for just one or a few leagues. If they can somehow afford to do it, I'm going to assume so can CBS. I'm not a programmer, but ranking your bids certainly does not seem like a huge programing undertaking, especially when your football software already allows it, and again, especially when a small player like OnRoto and TQStats before them, have already been doing it right for years. If anything, they should relish in the free advice on how to further distance themselves from their competition.

As far as the priority of it to CBS, it is simply the most common complaint/request I've seen discussed over the years and it will improve the experience for every league that uses FAAB, so I'm also going to conclude that it's the single most clamored for improvement.

I have not called them to discuss this issue, but I had contacted them via email at least three times over the years, calling them wasn't even an option when I first contacted them regarding adding this functionality unless you had some secret phone number that was passed around on message boards, and if I received any response at all it was the canned response thanking me for my suggestions and telling me they take all requests under consideration, blah, blah, blah. After those attempts and seeing several others have had the same experience, I have given up hope that they will ever care and I am relegated to simply bitching about it. I get the impression they are not run by knowledgeable fantasy baseball players familiar with the ins and outs of the game, so trying to convey what is needed via phone conversation feels futile. However, perhaps one day when I haven't gotten my full quota of annoyance, I'll give it a shot.

ETA: Today's not that day.

[wannabegriffey]

dude youre like an inane drone. FAAB prolly isnt used by more than 20 percent of all CBS leagues.

Again, instead of whining incessantly, why dont you call and ask?

And 20 % of a client base isn't enough to induce change?

Lets go over this.

1/ they already use exactly what baseball leagues desire for FAAB in football

2/ tq/onroto is willing to customize individual leagues

FAAB improvement is an indisputable improvement. I am not 100% certain but I would think cbs has programmers on staff. If not, maybe they could use a few hundred of the company expense dollars and change the set up. For you, hammer, to STILL be defending their non-interest in improving their product makes for fun times at rotojunkiefix...

[revo]

And what about the extra work of having to fix the cbs-NON prioritezed bids...trusting your league mates to be honest regarding their bids because cbs does NOT have an archive of bids. Great set up, right hammer? FAAB isn't the cornerstone of IN-season team management? Not an important aspect of league activity? Come on hammer, you know what we are discussing is important yet you write, on this topic, drivel.

If you're so against the CBS automated FAAB system, why not just use the commish-approve FAAB system instead?

I'm not a programmer, but ranking your bids certainly does not seem like a huge programing undertaking, especially when your football software already allows it.

Does football have a FAAB system like that? We use FAAB in our football keeper league on CBS and I'm not aware of a contingency bidding system there.

[Hammer]

And 20 % of a client base isn't enough to induce change?

I guess not but ask them when you call.

[TopChuckie]

Does football have a FAAB system like that? We use FAAB in our football keeper league on CBS and I'm not aware of a contingency bidding system there.

I'm not aware of a FAAB system for football, but, since typically there are no dollar values involved in football, all your FA claims are prioritized based on how you rank them, the order of priority you give them, which can be adjusted up and down up until the deadline. That's all that needs to be adjusted for baseball, process my claims in the order I specify, not by the dollar value I bid. If I would rather win my $1 FAAB bid for one player, rather than my $3 FAAB bid for another player, let me rank them accordingly.

[revo]

And 20 % of a client base isn't enough to induce change?

Lets go over this.

1/ they already use exactly what baseball leagues desire for FAAB in football

2/ tq/onroto is willing to customize individual leagues

1. CBS does not have FAAB contingency for football.

2. What you're forgetting is that CBS also has fantasy football, hockey, basketball, golf, and college football. It's possible, even likely, that the same processes for making waiver wire pickups runs across the board for all their games. You seem to think that isn't the case, or maybe didn't take it into account at all. How many sports games does OnRoto have? If it's just baseball, then you're really comparing apples to oranges. Of course OnRoto is willing to do whatever you want -- they're desperate for your business. How many leagues would you say OnRoto manages -- 500 to 1,000 at most? CBS may have 100x that across all its leagues.

I think Pete was being generous in saying FAAB is being used in 20% in leagues -- maybe that's just baseball. Take all of their other sports, and you're probably looking at 5% or less.

[mgwiz22]

Can anyone provide me with a full explanation of the CBS FAAB system for breaking ties? I was under the impression that it was based upon the reverse order of the standings"as of the beginning of the period"but this does not seem to be the case. Reverse Order of the Standings is how it is set up in our league rules.

[revo]

Can anyone provide me with a full explanation of the CBS FAAB system for breaking ties? I was under the impression that it was based upon the reverse order of the standings"as of the beginning of the period"but this does not seem to be the case. Reverse Order of the Standings is how it is set up in our league rules.

It starts each week reverse order of standings. When you make a successful pickup, you drop to the bottom of the order. So if the worst team (#1 in the order) makes an uncontested, untied $10 bid on someone, he drops to last. Then, for example, if he ties someone on a second player for $1, the other team would win him.

If you have multiple FAAB days within a single week, it carries over. So if the above happened on Wednesday's FAAB, the order is however it finished up, not reverse of standings.

[mgwiz22]

Thank you. I wish that Sportsline provided such clear explanations of how their systems work somewhere on their site.

[TopChuckie]

It starts each week reverse order of standings. When you make a successful pickup, you drop to the bottom of the order. So if the worst team (#1 in the order) makes an uncontested, untied $10 bid on someone, he drops to last. Then, for example, if he ties someone on a second player for $1, the other team would win him.

If you have multiple FAAB days within a single week, it carries over. So if the above happened on Wednesday's FAAB, the order is however it finished up, not reverse of standings.

So that's another aspect of FAAB that they got wrong.

[revo]

So that's another aspect of FAAB that they got wrong.

I'm not a huge fan of the carryover if there's multiple FAABs within one period. At the same time, I'm not a huge fan for constantly rewarding failure, so I do agree with the drop to the bottom idea (we do that in many other of my non-FAAB leagues, so why shouldn't FAAB run the same way?)

[TopChuckie]

I'm not a huge fan of the carryover if there's multiple FAABs within one period. At the same time, I'm not a huge fan for constantly rewarding failure, so I do agree with the drop to the bottom idea (we do that in many other of my non-FAAB leagues, so why shouldn't FAAB run the same way?)

I agree with drop to the bottom, but only after your position in the standings is used to break a tie. If I won the bidding, I won the bidding, I did what I had to do to win that player, I paid the price, my place in the standings is irrelevant, and I should not be dropped to last.