CBS Sporstsline Scoring Flaw

[dowdyism]

My NL-Only league has been using Sportsline as our stats service for over a decade but I learned something new today that boggles my mind. As long as I can remember, they have had a setting called "Players traded out of selected pool do not accumulate stats". You click the checkbox, and that setting is activated. Our rules dictate that players traded to the AL no longer accrue stats for your team, so click the box and you are all set, right?

I noticed Ryan Dempster accrued stats for my team the first night he pitched after the trade. No big deal, Sportsline live scoring often shows things it shouldn't and the stats show up correctly the next day. In Dempster's case, the stats we applied to my team the following day, and not zeroed out as I would have expected.

I open a help ticket with Sportsline. Here are the results:

Response Via Email (Patrick P.) 08/03/2012 11:17 PM
Brad,
Thank you for your inquiry. The only way he would not accrue points would be if you placed him on the bench or dropped him from the team.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Customer By Email (Brad) 08/03/2012 11:28 PM
I'm not trying to be difficult Patrick but you are not answering my question. What is the point of the "Players traded out of selected pool do not accumulate stats" setting if you are telling me the player will continue to accrue stats as long as I have him active? You are not making any sense.

Response Via Email (Patrick P.) 08/03/2012 11:38 PM
Brad,
Thank you for your inquiry. The way our system is set up if a player is drafted in an NL only league and the midway through the season gets traded to an AL only league, then he will continue to accrue points as long as that player is in the starting lineup.

Customer By Email (Brad) 08/03/2012 11:43 PM
You have to understand how broken that is right? In fact, it cannot be allowed to happen. It compromises the entire league and goes directly against the settings you provide to prevent this from happening. Can this be escalated because there is no way that this is right.

Response Via Email (Patrick P.) 08/03/2012 11:48 PM
Brad,
Thank you for your inquiry. I understand the frustration, but the only way that he would not accrue points would be if you the commish went ahead and backdated the rsoter from that scoring period and then we reran the stats.

Customer By Email (Brad) 08/03/2012 11:58 PM
What does the "Players traded out of selected pool do not accumulate stats" setting do?

Response Via Email (Patrick P.) 08/04/2012 12:06 AM
Brad,
Thank you for your inquiry. That's only when a player gets placed to the bench/reserve position, not the starting lineup.

TL;DR version: NL only player gets traded to the AL and keeps accruing stats as long as he is active despite settings to the contrary.

[Sharky]

Interesting. Then why have the button? FWIW, our league allows accumulation of stats following trades like that. Why not consider it? Seems like punishing people for bad luck otherwise.

[mjl]

That guy just has to be wrong. There's no way that setting applies to people moving to the bench.

[wannabegriffey]

Another example of the great cbs logic and helpfullness. I still remember the days at tq. Sir, our league needs this. No problem, we'll change your league setting by tomorrow. Thank you sir.

[BuckyBuckner]

Another example of the great cbs logic and helpfullness. I still remember the days at tq. Sir, our league needs this. No problem, we'll change your league setting by tomorrow. Thank you sir.

onroto.com continues to do just that and they improve the web site throughout the year.

CBS is totally screwed up and without any concept of customer service. Writing "Thank you for your inquiry" at the beginning of every email does not mean you are proving quality customer service. I know this debate has been dragged out a million times over but their bells and whistles just does not make up for the lack of customization and unwillingness to work with their customers.

[dowdyism]

It's a real hair-puller. I don't know what to do next. Maybe I'll open a new ticket tomorrow and try again.

[Ryno84MVP]

I use CBS for one NL-only league and we have not had this problem. Dempster has earned zero stats this week. When you check a team's stats for this week, make sure that under "Source" you click "Fantasy" and not the default "MLB"

[Hornsby]

I have NEVER, repeat NEVER, had an issue with customer service at CBS. Each and every time that I've had an issue, they've been prompt and courteous, working hard to resolve whatever issue that was brought up. I don't know what happened here, but open up another ticket with another agent, and hopefully, things will get resolved.

[dowdyism]

Ryno - you have me down off the ledge. Thank you! I verified Dempster has 0 stats for this scoring period with your suggestion.

I'll reply to CBS with your tip as a way for someone in my shoes to verify what actually took place stat-wise. Hopefully that will help with a clearer response the next time someone asks.

Thanks again!

[revo]

Another example of the great cbs logic and helpfullness. I still remember the days at tq. Sir, our league needs this. No problem, we'll change your league setting by tomorrow. Thank you sir.

These posts always end up the same way -- some league commish has the settings wrong, some poster/league member shouts that CBS screwed them or TQ/Onroto/Yahoo/ESPN is better, some CBS part-timer answers incorrectly (which is not uncommon for, oh, every company's call center), then wannabe jumps on CBS just as the tide comes in.

[wannabegriffey]

These posts always end up the same way -- some league commish has the settings wrong, some poster/league member shouts that CBS screwed them or TQ/Onroto/Yahoo/ESPN is better, some CBS part-timer answers incorrectly (which is not uncommon for, oh, every company's call center), then wannabe jumps on CBS just as the tide comes in.

Yeah, I jump on cbs because there are several issues they absolutely refuse to change - how's your faab bidding?

TQ has proven that it didn't matter that they had thousand of leagues. You need something, they changed the settings. I am sure cbs can afford to hire an IT guy to do just that...

[revo]

Yeah, I jump on cbs because there are several issues they absolutely refuse to change - how's your faab bidding?

TQ has proven that it didn't matter that they had thousand of leagues. You need something, they changed the settings. I am sure cbs can afford to hire an IT guy to do just that...

I'm in 5 CBS leagues that use FAAB (baseball & football) over a combined 50-70 seasons, so that means there's been about 100 or so different owners come and go over that time. Know how many have complained over this "tragic" FAAB issue? None. And these are leagues with a relatively high entrance fee, so the owner quality is fine.

Personally, I have NEVER had an issue with CBS' FAAB capabilities, but I have tremendously enjoyed their other site features.

[wannabegriffey]

I'm in 5 CBS leagues that use FAAB (baseball & football) over a combined 50-70 seasons, so that means there's been about 100 or so different owners come and go over that time. Know how many have complained over this "tragic" FAAB issue? None. And these are leagues with a relatively high entrance fee, so the owner quality is fine.

Personally, I have NEVER had an issue with CBS' FAAB capabilities, but I have tremendously enjoyed their other site features.

If you are trying to say the cbs faab process is top of the line, I call b.s. In fact, the cbs free agent bidding is something from a time warp. Is this 1993 and the internet is new? It is sooooo simple. Implement a system in which the bids are archived. This is all it really takes. When there is an issue, there is a time stamp. Easy to fix any problem with archived bids, right? So why can't cbs address this problem (and it is a problem)?

You don't have to like me or my vocal complaints on various topics but I don't get how you defend this simplest of issue to fix for many leagues...

[revo]

If you are trying to say the cbs faab process is top of the line, I call b.s. In fact, the cbs free agent bidding is something from a time warp. Is this 1993 and the internet is new? It is sooooo simple. Implement a system in which the bids are archived. This is all it really takes. When there is an issue, there is a time stamp. Easy to fix any problem with archived bids, right? So why can't cbs address this problem (and it is a problem)?

You don't have to like me or my vocal complaints on various topics but I don't get how you defend this simplest of issue to fix for many leagues...

I don't believe I said their FAAB system is "top of the line," but it works just fine. I'd never leave what is a far superior product to anything else on the market over a minor issue such as this. I'd rather have the FAAB be in a time warp to 1993 than have the site look like it's from 1993.

As far as TQ Stats or whatever or wherever they are now having great customer service, you answered your own question. If they're lucky, they may have 1,000 leagues. At the $99 they charge, they can afford to have maybe one employee, so of course they're going to bend over backwards -- any business they have they desperately need to keep. And that's another point -- how good are these services if they can go under or get sold off at any time?

And FYI -- a google search of TQ Stats turns up page after page of horrific problems/issues with their service, including one on losing the ability to FAAB for an ENTIRE SEASON.

[Todd Zola]

And FYI -- a google search of TQ Stats turns up page after page of horrific problems/issues with their service, including one on losing the ability to FAAB for an ENTIRE SEASON.

Got no horse in this race other than being friends with the guys from the old TQ Stats (now OnRoto.com) -- but to be fair, the aforementioned issues occurred AFTER the original owners of TQS sold the company to the same people that owned Rotojunkie for a couple of years.