Live Chat With Tom & Greg: Wednesday At 3 PM ET

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:35 am

On the eve of the first 2011 pre-season games, Tom and I will be here tomorrow for a Live Chat. There is plenty to talk about with injuries, signings and more dominating the action. Now let's see some football on TV and get the season started.

Feel free to post some questions here ahead of time. We can handle any football, baseball, social, marital or industry questions you might have.

Let's get together tomorrow and CHAT.

Thanks and let's get this rolling. Bring on the tough questions NOW!!

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Tue Aug 09, 2011 3:03 pm

Tom, any big plans for your trip to New York (aside from hosting fantasy drafts)?

Greg, same question, but Las Vegas.

Back to Tom, stick to Vegas.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:00 pm

Originally posted by King of Queens:
Tom, any big plans for your trip to New York (aside from hosting fantasy drafts)?

Greg, same question, but Las Vegas.

Back to Tom, stick to Vegas. I think I can speak for Tom when I say that football drafts are SOOOOOOOO much easier to host than baseball drafts!!

The Main Events get done in just over two hours compared to 4 1/2 to 5 hours for baseball. I'm really looking forward to the football drafts and I'm sure Tom is too, now that we're back in Manhattan.

Nothing special planned for Las Vegas, but I'm looking forward to hosting the first weekend's drafts and doing some of the Supers in our suite again. That was a lot of fun last year and hopefully we'll get many of the same owners back with us as we hook up with the teleconference drafters. And with Tom coming for the second weekend events, I'm really looking forward to our debut Primetime Las Vegas drafts and building on that weekend. That should be fun.

I'm going to miss the Packers' opener at Lambeau Field, which really pains me, but it should be fun with all of our NFFC friends around. I'm still trying to get an answer on my NFL Viewing Party from the Bellagio, but that should be a lot of fun. I'm wearing my Rodgers' home green jersey for sure.

LOTS of fun ahead. Tom needs to train my brother in New York and then he will be fine. All is good. Looking forward to seeing you in Sin City. Give Tom some trouble first in the Big Apple.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Aug 09, 2011 4:07 pm

Nothing special on my agenda for New York or Vegas. As far as New York, I'm hoping to find a nice sports bar on the Thursday I get in so we can watch some tennis (U.S. Open will be underway) or some baseball and have a beer or two. Friday will be an all-day and all-night affair so it may just be the hotel bar afterwards. For Saturday, though, I plan on going out so if some of you guys in New York want to join me I think we can find somewhere fun to hang out.

Vegas is going to be busy, busy, busy but it should be a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll find a moment or two for a little bit of recreation.

paus · Post by **paus** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:27 am

Greg / Tom,

What is the status of the 14-team OC contest? What is your take on the lack of sign-ups for this contest?

Last year Finley had a NFFC ADP of 36.6 - will he go sooner or later this year?

Best was 40.57 - sooner or later this year?

Bears or Lions for second in the NFFC North?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:54 am

Originally posted by JohnP:
Greg / Tom,

What is the status of the 14-team OC contest? What is your take on the lack of sign-ups for this contest?

Last year Finley had a NFFC ADP of 36.6 - will he go sooner or later this year?

Best was 40.57 - sooner or later this year?

Bears or Lions for second in the NFFC North? Our position on the 14-Team Online Championship is that we want to provide a $20,000 grand prize, but if we don't have any full leagues we can't do it. If you look at the signups, it's unlikely that we will get any full leagues before Sept. 1st and if we wait that long we'll need 22 full leagues in 8-9 days to reach our goals. I will give it some more time to see where the signups take us and if we can accomplish that, but I'm also not stupid. If consumers don't want a product you're providing you make the smart call and admit your mistake.

Right now we are watching the 12-Team Online Championship conitnue to excel as we are approaching 300 teams. Maybe we should have just planned for 720+ teams in that format. But both OC's had the same guaranteed grand prize, so now we know what is more popular at this price point for our players. Again, the players are speaking loud and clear. We'll see what transpires in the next few days and make a call.

We aren't charging anything for those leagues until they're full, so there's no harm to signing up for those September dates if you want to see this continue. Heck, the $75,000 cash bonus for winning both Online Championships would seem like a worthy add-on. But again, if the demand isn't there we'll all make this easy call together and move on with our other products. And we won't wait much longer to make that call so that all of you can plan accordingly. We don't want the 12-Team OC to fill up without those 14-Team OC owners have a first shot at the remaining spots.

Finley, later than 36th

Best, higher than 40th

I will say the Lions, but those latest injuries have been brutal. It's almost a sign that fate isn't on Detroit's side again. But they are stacking up some serious talent in Motown and I think they will perform well this year. Their 2010 finish was mighty impressive.

boutrous11 · Post by **boutrous11** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:10 am

latest word on whether or not any auction satellites will run? (trying to plan out where exactly to spend the last $ my wife says I can spend...)

what do you think of employing Mike Tolbert as a dirt cheap rb2 this season? with the big(gest) rb injury risk in the league ahead of him, the departure of Sproles, an explosive offense, I think Tolbert at minimum equals last year's stats. and with him being a threat to score every week, I could see him being rather consistent....

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:17 am

Originally posted by boutrous11:
latest word on whether or not any auction satellites will run? (trying to plan out where exactly to spend the last $ my wife says I can spend...)

what do you think of employing Mike Tolbert as a dirt cheap rb2 this season? with the big(gest) rb injury risk in the league ahead of him, the departure of Sproles, an explosive offense, I think Tolbert at minimum equals last year's stats. and with him being a threat to score every week, I could see him being rather consistent.... I just don't think we're going to offer online satellite auction leagues this year. I've talked with MFL.com and maybe we're a year away from doing this together. I want this to be a positive for both of us and there might be some tweaks to the system that they can provide next year that makes this work. To provide pay leagues there now just didn't feel right after the initial feedback and there just isn't enough time to add those extra tweaks that our guys felt was needed.

We could run something on the other auction sites, but that's always tough to run pay leagues on a competing site. So I'm not sure that's the right way to go. The best option maybe is to plan better for next year and get it right then at the $125 and $250 levels.

I agree on Tolbert. He's in a great position to bust out like last year with Mathews so injury-prone. His ADP is currently 109, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it rise soon.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:46 am

Originally posted by FalconsGuy:
Greg, any word on what to do with all of this stock market volatility that's hitting more than a few of us where it hurts most - in the pocket or purse?

Also, which QB can I get on the cheap this year with top 5 breakout potential? The stock market is more insane than the fantasy sports industry right now. I watched that afternoon roller coaster ride of 600 points yesterday and now today the market is down 300+ points again. How could the world economy be in such bad shape? I think if we could stop financing all of these wars and get every dictator to volunteer to step aside for democratic processes we'd be fine. Can we do all of that in the next two weeks please?

I feel like I'm back in the early 1980s when you couldn't even find low paying summer jobs. And it feels like this pain is going to last a lot longer than it did in the 1980s, which is sad to imagine. The only difference is that interest rates aren't 20% they are 0%. And we still can't get things moving forward. YIKES.

It's tough to break into the Top 5 among QBs, but Michael Vick came out of nowhere to do it last year, so it can be done. Some values in the early drafts appear to be:

Matt Shaub - 9th QB selected, ADP of 58.16
Ben Roethlisberger - 10th QB selected, ADP of 65.58
Josh Freeman - 12th QB selected, ADP of 79.11
Matthew Stafford - 13th QB selected because of injuries, ADP of 83.89
Kevin Kolb - 18th QB selected (okay, reaching here, but you asked), ADP of 118.42

Solid QB2s to gamble on now include Kyle Orton (24th, ADP of 151.26), Ryan Fitzpatrick (19th QB, ADP of 119.47) and Matt Cassel (17th QB, ADP of 103.74)

No real sleepers from me there, but it's hard to project any of those QBs after the Top 20 for breakouts like we saw last year with Vick. But I'm sure one of them will surprise me.