2012 Thursday Games

Cocktails and Dreams
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Cocktails and Dreams » Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:50 am

FYI, 7 of the 9 places I play at have primary waivers prior to Thursday night, regardless of if there was a Thursday night game or not. Works very well for them, and I think it would here as well. Just takes a little mental adjustment from what people are used to, just like any chosen method will.

People that think the Thursday only players on Wednesday won't take long or isn't a big deal are drastically underestimating the time that will take to do it properly. The entire pool has to be evaluated just like a full waiver session. How do you know how much to bid on players playing Thursday without evaluating the entire pool? I certainly couldn't do it properly. Doing that again two days later on Friday? Yuck.

Ry's Guys
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Ry's Guys » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:35 am

I agree with Wayne here. We might be a little short sighted here as he pointed out. A lot of the FAAB $ was spent by the time the first Thursday night game rolled around the past few years.

I struggled mightily with my bids on Wednesdays this past season. I had one week were I didn't think I would be able to field a complete team. I had 3 WR's sustain concussions and the only available WR's on the WW were all questionable as of the Wednesday deadline.

Wednesday FAAB deadline is closer to the available players last game then their next game. Meaning they are still recovering or being diagnosed on Wednesday most of the time. I don't see how anyone can make more than a guess at who to pick up, who to drop and at what prices without a whole lot of luck.

My hope would be for the suggestion of a Wednesday waiver wire for the 2 teams playing on Thursday and then the "normal" friday waiver excluding anyone that was dropped during the Wednesday waiver period.

If everyone else is so comfortable with Wednesday waivers I must agree Wayne!
Like Matt Damon's character Mike McDermott said in Rounders "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table then you are the sucker." I must be the sucker because I haven't been able to sustain any success on the waiver wire once the Thursday games start.

Lots of people on here talk about the luck equation. In my opinion this brings more luck into the equation.
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Greg Ambrosius
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:07 am

Originally posted by Coltsfan:
Greg,

I think that regardless of which route we go it makes sense to be able to start the waiver process earlier. I see no reason why we couldn't roll with Billy's idea of putting in bids on Monday - not just viewing who is available. I can't think of any reason anybody would be against doing this. If nothing else we can get kickers and defenses in.

I really must be one of the guppies here as I honestly don't have enough information to make waiver wire decisions on Wednesday. Every week I put in waiver wire bids early on and every week I end up drastically changing them based on the news. Maybe I"m just not astute enough to do them on Wednesdays. (That's probably a given.) But for me I it seems like every week I have to change things up in my bids on Friday due to news coming out.

So now in my opinion we will be left with having to educated guesses as opposed to educated decision - unless of course you are someone with some kind of inside information..... So we are going to take away our ability to make decisions based on better information (Friday) for 30 teams on the off chance that somebody doesn't play for us the following Thursday due to an injury???? I just don't get it.

And when the news does come out on Friday, then I have to go through every league again to see if the players who might now play are available in any of my leagues. Hence another full wavier wire search. No thanks.

Some have said here that our current system has been fine with Thursday night games. But if you think about it, the most important wavier wire decisions come early on. But the time we have had Thursday night games most of our wavier work is done.

For all of you who say they don't like Friday waivers. Have you been putting in bids early in the week and then leaving them alone of do you alter them sometimes on Fridays? I change mine up all of the time. (And yes I've already said that I'm not that astute.) But now I have to made guesses without injury reports on Tuesday nights as to who I'm getting for next Sunday's games? Wow. I'm not home on Wednesday until 9"30 eastern so it's all about Tuesday for me.

Greg and Tom - you gotta do what you feel is best. I understand that and it won't be a problem. I'm cutting back on managed leagues regardless as I can't effectively manage what I had this year. And I"m definitely up for a lot of DC's. But anyways I'm glad that I don't have to make this call.


Wayne I did just talk to our IT department and they said that available free agents have always been viewable after they run on Friday night. So yes you should be able to see available free agents for all NFFC leagues on Saturday or Sunday. And if we want to open free agent bidding on the weekend, we can do that, too. We've always opened them on Tuesday because of the way I had the rules set up. But if needed, this can open as early as you folks want, if that helps.

I hear what you're saying Wayne and I understand you are going to do fewer leagues next year either way. Are you saying you'd still only like a Friday FAAB period or the idea of Wednesday FAAB for the two Thursday teams and full FAAB on Friday for the rest of the teams? I do think a Friday-only FAAB without allowing teams to pick up the Thursday players is not getting as much love as the other two options, but trying to figure out which way you like best.

Again, we're happy to report that we can open free agency earlier if that helps at all with any Wednesday FAAB deadline we do decide on.
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Coltsfan
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Coltsfan » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:15 am

Greg,

I know I"m in the minority but I like Friday only. You just have to plan for the following Thursday accordingly. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me to do this. I'm not going away no matter what you decide (sorry) but my least favorite part of fantasy football in WW work. And I'm just anal enough to spend WAY too much time doing it. I hope I don't come across as "my way or the highway" as I don't mean it like that. Just lobbying for support.

Even if I play less leagues next year I'll probably invest the same amount and play more supers. My main interest is less WW work so that I enjoy this hobby more. I felt that way long before this thread and the Thursday night games were announced.

And yes opening free agency earlier would be a huge benefit!!!


Wayne

Greg Ambrosius
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:34 am

Originally posted by Coltsfan:
Greg,

I know I"m in the minority but I like Friday only. You just have to plan for the following Thursday accordingly. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me to do this. I'm not going away no matter what you decide (sorry) but my least favorite part of fantasy football in WW work. And I'm just anal enough to spend WAY too much time doing it. I hope I don't come across as "my way or the highway" as I don't mean it like that. Just lobbying for support.

Even if I play less leagues next year I'll probably invest the same amount and play more supers. My main interest is less WW work so that I enjoy this hobby more. I felt that way long before this thread and the Thursday night games were announced.

And yes opening free agency earlier would be a huge benefit!!!


Wayne I totally understand Wayne. For some people, FAAB is a fun part of the game and part of the week-long process of enjoying this hobby for 16+ weeks. For others, it's become a burden that is now compounded by the NFL adding a Thursday game every week. It has put all of us game operators in a tough situation and one that I'm doing my best to talk through with my most loyal and vocal customers. There's no ONE ANSWER here, but we're going to find the best one for us and hopefully stick with it every year going forward.

Opening free agency much earlier looks to be a done deal.

Live Scoring for the overall contests in the Championship Rounds is also going to get done for 2012 and I think you'll see it in a way that works during the regular season too. Our IT department has addressed this with us for 2012 already.

We'll get those Draft Champions Leagues to have the Live Scoring you want, too. We also talked about that this week and with us offering more Slow Drafts, more NFFC '60s, more Draft Champions high-dollar leagues, this is a vital component to the growth of these leagues. It's coming Wayne and this time you can believe me. We HAVE to have it and we'll get it done.

Now we need to solve FAAB and our other prize formats. We made some progress today, and tomorrow I'll lay out some Classic prize structures and see what you folks think. We still have a lot of work to do, but we'll figure it out, I truly believe that.
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Coltsfan » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:37 am

Greg,

Sounds good Greg. The other thing that I would really like to see resolved is the scoring for next year. Any time frame on that?


Wayne

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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Coltsfan » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:39 am

Greg,

I was just thinking about the free agency and this really hadn't occurred to me during this thread but the WW is a lot easier here than MFL. So a lot of my frustration with WW wasn't even in my NFFC leagues. I am going try and cut a couple of my private leagues using MFL as that is just painful.


Wayne

alanr824
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by alanr824 » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:54 am

I don't think you are going to be able to make everyone happy. I think the compromise that has been proposed (Wednesday Full, Friday leftover) is going to make the highest percentage happy and you are dealing with the biggest objection of Wednesday only (not enough info) by offering the Friday leftover waiver period. I personally think, in this new proposal, there will be very little interest in the Friday waiver wire, other than a few rare instances where a player is ruled out or gets hurt between Wednesday night and Friday and the team doesn't have a backup already.. and in those cases, you have covered that situation with the leftover FAAB on Friday. So the question that this causes more work, is overblown. (In my opinion)

[ February 08, 2012, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: Al R G ]

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Shrink Attack
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Shrink Attack » Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:05 pm

Originally posted by Cocktails and Dreams:
FYI, 7 of the 9 places I play at have primary waivers prior to Thursday night, regardless of if there was a Thursday night game or not. Works very well for them, and I think it would here as well. Just takes a little mental adjustment from what people are used to, just like any chosen method will.

People that think the Thursday only players on Wednesday won't take long or isn't a big deal are drastically underestimating the time that will take to do it properly. The entire pool has to be evaluated just like a full waiver session. How do you know how much to bid on players playing Thursday without evaluating the entire pool? I certainly couldn't do it properly. Doing that again two days later on Friday? Yuck. I agree with this completely.

Even if the Wednesday waivers involved only two teams, the analysis (if done thoroughly) involves who is available on all 32 teams.

Now...does everybody have to do it that way? No. Do those who don't do it that way put themselves at a potential disadvantage to those that do? Possibly.

Most high stakes players wouldn't want to put themselves at a potential disadvantage by doing a half-ass job for the Wednesday waivers. At least I wouldn't, and I would feel compelled to work hard on both the waiver periods, not just one.

I would still prefer just one waiver period, and I don't care which day it's run because we'd all be playing on the same playing field.

Renman appears to really enjoy the WW process... we're from different planets. I view it as a necessary evil and liken it to forced labor. It's my least favorite part of Fantasy Football, and anything that increases this aspect of an otherwise enjoyable hobby is a big negative for me.

Like Wayne said, these comments aren't some sort of "my way or the highway" ultimatum. It's just the way I feel about it.

In terms of the other contests...the NFFC is taking the lead on this issue. The others will probably wait for the NFFC's decision, gauge the response, and decide if it makes business sense to go in a different direction.

[ February 08, 2012, 07:48 PM: Message edited by: Shrink Attack ]
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2012 Thursday Games

Post by Glenneration X » Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:24 pm

Originally posted by Shrink Attack:

In terms of the other contests...the NFFC is taking the lead on this issue. The others will probably wait for the NFFC's decision, gauge the response, and decide if it makes business sense to go in a different direction. There's a thread over at the FFPC where this exact topic is being debated as well. Though for now, the responses here seem a bit more thorough and maybe a bit more heated as well.

Reading through these posts, many a talented and successful fantasy player has weighed in with thoughts. All, including my slightly over the top responses, make valid points. It's a tough call, no decision will please everyone. I've made my preferences clear, so has everyone else. I don't envy the decisions having to be made by the operators of these contests.

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