If enough people are interested, I'll commish a MAC lg, which will probably provide enough to keep me busy. Maybe PBR would oversee a Champs lg. Perhaps you want to establish a lg too. I'd probably enter a team in each of those, and I'd think others here might want to copy the template and form still more lgs

01/11 23:16:36 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I thought there stats wizard was the same as CDM's, maybe better.

01/11 23:07:35 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
yer right - I used that CDM Stat Wizard a LOT. The last few years I never made any buys without using Stat Wizard. Very useful tool & easy to use.

01/11 23:05:45 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : excellent idea. I'd offer to be co-commish on something like that if you wanted to. Let me know.

01/11 23:04:07 bb40 Summit Squad 
Something I'll really miss is the Stat Wizard. That was the coolest research tool. Who knows, maybe a site can create a new one. IMO whoever can produce the most similar stuff stands to gain lots of customers.

01/11 22:59:32 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I guess we're all thinking the same thing. :-)

01/11 22:54:09 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - agree with that. IMO we're still in site evaluation mode, and that's what I've told Fantrax. One possibility to bootstrap things for everyone: we set up a "master league", pre-configured to match as budget as closely as possible, then allow others who want to run lgs like MAC or Champs to copy the master and tweak it as their commish sees fit.

01/11 22:54:06 bb68 Steuben Kings 
IMO, a full sized Budget type game wouldn't be feasible for us. I think for this year our side leagues would be the best way to go. That way we can all get a better idea of what we want and then maybe make it bigger next year, whether we do it, or see if Fantrax can do it for us.

01/11 22:52:39 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
One option - we could always just keep this Test league as a "free" league and play it in 2011 - if there was an interest in doing a large "free" league for posters, etc. - Something for posters to play in against other posters at no cost.

01/11 22:47:30 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Well, I'm not sure we're going to use Fantrax yet. One problem with using the test league for a real league is that nobody has really talked about entry fees, etc. or if a 200 team league could even work, so some who join might not want the entry fee that was settled on, etc. I think it's workable, but we need to gage what interest there is for various leagues to start. IMO the best way is first sort out the kinks and find something workable - then talk about formation of actual leagues. MAC (and side coupon option like before) for one league, Budget Champs (and side coupon), No idea how large a regular Budget type game could be done. Free leagues could be done as well. It might be easist to use the same block of salaries that we come up with to make playing the diff. games more easy. I figured the Test league was a good way to start - as well as another place to keep people connected in case the BBS goes down.

01/11 22:46:27 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Also, there's no way to do 12 purchases and 4 free agent picks. I just did 16 purchases.

01/11 22:44:26 bb68 Steuben Kings 
You can have any salary you want. You cand adjust them manually, or with a system they have. However, there system isn't the best. It only goes by last years stats. Natahan would be minimum salary, because he missed most of the year, so players like him would have to be manually adjusted. I know nothing about DC salaries, so I left it alone.

01/11 22:34:06 m14 AA Yankees 
Other than the salaries, it works fine. can we replicate D.C. salaries ?

01/11 22:27:19 bb68 Steuben Kings 
They have to erase the () around z. I couldn't get gy(z) through the censor. :-(

01/11 22:27:07 ccc1 Mike L. 
I can't believe that fanball made NO money. Seems to me it was purchased just to be shut down. Maybe some revenge from the lawsuit? If they are shutting down and not selling does that mean this exact format could be copied by someone? I know very little about computers, what would it take to start something exactly like this game under another name? Has to be some money to be made. With lower overall money and more league prizes maybe even more people would play.

01/11 22:25:44 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: Are you going to use the test site for the real game, or create another one? I'd join the test site, if that will end up as the one we use. Otherwise, I'll wait, because I already know how Fantrax looks/works. :-)

01/11 22:22:15 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Harry : good to see you and your joining the test league. We can let you and everyone else know when we sort everything out & hopefully set up real leagues.

Steuben : the DC guys weren't able to use the league code you gave them.

01/11 22:05:08 bb16 Harry`s 
I've signed up at Fantrax and rostered my team,but I will redo roster whenever salary guidelines are established.Thanks again Catcher,you're a winner.

01/11 21:33:11 bb16 DING-BATS 
Great job Steubin!

01/11 21:28:12 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I've set up a test league at Fantrax for a DC style game. Feel free to join and get used to the site. I set it up so you guys can see if you like this altenative. I'm not a DC player, so it would be appreciated if someone else takes over as commish. If someone would like to do this, let me know and I'll assign commish duties to you. It would be up to you guys to adjust the salaries and set up entry fees and prizes. Also Fantrax is open for suggestions, so if you email them, they might accommodate you.

1. go to Fantrax.com and register
2. then on the right side click on the "join league" icon and select "private only"
3. enter your team name & your password
4. League ID: kungy(z)ohgitjfogr --delete the () around the z-couldn't get it through the censor--
5. enter password - CDMrules
6. and you've joined up
7. select the "pick your players" icon from the grey menu bar to select your roster.

** Note: you will get an error msg if you do not select your total 40 man roster(2 starters at each position, 2 DH/UT (any hitters) 6 SP, 3 RP, 1 P and 12 bench players).**

01/11 21:19:28 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - since you have taken the lead with Fantrax, I nominate you to make the final decision on any tweaks to the 2011 salaries and positions. I'll post here when I get the database from Fantrax.

01/11 21:17:38 bb37 BobCat Champions 
i'll go get you guys some coffee or something.

01/11 21:11:29 bb68 Steuben Kings 
That's awesome!

01/11 21:11:07 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit - very good news! .. those salaries were bugging me - the low ones especially. Using the CDM salaries will work fine. We can still move Youkilis to 3B though ... lol

01/11 21:07:20 bb40 Summit Squad 
Great news! Fantrax likes my CSV idea, but for now rather than implement it at their site, they said they will email me their player database in CSV format. I can automate the updating of that data however we decide we want. Then they will accept the updated file, and load it into their database for our lg.

01/11 21:00:28 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I'm going to borrow some of your earlier post. I'm lazy. :-)

01/11 20:59:17 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: I'll post it over on the DC board. Maybe someone over there will take over. It wouldn't be hard for them.

01/11 20:50:07 bb96 B`ham Black `n Blue Barons 
Hey, guys. Know I don't post much, but have been doing the points game here for around 12 years. If y'all are getting together a league on fantrax or anywhere else, would like to join and continue competing/donating money to you. :^) My e-mail is henrylevkoff@att.net. My thanks to you and everybody who's trying to keep this thing going!

01/11 20:49:23 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Steuben : maybe AA Yanks and Luny or Boyd know someone on the DC side who'd want to take that commish and tinker with the league setup. They know those guys a lot better than me. I likely won't play a DC game this year as Fanball DC is a goner. I held my own in DC game, but I am a better points player so I'll stick to mainly points games this year except ESPN.

01/11 20:46:10 m14 AA Yankees 
Steuben- thanks for the effort. good to know that this option exists. shouldn't be that difficult to implement.

01/11 20:44:15 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Maybe they can tweak their program to give us more flexibility. If not I think we can all figure out some alternatives within Fantrax or any other game that we find. The salaries are difficult as they are based on points, thus games played - so any rookie called up late in 2010 or injured guys they are cheap as heck - so cheap they throw our normal lineups off. I see no option to set the minimum salary - at the preset 600 it's too low for our game. A lower salary cap could work I suppose.

01/11 20:39:24 bb68 Steuben Kings 
AA: I set up a DC style league.

League ID: kungy(z)ohgitjfogr --delete the () around the z-couldn't get it through the censor--
League Password: CDMrules

I have to do some more changes. Example, I didn't realize you need 1000 GP's from your pitchers. If there's anything else you, or anyone else notice is missing/different, let me know. Also, it would be a good idea for someone associated with the DC game to take over the commish duties, because like I said it's been awhile since I played. Maybe Catcher can do that. He knows the controls as good as I do.

01/11 20:32:42 bb53 Pittsburgh El Venos 
OK. My team is in. Easy enough.

01/11 20:24:55 bb40 Summit Squad 
What I wrote to Fantrax, lets see if they will do it:

Here's a design generic enough to be a site enhancement usable by others too: a text box into which one or more lines of player info can be pasted. A easy format would be the comma-delimited CSV standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values

So, for example, we could then paste in one shot the entire list, one player per line:
Pujols,Albert,2500000,1B
Scutaro,Marco,1500000,2B,SS
Ruth,Babe,9999999,1B,OF,SP
etc.

For flexibility, omitting salary would leave it unchanged from what the lg already has:
Pujols,Albert,,1B

Or, omitting positions would leave them unchanged from what the lg already has:
Scutaro,Marco,1500000

Ideally, when we click a "Proceed" button your system would make the changes, and reply with a list of any lines of text that were not found (mispelled name, etc.).

01/11 20:06:46 bb40 Summit Squad 
Another Fantrax reply: "Sorry, but there is no way for us to do what you've suggested. Any adjustments we make to player salaries are site-wide, not league-wide, unless we do it the same way I suggested below. If you'd like to use one of our automated player salary generating functions, that can be done with a couple of clicks. Otherwise, there is no other way than to input them manually. If you have a suggestion for improving that Salary/Contract Admin screen to make it easier to input salaries, we would certainly take it into consideration."

I'll think about this and design an easier user interface, then reply to them

01/11 20:03:22 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - well, we have a year to figure out what to do for 2012. A third-party setting the salaries helps remove personal bias. We might be able to contract with that exCDM person to set them. Another idea would be for, say, 3 of us nominated by the group who plays in 2011 to independently come up with salaries, and then average the numbers.

01/11 19:56:28 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : that reply doesn't sound so promising to solve the position dilema. If they can't we'll figure out a reasonable alternative. It would probably take me a couple hours to manually alter the multi-position guys, but I suppose that's a possibility. The other alternative would be to allow multi-position players. The only real gripes I have about creating a Budget duplicate on Fantrax is the salaries (which you may able to fix for 2011, but not 2012 and beyond) and the positions which is kinda tricky. Otherwise it seems to be able to pretty much set up rosters & scoring just like we have it here.

01/11 19:45:04 mm30 Darkhorses 
Darkhorses entered a team. Good job Catcher and thanks.

01/11 19:38:23 bb40 Summit Squad 
Fantrak's reply about setting player salary/position for us was basically a no. They said to use the features the site has. I replied "Yes, we are aware those features exist, but the interface is not optimal for mass entry, and since hundreds of players are involved, that interface becomes a significant impediment to use of your site. I figure internally you have direct and therefore easier access to the player database." We'll see if they want to become more helpful.

01/11 19:18:48 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I could set one up. It wouldn't take much to do it. I'll have to look at the DC rules, but that won't take long.

01/11 19:12:53 bb68 Steuben Kings 
The only thing I found for unlisted players, that would help a little, was the option to eliminate players not signed to a MLB team. Catcher could've already selected that option.

01/11 19:11:42 m14 AA Yankees 
I meant for D.C. In points, you take a backseat to no one. If I knew how many teams we want in each league, I think even I could have opened up a D.C. test lg. I'd be more inclined to have you or Catcher do it.

01/11 19:08:00 bb68 Steuben Kings 
AA: I'd be honored to split a team with you, but I have to decline. I had a lot of fun battling you last year. I just wish we would've been in different leagues. :-)

01/11 18:58:10 m14 AA Yankees 
Catcher- didn't want to put you on overload. of course I'll be forever grateful. let me know anything I can do to help (other than tinker). you do have my e-mail, thanks to Goh.

01/11 18:54:11 m14 AA Yankees 
Steuben- as part of your setting up a D.C. replica, I'll be happy to split a team w/ you, in the revamped D.C., promising to try as hard as I did in B.T./Budget/D.C. last year. ....and a bunch of pizzas.

01/11 18:47:26 bb54 ANOMALY 
Any rumors out there whether any company will pick up this game (and other similar games)- I simply cannot believe there is no profit to be made here. Possibly not enough profit in budget for the volume of entrants but the BT teams and similar games from other sports should be profitable. 25 teams x $300 per team (approx average) = $7,500. Payouts per league are are less than $2,000. The overall can be set depending on how many leagues are entered. There is alot of profit there. I think they scale back the volume of the games, get back to basics. This is an attractive and neat format, a real shame to just disappear

01/11 18:47:15 bb40 Summit Squad 
I've emailed Fantrax to ask that if we give them a text list of players and their position, could they "paste" that data into a lg for us. I'll post their reply.

01/11 18:43:47 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
I made 4 positional changes from the original Fantrax list of players. I changed Youkilis from 1B to 3B, Prado from 2B/3B to 2B, Bautista from 3B/OF to OF, and Huff from 1B/OF to 1B. Realized it would be a huge job to change them all so I quit that.

01/11 18:40:29 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : cool, glad you figured out a way to tinker. I had set the unlisted players at 1500, just to jive with our game, but they could be set at whatever we want. If you can import the CDM salaries I suppose we could manually change all the mult-position players to one position. may take some work, but could be done. Alternative is to simply allow multi-position players. Would change the strategy, but still might be OK once we got used to it.

01/11 18:38:40 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Summit: I thought there were a couple of options for players like that. I'd have to look again.

01/11 18:35:56 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
I'll mess with it later and share it with AA. I suspect the DC guys will set up their own stuff. I play DC but not I'm not really part of the DC posters group the past few years and I mostly post over here. I only know a handful of guys from DC BBS.

01/11 18:35:23 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - MAC info didn't arrive, but I discovered it's easy to copy the CDM test lg, so I did that, and use that to poke around. What I can already confirm is that should we decide to proceed with CDM salaries, it will take some browser trickery, but I will be able to automate the salary entry. Automating the position eligibility is a different story... due to the site's design that looks impractical.

A question: what to do about the hundreds of players we call "unlisted"? Set them all to 1500? Delete them (is that even possible)

01/11 18:35:22 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Oops, Didn't think the other one went through. Oh well. :-)

01/11 18:33:56 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: I'd rather you, or someone else tinker with the DC game.

01/11 18:27:58 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher I'd rather you, or someone else tinker with the DC game.

01/11 18:23:29 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
yeah Steuben, I almost got the feeling Fantrax could tweak that option for us. Doesn't sound too complicated for them to add it. If we decide to try Fantrax for a 2011 game, we could certainly ask them.

01/11 18:21:51 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
AA & Steuben - Later tonight I could set up a DC-style league. I've played DC past 8 years, so I am pretty sure I could easily do it. If Steuben or someone else hasn't done it in the next several hours, I'll mess with it later and let you know.

01/11 18:20:24 bb68 Steuben Kings 
As for the 6 hitters and 4 pitchers on the bench, There are only two ways I would think that can be done. You can make a special rule(accessible in the set up under misc.)and use the honor system, or you can see if Fantrax can make the option available for us.

01/11 18:15:55 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Hey Winston. Looks like we'll be able to compete against each other again. :-)

01/11 18:15:05 bb68 Steuben Kings 
AA: A DC type game can easily be made. I could set one up, but I'd have to get reacquainted with the rules and scoring system again. I haven't played DC since 2000.

01/11 18:09:47 bb86 Winston Wahoos II 
Entered a Fantrax team, site looks good.

01/11 18:07:18 m14 AA Yankees 
Easy and I'm computer challenged. Now, can we get a D.C. prototype ?

01/11 18:04:11 p31 Pauls Naturals 
I set up a team on Fantrax -- not too bad. Not a team I would use, but the system wasnt bad.

01/11 18:01:40 bb33 Noddy 
Which site has the best D&T game for money?

01/11 17:45:49 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Mongrel, yes, definitely experiment with selecting players. If we're going to use something like Fantrax, we've got to see how easy it will be for folks to use and to get people comfortable with the setup before we actually start some real leagues.

01/11 17:43:14 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
sent it to you ESPN mail addy.

01/11 17:40:08 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit - will do ... e-mail coming your way

01/11 17:39:49 bb20 One Eyed Jacks 
catcher - signed up, did not enter players yet. summit - will play mac also when informed to do so.

01/11 17:38:39 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - would be reasonable, except Fort Knox won't let me because the email to which you sent the invite is different than the one under which I registered. Can you email me the MAC test lg number and its password so I don't hafta borrow Goldfinger's laser again?

01/11 17:36:35 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Luny : no problem by me if Summit or anyone wants to set something up. I simply wanted to get the ball rolling in some direction. I've only posted here about 3 or 4 years so some of the much older vets here may be better suited to set stuff up.

01/11 17:31:57 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : how about for now I assign co-admin. on the MAC TEST league you signed up for? That way you can mess with those salaries all you want and not mix up the guys just looking at the CDM points TEST league. If you click on join in the MAC TEST lg, I'll get ya access.

01/11 17:30:11 mm22 Luny MS Points 
Summitt: u could create yoour own league and you would be commish and play with it

01/11 17:27:13 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - OK, I can log in at Fantrax. I'd like to study the practicality of automating salary entry... where can I find "edit player salaries"? Do you need to enable access for me? If access is via a password, please email it.

01/11 17:26:26 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
I'll post this again for posters to see without scrolling down a bunch of pages :

here's the Fantrax Test League - it's named "CDM Points Test" - it's strictly a TEST league , no real league forming, just something for us to play with & get used to. I'll delete the league after we're done playing around with it. If interested :

1. go to Fantrax.com and register
2. then on the right side click on the "join league" icon and select "private only"
3. enter your team name & your password
4. enter this league # - hrbg9ojqgisy40o0
5. enter password - ryhosux
6. and you've joined up
7. select the "pick your players" icon from the grey menu bar to select your roster.
** Note: you will get an error msg if you do not select your total 40 man roster(2 starters at each position, 2 DH (any hitters) 6 SP, 4 RP and 12 bench players).*

I have set the salaries at a level comparable to our 60 mil cap game, 40 man roster, 28 starters, 6 SP, 4 RP, but not able to designate the 12 bench players (can't require 4 bench pitchers). Scoring is exactly what we have here. I only tweaked Pedroia's salary (set to CDM level of 2150), and have only altered positions on a couple players. Additional work will need to be done to eliminate mult-positions from certain players. Any questions, I'll try to help .... and remember this is just a starting point to eventually set up firm leagues. Good luck!

01/11 17:26:01 p31 Pauls Naturals 
I have to say I am surprised and really disappointed. I have been playing this game since 1997. WTF? If anyone has any alternatives PLEASE email me at hobb24@aol.com. Fantrax, Yahoo, anything. Please let me know. Paul

01/11 17:20:44 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Catcher---I like the idea of any bench makeup you want, more strategy involved. Also like the idea of multi positions for the same reason.
Anything that makes more players usable is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

01/11 17:16:59 bb37 BobCat Champions 
put the team i had made up under cdm salaries in and i had 1.7 mil left over.

01/11 17:15:29 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
maybe if Summit can importbthe salary dat, he could import the positions too, that would eliminate the multi-position guys extra position. Otherwise if we left the multi-positions ther a utility guy would be very valuable if he qualified at say 2B, SS and 3B - he'd be a backup for all 3 spots. That's how it is in draft leagues, not so sure it'd work well for us in salary cap.

01/11 17:12:06 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Numb : I'm not sure how to handle that ... there doesn't seem to be an option to simply require 4 pitchers on the bench. ... I see one possible way to solve that & something I know can be done - is to modify the requirement to have the 6 SP / 4 RP ratio - you could use all 10 slots for SPs or RP, or any combo. Then I could require 4 pitchers either SP/RP on bench. If folks wanted to go with 10 pitchers instead of the CDM 6/4 ratio we could do that. .... otherwise a bench could be made up of pitchers, etc. There is no min. # for any position on the bench, only min/max starting.

01/11 17:07:40 bb55 Gary`s Dreamers 
I don't have a prob with players listed at multiple positions or only 1.

01/11 17:06:10 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
I don't care what salaries are used myself....but if it's easiest to go with what they have there over someone having to change each salary indivually to get the Fanball salaries I say skip the extra work.

01/11 17:05:58 bb55 Gary`s Dreamers 
Would prefer the CDM salaries but OK with salaries on Fantrax. We would all be using the same so no harm no foul. I'm OK with Catcher being commish.

01/11 17:05:04 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
AA - nope, I don't see a phone # on their website, and the guy I corresponded with didn't give one either.

01/11 17:03:47 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Catcher---I signed up a team but haven't done a roster yet.....am I correct that you want 8 hitters/4 pitchers on bench even though the system lets us put any bench config we want?

01/11 17:03:02 m14 AA Yankees 
Catcher - is there a phone # for me to speak w/ Fantrax, re: feasibility of adapting our D.C. game (and the cost). rather speak over the phone, if possible, than e-mail or text.

01/11 16:56:39 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
I have Pedro Alvarez listed at 3B for 1506. If you do a search for player's name it should come up.

01/11 16:54:03 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
yes, any 2 hitters can be UT. You do need all 28 starters and 12 bench selected before you click finish. If you look at the small print above the roster, it show positions filled/required, such as 1B - 0/2 (if no 1B selected to start) (or 1/2 or 2/2 if one or two have been selected).

01/11 16:42:45 bb53 Pittsburgh El Venos 
I get the message that my team is illegal because I don't have 40 players. What does that mean? Also, I assume the two UT players count as our DH. And I could not find Pedro Alvarez on the players list.

01/11 16:32:52 bb42 sombs bc 
just signed a team up, no problems. using cdm salaries is fine with me, same for everyone. 25 team groups?? will play whatever coupon is decided on. thank you to catcher and all involved in getting this going. i agree with numb in that we need a comish. long post for me.

01/11 16:30:19 bb40 Summit Squad 
Gary - I haven't figured out all the secrets to getting into Fort Knox, I mean, Fantrax, yet. Maybe borrowing Goldfinger's laser would help. :-)

01/11 16:28:53 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - as you can see, I was able to join the test lg, even tho it won't let me login. Strange. Awaiting reply from fantrax tech support.

01/11 16:23:46 bb37 BobCat Champions 
the whole ball of wax is dissappearing CHUCK, lol.

01/11 16:22:47 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Amazing how these new guys ran this company right into the ground. What a shame. Maybe by 2012 there will be a real replacement for these games. Fantrax can fill some of our side game needs, but not quite as well for bigger Public games.

01/11 16:22:28 bb37 BobCat Champions 
feedback dept: use current fanball salaries this year if possible.

01/11 16:20:21 bb40 Summit Squad 
Chuckleheads - don't know yet about WTL... sounds like Fanball won't offer any 2011 MLB games, not even the "free" one

01/11 16:18:53 bb40 Summit Squad 
If this board dies, I think the yahoo group can be a good substitute since it functions much like this board. Listing your email here may not be a good idea since I don't know that anyone is recording all those email addresses. I recommend all with interest in 2011 MLB games should join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cdmposterslounge

01/11 16:16:34 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - since you found fantrax, and have put in the most work getting it going, FWIW I'm totally cool with you having the final call on how things are set up there.

01/11 16:13:23 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
so .... no baseball here in Fanball for 2011.... damnit I'll miss BT and MS

01/11 16:12:05 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
here's the dreaded news from Fanball on NFBC board :

The management of Fanball.com has determined to cease operations, effective as of June 30, 2011. Commissioner, Draft & Play, and Challenge games already in progress for NBA, NHL and NFL will continue to their conclusion. Prize payouts for the NBA, NHL and NFL games already in progress will be honored according to Fanball game rules. Fanball.com will not initiate new games for the NBA playoffs, the NHL playoffs or any other sports, and will promptly send a refund to customers of entry fees for 2011 PGA Tour Trade 1 and PGA Tour Trade 2.

01/11 16:04:41 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
If Summit has trouble with that website I'd also be happy to be co-commish on MAC with him if that worked. I hope ABC Triplets is around so Summit can get his e-mail, as ABC won MAC this past year. Since the 2010 MAC winner would get the honor of selecting the MAC team, ABC might need to be a co-commish - but that can resolved down the road.

01/11 16:01:28 bb32 FABJM2 
Good afternoon Board. Vic @ Fantazzle sent me an email that he was checking w/ his IT team but as I told him we were overwhelmingly leaning towards Fantrax given the fact that they had some things already in place. We'll see what they come with, a little competition is always good & IMO, the more the better-lol. Thanks to Catcher & Summit for the leg work on Fantrax, greatly appreciate it.

01/11 16:00:59 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Numb : no prob ... I just don't want to step on anyone's toes. I figured MAC should be run by Summit as he's the MAC guy, and I'm willing to help all that needs to be done. PBR runs Budget Champs, and again I'd be willing to help all that was needed there too. I'd be willing to help any of you guys set up WTL, CATL, etc, even do a mini-Budget game. Just figured I don't need to be a commish of anything if/when we get the games going. Most of all I figure feedback from all would help us move forward, especially if folks think Fantrax is user friendly and just plain usable for our needs. Could be something else better who knows?

01/11 15:48:21 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Catcher----You (or somebody) better be in charge....otherwise the ball is rolling uphill the whole way. I'm dead serious when I say somebody has to be the one to make the decisions and not try to get too many involved.
That said, I'll stay out of it and let you do it your way.

01/11 15:46:13 m14 AA Yankees 
I'll be happy to help share in the expenses necessary to get Budget/D.C. up and rolling, in a similar form as we have played.

01/11 15:44:21 m14 AA Yankees 
I'd sign up for a similar replication of D.C. Yea, said this about 50 times.

01/11 15:43:19 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Gary---If they're shutting the doors and firing everybody then why would the employees care if we use the BBS this way?
:>)

01/11 15:42:23 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
SIXER: cool, I've seen about a dozen sign up. When a whole bunch of posters try it out, we'll get some feedback as to whether Fantrax is workable. I can tweak this Test League all we want, and if Summit can import the salary data it might be possible to start setting up real leagues. Easier to do this stuff with the BBS still active and posters reading it, so Steuben, myself and others have been rushing to get something moving. Any feedback thoughts are more than welcome, and I hope you all know I'm surely not in charge of anything, just doing my part gettin' the ball rolling.

01/11 15:41:33 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
My point being in the last post is.....make it as easy as possible for Catcher to set things up!!!!

01/11 15:40:47 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Who cares what the salaries are, they're the same for everyone. Fanball screwed them up anyway this year so what's the big deal of using theirs?
If you don't think they're screwed it must mean you don't think Pujols is the best player in the game. :>)

01/11 15:39:07 bb55 Gary`s Dreamers 
Count me in at Fantrax if that is a go and it sounds like it will be. MAC, Champions or any other games that get set up. Might even try WTL this year. If possible I think it best to use CDM salaries if Summit can load them. Although salaries generated by Fantrax would certainly put a different twist on the game.

01/11 15:36:17 bb55 Gary`s Dreamers 
Summit, if you know any of those secret browser settings or options please post for some of us more tech challenged guys.

01/11 15:34:34 bb55 Gary`s Dreamers 
Catcher - great job. Shame on Fanball to let us use their forum to generate business for someone else. What kind of goofy company operates like that. Answer: One that does not have any intention of offering a game or customer service.

01/11 15:30:25 bb35 SIX PACK 
CATCHER.. I believe I have a valid team entered in the test league. Thanks

01/11 15:24:12 mm30 Darkhorses 
I wonder if CDM/Fanball have any of those budget baseball champion shirts left. They gave those out when CDM was castrapped for cash. That's a reminder from one of the darker periods of this game.

01/11 15:24:00 bb40 Summit Squad 
inching closing, fantrax finally let me register, but now won't let me log in... [IMO we're gonna lose people who don't happen to use the browser/settings fantrax secretly wants and aren't willing to spend hours figuring out a process that should take minutes]

01/11 15:16:43 bb74 Chuckleheads 1 
Awesome, I'm going to join up for Fantrax. Who's doing the side games, I'd like to be included for those. My e-mail is
the_chuckleheads@yahoo.com
Summit - I take it we are still doing the WTL here at Fanball since that's done in the "free" league.

01/11 15:06:09 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
For instance a Joe Nathan (aasuming he's healthy) listed at 600 - is too low - or all new players listed at 600 makes too many bargains. No way to set a min. salary except on unlisted players. Importing the salaries from here would be the way to go. Summit would need to do that as though I'm somewhat tech-friendly, that's over my head.

01/11 14:56:52 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Well the salaries can collectively go up or down if we used their options. That being said - I like the idea of Summit importing the salaries from here. The salaries at that site are really the only thing that bugs me .... usable (and able to alter somewhat) but not quite CDM. Now if this place closes next year (2012) we'd have to use the Fantrax salaries without any CDM data to import.

01/11 14:48:14 mm22 Luny MS Points 
I knew there was someone like Summitt who could do this :-)

01/11 14:47:06 bb31 Killer B`s 
Catcher--so you're thinking that the salaries will stay as they are?? Going to be some lineups stacked with all stars IMO.....Not saying that there's anything wrong with that, just saying

01/11 14:46:15 bb40 Summit Squad 
and my vote is to use the 2011 salaries (yes, even Scutaro's) because they are close to the formula we're all used to here

01/11 14:43:37 bb40 Summit Squad 
if fantrax will let me in, and we decide we want CDM salary style, I can likely automate the salary entry process, I've programmed that sort of thing many times

01/11 14:42:08 bb31 Killer B`s 
Luny-I was kidding....there are salaries less than 1000 on the other site.

01/11 14:40:39 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Luny : no way to do that though ... without entering EVERY player salary manually - which is possible, but monumental. Even you can apply a "factor" to the salaries as a whole and make them go up or down some, the salaries there are strictly based on last year's point total, not ppg, or potential or past performance prior to 2010. The salaries are about the only thing we can not totally duplicate.

01/11 14:36:07 m14 AA Yankees 
PBR- Count me in, as always.

01/11 14:33:47 mm22 Luny MS Points 
I think the salaries should be exactly what CDM came up with; lest not make our own

01/11 14:21:58 bb33 Noddy 
Let me know where I can make my donation for the side money...if for some reason this board ends my email is furfaro2339@hotmail.com thanks to you guys that are doing this

01/11 14:19:57 bb43 PBR 
using what Catcher has come up with I believe on a site. Sorry haven't been reading as much lately so someone needs to fill me in.

01/11 14:18:08 bb43 PBR 
If we can do something on the side, I could still do Budget Champions and keep the website. The only thing is Budget Champions would be an overall game no more playoffs just who has the most points at the end of the year. I could still do the Mid-Season Madness game as well that is pretty easy to do by hand after the grid is set. Let me know what you guys think, I have till Jan 21st to make the decision. We could each put in $35 and it would be very similar to the past years. Up to you guys though if you think this is a good idea.

01/11 14:17:47 bb31 Killer B`s 
catcher-leave the salaries the way they are!! Entered my team and had a team salary of 54,000,000...:)

01/11 14:16:05 bb33 Noddy 
Just picked my team...now I'm in last place!!!!

01/11 13:55:29 bb33 Noddy 
I just joined...and I'm in first place!!!!!

01/11 13:47:59 bb33 Noddy 
Sorry guys I just read through everything after I posted. You guys are awesome and I will definitely play in your league.

01/11 13:45:57 m14 AA Yankees 
Done. had to add the reserves. Certainly not my Final team. Thanks Catcher.

01/11 13:39:57 bb57 Fearless Leaders 
Fanball must truly not care anymore and not be monitoring this site, since we are all basically using their system to transfer our business elsewhere.

01/11 13:35:50 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
well I had trouble the first time ... just above the roster it tells you what slots have been filled and are still vacant, like 1B 0/2, or 1/2, or 2/2. And you have toi fill the bench as well. I was able to do the whole 4o man roster no prob after I figured it out. You have to fill ALL 40 slots.

01/11 13:31:35 m14 AA Yankees 
Catcher- tried to pick a team; thought I did, and it says "your roster is illegal". I picked all positions so I'm stumped.

01/11 13:31:15 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Noddy : there looks like a decent chance we'll be able to run some Budget-style games thru FanTrax, with side money too.

01/11 13:29:51 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : I just created a MAC Test league & sent you an invite to that as well. After you join, I'll change the admin. controls so you can tinker with it. I'm willing to help all you want and back out when you'd like too.

01/11 13:24:59 bb33 Noddy 
Got my first fantasy baseball magazine today...all pumped up and no where to play :( Where will everyone be playing? I don't want to play in a league for fun. I would like to be able to win cash prizes. Any recommendations?

01/11 13:18:38 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit: If you like I can even set up a MAC league for testing, and then I'll send you an invite and add you as admin. When I'm done helping you out, I'll back out as commish and let you run the league.

01/11 13:04:05 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - regarding MAC, yes, I'm willing to oversee/manage it if people are interested in continuing the contest.

01/11 13:02:50 bb40 Summit Squad 
I've emailed fantrax support. Sounds like they have the functionality we want, now they just have to let us in.

01/11 12:50:39 bb40 Summit Squad 
Sort of reminds me of Netflix: prior to becoming a member, they suggest you review all the terms and conditions, which when you click the link their site provides, it takes you to a page that says to see the terms of membership you need to be a member!

01/11 12:46:57 bb40 Summit Squad 
inching closer on fantrax: at least today their site responded to my registration, though with an error... they asked for error details, so I wrote it up, but their error reporting form has a problem: says can't find my username in their system... well *duh*, my reg probably hasn't been processed yet

01/11 12:31:19 bb57 Fearless Leaders 
Catcher- thanks for the fantrax setup. Personally, I would prefer to go with fantrax even if Fanball continues their budget game, because based on the FB budget game fiasco, they could still pull the plug on their game a week before the season starts. Could you please post an e-mail address and I will send you mine. Fanball could pull the plug on this site at any time making it more difficult to communicate. My only suggestion would be the some type of reasonable limit be established on the number of teams one person can enter, otherwise 10 or 15 avid players could fill an entire 200 team league. When you stop and think about it, at $25 a team we could end up with a larger prize pool than Fanball. Thanks again.

01/11 12:17:59 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
I also set up the league to have 14 "buys", but no way to set up the 2 call-ups. I believe I could change the rule at end of August to 16 buys, resulting in the 2 call-ups we need. I set the value of any non-listed player at 1500, same as ours.

01/11 12:14:41 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
note there is a limit of 200 teams that can join this TEST league ... if we need more test leagues I can quickly set up another duplicate league.

01/11 12:13:26 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
OK - here's the Fantrax Test League - it's named "CDM Points Test", - it's strictly a TEST league , no real league forming, just something for us to play with & get used to. If interested :

1. go to Fantrax.com and register
2. then on the right side click on the "join league" icon and select "private only"
3. enter your team name & password
4. enter this league # - hrbg9ojqgisy40o0
5. enter password - ryhosux
6. and you've joined up
7. select the "pick players" icon from the grey menu bar to select your roster
I have set the salaries at a level comparable to our 60 mil cap game, 40 man roster, 28 starters, 6 SP, 4 RP, but not able to designate the 12 bench players (can't require 4 bench pitchers). Scoring is exactly what we have here. I only tweaked Pedroia's salary (set to CDM level of 2150), and have only altered positions on a couple players. Additional work will need to be done to eliminate mult-positions from certain players. Any questions, I'll try to help .... and remember this is just a starting point to eventually set up firm leagues. Good luck!

01/11 11:42:31 bb66 Gnats 
Add my thanx to all you Fantrax trailblazers. Just a side note for Club member consideration: since Club membership is automatically renewed, those of you with impending renewal dates might want to consider getting out (maybe temporarily). I have until March, but my finger is on the trigger.

01/11 11:42:22 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Numb : thanks for the heads up on Steve Miller on Crossroads. I'll check it out. I recently saw the Jimmy Buffet show. Crossroads has some great shows ... saw John Fogerty & someone awhile back,

01/11 11:40:44 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
AA Yanks - yes, a league can be set up to mimic DC as well. ... I have set up a 2nd Test league for our Budget needs and when I'm done tinkering in a bit I'll let all of you guys join it so you can see how Fantrax works. Now this won't be an official league for 2011, just something for us to play with & make sure it is easy enough to use and will fit our needs. If PBR decides to run Budget Champs thru Fantrax I'd be glad to set up a league for him if he wants. If Summit wants to run MAC thru there I'll work with him as well. Last of all, we may be able to have a seperate mini-Budget game thru Fantrax. The leagues seem limited to 200 teams, but maybe Fantrax would change that for us. Of course all the entry fees and prizes would have to be handled on the side. I'll let you know about how to join this new Test league in just a bit.

01/11 10:56:56 bb36 The Lost Boys 2 
i'm ready to play. thank you guys for working with the fantrax setup anything you can work out would be fine with me.

01/11 10:41:34 m14 AA Yankees 
Steuben/Catcher- any possibility you can format D.C. as well ? In any event I'm happy to enter anything you guys can set up. keep me informed/edenbaum2663@yahoo.com

01/11 10:29:40 bb43 PBR 
Numb: I finished with 447 pts in the Bowl Football game. Where would I have finished had I gotten it to you in time? Curious to know.

01/11 09:54:45 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Perry/Roy----Nice job figuring out the fantrax setup, sounds like it works fine for what we want. IWhen you figure out what the fee will be and cost to each entry for overhead if you want to let me know I can get an email out to a bunch of people I have contact with that play other games.

Roy---If you get "Crossroads" (Dir TV chan 101 or 329) they have a real good Steve Miller/Kenny Chesney show you'd enjoy I think. Also a good Jimmy Buffett/Zac Brown Band one too if you like the laid back Island sound :>)

01/11 09:02:17 bb31 Killer B`s 
Wow!!! You guys are amazing!!! This is Killer B's, Have been playing forever, TBOS, etc. Thanks for doing all this, when I saw that there was a possibility of no fantasy baseball, it was a real downer!! Now I'm excited to see that there will be, thanks to you guys. So do I get to use my "free entries" and "fan points/bucks" with the new games you are setting up? :)

01/11 09:01:07 bb20 One Eyed Jacks 
thanks to all of you that have tried to find a replacement game. i would be interested in playing side games if possible. if you cant contact me, then let sombs know, he will contact me. my email is:phfjlj36@msn.com

01/11 06:26:24 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Steuben : yes, I have mine set up for season points, same scoring as we have. In fact I had checked specific players 2010 point totals from their list compared to Fanball's point total to confirm totals are correct. For example Pujols had 714 Fanball points and has 714 points from Fantrax as well; Roy Halladay had 679.66 points in both places as well, etc., so all appears to be in sync with our system here.

01/11 00:47:38 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: I don't know why I didn't realize this before, but I don't think it's head to head(at least mine isn't). I think it's exactly what we want. Accumulative points for the whole season. I looked at the standings and saw nothing about win/loss records, just total points. Then I went to the setup page again and ,this time, read it carefully. They have an option for Points-Based, which is what I chose, and it says:

Fantasy team scores are based on an accumulation of pre-determined points for each selected scoring category.

There was another option for head to head.

01/11 00:23:08 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I think I'll send them an email too. Maybe if a number of us show them we're interested in using their site, they'll work with us.

01/11 00:18:30 bb68 Steuben Kings 
A little too late. :-)

01/11 00:17:48 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: I think I know what your problem is. On the Salary/Contract Admin page, make sure to change the Team box from your team name to Player Pool by using the drop down box. Then the players should load and you should be able to change the salaries individually.

01/11 00:15:40 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Steuben - I figured that out now ... thanks

01/10 23:52:34 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I was able to make salary changes. You may have to go through your setup and see if you missed something. I'll look at mine and see if I can help.

01/10 23:50:07 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I saw that option and immediately thought of Youk. :-)

01/10 23:24:26 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
... and even though Youkilis was listed at 1B, their is an easy option to change any player's position, so I switched Youk to 3B there. Like draft leagues each player may have multiple positions listed, so that would have to be addressed.

01/10 23:05:47 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Steuben : yep, I tinkered with the values and ran some tests on player salaries. I ended up with the value at 70 and regenerated the salaries to get them close salaries suitable to our 60 mil cap game - that makes Pujols top salary at 3524. 7 hitters over 3000 and 14 pitchers over 3000. Certainly the value and salaries are easily changeable as a whole, but when I clicked on the salary/admin no players showed up to modify. Could be a setting I have that prevents that, dunno. Just a few tweaks on the injured guys like Pedroia would do the trick.

01/10 22:29:05 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: Make sure to regenerate your salaries after you change the salary cap. Your salaries might be for your original salarie cap. You can also adjust your generation factor. The lower the factor the higher the salaries. Default is 65.

01/10 22:15:24 bb68 Steuben Kings 
You should be able to manually change salaries. Under Commissioner, click "Salary / Contract Admin". That will bring up all the players alphabetically with there salary.

01/10 21:27:52 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : I use Windows Internet Explorer for my browser. Fantrax works fine with that. After you signup, let me know - I found the option to grant commissioner priviledges to anyone who joins. Then I think you'll be able to look at the various setup options. I presently have it set up exactly like Budget (w/ diff salaries). 40 man roster, 28 starters, 6 SP, 4 RP (though an option to go with 10 Pitchers for instance) Many options to change all of this if wanted. (However no option to require 4 pitchers on your bench of 12). I set the scoring identical to ours here, set a weekly roster deadline identical to ours. Biggest problem was their straight-line salary formula. Injured guys like Pedroia are ridiculously cheap, like 1340. I didn't see any way to change that stuff.

01/10 20:44:51 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - re fantrax... got the invite and I'm working on access, no success yet, but have more browser bingo to try

01/10 19:33:59 bb41 Living in Oz 
PBR- Not working on the weekends anymore. It was my treat to myself. Just a couple of days a week now. We should try to get together for lunch sometime. Time for baseball talk. One way or the other I'll play a couple of leagues somewhere this year. Probably with Marks Yahoo league and one or two more. Finally decided to look for a companion this year as well. Either a girlfriend or a pet. Right now I'm leaning towards getting a dog ! CHeaper, unconditional and easier to clean up their poop !

01/10 19:22:49 bb32 FABJM2 
Just got caught up reading the post/feedback and it looks like Fantrax has things already in place that Fantazzle does not and along us being able to continue our sidegames. Catcher, thanks for doing the leg work on this, much appreciated. Not sure if Vic and the folks at Fantazzle can match what Fantrax has to offer but if he does, I'll be sure to report back. In addition, it looks like most of the posters are feeling good about Fantrax where not much would need to be changed. Once again,thank you and others for doing the leg work and your feedback.

01/10 19:17:02 bb32 FABJM2 
GOOD evening Board.....This is a pleasant surprise, was not sure the BBS would still be up today but I'm glad it is. It's wonderful to see the amount of feedback, time and effort we are putting into this effort of making sure that we have a "budget" type game. Many of us remember about 11-12yrs ago when we helped create budget by provided feedback to CDM as to what we wanted. Given our enjoyment & love of this game it is clear that we will not let it die even if it no longer exist thru fanball.

01/10 19:11:10 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
catcher----My main suggestion/advice would be if you find a place that works pick 2 or 3 guys (you/summit for example) and set it up the way you think is best. If you get too many people involved or start asking for suggestions you'll just go nuts trying to figure out what to do. :>)

01/10 18:56:11 bb43 PBR 
Mike AKA OZ: Hey buddy! What's new. I have thought quite a few times to go down and see you at Outback. Work and family life have been busy, stop by sometime and see me. Avon is just a hop skip and a jump. By the way those chickies do cost...I am sure there are quite a few young good looking ones at your part time gig. Are you working Sat anymore? I have a long Sat coming up in a week. I got to eat somewhere!!

01/10 18:55:58 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
I adjusted the salary cap to 60 mil and the salaries went up accordingly. It allows you to factor the salaries to make them all go up or down. The only quirk in the salaries is that they are set based totally on last year's point totals, not ppg or a 3 year avg. or potential, etc. Still the salaries seem workable at Fantrax.

01/10 17:07:29 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
In that league the salaries are messed up now - not sure what I did there ... but I'm sure they're easy to reset. I'll figure it out later.

01/10 17:03:52 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit - I'll try again .... using your addy from MAC

01/10 16:52:46 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - fwiw, no invite has arrived yet. The email address listed at my budball site is best one to use.

01/10 16:26:08 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I think I'll play some kind of game on there no matter what happens here. I'd rather play the Budget game though.

01/10 16:23:01 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Hey Mark. I would definitely like to join CATL again. You should check out Fantrax. You could easily set up a CATL league there. For that matter, you could do your roto draft league there too.

01/10 16:04:33 bb60 Big Ol Boppers 
Hey guys this is Waterboys.

Thanks for the emails keeping me up-to-date with the latest here with Fanball. I am trying to monitor your posts, but dont have much time right now. Quick heads-up, I do plan on running "SFL_Roto_Auction" with Yahoo this year (it was CBS last year) and for you 1-Movers, will try to do "CATL" again....wherever it may be. Hope everyone is having a great new years and getting ready for some baseball!
My e-mail is still: markbarnard5@sbcglobal.net

01/10 15:54:01 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Catcher: After Summit joins your league, you can give him commissioner privileges so he can check out all the options. Under Commissioner, select All Options, scroll down and select Enable/Disable Commissioners. There's also an option to copy the league, so we could have more than 200 teams.

01/10 15:51:36 bb41 Living in Oz 
Just got on the board and read everything. Without the game I may have to find a girlfriend. Playing the game is cheaper. Keep me up on it !

01/10 15:46:07 bb55 Gary`s Dreamers 
Fantrax sounds like it might be a better option than YFTS. Would like to see what Summit has to say after he gets a chance to review.

01/10 15:38:19 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Numb, yep the salary cap is at 30 mil, even though this is adjustable as well. I'm amazed how many options are available for scoring, roster, rules,etc. - best website I've seen for fantasy baseball ... of course I haven't played thru them yet.

01/10 15:35:39 bb68 Steuben Kings 
We could implement some other ideas that have been discussed on here too. Lower minimum salary for unlisted players, five points for a hold, DL slots, etc.

01/10 15:30:45 bb68 Steuben Kings 
You can require a password to enter the league, so the commish could email it after funds are received.

01/10 15:30:11 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
Sombs----Comcasts "salary cap baseball" is the fanball "free" game which they made available to comcast to generate more "free" action taking away from the fanball budget and BT games. And they wonder why they lose entries :>)

01/10 15:26:37 bb49 Comfortably Numb 
catcher---If they aren't set up to do the finances then we could do them ourselves. Easy enough to set up an account just for the prize money/entry fee.
Only thing is you wouldn't want to let someone enter a team until the fee was in so that you wouldn't have to go back and delete entries from the game because of non pay. ("you" being used for whoever took care of the finances)

As far as salaries, if they already have them I'd just use theirs and if they seem to be approx half of what the CDM ones were then just cut the cap to 30mil like the DC game. Or we could always cut the rosters down too if we wanted.
Be a perfect time to try my 10 "P" spots instead of SP/RP requirements since everybody seems to beetch about RPs all the time :>)

01/10 15:26:12 bb40 Summit Squad 
Catcher - yes, I would, thanks. Hope fantrax isn't over-designed since such sites are often not accessible to me (certain visual requirements)... "keep it simple" is a good motto. I'll confess a level of pickiness too since I've been designing online/multi-user interfaces for 30 years.

01/10 15:19:11 bb68 Steuben Kings 
This is the Salary Cap Challenge they have available.

http://www1.fantrax.com/fantasy/baseball/mlb/salaryCap/games.go?gameId=201

01/10 15:15:45 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit : if you want to look at the league settings I created on the experimental league I sent you an invite from Fantrax to "join" that league - just so you can look at stuff.

01/10 15:13:12 bb68 Steuben Kings 
There was a salary cap challenge they had available. It was similar to Budget, but not quite the same. I'll have to see if I can find it.

01/10 15:05:52 bb68 Steuben Kings 
This is from the Fantrax forum. I don't see why they couldn't do the same for us. We would have the followers to meet the demand.

Hi all,

This forum has been created to open up communication with former users of Sandbox.com. Since many of you have come to Fantrax from Sandbox over the past year and have enjoyed your new home, we thought we'd reach out and ask what kind of games you'd like to see us build to accommodate you. There's plenty of time for Baseball, and we might be able to put together some games in mid-season for NBA, NHL, and NCAA Basketball, and possibly even NFL and NCAA Football.

Please feel free to voice your opinions on what you'd like to see, and include as much detail as possible. WE ARE LISTENING, and will accommodate your needs if the demand is sufficient.

Thank you, and we hope you enjoy it here at Fantrax!

The Fantrax Team

01/10 15:02:42 bb68 Steuben Kings 
I'm impressed with the site too. It looks like they really know what they're doing there. The programming seems to be leagues ahead of this site.

01/10 15:00:03 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Only thing they can't do is have a public Budget type game with multiple leagues. Seems like a limit of 200 teams per "league". Not so sure they are set up to collect fees and offer prizes either, so it would work great for a side game, but not really a replacement for Budget in general.

01/10 14:56:18 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
yes, about any side game could be run thru FanTrax.

01/10 14:55:10 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Their programmers did a great job with their site. I am quite impressed. Loads of options for playing fantasy baseball ... I think we can even change the salaries.

01/10 14:54:05 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Yep, that can be done. We could also do a WTL game on that site.

01/10 14:53:14 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Summit - yep, I just looked at that - the "commissioner" can set it up where only He makes changes, so he could force everyone to have the same lineup to start, and then change the rules to allow each team to make changes after week 1. I honestly think it could work perfectly for MAC and BC.

01/10 14:44:09 bb50 Stairway to Nevin 
Catcher - a MAC option is interesting... so, to be sure, you are indicating there is indeed a way (presumably for the lg admin) to force all rosters in the lg to be identical for week 1 (?).

01/10 14:33:23 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
the FanTrax thing is so cool. Leagues can be set up to 200 teams. In my experimental league I set up I was able to have the same 18 starting hitter positions (2 catchers, 2 1B, etc.) the same setup of 6 SPs and 4 RPs, (even an option for IR slots if wanted) the same pool of salary cap players, the same exact scoring system we have. same roster deadline (with any day/time as options), the same # of buys (14 -again with any options). It appears to be able to pretty much duplicate Budget, but seems like free entries, so no prizes as far as I can tell. Side games would work great. I gotta tell ya, if Fanball doesn't run Budget this year we could abosolutely to run a Budget Champs thru this FanTrax if PBR wanted to. I or anyone else could easily set a league up for us and PBR could do his BC thru it. We could also do a MAC league thru this FanTrax. Some food for thought ....

01/10 14:09:19 mm30 Darkhorses 
if there is no fantasy baseball, my alternative is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Somebody kick the chair away now.

01/10 14:06:05 bb37 BobCat Champions 
just want to say thanks to all the guys doing gruntwork on our behalf checking out new sites and such.

01/10 13:55:50 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Hey guys - I heard back from FanTrax. They have a helluva website - it may be the semi-answer to forming a Budget game. The league options can be set to just about exactly what we have here - same roster position set up, salary cap, same exact scoring can be set up easily.
- I asked - "We want to duplicate their salary cap Points game. Our game doesn't have a draft - all players can be owned by all managers. We can all own Albert Pujols for example. Is it possible to set up an option like that?"
- they replied : "Absolutely. We actually have an "express" league configuration (only a few clicks to create a league) that is a "duplicate player" salary cap league, so you can start with that, and then customize it as needed for your rules. There is a lot of help on every league setup screen, and also a comprehensive FAQ, which will help guide you through the process. If you still have any problems, please feel free to contact us."

01/10 13:17:13 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
The more I think about it it seems like the BBS will stay alive for awhile ... Liberty Media sure isn't broke - Fanball can't just close up shop with Football Playoff, Hoops and Hockey, etc. still going on. No way they go the the process of refunding all of that stuff. Even if they decide to stop running baseball games it seems likely to me the BBS stays up thru the end of their current "other" games.

01/10 12:27:23 bb43 PBR 
If fanball.com goes bye bye, someone will take up this game too much $ to be made to not too. There is still time left, I am hoping that the game will be here this year to play.

01/10 12:24:25 bb57 Fearless Leaders 
Greg-thanks for the "update". Having been through two layoff situations during my working career I am fully aware of how the rumor mill can work. I posted the info re the business journal article, because in the absence of any info from Fanball, it would at least provide fellow posters with some info. Hopefully, if the worse case scenario occurs, you will not be bound by a non-competition agreement that will allow you to use your extensive industry contacts to save the popular DC and Budget game concepts with another sponsor like USA Today or one of the other mag publishers. Best of luck and hope that doesn't come to pass.

01/10 12:21:15 mm18 Catcher in the Rye 
Interesting - I see Brian Mathews (Carol's hubby) is one of the members at CDM Posters Lounge. If Fanball closes, I'd love to see Brian and Carol start something again. Word gets around and there are hundreds of eager customers here.

01/10 12:12:43 bb68 Steuben Kings 
Thanks for sending the email Catcher. I don't have the time to collaborate with them. In fact, I have to go now, because I have to deal with family health issues. I'll try to check back later.

01/10 12:08:25 bb68 Steuben Kings 
If we lose our games here, maybe Fantrax could adopt them and get instant participants.