GDS FanStar Site is Open

By now, all ownership teams should have received an email from me (on behalf of the site) inviting you to login. As soon as you are able, please do so and change your password. 

While I have spent quite a bit of time experimenting with the site and tweaking the configuration, there will still be a number of quirks and user interface issues that I won't be able to address. We've got an open line of communication to the FanStar team, though, so one of the things I'd like to do is compile some suggested changes over the next few weeks and send it to them.

Things you should do right away:

  1. Login and update your account. You can find your account information in "Team ... Edit Team Info" 

    A) Change your password. You will see two fields — "Create/Change your user Password" and "Confirm new Password" — that both need to be changed with your new password choice. They have to match for it to work when you save the form. Note: There isn't very strong security on the whole authentication system, as the admin screens to show me each team reveal the passwords in plain text. When you select a password, don't use the same one as, say, your bank account.

    B) Update other information in your profile. This can include uploading a photo of your ownership team (225x300px), adding a favorite quote, including your phone number, years playing fantasy sports, favorite pro team, game philosophy or occupation. Like the password, these changes are all made at once.

    NOTE: Please leave the other fields as they are, including the appropriated "Interests" (which is where I put your location info).

    C) Check your logo. There are still two teams who have not provided me with a logo. If that is you, Hillsborough and Short Pump, make it a priority to work with your younger owners to come up with some digital logo (and backstory) you can send me. If you already sent or posted it, just let me know where. I will take care of uploading it, as this site only accepts certain formats and sizes. I just need a big raw image from you to work with.

    To save the above changes, click the "Submit" button at the top of the form.
     
  2. Go to "Team ... Set Lineup" and check your roster. The site will transition to a team panel view, with your roster controls on the left. The roster is organized by position, not player, so you will see multiple instances of each player listed, depending on how many positions they qualify for. 

    A) Make sure everyone you drafted is in this list. The rostered players (complete with some position and spelling errors) are posted on this site. That should match what you will see for your team. If it does not, let me know ASAP.

    B) Look for red dots by the names. This is an indication that your player is on the disabled list. You can click the dot to get more detail about when he is due back. Any disabled player can be replaced at a Type 1 substitution (i.e., drop him immediately, replace him with an available player). DO NOT WAIVE HIM. If you plan to replace a player this weekend, contact me and let me know. I'll handle it from the admin side.

    C) Review your starting lineup. I spent time entering the starting lineups based on position eligibility, ESPN500 ranking, and current injury status. There are valid starting lineups for all team, but in a few cases, there will be a need to replace a player in order to avoid starting injured players. Contact me if you are having difficulty fielding a full lineup. (NOTE: I did take time to add some notes about this in the "quoteable" field, but apparently they didn't stay put.)

    D) Update your starting lineup. To change your starting lineup, click on a Green name (the current starters) to remove a starter from the lineup. Click on a Blue name (the current bench) to add a starter. The system will not let you enter an invalid lineup. If a player is already in the lineup, it will let you know. This is where the grouping of the left-panel roster is helpful, since each group represents part of the starting lineup. Look in the green line by the position title to see how many you should add from each group.

    To save the changes, you have to click the "Submit Starting Lineup" button on the top of the starters column. It looks more like a header than a button. Once you submit your lineup, you should get a clear indication of that success in the left-side panel.
     
  3. Go to "Team ... Add/Waive." This is where you will be able to do things like waive and disable players, or assign someone to the minors. You don't have to do anything here, except familiarize yourself with the tools on this page.

    A) Make some limited roster moves. The only things you should be attempting this weekend are "Move to IR" (i.e., disabled list) and "Move to Farm" (i.e., our minor league). To do this, click on a player's name on the left-side panel (as you did when setting the lineup). This will display that player's name next in the left-side of the horizontal form near the top of the page. By default, it will indicate "Waive" (which this weekend, you should not do). To disable or develop a player, click the appropriate button above the name. Add a comment, if it is informative to do so, and click SUBMIT.

  4. Update your Trading Block. Go to "Team ... Propose Trade" to get to the part of the site that allows you to propose a trade to another team, or announce your trading block players to other owners. You can do the latter at the bottom of the page, by using the dropdown menus to select specific players you might be willing to deal, positions you have to offer, and/or positions you need. Click the "Submit" button under the "Edit My Trading Block" bar near the bottom of the page to post this on the front page.

  5. Publish content. There are two ways you can contribute to the content on this site. Click the "Home" button to see the main screen. In the (currently) left and right columns you will find sections for "Message Board" and "League News." Feel free to use these forums for things league related, particularly if it involves reporting on your team as if it were a real one. This is the site to allow the fantasy sports reporter in you to attend your own press conferences, or to talk strategy and game results with other owners.

Tags: FanStar, GDS, instructions, website

Views: 506

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nick Krahn on April 27, 2012 at 10:30am

Team Bounty Hunters didn't see this post until after playing with the roster and did make a few other roster moves......do we need to cancel those?  We don't really have anybody to DL or to send to a developmental postion so we went searching for players to replace our plethora of Catchers and bad relief pitchers.  :)

Our team Mom is out of the house this week so we had time to tinker last night with players we wanted.  

Permalink Reply by Thomas Watson on April 27, 2012 at 6:57pm

Kevin, when you say "Move to Farm," is that a place for players who have been currently demoted to the minors?  Or is this the D-league, where we have one spot for a current minor league player?

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on April 27, 2012 at 11:11pm

"Farm" is the term on the site, but it is meant as a development league for a true minor leaguer. From the rules:

The developmental roster consists of a single player who is not currently playing at the major league level (e.g., minor leaguers, college and high school players).

  • This player is ineligible to play in 2012, even if his status changes during the season with a callup to the MLB major leagues.
  • The player may be released at any time and replaced with another developmental player no already on another GDS roster

Of course, this brings up a case right now that wasn't intended. My team just put Bryce Harper on the farm roster, expecting him to spend the bulk of the season in the minors as a pro. He just got called up today, apparently, one day later. 

Since he technically went on the list before his actual callup, I'm inclined to let him stay there all season. However, I could really use him on my depth-challenged roster now, and I don't want the technicality of being literally a few hours ahead of his change in status allow me to have a loophole to keep Harper as a developmental player when he may wind up playing in the majors all 2012.

Do you and other owners have any input on whether Harper should (a) have to stay on the farm, (b) must not be allowed on the farm, or (c) could allow me to pull him off of the farm by Sunday, if I want?

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on April 28, 2012 at 1:38am

Holy cow. One day into our preseason transactions, we have had two minor league players officially added to our available farm system. Both players just got called up unexpectedly by their MLB clubs.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/7865074/bobby-abreu-r...

So we have two teams in this odd position, two days before our season actually begins. I really think both Short Pump and Indiana (me) should have a chance to undo that assignment and keep the player active for the year. If there is no undo, then they can stay on the developmental roster for 2012 and be protected next season that way. Trout's callup looks a little more permanent than Harper's, although both are likely to be back this season if they are sent down again.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on April 28, 2012 at 2:15pm

I haven't had any input on this, but I'm going to make an executive decision:

All post-draft roster adjustments are reversible up through midnight Sunday, April 29. After that, we're going to rely on the website to handle changes.

What this means:

  1. If you replaced a player due to inactivity, you can still ask me to void it through the weekend.
  2. All assignments — putting someone on IR (disabled list) or farming out a player (developmental list) — won't become final until Monday morning.
  3. If you do void a transaction, you are subject to whatever their current status and availability are.

For example, Indiana released SP Brett Cecil (a decent prospect) because he is in the minors, replacing him with SP Tommy Milone. If Milone became less attractive as a pitcher tomorrow (e.g., injured), or if Cecil got called up, I could opt to void that post-draft transaction and re-acquire Cecil. However, I could not do that if in the interim, another team picked up Cecil. 

For the players who are already on the site's injured list, they officially won't go there until Monday. Same with the two developmental players. The conditions that allowed them to be placed on those lists were valid at the time they were assigned. If I void/cancel OF Bryce Harper's assignment to Indiana's developmental list, I won't have that option to place him there again, until he's demoted.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Harper (I also have another prospect, Rizzo, who may or may not see major-league action this summer). Short Pump can have me void the Trout transaction. Any existing DL assignments may also be undone.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on April 28, 2012 at 12:48am

Well, crap. When I wiped out the schedule to start building the new one we want, the lack of any games apparently wiped out all of the starting lineups I had entered (and possibly others had tweaked). I'm going to go back and add some defaults again, but please double check what is in there sometime before Monday at noon to make sure the right players are starting.

Permalink Reply by michael.a.lally on April 30, 2012 at 2:29pm

Kevin - it might just be me. I keep trying to waive Brendan Ryan and pick up Mike Aviles. I get confirmations from the site but I don't see it listed in Transactions. My roster doesn't update either.

How long should it take to see the transaction appear?

How long is the waiver period? Sorry if that info is posted somewhere. I am just not seeing it.

Thanks.

Mike

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on April 30, 2012 at 3:58pm

Free agent signings are done weekly, not first come first serve. That will get settled on Saturday.

If you waive a player without an add, then the waiver should be reflected right away.

If you waive a player as part of an add — as you might want to do if you don't have roster room open but may want to keep your current player if you don't get the new one — then that transaction is tied together. I *think* that the player only gets waived once you successfully get the player.

Waiver period, on the other hand, is 48 hours. Those claims are handled separately than adds, so if you successfully claim a player (as opposed to add) he should show up in two days.

Also: For whatever reason, the site doesn't automatically update without reloading. I've had to go to "Home" and hit reload in the browser (yuck) to get the latest information. I don't think that is the case with the add/waiver tool, but it definitely is the case with the transactions.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on April 30, 2012 at 4:04pm

PLEASE NOTE: We're going to learn a lot about how FanStar (site and company) will be able to help us keep our process in order. What doesn't work, we'll adjust, either by moving off the site to handle it the old-fashioned way (read: email) or we'll alter our rules to make it easiest to work within the site. 

Patience and feedback, especially in this early part of the season, are appreciated.

Permalink Reply by michael.a.lally on May 1, 2012 at 7:10am

Kevin - we'd like to see waivers handled more timely. In looking at our pitching roster we realize we are pretty weak on starters. We would like to address that via free agency. Waiting a week seems long. In past leagues, free agency was handled every 24 hours to give owners a chance to claim the player and then let the waiver order work it out. Just our two cents. 

That being said, we have 3 pure closers available. We would like a Top 10 SP in return. Anyone interested?

We also have some speed demons but could use a power hitter? Anyone interested in a SB for HR trade?

- Lally Gaggers

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on May 1, 2012 at 9:33am

I'm open to discussion of any kind of rules changes for 2013. The adjustments we make in the short-term are going to mostly be a response to what the site can/can't do for us.

We may find that those among us new to fantasy leagues, be they kid or adult, are going to quickly have a comfort level with a different or more aggressive method of acquiring players. What we learn this summer could even affect how we start up with football and basketball, let alone this league next summer.

Here is the logic behind the current rules:

  • Games are weekly to create less competitive advantage and pressure to attend to rosters every day. This is important for younger participation, in particular, but it also serves to increase the drama as boxscores are added to the total each week.
  • With weekly games, the rosters set by noon eastern on Monday are what are used over the course of the entire week. Any changes you make after that are not reflected in games until the following week.
  • With roster moves having weekly effect, using the entire week to collect free agent requests gives everyone equal access and opportunity to available players. In this league, there is currently no reward for being quickest.
  • Although in my other leagues we use fake money to allow owners to bid up on players they want more, to simplify in this first year, there is a set formula for determining who gets awarded players on ties. It is based on performance, with the worst teams getting preference in acquiring players. 

Given the above, could you clarify your reasons for wanting a quicker turnaround? 

Permalink Reply by Nick Krahn on May 1, 2012 at 9:58am

I think we need to find some middle ground between the weekly and daily transactions per my post above after this week.  Its a long time to fill roster holes to possibly then have to wait another week if you miss out on players another team claims.  

Maybe after this week (the post draft waivers) anyone who gets waived is subject to the weekly format?  That way if another team drops a player I covet any team should have equal access assuming they check it once a week?  But players who are already 'free agents' remain free unless picked up?

At this point in the MLB season I don't see a lot of players coming from no where to reward the fastest player to the site to pick someone up.  Yes players do get hot/cold but MLB isn't the NFL where a tweaked knee can make a backup usless RB a star in one day.  There are some exceptions but for the most part the roster scramble should slow down after we all tweak our rosters to our liking.

To me even a 72 hour cycle would work.  That would give a three day cycle and require logging in just twice a week at the most and teams that only logged in once might miss out on a player but really as the season progresses won't be hurt that much.

And as I type the current format might actually hurt those who can't check it more frequently.  If they miss out on waivers they might not realize they have a roster hole until a week later.  Once we sort out the post draft madness having all cleared players as free agents would allow those teams to fill the holes and adjust in one day without fear of a player not falling to them.  Yes their roster would only "set" once a week for their upcoming games still but it would allow a shuffle of their roster for the upcoming new week. Does that make sense?  

 I'm thinking out loud so if this post rambles I'm sorry.  

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