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 Kevin Makice on May 3, 2012 at 7:18am

Try refreshing the page. The transactions have all been processed, but the site seems to be quirky about what updates (not much) and what doesn't.

Permalink Reply by michael.a.lally on May 3, 2012 at 7:46am

That worked. 

Aviles went to another team. I am wondering if it processed Romo> Matusz before Ryan > Aviles.We put the Ryan move in first. I thought we had a higher waiver position than the team that got Aviles. Not going to worry about it. We have too much depth at MM. :)

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on May 3, 2012 at 10:53am

For this season at this time, we don't consider speed to act as a factor. Getting there first, or getting to one player before another, doesn't play into who gets the player when one is contested.

I went through and approved all of the one-team requests for a player.

I nodded at the player rankings (the first criteria for deciding bids), but since there are no games played yet there is no distinction there.

I then looked at the week-to-date stats for the current starting lineups of each team with remaining contested bids, as if they were playing head-to-head(-to-head, in one case). The results translated to the following game results:

  • Greenwood 5 - Indiana 4 [14 innings] 
  • Butler 7 - Greenwood 2 
  • Fishers 7 - Greenwood 2 
  • Battin' Rouge 4 - Greenwood 3 
  • Deep River 4 - Butler 2 
  • Fairport 7 - Greenwood 2 
  • Indiana 4 - Butler 3 - Greenwood 2 (three teams)

The losing team (or most losing team) was awarded the player.

Greenwood and Deep River are currently above the 20-player limits, and that will have to be reconciled by Monday morning (forcibly, if not done by the owner by Sunday). Greenwood is also at  capacity for our wiggle room, with 25 players currently on their roster. That means the site won't let them bid on any more players in this second session unless they first waive, disable, farm or trade a current player.

I lost Altruve to Greenwood, but I just offered to swap 7th for 8th round picks next year (2013) to be able to reacquire him. Whether someone else (Butler also wanted him) makes a better offer or just pursues someone else, or if Altruve one of the key signings for Greenwood that they don't want to lose, trading is an option to pursue. Greenwood is in a bind, in that they HAVE to get rid of five players, so maybe a draft choice swap would be attractive.

FYI Draft choices can be dealt up to three drafts in advance. We have not determined a firm method of drafting (and optimistically I presume we will do this again next year as a keeper league), but it is reasonable to expect at least 8 rounds. I'll track those things separately, because the FanStar site may get freaked out by draft-pick-only deals.

Permalink Reply by Thomas Watson on May 3, 2012 at 10:57am

Is there a workaround to see how we are doing so far this week, or did you just go through and calculate by hand?

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on May 3, 2012 at 11:00am

It was very difficult to find, but if you go to any of the stats pages (I usually choose Stats ... MLB), the table that you see can give you a number of views without that annoying refresh in the boxscores.

Filter by team, select the current week (5) and click on the button that shows week's stats for starters. No extra math was involved since it conveniently tallies those scores for pitchers and hitters.

I wound up copying them to excel, just so I could view them on one page, and then doing the comparisons manually.

Permalink Reply by Chip Reese on May 3, 2012 at 9:17am

ugh ... embarrassment of (non)riches!  Figured we might get half of the contested free agents, but we are embarrassed by our team's underperformance.  Struggling to hit (or even make it on the field ... I'm looking at you Hamilton), we not only don't have any home runs, we don't even have an extra base hit yet.  Pitchers suddenly can't get people out either.  We can't even beat Ryan Braun by himself at this point.  

Waiving four players and sending Dylan Bundy to the farm.  

Permalink Reply by Thomas Watson on May 3, 2012 at 11:04am

Just a thought, and those of you who have actually played Fantasy Baseball before, please chime in, but why couldn't we start doing free agency as first-come-first-serve?

The way I've done it in fantasy football in the past, any team that has an open roster slot can pick any player immediately.  If there is no open roster slot, you have to waive a player while adding a free agent.  Would there be any disadvantage from working this way here?

I think it would encourage scouting and, best of all, there would be less conflict in trying to pick up free agents since you know almost immediately whether someone is available.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Makice on May 3, 2012 at 11:13am

First-come first-serve puts a big bias toward availability at critical times. If that were the way real life worked, Peyton Manning would be playing for the Redskins now.

I think for the sake of those among us with odd work schedules, across different time zones, with less knowledge about this game/sport, and because the goal of this league is to involve our kids in the decision-making process, the use of signing periods is an important way to level the playing field for participation.

Permalink Reply by Nick Krahn on May 3, 2012 at 11:26am

I'll second the waiting option being better even though I've asked the same question. In a perfect world it would be all free agents after the initial clearing period but its not fair for everyone who might not be able to sit down at a computer at all hours of the day.  

For what its worth I know I would be tinkering with our lineup without my kids involved but its been a lot of fun to go home and make the decisions with them.  Now if I could just get them to ignore the fun names and move onto actual stats we would be set.  

Permalink Reply by Thomas Watson on May 3, 2012 at 11:47am

All good points, Nick and Kevin, and I think the rationale makes sense.

Nick, my kid has a bias toward funny names as well!  He thinks it's hilarious that we have a player called "Big Papi"!

Permalink Reply by Nick Krahn on May 3, 2012 at 1:43pm

Are some of the more intricate thing on the site waiting for Week One to finish?

The roster analysis link looks AWESOME and should be really handy in trades to determine real value of a player for both sides to get comparable value.  

Permalink Reply by Steve Henry on May 5, 2012 at 10:24am

A couple questions about FanStar:

1 - Any updates on our Live Scoring/Weekly Head-to-Head score being updated daily?  It is agonizing not being able to see how we are stacking up on our head-to-head matchup.  It has been many years since I've played fantasy baseball, but I always enjoyed the daily activity of baseball (vs the weekly activity of fantasy football).  I know it would hold my sons interest more as well if we got a better sense of where we are at on a daily basis.

2 - How do I access the roster analysis tool that Nick Krahn mentioned?

FanStar looks like it is a flexible site.  However, it is a bit kludgy to me.  The user interface is a bit awkward, but I am sure part of it is our learning curve.

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