2020 Fantasy Baseball Platform Central -- Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, Fantrax, etc.

[The Big Bat Theory 7,359]

1 hour ago, KingJoffrey said:

Can't join Yahoo baseball Pro Leagues as a Canadian 😠

Three little letters.  VPN.  VPN is actually recommended by some law enforcement organizations even.  Don't know why but I read it on the internet once so it must be true.  🙂

VPN and Paypal makes fantasy baseball of all types feasible anywhere I would guess.

Edited February 2, 2020 by The Big Bat Theory

[Ecofolux 228]

My league has been using Yahoo for the last 15 years but last year the chat feature was a disgrace. It would boot you out of the app the moment you posted a message. We liked the GIF feature but it was annoying to have to log back in every single time you posted a message or GIF. In fact, it was so bad we left Yahoo this year and giving CBS a try. CBS won't let you post GIFs though, so half the league is turned off already. We have a very active league so the 24/7/365 roster access on CBS is appealing. If Yahoo had a decent group chat option we probably would have weathered the storm with yahoo and kept our own off-season blogspot to keep current with our offseason rosters.

[The Big Bat Theory 7,359]

14 minutes ago, Ecofolux said:

My league has been using Yahoo for the last 15 years but last year the chat feature was a disgrace. It would boot you out of the app the moment you posted a message. We liked the GIF feature but it was annoying to have to log back in every single time you posted a message or GIF. In fact, it was so bad we left Yahoo this year and giving CBS a try. CBS won't let you post GIFs though, so half the league is turned off already. We have a very active league so the 24/7/365 roster access on CBS is appealing. If Yahoo had a decent group chat option we probably would have weathered the storm with yahoo and kept our own off-season blogspot to keep current with our offseason rosters.

We never had any problems with getting booted out of Yahoo's messenger app.  It's fine and GIF works fine this season and the feature can also be used on your laptops as well as your phones. 

The league group chat works perfectly.  No problem with it at all.  We have been using it like crazy in a couple of leagues so far and no problems at all reported by anyone.  I don't know if you can sub-group just part of the league or not.  I think you can but our leagues just talk to everyone so I never tried that.

Last season part way through the season Yahoo posted they were working on the messenger feature was all.  The work has been done and it is perfect so far this season.

Edited February 2, 2020 by The Big Bat Theory

[hockeyfan77 680]

3 hours ago, Ecofolux said:

My league has been using Yahoo for the last 15 years but last year the chat feature was a disgrace. It would boot you out of the app the moment you posted a message. We liked the GIF feature but it was annoying to have to log back in every single time you posted a message or GIF. In fact, it was so bad we left Yahoo this year and giving CBS a try. CBS won't let you post GIFs though, so half the league is turned off already. We have a very active league so the 24/7/365 roster access on CBS is appealing. If Yahoo had a decent group chat option we probably would have weathered the storm with yahoo and kept our own off-season blogspot to keep current with our offseason rosters.

Never had any issues with Yahoo chat last year...Our league(s) have been on yahoo since the beginning dating back to the Sandbox leagues

Edited February 2, 2020 by hockeyfan77

[cs3 3,471]

23 hours ago, Ecofolux said:

My league has been using Yahoo for the last 15 years but last year the chat feature was a disgrace. It would boot you out of the app the moment you posted a message. We liked the GIF feature but it was annoying to have to log back in every single time you posted a message or GIF. In fact, it was so bad we left Yahoo this year and giving CBS a try. CBS won't let you post GIFs though, so half the league is turned off already. We have a very active league so the 24/7/365 roster access on CBS is appealing. If Yahoo had a decent group chat option we probably would have weathered the storm with yahoo and kept our own off-season blogspot to keep current with our offseason rosters.

There are lots of free chat apps that you can use to host your league chat that work infinitely better than anything Yahoo offers. There was a big discussion about this last year. A bunch of people were relentlessly defending the crappy Yahoo app, but then later came in here crying when the chat feature kept malfunctioning. Don't rely on the app for anything - especially setting your lineup

[The Big Bat Theory 7,359]

25 minutes ago, cs3 said:

There are lots of free chat apps that you can use to host your league chat that work infinitely better than anything Yahoo offers. There was a big discussion about this last year. A bunch of people were relentlessly defending the crappy Yahoo app, but then later came in here crying when the chat feature kept malfunctioning. Don't rely on the app for anything - especially setting your lineup

You set your own line-up.  Why do you want so app's software to do it for you?  That's silly.  And the chat worked fine last year and I certainly never cried in here or anywhere else about it.  And no one in my leagues complained once about it either.  So why the hell would I want o switch to some other app and make everyone in my leagues do the same when we are all totally satisfied with Yahoo's.

There is plenty to criticize Yahoo about starting with the stupid way NA slots are set up to function.  But the chat has never been a problem.

[Flyman75 4,873]

51 minutes ago, cs3 said:

There are lots of free chat apps that you can use to host your league chat that work infinitely better than anything Yahoo offers. There was a big discussion about this last year. A bunch of people were relentlessly defending the crappy Yahoo app, but then later came in here crying when the chat feature kept malfunctioning. Don't rely on the app for anything - especially setting your lineup

 

I'm in a Yahoo football league and baseball league, and both use Discord as our chat app. Love it, and it's free. We can set up channels with rules, keeper lists, offseason rosters, etc. 

[KingJoffrey 815]

On 2/1/2020 at 11:58 PM, The Big Bat Theory said:

Three little letters.  VPN.  VPN is actually recommended by some law enforcement organizations even.  Don't know why but I read it on the internet once so it must be true.  🙂

VPN and Paypal makes fantasy baseball of all types feasible anywhere I would guess.

Doesn't VPN cost money to use?

[jaykay7411 0]

What fantasy site do you use to play? Why, and how long have you been using it? Mine is fantrax and after switching here a couple years ago i cant imagine still playing on any other site.

[Topgun 592]

To each there own, I'm a CBS guy, and wouldn't play on any other platform.

 

[brockpapersizer 11,545]

1 hour ago, KingJoffrey said:

Doesn't VPN cost money to use?

Not all, probably the better ones.

[The Big Bat Theory 7,359]

7 hours ago, KingJoffrey said:

Doesn't VPN cost money to use?

There are decent free ones from what I have heard.  Google free VPN and you get tech sites doing reviews of same.  They give lists and rate these services so that is what you want to research.

And unless you are a super spy that needs super encryption features some of these free ones will do you quite well.  All you want is your location masked after all.  Even free ones can do that really well.

Might even work for MLB network to get home games of your team.  Don't know for sure.  I haven't tried this stuff myself though I did read up on it a little and heard casual conversations about same in the past.  May try a service in the future but haven't got around to it yet.  Maybe by then you can advise me on the best one to get.  🙂

Edited February 3, 2020 by The Big Bat Theory

[TribeFoo 1,363]

Looks like position eligibility has been fixed in ESPN.

[duke of queens 1,048]

For anyone that cares, there are a little over 300 more players in the DB in Yahoo compared to last year.

[LJJr 230]

Mods if this should be merged into another thread fill free to delete/move or just let me know and I will.  I didn't see this mentioned anywhere else but I could have missed it.

I felt this is a pretty significant changes that will effect anyone that plays Pro Leagues and deserves it's own discussion.

 

Please note this only applies to Pro Leagues!

To the changes:

1)  Minimum weekly innings pitched in H2H changed from 7 IP to 15 IP

2)  No more FA and midnight PST waiver/FA rollover.  They are replacing it with a FAAB system.  Details as I've gathered them are below:

 

FAAB Details:

1)  $260 annual budget.  This budget is annual, doesn't depend on league type.  IE will not reset weekly in H2H.

2) $0 bids allowed

3)  It appears that it will take an extra day to actually pick up a player.  Whereas before you could pick up a FA and they are available for use the following day, under the new system if you put in a waiver claim on day X, it will process on X+1 at 11:59 PM PST and the player is available for use on X+2 (if you are the winning bid).

 

Source for above:  https://www.reddit.com/r/YahooFantasy/comments/ewbjnr/yahoo_fantasy_baseball_2020_season_discussion/fgfwqsf/?context=3

It is also saying some of this on the main yahoo fantasy signup page here:  https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

 

I'll avoid any commentary in the top level post and leave it to the facts.  Thoughts?

Edited February 3, 2020 by LJJr

[HackAZach 8]

2 hours ago, TribeFoo said:

Looks like position eligibility has been fixed in ESPN.

I'm so salty,  I had a 2b eligible Moncada, and RP eligible Glasnow and Woodruff.  I made like 5 trades based on what ESPN rolled out last week. 

[TribeFoo 1,363]

1 hour ago, HackAZach said:

I'm so salty,  I had a 2b eligible Moncada, and RP eligible Glasnow and Woodruff.  I made like 5 trades based on what ESPN rolled out last week. 

Ouch. Yeah, pretty annoying they went live with outdated position eligibility. You can always consult baseball reference's MLB appearances by position since ESPN requires 20 appearances to carry over eligibility to the next season.

[LarsonLarsen 12]

Apologies if I've missed it here already, but has Yahoo stopped doing cash leagues? I'm not finding any yet.

[jmcampbe11 754]

I've been an ESPN user for a LONG time, but there was so much negative regression when they rolled out their "new" platform last season that it made me seriously consider changing. I mean, seriously how can do away with items like "starts pace" for those of us that play in roto leagues with start limits? Did they seriously expect us to track that on our own? I must have sent a dozen emails, over the course of the season, to ESPN on behalf of my league mates about other important features that just didn't exist anymore. On the other hand you have a site like CBS which also has too much information and is very cumbersome to navigate. I really don't think there is a good middle of the road option anymore. 

[shakestreet 4,096]

43 minutes ago, jmcampbe11 said:

I've been an ESPN user for a LONG time, but there was so much negative regression when they rolled out their "new" platform last season that it made me seriously consider changing. I mean, seriously how can do away with items like "starts pace" for those of us that play in roto leagues with start limits? Did they seriously expect us to track that on our own? I must have sent a dozen emails, over the course of the season, to ESPN on behalf of my league mates about other important features that just didn't exist anymore. On the other hand you have a site like CBS which also has too much information and is very cumbersome to navigate. I really don't think there is a good middle of the road option anymore. 

Didn’t ESPN brought that feature around July. ?? ... I know for a fact the pitcher start limits was available. I have two leagues that uses 180/160 ? 
 

If not mistaken that feature was at the bottom of your team. 

Edited February 3, 2020 by shakestreet

[The Big Bat Theory 7,359]

1 hour ago, jmcampbe11 said:

I've been an ESPN user for a LONG time, but there was so much negative regression when they rolled out their "new" platform last season that it made me seriously consider changing. I mean, seriously how can do away with items like "starts pace" for those of us that play in roto leagues with start limits? Did they seriously expect us to track that on our own? I must have sent a dozen emails, over the course of the season, to ESPN on behalf of my league mates about other important features that just didn't exist anymore. On the other hand you have a site like CBS which also has too much information and is very cumbersome to navigate. I really don't think there is a good middle of the road option anymore. 

Yes there is.  Yahoo.

[cs3 3,471]

9 hours ago, LJJr said:

Please note this only applies to Pro Leagues!

To the changes:

1)  Minimum weekly innings pitched in H2H changed from 7 IP to 15 IP

2)  No more FA and midnight PST waiver/FA rollover.  They are replacing it with a FAAB system.  Details as I've gathered them are below:

 

FAAB Details:

1)  $260 annual budget.  This budget is annual, doesn't depend on league type.  IE will not reset weekly in H2H.

2) $0 bids allowed

3)  It appears that it will take an extra day to actually pick up a player.  Whereas before you could pick up a FA and they are available for use the following day, under the new system if you put in a waiver claim on day X, it will process on X+1 at 11:59 PM PST and the player is available for use on X+2 (if you are the winning bid).

Fantastic changes imo. 

[Flyman75 4,873]

21 hours ago, Topgun said:

To each there own, I'm a CBS guy, and wouldn't play on any other platform.

 

And see, I cannot stand CBS. I hate its platform. 

[SpecialFNK 1,477]

yahoo free leagues now have a waiver budget for players during the season? why? 

[TXTaz 170]

Hey Folks,

Commissioner of a 12 team keeper league here. We have been using ESPN the last 5 years, but with the new roll out last season, we had some issues that were unacceptable to our league. I was hoping someone could direct me toward a platform that solves our following problems:

• Pitcher weekly start limit.

We have a strict 12 start limit per weekly matchup, but with ESPN's current layout, people can start more than that if they have not reached the start limit before that Sunday.

• Commissioner manual matchup editing.

In the case stated above, there were times that the start limit was exceeded, but as commissioner, I did not have the ability to remove extra starts from matchups once games started that day. It affected total season long standings.

• No Trading Block

 

im sure there are other things ive forgotten, but those were the big ones. Any sites where those arent issues? Thanks