Fantrax Salary Cap League Queries

For those taking part in the new salary cap league run through Fantrax – aka FBUK Classic – here’s a thread to post any questions and answers that arise.

I also added some general information about how it works to the How to Play page of the website.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by FBUK.

[Redbaron 07 @redbaron-07]

Hi Tim

I’ve just registered with the Fantrax website and have my team there….do you know on what date, we’re likely to be able to select players for our teams?

 

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Hi René, you can start putting your roster together right away!  Go to  ➡  ‘Pick My Players’ in the dashboard menu (on mobile app, this is accessible from the baseball-shaped button bottom-centre of the screen).

Tim

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

For consistency, in Fantrax I have matched the player position eligibility settings to the fixed settings used by Yahoo as closely as I can (for hitters, Yahoo differentiates between the number of starts made in a fielding position and the number of games total played in a position, whereas it is not clear if Fantrax differentiates).

• Hitters need to have played 5 MLB games in a position to become eligible at the position on the fantasy roster (in Yahoo, it is 5 starts or 10 games overall at the position)
• Pitchers need to have made 3 MLB starts to be eligible as a SP
• Pitchers need to have made 5 MLB relief appearances to be eligible as a RP

Those numbers are set for last season and this season, which seems to mean that if a hitter had at least 5 games at a position last season, then they begin the 2022 season already eligible there.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by FBUK.

[Xano @xano]

Hi Tim,

If you have a player or two like I do on the IL and put them in the IL slots. Do their temporary replacements come in and score points immediately or only after trade day Sunday?

Thanks

Alex

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Hi Alex,

I think it will be the case that the replacements won’t actively join your roster and score points until the Sunday trade day.

Tim

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

For those managers participating in the 2023 $5m salary cap league, I just want to note something regarding player salaries  ➡

I have imported the same starting player salaries as appear in FBUK Classic, the game’s challenge being that managers only have a $5m team budget to fit those salaries into (compared to FBUK Classic, which has a $12m budget). You will likely find that as the season progresses and the regular revaluations occur, a player’s salary in the $5m Game is no longer identical to his salary in the $12m league.

Without getting too technical, because the $5m and $12m leagues are essentially separate leagues using their own versions of the MLB player pool, I had to estimate (through experimentation) at what level I need to adjust the revaluation calculator in the $5m Game’s settings so it can deal with the lower salary cap level while also trying to keep salaries similar to the $12m league.

We should keep an eye on it and if things start to look too wonky during the season, I can try further adjustment. Otherwise, I kindly ask that we live with the inevitable differences as long as salary levels are broadly similar between the two games.

Thanks!

Tim

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

For managers taking part in the 2024 salary cap leagues, I have posted this notice elsewhere but will leave it here as well.

Please take a moment to read this important explainer to avoid using Fantrax’s Player Picker tool, so as to prevent the points glitches suffered last season.

Thanks,

Tim

[Redbaron 07 @redbaron-07]

Tim

I thought the $5 mill Fantrax League, the players were a percentage of the values of the $12 million league as it was last year?

I think it was 90% then….although that is even a bit too high, should be nearer 85 to 80% as there are no $10k (prospects) specials anymore.
To think 2 years ago, we could select Bobby Witt Jnr, Julio Rodriguez, and Jordan Walker for $10k values at the start of the season……or like the $5M game throughout the time when it was on the original FBUK site.

It’s criminal to value Wyatt Langford at $758k or Jackson Holiday at $396 when thay haven’t even hit a ball in an official MLB game nor do we know whether they will make the initial roster cut.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by Redbaron 07.

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Hi,

Redbaron 07 wrote:

I thought the $5 mill Fantrax League, the players were a percentage of the values of the $12 million league as it was last year?

It has always been intended that the salaries in the $5m Game are the same as those in the $12m league. On Geof’s original FBUK site, both games ran off the one, exact same database of player salaries, which is replicated at the beginning of the season in the current game. The salary ratio settings for revaluations are the same as last year.

Redbaron 07 wrote:

there are no $10k (prospects) specials anymore. To think 2 years ago, we could select Bobby Witt Jnr, Julio Rodriguez, and Jordan Walker for $10k values at the start of the season

In Fantrax, I set the player pool to include all minor leaguers, so there are currently tons of $10k players at the back half of the list, although obviously only a portion of those might turn up in the Majors at some point this season. Last season seemed to have a decent number of $10k (or similar) specials that became regular MLB players.

The Fantrax salary valuation includes their projection of the player’s performance this season, not just previous performance. So if a rookie is expected to be good, he might not start at $10k. I remember Julio Rodriguez started at around $160k in his rookie season before he was confirmed to make the Mariners’ Opening Day roster. A few weeks later, that seemed like a steal.

The original FBUK valuation system was different in that all rookies started at $10k by default, even though that might not be a realistic valuation either, especially in the case of highly-touted rookies who were expected to set the league alight. Almost every fantasy team added Fernando Tatis Jr at $10k in his first season.

The Fantrax system is not perfect, but the flip side of perhaps over-valuation of some unproven players is that very good players who start the season on the IL, or spend a significant portion of it injured, will often drop to the minimum salary as the season progresses, to be picked up and stashed for a bargain in anticipation of them returning later in the season. Again, not very realistic, but in that case beneficial to managers.

Tim

[Redbaron 07 @redbaron-07]

Maybe Rookies that have not made it into MLB should have a different floor value….so instead of 10k, lets replace with say $100k or 150k , so even it they break through into the final MLB roster, you still have to pay a more realistic amount…..the upside would be to ditch silly valuations like for Wyatt Langford ($758k)

I just went to my $5m team player selection…..the players there are still the same price as their  $12m team values…..last year it was set as 90% of that price.

 

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by Redbaron 07.

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Hi,

Redbaron 07 wrote:

I just went to my $5m team player selection…..the players there are still the same price as their  $12m team values…..last year it was set as 90% of that price.

Last year, it was not deliberately set to 90% of the $12m salary. At the start of the season, a player’s salary in the $12m and $5m leagues was the same because I imported the $12m salaries into the $5m league when I set up the season. I did the same this year.

Once the season is underway and the automatic weekly revaluations start happening, the salary for an individual player in $5m will start to deviate a bit from his salary in $12m, just because of how the different ratio settings work in the separate leagues. So, yes, a given player’s $5m Game salary might then look 90% of his salary in the $12m, although that would just be coincidence. As said, the current intention is they should be identical in both leagues, but this is not possible to maintain exactly once the separate leagues start doing their automatic revaluations.

Redbaron 07 wrote:

Maybe Rookies that have not made it into MLB should have a different floor value….so instead of 10k, lets replace with say $100k or 150k

For future seasons, I could easily change the minimum salary level if the majority of managers wanted to see that. However, it affects all players, regardless of rookie or not. I won’t do it this season because managers have already started building their rosters.

Redbaron 07 wrote:

ditch silly valuations like for Wyatt Langford ($758k)

I understand it can be frustrating to find a hoped-for rookie bargain costs much more than expected.

I don’t know if setting a higher minimum salary would alter perceived over-valuations of specific players (might even push them higher if Fantrax’s valuation is calculated relative to what the cheapest base salary is). It would probably require me manually identifying and adjusting an individual player’s salary, which I definitely do not want to start worrying about getting right, along with everything else that needs organising this time of year. Nor would I feel knowledgeable enough to decide who needs altering and by how much.

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

… Ah, now I realise you were probably suggesting setting all rookie salaries to $100k / $150k at the start of the season, not just the minimum salary.

There isn’t an automatic setting for that in Fantrax – it would require manually exporting and going through the very large MLB player list after running the initial valuation. Players who have no MLB experience would need to be identified as to who need changing to $100k / $150k (I don’t think there is an automatic indicator of that in the exported list Fantrax provides). Then import back in to Fantrax. A very manual task.

Anyway, not something that can be done for this season at this stage.

[waynum @waynum]

You’re totally missing the point.

Season on season it only gets harder to select a roster with the available funds and there is zero balance between the b/s reality of fabricated values and the b/s value of what we have to afford them with. $5M is supposed to make it difficult enough by itself but the parameters are not equalised to allow GMs such an ability and by the way the salaries are blown out of all proportion the value of a $5M budget is not even equal to half its true amount.

I don’t know what the overall solution to fix this $5M League problem might be but I do know it won’t matter for me in future seasons and I wish I hadn’t wasted money this time only to wind up putting myself into what will clearly only end up being a b/s endurance until we stumble across a returning DL we can afford! I plan on just sticking to the $12M Classic League from now on.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by waynum.

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

I am happy to take constructive feedback from all $5m managers about how the format might be improved for future years without it also becoming more admin-heavy. But the point is I haven’t changed the way the $5m Game is set up compared to last year, and the overall model hasn’t changed from what it was in the original game, albeit we know Fantrax’s valuation system works differently to how Geof’s did.

So far, the specific example here seems to be that one particular player’s salary is too high and, OK, it probably is. It was the same last year, there was a particular player raised to me as too high, which apparently meant the whole game was ruined. Then some more low cost players were rostered and it was all fun again.

Yes, it is a challenge to build a roster on $5m. Isn’t that the point? Personally, I quite enjoyed it last year.

Ultimately, if the $5m Game is unviable then interest will drop enough that next year I just won’t run it if there aren’t enough registrations. Numbers are up slightly this year compared to last, but only just enough to make it worth running the $5m league, especially since Fantrax increased the cost of each league licence this season. I continued it because I wanted to give those who registered their interest the opportunity to play it.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by FBUK.

[waynum @waynum]

Is it an option to increase the available budget from $5m to an amount more in line with the b/s fluency for player salaries that Fantrax uses? At the rate we’re going we can look for players who have matching letters in their name to stars going on to being paid the same salaries just because! Or maybe a Prospect with 2-legs was just too close to looking like Acuna that Fantrax couldn’t risk not paying him the same $Millionaire wages! Excuse my irony, but this is how b/s drips, always to the lowest point, and the $5M wage structure is nothing other than Fantrax b/s.
Perhaps Fantrax has been giving us more than enough signs all along. Any site that takes our money so readily yet provides little other than faults we have to accommodate for in future seasons is surely warning enough to avoid it!

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by waynum.