Last updated on 20 March 2024
Looking for help? Try these steps:
- If you have a question about playing the game, we suggest checking the Rules and Info section first, which tells you how to get set up and explains the rules of our league.
- Yahoo provides a more detailed guide to the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball platform that we use for the standard and Limited Trade games, as does Fantrax that we use for the salary cap game.
- We’ve posted answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) further down this page.
- The FBUK Forums might have the answer! Log in to discuss with other fantasy managers, see if the issue already has an answer or seek technical support from the FBUK team (if you are already logged in, you can also get there from the Manager Options menu).
- Otherwise, if you need further help from the FBUK team please email us via the Contact Us page.
FAQ
FBUK Forums
Can I use my login from the old FBUK website?
How does social login work?
Why do I get an ‘Access Denied’ message when trying to register?
What is two-factor authentication?
How do I change my FBUK Forums profile picture?
Yahoo and Fantrax Fantasy Baseball
What do the games played and innings pitched limits mean?
Why does it look like a team has been able to exceed the innings pitched limit?
Why does it look like a position continues to score points after reaching the games played limit?
Why has the points scoring system changed?
What’s the difference between roster transaction deadlines and roster lineup deadlines?
How does the draft work?
How do I set my pre-draft player rankings?
Can I leave roster spots empty?
What is the deal with the Player Picker tool that might cause teams to lose fantasy points in Fantrax?
General
What happened to the old game?
What can I do if I’m having problems with the new website?
I really like the game! Is there a way I can help support it?
FBUK Forums
Can I use my login from the old FBUK website?
Unfortunately not. We have had to rebuild the forums and website account system from scratch, which means that from 2021 you need to register a new account to log in to the new forums.
How does social login work?
To create an account on the FBUK website you can either register with a username, email address and password in the usual way or connect one of your existing social media accounts to create and log in to your account on the FBUK website. You’ll see the social media connections we offer as buttons on the login page. This uses a common, secure process called OAuth by which the social media account allows Fantasy Baseball UK to read a limited amount of information in order to set up your FBUK account. The FBUK website cannot access your posts, make changes or see your password on your social media account. More information can be found in our privacy policy.
If you play in the fantasy league itself, it might make sense to connect with your Yahoo account. Not only will you be able to use the same login details for both the FBUK and Yahoo fantasy baseball websites, it should make hopping between your Yahoo fantasy baseball account and your FBUK Forums account fairly seamless.
If you already have an account on the FBUK website and connect with a new social media account, it should give you the option in the set up process to link the two accounts so that you don’t end up with multiple accounts.
Once you have used a social media login to create a FBUK Website account you have the option of changing your FBUK account details (e.g. email address, password, profile picture) so it becomes separate to your social media login. From then on you would login in the traditional way with those new details.
Why do I get an ‘Access Denied’ message when trying to register?
We’ve put automated measures in place to try to prevent spam website accounts being created. Assuming you are not a robot, you should be able to navigate through these but sometimes a genuine user might inadvertently be blocked from registering as well. If you hit a brick wall, please get in touch via the Contact Us page.
What is two-factor authentication?
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an increasingly common way to strengthen the security of your user account by requiring a second method of authentication – using a temporary security code – besides just a password when you log in. You can opt to set up 2FA via the ‘Edit Profile’ page of your FBUK Forums account then follow the instruction steps.
How do I change my FBUK Forums profile picture?
Your forums profile picture, also known as an avatar, is set by one of the following three methods, in this order:
1. Social login
If you registered on the FBUK website using your social media login, like your Yahoo account, it should have automatically pulled in your profile picture from that account. If you update the image in your social media account, it should also update your forums avatar when you next log in to the FBUK site using that social login. Alternatively, editing your forums profile as described in method 3 below might allow you to use a different avatar in the forums without changing the one used in your social media account.
2. Gravatar
Gravatar is a website that lets you store an avatar against your email address. This allows you to have a single image that any website that uses Gravatar (e.g. FBUK) will automatically use that image as your profile avatar on that website. If you created a FBUK account from scratch, have a Gravatar account and use the same email address in your registration on both the FBUK and Gravatar websites then it should make the link and pull through your avatar. It can take a few hours before the link is established the first time.
You can manage your Gravatar image, or to register for one, on the Gravatar website.
3. Upload in forums profile settings
If you created a FBUK account from scratch and don’t already use Gravatar, you are provided with a default avatar. If you wish, you can replace this by uploading your own image file by going to your profile page (from the Manager Options menu or from within the forums), clicking on ‘Edit Profile’ then scrolling down to the avatar section. Once you have chosen the image to upload, click ‘Update Profile’ to make the change.
This method might also work if you want to override your social login or Gravatar avatars from methods 1 or 2 above.
Yahoo and Fantrax Fantasy Baseball
What do the games played and innings pitched limits mean?
Each line-up position (batters) has a maximum number of games for which it is eligible to score points over the course of the season. The limit is for the position not a particular individual player. If a position reaches its maximum games played (GP) limit before the season ends, it will no longer score points for your team going forward.
If you don’t have a player in a position on a given day, or the player in the position does not play in a MLB game that day, it won’t deduct a game played from the limit.
Unlike the old FBUK game, in Yahoo and Fantrax there is no Four Day Rest Rule limiting how quickly you can score points in a pitching spot after the previous pitching start in that spot. However, your team’s pitching staff is limited to a certain number of innings pitched (IP) across all starters and relievers over the season. If it reaches that limit before the season ends, you will no longer score points in the pitching categories going forward.
The situation is different to the above if playing in a head-to-head league. There are no season-long GP or IP limits; instead there is a weekly limit on the number of player acquisitions a fantasy team can make during each weekly matchup against another team. There is also usually a minimum weekly innings pitched requirement, although that is more relevant to how pitchers are used in rotisserie leagues rather than FBUK’s points leagues.
The ‘Roster’ section of the Rules and Info page provides more details on the limits and where to keep track of what has been used so far.
Why does it look like a team has been able to exceed the innings pitched limit?
There is a slight loophole in the way Yahoo and Fantrax treat the innings pitched (IP) limit. If a fantasy team starts the day under the limit but its active pitchers for that day’s games take it over the limit, points for all of those innings will be counted. From a technical point of view, it is probably simpler for them to do that rather than calculate the daily points that had been earned at the very point the IP limit was hit. However, once the limit has been exceeded, no more pitching points will be counted on future days.
Also, the team roster page can be slightly misleading because it will show the pitching points that would have been earned on a given day after the IP limit has been reached, but they are not actually counted in the points awarded to the team in the league standings.
Why does it look like a position continues to score points after reaching the games played limit?
This is a similar case to pitching points and the IP limit noted above. If a position reaches the maximum number of games played permitted for the season, it will not score any further points. However, the team roster page will show the points that would have been earned on a given day after the GP limit has been reached, but they are not actually counted in the points awarded to the team in the league standings.
Why has the points scoring system changed?
In recent years, a suggestion from some managers was to review the awarding of 20 points for a win on the pitcher side of the scoring. Some felt it was too high and meant that fantasy scoring was weighted too much towards starting pitching. Or that wins was really a team stat and an out-dated method of measuring a pitcher’s performance, which should be replaced completely by other pitching stats. Having consulted in the forums and compared what some other points-based leagues do, we overhauled the scoring system for the 2021 season, which you can view on the Rules and Info page.
We feel like it is still relatively simple while now focusing on what the pitcher can control in their performance. For the first time in FBUK, we are including negative scoring categories. To balance it out a bit, we also introduced a negative scoring category for batters (strikeouts).
What’s the difference between roster transaction deadlines and roster lineup deadlines?
Transactions
Transactions means either completed trades, successful waiver claims or free agent pick-ups adding or removing players on your overall roster. In the Limited Trade Game there is a limit on how many transactions a fantasy team can make during the season.
Lineup changes
Lineup changes are changes made within your roster (between active line-up and your bench). In Yahoo, these are sometimes referred to as ‘roster moves’, which can lead to confusion with ‘roster transactions’ above. The idea is that as long as the player is on your active line-up by the time their MLB game starts, their stats will count towards your points.
In Yahoo, it seems the deadline setting for both transactions and lineup changes is the same (it is not possible to set different ones for each type), so it has been set to daily for both.
In Fantrax, transactions are processed once a week on Sunday and lineup changes are available daily.
How does the draft work?
Yahoo uses an initial online draft for managers to build their rosters. Managers take turns to pick a MLB player and a player can only appear on one fantasy team’s roster within each league. There is no team salary budget or player salary value.
We’ll let managers know the scheduled date, start time and format of the draft as well as the order in which managers will take their turns. Managers can choose to login to the whole draft and manually select a player in each round or, if you can only attend part of the draft, not at all, or you run out of ideas halfway through, the system will auto-draft for you at your turn so your team will still get a starting roster.
How do I set my pre-draft player rankings?
If planning some auto-drafting, you can pre-rank the importance of MLB players to you, to give you a better chance of drafting some of the players you want.
- In your Yahoo manager dashboard go to ‘Draft’ in the menu, then ‘Pre-Draft Rankings’ where you’ll see the default rankings
- Use the red or green arrows next to a player’s name to create a list of your Preferred Players and/or exclude those you do not want to draft
- In the Preferred Players list use the up and down arrows to change the priority ranking of those players
- Make sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button as you go through it
- During the draft you can refer to your Preferred Players list as a quick guide to who you pick at your next turn (if they have not been drafted already by another manager)
- If you are auto-drafting, the system will try to draft from your Preferred Players list first. Once they have all been drafted (either to your roster or another manager’s) the system will revert to Yahoo’s default ranking list and pick the best-ranked of available players for the position in question on your roster
- Your Preferred Players list can be as long or short as you like
Or just leave the whole draft in the hands of Yahoo’s built-in ranking system that will auto-draft the best-ranked available player for the given roster position at that turn.
Can I leave roster spots empty?
In Yahoo, the initial draft will populate your team roster based on the number and types of available positions set by the league. This is described on the Rules and Info page. In Fantrax, you manually build up your roster before the season starts. In both, during the season you can choose to leave positions empty in the active lineup on a given day (i.e. no player in that position) but, of course, they will score no points. One example of why a manager might occasionally do this would be to regulate within the games played or innings pitched limits.
Following on from that, although managers cannot change the number and types of available active lineup positions (the ones that score points) or the maximum roster size, they are able to choose the balance of that roster between batters (position players) and pitchers because the bench spots can carry any position type and because it is possible to leave positions empty.
Remember, the number of active (points scoring) batting spots or pitching spots will not change. In an extreme example, a manager could choose to change their roster to only include batters but it would not replace the empty pitching spots with more active batting spots to score points in; it would just mean the manager would have a wider range of batters available on the bench (which can expand up to the maximum permitted roster size).
What is the deal with the Player Picker tool that might cause teams to lose fantasy points in Fantrax?
This section is relevant to the salary cap leagues run through Fantrax.
In Fantrax, the Player Picker tool is one of the options for making roster transactions throughout the season (adding and dropping players). However, in certain circumstances it can cause a technical glitch that backdates the transaction to earlier in the season, causing confusion with the team’s roster. In turn, this might result in the fantasy team having points incorrectly deducted in the standings. Until Fantrax resolves the issue, the simple workaround is to use one of the other options for handling transactions instead of the Player Picker. If you are playing in the salary cap leagues, it is important you read the full explainer on the Rules and Info page and do not use the Player Picker.
General
What happened to the old game?
The original FBUK website and version of the fantasy baseball game ran from 2004. Due to technical problems during the 2019 season and a change of personnel we initially decided to take the 2020 season off in order to spend some time fixing and hopefully bringing back the game at a later date. Read more about it here
As it turned out, the Covid-19 pandemic also happened, meaning a much shorter Major League Baseball season than usual. FBUK ran an alternative version of the fantasy league through the Yahoo Sports platform, which worked quite well, albeit differently.
We spent much time in 2020 unsuccessfully trying to fix the technical issues and encountering more in the process. Unfortunately, on evaluation, we felt the level of work and likely cost that would be needed to resurrect the original game in a reliable form was beyond our volunteers. For now, we’ve decided to continue the game built around the Yahoo fantasy baseball platform. Plus, in 2022 we added a new version of the salary cap format that the old game used, this time powered by the Fantrax platform.
What can I do if I’m having problems with the new website?
We launched the new website in 2018 and continue to develop it. If you encounter a problem using it, please check the Forums where we’re tracking issues and providing updates. You can raise a new issue there or, failing that, let us know via the Contact Us page.
I really like the game! Is there a way I can help support it?
Why, yes! If you would like to support us with a donation, you can do so via the Support Us page. All the funds raised go back into running the game.