Frequently asked Yahoo questions.

[mrdirt73]

Question about FAAB money. Are the bids "max bids" or does what you bid get taken out of your FAAB money. I know that isn't clear, so I'll give an example.

player A bids $10
Player B bids $20

is Player B charged the entire $20, or just $11. The amount needed to win the bid. I've seen it done both ways in past leagues, and wasn't sure how Yahoo treated it.

[WittyC]

When and how are new players added to the game?

As of the 2009 season, private leagues at Yahoo! offer two options in this regard. The setting is labeled:

New Players Become Available:

And the two options are:

1) As soon as Yahoo! adds them
This option is what is used for all public leagues. It basically means, "Yahoo! will add new players to the game whenever we think they are interesting. That includes unsigned veterans, prospects, etc." So leagues with this setting will see new players enter the game at various points in the season whenever we feel like people would want to see them. Note that any player who is on a major league roster should definitely be present without any subjective judgement from us. If you are the type of player who wants consistency, this may not be the option for you. If you are the type of player who wants to be able to nab prospects as soon as humanly possible, this may be the setting for you.

2) Wait until called up to Majors
In this option, the only players that will appear in the game are players that have been placed on a major league roster. This is distinct from having actually played. This may lead some surprising players to be absent. When there is a veteran that we all know is going to sign somewhere, but he hasn't yet done so, he isn't going to be available in the game, because he won't be on a major league roster yet. You may also see players in the game that you don't think belong there, because they are prospects. This is subject to the whims of the professional teams. If they place a guy on their roster for whatever reason, they should appear in our game. If you are the type of player who wants a consistent, predictable rule for when players appear in the game, this is the option for you. If you want to dabble in prospects, this may well not be the option for you.

A few other related notes:
- You can always tell when new players have entered the game by looking at the "MLB Roster Changes" item on the Players tab/page. It lists any changes in player status, including additional positional eligibility gained, or players entering the game.
- Pro tip: at any given point in time, you can see which players are "forced" into the game, and thus only appearing in "As soon as Yahoo! adds them" leagues, by going to the following URL:

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/<league id>/showforced

This page is not normally linked to within the app, but may be of interest to leagues trying to decide which setting they want.
- Once your draft has taken place, you cannot change your league's setting for this parameter. Doing so might have you end up with players that are not supposed to be available to your league that are still on rosters and so on.

I believe it's worth noting that this information is incorrect. Please see this thread: http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=407537. Per Genie in that thread:

I'm following up on those players in particular yet again, but it sounds to me like your assumption has gotten flipped here. There is no claim that if you choose the option to only see players if they hit the mlb roster that you'll see *all* players that hit a major league roster. The feature means you won't see anyone who *didn't* hit a major league roster. So look at it like this:

1) There is a pool of players deemed interesting and worth putting into the game.
2) We identify which of them have hit a major league roster

Depending on how you set that option for your league, you see either the results of step 1, or step 2.

So there you go. For any interested parties, no matter which option you choose, Yahoo! will still put players into the universe who have never been on an MLB active roster.

Please note again, that Genie said in this thread "You may also see players in the game that you don't think belong there, because they are prospects. This is subject to the whims of the professional teams. If they place a guy on their roster for whatever reason, they should appear in our game," and then said in my thread, "There is no claim that if you choose the option to only see players if the hit the mlb roster that you'll see *all* players that hit a major league roster.

So will this contradiction be fixed in 2011, or do I need to find a new provider? And do you actually work for Yahoo! Genie? If so, why are you providing us with contradicting answers to the same question?

This is infuriating to me because this feature is so incredibly misleading that it even fooled Genie into believing that it was somehow based on objective measures, when in fact this option is absolutely, fundamentally useless. I based an entire league around this option working the way you explained it here, but it does not work this way. Instead, we've had Steven Strasburg available all season, even though he's never been on a 25-man roster. Whereas Mike Stanton wasn't available until after he was actually called up.

Thanks Yahoo! You made your league free, and now we're certainly getting what we paid for. What a joke.

[Shermanator]

Is there a way to set the time zone to one specific time zone? It seems every time I log into my Yahoo league, the time zone is different.

[WaCougMBS]

Can someone refresh my memory as to what the tie breaker is for ties in the H2H playoffs on Yahoo!? I think it is either ERA or WHIP if I remember correctly (leaning towards WHIP), but not sure and would love to know before things get hairy in my pay league semifinal matchup

[WittyC]

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com ... _available?

Thanks, Yahoo! It takes a big company to admit when you're wrong!

[H-Town Stros]

I'm in a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball League with 16 Teams. Our league is set up to allow Draft Pick Trading during the season. We are planning on removing two of the teams and either staying at 14 or adding two to get back to 16. However, I'm concerned what adding or dropping teams will effect all of the draft pick trading that has been done? Done anyone have an answer to this?

[Fantasy Sports Genie]

I'm in a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball League with 16 Teams. Our league is set up to allow Draft Pick Trading during the season. We are planning on removing two of the teams and either staying at 14 or adding two to get back to 16. However, I'm concerned what adding or dropping teams will effect all of the draft pick trading that has been done? Done anyone have an answer to this?

This is an old question I'm only seeing now, but the answer may still be of interest.

When a league is renewed, the default mode is that all users are invited to own a particular team from the previous season. In this way, you can replace the two owners while retaining the two teams/franchises. If you do that, things are easy, and it just works.

If you do indeed drop from 16 to 14 teams, then it is trickier. If the two teams that were dropped did not trade any picks, then it should just work. But if either of those teams traded picks, then all bets are off, and it will not be possible to import the traded picks. In particular, you could find that some teams don't have enough picks to draft (because they are supposed to have picks that belong to a team that no longer exists), or they have too many picks (because they were supposed to have given picks to a team that no longer exists).

[Kimbos Beard]

Is Yahoo exploring the possibility of allowing managers to have access to their teams in keeper leagues throughout the entire offseason. One of the attractions of a keeper is the fun of being able to tinker with your team throughout the offseason. It's rough waiting for the Tuesday/Thursday after the superbowl.

[rolex81]

I've seen people talk about projected finishes for their them vs the rest of the league. Is there a way to do this in a Yahoo league or is this an option available elsewhere?

Sent from my AOKP SGS2