CSFBL - In Limbo

Astonishingly few people even know about CSFBL - Computer Simulated Fantasy Baseball League - but those of us that do know love it. The basic idea is that you create or adopt a fictional baseball franchise and manage it season after season - leagues vary from 2 games/day to 8 games/day.

You have control over your 25-man major league roster, a roster in the high-minors and a third roster of up-and-comers in the low-minors. You can adjust your lineup, your pitching rotation, your managerial style, your spending on scouts, training, development and you draft new players each year. After each game, you can check the box scores, and check the compiled stats for the year, of for all time. It's not quite as polished as whatifsports.com and the feature set isn't as rich - but it's free. For someone like me that can only check it for a few minutes a week, it's the perfect baseball fix for the offseason. You only need to invest as much or as little time as you'd like...

Nerdy? Or course.
Fun? Absolutely.

So, why is it in limbo? The site has been down since 1/22, the server has moved from an ISP to the proprieter's basement and there's really no telling when things will be back up and running. Their outage blog suggests that they'll be up by Monday, but this is a hobby, rather than a business. There's no guarantee there.

So, what's next? If CSFBL is going to survive, they need to make a business out of this. Much like whatifsports has done with simulated baseball, like Match.com has done with personals and like we've done with executive job search over at TheLadders.com, they need to offer a simple basic version that gives people a taste of the product and encourages people to upgrade to a paid version for full access, features, etc.

Whatifsports has proven that the business model can work for sports, and it's really not that different from the fantasy sports behemoths - CBS Sportsline, ESPN and Yahoo. The revenue from the run-of-network ads on CSFBL wasn't enough to make the site anything more than a hobby, and the donations through Amazon.com's Honor System haven't done the trick either. As sad as it will be for us freeloaders, it's time for CSFBL to get serious and try to make some money off the quality engine they've built.

They've hinted at the idea a bit in a blog post, suggesting (in a FAQ format) that the level of donations by a particular league might determine whether or not they get migrated to the new, improved version of the site. But it's not going to be enough. I guess I just don't understand why they're so reluctant to turn their baby into even a small business. It's a no-brainer.

UPDATE: In the few brief hours since I posted this, the CSFBL site has been revived!

MLB Just Spoiled My Day

I find this news extremely aggravating:

If you don't have DirectTV this year (or for the next seven years), you're not going to be able to order the MLB Extra Innings package, because DirectTV just paid $700 million for exclusive rights over the next seven years. It will also be the exclusive home to a 24-hour baseball channel.

In Case You Had Any Doubt, MLB Doesn't Care About You At All - Deadspin

I guess those of us who cannot possibly get DirecTV will be stuck staring at a low-res video feed on our computers for the duration of the baseball season. I used to be able to work on the computer while I was watching A's games, but I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to handle this. Do I have to get another laptop that I can connect to the TV? This whole thing is just miserable. Damn you, MLB!

Fascinating Click Survey/Study

Thanks to Josh Levine for the link: http://blog.outer-court.com/click2/

My favorite is the chart for the rectangle that says "Don't Click Here". That's probably the most-clicked area in the entire survey! Crazy web contrarians.

Farewell to Ron Washington

Here's the Dallas Morning News article:

"Oakland third base coach Ron Washington will be hired as the [Ranger's] manager, Daniels confirmed to The Dallas Morning News on Monday morning."

I will offer congrats to Ron Washington, who probably deserved the shot at a managerial position. But I cannot wish him the best of luck. Managing the Rangers means the A's will see an awful lot of him and I can't root for them, as much as I've respected Wash's work with the A's. As third base and infield coach, he's never raised ire for sending runners when he shouldn't have and even more importantly, crafted an amazing infield defense.

Eric Chavez won his sixth straight Gold Glove award this year and the rest of the infield was only a hair behind him. If it had been up to me, Mark Ellis would have gotten the Gold Glove for second base this year too. He made only two errors all season and made the fantastic plays seem routine.

So, I can't root for Washington and the Rangers all year, but I will at least root for them to crush the Angels as often as they can. Bon voyage and good luck, Wash.

Jobster Calls Out Monster

Kudos to Jobster's Jason Golberg for calling out Monster's "crap product." Video here.

The amount of ads the job seeker has to fight through on Monster is just ridiculous. Sure, the business is doing well, but they're abusing the job seeker. It may help them make money in the short term, but it's an AWFUL experience.

(Hat tip to Joel Cheesman for the video and for standing up to the man)

Hats Off to the Tigers

Well, the A's put up a little fight in each game, but if you look at the 4-0 Tigers sweep, you really don't see any fight at all. The Tigers just flat-out beat the A's. The Tigers had great hitting, great starting pitching, great relief pitching and solid defense while the A's really didn't show nearly enough of those things.

From around the interweb...

-Ken Arneson:

...without Ellis and his MLB-record 2B fielding percentage, and without Justin Duchscherer, who can throw two shutdown innings in the middle of a ballgame, the A's M.O. was gone. Those two guys were the keys, the very heart and soul of the A's success in 2006.

-Barry Zito:

I'm sure in a couple of days I'll have a more positive outlook, and I'll be able to look back at the season and smile. But right now it's just really tough because of the fashion in which we lost. We just laid down, myself included...

Eventually I'll look back at some highlights. Beating Santana in the Metrodome, highlight of my career. Going in there, with all odds against me and the team -- not just that game but the whole series -- and getting through it on the positive side is definitely a highlight...

The plane ride home is going to be pretty emotional. That kind of stuff goes on every year, saying goodbye to guys because you know they're not going to be back or might not be back. You go up to those guys and make a real point to express how much you like playing with those guys, how much you love being around them. But this year I might be the guy leaving, so I want to go up to the rest of the guys and tell them how much I appreciate playing with them, their competitive spirit, their love, their determination and their support in the clubhouse. That's going to be emotional, I'm sure.

Finally, I'd just like to thank the people who have been following us and supporting us all this time. If this ends up being my last year here, I just want the fans to know how much I love them, too. That's all I can really say right now. Thanks for everything.

Man, I'm going to miss that guy.

-Nico on Athletics Nation:

From early in Game 1 to the end of Game 4, it was simply the Tigers time to play in the World Series. The A's, built on starting pitching, would fail to get a single quality start in the ALCS. Frank Thomas didn't get a single hit. You're not going to win too many series under those circumstances. ... I'm proud of the 2006 Oakland A's. And I can't wait for Spring Training, 2007.

-The Pastime: "Detroit was simply the better team over these 4 games. Eric Chavez took a lot of heat for saying that, but he was right. They made very few mistakes, and took advantage of the A's miscues."

-From Bruce Jenkins at the SF Chronicle:
"That man over there," said Bradley [of Frank Thomas], "that's just greatness. I grew up watching him play. Now I'm watching him accept defeat with humility. He's handling his struggles like a man. He taught me, a lot of us, how to be major-league players. You can't replace that kind of leadership."

-More from Jenkins:

Milton Bradley is the last Oakland player coming off the field, in a slow walk. He's pointing to someone on the Tigers, as if to say, "Job well done." He's pausing now, and I've got my eye on him, becase he was the Oakland A's today. Now he has been acknowledged, but Bradley is hanging around, all by himself, outside the A's dugout.


Wow. It appears that Jim Leyland is the man Bradley was acknowledging. Now Leyland is coming over to pay his respects to the A's. What a class act... Leyland knows the feeling of heartbreak, and he knows how the A's feel right now, and he has left the madness of his own team's triumph to commiserate with Oakland.

I guess I'll be rooting for the Tigers in the World Series. They're a hell of a team and a classy bunch.

Athletics Nation Says It All

After Game 2, the A's are "Down But Not Out"