[Millhouse]

To our Fantasy Players,

The problems that you have experienced with ESPN Fantasy Baseball to begin this season have been unacceptable, and we are genuinely sorry.

Fixing these problems and restoring your ability to play fantasy baseball, as well as illustrating our appreciation of you - our players - is our responsibility. We will take important steps in the next 24 hours to meet that responsibility.

We have explored and tested every possible solution and it is clear that the nature of the issues leave us with a single, necessary action to get the game back on track and ensure the integrity of the season.

Late on Wednesday night the ESPN Fantasy team will:
1) Revert all teams to their opening day rosters (Sunday, April 1).
2) Set the starting lineup of each team's opening day roster as the active roster for all games played to date (April 1 - April 11).
3) Retroactively apply scoring for the entire season to date based on that roster.
4) Void all transactions to date (trades, waiver pickups, roster moves, etc.).

Following these changes, all players not on a roster will be placed on waivers for 24 hours, and the waiver order for each league will be restored to where it was on Opening Day.

Through extensive testing, this solution - while extreme - has repeatedly shown to restore the game to full and normal operation.

We are sorry to have to make such an aggressive change, and fully recognize the impact this will have. This action was our only option because of the nature of the issues and their potential to compound if not addressed on a fundamental level. Ensuring the integrity of the season ahead for ALL players is tremendously important to us and this solution ensures that all players will be treated equally.

We anticipate that by Thursday morning when you log in, the game will be operating as it should. We will provide another update to you on Thursday morning.

For those with customized leagues, your League Manager will be able adjust current rosters as they see fit.

This should not have happened and there is no excuse. We will work hard to regain your confidence in our games, and in appreciation for the patience you've already shown we are giving you:

Free ESPN Fantasy Insider, for the entire baseball season. By Friday, you each will have complete access to all of our most in-depth, award-winning fantasy sports content through September. (Current ESPN Insider subscribers will have six months added to their subscription at no charge)
A full refund for the cost of the 2007 season to any player that has paid for a premium ESPN Fantasy Baseball league.
We also know that many of you play other ESPN Fantasy Games, and are giving you a premium, prize-eligible ESPN Fantasy Football league this fall, at no charge. We hope you'll give us the opportunity to serve you.

Like you, we are also fantasy baseball players at ESPN, and this has been a truly humbling week. Thank you for hanging in there with us while we addressed these issues.

You - the player - are our priority. We will continue to work day and night to deliver the game experience you deserve.

Sincerely,
John Kosner, senior vice president, ESPN.com & the entire ESPN.com Fantasy Team

Wow. So, any move you made from opening day until now is negated. I know it won't make a ton of difference come September, and commissioners can likely retro-add/drop players and get rosters back to normal (i.e. as they stand today), and this seems like their only solution, but man, many teams have made significant drop-adds since April 1 to help them win games (I know I have), and those will all be moot now. That's brutal.

One bit of good news is: their football game is totally separate from their baseball game, so there's no reason to expect this debacle during football season (like some of you, I play both...and I gotta say, ESPN was just awesome last year for football, so this baseball mess has been surprising).

Anyway, to all of you also playing in ESPN leagues, I feel your pain.

[Riff Raff]

growing pains exemplified

[Riddler]

Wow, that's pretty bad. What problems were they having? It's hard to believe that hitting the reset button was their only choice.

[Millhouse]

Originally Posted by Riddler

Wow, that's pretty bad. What problems were they having? It's hard to believe that hitting the reset button was their only choice.

our league didn't seem to have some of the probs that others were having, but from what i hear waiver claims were getting messed up, scoring wasn't accurate, rosters weren't being updated to reflect drop-adds, a whole slew of stuff. like i said, though, our league has pretty much been fine, but many obviously haven't been.

[chancellor]

I'm invovled in one fun league on ESPN, and it's been pretty funny for me. For the other guys who take this league more seriously, well, let's just say they're having fits.

We haven't had any waiver moves executed, could not pickup players, and had rosters randomly locked. I can't wait for the whine fest that's going to follow after this announcement.

Like Horns hinted at in another thread, if you're in a simple, daily or weekly transaction, standard 4x4 or 5x5 league with no FAAB, Yahoo runs circles around everyone else. I've been involved with leagues on Yahoo for three years now with other RJers, and Yahoo's been down all of twice in three years, and each time for less than a day. Again, if you're in a no-FAAB league, and want a more elaborate scheme, Yahoo's pay service is also very good.

I'm pretty sure our league will migrate at the end of this year, if not sooner.

[cardboardbox]

Originally Posted by Millhouse

[b]This should not have happened and there is no excuse. We will work hard to regain your confidence in our games, and in appreciation for the patience you've already shown we are giving you:

Free ESPN Fantasy Insider, for the entire baseball season. By Friday, you each will have complete access to all of our most in-depth, award-winning fantasy sports content through September. (Current ESPN Insider subscribers will have six months added to their subscription at no charge)
A full refund for the cost of the 2007 season to any player that has paid for a premium ESPN Fantasy Baseball league.
We also know that many of you play other ESPN Fantasy Games, and are giving you a premium, prize-eligible ESPN Fantasy Football league this fall, at no charge. We hope you'll give us the opportunity to serve you.

thats pretty darn impressive. So they are fixing the problem 10 days into the season, giving full refunds, free espn insider, and a free football league.

[pjs24]

Just another reason why ESPN sucks! At least they are trying to give back something, but that stuff should already be free, anyway, so they aren't really offering much.

[Austinio]

Originally Posted by ari.gold

Just another reason why ESPN sucks! At least they are trying to give back something, but that stuff should already be free, anyway, so they aren't really offering much.

so true, it should be free (I'd only read it to see what others in my league were reading)

I always felt I could find much better info for free anyways (and check out RJ and other boards)

[thilljays]

This is horrible,,,I cant believe that this is their 'solution'... Now the standings are wrong, and this coudl effect playoffs. I lost 3 wins and probably more this week considering my starting bench was Kinsler, Podesdnik, Cole Hamles, Scott Olsen and AJ Burnett.

There has got to be a way for ESPN to fix the so called problem and award the correct stats to each team.

[Cutty]

...it isn't the first time...in fact I'll dig up a little ditty I sent to ESPN about two years ago (to Rich Kosner in fact)....it's got some other stuff about their undroppable list at the time, but you get the point....

Original note to ESPN (circa 2005):
Message = Please consider removing Jim Edmonds from the "Undroppable"
list, his numbers (this year) certainly do not warrant the status.
Additionally, Carlos Beltran, considering his numbers and recent
injuries is a candidate for removal too.

Original ESPN response:
Thank you for contacting the League Office.

The pool of undroppable players is determined and managed solely at the
discretion of the Commissioner's Office, and will be updated as
necessary in the event of an injury, decrease in playing time, decreased
performance, etc. The list is reviewed periodically and players will be
modified as soon as the league panel deems necessary. We will send your
request to have Edmonds taken off the undroppable list to the
appropriate parties. His removal will be considered. Note that the
undroppable status does not affect your ability to move a player in and
out of your lineup, move him to a disabled list slot, or trade him. We
are sorry if this causes you any inconvenience.

Thank you for playing ESPN.com Fantasy Games!

My retort and re-request:
Guys,
You are really not helping here. Edmonds is not an "undroppable". Take
a look at my league (look at the standings). Reggie Sanders will come
off of the DL next week. I would rather have him in my lineup than Jim
Edmonds (b/c of his ability to steal bags). With respect to your
previous response, "Note that the undroppable status does not affect
your ability to move a player in and out of your lineup, move him to a
disabled list slot, or trade him", thanks for the tutorial! A few
comments:

a) I do not want him out of my lineup, I want him off of my team. I
need those bench spots for my SPs so that I can carry as many RPs as
possible (in order to "snake" a few wins).

b) I cannot move someone to the disabled list slot if he is not hurt.

c) I cannot trade a player beyond the trade deadline.

So I ask that you please remove the "undroppable" tag on Jim Edmonds. I
have explained whom I would replace him with, and why. Plus, he is
easily the 6th best OF on my team behind Abreu (undroppable), Wells
(droppable), Matsui (droppable), Beltran (undroppable), and Ramirez
(undroppable). Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter.

ESPN didn't respond, so I fired another salvo:
Dear ESPN Gurus,
Roughly a month later, Edmonds is still undroppable. Honestly, at this
juncture, it is a bit of a moot point. Just thought I would point out
that, as he has done many times this season, Edmonds has sat out two
straight games (he seems to take a lot of days off due to random "dings"
and "nicks"). If you're scoring at home, that means he sat out on
Sunday, didn't play Monday (b/c STL didn't have a game), and then
followed that up by not playing today (perhaps he is resting for the
playoffs?)

Man, I tell you what, that really helps when you're trying to win a
title. Kudos on staying on top of your game. Pile this onto to the
clusterf*** that is your Fantasy Football operation this year and color
me pink. Atleast I have the Karabell Blog to alleviate my pain.....oh
wait, no I don't.....apparently some up-and-coming go-getter (hoping to
"maximize revenues" or "optimally price our services") determined that
someone may actually be willing to pay for that and recommended that you
scrape every last little bit of utility from the customer's dining
table. What a joke. Even the single-sign-on functionality of your new
portal provider is f'd up when someone attempts to access the
aforementioned diary. Awesome.....add it to the list of things you
didn't do right this year. To include alienating those of us in leagues
who are your biggest champions to other league members (versus "free"
fantasy services providers).

A very disappointed customer

PS: The note from John Kosner was a nice touch (regarding
football)....but it reminds me of a quote from the movie Billy Madison
(a big hit with the former-frat now-professional crowd....I'm only
guessing....but I presume that crowd makes up a large part of your
online revenue base)....."Sorry doesn't put the tasty little triscuit in
my stomach....now does it".

Thanks again. Hopefully next year you can remember to keep the
96th-rated player in all of fantasy baseball off of your "undroppable"
list....god willing (I haven't checked recently, but I believe as of his
"sit out" on Sunday, he was still there).

[fresno bob]

I'm blaming Geddy Lee and the legions of Rush fans...

[Wanksta]

Two straight years, my football league had to leave ESPN for Yahoo after major draft issues. Clearly, ESPN is still a TV network dabbling in the Internet. Whatever you think of Yahoo, their sh*t works.