Reflecting on the last year of Pro-GM
Mar 31, 2021 11:53:18 GMT -5
Post by Brian (Blue Jays GM) on Mar 31, 2021 11:53:18 GMT -5
Hey guys,
I can't believe it's finally here (almost, one more day), a real semi-normal opening day of baseball! On the eve of opening day, I wanted to share some thoughts on how far we've come as a league in the last year since the MLB COVID-19 shutdown. I'm so glad to see how this league has banded together and used the shutdown time to make improvements on what was already pretty damn good. It was no easy task to get to this point, and I'm thrilled with where we ended up, but here's a quick reflection on how things went over the last year and how we seized the opportunity to make this league even better.
When things first started shutting down at the end of March 2020, none of us knew what to expect and there were a lot of questions that no one could answer. Would there be a 2020 season? Would we lose GMs from the league by the time MLB resumed? Should we contract a couple inactive teams or fill them? Could we keep this league going or would we be forced to start over? We would have to wait and see...
On top of the MLB shutdown, Pro-GM had it's own unique challenge arise in the months that followed. In June 2020, I made the unfortunate announcement that Ben was stepping down from his leadership role and that I would be assuming the role of Commissioner, with Jon stepping up into my role as league co-commissioner, and shortly thereafter we announced that Nick would fill the vacant AL commissioner spot. This was an intimidating change for me as there were a lot of decisions and potential changes to be made, and a lot of work to be done. Ben left some huge shoes to fill and I'm still not sure I've adequately filled them, but I've done the best I can do to keep this league going.
To start off with, when there was rumor that MLB would start planning to return for a shortened season, we ran a few polls to see if we should continue the league or re-boot, if we should redistribute talent to help some of the teams that have suffered from inactive GMs over the years, etc. We were pleasantly surprised to see that after 3 months of shutdown, nearly the entire league came back and was still interested in continuing the league as is and filling any vacant teams if possible. With the shortened season, we decided 2020 wouldn't count and that the league would resume in 2021 as if 2020 never happened. We ran the 2020 league just for fun, and while they didn't get pennants in the league banner, the Orioles and Braves put everyone on notice that they were the new champions in their respective leagues and that they intend to prove it again when it counts in 2021.
We unfortunately didn't retain everyone as the Yankees have undergone 2 GM changes in the last year, the Royals left the league when we moved to Fantrax, and the Angels and Nationals were removed due to inactivity. The Red Sox, new to the league in January 2020, still haven't experienced their first full season of Pro-GM as well. I'm excited for Charlie and Bob to get their first full seasons in, and for Jesse to make his triumphant return as the new Angels GM. I hope all 3 of you see how great this league is and choose to stick around for a long time because we're thrilled to have you here. Hopefully we'll have replacements soon for the Royals and Nationals and get back to full once again. Keeping this league full isn't always easy, but the realistic parallel to MLB is one of the things I enjoy most about this league and I'm glad we didn't contract any teams.
While the league was to continue as is, at least as far as rosters and teams were concerned, that didn't mean it couldn't improve in other ways. The first challenge we tackled was communication applications. Chatango's flash technology is not supported in many browsers anymore, and PMs on this site can often go unseen for long periods of time (as can the emails the commissioners send when you don't answer our PMs!). We needed a new way to instantaneously communicate with the league, and we explored the ideas of Slack, Discord, Line, and expanding the use of our Facebook group as possible solutions. Ultimately, Discord won in a close poll, and Tucker stepped up to take the lead on creating our server. Most of the league has now joined our Discord and after a couple months of public trade block posts, league discussions, and informal polls with those who are active on the Discord, I can say that it's been a great addition to our technology platform for this league. If you're not on our league Discord, I strongly encourage you to join it. Details can be found in this post: pro-gm.proboards.com/thread/7236/discord
Another major technology change involved the switch from Yahoo to Fantrax, which allowed us to better track full 80-man rosters and salaries, and combine all 30 teams into a single league which will now include interleague play! This also gives us all the complete view of every player that is owned and unowned in our league, making identifying free agent and draft targets much easier. This was a bit of a bumpy transition over the last month, and I'm not sure we've got all the settings exactly right, but I think this will ultimately make us a better league and I thank all of you who suggested and supported this change.
As part of our return to normalcy (or as close to it as possible), we were able to run an offseason that included a shortened amateur draft, rule 5 draft, and limited primary free agency! These were no small tasks given the constraints we were dealing with from MLB only holding a 5 round draft in real life and that we were very behind on processing official rosters and draft pick ownership, which had to be caught up before we could conduct these offseason activities.
For years Ben made the commissioner job look easier than it was, which I thought was because of how much he himself devoted to this league to make it the best he could, but it turns out there was even more to it. In my first year in this new role, I've developed an even greater appreciation for the incredible co-commissioners of this league. Every time a big task needed to be done, they were there to help share the load and make it easier on me. I now see even clearer that it takes a village to run a league this complex and we have an incredible group running it and contributing to it. While all of the commissioners have contributed in many ways over this crazy year, in particular I have to call out the huge steps up in responsibility that were taken by Jon and Nick. Whether it was catching up on draft pick ownership, administering the draft, or getting rosters entered into Fantrax, I've leaned so heavily on these 2 and they've come through time and time again. This league wouldn't be ready for this season without their hard work and I can't thank them enough.
So now you all see how this league, while largely the same, has changed for the better in the last year. We made some technological improvements, we saw a renewed enthusiasm when everybody came back after the shut down, and we pushed forward with making our league ready for a new season.
Additionally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in the last year for many of us there have been personal and family health issues, life changes, and extreme obstacles to overcome. For me personally, the last year included a 2 month furlough, a new dog, a few weeks of COVID illness, multiple deaths in the family, an intense work project, a promotion at work, and now at long last a vaccine that should hopefully restore some normalcy and sanity. One constant for me personally amidst all the craziness of the last year has been this league and how much I love experiencing this game with all of you. I'm sure Jon could tell you all about how frequently his phone buzzes because I'm texting him about this league or messaging the commissioners chat group about something else that we need to tackle as a team. This league is a huge reason why I'm so excited for tomorrow, for a new season of baseball to start again. You're all worth every bit of work we put into this and I'm so glad I made it through the challenges of the last year to see another baseball season with all of you. Best of luck to everyone on the upcoming season, congratulations on all the obstacles you overcame in the last year to get here, and I have a feeling it's going to be a special season for all of us.
"The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." -Field of Dreams (now go back and re-read the quote in James Earl Jones' voice, you're welcome)
Cheers,
Brian
I can't believe it's finally here (almost, one more day), a real semi-normal opening day of baseball! On the eve of opening day, I wanted to share some thoughts on how far we've come as a league in the last year since the MLB COVID-19 shutdown. I'm so glad to see how this league has banded together and used the shutdown time to make improvements on what was already pretty damn good. It was no easy task to get to this point, and I'm thrilled with where we ended up, but here's a quick reflection on how things went over the last year and how we seized the opportunity to make this league even better.
When things first started shutting down at the end of March 2020, none of us knew what to expect and there were a lot of questions that no one could answer. Would there be a 2020 season? Would we lose GMs from the league by the time MLB resumed? Should we contract a couple inactive teams or fill them? Could we keep this league going or would we be forced to start over? We would have to wait and see...
On top of the MLB shutdown, Pro-GM had it's own unique challenge arise in the months that followed. In June 2020, I made the unfortunate announcement that Ben was stepping down from his leadership role and that I would be assuming the role of Commissioner, with Jon stepping up into my role as league co-commissioner, and shortly thereafter we announced that Nick would fill the vacant AL commissioner spot. This was an intimidating change for me as there were a lot of decisions and potential changes to be made, and a lot of work to be done. Ben left some huge shoes to fill and I'm still not sure I've adequately filled them, but I've done the best I can do to keep this league going.
To start off with, when there was rumor that MLB would start planning to return for a shortened season, we ran a few polls to see if we should continue the league or re-boot, if we should redistribute talent to help some of the teams that have suffered from inactive GMs over the years, etc. We were pleasantly surprised to see that after 3 months of shutdown, nearly the entire league came back and was still interested in continuing the league as is and filling any vacant teams if possible. With the shortened season, we decided 2020 wouldn't count and that the league would resume in 2021 as if 2020 never happened. We ran the 2020 league just for fun, and while they didn't get pennants in the league banner, the Orioles and Braves put everyone on notice that they were the new champions in their respective leagues and that they intend to prove it again when it counts in 2021.
We unfortunately didn't retain everyone as the Yankees have undergone 2 GM changes in the last year, the Royals left the league when we moved to Fantrax, and the Angels and Nationals were removed due to inactivity. The Red Sox, new to the league in January 2020, still haven't experienced their first full season of Pro-GM as well. I'm excited for Charlie and Bob to get their first full seasons in, and for Jesse to make his triumphant return as the new Angels GM. I hope all 3 of you see how great this league is and choose to stick around for a long time because we're thrilled to have you here. Hopefully we'll have replacements soon for the Royals and Nationals and get back to full once again. Keeping this league full isn't always easy, but the realistic parallel to MLB is one of the things I enjoy most about this league and I'm glad we didn't contract any teams.
While the league was to continue as is, at least as far as rosters and teams were concerned, that didn't mean it couldn't improve in other ways. The first challenge we tackled was communication applications. Chatango's flash technology is not supported in many browsers anymore, and PMs on this site can often go unseen for long periods of time (as can the emails the commissioners send when you don't answer our PMs!). We needed a new way to instantaneously communicate with the league, and we explored the ideas of Slack, Discord, Line, and expanding the use of our Facebook group as possible solutions. Ultimately, Discord won in a close poll, and Tucker stepped up to take the lead on creating our server. Most of the league has now joined our Discord and after a couple months of public trade block posts, league discussions, and informal polls with those who are active on the Discord, I can say that it's been a great addition to our technology platform for this league. If you're not on our league Discord, I strongly encourage you to join it. Details can be found in this post: pro-gm.proboards.com/thread/7236/discord
Another major technology change involved the switch from Yahoo to Fantrax, which allowed us to better track full 80-man rosters and salaries, and combine all 30 teams into a single league which will now include interleague play! This also gives us all the complete view of every player that is owned and unowned in our league, making identifying free agent and draft targets much easier. This was a bit of a bumpy transition over the last month, and I'm not sure we've got all the settings exactly right, but I think this will ultimately make us a better league and I thank all of you who suggested and supported this change.
As part of our return to normalcy (or as close to it as possible), we were able to run an offseason that included a shortened amateur draft, rule 5 draft, and limited primary free agency! These were no small tasks given the constraints we were dealing with from MLB only holding a 5 round draft in real life and that we were very behind on processing official rosters and draft pick ownership, which had to be caught up before we could conduct these offseason activities.
For years Ben made the commissioner job look easier than it was, which I thought was because of how much he himself devoted to this league to make it the best he could, but it turns out there was even more to it. In my first year in this new role, I've developed an even greater appreciation for the incredible co-commissioners of this league. Every time a big task needed to be done, they were there to help share the load and make it easier on me. I now see even clearer that it takes a village to run a league this complex and we have an incredible group running it and contributing to it. While all of the commissioners have contributed in many ways over this crazy year, in particular I have to call out the huge steps up in responsibility that were taken by Jon and Nick. Whether it was catching up on draft pick ownership, administering the draft, or getting rosters entered into Fantrax, I've leaned so heavily on these 2 and they've come through time and time again. This league wouldn't be ready for this season without their hard work and I can't thank them enough.
So now you all see how this league, while largely the same, has changed for the better in the last year. We made some technological improvements, we saw a renewed enthusiasm when everybody came back after the shut down, and we pushed forward with making our league ready for a new season.
Additionally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that in the last year for many of us there have been personal and family health issues, life changes, and extreme obstacles to overcome. For me personally, the last year included a 2 month furlough, a new dog, a few weeks of COVID illness, multiple deaths in the family, an intense work project, a promotion at work, and now at long last a vaccine that should hopefully restore some normalcy and sanity. One constant for me personally amidst all the craziness of the last year has been this league and how much I love experiencing this game with all of you. I'm sure Jon could tell you all about how frequently his phone buzzes because I'm texting him about this league or messaging the commissioners chat group about something else that we need to tackle as a team. This league is a huge reason why I'm so excited for tomorrow, for a new season of baseball to start again. You're all worth every bit of work we put into this and I'm so glad I made it through the challenges of the last year to see another baseball season with all of you. Best of luck to everyone on the upcoming season, congratulations on all the obstacles you overcame in the last year to get here, and I have a feeling it's going to be a special season for all of us.
"The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." -Field of Dreams (now go back and re-read the quote in James Earl Jones' voice, you're welcome)
Cheers,
Brian
