The Best is Now Even Better

It's been a wild baseball offseason, what with Cliff Lee re-joining the Phillies, the Red Sox landing Crawford AND A-Gon, and World Series hero Brian Wilson continuing to be, well a very weird guy .

But the fun has just begun.

That's because we've had a pretty interesting offseason ourselves here at CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports. Let me explain.

While our Fantasy Baseball game has a new look--the most significant upgrade since 2003--and plenty of new functionality, I'm excited to share with you that we are now the Official Fantasy Baseball Commissioner of MLB.com.

What does that mean? It means we'll have video highlights and free access to MLB.com GameDay Premium for all of our Commissioner users at no additional cost. (MLB.com GameDay Premium regularly costs $19.95 per person, or around $240 for your entire league.) That’s pretty amazing.

There's more, much more, detailed below. But first I wanted to let you know that you’re welcome to discuss the upgrades with other customers by posting a message below. Or you can contact the CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports team with general feedback through the Help Center . If you’re currently in a Fantasy Baseball Commissioner league, please contact us through the Help link inside your league.

To try CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball, sign-up here .

Free MLB.com GameDay Premium, Real Time Video Highlights, and More Highlights

CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner customers will get free access to MLB.com GameDay Premium through their league.

You’ll get home and away audio feeds of all 2,430 MLB games with no blackouts, real-time highlights, pitcher ratings, pitch by pitch, live box scores and more. Again, there is no additional cost for this service. It usually costs $19.95 per person or as much as $240 for your entire league.
In addition, you’ll get real-time video highlights for all the players on your fantasy roster. These will be accessible via your Roster page and Fantasy GameTracker.
Each day a compilation of player highlights will be updated on the player pages throughout CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner.

(Note that you won't see MLB.com GameDay Premium and the video enhancements in the product yet as they launch closer to the start of the season--when live audio and video are available from MLB games.)

New Commish Tools in CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner

In a nutshell, we’re trying to make the commish's job easier. We do it in 2011 by …

Simplifying league set-up, enabling you to take advantage of the entire range of customizations available from CBSSports.com in a completely new, easy step-by-step process.
Providing you with a single, easy-to-read view of all of your league settings.
Enhancing how you manage teams, owners, and your league’s draft.

Upgraded Experience for All Team Owners

Following design changes to CBSSports.com in 2010, we overhauled the interface of Fantasy Baseball to improve usability, freshen up the design, and basically just make the experience more fun.

Your Roster page now offers both “drag and drop” and “click and move” (click on the player you want to sit and then click on the player you want to activate) to set your line-up.
We also consolidated more information on the roster page in a tabbed format--with key information such as roster trends, player news and analysis, stats, and projections in one place--so you have everything readily accessible to make informed decisions about whom to start and sit.
There’s a roster view on the Add/Drop page so that it’s easier than ever to make decisions about your lineup and to take action.
Filters on the Stats page have been updated to make it easier than ever to build powerful reports and find free agents.
All draft information and tools have been moved to a new centralized area, “Draft Central.”

Enhancements to Mobile Fantasy Baseball Products

You always get free access to all of your CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball leagues on your phone, and we made a lot of improvements for 2011.

A new free CBS Sports Android app is launching soon and will complement what we already have available for fantasy baseball customers via the free CBS Sports iPhone App and CBS Sports Mobile Web site.
We’re now offering all types of Add/Drop functionality on your handset, including waiver and FAAB auction free agency and full support for more league types, including Rotisserie, Head-to-Head, and Head-to-Head Category scoring systems.
League message board reading and writing will be available…you won’t have to wait to get back to your laptop to respond to your commish’s complaints about league fees.

(Note that all the mobile enhancements are not live yet, but launching well before the season begins.)

Want to learn more? Just sign-up and start playing now to check out the enhancements to Fantasy Baseball.

If you're interested in our press release, you can read it here .

These are just a few of many changes coming to CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports in 2011. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you about how we’re making, as I like to say, "the best even better," as the year goes on.

Thank you for using CBSSports.com.

The Best is Now Even Better? NO DRAFT?!?!?!

BottmsUpBeanTwn Since: Feb 7, 2008	Posted on: March 31, 2011 1:24 pm The Best is Now Even Better Anyone know how to set up the Gameday Audio for my league? [ Reply to Comment ]
jarrodk Since: Sep 7, 2006	Posted on: March 29, 2011 11:01 am The Best is Now Even Better? NO DRAFT?!?!?! And another note--the customer service individual suggested I start the auction tomorrow and suspend it until we're ready to start on 3/31 at 5PM, with no guarantee that it will work. What do we do if/when we have 10 people waiting in various places throughout the country to draft online if it doesn't work??? I submitted a ticket (incident 110329-000390). Please have someone contact me ASAP using the info in the ticket so we can resolve this. I've been a loyal CBS Commissioner subscriber to both baseball and football for at least the past five years. I'd like to get this remedied ASAP so we are not forced to find another service. Thanks! [ Reply to Comment ]
jarrodk Since: Sep 7, 2006	Posted on: March 29, 2011 10:44 am The Best is Now Even Better? NO DRAFT?!?!?! I set our online auction draft up months on the site ago to start at 5PM ET on Thursday, March 31. I needed to reset the draft this morning so I could make some roster changes. After selecting "Wait to select a draft type" and making the changes, I attempted to set our Online Live Auction Draft to start at 5:00PM ET on Thursday, 3/31. When I do this, I now receive the error message: "Drafting not available on 03/31/2011" I called support this morning only to find out that the developers decided they would not allow online drafting the day of March 31?!?!? We literally fly people in from across the country and also allow those who cannot attend to draft online through the CBS site. How can the site allow this date and time initially, then change it without making anyone who has already scheduled their draft for this date and time aware of the change? What is going to happen for those who already have it scheduled? Will they show up that night and be unable to draft? And I'm told the logic behind this is that the programmers are afraid allowing drafts on opening day will screw up the system???? Is anyone else in this situation? This is a large enough issue for us to cancel our service, ask for a refund, and find a site that will actually support the date and time of our auction. [ Reply to Comment ]
Robbo75 Since: Aug 17, 2010	Posted on: March 28, 2011 6:00 pm The Best is Now Even Better I don't get it? Why? Why ruin something great? Setting daily lineups is a pain now, and the default views are bloated with un-needed information. Why not give us the ability to create custom views? To set a daily lineup (for example, putting in a Monday-Thursday player), I have to: 1. Click Schedule 2. Click on a day 3. Click schedule (since clicking on the date doesn't give me a view of that day) 4. Make a change 5. Click "Submit" 6. Repeat Step 1 to replace the Mon-Thurs with the regular starter. It used to be so much easier. Everyone loved it. Why did you make the change? Seems like a huge waste of money on your part since you didn't focus-group it and now you're suffering backlash. Will you address why the best is now the worse? [ Reply to Comment ]
DrDave Since: Mar 12, 2007	Posted on: March 10, 2011 4:57 pm The Best is Now Even Better I am completely dissatisfied with the changes that have been made. [ Reply to Comment ]
sds222 Since: Mar 7, 2011	Posted on: March 7, 2011 4:12 pm The Best is Now Even Better The commisioner product needs an update bad, position eligibility needs to be fixed, cannot make permanent changes to player eligibility, owners can move players out of position and this is a management nightmare for me the commish. [ Reply to Comment ]
kcchiefsfan9069 Since: Mar 5, 2011	Posted on: March 5, 2011 2:42 pm This comment has been removed. Post Deleted by Administrator
kcchiefsfan9069 Since: Mar 5, 2011	Posted on: March 5, 2011 2:37 pm This comment has been removed. Post Deleted by Administrator
Barking Tree Since: Mar 31, 2009	Posted on: March 3, 2011 12:10 am The Best is Now Even Better They really Suck, Top to Bottom. A shell of a team since Lou left. [ Reply to Comment ]
AC27 Since: Jan 29, 2009	Posted on: March 2, 2011 2:06 pm The Best is Now Even Better---Not really. Does CBS care that most people are not happy with this years disappointing commissioner fantasy baseball roll-out? I would like to hear from somebody at CBS. My league is already talking about what site we are going to move to for the 2012 season. The CBS arrogance of this is what you get deal with it has gotten real old. BTW who really cares about getting the MLB free audio and video highlights. That stuff is everywhere now a days for free. [ Reply to Comment ]

And another note--the customer service individual suggested I start the auction tomorrow and suspend it until we're ready to start on 3/31 at 5PM, with no guarantee that it will work. What do we do if/when we have 10 people waiting in various places throughout the country to draft online if it doesn't work??? I submitted a ticket (incident 110329-000390). Please have someone contact me ASAP using the info in the ticket so we can resolve this.

I've been a loyal CBS Commissioner subscriber to both baseball and football for at least the past five years. I'd like to get this remedied ASAP so we are not forced to find another service. Thanks!

The Best is Now Even Better? NO DRAFT?!?!?!

I set our online auction draft up months on the site ago to start at 5PM ET on Thursday, March 31. I needed to reset the draft this morning so I could make some roster changes. After selecting "Wait to select a draft type" and making the changes, I attempted to set our Online Live Auction Draft to start at 5:00PM ET on Thursday, 3/31. When I do this, I now receive the error message: "Drafting not available on 03/31/2011" I called support this morning only to find out that the developers decided they would not allow online drafting the day of March 31?!?!? We literally fly people in from across the country and also allow those who cannot attend to draft online through the CBS site. How can the site allow this date and time initially, then change it without making anyone who has already scheduled their draft for this date and time aware of the change? What is going to happen for those who already have it scheduled? Will they show up that night and be unable to draft?

And I'm told the logic behind this is that the programmers are afraid allowing drafts on opening day will screw up the system???? Is anyone else in this situation? This is a large enough issue for us to cancel our service, ask for a refund, and find a site that will actually support the date and time of our auction.

The Best is Now Even Better

I don't get it? Why? Why ruin something great?

Setting daily lineups is a pain now, and the default views are bloated with un-needed information. Why not give us the ability to create custom views?

To set a daily lineup (for example, putting in a Monday-Thursday player), I have to:

1. Click Schedule
2. Click on a day
3. Click schedule (since clicking on the date doesn't give me a view of that day)
4. Make a change
5. Click "Submit"
6. Repeat Step 1 to replace the Mon-Thurs with the regular starter.

It used to be so much easier. Everyone loved it. Why did you make the change? Seems like a huge waste of money on your part since you didn't focus-group it and now you're suffering backlash.

Will you address why the best is now the worse?

The Best is Now Even Better---Not really.

Does CBS care that most people are not happy with this years disappointing commissioner fantasy baseball roll-out? I would like to hear from somebody at CBS. My league is already talking about what site we are going to move to for the 2012 season. The CBS arrogance of this is what you get deal with it has gotten real old.

BTW who really cares about getting the MLB free audio and video highlights. That stuff is everywhere now a days for free.

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