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Sep
04
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If you’re a fantasy football geek you already know who Fanball.com is… they’re one of just a handful of credible fantasy news sources not named ESPN. A few weeks ago I did a three-app Draft Kit Roundup and this app from Fanball fits right in with that group; it provides player rankings, news and injury updates, and it also tries to be a live draft companion which it kind of succeeds at but not entirely.
I made it pretty clear in my Draft Kit Roundup that I think trying to track your live draft on any iPhone app is a waste of time, and even though Fanball’s app is pretty good overall I still think it’s a dumb idea! I’m in three leagues this year (as usual) and my first live draft was last night. iPhone apps like this one do have some value in a live draft setting, but mostly on the news and stats side.
There are several things I like about this fantasy football iPhone app, but let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Like I said, Fanball.com’s app has a couple of things holding it back from being totally draft-friendly. For starters, it crashes a little more often than it should. iPhone apps crash and it’s a fact of life but, even after a device restart, the app just suddenly closes with more frequency than I’m used to and if your draft goes for 2-3 hours this will drive you crazy. Another potential nuisance is that a lot of the the app’s navigation controls (mainly positions and player sorting) are pretty small which makes it unfriendly to the fat-fingered crowd. Not a big deal for me since my fingers are small and girlish, but I’m thinking about the big guys here.
Where live drafts are concerned, a bigger issue is that this app provides info that’s great to know for week-to-week team management but it’s not always helpful when you’re on the clock. I love Fanball’s bite-sized “Newsbreakers” player updates which is exactly what this app provides, but they don’t necessarily translate into solid big-picture advice on whether the Pittsburgh defense can be expected to dominate again like they did in ‘08 or how much Eli Manning’s stock falls with his #1 WR in jail for shooting himself in the leg.
My last gripe is that the app doesn’t seem too good at remembering custom league and team names. I love the fact that it allows you to do this at all, but in the course of opening and closing Fanball’s app several times today I’ve had a couple of occasions already where I’ve had to re-input stuff. I think I’ve finally got all my leagues in there for good, but if I see something revert to the default “New League” or “Team 1″ again I’m gonna start gnashing my teeth which I hear is really bad for them.
The very, very good news is that once you have all your leagues inputted for good, there’s a Set Active League function that allows you to customize your player news for each of your teams. It works like this:
- Create a custom league and enter your league name and team name
- Go to player profiles and tap DRAFT to add them to your team
- Create another custom league and team
- Choose your new league under Set Active League
- Add players
- Rinse and repeat, starting from step 3
Each time you use Set Active League, not only are you allowing yourself to re-draft players you’ve already added to different leagues, you’re also changing what the app is showing you for customized player news under the Teams and News tabs. I like scouring Fanball.com’s “Newsbreakers” section, but doing it this way when making start/bench decisions will make my fantasy life a whole lot easier.
Another thing this app does nicely is sorting players by ADP (average draft position), 2009 projected stats, and A-Z. ADP is clearly the most useful out of the three if you’re on the clock, but A-Z is also nice to have around. Projected stats are just that… projected stats… so I wouldn’t rely on them too heavily but they could help to fill in some blanks if the Newsbreakers aren’t telling you enough.
The bottom line here is that Fanball has created an awesome little Newsbreakers tool that you’ll probably use nearly every day during the football season, and it also has the potential to be a nice complement to your live draft if you want a quick way to find out if Michael Crabtree is still holding out like the greedy jackass he truly is or if Brandon Marshall will be a Jet come Week 1. I’m still firmly opposed to the idea of trying to duplicate a live draft on an iPhone app while the clock is ticking but for a dollar this app is worth having around, especially if you’re managing more than one fantasy team.
iTunes Link – Fanball.com Fantasy Draft, Player & Injury News 2009
Version 1.0
iPhone 3G OS3.0.1
Popularity: unranked [?]
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