C'mon ESPN, Less apologizing and more fixing!

Well I figured it was about time I addressed the whole debacle that is the 2007 ESPN Fantasy Baseball game. I'm not sure what exactly went on over there. I've played in their pay leagues for a few years and never had any issues. Sure there were a few bugs here and there, but nothing of this magnitude. It seems odd now that they've made their leagues free after all these years that everything has gone to shit. There are issues with rosters, pickups, scoring, etc. It's just a huge mess. I'm playing in a few leagues over there and it's just bad.
How things can be that screwed up and no one knows about it before hand I dont know? ESPN has seemingly gone to great lengths to get out apologies to everyone, sending out apologies ad mauseum all weekend. I received 3 emails over the weekend from John Kosner, Senior VP and GM of something or other at ESPN assuring me that eveyone was hard at work on the problem. My favorite email had to be the one from Sunday afternoon where we got the littany of excuses as to why they were having so many problems. The letter reads as follows:

To all of our ESPN Fantasy Baseball players,

We wanted to be sure you had the latest update on what is happening with ESPN Fantasy Baseball, and what we're in the midst of doing to get things back on track for you.

We have every resource, including our full technical team as well as additional specialized technical and quality assurance personnel, working to resolve these issues.

Based on extensive ongoing work and testing, we expect to have the problems affecting Fantasy Baseball resolved by Wednesday. It is possible that between now and then testing could reveal complications that would push the resolution to later in the week. However, we are confident in targeting Wednesday and are taking every step during that time to ensure that the solutions we provide for you will be complete and long-lasting.

While it may sound simple, the core problem lies in issues with transaction information being processed incorrectly and at incorrect times - which presents complexities as data progressively compounds.

Here's the latest on what is being done:

We have made significant progress finding and working towards a fix for the core problems responsible for roster irregularities and incorrect waiver, free agent and other transactions. Due to the nature of software, thorough testing must be performed to ensure that the solutions we implement will fully resolve the issues and preserve the long-term integrity of the game. To do that, we have created parallels of ESPN Fantasy Baseball leagues in a development and quality assurance environment -- simulating the live game activity. In this environment we have been, and continue to run extensive testing of potential fixes for the core problems. There are approximately 70 different variations of our game currently in use, and we are simulating all of these. In parallel, we have programmers and technicians troubleshooting problems that have created scoring and standings irregularities - isolating and testing potential solutions.

Please know -- it is not just rhetoric when we say we continue to work non-stop to resolve this. We owe you the fastest, most effective and stable solution - and that is our sole focus.

We will continue to communicate with you as there are further developments, and you will hear from us again no later than Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET.

We apologize again for the frustration you've experienced and appreciate your continued patience.

You are our number one priority.

John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager, ESPN.com and the entire ESPN.com Fantasy team

You know what John? Everything you've listed there shouldve been done back in November and December. I have a hard time believing these issues wouldnt have cropped up in simulations. I work with data systems for a living, and any time we do any changes we do extensive testing on test databases so all issues are ironed out before going live.

I cant in good conscious advise anyone to use their product from here on out. Had I had my free leagues to do all over again I would've undoubtedly gone with Yahoo!. Sure the interface is crude by comparison, but you know what? It works, and in the end that's all that fantasy players care about. The integrity of people's leagues have been irreparably damaged due to the roster and scoring issues, and even when (if) ESPN fixes their software bugs, you'll never be able to recreate most of that.

From now, If I recommend a free site, it's going to be Yahoo!, and if you want a quality, reliable pay site I'd tell you to go to CBS Sportsline.