Draft Discussion 2008

Here's where we can discuss everyone's picks and strategies during the draft.

Jay has #1 pick, the lucky dog. I wonder who he'll pick....hmmmmmmmmmm.

where is the list of players again we can choose from.

Mark

Square_Frame_Ramly wrote:where is the list of players again we can choose from.

Mark, it can be anyone in baseball history as long as they played in the majors. A list like that would be endless. Since we're only drafting 160 players, it will be mostly stars that will be picked. You can use this baseball-reference.com player list to help you with it if you'd like.

i will check it out.

Mark

could someone let me know how the game is played? How long is the season? Is a deadball shortstop, or even say a Phil Rizzuto or Bill Mazeroski a horrible pick in light of the offensive numbers put up by today's modern middle infielders? Are the stats historically adjusted? How are the games themselves played?

nolemmings wrote:could someone let me know how the game is played? How long is the season? Is a deadball shortstop, or even say a Phil Rizzuto or Bill Mazeroski a horrible pick in light of the offensive numbers put up by today's modern middle infielders? Are the stats historically adjusted? How are the games themselves played?

Todd, we're just doing the draft for fun. Sort of like a mock draft. During the draft we can discuss strategy, what we think of eachother's picks, and how our team is coming together. After it's done, we can compare teams strengths and weaknesses, and discuss how they'd fair against eachother in real life. We'll also open it up to the rest of the board and they'll vote on which team they think is the best.

Simulation is also a possibility and Jay has offered his game for that. But for now we're just going to have fun drafting the best team possible, all things considered.

Is it too late to suggest that the draft extend to 25 players? Depth is important, after all, and it's not as if we'd have to scrounge to find other outstanding players.

nolemmings wrote:Is it too late to suggest that the draft extend to 25 players? Depth is important, after all, and it's not as if we'd have to scrounge to find other outstanding players.

Todd, lets do our 16 rounds as planned and see how it goes. We could still adjust it when we've finished the 16 rounds.

If all goes well and everyone's still into it after the first 16, we could expand the draft to 24 players so that our teams will fit in seamlessly with Jay's sim. Here's an example of what an expanded roster would look like:

C -
1B -
2B -
3B -
SS -
LF -
CF -
RF -
DH/Utility -

SP -
SP -
SP -
SP -
SP -
RP -
RP -
RP -
RP -
CL -

Bench -
Bench -
Bench -
Bench -
Bench -

Lee (bowlingshoeguy) has joined us and is now the 11th player of the league! The draft lists have been updated to reflect the extra member. I'm sure Jay will be around shortly to get us started.

I don't think it's fair to Jay to add another team late--he no doubt plannned his entire draft strategy around ten teams and based his first pick on there being more players available to help make up for this first-round mistake

If I had known it was 11 teams, I would have gone for Bill Bergen.

Jay

Does the draft order get adjusted through the middle rounds or is always just a pure snake draft?

nolemmings wrote:Does the draft order get adjusted through the middle rounds or is always just a pure snake draft?

Pure snake draft from start to finish Todd

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've always thought it was the fairest way of handling a draft. I can see that you might not agree Todd?

it's the fairest if you're at the top of the draft order
not so much when you're at the bottom

What would you propose Todd?

BTW everyone needs to post their team on the ROSTERS thread.

Geez, I dunno. I've been in a fantasy/roto baseball league for 26 years, and back when we last used a draft instead of auction format, I had calculated a draft order that gave everyone the first pick of a given round and otherwise balanced the overall selection process. That's been about twenty years ago, though. I assumed lots of folks here played roto ball and that someone would be familiar with the concept and able to get such a list. I could try and compose one from scratch if it was something people wanted.

Sounds like a neat method Todd. That's a lot of fantasy experience you have! I've been playing roto ball for only 5 years, always through yahoo. Since we're doing this just for fun, I'd prefer to stick with the snake draft if it isn't too much of a problem. It will be easier for me to run and everyone will get used to picking at their spot, making it easier to anticipate when one's turn to pick is.

One nice thing about a snake draft is that the people with a late first rounder will be compensated with a high 2nd round pick. For example, you have to wait until the 10th slot to pick in the first round, but you get a high pick (13th) in the second round. Jay has to wait until pick #22 to make his second pick. So I think that evens it out a bit.

It does even out somewhat. Still, usually there is a creme de la creme upper crust that favors the first selectors, and less of a disparity between picks say 12-24, so the manner I suggested would try and recapture some of the balance by, for example, letting the third round start with team 6, go down to team 1, than team 12 to team 7 (right to left on your radio dial), run round 4 with team 7 picking first and going up to 12 then 1-6, etc. IOW, basically resetting the snake to start at a different point every two rounds. But hey, whatever goes is fine with me.

26 years would put you in the SABR only leagues before Waggoner and Sklar published the first book in 1983. There were few roto leagues outside of SABR before they published their book. Things got crazy from there I joined SABR in 1983 and that's how I found out about roto leagues.

I quit SABR last year. All the fun and joy of the organization has sucked from it by the hardcore academians who refuse to let people do anything that is considered frivilous or fun.

Jay

That makes sense Todd. Since this is our first crack at the historical draft and we're doing it just for fun, I'd like to keep it as simple as possible. Hence the snake draft. If/when we do it again next year, perhaps we could develop a draft order like the one you've described.

OK LETS TALK ABOUT THE DRAFT SO FAR

Todd I predict you'll be pleasantly surprised with who falls to you at your top 2 picks.

You're right Jay, what a long, strange trip it's been. My league actually formed in the spring of '82, but was filled before I could get in. I even remember one guy asking me how, as a Twins fan, you pronounced this rookie's name--Hrbek (he had the H silent). The rules and scoring were different, but the concept was the same.

Love the Gehrig pick, James. I was strongly considering him at #4.

I think the way the draft is set up is the best way - the last guy will get consecutive picks. Plus when you consider the entire history of professional baseball players are at our disposal nobody is going to wind up with Buddy Biancalana.