Amateur Draft Suggestions

[kenny]

With the 2011 Amateur Draft coming to a conclusion next week, it'll have been 6 months since we've started. While all of this is still fresh in our minds, I'm soliciting any feedback people may have.

I think it went okay, but there's definitely room for improvement. If you have any ideas that can make this run smoother next year, I'd be happy to hear them.

[Fourfingerwoo]

if a team misses their pick and doesn't make it back in time for their next pick, boot them and suspend the draft till you can find a replacement. What happened with some of these teams like Cincy can set a team back so much. I know you were hoping for the best and what was hoping that what was happening at the time wasn't really happening. But we all know if a man isn't around for his first round pick, he doesn't care and doesn't need to be around(except extreme circumstances). And don't take this wrong I'm not saying the league management was neglectful in letting that happen, just saying that I am aware of the work that has been put into this league, it smells of countless hours of work. And if an owner cant be around to make his picks he doesn't belong here. But we need to suspend the draft next time and find a replacement owner and then continue. That way not to punish the new owner for the ex owners lack of commitment. I quasi what I'm saying is if the lack of making the pick is grounds for an owner to be removed because of similar behavior maybe we need to suspend the draft and wait till we find a replacement owner until continuing.

[Lindner]

I actually kind of agree with the comment above me.  I would like to make a proposition, though.

There should be some kind of rule that a team must have a first and second round pick.  Perhaps we could suspend the draft to make sure we always have active owners for these picks.  Maybe we could give them the next available draft pick from the actual draft (obviously we would prefer to avoid something like that, but its an option). 

Nevertheless, I, personally, would only want this to apply to the first 2 rounds.  I think it would be crippling to miss your first and second round pick a couple years in a row.  After the second round (and possibly the comp round), drafting would return the system that we had going this year.

What do you guys think?  I just hate to see teams lose those first couple rounds.  I inherited the Twins and their neglective prior missed the first couple rounds.  It is very discouraging...

[ldsjayhawk]

I thought it was good toward the end of the draft when they started picking the next available player.  Maybe instead of suspending the draft the team gets the next available player until the team gets a new owner.  I though that worked well.

Hopefully things will stabilize in the league, once the season starts and there won't be such turnover, but if we have the kind of turnover we did this offseason again and we suspend the draft every time, it could take forever.

[Lindner]

but if we have the kind of turnover we did this offseason again and we suspend the draft every time, it could take forever.

Very true.. ^^

Maybe instead of suspending the draft the team gets the next available player until the team gets a new owner.  I though that worked well.

I like that idea.  We could do that for the first few rounds.  I would probably be good with whatever method you guys decide to use to get every team a 1st and 2nd round pick every year.   

[kenny]

The constant turnover in this league prevents us from getting any type of momentum. At my last count, we've had 60 different people in this league, and now it's probably at 65.

I agree there needs to be some sort of compromise. Suspending the draft for every missed pick may hurt the league more, but applying that to the first few rounds can be good.

[SpiritWind]

I personally feel the Amateur Draft should NEVER be suspended.
there seems to be a presumption that ever GM should be
drafting Amateurs every rd; some people may not be interested
in doing so !?  When the Draft was suspended after the 1st 2
rds, the original GMs of Cleveland and the Cubs never drafted again;
I have always wondered IF the suspension caused them to stop
participating !?  I know if I was a "replacement" GM, I would not
expect drafting to stop for all the remaining GMs so that I and any
other Replacements may "catch up" .

[DVB78300]

As someone who enjoys the amateur draft aspect of dynasty leagues, I've got to say I found this draft to have many flaws. The twelve hour window makes rounds take far to long, 2 picks in 24 hours, roughly 30 picks every 15 days, assuming we have decent participation, this whole process shouldn't take more than several weeks at most.
A more simplistic draft would likely garner better participation. I know there are those of us who really enjoy researching the amateur players and want to do so for as long possible, but the average roto owner isn't going to want to or have the time to do so & while I don't want to see the league totally dumbed down, there are certain compromises that the diehards need to make for the longterm health of the league.

A simpler draft format would be cutting the draft down to say 6-10 rounds; with each pick having say a 1-2 hour window. There would only be 6 - 12 picks scheduled for a day (no one should be expected to pick after 1am easter standard) depending on the window. If a pick is missed, it's not lost/ forfeited. The forfeiture of a pick especially in the early rounds can be very harmful to a team & thus harmful to the league. If a team misses their window, they can make the pick at any point during the round, but they lose priority preference, meaning if the Nationals are scheduled to pick first in round one of the 2010 draft and they have a window of 10A - 12P & they miss their pick then the Pirates who pick from 12P - 2P can draft who every they want to, and as long as they get their pick in first, they would net Bryce Harper & the Nat's would be able to select Tallion or whom every they want, what makes this work is the team with that next pick will be keeping a close eye on the draft because they want to be able to jump right in if the team ahead of them misses their pick, that way they can nab the better prospect. I know people will say, 1-2 hours isn't enough time, I work and can't be looking at a draft during work, I'm sorry but in the era of the smart phone, that's a lame excuse. Hey I've got a very demanding job, I've even been on vacation during amateur drafts, if you want to take part in the process you will find a way to make it work.
Any prospects that are left after the draft is completed, should be automatically assigned to the ArmChair team who mirrors their real life team. Just like in the MLB, all amateur prospects should be assigned a no trade clause for their first 12 months, this will help allow teams to decide who they will keep & who they will drop. It will also keep a team somewhat stocked incase of turnover.
I would suggest a similar type draft for International Free Agent signees who are minor leaguers. Guys like Darvish & Cepedes who are signing Major League deals and likely won't be going tot he minors, should be put in the free agent pool, but there's no reason for the Roland Guzman's or Andres Serrano's of the world to be part of a MLB Free Agent draft.

 

Dismounting my soapbox for now.

[kenny]

Interesting points, Doug.

1. Draft clock - 12 hours vs. 2 hours:

I too would like to see the league be more friendly towards the average roto player. My thinking was a longer clock would actually be better than a shorter clock because the average guy won't be checking in throughout the day. Heck, I usually only check in twice a day (before work and after work).

I can't count on everybody having smartphones or having access to computers throughout the day. We have people ranging in age from 16 to 60 and I don't want to limit the number of people who can participate. We have enough difficulties keeping an active complement of 30 GM's as it is...  shortening the draft time to 2 hours can only make it worse.

2. Automatic assignment of undrafted prospects based on MLB selections:

What is your reasoning behind this? I'm not quite sure how it will help the league. This will cause issues because of minor league roster limits.

3. No trade clauses for amateur draft picks:

I'm on the fence about this one. I can see both the pros and cons.

4. Forfeiture of picks:

I agree with you and I think we can implement what you suggested regarding this.

5. International free agents - draft vs free agency:

How would we objectively distinguish between who goes into the draft and who goes into free agency? Some are obvious, but there will be some in the gray area.

I'm leaning towards placing everybody in free agency because it'll be another pool of players for teams to spend money on. This will keep the salaries down and more realistic (we have a bigger pool of money here in AFB than they do in MLB).


Your thoughts?

[kenny]

I should note that we might run into some administrative problems with such a short time window for the draft. If one person makes a mistake and takes somebody previously drafted, it can cause a domino effect which might not get caught until later in the day. We'd really need somebody to monitor the draft throughout the day and I'm not sure if we have somebody that can do that (nor would I feel comfortable asking anybody to do that),