Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Drafting Rico Petrocelli with your number one pick may seem like a good idea. But the truth is you will be lucky to end up with Dennis Menke on your first pick if you do.

The league I am in must have had Petrocelli drafted #1 by another team (no surprise) but Aparcio and even Fregosi must have been #1 picks for other teams for my team to end up with Menke as a number 1 pick. This is very interesting.

Sal Bando at third base has also had similar results with the next pick. Sal was taken and Ken McMullen was the next available.

Should these two positions be avoided? They seems like a lottery pick. But if you lose you go to the end of the line.

Has anyone else seen this scenerio?

"but Aparcio and even Fregosi must have been #1 picks for other teams for my team to end up with Menke as a number 1 pick"

unfortunately, that's not how the drafting replacement happens. If you list Rico #1 and miss out on him, instead of getting the next best guy, you get the next player (by salary) that no one else has anywhere on their draft card. So, if another manager had Fregosi #10, you would not be able to get him. That is the risk of putting Rico #1.

You are right there Hac. But we all had Rico as number one pick. We all ended up drafting number one picks that were not on our draft card or anyone elses.

Because Rico is ranked so much higher than all other SS we ended up with somewhat undervalued 1st picks.

My point being that he is a lottery pick first selection.

I just did an auto draft last night. All 12 teams have $16 million or more dollars left.

I drafted Santo at 3b and HAL gave me Melton. Bando went undrafted.

I drafted Killebrew and HAL gave me McCraw as my only 1B! McCovey, F.Robinson, Stargell, C.Jones, Hegan, Parker, Fiore, Oliver, Pepitone, Fairly all went undrafted.

HAL is giving you the next cheapest guy at the primary position of your player that is not on anyone else's draft list. I have $18 million left and get waiver pick #12.

"HAL is giving you the next cheapest guy at the primary position of your player that is not on anyone else's draft list."

Isn't that what he's supposed to do/does in all games (for better or worse)?

[quote:0a41cbb817="UrbanShockers"]"HAL is giving you the next cheapest guy at the primary position of your player that is not on anyone else's draft list."

Isn't that what he's supposed to do/does in all games (for better or worse)?[/quote:0a41cbb817]

You are correct Urban.... :wink:

Maybe the question should be... Since there is nobody close to Rico... Should he be on your draft card or are the odds too high against that it is less than Zero after Rico is taken.

It might be better odds to put a lower ranked SS at the bottom of your list like Fregosi or Aparcio or Menke. Stop them from being drafted by another team by default and save them for yourself at the end of the draft.

Shouldn't HAL be set up to give you the closest priced player as opposed to the next cheapest? This way you do not end up with $18 million unused?

I have said before the draft algorithm needs to be reworked. You should not have to shy away from putting in for a great player on first pick because you might get stuck with a Menke at SS or as in ATG a Combs in CF. Nor should you have to waste cap money and a later pick to draft a second player at a position as insurance in case you lose the coin flip for the player you requested.

Either institute a waivers style draft card where when you miss a pick your remaining draft list bumps up or allow you to list preferred alternatives for a selected player.

I continue to play at a reduced rate compared to early habits and most likely will continue to do so. But my participation would soar if the draft were less of a crapshoot lottery almost pure luck type thing.