Auto Draft...Concerns

[RICHARDMILTER]

sportj2420,
I agree completely with your sentiment. I guess in the past I had been real lucky, in receiving between 18 and sometimes as many as 20 of the 25 I tried for in the auto drafts. It is quite a shock when you miss on half or more of your picks. But I have also been fairly lucky in waivers, and I always seem to be able to fix my teams, in waivers and free agency. What makes this game so great is there are many ways to build a winner. Lots of fine GMs like DurrantJerry, and Altec1969, have taught me these things. This really is a good community. And I believe it was Old Tori Hunter who mentioned that by this time of the year, there are really no more secret bargains. And this is a great point. So I (and others) just have to role with the punches, and find new players. But you make a good point that it would not be that hard for TSN to allow 10 or 15 transactions to be made during waivers. I think this would solve some of what I and others view as a slight problem. I feel bad that I stirred up controversy and allowed my frustration to get the best of me. And all LM Bombers was doing was responding to my comments, and I got needless offended. I need to check my emotions some times. But I do really like this game, and the people that play it. Almost everyone is very helpful and polite. But we should still be able to air our concerns, and offer suggestions. Whether they are heeded or not.

[JMP1]

I'm really pretty new here compared to most of you so this is not an experienced opinion.

I have found live drafts in subsets of the ATG IV series to be very enoyable. Just did my second draft with the Post WWII set. Because the set is smaller the teams are much more balanced, even without a salary cap. While you might not have a team of All-Stars you aren't forced to take a bunch of .50 salary players either.

I just set up a Pre-WWII live draft league (Old Man Winter Ball) with the draft on Monday 12/22. If you haven't done a live draft with a smaller set you may be pleasantly surprised. Hope to see you in the league.

[voovits]

One thing about this proposed change that needs to be considered.
Automatically dropping to the next player on the draft list is going to lead to many issues.
First, It may not be just you who lost out on a certain player at a certain time.
Let me give an example of something that entered my mind almost immediately. I'm going to use players from the 80's mystery card game for this example, as that's what I like to play, thus I'm most familiar with.
Lets take take a 3 player/3 team draft into consideration.
Lets say the draft cards look like this:

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3.
1. Brett 1. Brett 1. Brett
2. Schmidt 2. Schmidt 2. Clemens
3. Clemens 3. Gwynn 3. Gwynn

OK, so all 3 guys had Brett as #1. So lets say for arguments sake Team 3 gets Brett.
So the proposed change says that both teams that missed out gets their #2 guy. Well both 1 and 2 have Schmidt.
OK fine, Team 2 wins out on Schmidt, so team 1 gets the next guy down the list. Wait a minute... Team 1 got Clemens at #3, but team 3 had him at #2. Why should team 3 get penalized just because he won the random roll for Brett at #1?
Also, lets throw a 4th team into the mix, lets say team 4 has Brett and Schmidt 1 and 2 as well. So team 4 wins out on the Schmidt sweepstakes, that leaves teams 1 and 2 to fall to their #3 guy. You know the issue with Clemens, but what about Gwynn? Does team 2 automatically get him, or does he have to challenge team 3 for him?

Either way, regardless of how it goes, someone is getting screwed big time. Also, what happens at the end of the draft?
If you keep skipping down to the next pick, once the draft is over and you have say 18 guys on your team, how is it determined which other 7 guys you get? And don't forget about the other teams too, everyone will have incomplete rosters at that point, then what?

I know the example I gave above may be a bit extreme, but I'm sure it has or would have at the top of draft cards at some point if the proposed changes take effect.

It's a good idea in theory, but like the current system, has flaws of it's own. You have to consider the other managers as well as yourself. Either way, someone is getting screwed and someone is going to be unhappy.

My suggestion would be to keep the autodraft system as is with 1 minor tweak.
Before the draft starts, the system should generate a random mini-waiver like list. If there is a tie in the system for a player, the person with the lowest rank waiver number gets the player, then automatically gets bumped to the end of the list. Then the process repeats. I understand that is flawed as well, like 2 different players are tied in the same round, which player gets processed first, but it at least keeps 1 team from getting all the picks, and reduces the number of teams who lose out on almost everyone.

That's why I like the mystery card leagues so much. It's much easier to recover from a bad draft, and what you think is a good draft may turn out to be garbage. That guy who won out on Brett as the #1 pick, just got his worst year, and he won't know it until several games have passed, then he will be released, vegetating on the free agent list unless someone else decides to take a chance that he was just under performing, and dismantles his/her team in order to afford him, only to be disappointed when he does not perform.

Anyway, sorry to get off track from the original point.
One other suggestion I could think of would be to leave the undrafted positions blank, and allow for a second draft with the remaining players to happen a couple of days after the initial draft, done similarly to the first. Then, any ties are broken the way they are done here, and anyone who failed to fill out the second draft card, will get all the leftovers after that.

Sorry for the long winded post.

[drew6013]

of sense to me.

I'd rather have a do not draft list.

[pcbaseballsims]

"If the intent is to simulate real baseball - and I think we all agree that is the intent - then let us have more control to match our players with our ballpark. Major league GM's don't run into this issue.......do they? "
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I love it someone commenting on TSN needs to be more like real MLB.

That said, forget the AD for the moment. Realism? Then ditch duplicate parks! Thats my pet peeve. Its unrealistic!

Now I understand we customize our draft to fit the park, but if AT&T for ex is taken just take your next favorite P's park it's no big deal. It [i:e3f998e273]is [/i:e3f998e273]a big deal when there are dupes in the same div or 4-6 people all have the same hitters park or all have PNC.

This must be 1 of the 1st items TSN chooses to fix IMHO.

Anyway, hope more will weigh in re: the issue of "ballpark dupes"--if its realism we all crave then we gotta do away w/ dupes! Amen brother :!:

[george barnard]

[quote:6cf3cf0d78]Here's something seldom seen in this game: In the 2006 game, I'm in a league where there were five Minute Maid teams, including mine.
[/quote:6cf3cf0d78]
As someone in the same league (but not in Minute Maid) who has had to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes of competing in a kind of "Groundhog Day" environment, I am all for limiting ballparks. How about SOM attributing a ballpark automatically when you sign up. Then you build around the hand you are given. And it might force you to rethink certain ideas.
Just a thought.
Good luck to all the Minute Maid teams anyway.

[Manofsteel]

I am all for suggestions on how to improve an already very good product. I have been in leagues as well when one ballpark seems to be used more often then others, but I am definately against being assigned a ballpark. Most managers have there own way of drafting some are mashers, some are finesse pitching. I think its great with the variety & I alternate myself with how i build my teams. Ultimately it should be up to the manager on which park to play in.

[pcbaseballsims]

TSN assigning parks...not a bad idea if it eliminate dupes. Alternatively, how about at least no dupes in same div.

B Rock time to jump back in and rejoin the $100M '07 lg YOU created :!: