Drafting Broken

Ok, regarding the autodraft itself geekor pretty much covers my views of the flaws.

Considering this thread though after reading all the posts including the original twice I am confused......

Is this about the autodraft or about the waivers draft? It might make for a more meaningful intelligent discussion if one know just what was being discussed.

If we are talking about the autodraft how did you know you were last and someone else was third. I thought that knowledge was hidden. Or are you saying someone else got 4 of your top 5 picks and yet wound up third in waivers while you were last. In other words you missed a lot of your top picks and he got them so how could the formula have determined he should be third in waivers and you last. Answer is simple that waiver order is determined off a weighting formula over the whole draft. Perhaps you wound up last because that formula is improperly calculated by the strat server in which case you have a just complaint. But that is a different discussion than the one going back and forth here.

Or perhaps you mean that you lost 4 of the top 5 on your waiver card to the guy who was third in waivers. Agree does not seem fair. But could not comment without seeing all the waiver picks. If this is what you are saying then perhaps you could provide a link to the waivers and list what your waiver picks were.

But you see? It makes a difference just what your question is as to what the answer and indeed even the discussion should be.

Hmmm, looks like I broke the discussion by asking for clarification of the question.

Interesting discussion, by which I mean emotions run high.

I lack the math skills required to ascertain whether or not a snake auto-draft would be fairer, but I would tentatively put it out there that maybe that's an option that might improve fairness. It just feels that way, to me. Baby steps. Maybe someone smarter than I can speak to this, backing their argument with math.

Context: I'm not a total n00b, I played a couple of 20xx seasons, '08 & '09, under a different ident back on the TSN site. C&D for a long time preceding that, yeah, I fit the generally geriatric age profile. Including this year there's been 4 online championships out of 16 teams total, and never a sub .500 team (although several .500-ish teams). I'll submit that's a decent overall record that gives me just enough credibility to weigh in upon the following:

1) "Dice luck". There's no getting around that. My last champion was an 88 win team.

2) It's pointless being disappointed with what team you get after the auto-draft, since not only is the competition too fierce for the best value players, you can certainly get screwed much like the OP has in this instance. Therefore,

3) Your team is made or broken during the frenzy period. Let's face facts: there's almost no trading.

Sure you can work the auto-draft a bit better with some experience as to how it giveth and, mostly, how it taketh away. But that offers no guarantees as to the quality you'll actually receive. I would suggest that the OP's horrific luck is an extreme, or marginal case. All my teams have been pretty much radically modified during the frenzy period, and I truly believe that is where one's team building skills should be applied with the greatest focus.

I agree that you can fix any problems you may have with the auto draft in the waiver and Frenzy periods, especially in the 60 or 80 million dollar leagues. It becomes a bit more difficult in the higher salary cap leagues, but I don't play those for the most part anyways.

I am looking forward to the live drafting WITH salary caps, which TSN never had.

I lack the math skills required to ascertain whether or not a snake auto-draft would be fairer, but I would tentatively put it out there that maybe that's an option that might improve fairness. It just feels that way, to me. Baby steps. Maybe someone smarter than I can speak to this, backing their argument with math.

How exactly would a "snake auto-draft" work, and how might it improve the draft system for those who are unhappy with it?

It sounds interesting. Although, if it works like a snake live draft, I would imagine the managers "picking" 9th, tenth, 11th, or 12th would not be too happy with missing their 3 or 4 "key" players in the first round because they were taken before they even got their first pick.

How exactly would a "snake auto-draft" work, and how might it improve the draft system for those who are unhappy with it?

It sounds interesting. Although, if it works like a snake live draft, I would imagine the managers "picking" 9th, tenth, 11th, or 12th would not be too happy with missing their 3 or 4 "key" players in the first round because they were taken before they even got their first pick.

Um, wouldn't it be true in any case that managers picking 9th and later are going to miss out on those players? I would call that "luck of the draw".

I think that a snake draft would at least give the later positioned draftees a better chance of at least getting their 2nd choice, 4th choice & so forth. Also, those teams at the back end of the draft will from the outset, where it matters most, have two players before those at the front end get their second pick. Which I think evens things out a bit, thus at least appears to be fairer. But of course the front end draftees get 3 players before the back end folk do, and so this is where my math skills fail.

'Twas a suggestion, is all.

Wait.... I'm kinda sussing as I type this that a snake draft still doesn't prevent a situation where, say, a late drafting manager's first choice is Miggy, who is, let's say already gone, such that the AI allots later drafting chump someone like Votto and all of those injury points.

Message fail.

How exactly would a "snake auto-draft" work, and how might it improve the draft system for those who are unhappy with it?

It sounds interesting. Although, if it works like a snake live draft, I would imagine the managers "picking" 9th, tenth, 11th, or 12th would not be too happy with missing their 3 or 4 "key" players in the first round because they were taken before they even got their first pick.

Um, wouldn't it be true in any case that managers picking 9th and later are going to miss out on those players? I would call that "luck of the draw".

I think that a snake draft would at least give the later positioned draftees a better chance of at least getting their 2nd choice, 4th choice & so forth. Also, those teams at the back end of the draft will from the outset, where it matters most, have two players before those at the front end get their second pick. Which I think evens things out a bit, thus at least appears to be fairer. But of course the front end draftees get 3 players before the back end folk do, and so this is where my math skills fail.

'Twas a suggestion, is all.

Wait.... I'm kinda sussing as I type this that a snake draft still doesn't prevent a situation where, say, a late drafting manager's first choice is Miggy, who is, let's say already gone, such that the AI allots later drafting chump someone like Votto and all of those injury points.

Message fail.

It seemed like you ended your post by negating what you said at the beginning of your post.. But in case you didnt, I'll respond to what you said anyway.

First of all, in the current system there is no player picking "9th"..or first or any other drafting "position." So a player drafting in this current system would not face that problem that would occur in a "snake autodraft": the problem of many of a manager's key players being taken before he or she even got a chance at them with their first pick.

As to your second point, you seem to yourself admit the problems with the snake autodraft: receiving two picks at the end of the first round does not help you if your "key" players are all taken before you even get to those picks.

Anyway, I applaud your at least suggesting a new system to hopefully improve on the current one. Although it seems we both agree that a snake auto-draft would face the same problem some managers have with our current drafting system--some managers are going to miss out on most if not all of their key players.

I look forward to playing you in a league...and to reading any of your future suggestions to improve our current drafting system.

The drafting part is above my pay grade in this thread, I also don't have the math skills. I do know that many here have the math to make it happen for them. 40% of my teams make the post season and around 5% win it all. That is a pretty good record with total destruction in the post season. That being said I believe as someone posted it is a dice game. I call it a crap game in Vegas. I have had teams that should have walked away and never looked back lose 90 games and teams that should have lost 90 games win it all.
I am always crapping my pants when I get 20 out of 25 as I wonder where did I go wrong as no one else wanted the player I got. I don't mind the auto draft but then I don't do them anymore as I love the live drafts as you can build a team as you go.
I will be playing Theme Leagues and Keepers from now on. Those alone keep me at 10 to 15 teams a year and that is more than enough for me.
I had no idea how the auto drafts worked but do know I do much better when I draft my players round by round with everyone in the draft.
This I recommend to everyone that plays this game. Checkout Jeeps Theme Leagues and also the BoneCracking Frank loving Visick leagues!
You have to get over Frank's man crush for the BoneCracker and then you will feel right at home in those leagues.
Sorry that I rambled on here buy Keysick pisses me off as Visick has taken Frank from me!

Okay I am done until the live draft is made available. I got EIGHT out of the 25 players I wanted. I want my money back. This drafting system is horrible. I did not get my top two guys, this system is ridiculous. I will stick to my CD-ROM from now on until the live draft with salary cap is available. I am so pissed! I am done!


I waited a month for this B.S.????? I am so pissed. I am going to stay off the boards for a while. I was so excited for this team and now I am just disgusted. This is supposed to be fun, this ruined my day!

I got ONE pitcher and seven position players I wanted. ONE pitcher and seven position players the rest of my team is completely useless. How is that possible? How could this drafting system possibly be worse?

I got ONE pitcher and seven position players I wanted. ONE pitcher and seven position players the rest of my team is completely useless. How is that possible? How could this drafting system possibly be worse?

Just think about it; how many of the 'top' picked players that you wanted would you have gotten with a live draft?