Let's draft 'em all -- all 940 played!

It's boring in Strat land at this time of year, with no draft going on, so I propose a season-ending blowout where we draft every player and play them in 3 leagues: majors, minors, and instructional.

Just to make it interesting (and to get the draft done before Christmas), we could run a series of simultaneous drafts, with the players distributed by the first position shown on each player's card.

See basic proposal at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... _web#gid=0

I chatted with manleeman about this and he was interested. Are there 10 other folks out there looking for a new and unique challenge?

THREE-LEAGUE COMMITMENT

1. tcochran
2. willmurr24
3. JMP1
4. Terry101
5. Spider 67
6. jflatour99
7. ghost of roger maris
8.
9.
10.
11.
12

5 spots left. Like ol' Roger there, andale! andale!

It's boring in Strat land at this time of year, with no draft going on, so I propose a season-ending blowout where we draft every player and play them in 3 leagues: majors, minors, and instructional.

Just to make it interesting (and to get the draft done before Christmas), we could run a series of simultaneous drafts, with the players distributed by the first position shown on each player's card.

See basic proposal at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... _web#gid=0

I chatted with manleeman about this and he was interested. Are there 10 other folks out there looking for a new and unique challenge?

THREE-LEAGUE COMMITMENT

1. tcochran
2. willmurr24
3. JMP1
4. Terry101
5. Spider 67
6. jflatour99
7. ghost of roger maris
8. thechamp87
9.
10.
11.
12

As I'm setting up each of the draft tabs in the Google doc, I've been thinking about how to speed the draft along.

First of all, I hope everybody's okay with cutting and pasting as a draft mechanism. I've not been able to locate any automated draft software that can easily handle drafting by position like this. We could always runs a bunch of separate chat threads here in the ILC -- with the Google doc just being updated from time to time to show who's available -- but I think it would be simpler if we did not have to go back and forth.

As far as the draft itself, here's what I propose:

1. We get 12 managers signed up -- only 4 more to go -- and have a random sequence run, from 1 to 12.

2. When his number comes up, each manager selects which of the A - L slots he desires and starts the draft at the appropriate position. For example, if the manager in the #1 position wants to draft Kershaw, then he chooses "I" and starts the SP draft. And if the manager in the #2 position wants to draft Trout, then he chooses "G" and starts the CF draft.

3. No draft clock for the first 12 picks in each of the drafts and then a 2-hour clock after that. Rather than just skip a manager who does not pick in those 2 hours, though, I propose that the next highest salaried player be auto-drafted for him at the end of the 2 hours. The talent pools at some of the positions become pretty shallow pretty quickly and it would be a shame to fall too far behind.

4. Likewise, rather than keeping everybody waiting, a manager could also type in "auto" next to his name in one or more drafts. With that, the next guy could process the autodraft choice for him immediately, without having to wait 2 hours.

5. On the other hand, proxies always work well. I work online as a consultant and tend to check a draft site often during the day. I (and several others) would be happy to handle proxies for those who know they may be out-of-pocket for a while.

Ok, I'm crazy enough to try it. I have a couple of questions though, just to clarify things.

-Do we have to have our 25 best players on the major league roster? (I'm guessing not necessarily because you mentioned that it's up to us to choose how we use our players.) For example I can have my 2nd highest salaried guy at a particular position be a starter in the minors rather than a backup in the majors, correct?

-Are all 3 leagues $200 million? Is there any kind of maximum salary for the instructional league? I guess I'm wondering what ensures that that league will be a matchup of the worst pitchers against the worst hitters? Is there anything stopping someone from putting all their best players in the instructional league instead? Or trying to balance their 3 teams? I understand that the setup is supposed to mirror actual MLB and their affiliates but here at SOM it's different because every league championship is equal. I guess what I'm really asking is do you just want to use every player over 3 leagues or should there be rules to ensure a specific distribution of the players over the 3 leagues?

-how does the stadium situation work? 30 stadiums for 36 teams? The E-L teams in the 3rd round of the stadium draft get to pick duplicates? Or just double up on one of their other 2?

-I'm assuming that someone can't select the K draft spot until the other 10 have been selected? Or can you select that spot (to get the 3rd pick in SP for example) but not actually pick first in the wild card round until after the rest of the draft?

-It seems like whoever gets the L position in the draft (most likely #12 in the randomizer) is at more of a disadvantage than in a more standard draft.

This is definitely a very intriguing concept and I'm very curious to see how it all plays out.

THREE-LEAGUE COMMITMENT

1. tcochran
2. willmurr24
3. JMP1
4. Terry101
5. Spider 67
6. jflatour99
7. ghost of roger maris
8. thechamp87
9. Dr.Publix
10.
11.
12

That last question if defenitly a serious one. I had it in mind too ... thanks Drpublix for the nice phrasing :

[quote][/quote]Are all 3 leagues $200 million? Is there any kind of maximum salary for the instructional league? I guess I'm wondering what ensures that that league will be a matchup of the worst pitchers against the worst hitters? Is there anything stopping someone from putting all their best players in the instructional league instead? Or trying to balance their 3 teams? I understand that the setup is supposed to mirror actual MLB and their affiliates but here at SOM it's different because every league championship is equal. I guess what I'm really asking is do you just want to use every player over 3 leagues or should there be rules to ensure a specific distribution of the players over the 3 leagues?[quote]

We'd need to clarify a lot on this last matter because someone could just dispatch his best players among the minors & the inst. He could have a solid chance to win in 2 leagues in exchange of being the last team in the majors... We got to find a way to keep the true spirit of a major team and a minor team. For example, a simple rule as : we must always keep our highest paid players in the highest league (excluding when a guys is injured, we can replace him with whoever we want for the time of his injury). So, in order, the highest salaries in the major, then in the minors and then in the inst. league.

I'm curious too to try this concept BUT I think that the instructional league is a bit too much. Major & Minors alone would have been quite enough for me.

Good questions, Dr. P. See answers embedded below

Terry

Ok, I'm crazy enough to try it. I have a couple of questions though, just to clarify things.

-Do we have to have our 25 best players on the major league roster? (I'm guessing not necessarily because you mentioned that it's up to us to choose how we use our players.) For example I can have my 2nd highest salaried guy at a particular position be a starter in the minors rather than a backup in the majors, correct?

It is definitely up to each manager to organize his own squads. The goal, though, is to emulate the MLB structure. Maybe that hotshot sub could be a starter in the minors, but it would not be right to flip entire squads, in order to dominate a lower level.

-Are all 3 leagues $200 million? Is there any kind of maximum salary for the instructional league? I guess I'm wondering what ensures that that league will be a matchup of the worst pitchers against the worst hitters? Is there anything stopping someone from putting all their best players in the instructional league instead? Or trying to balance their 3 teams? I understand that the setup is supposed to mirror actual MLB and their affiliates but here at SOM it's different because every league championship is equal. I guess what I'm really asking is do you just want to use every player over 3 leagues or should there be rules to ensure a specific distribution of the players over the 3 leagues?

I'd like to see us use every player, at an appropriate level. Perhaps $60 mil caps in both the minors and instructional, with a max individual salary of $1.5 mil in the bottom one?

-how does the stadium situation work? 30 stadiums for 36 teams? The E-L teams in the 3rd round of the stadium draft get to pick duplicates? Or just double up on one of their other 2?

It would be simplest to track picking the first 30 stadiums and then starting over again, but that would give an unfair advantage to the last 6 picks. It would probably be best to say that 6 of the stadiums could be chosen a 2nd time but that no stadium can be chosen a 3rd time -- i.e., let's use all of the ballparks, too!

-I'm assuming that someone can't select the K draft spot until the other 10 have been selected? Or can you select that spot (to get the 3rd pick in SP for example) but not actually pick first in the wild card round until after the rest of the draft?

You could select any of the 12 spots you'd like, no worries.

-It seems like whoever gets the L position in the draft (most likely #12 in the randomizer) is at more of a disadvantage than in a more standard draft.

Mr. "L" gets the 4th top starter and the 3rd amazing closer -- e.g., Beachy and either Street or Chapman -- not too shabby!

This is definitely a very intriguing concept and I'm very curious to see how it all plays out.

Me, too...

BUT I think that the instructional league is a bit too much. Major & Minors alone would have been quite enough for me.

Ah, JF, where's your sense of adventure?!?

Mr. "L" gets the 4th top starter and the 3rd amazing closer -- e.g., Beachy and either Street or Chapman -- not too shabby!

Oh, and he gets to choose Petco to go along with them, too!