durantjerry is up

durantjerry is up for the ballpark draft -league 1

After durantjerry, it's coachtwitty, followed by thisisdan26 (alternate)

Quick question - can we defer our picks or must we choose first?

If I understand the draft correctly, you cannot use a ballpark you used from a previous round AND you cannot use a ballpark already drafted in by someone in your semi final league. If you defer your choice, you would be at a disadvantage. Is this correct?

Pan is correct about the rules which have been posted for quite some time and which do not include an option to defer one's ballpark selection until lower seeded teams have selected theirs. I would like to get moving here and have the top seeds make their choices rather than engage in time consuming decisions to defer or not. And to when? End of draft, at some point of their choice in the middle?

I would like to get moving here...

Wow, after what, like ten months of this I didn't think one question would make a world of difference as far as getting things started.

The point of the question is more on behalf of the other GMs more than myself anyway, because truth be told I'm not personally worried about it all that much. But it seems reasonable that maybe a GM who is selecting first in his division sees an advantage to knowing the competitions' ballparks ahead of selecting his own?

Just sayin.

I'm not offended that you asked the question but the problem is that adding/subtracting/changing the rules at this point opens up a Pandora's box where other teams can plausibly demand/request rule changes that suit their interests too. I'd love to see the non serpentine Finals draft scrapped in favor of a serpentine one because of the heavy advantage it confers upon high seeded teams. As one example. Also the person in a position to change the rules and permit your "defer" request is himself in a position to benefit from that rule change as one of the high seeded teams. So when all is said and done I think the fairer thing to do is for everybody to play by the same rules that were announced before the tournament began rather than invite a series of requested changes from participants with differing interests. I think your proposal is actually worthy on the merits and should be considered for next year, I just don't think it's fair or wise to implement it now. No offense intended.

None taken!

I think Geoff has done an awesome job running with the tour ball since he volunteered for the commissioner duties. However, not having a formal set of lawyerly guidelines means sometimes we might want to step back and evaluate or re-evaluate when discrepancies pop up, rather than forcing Geoff to make discretionary calls on the fly (in a tournament he actively participates in, as you rightly point out).

The drafting of ballparks for the semis is unique to this year. It occurred to me here that if someone wanted to go Petco, the other three managers could gang up on him with hitters parks. That's not really in the spirit of "rewarding" the managers with higher finishes. Now I know all kinds of arguments (with pretty much equal merit) can go back and forth here. That's why I would have argued (earlier on) that we should just continue with ballparks unique to the individual GMs but not too each other (ie, we see our parks after the autodraft), but none of us had the opportunity to raise the point. This was done at Geoff's discretion (intended fairly I would add).

And in the past, we drafted our pick positions for the (serpentine draft) in the Finals, where some GMs preferred picking 5th or 6th to picking first. I was wondering if the higher finishing GMs might want the same consideration here.

I like the idea of unique stadiums, but I do not like the idea of being countered by people who get to see me play one of my cards, but I don't get a choice/chance to see theirs. The rule, if we're calling it a "rule" says "Subject to the commissioner's final discretion, it is intended that for the semi-finals, there will be a live draft for the ballpark only (not for player drafts)." It seems to me there's some flexibility built in here by design, but I acknowledge the whole Pandora's Box argument as well.

None of this is monumental, but I did think it was a question worth at least asking everyone else. And trust me, no one wants to get this up and running any more than me.

And FWIW, I picked my stadium at 2pm, so it's not me holding up this parade!

Re deferring - the thought crossed my mind as well, before the question was raised. It's a good question.

At the risk of potentially (maybe) undermining the value of getting first pick, I am going to say that there is no option to defer the pick. The ballparks must be picked in order.

My reasons are aimilar to those that have been articulated and debated well above. Mostly that my plan for the ballpark draft didn't include a 2nd round for the ballpark drafts, and the permutations and combinations for that, and the timing. I welcome the question and the debate. I'll consider that for 2014/15, and any other suggestions. I've been very impressed by visick's ideas with the mystery league tournament.

Thanks for the pat on the back! What a great group of people we have in this strat "community"!

Just watched my Winnlpeg Jets hockey team win on new years eve. 2014 feels like a good year. Hoping that some of the Jets get named to the olympic teams - Czech, Sweden, Canada and especially some great American players on the Jets for the American olympic squad.

Happy New Year everyone!

Could we get this draft going? Unreal 4 picks for 3 leagues. Must be that folks started drinking at 1 pm yesterday, kept on till the wee hours and are now hung over.