5dkl draft complete, loading teams for Season 1

I'm doing my part, but it is a group effort. Looks like we have an excellent collection of managers in this league. I appreciate everyone being willing to give this format a shot.

Rule clarification for the initial free-agent draft:

Given that our draft has run past the start of the MLB season, a circumstance not anticipated in the original rules, I had decided to allow teams to draft any player who MLB experience at the time they were selected in this free-agent draft. In my original disclaimer, however, I only used Jordan Walker and Anthony Volpe as examples so this may have led some managers to think that uncarded draftees had to be on opening day roster of their MLB club. That was not my intent in my disclaimer or in the original design of the league where I wanted as few restrictions as possible without promoting anarchy. As it turns out, I was unwittingly to the first to apply this interpretation with my selection of Taj Bradley and this precedent was followed with the subsequent selections of Grayson Rodriguez and Brett Baty. This interpretation and application of the rule will remain in place for the remainder of this free-agent draft and we will hold a discussion post-draft to determine what language we might like to add to the rules going forward. I will be retaining the rights Bradley through the end of this draft since I have no way to equitably throw him pack into the player pool, but I will be releasing him and selecting another "uncarded" player at the conclusion of this draft that has MLB experience predating the 2023 MLB season. I am doing this because I do not wish to appear to have unfairly gained an advantage as a result of my role as the league commissioner.

Baty debuted last year so doesn’t apply to him. I was a little confused by the Bradley pick but there is enough opportunity cost for this year I don’t see it as an issue. Instead of giving up the rights to he and Grayson (I would say anyone without ML experience before the start of the draft) I think a more equitable solution would be to have to use a prospect pick to take a carded player. I think that balances things, at least in my mind.

I actually interpreted the rule the same way as Dave, until I saw this:

Initial free-agent draft
Teams may draft any player with major league service time whether or not they have a card in the current Stratomatic set, but no team may draft more than two uncarded players in the initial free-agent draft and may never have more than six uncarded players on its 40-man roster. As written, this would allow players such as Jordan Walker and Anthony Volpe to be selected since our initial draft is starting after the current MLB season opened.

Since the draft started on 4-13, I think everyone who had MLB experience prior to that should be eligible.

Looking at the uncarded players, Grayson Rodriguez first pitched on 4-5, and Taj Bradley appeared on 4-12, so I think they are legal picks, no?

I think all of the uncarded picks thus far have been legal, and we should just clarify the rule for future drafts. Did I miss something? Does anyone see an issue with the above?

The original language of the rules was not explicit since it was presumed that the initial free-agent draft would have concluded prior to the start of the MLB season. That is definitely something we can fix post-draft, however, if anyone objects to the course of action the I have proposed to get us through to the end of the this draft feel free to send me a confidential PM to lodge your objection and I will pause the draft so that we can formally adopt a rule change to address the issue now.

We find ourselves in this situation now because I did not effectively communicate my interpretation of the rule as it applied to the existing circumstances when I posted my pre-draft disclaimers. The final solution just needs to as simple as possible.

I have officially paused the free-agent draft and posted a resolution for your formal consideration in the draft thread. Please vote in favor or against the proposition at your earliest convenience.

As mentioned in the draft thread, Baty was always eligible as he had MLB experience (same as Tatis), while Bradley and Rodriguez should never have been.

The draft has been reactivated after we recorded our seventh and deciding vote in favor of adopting the "new" rule regarding which players are eligible to be drafted as free-agents. The rule represents a formalization of the guidelines we were actually operating under, so there should be no further confusion.

I have listed all sections of the current league rules that pertain to the initial prospect draft. Please review them and feel free to post comments in this forum. For example, you will note that there is currently no limit on how long a prospect can be retained on a "minor league" roster, but teams must immediately switch a prospect over to their 40-man roster when he receives his first Strato 365 card (standard set). These rules will apply unless someone proposes a modification or chooses to propose additional rules affecting the prospect draft. Any such changes would be subject to a vote requiring the approval of seven managers to be adopted.

4-round preseason prospect draft
Serpentine, in the reverse order of the initial free-agent draft.

Each team can maintain a “minor league” roster of up to 20 prospects. When a prospect is issued a card in any standard Stratomatic 365 cardset, that player must be immediately placed on the active 40-man roster or released.

Prospects may be traded freely, subject to the 20-man prospect roster cap.

The trade of free-agent draft picks and prospect picks are permitted. The trade of picks is only valid if the traded picks occur in the same year as the trade was made or the following calendar year (i.e., teams may not "mortgage" the long-term future of their franchise).

Teams are never required to participate in a free-agent or prospect draft. If they do, however, they must drop the requisite number of players from their respective rosters in advance to cover the number of draft picks they intend to make in a given draft.

Any player currently under contract to a professional baseball team (MLB, KBO, Nippon PBL, etc) is eligible for this initial prospect draft, as long as they did not have MLB experience prior to the start of the inital free-agent draft (April 13, 2023).

Fun draft! Always interesting how folks build their rosters. Frustrating at times, watching targeted players sniped before your pick comes up, kind of a wtf moment. For me, having picks on the turn, the worst round was late in the draft, when the only 2 players I had in mind went immediately before my picks (Perdomo and Lange).

Looking forward to the season. Good luck to everyone.