Draft order

This is a question, primarily for. Rich, but all thoughts are welcome. When putting together a small ball team how do you prioritize draft order of players? Do you concentrate on up the middle first, relief pitching (Tekulve), or speed. I've tried several different ways and usually get most of what I want but not always. Thoughts?

There are several approaches.

If you are looking to get some of the most sought after players, you will need to list them at the top of your list or most likely you won't get them. Then of course, there is the infamous Putney Swope effect, whereby because of that, no one lists any of the highly desirables. I remember back in the early days of ATG, when Willie Mays would be unclaimed in the autodraft.

Conversely, players that you know are not in high demand, regardless of their value/skill--you want to list these in the lower part of your autodraft list.

Some owners like to draft multiple options for those positions that they consider crucial, and for which there are not alot of high value cost effective players. If you do that, it is probably more effective to spread these selections out somewhat. With a small ball team, in a small ball park, clearly there are positions that are rather thin, so you might want to select more than one for those positions. And conversely there are positions where there a a good number of choices, so you can slide your selections for those guys to the end of your list. In fact, there are two positions I often do not select any players for in the autodraft, as I know that in most cases, I will be able to get what I want in the waivers/free agent mode

List Ichiro with the 1st pick.
Complete draft card based on the assumption you don't get Ichiro

This is a question, primarily for. Rich, but all thoughts are welcome. When putting together a small ball team how do you prioritize draft order of players? Do you concentrate on up the middle first, relief pitching (Tekulve), or speed. I've tried several different ways and usually get most of what I want but not always. Thoughts?

Happened to hop on and read this, kind of guessing, the Rich is me, so I'll give my 2 cents.

Key players obviously at the top of your card. Guys who your team is built around (AND THERE ARE NO VIABLE REPLACEMENTS) go first. Ichiro is a great example as he is pretty unique. Sisler should always be near the top as there really isn't quite anyone like him either. The key is getting "YOUR GUYS" the guys you cannot live without. Of course guys like Cobb and Speaker need to go at the top. Frisch can be tough to get. And Bowa if he's on your list should be ranked pretty high.

The key is simply doing everything you can to get the guys for whom there is NOT a decent second or third option.

For me that WAS usually 3-5 guys at the top, then if I want a guy like Tekulve or Sambito, they would come next. Typically a few of those guys. then the rest of my position players followed by my starting pitching then my scrubs.

I typically was not overly concerned with starting pitching (again unless you REALLY want a specific pitcher in which case he goes up in the top 5) because there are so many options for starting pitching.

I hope this helps a bit.

It does, yes. Thanks and it was aimed at you.