Dominating the Draft

[Black Sox]

I wanted to get people's opinion who do draft's as opposed to auctions. Most of the leagues I play in are online drafts 90 sec in between picks, here is what I'm wondering...

1. Pre Work - where's your focus ( knowing the player pool, lot's of mock drafting etc..? )

2. Do you go in with a set strategy or do you just play it by ear?

3. What do you think makes someone a great drafter, year after year.


I'm asking this because I've given it so much thought myself. I belive more and more people are drafting as opposed to auctions ( which offer their own set of dynamics ). Not only have I been drafting but have been drafting online where pick time limits are strictly enforced, forcing you to make judgement calls very quickly. Last year I partnered up with someone and used the mastersball draft tracker during the draft. For me it was a complete and utter disaster, I spent more time entering picks in and less time looking at my oversized draft board, and trying to get an overall view of the draft and where the real value was. Just hoping some other players care to share their "secrets of succesful drafting"

[cwk1963]

I wanted to get people's opinion who do draft's as opposed to auctions. Most of the leagues I play in are online drafts 90 sec in between picks, here is what I'm wondering...

I know you're looking for drafts instead of auctions and most of my leagues are auction but I think a lot of this still applies.

1. Pre Work - where's your focus ( knowing the player pool, lot's of mock drafting etc..? )
1a. KNOW YOUR LEAGUE!!!!!
1B. Know the player pool.

2. Do you go in with a set strategy or do you just play it by ear?

This has been talked about and I know some are moving away from this but I still like to have category targets. I keep very detailed year-to-year records and target 3rd place finishes in each category. It's not a concrete number but I use it to get me in the ballpark. Other than that, I study the auction on the fly and adjust as necessary.

3. What do you think makes someone a great drafter, year after year.

Practice, practice, practice.


I'm asking this because I've given it so much thought myself. I belive more and more people are drafting as opposed to auctions ( which offer their own set of dynamics ). Not only have I been drafting but have been drafting online where pick time limits are strictly enforced, forcing you to make judgement calls very quickly. Last year I partnered up with someone and used the mastersball draft tracker during the draft. For me it was a complete and utter disaster, I spent more time entering picks in and less time looking at my oversized draft board, and trying to get an overall view of the draft and where the real value was. Just hoping some other players care to share their "secrets of succesful drafting"

[50 Desert Eagles]

Honestly, I use a lot of info from this site(ur welcome for the plug) plus the projections, but there is nothing like gut telling u what to do....eat 3-4 burrito's and a bag of greasy chips and 3 cokes and sip a beer as you draft...ur gut will tell u plenty!

[viper]

I've done a lot of online drafts especially at Mock Draft Central and, in year's past, ESPN. Here are a few of the things I have found to be helpful in preparation.

1. After you rank your players using whatever system you want, make two "lists". The first will be in front of you as you draft. Make it printouts and not on a computer. It helps keep your concentration. This paper list should be tiered by position. If your leagues use Corner and Middle spots, then strongly consider your hitting lists to be:
a) Catchers
b) Corners
c) Middles
d) Outfielders/DHs
This will let you see gaps by position while also showing you who is remaining in tiers. Make sure your tiers note players with multiple eligibility. My person tier preference is in $6 increments with a line separating the tier in $3 halves.

The second list is on the computer. Almost all systems allow you to preset a list or use the default. Never use the default. Always make your own. This list should be position neutral. Make it from number one to number last. Don't slack up. Take the time to input this list. During the draft, you can always see the next several available regardless of position and your paper tiers will show you where gaps in skills are about to occur.

Finally, everyone pretty much knows where the top players lie on their tiered lists. Not so clear is where the players are come the middle and late rounds. Have a separate list of players in alphabetical order. Next to each name put the position and tier the player is found. This will speed up the crossing out process.

Somehow on your paper list note starters. I bold them. I have my unique way to color code speed, power & average. It helps if you feel you need power in like round 8.

2. As far as strategies go, Todd has the best advice possible - Bully Hitting, Manage Pitching. Pitching is hard to figure and every season there are solid guys undrafted. You are not going to get them all but watching those first few weeks closely should get you one of them. After the draft, there may a speed guy available but real power is gone. The BULLY part of Todd's suggestion implies you had better draft hitting as a priority. People, including me, talk about and try multiple odd strategies but the best one is draft the best available player that fits into the makeup of your already drafted team. Just realize the elite power guys go quickly. Starting off with Crawford and Elsbury will probably doom your team.

If you have a draft strategy, try to determine where you should consider drafting pitching. Mock drafts give you an idea of how many pitchers you need to draft in the early rounds in order to have a competitive team. Read Todd's Papelbon plan for decent thoughts on handling closers. Again drafting too many early round pitchers kills your hitting stats. There is no formula. A fantasy draft is just too complex for a simple solution. I go into a draft thinking 7 hitters, 2 starters and 1 closer after ten rounds. I am seldom at that count after ten rounds. I almost always start a draft with four hitters. In two leagues last year I took Santana in round two to see how things went. Both went poorly and they would have gone poorly even if he never missed a start. Some people can be successful after giving up an early round hitting but I am not one of them.

3. The better drafters know their player pools inside and out. The first third of a non-auction draft will consist of essentially the same players in every league. After that, the better drafters make better decisions. They both have a solid feel of their team they have already drafted so as to make selections to augment strength and fill holes, plus they know those players who have better upside.

[Todd Zola]

Last year I partnered up with someone and used the mastersball draft tracker during the draft. For me it was a complete and utter disaster, I spent more time entering picks in and less time looking at my oversized draft board, and trying to get an overall view of the draft and where the real value was. Just hoping some other players care to share their "secrets of succesful drafting"

Something I want to point out is the tool in question is not specifically designed to be a real-time draft tracker, though it could be used as such if one felt extremely comfortable using it. It is more designed to track slow drafts, or even better to use as a tool to do the proverbial post-mortem analysis of your draft.

Also, this tool (START) is not to be confused with the draft worksheet that we are again able to offer with Rob back on board.

With respect to the topic at hand, mainly due to the NFBC, but also because of the manner the hobby has changed in general, I have attempted to make an effort to become a better drafter and have focused a lot of writing on it is recent years, much of it will be available soon as we continue to build the merged site.

In terms of draft day, I have become a big-time minimalist with respect to what I have with me -- just a couple sheets of paper, color coded with players in positional tiers. This is true for both drafts and auctions. Please keep in mind that every league I play in has a means of "publicly" tracking the rosters so I do not have to do that. By public, I mean a draft board or overhead projection available for the entire league to see. This is the case even for my private leagues.