Draft Changes

mav3rek · 03-06-2012, 11:22 AM

After reading Sean's post about the draft in another thread, it really got me thinking about it. Something, and I'm not sure what or how, needs to be done to the draft IMO. I find it difficult to keep up with what team is picking where and who they've picked. I've been able to keep track of it a little bit here and there but eventually always lose my place and have to ask which just clutters up the XAT. I know I'm not the only one who has this difficulty, as anyone who has been around for a draft has seen multiple people asking multiple times who such and such took and if so and so is still available. I understand limiting draft picks to 2 mins or so to try and speed up the process because it can take quite a while to complete a draft sometimes. I'm thinking maybe it would be beneficial to spread the draft out over 2 nights, kind of NFL style. Do rounds 1-3 on night 1 and 4-6 on night 2. This would give everyone kind of a "catchup" period between round 3 and 4. Maybe that's not the correct solution to the problem but just one that kind of popped up in my head as I was writing this. The biggest problem is that tracking players is hard to do. I know we keep and updated list in a thread, but even that sometimes can get difficult. It's almost like we need a 3rd party app or something that can update real time and keep track of who is picked and who is available and who is up in what round, etc. But short of sitting down and writing one, (which I'm seriously considering, and yes I have experience and could do it) I'm not sure what the solution would be. The draft is easily one of our more active days, and I know several of the GMs actually do full on scouting for players and not being able to track them efficiently kind of sucks the fun out of it, (at least it did for me). I had to go back the next day and go through the draft results in Mogul to do my draft grades b/c trying to do it on the fly was impossible. Kind of made it seem like more work than I wanted to do, but I was that far invested into it so I stuck it out.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone feels the same way, or if there was some suggestion of how to improve the process, or maybe I'm just nuts in thinking there is any issue what-so-ever.

GoIrish · (This post was last modified: 03-06-2012, 01:19 PM by GoIrish.)

DJ and myself spoke about this yesterday for a bit in an attempt to find something that can be done to ease the level of frustrations. He made the offer to input all the selections into the file so teams can fill the selections as they come in the draft.

However, I thought about it for a bit and I think I may have come up with something on my end so he does not have to create that extra work for himself. I typically make make a spreedsheet with the draft and organize or prioritize my players on the spreedsheet. My thought is, I could put all the players on a spreedsheet, then make tabs on the spreedsheet for each round including the comp rounds. And on the spreedsheet, I will just put the team order for each round on column A. When the selection comes, just copy the player and paste it into the slotted selection on the spreedsheet. Then delete the player from the list. That should help my issues of knowing who is up and what team took what player. I will be more than happy to distribute this once I have it put together.

Sean

***AndyP*** · 03-06-2012, 01:51 PM

That sounds awesome Sean. I think the draft is best kept to a one-day headache. The biggest issue we have is trading and, let's face it, we're probably not going to do away with that.

It's a zoo...but with Sean's spreadsheet, DJ running it, and someone keeping the available player list accurate we should have all our bases covered.

Worst case scenario we just edit the entire draft after the first round to adjust for comp.

mav3rek · 03-06-2012, 05:26 PM

I'd just like a way to sort of herd the cats

dejota · (This post was last modified: 03-06-2012, 07:07 PM by dejota.)

One thing that I would like a volunteer for this year is somebody to constantly post the next 3 picks coming up. Between that and being able to just draft on a file regardless of everything else, we should have a fairly fluid situation. But at the end of the day no matter how many tools we come up with to help GMs follow along with, if they fail to paying attention (and some always do) the draft will have ups and downs.

That being said I'm willing to do anything on my part to help GMs be as prepared as possible and if that entails editing the picks for rounds 2-6 so be it.

arod12 · (This post was last modified: 03-07-2012, 01:26 AM by arod12.)

I think it should be this : rounds 1-2 on night 1 (saturday) and rounds 3-6 on night 2 (sunday). If we do 1-3 then i don't think the rest will be as exciting and as great. Also round 1-2 is basically equal (time-wise) to round 3-6.

***AndyP*** · 03-07-2012, 12:00 PM

(03-06-2012, 07:06 PM)dejota Wrote: One thing that I would like a volunteer for this year is somebody to constantly post the next 3 picks coming up. Between that and being able to just draft on a file regardless of everything else, we should have a fairly fluid situation. But at the end of the day no matter how many tools we come up with to help GMs follow along with, if they fail to paying attention (and some always do) the draft will have ups and downs.

That being said I'm willing to do anything on my part to help GMs be as prepared as possible and if that entails editing the picks for rounds 2-6 so be it.

If Sean is helping people with the spreadsheet I could keep the players list up to date and post the next three picks.

One request though - I think we'll need an admin or a mod or someone in XAT to boot people to shut them up from time to time. I think one of the most confusing things is the needless chatter on the board rather than PC'd conversations. I think if we streamline that part of it would help quite a bit.

Then the only thing being posted are picks or advertisements to trade out.

It sounds harsh, but it's easily the thing that confuses people the most. Especially mindless prospect chatter that sometimes comes across as a pick.

erick1174 · 03-07-2012, 03:23 PM

Exactly Andy. By far the most confusing thing and the thing that makes GMs lose their spot is the needless chatter. GMs who are not on the clock talking back and forth about different players in the draft... very confusing. Again, like Andy says, that is a bit harsh because this league is first and foremost supposed to be fun and it IS fun to talk in the chat box with other GMs. But when it comes to the draft, it just makes it all very confusing for some.

mike · 03-07-2012, 04:18 PM

I think we should allow more time for each pick but be strcit about it. Rather than have 2 min per pick but loose on the time. You should get 5 min. I think that gives enough time that if your player got picked you can find another one if you didn't have a backup ready. Also gives enough time to trade the pick if you wanted.

mav3rek · 03-07-2012, 06:27 PM

I think a combination of posting the next 3 picks on XAT constantly + keeping talk strictly to the team on the clock and who they want + maybe an open thread that posts the picks as they are made, would help de-clutter the draft.

Too much chatter on XAT only complicates things more.

Someone posting the next 3 teams along with round, and pick would help solve some issues.

Also an open thread that just lists the draft picks as they are made would help as well.