Draft Position, Does It Matter??

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:56 am

First third? Middle? Bottom third?

Where do you want to draft from?

I would like to see the draft positions of the top 3 finishers from last years leagues. Does someone have that data? With very little data from large snake draft events like this one I think it would be interesting to see if there was any kind of pattern.

Edwards Kings · Post by **Edwards Kings** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 3:44 am

I can only speak for Las Vegas League #4. The winner drafted in one of the dead positions according to what I have heard from convential wisdom. CC's Desparados (who finished third overall I believe) drafted 10th. Team Shairson drafted 9th and finished second in our league. Rounding out the top three was Naders Raders who drafted second.

Las Vegas League 4 2004

Finish, Draft

1 , 10

2 , 9

3 , 2

4 , 5

5 , 13

6 , 4

7T, 7

7T, 11 (me)

9 , 12

10, 14

11 , 8

12 , 3

13 , 6

14 , 1

15 , 15

viper · Post by **viper** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:30 am

The draft positions of the league champions were:

#3 – 4 times

#12 – 2 times

#1 – 1 time

#4 – 1 time

#5 – 1 time

#6 – 1 time

#7 – 1 time

#9 – 1 time

#10 – 1 time

Exerpted from my October 8th Hight & tight article in CREATiVESPORTS.COM

My contention is an earlier article was that drafting in the middel was best, floowed by the front 1/3 with the back 1/3 being the worst.

Mike

newkidintown · Post by **newkidintown** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:12 am

Hey Greg, the only thing I am not really familiar with is the blind free agent signings. Do the players have to be completely blind, seeing eye dogs, the whole bit, or do guys like Mr. Magoo qualify? Man, I am funny. Actually, I just wanted to know how it goes. What my restrictions are. Can I submit more than one bid for the same player? For example: I want Rey Ordonez for either 5, 10, 15 or 20 cents. Whichever is the highest bid.

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:56 am

Well newkid it isn't quite like Ebay where you put in a max bid and get for the least you can. If you bid $100 and the only other bid was $5, you win that player for $100. You won't be able to tell if anyone else is bidding nor how much they are bidding till after the bids are final.

You can do conditional bids like I bid $50 on player A and Drop player F, If I don't get him I bid $40 on player B and drop player F.

At the same time you could have another claim like this, bid $20 on player C and drop player D and if I don't get him I bid $10 on same player B in above scenerio and drop player D

Lets say you did not get either player A or C in the two above claims and now you have two claims on player B at $40 and $10. In this case you would win player B at $40 as the high bid is always the one that counts.

If you won player A at $50 above but did not win player C you could win player B at $10.

If that explanation makes sense then you are one smart cookie because I confused myself with that one. The software won't let you put in an illeagle bid so it's not as bad as it sounds.

The real secret is trying to figure out how much to bid to still win the player but not waste free agent money.

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 12:04 pm

Thanks Viper and Kings, I kind of figured it would show the end of the draft is usually bad.

This will be my 5th high stakes snake draft and the highest pick I've ever had was 11th. Greg you better shake out a high draft pick for me this year or I'm coming up there in Cheese country and blow up every Miller plant in the state.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 3:12 pm

You forgot about putting in the high bid and having it overturned. DYV was involved with that?

Ah never mind. New season ahead.

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:43 am

Originally posted by Leaderboard Sports:

First third? Middle? Bottom third?

Where do you want to draft from?

I would like to see the draft positions of the top 3 finishers from last years leagues. Does someone have that data? With very little data from large snake draft events like this one I think it would be interesting to see if there was any kind of pattern. When you account for devastating injuries that occur and all the FAAB picks you can make, draft position means almost nothing, especially in baseball.

So much time is wasted on this subject and so little is spent on in-season management.

Leaderboard Sports · Post by **Leaderboard Sports** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:40 am

With this type of event, weekly roster moves, and blind bidding, the draft is still by far the biggest factor in determining the winner.

In season management is important but finding a free agent gem and actually getting him are two different things. When 14 people want the same guy you may have to blow your entire free agent budget to get him.

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 10:28 am

Originally posted by Leaderboard Sports:

With this type of event, weekly roster moves, and blind bidding, the draft is still by far the biggest factor in determining the winner.

In season management is important but finding a free agent gem and actually getting him are two different things. When 14 people want the same guy you may have to blow your entire free agent budget to get him. barely, 45% draft, 40% in season moves, 15% luck (least amount of huge injuries) but it does not matter where you pick. There is no one player that can win you a title. It makes a huge difference whom you draft, and that can be done from any spot.

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:41 am

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

You forgot about putting in the high bid and having it overturned. DYV was involved with that?

Ah never mind. New season ahead.

Walla, last minute player adds were a mistake and clearly so (you know, rules were created to handle it because it was wrong). It had nothing to do with my involvement. Get the chip off your shoulder, will ya?

Dave

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 4:43 pm

DYV, Just seeing if your paying attention.

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:24 am

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

DYV, Just seeing if your paying attention. That's the thing... I wasn't ... lol

viper · Post by **viper** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 2:46 pm

Can you win a league from any draft position? Of course you can but some drafting positions are better than other positions. Pundits talk about getting value at each pick. Value can be loosely defined as taking a player who should have already been taken. After a few rounds, it is not uncommon for a player to slip, or at least slip in your opinion. In a good league the number of slipping players may be but one but there will almost always be one. If you draft in the middle rounds, each and every pick will come at least 10 selections after your prior pick. There are 10 chances for one of your desired players to slip. You will almost always get a player of “value”. If you draft on the ends (first or last 5), only one of your picks will likely have a player of “value”. The other pick will not have had enough intervening picks to have a player slip. Drafting in the middle doesn’t guarantee anything but it does increase your chances for value-added picks and that is never bad.

Quahogs · Post by **Quahogs** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 3:36 pm

Mike,

excellent point about the end slots. If I may add I also found out that the middle positions let you focus on 1 position or category at a time. The ends require a person to juggle 2 needs at the same time plus watching more consecutive players (24/25/26 etc) fly off that persons wish list. To be fair maybe draft positions should be switched at the midway pt? Then again maybe not

. Anyway a 2nd year of stats will surely shed some light on whether the ends are truly disadvantaged.

Q

Plymouth · Post by **Plymouth** » Wed Jan 05, 2005 1:54 am

It does seem kind of strange (maybe just a quirk this year) that no one picking second won their league title.