A New Draft
Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:12 pm
We study, we draft, we play.
We study, we draft, we play.
We study, we draft, we play.
Whether we know it or not, we're 'studying' 12 months out of the year. For me, I like to see which players are helping other teams in less noticeable ways and maybe target them for next year's draft.
These are PITA's or pains in the asses.
A PITA is great to have on your team and it sucks playing against them.
Kyle Lohse is a PITA. Lohse does not command much respect around draft time, but I sure hated it when he was scheduled to pitch for my nearest rival.
Anyways, and yes,I got off track a little bit...
I want to talk about the studying/drafting part of our hobby.
Studying is a must. At the same time, it can be boring. I find myself relying less and less on sabrmetrics each year.
I know, I know, that is against the grain as speaking Numerish is fast becoming the language of choice for fantasy players.
But, I find myself getting bogged down sometimes and maybe putting a little TOO much emphasis on contact rates and BABIP.
The most wonderful thing about fantasy baseball is the myriad of ways we can prepare for drafts.
And none of them are wrong.
We just have to find the one that best suits us.
If you've done it the same way for the last four or five years and haven't been successful, think about changing your approach.
Study more study less, emphasize sabr or don't. Whatever works is the best way.
One thing I will never do again is mock draft. It's a time waster for anybody but Yahoo Kids. We don't know who we're drafting against, most will leave before the end of a draft, and worse it gives a self sense of superiority when all that's happened was that you beat a bunch of 16 year olds who were bored at the time.
I like MockDraftCentral. They serve a purpose for those rising in the ranks. But, not for NFBC'ers.
And just a by the way, the last time I played at MDC, they added a 'projection competition' or something of that nature, where drafters try to get players with who MDC felt were the best players. There were drafters not drafting who THEY felt were the best player, but merely drafting to get an MDC 'high score'- BAH!
This leads up to one of my favorite drafts from last year. Probably the only free draft I will ever enter again.
It was conceptualized by Perry Van Hook (Captain Hook).
What Perry did was both simple and brilliant, as are most good ideas.
I call this the 'Tell All' draft. I don't know if Perry has a name for it or not.
It works like this-
Gather 15 people. These 15 people must all be trustworthy. If they aren't, then it just weakens the idea and the draft.
After getting 15 trustworthy people together, a draft order is established for all players.
Drafter number one takes who he would take if this were a Diamond League draft.
And then 'tells all' WHY he'd make this selection.
The same with number two, three, and so on.
It becomes very enlightening. Some will choose Numerish as their preferred weapon. Some will go on what they saw. Some will say that improvement is on the horizon. Some will say they just plain like the guy.
After the selection is made, the other 14 drafters then have an opportunity to poke holes in the reasoning, agree, or say that is who I would have taken, or you should have taken this guy.
You need a thick skin.
You can be totally sold on a player going into this draft and question his abilities coming out.
I can't remember all the folks who were in this draft, but there were some industry leaders and a few guys that finished in the top 50 of the Main Event.
It can work for you.
It's a free draft of 23 rounds
It is a win/win draft. There were some calls to play it out last year, but there is no need.
The benefit is all within the draft itself. It's a little like when that favorite teacher of yours would go over that nights homework in class so that there was none to take home that night.
Kudo's again to Perry.
I've already heard from others how much this draft assisted them in high finishes last year and I know it helped me.
A splendid idea.
We study, we draft, we play.
We study, we draft, we play.
Whether we know it or not, we're 'studying' 12 months out of the year. For me, I like to see which players are helping other teams in less noticeable ways and maybe target them for next year's draft.
These are PITA's or pains in the asses.
A PITA is great to have on your team and it sucks playing against them.
Kyle Lohse is a PITA. Lohse does not command much respect around draft time, but I sure hated it when he was scheduled to pitch for my nearest rival.
Anyways, and yes,I got off track a little bit...
I want to talk about the studying/drafting part of our hobby.
Studying is a must. At the same time, it can be boring. I find myself relying less and less on sabrmetrics each year.
I know, I know, that is against the grain as speaking Numerish is fast becoming the language of choice for fantasy players.
But, I find myself getting bogged down sometimes and maybe putting a little TOO much emphasis on contact rates and BABIP.
The most wonderful thing about fantasy baseball is the myriad of ways we can prepare for drafts.
And none of them are wrong.
We just have to find the one that best suits us.
If you've done it the same way for the last four or five years and haven't been successful, think about changing your approach.
Study more study less, emphasize sabr or don't. Whatever works is the best way.
One thing I will never do again is mock draft. It's a time waster for anybody but Yahoo Kids. We don't know who we're drafting against, most will leave before the end of a draft, and worse it gives a self sense of superiority when all that's happened was that you beat a bunch of 16 year olds who were bored at the time.
I like MockDraftCentral. They serve a purpose for those rising in the ranks. But, not for NFBC'ers.
And just a by the way, the last time I played at MDC, they added a 'projection competition' or something of that nature, where drafters try to get players with who MDC felt were the best players. There were drafters not drafting who THEY felt were the best player, but merely drafting to get an MDC 'high score'- BAH!
This leads up to one of my favorite drafts from last year. Probably the only free draft I will ever enter again.
It was conceptualized by Perry Van Hook (Captain Hook).
What Perry did was both simple and brilliant, as are most good ideas.
I call this the 'Tell All' draft. I don't know if Perry has a name for it or not.
It works like this-
Gather 15 people. These 15 people must all be trustworthy. If they aren't, then it just weakens the idea and the draft.
After getting 15 trustworthy people together, a draft order is established for all players.
Drafter number one takes who he would take if this were a Diamond League draft.
And then 'tells all' WHY he'd make this selection.
The same with number two, three, and so on.
It becomes very enlightening. Some will choose Numerish as their preferred weapon. Some will go on what they saw. Some will say that improvement is on the horizon. Some will say they just plain like the guy.
After the selection is made, the other 14 drafters then have an opportunity to poke holes in the reasoning, agree, or say that is who I would have taken, or you should have taken this guy.
You need a thick skin.
You can be totally sold on a player going into this draft and question his abilities coming out.
I can't remember all the folks who were in this draft, but there were some industry leaders and a few guys that finished in the top 50 of the Main Event.
It can work for you.
It's a free draft of 23 rounds
It is a win/win draft. There were some calls to play it out last year, but there is no need.
The benefit is all within the draft itself. It's a little like when that favorite teacher of yours would go over that nights homework in class so that there was none to take home that night.
Kudo's again to Perry.
I've already heard from others how much this draft assisted them in high finishes last year and I know it helped me.
A splendid idea.
