You Can't Handle The Truth!!!

[DOUGHBOYS]

I love drafts. Who doesn't?
It is during these drafts that players are brought up and discussed. What I think about a player is of little import to the guy sitting by me. Unless he asks about a pick of his.
Several things run through our minds
1. Do I really tell him what I think?
2. Can he handle the truth?
3. Why you buggin' me?
4. Why do you care, you picked him!
It could be a lot of things. I try to be as honest as possible. If they can't handle the truth, they can either argue their case or in as polite as way possible, tell me to go screw myself....which is impossible for somebody my age...or most ages, uh, let's stay away from that.

In a current draft, I said 'nice pick' to a fella drafting Detwiler. To me, Detwiler is one of the best fifth starters in baseball. Which is a little like saying, 'Out of all these ugly women, my wife is the prettiest'.
But, we are getting low in rounds and I thought Detwiler to be a good pick.
The drafter replied that he missed out on Santana and Masterson and was 'left' with Detwiler. I think that Detwiler is a better pick than both those pitchers (feel free to disagree).
And that is part of what makes these drafts so cool. During a 'live' draft, we are into ourselves. We don't know who other teams have and we don't care. We're to busy trying to assemble our own teams.
Even with this fast slow draft, I can look at other teams and see their needs and how they'll rectify any shortcomings.
It's pretty cool.

Somebody like Gekko can tell me that I'm a little short on offense. Not a slam. An observation. And I'll know he's right.
I'm expecting offense from kids later in the draft. He may be expecting pitching from his staff-short team. We draft with a plan....or at least we should. And when things come up, we adjust.
It's better than a damn chess match. In chess, the object is to attack while protecting the king.
Here, each player could be the potential king. Last year, it was Mike Trout. This year, Billy Hamilton could move up 30 rounds for next years drafts. We don't know.
It is a lot like golf, where that one shot keeps us coming back. We can shoot a 120, but know that that birdie on 17 was a thing of beauty.

We're in the 25th round of our draft, we started Monday afternoon.
Think of it as a slow draft on steroids.
In those three days, there have been 156,832 messages. I counted.
It is everything a draft should be, slow or otherwise.
There is no need to ask about a player taken, cuz if somebody doesn't like the pick in this draft, they'll tell you.
It can be humbling and edifying at the same time.
Get in one. You won't regret it.

[Bronx Yankees]

Sounds like an awesome draft. I love the back-and-forth on the message boards. I also would prefer to get feedback, questinos, criticisms, jabs, etc., on my picks than total silence. I think you've hit on a great concept for future early drafts. I'm on board for the first four-hour draft and hope it goes half as well as the one you're doing. Truthfully, I was just looking for a faster version of the previously-named slow drafts. In retrospect, your fast-draft-but-keep-the-eight-hours-for-sleeping sounds better than the four-hour version - I can't wait for the first time I have to wake up and explain to my wife why I am making a fantasy baseball draft at 3 am! I may set my KDS for one of the middle rounds so I can use Auto One safely at night without having to go to sleep worrying that I'll need to make two picks in the middle of the night. Oh well.

Mike (Bronx Yankees)

[ToddZ]

and now it looks like Ross Detwiler is back to long relief and spot starter and Placeholder will be Javy Vazquez

[DOUGHBOYS]

and now it looks like Ross Detwiler is back to long relief and spot starter and Placeholder will be Javy Vazquez

Many a fantasy player has been waylayed by the two words, 'looks like'