Broken Bat - Help: The Draft

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Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#37639	07/26/2016 3:28:33 pm
ephenssta Joined: 06/29/2016 Posts: 196 Inactive	I read the rules section on the draft and it was pretty vague. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different player pools?

#37640	07/26/2016 3:44:21 pm
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9592 Haverhill Halflings III.1	College generally has the best prepared players (meaning most of them will develop fine and not be behind in development). This pool is heavily fished at the start of the season, so it can be beneficial to move on to other pools after the first 2-3 weeks. Highschool has young players. Since they are all young, they generally develop fine. This pool is good if you want a long term prospect. The Latin Academy also has young players, but some older as well. These guys are sometimes behind in development and never reach their potential. But the good players here can still be great. The Asian Posting System generally produces older players who are more developed. But sometimes you do get undeveloped guys who are older, which isn't great. This pool is good if you need immediate assistance on the team. The International pool is a bit of a hodgepodge, but most people consider it the worst option currently. There are some great players, but there are also a lot of underdeveloped players in this pool.

#37641	07/26/2016 4:00:00 pm
mcrmoe Joined: 09/24/2014 Posts: 290 Inactive	There are no real advantages or disadvantages. It's all about how you plan to stockpile your minors. For example, say you have no realistic prospects in AA/AAA (20-24) age range. In this case, you'd want to start drafting from college. On the other side, if you feel the need to add rookie/A aged players, go for high school. Want a mix of both, latin america is the spot. Those options (high school, college and latin america) tend to be more consistent sources of talent. Asia will give you more major league players, a year or two from "being ready". In my opinion, asia and world aren't worth it. I've seen a few gems come out of there, but not very hit or miss. Another thing to consider, players may be drafted with a position that does not match their build. For example, you just drafted a player perfect as a middle infielder (range/fielding/arm righty) but they are listed as OF, C or heavens forbid 1B. For these types of situations, age is very important. Learning a new position can take as much as 5 seasons to learn. That's one of the reasons I draft from high school. So that also has to be considered, granted I believe Steve has adjusted the player creation process for eliminating some of those issues. Final notes, about draft rounds. Recently we get 10 draft options from each pool, this means that players deplete quicker than the past (5 choices). Therefore, your choice of draft pool is more important in the earlier rounds. Hope that gave you a better idea. -Moe o/

#37681	07/27/2016 10:39:59 pm
Slug5373 Joined: 12/23/2014 Posts: 376 Inactive	Moe brings up an interesting point. I know that this may seem a bit off topic but bear with me. When I first started out, my team had been under bot control for only about a month, and I was dealt a pretty good team with good young talent. In my first few seasons, I moved up from division V to division III with that young core. However, I had a huge age hole in my minor leagues from ages 20-23, especially with the arms. When it came time to promote some pitchers to take over for some of my old guys, I had no one. It got to the point where I had to pick up two veteran pitchers off of free agency. Ask anyone here and they'll tell you, if you are in division IV or higher and you have to pick up a veteran pitcher off of free agency, you are beyond desperate. I suffered countless concussions beating my head against a brick wall about my, to put it lightly, horrendous, pitiful, and horrifying pitching staff. The problem was that, as a new player, I didn't identify my glaring issue in the minors until it was too late. At the time, I kind of drafted out of random pools and always took the best player available. I suffered the consequences. I'm back in division V now and I think I am finally back on the upswing thanks to my much-needed pitching reinforcements. The moral of the story is, HAVE A PLAN!!! If you have a weakness in your minor leagues, attack it head on and fix it through the draft, or be aggressive on the waivers until you get a guy who can patch the issue or fix it completely. If you are short on 21-24 year old outfielders and you have two 32 year old outfielders starting for you, go to the college or Asian pool and grab an adequate outfielder. I made a rookie mistake which cost me probably 3 or 4 seasons of which I still feel the effects. Have a plan when you draft and make waiver claims and don't learn this lesson the hard way like I did! Updated Wednesday, July 27 2016 @ 10:44:49 pm PDT

#37685	07/28/2016 4:24:43 am
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2236 New York Lancers V.4	Slug also makes some very good points, and not just because he's currently leading me in V7 East. When I started out my team had endured two owners who did practically nothing, just a 4th round pick in 2024 and a 1st rounder in 2025. From the owners prior to them I inherited a really good hitting team with some decent veteran pitchers. However, my best prospects had been rotting in the minors for those two previous seasons and my best player was my SS Fuentes, who had spent TWELVE YEARS there without playing one game in the Majors. I had to call up Fuentes, CF Lawson, RF Fletcher and 3B Ortiz. Of those four only Ortiz reached his SI cap limit (caught him at just the right time, although he's not really suited to the infield but it was too late to change that), while Lawson and Fuentes (particularly) fell some way short. But the hitting sorted itself out, it was still in decent enough shape. My problem - like Slug's - was pitching. All my starters were aged 30+, and my three pitching prospects were a long way off and were all soon released (and they still aren't great: see Giles, Carmona, Orellana). So I had to use the draft and the free agent/waiver lists to help out my team. On one hand its been successful - I've drafted seven pitching prospects in these three drafts (2026-28) that are at least 13 POT or better, so the future is good. However, I picked up a handful of useful prospects that first season that I released because I didn't know then how to handle them - they just needed playing time. A rookie mistake (see: Solis, Ramos and particularly Ayala and Villegas. Four guys who could have provided the bridge from my vets to my prospects. Slug is right, but there are actually two cardinal rules (IMO) for drafting:- 1. Take the best available player (very good potential --> good potential --> above average potential --> everything else) 2. Have a plan I always take the best available player, and if two (or more) are tied for scouting report then I'd look to my plan or go with my gut. I hate to think back on what I missed out on when making my first ever pick - hadn't read the rules and drafted for need, so took a good potential 2B who turned out to be a hopeless 11 POT. I'm sure there was at least one very good potential in there. Point being, its an ongoing learning process!

#37689	07/28/2016 6:52:18 am
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9592 Haverhill Halflings III.1	I always take the best player available... And haven't drafted a POT 13 in over two seasons...

#37698	07/28/2016 2:55:30 pm
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2236 New York Lancers V.4	You're the outlier, Rock. Not saying its infallible, just that it makes sense as opposed to reaching for need - usually. Sometimes. Maybe?

#37769	07/29/2016 11:41:44 am
occham Joined: 11/07/2011 Posts: 258 Inactive	Is the quality of draftable players related to the league level you're in? Do the lower level leagues (say IV to VI) get more 10-12's than the higher level (say I or II) who might get more 14's and 15's? In other words, you have to work your way up to get more consistent high end talent in the draft pool? Updated Friday, July 29 2016 @ 11:42:35 am PDT

#37770	07/29/2016 11:54:01 am
wuggla Joined: 05/10/2013 Posts: 1058 Colorado Springs Vultures VI.28	i was told some were draft is open to all. fair for all teams all 720 teams have same chance in draft. you get to choose 10 players now used to be 5 with the 10 player draft things seem to me to be more even for all now than ever was you have to read all 10 scouting reports in draft pool you get almost always a chance for good or very good player in your pool the recent change is working well so far 10 player pools are great i love it this way better than before when we only had 5 to choose from. """OPION its fair for all"""