Broken Bat - Suggestions: Draft fixes

Forum >> Suggestions >> Draft fixes

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#72257	03/25/2020 3:38:10 am	Oct 28th, 2044
12twelve Joined: 02/05/2017 Posts: 131 Inactive	I know this topic has been discussed a lot in recent seasons but as we come to the end of another season of this great game (thanks Steve), I thought I'd put a couple of small change suggestions for the draft. For me, one of the things I used to look forward to the most was the draft. The excitement of the unknown, hoping you'd get lucky and land that star prospect that could launch your team up to Legends. We would get our draft board, with Pot hidden, make our choice and wait to see if we uncovered a Pot 15 SS or another 10 Pot DH. In general, Pot is still the primary factor most players look to in making their draft choices. It was more exciting not knowing with the old draft. With the new draft, more info was given to us to make better choices, but Pot was also no longer a mystery. I felt that reveal was the best part of the draft. So my suggestions are: 1) Leave the draft as it is, but hide the Pot. Don't reveal it until after the player is selected like in the old draft format. It may bring back a little of the excitement like a kid opening a present on Christmas morning. 2) Extend the draft back to 10 rounds. I know that there typically isn't a lot to be found this late in the draft, but if nothing else, it would give us a little something to look forward to later in the season for the reasons mentioned above while also clearing out more of the lesser prospects from the pool for the next season. Just my two cents...

#72294	03/26/2020 5:09:43 pm	Nov 4th, 2044
Shoeless Joe Joined: 10/07/2017 Posts: 17 Inactive	+1

#72301	03/27/2020 5:57:06 am	Nov 4th, 2044
lostraven Joined: 07/02/2016 Posts: 1269 Corvallis Ravens II.1	-1 for Point 1. Neutral to tentative +1 for Point 2. We don't need to hide Potential again. There's a lot more uncertainty in a player's POT now. I see 11 POT players all the time on waivers, that get glossed over, that are probably 12 POT with more upside than you all are giving credit for. And vice versa. I also think this creates more waiver possibilities. I anecdotally find the waiver wire to be more interesting post-draft changes. Hide the POT? With the uncertainty of POT now in place, now you want to have even MORE uncertainty in your draft pick? Hard pass. As for Point 2, I would tentatively support it, if only to help weed more long-time crap players out of the pool. Updated Friday, March 27 2020 @ 5:58:03 am PDT

#72306	03/27/2020 10:35:07 am	Nov 4th, 2044
Hayseed Joined: 02/20/2018 Posts: 290 Hood River Hawks IV.1	i agree with lostraven ^

#72315	03/27/2020 1:45:12 pm	Nov 4th, 2044
hurstdm Joined: 01/18/2017 Posts: 576 Murfreesboro Moo Cows VI.5	I pretty much agree with the Bikers. The "Christmas morning" excitement of the unknown was the best part: For me, one of the things I used to look forward to the most was the draft. The excitement of the unknown, hoping you'd get lucky and land that star prospect that could launch your team up to Legends. We would get our draft board, with Pot hidden, make our choice and wait to see if we uncovered a Pot 15 SS or another 10 Pot DH. It was more exciting not knowing with the old draft. With the new draft, more info was given to us to make better choices, but Pot was also no longer a mystery. I felt that reveal was the best part of the draft. The old process was (1) no knowledge pre-draft, (2) some knowledge with the draft board, then (3) full knowledge only after the player is chosen. The new process is (1) no knowledge pre-draft, (2) full knowledge with the draft board, then (3) full knowledge after the player is chosen. The change in step two takes all the excitement out of it. Step 2 is a math grind and not like opening up a present. This is compounded by the problem that we're mostly seeing 10 players, every round, that are largely total excrement, even in the early rounds. The old draft was very fun. It's not fun now. A red alert, critical complaint about a game would be that it's NOT FUN. This problem should really be addressed. More rounds won't help if the fun doesn't come first. There was a giant draft change thread in which I think literally nobody suggested the changes Steve actually made. Many people in that thread said to leave it alone.

#72316	03/27/2020 4:31:26 pm	Nov 4th, 2044
12twelve Joined: 02/05/2017 Posts: 131 Inactive	I think we could have the best of both worlds if the pot was hidden initially. We would still have the amateur stats and scouting reports to make an educated guess on talent, make our selection and wait with anticipation to see if we land a 15 pot or a 10 pot, and then continue to use our knowledge that the pot may change over time to decide whether we choose to roster him or release him. Basically, the same as we have right now, but with the excitement of the unknown pot at the time of selection to bring more fun back to draft day. I was always excited on Friday morning to make my pick and hope I hit the jackpot, even in the late rounds. It was the first thing I thought about when I awoke. Now I just log in and make my pick more out of routine than with an excited purpose. And knowing that most of the draft pool has been pretty much all crap, I pick just to try and clear out the really bad prospects that will never play on any team in the hope that next time I'll get a good prospect. I also feel that the number of quality prospects have dropped significantly with the new draft. That's no fun, and not what brought me to this game or what has kept me here.

#72329	03/27/2020 11:29:05 pm	Jan 15th, 2045
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9600 Haverhill Halflings III.1	I think its more exciting (definitely more fun). You still don't know what you will get until you open the presents. The only difference is, instead of opening up one bad present and getting shafted with it, you open up 10 bad presents (and maybe you get lucky and one isn't coal). Not sure why anyone would want to get just one baseball card instead of a whole pack? Given what I was drafting under the old system. I'm pretty sure they were always larger purely excrement. Its just that we can see them now, so we don't just assume we picked the wrong guy. From what Steve has said, the average quality of draft picks has not diminished at all. So teams are still picking the same quality players as they were previously. This game is all about player evaluation. If you don't think evaluating players is fun... I'm not sure why you are playing the game at all...? Updated Friday, March 27 2020 @ 11:33:23 pm PDT

#72339	03/28/2020 9:50:12 am	Jan 15th, 2045
lostraven Joined: 07/02/2016 Posts: 1269 Corvallis Ravens II.1	This game is all about player evaluation. If you don't think evaluating players is fun... I'm not sure why you are playing the game at all... We don't often see eye-to-eye, Rock, but I agree here. I'd rather put my "scouting eye" to work with the information on the player card and how I believe the game to function, rather than be surprised and feeling even less in control of my draft picking by seeing less data.

#72357	03/28/2020 4:31:09 pm	Jan 15th, 2045
12twelve Joined: 02/05/2017 Posts: 131 Inactive	With the new draft, many have expressed the thought that a player's Pot is not as important as it used to be, and that it is fluid, causing more need for greater player evaluation. So why would hiding it on the draft board be a bad thing? In fact, I think that it would require us to put more effort into the player evaluation of our entire 10-player draft board rather than only those that have an "acceptable" starting Pot. Our choices would still be based on the level of player evaluation each owner puts in, but brings back the unknown excitement of the reveal to see if the analysis was good. Best of both worlds.

#72360	03/28/2020 7:09:16 pm	Jan 15th, 2045
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9600 Haverhill Halflings III.1	Those are two separate (but related) changes. The draft was overhauled to have amateur players collect stats and grow in ratings prior to us drafting them. Gives us a lot more info about the players. The POT has become more fuzzy. Steve did this as kind of a halfway between eliminating it entirely (what you suggest), and leaving it (the way it was in the old draft). I think the fuzziness of the POT is sufficient. They can be off by quite a bit. Its just one more piece of the puzzle. Like a said before. Instead of randomly picking one card to unwrap, you get to unwrap 10 and choose the best. This seem way more exciting to me. A whole pack rather than a single random baseball card. to see if the analysis was good POT really has nothing to do with your analysis of a player. You could easily have a guy with great stats and a great scouting report that is a POT 9. Doesn't mean your analysis was bad. You could also pick a complete bum who is a POT 14. Doesn't mean your analysis (or the player) is any good. Baseball is a game of patience. You won't know if you picked a winner until they hit the majors. If POT alone gets you excited, you are likely to experience a lot of disappointment. Updated Saturday, March 28 2020 @ 7:12:51 pm PDT