Draft ideas

[Marlins]

Was thinking of ways we could help speed up the draft. One idea I thought of, what if we incorporate some of the zips bidding budgeting to it? In theory, the teams less interested in the sim monsters to help in the upcoming year would be more interested in prospects.

Brainstorming here, but what if we cut the draft to 3 rounds. Then once the draft is complete, all remaining players eligible to be drafted can be bid on in the same way players are once a team's zips projections come out.

[Cardinals]

I’m not sure how I feel about cutting the draft down to three rounds. It’s not something that could be done until the draft held in 2024 at this point - we are a week plus away from having draft picks available to trade for the upcoming draft.

I think we have to ask ourselves what causes the draft to take so long? Some people, like Dan, just like to take time up. Others who get skipped may not either know that they’re up or care.

What if those who didn’t care didn’t have to draft? We could do a couple things:

1- get rid of the minimum 10 draft roster entirely OR
1b - change the minimum 10 draft roster to unprojected players
2 - offer additional ZiPS cash to GMs who want to forfeit round 4 and round 5 picks, allowing them to spend their offseason focused on players with projections.

I don’t love the idea of straight up getting rid of draft rounds.

[Guardians]

I don't love the idea of removing the draft roster requirement because it forces teams to somewhat care about the future. Not completely, because you could just carry 45 guys, but I think forces teams to draft helps prevent gutting a team and bailing.

I think I'd want to survey members before making a decision on this. I don't know if zips money would entice certain members. There are many who don't participate in zips at all. So I don't know if that solves a problem. Why don't we find out why the GMs who blew off the last two rounds didn't draft. Then we can figure out what to do to address the issue.

My gut also says let's not kill off rounds. Often, the teams that find long term success draft well. It's actually one of the more entertaining times of the year to me. We just need to make it that for everyone. I think getting that baseline info first would help.

[Marlins]

I think we all know even once draft picks are added to be tradeable, 4th and 5th rd picks have basically no value. Even during the draft I think once we get to that point in the draft its no different than picking someone up who you want to take a flier on. Drawing out the draft these two additional rounds just slows down the whole league, a lot of guys dont want to really deal until the draft is complete.

All that being said, perhaps allowing draft pick trading during the draft will help? We saw a lot of deals for some later round picks during the draft as GMs read up on people they wanted but didnt want to risk waiting for the draft to be over to pick up then (tho value-wise, about the same as a pick up off the FA wire). I'm still weary of pick trading during the draft as I can see it both speeding things up or also slowing it down if someone is trying to trade a pick while they're up.

[Guardians]

Bringing this back to the top after a couple weeks. Any thoughts from the rest of the group?

Also, this probably goes without saying, but now that picks are being dealt, we can't eliminate rounds for next year's draft because they've already been traded as assets.

[Guardians]

Circling back after about 7 months lol.

There wasn't a ton of feedback on this.

1: sounds like no on cutting the draft
2: an idea to allow draft pick trading, but no consensus
3: are we drafting on 2/1? If so, we should announce...and get Ty in ASAP

[Cardinals]

We started on 3/1 last year and the prior, largely due to the international signing period changing. We'll start 3/1 this year.

Any round cuts would have to be for a future draft at this point.

I think we should just allow pick trading. The back-door deals often hold up the draft. They're happening regardless. Thoughts?

[Guardians]

Thank you for clarifying the date. I forgot we discussed 3/1 vs. 2/1.

I think we just allow draft pick trading during the draft. It's happening anyway and we should be able to manage the time so we're not artificially holding things up. As long as we announce it with the intent of not holding up the draft to hold out for offers, hopefully people respond to that.

[Reds]

Thank you for clarifying the date. I forgot we discussed 3/1 vs. 2/1.

I think we just allow draft pick trading during the draft. It's happening anyway and we should be able to manage the time so we're not artificially holding things up. As long as we announce it with the intent of not holding up the draft to hold out for offers, hopefully people respond to that.

I'm good with pick trading during the draft.

[Padres]

Thank you for clarifying the date. I forgot we discussed 3/1 vs. 2/1.

I think we just allow draft pick trading during the draft. It's happening anyway and we should be able to manage the time so we're not artificially holding things up. As long as we announce it with the intent of not holding up the draft to hold out for offers, hopefully people respond to that.

I'm good with pick trading during the draft.

I am good with pick drafting during the draft as long as you are not on the clock.

[Marlins]

To start this, I want to make the point that I am absolutely for trading draft picks during the draft. Usually, once the draft starts it creates a lull in trading activity except for behind the scenes deals that we all know happen for the picks that dont get entered until after the draft.

That being said, the concern has always been someone who's pick is up would hold up the draft to try to get a deal done. The draft each year usually takes about 18 months (give or take) so adding to that time is not a good thing. Also, by allowing pick trading during the draft, that also means we'd allow guys who were just selected to be traded. So, even if we disallow picks up to be dealt, it also could just turn into another back alley deal where the team trading the pick deals it but picks the player then enters the deal.

All that being said, I think there's no easy solution here to prevent dickheads from selfishly holding up the draft if they want to deal their pick that is currently up or about to be up. And, we dont want to try to work some kind of IT mechanical fix that would prevent picks currently up from being dealt. So, here's my suggestion: we just lean into it a bit and just try to put something in place to try to keep the draft moving as much as possible. I say we allow pick trading during the draft, and really even including the current pick. This would require us to have a list at the start of the draft showing the order of picks as of 00:01 on Feb 1, kind of a master list. This list would be updated every time a pick is traded. Since OOPSS isnt making the picks and the time limits are just enforced now via next guy up being allowed to post their pick, I think we can have a bit of leeway on the 24 hrs to make a pick.

My idea is, if a pick is traded, the time limit for that pick to be made drops from 24 hrs to 18 hrs. If the pick traded is the next pick up, that time limit drops to 12 hrs. And, if the pick traded is the current pick up, time limit is zero (in effect, we'd be telling the team trading for the current pick that once you hit accept on the deal, you have to go in and make that pick immediately). My thought is, usually pick trading during a draft is due to the team trading for the pick having a specific guy in mind they want. So, asking them to have a shorter pick time shouldnt be an issue anyway, only will be an issue for guys like PG who know who they want but have to double check every other player in the draft about 3-4 times more to make sure they're making the right choice (joking, joking...).

Enforcing this shouldn't be an issue, its really just on the following team to know when their pick is due up. Even if a time limit expires, maybe the next team picks someone, but if you're trading for a pick ahead of time but still need more than 18 hrs to decide who you want? C'mon, just do some research ahead of time. Its not that hard.

[Guardians]

All this is wonderful, but enforcement is going to be difficult since there's no mechanism through the site to set time limits for each pick. And if someone makes a pick at 8 p.m., it's unreasonable for the next person to make a pick by 8 a.m. (12 hours later). I think you're also going to get the arguments of who cares? Why does it matter if the draft takes a long time. We didn't get software until like June last year. If our draft goes from 3/1-4/15, what's the harm? In the past, you'd be holding out for late international signings, but today, the cutoff for eligibility is 2/28, so no one's holding out to draft someone like that. Other than being annoyed that the draft is taking long, what's the harm?

I think the right course for this year is announce that draft picks are eligible to be traded during the draft, but the deadline for picking is 24 hours and the expectation is that no one is holding up the draft to shop picks. So, if #23 drafts at 8 a.m., #24 has to draft by 8 a.m. the next day, whether that pick is traded 3 times or not. The clock doesn't restart and the expectation doesn't change. If you want to take 24 hours, go ahead, but once 24 hours hits, the next person is up.

[Marlins]

How do we enforce time limits now? Next guy is just up.

But I guess if no one else cares about the length of the draft nor if it gets longer with the draft pick trading, then yeah just allow the trading and my points dont matter.

[Guardians]

OK, two issues on the table now:

1) Are we allowing draft pick trading?
1a) If so, are we imposing any additional requirements?

2) There are calls to bump up the draft to 2/1. Do we want to entertain that? If not, perhaps 2/15 stick with 3/1?

[Cardinals]

OK, two issues on the table now:

1) Are we allowing draft pick trading?
1a) If so, are we imposing any additional requirements?

2) There are calls to bump up the draft to 2/1. Do we want to entertain that? If not, perhaps 2/15 stick with 3/1?

Are all the international FA actually signed? If they are, can entertain 2/15. 2/1 is not happening.

Yes, draft pick trading.
No additional requirements. Too difficult to track right now.

[Guardians]

I vote yes to draft pick trading, yes to 2/15

[Reds]

I vote yes to draft pick trading, yes to 2/15

Same here.

[Cardinals]

Same. One more?

[Padres]

Same. One more?

Yep ...

[Reds]

Re Missed Pick… What do we think about moving the missed pick to the end of the round being selected when the GM reappears?

[Marlins]

I'm good with that, but last thing we should do is when we already waited on someone for 24 hrs, I dont want that pick to have to go on the clock again.

[Marlins]

Can someone give me access to edit the first post in the draft thread? The list hasn’t been kept up to date with pick trades.