SDMB Big League 2010

The Game Room
21

I sent out PMs to the people who were with us last year and haven’t rejoined yet. I’m not sure who’s deliberately not joining and who just hasn’t signed up yet, so I’ll give it a few days before we begin recruiting new people to replace the old ones. But if you’re interested in joining the league, post now and I’ll come to you first.

Not sure if the draft will be auction yet, but let’s work under the assumption that attending the draft will be very important (obviously it’s important with any kind of draft, but an autodrafting computer influences an auction draft more than a serpentine one). Please plan to attend on Tuesday, Sep 7. If something comes up that prevents you, oh well, it happens - but please at least be likely to show up.

I’m still hoping to hear opinions on the auction draft. I want to build a consensus, but I think everyone would end up enjoying it more as an auction, so if there’s not much more discussion, I’ll probably push that way. Especially considering that there can be 20-39 picks between your picks, and because it eliminates the luck of the draw advantage that’s especially apparent in someone drafting top 5 vs someone drafting 15-20 with this many people.

22

I’m not doing the auction thing, so if that’s the way it falls, just give my spot to someone else.

23

Sheesh… I’d rather stay the way it was last year.

Auctions? Now I’ve got another factor to factor into the f**ktoring …whatever.

My vote is against the auction. But if the majority rules, I’d still like to play. I’ll just have to deal with it.

24

Senor, reminder that I am game to join if you get a free spot (repeat of post 12)

25

I vote auctions. Another advantage is that if there’s a sleeper you want to target, you have a much better chance of getting him without having to draft him too high.

26

I won’t be re-joining this league to defend my 8th place finish. Good luck to whomever gets my spot!

27

We need something settled, soon. If we stay with a normal draft, as we did previously, then I’m in, fine and dandy. If we are forced into this perversion aka “Auction”, then I need to start looking for another league. I’d rather stick with this league, but it’s time to shit or get off the pot. Other leagues are getting full, and I’d rather not have to just go with one of those random leagues…

What is it going to be?

28

Alright. I normally want to get a big consensus going before changing something, especially this big - but I really think everyone will prefer auction after they’ve tried it. I would’ve started the league with those conditions last year, except that yahoo didn’t have an auction draft available then.

Oakminster, I’m sorry you’ll want to leave, but you didn’t even give it a chance to see if you might like it by doing the mock draft I linked above. I’m not going to let a knee-jerk resistance to change from one person dictate what the league does. If there were a lot of people who strongly objected, I wouldn’t go ahead with the change.

That said, everyone I’ve done auction drafts with have liked the experience. I think the people here will feel the same way after they give it a chance. I was hoping that more people would do a mock draft and give some feedback, but most people haven’t chimed in.

Auction drafts are especially useful for this league. Because of the way snake drafting works, the people at the top of the draft have an advantage. It’s partially offset by snaking, but not really - we discussed this at length last year, but I can’t remember which thread it was in. The effect is even more pronounced when some people get access to the top fantasy players, and others don’t even have a shot at the top 15. Getting to pick earlier in the 2nd round doesn’t offset that, especially since the higher players go first again in the third round. Anyway, the auction format evens this all out. No one has a draft order advantage, everyone has the exact same resources to work with.

The other thing is that it’s just weird that you can end up going up to 39 picks between your picks. Not only can there be a run on a position, but you could get two entire tiers of players at a position gone between your picks. That’s frustrating to watch and makes for a somewhat boring draft too since you’re involved infrequently. With an auction draft, you’re involved in every pick - you may not be very interested in the player up for bidding, but if they happen to be undervalued in your mind, you’ll put in a bid anyway. And you don’t end up having a player you really really wanted getting snatched up one pick ahead of you - you always have the power to overpay to get the guys you’re deadset on. You have a lot more control over what your roster looks like.

So anyway, if you have to make a choice now, work under the assumption that we’ll be doing an auction draft. If there’s a sudden resistance, we could switch it back, but I’ve been asking for opinions for 3 weeks, so I assume most people aren’t going to object.

Only Mostly Dead, I’ll go ahead and PM you the league details since we’ll have at least 1 slot open. I’m going to give the people from last year a few more days to join, but after that, I’ll open up the registration to anyone who can attend the draft and wants in.

Again, yahoo has mock auction drafts so you can get a feel for how auction drafts work. To see what results look like, this (or by position, this) is how our auction league last year shook out. The values won’t be quite the same in this league because of the depth in our league, but it gives you some idea.

29

I’m fine with the auction format, I’ve always wanted to do one.

30

One caveat about mock drafts is that you can always get a few jokers in there who try to screw with the draft for the sake of pissing people off. I did one last night when someone took 8 kickers! You’ll also find that a lot people will really overpay in mock drafts since they don’t have to actually play the team they drafted. In a league this big, you can’t overpay for your top 5 players because there won’t be a lot available on waivers for week to week pickups.

31

I’m not in this league, but wanted to throw my support behind switching to an auction draft. I think those of you who’ve never tried it will really enjoy it.

32

Fantasy sports originated with auctions - it’s the snake draft that was the “perversion”.

I’m sorry for those of you that want to drop out if we switch to an auction. This is a great league, and even the bottom dwellers last year finished as active owners. (It helps that there was so much parity, and the division set up allowed for quick season comebacks - fewer teams will mean less of that). But auctions are absolutely fantastic, and really enhance your enjoyment of the entire season.

33

I’ve PMed SenorBeef about this, but thought i’d put it in the thread as well.

I have to drop out due to the draft time, so please hand my spot over to someone else. I would have been happy with the auction format, but as i said earlieer, i can’t ask my wife to hang around on campus with me at the end of a long day so i can finish my FF draft.

It’s no big deal; i’m already in a few leagues, and it won’t kill me to miss this one.

34

A quick note for those who might be interested - you can set up a co-manager of your team, who could do the draft, then you can manage the team (or some combination thereof). Could be a solution for those who can’t/don’t want to make the draft.

35

This league started with the regular draft, as Karana intended. There is no valid reason to change it other than the whims of the group. I do not like change. I loathe change unsupported by any demonstrable requirement that a change be made.

Essentially, this completely unnecessary change is saying “Fuck you, Oak, we didn’t want you around anyhow.” Which is fine. I’ll do something else. Y’all have fun.

36

There have been plenty of valid reasons given in this thread. If they’re not to your liking, that’s fine - no one’s twisting your arm.

37

None of those reasons say why a change HAS to be made. Basically, I’m screwed here. I’m forced out of a league I really enjoyed, just because people–particularly Senor Beef, want to do some new thing that does not have to be done. It’s too late to really shop around for another good league.

Next time, y’all oughta kiss me first, at least.

38

Hey, Oakminster, are you interested in forming a new league, based on last year’s settings, with snake draft?

You don’t want to be in this year’s Big League because of the auction, and i can’t be in it due to the draft time. Maybe i could set up a new league, using the same settings we had last year? There’s usually enough FF people on the SDMB to fill a league, and some people in Senor Beef’s Big League might also be interested in signing up for another league.

39

Perfect! Yes, I’ll do that. Lemme know when to sign up. Thinking I may run a college pick em thing like was done for the NFL last year, but prolly gonna be the weekend before I have time to look at yahoo to see how to set one up.

40

I’ll get onto it this afternoon, and start a new thread when it’s ready to go. I’ll also post a link in this thread, for anyone else who’s interested.