Draft Date

[Rawhide GM (Jimmy-LM)]

The original date for the draft is set for 2 days after the World Series, however if there is enough interest,we will consider moving it up. Please cast your vote.

[Deleted]

Im a little against rushing into a draft. Once the draft is done, there will be a lot of piddling of fingers. Free Agency isnt usually as exciting after an open player draft. I rather piddle my fingers now and prep for a draft than rush and start, finish like in December and everyone is bored waiting for the season to start in April. I liked that there was a set date when I joined. Hope the front office doesnt gave to peer pressure.

[Deleted]

I have already seen a similar league in football fall apart because everyone was rushing into draft it finishes early and the league died as there was little to no activity until the actual season started. Just something to think about.

[Javelinas GM (Scott)]

@roughriders:

The way the draft is set up there will be 1350 picks made. At 12 picks a day that's over 110 days plus there will be breaks for things like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even if the draft started today it would run into Late Feb/early March. Personally, I would rather have an understanding of what I exactly need in FA before March.

[Deleted]

Beautifully said Scott. ^^^

[Deleted]

Depending on schedule/time limit, 12 picks a day feels optimistic. I've never been involved in a board draft that moved that fast all the way through to the end.

[Deleted]

Nevermind, just saw the planned schedule. Still, agree with Scott. Let's get it going and then we can make our trades and understand our rosters before FA's and spring training starts.

[Deleted]

Its only an extra week or so we are talking about so if guys would like that time to make sure they understand everything/prep and/or make trades, I don't really think that little time will affect much on the back end. So, I'd lean towards giving guys the extra time now if people want it. But I'm fine either way.

[Rawhide GM (Jimmy-LM)]

Free Agency will be an important part of the league. I would expect several players with very high contracts to not be drafted because their value is much lower then the guarenteed money, but there will still be some value for free agency, and it will be an important facet of the league.

The draft will be a long process whether it starts today or in 3 weeks, but I also want to maintain interest. That said, I dont think the will be much thumb twiddling between now and the start of the season.

[Deleted]

I say the sooner the better consider how long the draft be we want to be able to at least have free agency a little before spring training maybe

[Deleted]

If people know what there doing we can be optimistic and be done by February!!

[Deleted]

If people know what there doing we can be optimistic and be done by February!!

[PawSox (GazW)]

Another week to prepare for the draft should be plenty of time. The draft will probably start fast and slow down so it will be worth getting going a bit earlier.

[Sand Gnats (Matthew)]

I don't see the need to push the start date up. I know I haven't gotten into any 2014 rankings for MLB players, let alone prospects yet. With the Sox still in the playoffs, life, love and alcohol are consuming my time these days. I certainly was planning on the draft start time staying the same and taking full advantage of the 2+ weeks remaining to get prepared for the draft. I would advocate setting the draft order and keeping the start date as originally intended. I know a majority of people disagree and want to start earlier, but I think this should have to be a near unanimous decision to push the date up. Outside of people being bored and antsy to get started, there is really no benefit to starting early. There is plenty of time to finish everything we need to get done prior to the start of the 2014 season.

[Deleted]

What's the point of having a poll then. As of now more then half of the managers want to move up the draft date. If every poll has to be unanimous then there is no point of having a poll. Because 30 different managers will never be unanimous on anything. I fine either way but I would rather do it asap. 1350 players and 12 players a day that's about 4 month of drafting. So by the time we finish, spring training will start already. Plus we still have to deal with free agency.

[Deleted]

Yup. I think that delaying because you can't drink and draft when most of the league is ready to go is pretty selfish.

[Rawhide GM (Jimmy-LM)]

Having free agency during spring training isnt necessarily a bad thing. There will be alot of fringe role players / platoon partners who may not be drafted, possibly some older AAA guys. If any of those guys make an impact in ST, then there will be value there in assessing them before the market.

That said, we are likely talking about a few days here and there, so lets not get our panties jacked up to our heads yet fellas.

[Deleted]

Not mad. Just boiling down his argument against what I and many others would prefer to happen down to a sentence.

[Deleted]

maybe just do it a week from whenever you set the draft order, time to do trading and planning, etc. and enough notice of a change so everyone is ready. Reality is the 1st couple rounds shouldn't be all that much work to figure out who is good (although granted making a bad decision there is by far the most costly).

[Javelinas GM (Scott)]

Everyone has reasons for wanting to start or delay; however, feasibility needs to win out over preference. And yes, being antsy to start or wanting more time to drink are both preferences. Under the present rules and expectations, a draft that starts after the WS will not end until the first week of March. The FA period can not begin until the draft has ended. Most of us will have 10 open spots on our roster and will be looking to add 7-10 players through FA to fill those spots. This means we have to complete almost 300 FA signings in about 4 weeks. That's 70 or so a week all crammed into back to back weeks. The current rules would force is into only 4 1 week bidding periods. This gives little to no time to regroup if the first week we lose out on who we wanted. Say only 40 players out of 70 get bid on the first week, that leaves subsequent weeks with even more names added. I could be wrong but I foresee a lot difficulty getting 70 FA's a week awarded efficiently. If we keep the present schedule, I would throw out a suggestion that we go to 15 or 16 picks a day still spread out 1 hour apart. In future years this wont be an issue due to far less draft rounds, but I think even 6 weeks of FA could be tough on feasibility. Just my thoughts and I will make do with whatever the choice; but, I ask that the feasibility of a 4 week FA, under present rules, gets its due consideration.