Draft Day comes just once a year, but boy, it is worth waiting!A research conducted among other simulation leagues indicates that most leagues hold their draft not as an auction, but with a pick system. We have found through experience that bidding on players against other owners implies so much strategy that Draft Day emerges as the most exciting event of the year. Some suggests it is even more exciting than Championship Day itself: looking at a computer playing out an entire season is certainly enjoyable, particularly if a team that you have built is involved, but no other event requires preparation, resistance and enthusiasm as building your team with a fierce competition on each and every player by eleven rivals. Draft Day is definitely a day of strong emotions for the owners.
As it's already been said, each owner enters Draft Day with up to thirteen players freezed from the previous season, and must complete their roster of 40 with a L. 100.000 salary cap (about $ 50). Though all salary caps are created equal, some owners are actually richer than others, because during the season they can compensate trades with salary-cap money (e.g. Mo Vaughn for Rafael Palmeiro and Lit. 3.000).
Check our trades page to see what's going on.Draft Day is actually split in two, as the draft field sums up to about 350 players and it would be impossible to keep the needed concentration for approximately as many as ten hours. In turn (first call is for the worst team, but this is little more than a formal advantage), each owner calls a player appearing in the draft list, and the minimum bid is Lit. 500. The bid can be increased by as little as Lit. 100, so you can guess how much time it could take to get a player for Lit. 30.000 (only the best can command that kind of money). Of course, nearing the end of the draft, owners have to deal with the slimming of their available payroll, and they must save in any case the necessary money to buy the remainder of their roster at the basic price of Lit. 500. That is, if you're still 10 players short to make 40, and your payroll has slimmed down to Lit. 5.000, you will have to just wait for your turn, call a player for the basic price, and hope that nobody richer than you likes him. This is called pick time, and sometimes a third evening is necessary to complete all the rosters with this system.
In addition to the 40-man rosters, owners can pick five rookies for free.
It would be great to know from other simulation leaguers how they conduct their draft, not necessarily DiamondMind Baseball leaguers as we are.Please e-mail us at : r.caramelli@bo.nettuno.it
Your contribution would be very much appreciated.
