With the update coming later this year, one of the big changes we've made is to expand our player pool - both in terms of player count and player data.

Previously, the only players we had in our system were players that met the minimum 50 AB or 25 IP.

Now, we have the entire player pool since 1885, even though only those meeting the above minimums will be draft eligible in the game. But this is still significant in that twist leagues can now be policed by the Theme League Wizard.

For instance, if you're in a league where you twist a teammate, you can now draft 1975 Pete Rose and any player that was ever a teammate of Pete Rose will now be available and tracked within the game. This includes players that may have only been on his team one season but only had 13 at-bats.

This is awesome for twist league fans as we will be adding the ability to have twist leagues based on franchise, team (i.e. season + franchise), player, player-season or season.  Many, many more fun ways to enjoy the game, all automated by the Theme Wizard.

In addition, we can open up the Theme Wizard in the future for more options:  MVP votes, Hall of Fame Votes, Birth date, birth city or state, college, year drafted, height, weight, etc.

We also now tie players to teams in a much better manner so we can add future theme wizard options based on player's team details. for example, only draft players from teams that won their division, or won the world series or won < 60 games, etc.

And, we now have fielding appearances for each outfield position and fielding data for individual outfield positions since the 1950s.

Next, I'd like to cover some of the planned changes in the Draft Center & Player Search.

Please provide  feedback on this in a different topic.

Ignore any spelling mistakes, data inconsistencies, etc. These mocks are to illustrate look/feel and functionality.

Click the links below to see the screenshots:

Draft Center:  view the new Draft Center

Player Search:  view the new Player Search

Import Teams:  view the new Import Teams

Draft Team Profile:  view the new Draft Team Profile

Draft Center

First off, please notice the wider page size.

This screenshot shows all the pieces to the draft center. Not all of them will be visible at all times. For instance, the success, error and notification sections at the top only display when necessary.

If it's a theme league, the theme section includes more info about what theme league you are joining.

The team summary section has also been reworked.  Now, you can choose or adjust ballpark or team name at any time while drafting.  You can add your team logo (new) while drafting or once you're in the league.  This change to select ballpark at any time sets us up for a future change where a ballpark selection may have a salary associated with it.

The Major League section is still broken down by hitters and pitchers.  You can clear a section out at any time and you can import team/players at any time.  One of the biggest additions in the new SLB will be the ability to manage Custom Views. In this screenshot, you can see you can change your view of your roster.  For instance, you could have one view that focuses on raw totals, another on rate stats, one on normalization stats, one on fielding, etc. You can also view what the team would look like X years in the future or past (helpful for progressive leagues). You can also turn the view into a CSV view to easily grab and take with you in Excel, for instance.

If your league allows AAA drafting, you can see that below the MLB section, structured the same way.

The right rail includes a bunch of "new" pieces to help a user while drafting.

First off, there are quick links and help links.

If it's a theme league, draft / league chat is now present.

The most frequently drafted players and most often used on World Series champion teams are now readily available, filterable by position.

If it's a multi-season league or live draft league, the League Summary module will assist with holding your draft.  The Teams tab will show each team with their drafted player count. The Players tab will show player count drafted by primary position. Rosters Tab will let you choose a team and view their roster including draft round per player. If the league does not prevent clones, the last tab will showcase clones drafted thus far in the league.

Team Notes carry over to the League.

Player Search

We've re-arranged some settings on this page to provide a more intuitive design for new and veteran users.

At  the top, you'll notice the choice to use Beginner/Normal/Advanced which dictates what filters to make available and how input should be entered (textboxes or dropdowns).  Saved searches and custom views can be accessed here as well.  Your custom view will dictate what data to show in search results (in addition to fields selected as part of statistical filter).

The new Theme Summary section carries over rules used in the theme league. In this example, you'll notice that the blacklist and whitelist are forced to be on whereas others are not. Whether the option is forced or optional for the sake of searching depends on the theme league itself. for instance, if the league allows player exceptions, then some of these rules can be toggled on or off depending on user's decision at that time of drafting.

The General Search Filters haven't changed that much. The Seasons, Played In & Debuted In season boxes can be toggled from dropdowns to textboxes in Advanced mode. Now, you can search for players from the 1968 season but filter by only showing players that also played in 1973 but debuted in 1964.

For statistical filters, we start by showing 3 sets but you can expand to show up to 12 sets.

The results section is based on the custom view. You'll notice two tabs. The first is the standard.  You can click the star to push the player to/from the second tab for a comparison view. Say your result has 8 players you like, you can push to the second tab and then toggle to that tab to see just the player's you're interested in before drafting a player.

Rather than page to the next set of 50 search results, we now will add the next 50 to the list. So you can go on and on and on with your results.

Import Teams

Similar to the current game, you can import a team from historical teams, previous teams, dream teams or other draft center teams.

Now, previous teams will allow you to access any team you've ever used dating back to 2007 (when we started saving it all).

And, you can now choose to select individual players instead of just picking the entire team!

Draft Team Profile

If you decide to Choose Players, you will see the team's roster and can pick individual players to draft. You'll see high-level info about the team. You can move to the next/previous season if it's an actual team. If it's a simleague team, you can push the players up or back a season to help with progressive league player protection.

Your custom view selection dictates the columns you'll see.

Now that you've scanned through the posts above, please let us know what we forgot or what you'd like to see?


Please provide feedback on this in a different topic.