I’ve been hesitant to post because I’m still fighting for a spot in the next round. My favorite theme in round 2 is the Silent Auction and I love the idea in its current format. I like drafts and there always is a luck component in them but I don’t see it as being that high compared to other drafts. I was in NebHusker’s Silent Auction draft last year - I enjoyed it and would do it again. I would argue that this one involves less luck as we wouldn’t lose nearly as many players. 12 players were blacklisted in round 1 alone and 24 players were blacklisted by the end of round 3. The pool was diluted as you could be getting a player you rank in the mid 30s in round 1. That won’t happen here. I still might not make the next round but, If I do, I’d love to play it in its current form.

Posted by justinlee_24 on 10/11/2019 4:05:00 PM (view original):

And justinlee_24's question (above):
Your interpretation of the rules is correct. Building a roster will be easier than I think you are worried about with the help of the Oracle of Baseball tool on BBR. I am also building a spreadsheet tool based on WIS-eligible seasons to help. I can say that verification will definitely be easier than you'd think. I understand this theme will be challenging, but this is Round 2, your 130M team is likely mostly built already, and the two lower cap themes are considerably more straightforward.

I don't think it will be. To explain why:

Suppose the 1927 New York Yankees are the base team. I twist 5 players on the 1927 New York Yankees to 5 New teams between 1922-1932.

The following must be true:

There is exactly one player in common between the 1927 New York Yankees and each of the 5 New teams. If there is no common player between the 1927 New York Yankees and a given new team, then obviously I cannot twist 5 players off the new team and roster them. If there are two or more common players between the 1927 New York Yankees and one of the new teams, then every player on that New Team is ineligible to be twisted and can't be used. This is because this clause (However, none of the players you use can have been a WIS-eligible teammate of any of the WIS-eligible players from your base team at any point in their career, except for the player you twisted from your base team) makes them all ineligible.

Corollaries I'd like to have confirmed:

--The way I read the rules, there could be a non-WIS-eligible player who is the only link from the base team to a new team. The rules don't say the common player has to be WIS-eligible, do they?

--Also, if a player only has a combined season for your base team but no partial, does he count as WIS-eligible for your base team?

--And if a player was on the new team but didn't have a partial or combined WIS season that year (for instance, played only a few games as a rookie), can they be one of the players you twist to an eligible season? For example, I twist to the 1923, 1924 or 1939 Yankees, all of which Lou Gehrig played for but not enough to be WIS eligible. Could I then take a WIS Gehrig season, so long as he met the other requirements?

Posted by Jtpsops on 10/11/2019 8:35:00 PM (view original):
So in 5 minutes, I came up with this. Obviously not a roster yet, but it just shows that it's definitely not a "herculean task" to find the first 5 teams.

1927 Yankees

1. 1932 Giants (Hoyt)
2. 1932 Red Sox (Moore)
3. 1925 Browns (Giard)
4. 1924 White Sox (Morehart)
5. 1922 Robins (Reuther)

I think people are hyping this up way too much in their heads.

And I think you're still grossly underestimating how difficult this is.

Take that 1932 Giants team. Looks great, right? Sure. But Mark Koenig from the '27 Yankees was on the 1935-36 Giants, so you can't use Bill Terry, Mel Ott, Carl Hubbell, Travis Jackson, Jo-Jo Moore, Hal Schumacher, Freddie Fitzsimmons, or Sam Leslie. And you can't use Dolf Luque because he was on the 1919-1920 Reds with Dutch Reuther. And you can't use Shanty Hogan because he was on the 1935 Braves with Babe Ruth. And you can't use Ethan Allen because he was on the 1930 Reds with Bob Meusel.

With all of the great players on that roster, the only eligible useful players in this example are Freddie Lindstrom, Bob O'Farrell, and (marginally) Bill Walker and Eddie Moore.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but my guess is that to find a representative $110M team with these rules would take dozens of hours of research, which most of us don't have.

Okay, we're making the following changes:

• I am removing the restriction in the 110M league where players on your roster cannot have ever been teammates with anyone on your base team. Instead, the rule will be that players on your roster cannot have ever been teammates with the other 4 players you twist from your base team. In Jtpsops's example, he'd be able to twist anyone from the 1932 Giants who never played with Moore, Giard, Morehart and Reuther. This significantly reduces the complexity (you only need to check 4 players vs your roster rather than a full real team's roster) and time required to build a roster, but still results in a challenging and unique twist theme. Seems like a fine compromise to me and the right thing to do so that people enjoy the theme.
• A few people have made the point to me that having two full drafts is too much. I actually personally agree with this, but included both because I like both themes. So, despite loving both draft ideas, I am removing the Silent Auction and replacing it with a new high cap theme. I will post the new theme tomorrow. I'll also update page 1 in general at this time. Thanks for your patience. EDIT: Long day. Will follow up on this during football games tomorrow (Sunday)

Change one - thanks

Change two - well here’s 15 seasons of deal drafts I won’t need now.

What was the “old 100M” theme that was mentioned when you first posted the themes that never saw the light of day? Assuming that is considered midcap and won’t be the new high cap theme...

Updated Page 1 with questions and 110M rule change. Will add the new high cap theme tomorrow. Still working on the details.

For the $110M theme, can we twist players to before 1920 if it falls within our range (ie: a 1923 base team)? Or would we simply be limited to an 8 year range in that case?

Good question. It would be an 8 year window. I want to eliminate deadballers from this theme, so if you choose a year prior to 1925 you'd be limiting your scope.

If I lose my WS (which is highly likely) I probably won't be in the 2nd round... but..... $110M looks dreadful to build. Just my opinion

Posted by milest on 10/14/2019 5:09:00 PM (view original):
If I lose my WS (which is highly likely) I probably won't be in the 2nd round... but..... $110M looks dreadful to build. Just my opinion

The complexity has been reduced by about 80% with the recent change. It's really the only research-heavy theme in either round this year, so I'm not worried about it.

It is substantially less burdensome to check if a player is legal now, yes. You only have to search 4 names on the Oracle for each player you want to draft, as opposed to 25-35.

Posted by schwarze on 10/7/2019 11:10:00 PM (view original):
Here's another thought. Building rosters are supposed to be fun. Challenging is fine, but it's still got to be fun. The variable cap theme in round 1 was fun. A few of these round 2 themes not only do not seem like fun, but seem like a chore.

I agree 1000%... I'm a super competitive person by nature and I truly don't care if I make the 2nd round or not bc of the $110M (even with the rule changes) & the $140M themes don't appeal to me even a little bit. The Silent Auction actually seems pretty fun, tbh. Sorry it was scrapped...

Ya, I wouldn't mind seeing the Auction league run as a separate theme league

Posted by Jtpsops on 10/15/2019 2:39:00 PM (view original):
Ya, I wouldn't mind seeing the Auction league run as a separate theme league

It might dispel some of the fears that we raised about how it will play out, but at the same time show some of the strategies people had in mind.