I've built a beast of a team and don't expect a top 30 draft pick for the next 7-10 seasons. Would punting the draft to use the money for FA's/current contracts and IFA's be a good idea? Seems like I can get a few better IFA's every year than players in the draft that have a AAA ceiling. Any thoughts?

You're less likely to land a stud in the late 20s than at the top of the draft, but you can still find very good players there on a fairly consistent basis. Particularly if your league's full of n00bs and dumbasses (not saying yours is, but it does help).

The draft is still your most cost-efficient resource for acquiring talent.

If I didn't think I was going to need anyone from the draft for 10 seasons and I felt I was always going to be picking 30th or later, I'd punt the hell out of it. 

For example, all of these players of mine were drafted after pick 20 (including a couple of supplemental picks) in three different worlds: Luke Evans, Sarma Ripken, Mike Miles, Napoleon Romero and Juan Gonzalez. Players that good fall for a number of reasons (scouting budgets, user error, signing risks, lots of great prospects, etc.), so you can't always assume that you won't find ML prospects at the bottom of the first round.

That said, I think the ML FA market is much more efficient than the int'l FA market in most worlds, but it's likely to cost you a first-round pick to compete for the best of the best. If you're looking to win now, that's the way to go, but it will eventually catch up with you when your minor league cupboard goes bare.

In MG, there are currently 14 players in the bigs that I drafted after pick 31. 

Remember that you're likely still going to get a ML player with your first, and perhaps your second, round pick.  In Steinbrenner, I have 4MM in each scouting budget, and I (think) I have a ML role player with my 3rd round pick.  My 2nd round pick probably won't make it with 35 health, but his ratings garner ML quality.  And I feel good about my 1st round pick too.  So I have chosen to take that $16-32MM that I would have put in college/hs scouting and turn it into $8-16MM for my prospect budget to go after IFAs.

Late 20s is where you get get your set up As/closers. Some feel it's wasted at that pick, but if the option is you 4th OF or the former, I feel the reliever is somewhat underrated.

Further, the guy that posts "I should dominate for 7 seasons" is guy that posts 2 month later "why is this team only 80-82?"

Further, the guy that posts "I should dominate for 7 seasons" is guy that posts 2 month later "why is this team only 80-82?"

Did you know you don't get the "delete post" icon on a cell phone?

I'd be hesitant to suggest that strategy to someone with 7 seasons under their belt, but having said that, that's exactly where i'm headed in Upper Deck. There's a substantial trade off involved, more importantly, really painful to reverse course if you jack it up.

Posted by dwoolery on 12/27/2010 1:17:00 PM (view original):
I'd be hesitant to suggest that strategy to someone with 7 seasons under their belt, but having said that, that's exactly where i'm headed in Upper Deck. There's a substantial trade off involved, more importantly, really painful to reverse course if you jack it up.

No question...if it bombs, it'll take 3 seasons to get to a reasonable budget, THEN you can draft good talent and spend 2-4 seasons developing.

There is a decent chance you won't get a stud in the IFA market, however you are almost surely not going to get a stud in the lower parts of the draft. If you punt the IFA market and depend on the draft while drafting in the late first round you will primarily drafting role players for your future team.

Maybe we're talking different scale here, but if he saves $20-$30M in coll and hs scouting and applies it to FA's, won't he get plenty of role players as well?