anybody wanna share their draft prep tactics? I need some direction.

The more players you rank, and the more care used when ranking them, the better your draft will be.

This is one of the areas in HBD where more effort will always get rewarded.

Keep in mind that if you don't have a big scouting budget, the ratings you see before the draft are going to be off.

1) Look at the "soft" ratings like health and makeup in addition to the "hard" physical and skill ratings when ranking your players. Try to judge how likely a prospect will be to reach his projections when taking health and makeup into consideration.

By doing this, you might end up ranking some slightly lesser players ahead of slightly better players just because they might be less risky.

2) After you rank all the guys you think could be potential major league material, pick out some additional guys with projected OVR ratings in the mid 50's or lower who have some ratings that seem interesting, and rank them after your major league potential guys. Maybe you'll get lucky and get a DITR boost on one of them somewhere down the road that will make them a potential major league prospect.

Consider your scouting budget when you look at projections. That SS who's projected to have an 87 glove but currently has a 41... maybe not such a good idea.

thanks. what about details of how you rank players? i don't like the formula builder.

Me, neither.

I kick it old school and go one by one.

I don't like the formula builder either. I spend SEVERAL hours during the week ranking and re ranking guys. Other things to consider:

--take into account the player's signability. If he's a "may sign if the deal is right" you can probably sign him, but is he good enough to endure giving him upwards of $7mil if his demands are outrageous?

--DO NOT BOTHER TARGETING A CERTAIN POSITION. If you're looking for a SP, rank the good ones high, but don't put a mediocre SP ahead of a really good hitter just because you want a pitcher. Draft the best guys regardless of position.

--you can usually get a good defensive catcher, reliever, DH, or defensive and bad hitting SS in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Look for these types of guys and rank them in the 20-35 range.

--Don't draft any pitcher whose control projects to be less than 50.

--If you draft any player in the first 3 rounds who won't make the ML roster then you're doing it wrong. 3rd round picks should be ML caliber players, even if they are backups or platoons.

I sort the screen for hitters by vR and move them to the top, then all the pitchers by vR and move them up. Then I tweek from there based on best players (i.e. so I dont have a 99 overall hitter still below all the pitchers), and health and makeup and things like that. anyone below a 50 vR I move to the bottom unless they are defensive SS and C which I leave right below all the pitchers and hitters I already ranked.

Don't whiff on your first round pick.

You can't fully trust projections, so check the current ratings to see if anything looks out of place. If scouting says a player will reach 90 in crucial rating and his current rating is a 34, well it's highly doubtful he's going to gain 56 points of development. Not to say it's impossible, but there's a pretty good chance your scouting is misleading you.

Personally I say spend the most of your time making sure that your first pick is your best pick possible rather than splitting hairs on the guys you rank 40-100. Owners don't see every draftee. I've found depending on the league and your slot a decent rule of thumb is expect to get the guy you ranked 50% of your slot pick. So if your picking 20th you'll probably get the guy you ranked around 10th. Check those first few picks extra close and make sure there isn't a glaring red flag.

As a new player, don't be afraid to rate C, 1B, and DH with All-Star quality bats, or RPs with very high control and splits and at least one great pitch right alongside players at other positions with much higher OVRs. Better be a freaking great bat to push a DH that high, though.



Don't be afraid to drop high OVR players whose ratings don't measure up down the list. An example would be the high Dur/Sta SP with good stuff and projected control in the 20's. He might project to 75 OVR, but he's not a ML prospect. If your gut tells you he can't play, he probably can't.



Rank DHs in about the same spot regardless of whether you play in the AL or NL. If it's really close between two players and you're an NL team, then maybe rank the DH lower. But don't pass a DH with a 1.000 OPS bat for a LF with a .750 OPS bat just because you're an NL team. You can always trade them later.



One additional tip for finding backup player prospects is to sort by power, and then resort by power so the bottom of the list comes up. Sometimes a guy with near "0" power can have a low OVR but still play at the ML level with okay splits/BE, especially if they can play 2B, 3B, or CF.



When you're done with the defensive specialists, DHs, and varius backups, I would also throw in anyone with speed over 90. Even if all they do is come up in a couple of years as a designated pinch runner after roster expansion, it's still a skill that could see them to the big leagues.



I also take a few minutes to line up a few innings-eating SPs (high dur/sta, with split/control projections of better than 30), because they make running your low minors much, much easier. Additionally, I like to make sure I draft at least 13 P, 2 C, and 2 SS. Having depth at these 3 spots will allow you to keep minor leaguers fresh without spending much time on them all season.



Finally, altough vsR is the far more important offensive split, don't forget to sort by vsL projections and look for platoon players. Sometimes a guy with a projected offensive line of 50-80-75-15-50 can be had even in the 4th round because the terrible vsR gets him sent to the bottom of people's lists. But this guy could possibly platoon for someone at the ML level under a specific set of circumstances.

I took a chance and used the formula builder with a team in which I had no first or second round pick with, but two comp picks. I was mildly pleased with the result. Of course I did some manual ranking after using the builder.