Would love to see a change where the first round of the draft is "live".  You can set up your board but when it comes to the first round you get one HBD "day" to make your first round pick.  If you don't pick then the draft will default to your board.  After the first round is complete then the rest of the draft is automated.

IMO would make it a lot more fun.

People play from all over the world. How much fun would it be to be glued to your pc at 3:00 am?

It would be stupid underutilized(thus making it pointless to program) but it would be nice if owners could start picking when the amateurs show up.   Pick #1 could go immediately and then in order.    Of course, it would probably make it all the way to 6 or 8 in most worlds but it would be fun if it got to you.

If you have 8 hours to make your pick then it's not that big of a deal - plus if you figure the guy in front of you also has 8 hours then effectively you have 16 hours to put 2 guys at the top of your board in case you can't make it to the computer in the middle of the night.

Posted by ct_duck on 7/12/2011 2:21:00 PM (view original):
If you have 8 hours to make your pick then it's not that big of a deal - plus if you figure the guy in front of you also has 8 hours then effectively you have 16 hours to put 2 guys at the top of your board in case you can't make it to the computer in the middle of the night.

So the whole process will take 11 days roughly?   Will this give everyone a chance to sign picks for the start of rookie ball?    Will rookie ball be shortened?  Will the season be put on hold while the draft is in process?   If you start tthe draft earlier, will it affect the Type A/B free agents that may be signed early in the regular season instead of during the free agent period?

Right now you have 7 days between when prospects are posted and the draft - shorten that to 2 days and then just post the prospects 4 days earlier.  Change the Type A/B FA rule to once the draft has begun instead of once the prospects are posted.  That rule only affects a couple players per season anyway.

I'd rather keep the first round the way it is now than draw it out over a period of days.

I spend an hour or so ranking players every draft, and my reaction to my results is always either "Yay, that guy fell to me at pick 10-30," or (rarely), "Bummer, all my top 10 guys got picked before my turn came." Maybe once, in all the drafts I've run since manual ranking came into play, have I thought, "Dang, I wish I'd picked a guy selected later instead of the guy I actually picked."

There's a danger in overthinking these drafts (not to mention diminishing returns).

I'd rather see the 1st round all selected in one "HBD" day, then the next HBD day the supplemental round is picked, then the next "day" is round 2, followed by round 3-5, and finally round 6-25. Additionally, we get the option of resetting our draft boards at each break. It would take 4 cycles to accomplish this.  The advantage, mainly due to the predictability of draft picks is say you your top Catcher fell to you in the 1st, but you had a guy pretty closely ranked.  You don't really want to take another catcher w/ your supplemental picks or round 2 picks, so you can slide any catchers back a bit and perhaps focus in on a relief pitcher or defensive SS for your 2nd and 3rd pick.

That's been suggested years ago.   It's not happening.

I like taz21's idea.

so do I

Posted by MikeT23 on 7/13/2011 3:22:00 PM (view original):
That's been suggested years ago.   It's not happening.

doesn't surprise me that I'm not the first to suggest this, any reason why it wouldn't happen?  The biggest issue would be the altering draft board, ie some of the guys you have ranked originally would no longer be on the board on your next chance to re-rank them, but I wouldn't think that would be all that big of a deal.  It gives a slight advantage to coaches that are more active, but you can't avoid that in a game of this nature.

Im sure the cost would go up...

On this topic, CS has stated they do not want the strong advantage provided to owners who are more active/have more time to be active to play a part.  Which is why you can't re-rank.

But in the example you provided, doesn't the ratings threshold and player target counts help to give you some control over not drafting two Cs in the 1st and supp. round?

Posted by soursurfer on 8/1/2011 3:09:00 PM (view original):
On this topic, CS has stated they do not want the strong advantage provided to owners who are more active/have more time to be active to play a part.  Which is why you can't re-rank.

But in the example you provided, doesn't the ratings threshold and player target counts help to give you some control over not drafting two Cs in the 1st and supp. round?

Honestly, this explanation by CS is just plain stupid. The fact of the matter is that the more time you spend on a game like this, the better you will do (as long as you know what you are doing).  While they should not give an advantage to someone if they log in at 3:00 AM (such as by re-ranking every 4 hours), I see no problem with a once every 24 hour re-ranking, giving an advantage to someone who spends 20-30 minutes per day on his team over someone who logs in but does nothing.