anybody have a good handle on the formula builder for draft prep? i am thinking of using it but don't want to screw up a draft learning the in's and out's

No one has answered because FB is terrible. No matter what you do, there is a slug or three way too high. And that's who'll you'll get.

You can, however, use it to set an initial ranking then tweak it.

What MikeT said. I got burned way too many times with a bum in the first round thanks to FB.

Go off of the initial list. Here is what I do.

Step 1) Unless I have 12 million plus in prospect budget, move all of the 'probably won't sign' guys to the bottom of the draft board
Step 2) Unless their bat is beyond incredible I move all DH's to the bottom of the draft board (I'm in NL for both teams)
Step 3) Projected pitching ratings, everyone with +70 VsR goes into the top 30 (don't worry about where yet) Control over 80 and high 1st and 2nd pitches go into top 30 as long as there aren't any low numbers for VsR or VsL (anything below 50 for VsR is too low, anything for VsL below 30 is probably a bad idea)
Step 4) Hitting is a little trickier for me because there are a lot of factors. A decent SS with eye and contact can make the top 30 but a LF with 60's across the board except for one category might not. This one is personal preference.
Step 5) Guys with defensive ratings across the board 85 or higher go into the top 30, guys with defensive ratings across the board 80 or higher go into top 50.
Step 6) Catchers with Pitch calling above 90 go into the top 50 (Top 30 if they have arm strength and accuracy above 80)
Step 7) Look through your top 30 and see who you like best, do fine tuning. Argue with yourself for a week about the top 30 (which I always do) right up until the draft. Sort out your top 50.

This is just a guideline of course. My most recent draft I'm having trouble finding 20 guys that I like. But it gives you something to work with.

I'll back those ideas up. Whether you use FB or the presets, the thing gives you a list that generalizes way too much. Pre-ranking is where you make your bones in the draft; ideally it protects you from the first round bust and filters out the "not good at any one thing" players in the next rounds. Players who aren't actually good at hitting, defense, or getting hitters out end up in the Rule 5 draft someday.

I do something similar, but different, to hockey1984's list above. Work out your own method to pick players you like. Took me multiple seasons to figure mine out.

Formula builder is incredibly difficult to perfect. The default rankings are projected OVR in descending order, but as soon as you activate FB, it scrambles them all up and has the potential to really f you. In one of my seasons I tried to commit to learning it, but the system is completely non-intuitive. My initial weights were completely wrong so I spent a few hours tinkering with it and seeing the degree to which small fluctuations in the Weights mattered and I was actually able to put together a pretty decent list. But ehhh it basically sucks.

Since then I just stick to manual and I do well, esp since they added fuzzy scouting. I have pretty good intuition as to which guys have overrated OVRs and which are underrated, which pitchers have falsely positive or negative vR / control, etc.

Strategically, I take steps similar to what hockey said. "Probably won't sign" go to the bottom first, but sometimes I do want to keep those guys on the list because sometimes it's worth a risk, Player Profile: Louie Kondou comes to mind. Player Profile: Skip Tatum may have also slipped due to signability.

I also massively devalue DH, 1B, and LF ... esp ones who lack power and/or vR. There are literally dozens throughout the entire list, those definitely go to the bottom. I also set my filters to draft 0 DH 0 1B and 0 LF, I set the "other" to 3 so I will inevitably end up with some, but I do my best to avoid these players unless they are specifically awesome. Usually my failed 2B picks will get to play LF, and usually I end up acquiring good 1B/DH thru free agency or trade instead of the draft.

I also tend to boost some pitchers (relative to where they stand based on OVR) but I don't go overboard with it the way some people do. Some people only draft pitching no matter what, and imo that's a mistake whenever they are passing on hitters that end up being more valuable. Obv I can't see other people's draft boards, but in general I can tell that teams "reach" on pitching more than they should. Whatever, I get it, pitching is scarce, but it's not as scarce as people think? Anyways, I also tend to pick out which pitchers have very high control/splits/pitches relative to OVR, there are usually some excellent relievers in the 70 projected OVR range that deserve to be at least 15-20 spots higher than they originally sit

I boost defensive catchers with at least 10-25-75-75-75 who can also bat, esp ones with power and vR and durability. Guys like Player Profile: Stan Soriano players who have mediocre OVRs but can have productive careers (3.53 career catcher ERA and .770 career OPS)

I boost any shortstop with 85-85-85-85 who is at least reasonable at the plate, esp ones with some power and vR. It's important to judge which ones are overrated defensively and are actually 3B vs which ones are authentically SS.. There are lots of projected 100 range/glove/arms, but that's obviously not reality, so tread carefully here. I jump for joy whenever I land a guy like Player Profile: Quilvio Andrus, but for every 1 of those there's probably 5 who bust. My SSs need to be able to field and my 3Bs need to be able to hit, so there's a lot of tweeners in this category who never get past AAA one way or the other

If I have time, I dig deeper into the list and devalue everyone with potential OVR between 60 and 67 because those players are essentially useless. They are rarely ever better than minor league, with no possibility of DITR or AAAA bonus or anything like that. Instead, I head to the section with potential OVR between 50 and 59 because those players qualify for DITR, whereas the 60+ do not. I identify pitchers with high VEL + gbfb, but low stam and control approx 50, splits approx 35-40, pitches approx 60-50-40; catchers with 80+ arm strength, etc. Those are the players that turn into monster DITRs. Player Profile: Fernando Colon, Player Profile: Javier Guzman, etc, I draft a few extra of those types of guys with projected OVR 50-55 instead of career minor leaguers projected OVR 65

See, its interesting. I'll argue some of pjfosters points (take notes, his stuff was good too and there is no wrong way to draft. All of this info is good).

For whatever reason, sometimes the sim really messes with what position a player is listed at. Twice I've been left with egg on my face because I put DH - 0 and my scouts skipped picking a player that was clearly a C but was listed as a DH (low PC and arm but I can make those guys work in my parks)

I would never ever ever put 1B and LF at 0 picks. If I had, I would have skipped on

https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=7698563 (still don't know how to paste player links)

and he is probably the best bat I have ever had. I manually set 1B and LF to be lower then the other positions, but they are still useful and can be great pieces.

Even

https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=7057022

Was a guy I got late in a draft because he was listed as a 1B. The best surprised in a draft are when you get guys late that everyone else missed that you know are going to be good.

Don't put too much (I say any) value on OVR. As long as the players can do one thing or a couple of things really well, they are better then their OVR.

https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=5817675

https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=6680140

https://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=5249721

Are all super valuable players on my team with very low OVR. I have had guys as low as 44 OVR on my teams because they do one thing really well (defensive SS, CF, C or a pitcher that is a leftie specialist)

Just like with anything, take an hour or two at first to look over the list. You have a week before the draft, look over it a few times with fresh eyes. You'll get a feel for it in time.

A couple of things that may be misleading in pjfoster's final paragraph.

1) It's not a good idea to automatically dismiss anybody based solely on OVR. There are useful players that can be found with OVR ratings in the low to mid 60's. Bench players or lower stamina relievers can be found in that area. They may not be the stars of your team, but they may be the undervalued but useful 24th or 25th man role-player on the roster. Players should always be evaluated on their core ratings, not on OVR.

2) While pjfoster is on the right track with his comments on DITR candidates, it's important to understand the the OVR rating that you see may not be the player's true projected OVR (which is what determines DITR eligibility). The OVR you see is likely fuzzied by your scouting budget. Less than OVR 60 seems to be the generally accepted cut-off for DITR eligibility, but nobody other than WIS staff knows for sure.

I'll repeat one of my points - the OVR moves players up in the default rankings who can't necessarily hit, field a specific position, or retire hitters at the major league level. Those guys are career AAA players and end up in the Rule 5 Draft. I don't really want my first or second, even third round players ending up in the Rule 5 Draft. I try to move everyone else up, and filter those guys down.

re: hockey- I totally agree with what you're saying, those examples you gave fit into the category I was referencing by saying "unless they are specifically awesome". Those guys are examples of players that I would manually move up into the upper echelon, and by allowing myself 3 "other", simmy will pick those guys as long as I have not already exhausted all 3 of my "others". Simmy would not be passing on those guys unless it was at least already my 4th Others pick in a single draft and that could not possibly happen. 3 Others is plenty of wiggle room to allow simmy to draft a Clayton Lincoln in the first round as an Other, but avoid simmy picking minor league garbage in the 2nd-15th rounds instead of useful relievers or whatever. And I agree that OVR does not represent talent, but for the purpose of this conversation the default rank is descending OVR so it's a relevant starting point, and also OVR does determine free agent compensation as well as DITR eligibility so it's not completely bad to use OVR as a barometer.

re: tec- yes you're right, it is good to gloss over the 61-67s for valuable relievers or highly-polarized platoon hitters that could make the bench. There usually aren't many but it's cool to pick them out and move a few of those upwards. And yes, there will be pre-draft 58 potential OVRs who end up being ruined for DITR because they are revealed to be true potential 62 after the draft, and vice versa there are some pre-draft 62s that I didn't rank who show 55-59 post-draft that I missed out on, so there is some overlap / blending in that 60 +/- 3 range. The scouts are obviously not perfect but they're usually pretty close, I rarely see any 60s that end up being like 45 potential and vice versa rarely any 60s that end up like 70 potential.. approx 60 is a good sweetspot in the ranks in my opinion. In general, the best I can do is take the scouting information at face value and identify who in that middle-tier group has optimal attribute ranges. I pick out the high vel, high gbfb, low stam, medium control + splits guys and boost them upwards. if I can hit even a single one it's like getting a free top-10 pick, I've gotten some really amazing DITR guys and it's not an accident

re: mike that's just your inferiority complex talking

Agree with others, the formula is too rigid. I dump everything into excel and then build my own basic formulas. I rank according to a weighted average for the main pitching and hitting ratings then shift guys around based on the other factors (fielding, DUR, HEA, STA, signabilty, which arm/bat they use, etc.) I'll rank 30 guys or so, then bump up a few useful utility SS's as well as a few guys who might make good DITR candidates.

It takes a few hours but I've never had a draft I was disappointed in (unless you count the drafts that were garbage to begin with).

Posted by MikeT23 on 2/9/2017 6:13:00 PM (view original):
LOL. If you think I have an inferiority complex, you're the only one around here. Maybe re-evaluate your thinking.

BTW, using a lot of words doesn't make you right. Just long-winded.

Ok, fair enough, I'll re-evaluate, I used bad terminology. It is more accurate to say you exhibit a superiority complex as a defense mechanism against inferiority

Let's see how many of these boxes we can check on you...

-Those exhibiting the superiority complex have a self-image of supremacy. He assumes that he is superior when he is not, and this false success compensates him for the state of inferiority which he cannot bear.
-An individual who is not properly trained to answer life's problems may turn from striving for superiority in useful ways to that of a personal superiority at all cost. If an individual cannot be better than another on their own merit, they will attempt to tear down another person or group to maintain their superior position.
-Those with superiority complexes may garner a negative image in those around them, as they are not concerned with the opinions of others about themselves.
-They may speak as if they are all-knowing and better than others, but ultimately they do not care if others think so or not, and will not care if others tell them so. They simply won't listen to, and don't care about, those who disagree.
-Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias whereby individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, relative to others. This is evident in a variety of areas including intelligence, performance on tasks or tests, and the possession of desirable characteristics or personality traits.

BTW, I know that reading is hard but you should try it every once in awhile, you might learn something. Talk less, listen more.

Says the long-winded mofo who constantly misleads other users with either A) stuff he doesn't understand or B) stuff he hopes to mislead.

And that is how you create a draft board.

You guys must live North of the snow belt. Bored or something this time of the year?