HtBSSN-For those of you who haven't gone through the updated draft or have never done a draft, I have a few notes you should be aware of. First of all, you will need somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 pitchers on the rookie roster or you will have trouble keeping the fatigue in check. With the last update they made more pitchers available in the draft to combat this, about 60% or more of your draft board will be pitchers(300+). Supposedly they cut down on the 1B, RF and LF position players to make this happen. Also CF was to have more available, but I have not seen that in two drafts. 1B was cut down the most(almost 1/3, 90 to 60 or less), which I don't mind at all there was way too many and most useless followed by LF and RF. I used to run scouting at 18M College and 14M HS, and found this not to work and have changed it to 14M for both. Used to be if you used 12M you would get ? on some players late on the board, I have not asked others that use this amount, but that may have changed.
What I have noticed the most is the quality of the position players in the draft. The last draft a couple days ago had the most owners complaining I have ever seen. I had the first pick of the draft and was looking for a power SS or power defensive PC catcher, neither was there. The best SS on my board was actually drafted 3rd and the best position he could actually play was 2B not even 3B, even after he was signed and my 18M scouting took over and he couldn't hit right-handed pitching. I ended up taking a left-handed SP pitcher because he was the best player available. I liked the right-handed pitcher that was drafted second better and he was 9 OVR points lower, but he wasn't on my board. Overall, 17 pitchers was drafted with the first 32 picks and many were over-rated relief pitchers. The best catcher wasn't drafted until the 5th round and he wasn't all that great. The best position player was actually a RF that went 15th and surprised that owner. After all was said and done, my top two picks were the only ones that were ML caliber, though All-Star break hasn't occurred yet with the DITR upgrade. Though I don't expect any because I only signed 7 players from the draft, the rest aren't even really worth minor league tryouts.
The first draft was more of the same in all reality, though I took a pitcher anyway over the SS, well, the SS could play the position at least although his hitting was a little questionable(no power and contact below 50). Actually I didn't expect him to be there with the 4th pick. I just love picking up rebuild teams, though this was the freebie. Matter of fact, this is a good team with a bright future. I really thought I could get a wild card spot with it. I even held a couple players in AAA to replace under-performers at All-Star break which I did. I was ready to make a run being only 9 games out and well above .500. But, an 8-30 run sure put a damper on that. I could set a record in futility in that world by having the most 1-run games, mostly losses now(23-25 with 33 to play).
I haven't had a draft with the extended allotted time to rank players. There is a good reason to extend the allotted time, normally it took me about an hour to rank the players at the most and then maybe another 30 minutes on another day to make minor adjustments after I did an indepth study of my minors to get the players I wanted in later rounds. Both of these drafts took me upwards of 3 hours to start with. The first 25 is rather easy as always, after that becomes a nightmare. Especially when so many more pitchers are available (most of them more useless than in the past) and less position players (most of them even less useful than normal).
Use to be that one almost emptied the rookie team at the end of the season or after rollover. A new plan of action is required now. I have been keeping the useless rookie players until they decide to call it quits or until I can find something to replace them with. If any rookie players hits the WW I try to snag them regardless of their stats. I sign maybe 10 drafted players or less now. I know that distorts the DITR a bit. After the season is over and have moved the good players forward and get rid of the most useless ones, I sign the remaining picks. Then if I have any prospect money left I attack what is left of the IFA's. Sure keeps the career minor leaguers in the low minors for sure now though. If you don't have your rookie roster populated before the draft, then chances are good that you may not get enough pitchers and/or position players to fill a roster properly.
