Draft

Im making a new post to ensure everyone sees it. I completely agree with Kohler about the time that it is going to take to complete an auction style draft for 500 players. The draft probably needs to be done over a 2 day weekend. I doubt that is feasible with people coming from all over the place. I think its alot to ask for guys to give up a whole weekend to draft a team. And I for one will not give up a whole weekend to draft a fantasy baseball team. Kids, work, puppy, coaching, other hobbies, misc errands, and oh yea a wife all pull on my time as it is. Going into this I thought it would be a draft on one weekend day taking at most 12 hours which is not a problem. I voiced my concerns earlier on about the time that I thought it would take to conduct an auction style draft with 20 teams owners (actually more counting co-owners) trying to draft 500 players. But I was told don't worry about it, it will work. "Ok" I thought "I will give it a shot" but the more I think about it and hear others voice their concerns the more I realize its not going to work. Look how long its taking us to complete 6 rounds of a minor league draft. Team owners aren't prepared to make their picks for this and they know when they are going to be picking. Based on that it doesnt seem to me that all team owners in this league are taking this as a serious as I am or as committed as I am and that worries me and makes me wonder "How in the hell is the live draft going to work?" What makes anyone think these same people are going to be ready for a live draft and arent going to be the same people slowing that down as well, if they even show up. I dont mean too sound like I'm crying and moaning here but I think I am just trying to be realistic. Frank has said that if u cant give the time then it might be time to drop out. Frank, I dont know u nor what else u have going on in your life but fantasy baseball is a hobby of mine not my life. As u have seen my picks have all been made quickly except for one (I was on the road to florida to scout players at spring training) and have all been valid/half-way decent picks (if i dont say so myself). My point being that I am into this and half-way know what i am doing (remember Matt Garza?). But though I am not yet raising the white flag I am raising the yellow (caution) flag. I cant give more than 12 hours or so for a live draft on a single day and if its going to take more than that then I am out. If the rest of team owners can give that amount of time, god bless them, but I can't. I look forward to hearing what my fellow owners have to say. By the way, who is on the owners committee? This is starting to feel too much like Major league baseball (Bud Selig anyone?)

Congrats DAD !!!!!

Congratulations Todd and Ms. Sliss on the new addition to your family. Henry Shea, sounds like a future editor of the New York Times to me .Hope mommy and baby boy are doing well.

Newest NFSL Legacy

Raise your glasses to Simpsonville Slayers co-owner Todd Sliss and his wife Carrie (though, mainly to her) on the birth of their new son, Henry Shea. For those of you scoring at home, lil' Hammerin' Hank weighed in at 8 lb., 6 oz. at 3:19 pm on Monday--12 days late.

We can only hope this lackadaisical attitude will be gone when it's his turn to draft in a couple of decades.

Hey Nassau....

looks like someone read the Daily News this morning ;)

The Draft

We are now less than 1 month from D-Day. Seriously. After all the talk, after all the hype, the time is almost here to put up or shut up, to see just what you're made of in what will undoubtedly go down as a ground-breaking, some might say transcendent, fantasy baseball league.

The minor league draft is rolling along at a somewhat efficient pace. A pothole here and there have slowed the proceedings, but overall it looks like we'll be able to wrap things up in a week or so. Once completed, if anyone wanted to break down the draft (winners, losers, ranking the farm systems, etc.), that would be swell. Just go ahead and post it on here.

I hope everyone has at least started prepping for the major league portion of the draft. Draft day comes up fast and you don't want to be left holding your junk while blanking on a back-up shortstop. I've been to too many drafts where some numbnut holds everything up because he has run out of players on his list and has to frantically flip through a magazine looking for a name, any name. At the end of a long, grueling day of bidding it can happen to the best of us. trust me.

And that's just what the inaugural NFSL draft is going to be--a grind. There's no getting around it: 20 teams x 25 players each = (carry the one) 500 players. Now, I love drafts as much as the next guy, but even I expect to need a Red Bull IV by the end of the night. I am also going to assume that this isn't coming as news to anyone. We're starting a Super League from scratch. This isn't some kill-a couple-of-hours-before-American Idol-comes-on-Yahoo! draft. This is the real deal. Bring your A game and hope it's enough.

So, how are we going to pull this off, you may be wondering? This has been the biggest question mark from the league's conception. After hearing from most of you over the past few months, the consensus is that an auction is the preferred drafting style. Besides simply being more entertaining, it also prevents us from having to compromise the innovative salary-based strategy that I feel separates this league from other, lesser leagues. Of course, this hasn't prevented many of you from expressing grave concern over the feasibility of such an undertaking. Is it actually possible to draft 500 players via auction in one day? The most honest answer is, we'll see. But I think it can be done.

The biggest problem in every auction-style draft I've been in has been a lack of focus. Owners would go to the bathroom in the middle of a bid, start side-conversations about totally unrelated subjects, or be giggly drunk before picking their starting 1B. You may need to draft 10 players and it can take 2 hours or 10 minutes. It's all about focus.

So here's what we're going to do. We're going to use a real auction format. No around the room bidding. It will be a player called up and open bidding until one owner is left. And it will move fast. If you can't figure out if you want to bid on a player, no one is going to wait around for you to figure it out. You need to come to the draft prepared. If you're not paying attention and miss out on a player you really, really wanted, the other 19 owners won't be showing you much sympathy.

Players will be divided into blocks of 50 based on generic pre-draft rankings and called up randomly within those blocks. We'll take short breaks between groupings to give everyone a chance to unwind, eat, drink, and excrete. Then, back to work. Again, keep in mind this is a one time thing. Next year's draft will be more leisurely.

Tom will be in touch shortly with the Draft Day specifics and directions. Remember, this is going to be an all-day affair, so don't make plans for that night. If you can't make a one day commitment to this league, maybe you need to rethink if this is right for you. If there are any extenuating circumstances, please let us know ahead of time and we'll try to work something out. Until then, happy scouting.

2007 Minor League Draft: Round Four

61. North Babylon: Brad Lincoln, Pittsburgh
62. Setauket: Chris Volstad, Florida
63. Laurel: Jeff Clement, Seattle
64. Kohler: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Atlanta
65. Bay Ridge: Tyler Clippard, New York (A)
66. Riverhead: Joe Koshansky, Colorado
67. Brooklyn: Jacob McGee, Tampa Bay
68. Staten Island: Donald Veal, Chicago (N)
69. Coram: Ian Stewart, Colorado
70. St. Olaf: Gio Gonzalez, Chicago (A)
71. Simpsonville: Troy Patton, Houston
72. Westphalia: Brian Bannister, Kansas City
73. Ridge: Dustin Pedroia, Boston

74. Browntown: Elijah Dukes, Tampa Bay

75. Philadelphia: Michael Bourn, Philadelphia
76. Nassau: Tyler Cummings, Kansas City
77. Ninth Street: Wade Davis, Tampa Bay
78. Mattituck: Kory Casto, Washington
79. New Libertatia: Eric Campbell, Atlanta

80. Hampton Bay: Travis Buck, Oakland

Draft Format Info

Frank will be posting a blog explaining how we plan to auction style draft--so stay tuned !

Draft format?

Hey. It was brought up a month ago about the draft format. Are we keeping it at auction style for all players or we doing half and half (auction and snake draft)?

Just making sure...I would rather just do auction the whole way, with a limit set on bidding times (5 minutes a top player, 3 minutes for lower tier players)

Worthless Card Collection

If you collected baseball cards in the 80's, you absolutely MUST go to this site:
http://www.joesportsfan.com/cardCollection.php

and make sure you roll the mouse over each card for a fun fact.

Minimum Wage

Just a reminder that from here on out, all draftees will be making the minimum ($250,000) when/if called up to the majors.

To recap: 1st rounders will get $1 M, 2nd rounders $750,000, and 3rd rounders $500,000.

2007 Minor League Draft: Round 3

41. Hampton Bay: Carlos Carrasco, Philadelphia
42. New Libertatia: Phil Humber, New York (N)
43. Mattituck: Adam Lind, Toronto
44. Ninth Street: Colby Rasmus, St. Louis
45. Nassau: Adam Jones, Seattle
46. Philadelphia: Chris Ianetta, Colorado
47. Browntown: Brandon Erbe, Baltimore
48. Ridge: Kevin Slowey, Minnesota
49. Westphalia: John Danks, Chicago (A)
50. Simpsonville: Erick Aybar, Los Angeles (A)
51. St. Olaf: Josh Fields, Chicago (A)
52. Coram: Mike Bowden, Boston
53. Staten Island: Jeff Niemann, Tampa Bay
54. Brooklyn: Eric Hurley, Texas
55. Riverhead: Clay Buchholz, Boston
56. Bay Ridge: Thomas Diamond, Texas
57. Kohler: Billy Rowell, Baltimore
58. Laurel: Franklin Morales, Colorado
59. Setauket: Humberto Sanchez, New York (A)
60. North Babylon: Lars Anderson, Boston

NFSL: DIVISONS

Again, and for the record, here is this year's divisional alignment:

Division 1: Nassau, North Babylon, Ridge, Westphalia
Division 2: Browntown, Laurel, Mattituck, New Libertatia
Division 3: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Coram, Staten Island
Division 4: Hampton Bay, Ninth Street, St. Olaf, Simpsonville
Division 5: Kohler, Philadelphia, Riverhead, Setauket

Any suggestions for division names?

Nice Team LOGO !!!

Hey John, Nice logo---your talented---I thought you were only good at making PIZZA !!!

On With the Draft.......Lets keep movin!

Mets Tix Cheap

Hey Mets fans there are a select # of games throughout the season where Tix range from $5 to $20 and seats are Upper Reserve not the greatest but pretty damn cheap to get in the door. SF Giants tix in late May are 9 bucks with a longshot of being at the HR record breaking game!

A message from the GM of the Bay Ridge Wopdagos

Hello all again. This is the general manager of the most storied franchise in Brooklyn, the Bay Ridge Wopdagos. I am proud to announce our new assisant general manager, Gino the Guido. You can see all that Gino has to say here: http://www.youttube.com/v/4_RzJc_nc94


We have also announced our new manager, Miss New York herself, Bethlene Pancoast, who is a resident of Bay Ridge. Unfortunately, her nose was not able to make this press conference since it is still in Las Vegas because of Homeland Security. http://www.missnewyork.org/competition-info/national-contestants.asp?state=New+York&year=2007&contestantName=&GO=GO%21

Now, I know that some of you have been looking at our minor league picks and wondering, what the hell is he doing? Rest assured, I do have my general manager of the minor league squad, the Alibaba Cameljockeys' own Shraif Adubl Jabbar Mohammed, to explain. Shraif?

(Speaking something in camel language, can't understand...)

Thanks Shraif. The applications for the Frankie Wilders Fan Club are pouring in! Thanks for all the support that you have bestowed upon me. Membership kits are in the mail now and will be arriving by draft day. Of course, if you want to wait until then, I will be bringing a limited supply of kits with me, so they will go fast! Be the first on line!

We here at the Bay Ridge Wopdagos pride ourselves in knowing what it takes to put a winning ballclub on the field. Of course, it starts with great, young talent. With that being said, let me introduce you to our first two minor league draft choices, James Loney and Felix Pie. These two young men may not come up to the majors this year, but rest assured, they will make a HUGE impact next year and the year after. Thanks guys. You may now go because its naptime and you just had your bottles.

Thank you all for attending today's press conference, and I will leave you with this:

No matter if the groundhog sees his shadow or not, it is still 7 weeks till spring.

Frankie Wilders, the general manager of the Bay Ridge Wopdagos.