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.