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Archives Fantasy Baseball - 36 Hours of Drafting Goodness
Just a reminder that our fantasy drafts are coming up quickly:

BBFL Alomar: Thursday, 9:00 PM EST
BBFL Barfield: Thursday, 9:30 PM EST

The Leftovers!: TODAY!!!, 9:00 PM EST



If you're in Alomar, make sure you exclude other people's keepers and put your five keepers in the top five slots of your queue.

Make sure to test your computer to see if it's capable of loading the Yahoo draft software. You can verify this through the "Test Your System" link in the "League Overview" section of your league.

As a matter of courtesy, please, please, PLEASE!!! have four or five potential picks ready to go in your queue at all times. It makes the draft go so much faster. If everyone takes 90 seconds, the draft will take 11 and a half hours! This is the problem we had in a draft I was in a few days ago.. a few owners were saying stuff like "Wait.. hold on.. is X still avaialble? What about Y? Uggh.. How many pitchers do I have?" and they'd take 2 minutes for their pick. As Droz said in PCU: Don't be that guy.

For those of you in Alomar and Barfield: I calculated the final totals, and it works out to $8.75 Canadian or $6.25 U.S. for league fees. Info on how to send in your payment to follow.

Cheers,

The Commish
Posted by Pepper Moffatt on Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 08:41 AM EST.
Fantasy Baseball - 36 Hours of Drafting Goodness | 34 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_snellville jone - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 09:49 AM EST (#74470) #
I imagine that the first five rounds will take less than half an hour, so really we're only looking at about 10 and a half hours. :)

Seriously though, my prediction is 2 hours and 53 minutes.
[ Reply to This ]
Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 09:51 AM EST (#74471) #
http://economics.about.com
I imagine that the first five rounds will take less than half an hour, so really we're only looking at about 10 and a half hours. :)

Seriously though, my prediction is 2 hours and 53 minutes.

That sounds about right. If people take the time to prepare, there's no reason we can't do it in around 2 hours. I know that won't happen, but it could if we all tried. :)

Cheers,

Mike
[ Reply to This ]
Pistol - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 10:45 AM EST (#74472) #
As a matter of courtesy, please, please, PLEASE!!! have four or five potential picks ready to go in your queue at all times. It makes the draft go so much faster. If everyone takes 90 seconds, the draft will take 11 and a half hours!

With 20 teams picking you should have plenty of time to find players to select prior to your pick so there's no reason to take much time to select.

I'm hoping Barfield can finish the draft in less than 4 hours. That'd be an average of 30 seconds/selection.
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Coach - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 11:37 AM EST (#74473) #
Mike, this may not be in the payment options, but I'll "send" you one of those jumbo beers the next time we're at the Dome. That's more fun than PayPal, and slightly more than $8.75.

If someone from the Leftovers league would copy and paste their draft results into an Excel file and send it to me, I'll upload it to our server and post a link to it. I'm just curious to see how far certain players fall.

Four hours seems about right for the new leagues and I'm hoping the keeper rounds fly by in Alomar. The "I'm Away" check box can really speed things up; it makes your automatic picks after a second or two instead of waiting until the clock expires. It's a courtesy to use it if anything takes you away from your PC; those unnneccessary 90-second delays become increasingly frustrating as the evening wears on, especially for us old codgers who are up past our bedtime.
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_R Billie - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 11:55 AM EST (#74474) #
2 hours and 53 minutes is a very ambitious timeline. I'd say the 4 hour guess is more realistic. There are 500 picks to be made, 400 non-keeper picks. If there is an average of 30 seconds between picks which seems reasonable then it works out to just over 4 hours. We can possibly get that down to 20 seconds or less if people make an effort to consistently queue up several players each round. If that's the average time per pick then we can make it under 3 hours.

Most leagues involve around 12 teams and 300 or fewer total players drafted while our leagues run 20 owners and 500 players drafted so we're going to have a pretty long draft anyway you slice it. It might be like trying to get the Oscars not to run long.
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_R Billie - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 11:59 AM EST (#74475) #
Yes, the "I'm Away" button is quite important. If someone goes away or answers the phone or gets distracted by ElimiDate on TV or something then that leaves that owners team taking a full 90 seconds every round before their pick is made for them.
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_dp - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 12:07 PM EST (#74476) #
Anyone remember the time from last year's draft? Seemed really, really long, but this was (obvious from the standings) my first time in such a large and deep league.
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_snellville jone - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 12:53 PM EST (#74477) #
I'm basing my prediction on a 10 sec average for the keeper rounds and ~ 23.5 sec average for the non-keeper rounds. We'll see.
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_sweat - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 01:23 PM EST (#74478) #
Something to note. Before you close your draft window, and let auto draft take care of your bottom rounds(some people do this), make sure to check the "I'm Away" box BEFORE you close your window. Clicking the I'm Away button when getting the door and so on makes things a lot easier on everyone.
[ Reply to This ]
Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 01:24 PM EST (#74479) #
http://economics.about.com
Mike, this may not be in the payment options, but I'll "send" you one of those jumbo beers the next time we're at the Dome. That's more fun than PayPal, and slightly more than $8.75.

Coach, Beer is *always* in the payment options. Thanks! :)

Nachos are also acceptable as currency.

Cheers,

Mike
[ Reply to This ]
_Cristian - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 01:32 PM EST (#74480) #
Beer is *always* in the payment options. Thanks! :)

Mike, don't complain when you open your mail and receive an empty glass in a very soggy envelope.
[ Reply to This ]
Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 01:36 PM EST (#74481) #
http://economics.about.com
Mike, don't complain when you open your mail and receive an empty glass in a very soggy envelope.

Just make sure it's thoroughly soggy. Last thing I need is a paper-cut on my tounge. :)

Cheers,

Mike
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_Jonny German - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 01:45 PM EST (#74482) #
The "I'm Away" check box can really speed things up; it makes your automatic picks after a second or two instead of waiting until the clock expires.

I had a draft on Monday with several owners not present, and their picks took around 15 seconds each. No idea if Yahoo! is faster on Thursdays than Mondays.

Anyone remember the time from last year's draft?

According to Coach in the follow-up thread from last year's draft, it took 3 hours. With the keeper rounds and none of us being rookies anymore, we should be able to improve on that.
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_Rob - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 02:05 PM EST (#74483) #
If someone from the Leftovers league would copy and paste their draft results into an Excel file and send it to me, I'll upload it to our server and post a link to it.

I'll do it, unless someone else has already offered.
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_snellville jone - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 03:47 PM EST (#74484) #
A side note to clicking the I'm Away box: The queue takes precedence over everything, so be prepared to draft anyone you leave in the queue in case you forget to unclick the I'm Away box. A lot of times I use it to remind me of certain low ranked players I like, and I've screwed myself a few times.
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_NDG - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 04:08 PM EST (#74485) #
A couple of things:

1) I won't be taking up too much of anyone's time as I've have some clients in town and have to take 'em out tonight. I expect to miss at least a few of the early rounds, and knowing how much they like to drink, I might be better off not drafting even after I make it home.

2) Even if you are at the draft, always make sure your players are queued up. I was in one on Saturday night where my browser locked up ON MY PICK in three of the first four rounds! I've been in quite a few yahoo drafts over the past few years, and this is the first time anything like this ever occured, so be warned!
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_Dr. Zarco - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 06:25 PM EST (#74486) #
Does anyone know if one browser works better than any other for the draft? I've never done a Yahoo draft, but Netscape has worked for other online drafts and works for Yahoo games. I don't wanna be in the situation NDG talks about! Thanks, and I've been pumped all day about it.
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_Rob - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 06:31 PM EST (#74487) #
Does anyone know if one browser works better than any other for the draft?

For me, IE works better than Mozilla (sorry Joe).
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_Spicol - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 06:35 PM EST (#74488) #
Zarco...I have a pretty crash resistant machine but have had freeze-up episodes in IE, Mozilla and in a fit of desparation, Netscape. I think it's a Java problem, not a problem with any one particular browser.

(Real life getting in the way, I've been missing the Box lately. But I will be at the draft...at least the first two hours.)
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_Dr. Zarco - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 07:00 PM EST (#74489) #
Ok, thanks Spicol-I'll prerank like a champ just in case then.
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Pepper Moffatt - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 07:12 PM EST (#74490) #
http://economics.about.com
There must be a bunch of you pre-ranking now. I can see all your smiling faces in Yahoo :)

Cheers,

Mike
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_Rob - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 08:21 PM EST (#74491) #
47 minutes to go...
Pre-ranked 68 players? Yes
Tested DraftRun thingy? Yes, 20 times
Excluded A-Rod? Oops, wrong side.

Good luck to all tonight.
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_Simon - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 09:15 PM EST (#74492) #
Jesus Christ...I'm in the leftovers, i arrived 4 minutes late for the draft, tried to enter, and nothing! i only have like 40 guys preranked.....son of a bitch.....
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_Simon - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 10:04 PM EST (#74493) #
GAH!...no-one can help? Some of the 20 drafting must have the blog open....
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_bird droppings - Wednesday, March 31 2004 @ 11:32 PM EST (#74494) #
Honestly, I am so sorry for putting you leftovers through what your going through as I only preranked like 30 people and I just woke up and now Yahoo is being silly.

I apologize, I have the flu and I am dying. Please put me out of my misery. Again, I apoligize. I don't know if I should be more sacred about dying, you guys, or about my team... I don't know if I even want to see who I drafted.
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_Dr. Zarco - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 12:44 AM EST (#74495) #
Great draft! Incredibly fun fellas! I was having some computer issues at the end there, sorry. Draft Day-always one of the most fun days of the year! Now if the season began today...
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_Rob - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 01:05 AM EST (#74496) #
Draft results coming to you soon, Coach.
BTW, Dr. Zarco had one hell of a draft.
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_Rob - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 01:40 AM EST (#74497) #
Sneak preview of the Leftovers Results:

First round:
1: A-Rod, 2: Pujols, 3: Sheffield, 4: Doc, 5: Soriano
6: Vladi, 7: Beltran, 8: Prior (that was before I knew he was out for a month)
9: A Slimmed Down Barry Bonds, 10: Helton, 11: Ramirez
12: Pedro, 13: Gagne, 14: Delgado, 15: Schilling, 16: Vasquez
17: Thome, 18: Bret Boone, 19: Renteria, 20: Wood

JAYS: Doc at 4, Delgado at 14, V-Dub went at 26, O-Dog in the 7th round.
[ Reply to This ]
Pepper Moffatt - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 08:43 AM EST (#74498) #
http://economics.about.com
Here's the Excel file of the draft:


Cheers,

Mike
[ Reply to This ]
Pepper Moffatt - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 08:44 AM EST (#74499) #
http://economics.about.com


Oops.. second try

Leftovers XLS file. Make sure you click "save" and not "open". It's a big file, so it might crash your browser if you try to open it directly.

Cheers,

Mike
[ Reply to This ]
Pistol - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 04:44 PM EST (#74500) #
4:45 until the Barfield draft begins!

Enough time for dinner and a nap....
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_Shrike - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 05:24 PM EST (#74501) #
Just enough time for me to prepare my pre-rankings, you mean.
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_Donkit R.K. - Thursday, April 01 2004 @ 07:00 PM EST (#74502) #
8-10 hours... 310 players... sorted by position.... gone gone gone! Stupid computers! Now as I search for a player in the 18th round, I will surely highly overrate a young guy I can remember preranking, picking someone several rounds too early and blowing it all! Argh!
[ Reply to This ]
Fantasy Baseball - 36 Hours of Drafting Goodness | 34 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.