Starting League with MLB Player Fantasy Draft?

[Living Lejuhnd]

Has anyone done this? I saw a thread asking how to do this and it was clearly explained.

Just curious what people thought of this feature. I very quickly simmed through one and saw a few things I personally found odd, like a guy like Yasmani Grandal going in the top 20 and a guy like Pujols being picked around 150. I guess I could see the Pujols thing if the game really is banking on his early decline and massive contract, but was surprised with Grandal and a few other players.

Any settings that people have tweaked (not sure if this is possible) to create what they felt was a realistic draft?

[da commish]

Originally Posted by Living Lejuhnd

Has anyone done this? I saw a thread asking how to do this and it was clearly explained.

Just curious what people thought of this feature. I very quickly simmed through one and saw a few things I personally found odd, like a guy like Yasmani Grandal going in the top 20 and a guy like Pujols being picked around 150. I guess I could see the Pujols thing if the game really is banking on his early decline and massive contract, but was surprised with Grandal and a few other players.

Any settings that people have tweaked (not sure if this is possible) to create what they felt was a realistic draft?

I tried one with mixed results. First, the draft pool includes all the 2013 first year entry draft players (e.g., Appel, Stewart, etc.) which is kind of a bummer since it obviously changes the June draft. But it's not a game breaker for me. Also, the draft pool includes ALL players including minor leaguers. I did a work around where I released all the 40 man roster players and a few players on the 60 day DL into the free agent pool and did a fantasy draft of the free agents. I had to do it individually by team rather than just release every player into the free agent pool which would have included the minor leaguers. Then I had to modify each team's finances because they were charged the players' salaries when they were released. (Which actually provided some interesting info on teams' salary commitments - the Dodgers were charged $838 million for all their existing contracts while the Astros were only charged $23 million.)

I found that the AI is pretty lousy at drafting decisions when it comes to player distribution. The AI puts too great an emphasis on starting pitchers by drafting many of them (i.e., 10-20) before drafting relievers and closers. The AI teams would have a bunch (10+) of 20/20 SPs while they passed by 70/70 or better closers/relievers. I actually had to redo my initial draft after I had drafted 7 top closers/relievers before many of the AI controlled teams drafted their first. Same thing for rookies/prospects. The AI did pick a few of them early, like Profar going in the first or second round, but otherwise you could assemble a huge future advantage by drafting all the other prospects after you've drafted your first 15 or so players. I had to use some house rules to keep from taking advantage of the AI in both of these situations.

I did set both leagues to using the DH since I wasn't sure how the AI would be able to consider drafting a defensive slug power hitter in the NL. Other than that, I didn't change any of the settings, including the financials.

I'd really like to see the fantasy draft improved, including the non-MLB version, since I feel like I have to have too many house rules to keep from taking too much advantage of the AI controlled teams regarding relievers and prospects. Also, I'd like to be able to have a fantasy draft of just the 40 man roster players rather than having to do the work around I did.

Hope this helps.