Gforces rosters draft question!!

[Bohica]

If I am using Gforces latest rosters, when the draft is held in June..how many rounds should I make it??? I know he made it so the real draftees are in his set. Just wanted to make sure that they all get drafted. Thanks

[GForce22]

I have been suggesting 7 rounds.

GH

[Bohica]

Thanks, buddy!!!

[hukarez]

Hmm. Is the amateur draft usually held in June? How many actual rounds does it take anyways? (Just curious, never really got the whole pre-season thing down when it comes to MLB and rookies)

[couriers]

Last year I believe that it was held on June 5th and had 50 rounds with approx 1500 or so players drafted.

[dbacks]

Yeah, same with 2001. June 5-6, 50 rounds, 1516 players...

[hukarez]

Whoa! 50 rounds?? Are you serious?! Not 10? Not 7? But 50 ?? Each team goes 50 rounds? Wow...

How is the draft order usually determined? Via W/L percentages or the like? Lottery style?

[DHS23]

Yeah, 50 rounds in the draft. Keep in mind there are quite a few levels of minor league ball. 5 I believe (AAA, AA, High-A, Low-A, Short Season), and for some reason I'm thinking there's another one that's extended spring training that I'm not listing. So that's quite a few players. You're looking at about 140 players total in just the minor leagues. Teams aren't going to sign all 50 players. I've heard Brian Sabean say last year that the guys in the later rounds don't even deserve to get drafted, but they have to complete their picks.

The draft order is determined by the win-loss record, and by the league. One year, the worst NL team will draft first, then AL, then NL, and so on. It alternates every pick. The next year, it's all flip-flopped.

[hukarez]

Ah, so essentially, it's like a zig-zag from NL's worst, to AL's worst picking back and forth then? Interesting. So if there are relatively 5 levels and all, they're all 10 rounds each I'm guessing.

[CareyScurry]

Originally posted by hukarez
Ah, so essentially, it's like a zig-zag from NL's worst, to AL's worst picking back and forth then? Interesting. So if there are relatively 5 levels and all, they're all 10 rounds each I'm guessing.

Not exactly: the draft is at the organizational level, not the "team" level (whereas a minor league team would draft separately from the major league team or another affiliate of the organization). Two days, 50 rounds - I believe it's the 3rd and 4th of June this year. Listen to five minutes or so of it on MLB.com, if you've the time and they don't charge for you to do so - it's got a very different vibe than any other draft I've ever heard or seen. Rapid fire.

The majority of signed draftees go to one of three levels of short season ball: Short season A (New York Penn and Northwest Leagues), Rookie (Appalachian and Pioneer Leagues) and Complex (Arizona and Gulf Coast Leagues), listed in order of difficulty. Most organizations have teams in two of the three at a time (both one and three have happened in recent years) - their choice of leagues is largely governed by whether they prefer to draft college or high school players.

Of the remainder, most of those go to full season A ball - very few are ready for a higher level right off the bat.

Also, not all players are drafted with the thought of signing them right away (or even at all) or with the belief that they are prospects. Baltimore draftee Adam Loewen (featured prominently in discussions of the GForce roster set) is an example of a draft-and-follow - the team drafts the guy, but instead of signing him right away, he goes to junior college and the team controls his rights until the next draft. Normally, this doesn't happen with guys drafted as highly as Loewen, but it's a way for a team to use a low round pick to look at a guy with some upside and see if he develops into someone worth signing - Houston has had several successes in this area.

Also, since baseball doesn't use salary slots in its draft, a team may draft several players which are expensive for the round with the thought of using them to bargain off one another / a backup plan. Few team sign all of their, say, first fifteen or twenty picks ... and most picks in the late rounds go unsigned.

Also, unlike in OOTP, real teams have to have minor league benches - and third string catchers have to come from somewhere.

Lastly, as to advancement, there are players which have spent three or four years in short season ball without reaching full season A yet (the lowest level in OOTP) ... so it shouldn't be surprising that young players which are also low picks in this game make take some time to rise to the next level.

EDIT: Also, in reference to Sabean's comment, some teams just stop drafting toward the end of the draft - six quit early last year (which I think is a little crazy, there's always somebody worth selecting as a potential DFA).

[hukarez]

Wow. Sounds like there's quite a few folks who probably won't make it to the majors until their mid-20s or the like.

[CareyScurry]

Yeah, there are quite a few (real life), but those that take their time moving up, or start at lower levels, tend not to be those which make the majors.