Amateur Draft strategies

[Bulldawgz24]

I’m approaching my First Amatuer draft for the tigers in my save and was wondering if anyone had draft strategy input....

Do you follow overall ratings, scouting comments, individual stat ratings? Anyone follow the scout director recommendation? How much to weight in the personality?

I typically only draft the first 5 or so rounds depending on how talented the draft pool is.

Also, in edit mode under a particular player, the potential stat #’s are shown. Does this represent what the player can get too or what the player will get too???




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[IanIachimoe]

I ask my scouting director his opinion first.

I'm mostly looking at potential & intangibles.

once all the great to good potential players are gone, I look for special skills (speedsters, sluggers, high K guys, etc).

after all that, I sort by stats. I usually draft all 35.

[jcmurr]

Typically:

- Favor high work ethic/high intelligence players
- Follow your scout ratings and not OSA
- Draft top talent, not positional or organizational needs
- Relievers can be found in free agency easily and on the cheap; I typically avoid them unless they have top stuff and project into my bullpen within a couple years

[jimmysthebestcop]

Depends on what you or your teams philosophy is. Are you tools or ability? Want someone 2-3 years from majors or potential superstar 5-6 years away. Is the player for your organization or is he trade bait the following year?

Where at in the 1st round are you at? SP can be problematic in 1st round depending on year. I want 4 pitches with current ratings above minimum. Stuff 60+ potential and current control 40+ with 60 potential.

If we are looking at a fielder I want some one that can hit, field, and run some what. Not dropping a top 10 pick on someone who is only a 1B or DH that hits for power. That can be found later rounds.

And sometimes is best player available because you can get a lot for them the following year.

[The Yurpman]

- Always draft the best player available. Don't ever reach for a certain position, especially in the first few rounds. You'd rather have a 70 potential OF that you can trade instead of a 50 potential 2B that you need to fill a spot.
- I only care about player personalities if they are obviously negative. Like, "slow to learn", or "is selfish". Other than that, I don't care. The more positive, the better, obviously.
- Once I hit the middle rounds when all of the premium talents are gone, I try to focus on players that are really good at one or two things, instead of average at everything. Like a high contact/speed player or a high control/one or two good pitches pitcher.
-Lastly, if you draft a guy that has "impossible" as his signing demand, it is possible to sign them, but it will take millions of dollars over what they want, usually. I almost never draft these guys unless it's in the first three rounds and you want the comp pick the following year, for whatever reason.

[Bulldawgz24]

Thanks for the tips everyone....

All that is along the lines of my overall strategy, some more than others.

As the tigers I’ll have the 5th overall pick which is exciting in this draft that has a lot of good hitters which is what the tigers need!


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[NoOne]

ratings above all else, but don't ignore things... overall/pot wil be apparent to you from the individual ratings and mostly redundant after a quick glance.

personality is important. work ethic and intelligence will help chance of development. some others may be important to ability to sign a cheap extension etc etc... considerations but always < talent.

you won't pick a ~40ovr over an ~80/80 overall just because of work ethic... (yea, using overal to be simple here... with a big enough spread it is almost guaranteed the 80 is better than a 40... some pitchers may be an exception? but at that big of a gap, i doubt it.)

so, figure out tiers of quality (not about overall/pot -- rather, use contact, gap, power etc.. stuff move control etc..)... when within a tier, you use personality, future needs, and other stuff outside of ratings as a tie-breaker. don't allow those ancillary things to convince you to pick someone below that 'tier'.

toughest thing here is what pitching quality equals what type of batting quality... (sim-)years of experience will make this more apparent to you over time.

e.g. if i am drafting in top 10, i'm looking for anything elite. i will not reach for need. i'd only take a batter if he's a 81+contact ~81+ power... unless the pitching choices are absolutely abhorent... looking for future HoF quality guys 1-5 or 1-10 ish depending on depth of draft.

rarely i'll take an elite obp/contact guy that high. he'd have to be peak ichiro-esque type quality and a ~3-5 year future need, but it does happen. a closer? once a century that high, lol. even in first round i rarely take a closer, unless they are clearly HoF quality just by putting their pants on in the morning and half-@ing it for 10 years.

i find trading SP prospects easier than any other position... SS/CF with offesne gives that statement an argument. and, rarely a catcher with enough offense to notice comes along too. those tougher positions trade well if they can play defense jsut ~average and can hit well.

i draft at end of round 1... most years SP are best option, but i don't write anything in stone.

you are more likely to find a diamond pitcher round 2-4 than a batter. the power bats with any contact ability are almost certainly gone in first 30 picks. don't reach.. take the best talent you see within the current 'top current tier' still availble in draft.

[panda234]

I find that after the first 7 or 8 rounds all that are left are the 1/2 star players that don't seem to have a future. Are they worth drafting?

I've also noticed that I might draft 8-10 players in a round but only 6 or 7 show up to negotiate with. Is that standard?

[WIUPIKE]

Originally Posted by panda234

I find that after the first 7 or 8 rounds all that are left are the 1/2 star players that don't seem to have a future. Are they worth drafting?

I've also noticed that I might draft 8-10 players in a round but only 6 or 7 show up to negotiate with. Is that standard?

I usually draft guys that have certain attributes in late round. Good Speed, Good Defense, Good Contact to take a flyer.

The only players that will be on the negotiation list are all players in top 5 rounds and any player that is a impossible.

[IanIachimoe]

Originally Posted by panda234

I find that after the first 7 or 8 rounds all that are left are the 1/2 star players that don't seem to have a future. Are they worth drafting?

I've also noticed that I might draft 8-10 players in a round but only 6 or 7 show up to negotiate with. Is that standard?

I'll look when I get home, but I'm fairly certain I have a few mid rounders from the late teens or early twenties showing promise & working their way up my system.

a late rounder, somewhere around 26-27, as a top prospect.

[Bulldawgz24]

I did my draft last night for 2019 and found 45 overall rated players (scale of 20-80) that had pretty good individual ratings in the 15th rd. I noticed most of the hr guys were gone besides the ones that had like 20 contact & eye....

I did struggle making decisions in my draft, I played for 3 hours last night and went through only 15 rounds from start to finish! Hopefully I will get it finished quicker tonight.


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[panda234]

I'm playing LAD and with a good budget spend more time sorting and rating FA's in November than I do draft choices. Usually I just let the computer choose for me but sometimes I'll put in more effort if I've accumulated a few high round picks in trades. I do need to give it more focus though.

[Bulldawgz24]

You can trade draft picks??!?


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[eldur00]

Originally Posted by Bulldawgz24

You can trade draft picks??!?


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It's an option you can toggle on, yes. It's off by default because obviously it's not the standard MLB rule.

[Galeg]

I probably go overboard, but I copy all of the players over to a shortlist and then use various views and filters to show the players I don't want to draft and delete them from the shortlist. I keep doing that until I have 120-150 each of pitchers and hitters that I wouldn't mind drafting. Then when I'm in the actual draft those players are in caps and easy to keep track of.

What to look for when eliminating players comes down to taste, I guess, but I take out those who are impossible to sign or who have a high demand to little skill, those with low work ethics, injuries, bad personalities, extreme flyball pitchers, low potential control, low potential contact, etc.

[Bulldawgz24]

Originally Posted by eldur00

It's an option you can toggle on, yes. It's off by default because obviously it's not the standard MLB rule.

Thats interesting......will have to think on if I want to stick with MLB rules or break to enable this feature.

I do a ton of trades of draft picks in FHM, which definitely is fun to do, enables you to speed up a rebuild(trade for picks) or prolong a team staying on top (trade away picks)


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[panda234]

Originally Posted by Galeg

I probably go overboard, but I copy all of the players over to a shortlist

What do you mean copy to a shortlist? Is this within OOTP or do you mean a spreadsheet?

[jcmurr]

Originally Posted by panda234

What do you mean copy to a shortlist? Is this within OOTP or do you mean a spreadsheet?

He creates a custom shortlist of players. You can keep lists of players depending on what you want to track.

For example, I have a shortlist for:

- My top prospects
- Potential trade target prospects
- Potential trade targets (vets)

You can use them to quickly bring up a list of certain players. You can simply right click on any player and "Add to Shortlist" > "Create Custom Shortlist". You can access your lists under "Player Search and Shortlists" under the Manager dropdown menu on the main screen.

[Bulldawgz24]

Originally Posted by jcmurr

He creates a custom shortlist of players. You can keep lists of players depending on what you want to track.



For example, I have a shortlist for:



- My top prospects

- Potential trade target prospects

- Potential trade targets (vets)



You can use them to quickly bring up a list of certain players. You can simply right click on any player and "Add to Shortlist" > "Create Custom Shortlist". You can access your lists under "Player Search and Shortlists" under the Manager dropdown menu on the main screen.

I like the idea of a shortlist for my top prospects. How did you determine your “top prospects”


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[panda234]

Got it, thanks. Lots of potential uses for that.