Looking for draft ideas

[sprague]

Wanted to start this post to see if someone out there has the magic idea that I have been looking for. A new way to structure my draft in my ootp league. How to decide what team gets the picks.
I am not a fan of the finish last and get the first pick, nor do i really like set up lottery style drafts either.
I want a new idea as I play my game with a talent randomness of 15 (very low so very few busts, very few surprises, you draft high you get a good player) and with higher development ratings- so those drafted players get the majors much quicker. i also tend to have no international free agents, so the draft right now is the only way to bring in new players. I am also not a fan of just making all the players free agents, as all of them would go to the best teams.

So the ideas I have been tinkering with.
1- an exhibition playoff between the bottom 8 teams. Top team wins the 1st overall, 2nd gets 2, 3rd gets 3- while the team with the worst record can fall no farther than 4th. Would make an interesting early part of the playoffs to see who "wins" the overall draft.

2-Delete the top 4 players from the draft. Those players will be remade as 18 year old int free agents (which I turn on and have no spending limit, old IFA rules). But. Every team puts in 5 or 10 million into a pool, which gets divided and sent back to the teams based on order of finish the previous year. So the last place team might get a boost of 5 or 7 million in their available cash, the best team might lose 5-7 million making it a little harder to compete with the weaker teams for the best player. However the last place team under this system could theoretically get the best draft pick, and also sign the best player from the FA pool.

3. I hold a lottery for the top pick, but only 10 or 12 teams (the big markets) are allowed that pick- as they are the ones with the money needed to pay for the player. The draft 2 and on continue as per now.

4 This has nothing to do with the draft itself, but make free agency after 4 years and arb after 1. Now you cant just stock up on young players,you have to find the money to pay them-market value while they are prime players. Many weak teams will just keep turning over young talent to the big boys- only a few will be able to hold on to a few players and build a dynasty. OF course with this proposal there is no IFA as the top teams have no need to stock them as well. All are drafted and eligible for full free agency very early on. Think of the off season in a league like this, it would be potential super turn over year after year. Trades would go to a very low setting, as most players will move in free agency.

What ideas do you have the make the draft more interesting...still give weaker teams a good player but not necessarily the best...in some way to mirror the old days where players had some say who signed them and for how much money. Suggestions?

[sprague]

This is a new idea. I don’t think it could work for ootp but a real world solution.
A every draft pick has a slot value as it does now.
B top draft team makes their selection. That player can sign for the slot money or refuses. If he refuses every other team can offer him their highest spot, which he can choose any all of which will be for less money. If he always wanted to play for the Red Sox, he can for less.
C top drafting team chooses again, process repeats. It won’t be long before someone says yes to the top slot money.
D team 2 select and so on.

[NoOne]

i dabbled in a lower TCR with increased inaccuracy.

i think thats the opposite of what the op wants with the top playrs getting amore guarantee. it did allow for some surprises to slip to later rounds -- but very very few... out of 30 teams, someone still gets it "right" most times. i've actually seen 10-12th round guys be decent on a rare occasion though.. not due to TCR. (i have nothign but spite for that, even though i do leave it on to some extent - i assume since the game is built at default to use it it does perform some sort of useful function relative to a video game, but in no way relates to reality in function in any logical manner.)

i just didn't like the draft being ~meaningless beyond mil filler after round 2-3 for the most part. excluding TCR luck.

it was nice for the league, imo, but it made a heck of a lot more work for me relative to how i procure future talent -- mostly trading for useable pieces. costs rose because i couldn't delineate between good/bad until they had more svc time than when it becomes clear previously.

you can always re-create draft order easily any year.. you could just do a constant rotation each year... all teams shift 1 spot up or down each year, whichever...

or randomize it each year, that will, over time, average out in a similar way, but in some small samples 1 team will inevitably benefit during that small window of time when they get lucky to draft high in a window of time more often than others.