Below is a a copy of an email exchange between the Commish and myself regarding an alternative way to conduct the IOD Draft without holding us all prisoner for another Saturday night. BTW, this was a real exchange, not me emailing my self, no matter how it looks on the surface....LOL.
Hey Tom,
In the future we may want to consider an ongoing email draft. Attached is the draft file for my other league. Each team is assigned a date and time by which they must make their selection. This eliminates the necessity to clear a large chunk of time from our busy schedules to sit at the computer and draft. Also eliminates proxy's for those who can't attend. I know I pay a heavy price each and every year with my family to sit for hours in front of the computer on a Saturday night to do the auction and drafts. Granted I have missed the draft sometimes and had a proxy, but then I missed out on drafting my players. I have been in this other league for 5 years now and it works like a charm. ARBA tends to get stuck in it's ways and league members may not want to change, which is fine, but here is an alternative that works. Feel free to share with whoever.
Completely agreed that it's painful to sit in front of the computer for a large block of time and draft. I don't think we can get away from that for the auction, so having to do it again for the draft is intensely painful.
The only thing I worry about from a practical standpoint is the timing for getting the draft completed. We could move the auction up by a couple of weeks and then have a month or so to complete the draft, but even then it would only take a couple of day-long waits for the whole schedule to get trashed. How long is the time in your other league?
The other league I'm in also does an email draft, but that's a league with no minor leagues so it's just filling rosters with rookies and other unowned players, which is a bit easier.
In any event, I'm certainly not inherently opposed to the idea. It would be great if we could figure out a way to make it work and have to sacrifice one less Saturday evening.
Why don't you post the idea to the board when you get a chance? I think that almost everyone would like the appeal of not having to wade through a long draft and being able to make their own draft if even if they're not available on the assigned date.
If you look at the attached file I sent, you will see a 30 team league completeing 6 full rounds, plus a supplemental round with about 8-10 picks, in a weeks time. Each team knows in advance the day and time which they are picking. The time listed is the time the pick is due. Frequently, as is the case now, the draft runs ahead of schedule. However, if you are not available to make your pick ahead of schedule, no one can jump ahead of you until your time slot passes. Most teams are making one pick a day. With internet phones and internet at work, most people can make their pick at their appointed time. Those few who can't can send a list to someone to send their pick in. This happens rarely. First pick each day is scheduled 830am Eastern and last pick is 11pm eastern. There is 30 minutes between each pick. In our league draft picks can't be traded, so this would be a little different in ARBA, with some teams picking multiple times a day and other teams not picking at all some days. The average ARBA draft goes 12-14 rounds, but not all teams make that many picks. Usually most people are done by the 7th or 8th round. I think we could finish the draft in 2 weeks max.
Tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wow, that sounds awesome actually. You have my support
For the record, I wholeheartedly support this for the draft (not the auction, obviously). I don't think it can be implemented for this year, so this is something to consider for next year.
How about we do both. We can set up the draft for an email exchange (even this year) then we can finish it in one night. That way the bulk of the effort is done before that night (minimizing the impact on our families) while having a way to end the thing in a reasonable timeframe. Just my 1/10 of 1 U.S. dollar.
I really prefer keeping it as it is, but would be willing to try the suggested method at least one year. As long as an e-mail draft keeps moving, I could live with it.
I did quit a league simply because the e-mail draft had no flow. Days went by without picks being made. Sucked the fun right out of it for this impatient SOB!
Dave, I agree with you. In order for it to work the time line has to be strictly adhered to, and if a person misses their pick, oh well, they can send it in when they get the chance, but the draft waits for no one. In the other league we began the draft technically Monday morning, although the first pick was allowed to be announced at 9pm EST on Sunday night. It is Tuesday night and we have finished 1 1/2 rounds (+ a supplemental round) out of 6 rounds to be done. I just made my 2nd rd pick 30 minutes earlier than it was due. Nobody wants a slow dragged out draft. So far in 5 years in the other league it hasn't happened.
I really like Dave's idea of trying the new draft system out before we commit.
Would it be possible to try the first 1-2 rounds of the waiver draft this way? I know we normally just send instructions to the Commissioner and this would be a little extra effort, but maybe it'd be worth it to test the system out?
