Expansion teams - fixed drafting?

[senorcoo]

Hey all, I hope that OOTP 9 will have improved expansion team drafting. I like to set up a fictional league with fictional players, sim 3 seasons, then hold an expansion draft with two new teams. Previous versions don't seem to handle this properly. Is this something that will be improved for OOTP 9?

[BruceM]

Can you be more specific. Exactly what wasn't being handled properly?

[senorcoo]

I don't believe that teams were pulling back 3 players for each one that was getting drafted. I did one with real life rosters and drafted 2B Dustin Pedroia (who would never be left unprotected) and they didn't pull back 3 players to protect which then allowed me to take Jacoby Ellsbury. That's the kind of thing that should NEVER happen - especially with 2 quality players who are making almost no $$.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by BruceM

Can you be more specific. Exactly what wasn't being handled properly?

The expansion draft was being handled like a regular draft. The number of picks in each round was equal to the number of expansion teams. This led to situations where crafty drafting could result in the looting of talent from a specific existing team.

Actual expansion drafts work by having the number of picks in each round equal the number of already existing teams. Also, the number of players which can be selected from an existing team is limited to one per round. This ensures that all existing teams contribute equal, or nearly equal, numbers of players to the expansion teams.

This issue has been pointed out, but it remains to be seen if it'll get looked at for this year.

[Syd Thrift]

Wasn't there a further rule, at least in the '93 expansion draft, that teams could lose no more than 2 players to one of the expanding clubs, period? ISTR there being something like that.

[conception]

The problem is that every expansion draft has been conducted with sometimes vastly different rules. There is no standard method. It seems to me like it would probably be a very difficult thing to program to even have one of the rules that you guys are suggesting. I would rather have fixed compensation with sandwich picks, as it seems like this would involve some of the same processes but be a little less complicated.

[Honolulu Blue]

Originally Posted by senorcoo

I don't believe that teams were pulling back 3 players for each one that was getting drafted. I did one with real life rosters and drafted 2B Dustin Pedroia (who would never be left unprotected) and they didn't pull back 3 players to protect which then allowed me to take Jacoby Ellsbury. That's the kind of thing that should NEVER happen - especially with 2 quality players who are making almost no $$.

No, there aren't any pull backs in the OOTP expansion draft. The best way to work around it is to expand the number of protected players. I've had good (and fairly realistic) results by using 25-30 players.

[senorcoo]

But if I allow them to protect 25-30 players, I'm going to get stuck with all minor league guys. In an actual expansion draft, that would never happen.

[Honolulu Blue]

Originally Posted by senorcoo

But if I allow them to protect 25-30 players, I'm going to get stuck with all minor league guys. In an actual expansion draft, that would never happen.

Not necessarily so. The computer GMs do a fair job of protecting their best prospects when given the numbers to do so. I've always been able to pick up guys with prior year ML experience even with 30 players protected, and there are even more available with 25.

And one of the strategies that you could try is to draft ALL prospects and fill in the holes with free agents. This, of course, depends on how deep the FA pool is and your tolerance for signing them.

[senorcoo]

I'd still like to be able to at least replicate the AI teams ability to pull back players as others get drafted. Like, one Yankee gets drafted and the Yankees protect 3 others.