Overview
The draft occurs on Saturday, March 16th, 2019 at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. This document provides some information that might or might not be helpful when drafting.
Launching the Draft Application
About an hour before the draft starts, there will be a new link available when you visit the ESPN site. This will (probably) be in the form of a button that says, "Launch Draft". Clicking that button will launch the draft application
Chat
The Chat area is available towards the bottom of the main screen. There is a white text box you can type into. It is considered 'good form' to at least type a quick 'Hi everyone' into the Chat, even if you don't participate in the ongoing banter. Also, please note that the Chat BEST place to get help if you don't understand how the draft works or anything else. In an emergency (like if your toaster is on fire), we can even pause the draft, but we would need KNOW about that in order to do so.
Mock Drafts
It can be useful to participate in a Mock Draft in order to get the hang of things. To do that, go to http://games.espn.go.com/flb/mockdraftlobby and sign up for one of the mock drafts.
Keepers
The Draft Room can be confusing when the draft first starts due to the way the keepers are handled. During Rounds 1 & 2 of our draft, the keepers will be automatically selected for each team. On Round-3, everyone except Mendo-Rays will have a keeper automatically selected, and Mendo-Rays will make a manual pick. Once we get to Round-7, we will all start to pick manually.
Research
It's a good idea to keep a separate browser (or window or tab) going that you can use for researching players before you draft them. Using a separate browser helps to avoid accidentally leaving the Draft Room while doing your research. If you have time, it is a good idea to quickly search Google-News (or elsewhere) and confirm that a player has not been injured recently (even that morning) before drafting someone.
Closers
Closers can get scarce in our league. It is very easy to find yourself without any closers at the end of the draft. There are different strategies for handling closers, and some people prefer to pick up closers during the season (if they can), while other folks don't even bother with closers. In general, though, it is a good idea to make sure you have at least 1 or 2 closers by the end of the draft. This is a good site for finding information about closers:
http://closermonkey.com/.
More
- If there is a player you really want, it is a good idea to pick him at least 2 rounds before he comes up as an autopick.
- The AutoPicked players are not tuned to our league, and there are some odd rankings anyway. It's a good idea to edit your pre-draft rankings and move anyone you absolutely don't want to the bottom.
- For the early rounds, it is a good idea to make a list of players you might want beforehand. That way, if the player you were hoping to get with your first pick is not available, you can be prepared with a 2nd and 3rd choice.
How the draft order is determined
- The first 8 teams in the draft are the reverse of the bottom 8 teams in the regular season standings of the prior season.
- Teams 9 & 10 in the draft are the teams that came in 5th and 6th in the playoffs. Who, between them, is 9 and who is 10 is determined by the reverse order of their seed going into the playoffs.
- Teams 11 & 12 in the draft are the teams that came in 3rd and 4th in the playoffs. Who, between them, is 11 and who is 12 is determined by the reverse order of their seed going into the playoffs.
- Team 13 in the draft is the team that finished 2nd in the playoffs.
- Team 14 in the draft is the reigning champ.