JCC Discussion Time: Let's Talk About Drafts - next draft?

Make it like the first two baseball drafts, and by that I mean with by round limitations. The first pick in the round sets the terms for that round. We mix it up so everyone has first pick twice. And @LloydChristmas trades for every pick in the Shaq round.

Six GM's. Two judges. One commish.

 

What if instead of a normal draft, which would never end, we had a storyline (say Days of Future Past) and we drafted characters and tried to gear them for that storyline, and then instead of voting for battle wins, we voted on which group would best do that story?

 

Every time we try something new it always get abandoned. Let's go back to the good old days. Draft characters. Argue who wins. Easy.

Integral's idea sounds good.

 

Am I having a stroke or didn't this already happen?

 

If there's actual interest in this, I'll seriously commish it. No limits on character power, but commissioner rights to veto and/or neuter any picks that are just ridiculous. You can draft Movie, TV, Comics, Video Games, Star Wars, Broadway, Literary, Animated, etc. fictional characters and name that the theme for any round.

 

I would do it. Heck.

 

That sounds



I love how open it is. It would require a lot more thought from the GM's.

 

We sort of tried a Universal Draft (one Mythology pick, one Broadway pick, one Comic pick, one Movie pick, etc.) and it went about as well as anything we've tried, but I'd give this a go, sure...

 

What the heck, I’ll give it a shot.

 

Ya know... I think I still have my notes for the Crisis of Infinite Drafts somewhere around here...

 

Can I draft composite Florida Man?

 

No. Not fictional enough

 

Florida Man will remember this.

 

I'll allow it.

Now I'm remembering the epic C-Webb/ Barbara Walters fued I had planned that was going to spill over into other people's matches and I just got a little sad that it never came to be.

 

@heels1785 thoughts? this cool with your modly self?

 

Also Barbara Walters vs. Jennifer Walters

 

We are live

 

So, with this season winding down, can we talk about the next Baseball Draft?

As I demonstrated with the celebrity softball game, I want to switch our engine from What If Sports to Out of the Park Baseball '21.

This will present a more "true" sim with the following realism bits brought in:

• Fatigue and Injuries will happen (so depth will matter, whereas now you can start your position players every game if you want)
• Clubhouse culture can and will impact team performance (e.g. - you draft Albert Belle and never play him; he starts to brood; a few players start to struggle because of the impact)
• More randomness - players can (and will) get better or worse as the season progresses. If you draft a young player with a high ceiling, they might have a breakout season, they might struggle, and they might go hot and cold. If you draft an older player, they might sustain performance, or they might rapidly decline (as an example, I put 2002 Barry Bonds on the 1999 Rockies team, and he regressed three times before the All-Star game because the engine doesn't take sustained steroid use into account (Pointy be ware)
• A wider variety of stats included means some of the greats who struggle in WIS will be better - Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson
• Penalizes, doesn't reward, short season stars
• Has hot and cold streaks

It also offers up more strategy for the GMs (all of which I will leave at optional)

• Design and name your own ballpark with your own custom dimensions
• Set a rotation of any size you want between 1-6
• Set lineups for RH, LH with platoons based on fatigue, x number of days, or "as needed"
• Designate specific roles for bullpen - closer, long relief. high-leverage situation with a "primary" and "secondary" role for each
• Designate a specific preference order for pinch hitters, with options for vs. RH and vs LH to be different
• Designate a specific preference order for pinch runners, with options for vs. RH and vs. LH to be different
• Set strategies around how quick to (or not) to go the pen, how aggressive to use baserunners, and how often to pinch hit

It will also offer up the ability to track stats automatically, which I view as a big plus.

Anyone currently playing have any objections to this switch?

 

after three seasons in whatif i think we've pretty much exhausted its potential. i think this switch is exactly what we need to keep things fresh.

 

Also, I need to test this, but I think we can do it with any number of teams we want. So we can keep it at twelve, contract to ten, expand to fourteen. It'll be effectively the same amount of work.

But ... we also might want to split into a National League and American League, especially for making playoffs work. I need to test some options there, too.

 

Yeah, this looks good. As long as, like you said, the in-depth strategy stuff remains optional for those that don't want to spend too much time nerding out over this can do so and not be penalized an insane amount for it (I, naturally, will be nerding out to the max).

So do you know if it actually take real life player personalities into account with the brooding stuff? Like, will Belle, Cobb or Old Hoss actually tend to get surly faster than, say, Trout, Griffey or Ripken?

Also, do we know to what general degree the short season stuff is penalized? Like hopefully Shane Spencer and Shawon Dunston will be hot garbage, but what about players whose best seasons came in shorter-ish seasons, like Bagwell and Brett (110 and 117 games respectively)? Does fatigue hit them harder than someone who played 159 games?

And most importantly (rhetorical), does this actually mean Bob Gibson becomes one of my keepers? Yikes.

 

I am all for all of this.

Amazing.

 

Yes. Players who are clubhouse cancers IRL will be much more likely to be clubhouse cancers in the game. However, just playing around, I benched Dante Bichette, and at about the hundred game mark he had two at-bats and was becoming an issue. Larry Walker complained to me about him.

The big number for batters is 100 At-Bats. Anything less than that and they will be weakened. Anything between 100-300 will be "projected" and anything over 300 will be taken as-is.
For pitchers, it's 40 IP to not be weakened for a starter and 10 IP for a reliever.
And, keep in mind, the new sim will look at the full season, even if a player was traded. So you wouldn't get just C.C. Sabathia in Milwauke, you'd get his full season, with the Cleveland portion included.


oh, and @AmazingB I forgot to mention my favorite part of the switch. It will expand the player pool and give teams access to Negro League Players (and maybe more ... I'm working on figuring out how to get Korean and Japanese leagues available with MLB. I'm not 100% convinced I can do it)