I am starting up a brand new dynasty league this year. It is the first league I am running that I am super serious about wanting to succeed.
I am working on the league rules, etc. and figuring out the draft.
Here are my questions:
1) Is it possible to have a live draft on yahoo where yahoo doesn't just auto pick? I remember doing some in the past, but can never figure out how to set it up.
2) Can I set up the clock to give longer time between picks?
3) Any suggestions on how to do the minor league draft? I know yahoo doesn;t allow for most minor leaguers, so my pan right now is to just go to our forum and make individual picks. We are drafting 15 rounds.
I can't recall whether Yahoo allows you to extent the time in between picks. Even if you can, Yahoo will automatically go to auto-pick if an owner does not make a selection. I can't see Yahoo halting a draft because someone has not picked.
It sounds like you may want to consider having a slow on line draft.
pjalst wrote:I can't recall whether Yahoo allows you to extent the time in between picks. Even if you can, Yahoo will automatically go to auto-pick if an owner does not make a selection. I can't see Yahoo halting a draft because someone has not picked.
It sounds like you may want to consider having a slow on line draft.
Some leagues open a probaords site. WWW.proboards.com, or they use a yahoo group page. Some even use the Yahoo fantasy site message boards. It sounds like you have limited fantasy experience. I suggest you ask someone from your league with more experience to assist you.
If you are starting a brand new dynasty league, my advice would be to use a message board draft. This way you avoid any sort of hazard that could stem from Yahoo (like auto-drafting or someone losing power and their pick). It may be slower, but you can always put a time limit on it OR have the managers send a list of a few players to the commish that they would pick in case of absence (you should be able to trust the commish).
I am pretty sure the fantasy cafe here can host league drafts. If you message bigken117, he can probably set up a forum for your specific league.
1 of the big advantages of a slow draft is everyone gets to carefully choose each selection they make in a dynasty. You've got to live with these guys for the next decade so you want to get it right. The big drawback is it is really slow. If you have a superactive league with access to the net 16 hours a day you can get done in 10 days. If guys can't access at work or blow off their picks some days it can easily be 3 weeks. Slow drafts are filled with frustration especially for first timers. A couple thoughts would be to use Fantrax or CBS to get you started in the drafts, they have draft rooms that stay open for weeks at a time, in a message board you get guys taking players already drafted and not realizing it then leaving w/o actually making a pick thinking they have hours till their next pick. Or you can do the important first 150-200 players slow, then finish all in 1 night or with an offline pre-ranked draft. We do slow drafts every year and they work just fine, but the first year or 2 it was a chore. You need to clear it with your managers that for the next 2-3 weeks this is an everyday committment that they need to plan for. Cell phones w/ net and a way of telling owners its their pick are essential for some owners who can't get to the message board during the day
fast dogs wrote:1 of the big advantages of a slow draft is everyone gets to carefully choose each selection they make in a dynasty. You've got to live with these guys for the next decade so you want to get it right. The big drawback is it is really slow. If you have a superactive league with access to the net 16 hours a day you can get done in 10 days. If guys can't access at work or blow off their picks some days it can easily be 3 weeks. Slow drafts are filled with frustration especially for first timers. A couple thoughts would be to use Fantrax or CBS to get you started in the drafts, they have draft rooms that stay open for weeks at a time, in a message board you get guys taking players already drafted and not realizing it then leaving w/o actually making a pick thinking they have hours till their next pick. Or you can do the important first 150-200 players slow, then finish all in 1 night or with an offline pre-ranked draft. We do slow drafts every year and they work just fine, but the first year or 2 it was a chore. You need to clear it with your managers that for the next 2-3 weeks this is an everyday committment that they need to plan for. Cell phones w/ net and a way of telling owners its their pick are essential for some owners who can't get to the message board during the day
What I did in my league was have the last person who picked email the owner that was next in line to draft. This kept the draft running smooth. Each player had 24hrs to make their pick, but you could average a round or 2 a day with a good notification system. Another accelerator is to put a 4 to 6 hr time limit during peakhrs(9am-9pm) and no limit over night.
Thanks for all the great advice so far. I especially like the idea of having the person who just picked to email the next in line to keep things moving well.
An on-line slow draft does work very well, though it can be frustrating. Especially when it first gets underway... there can be a flurry of picks in the first few hours, and then the guy with the 7th pick takes almost the full 12 or 24 hour limit. Drives people crazy. But that's why you give yourself time to get it done. I'd say, just to be on the safe side, give yourself a day for every 10 picks. For example if you have 5 rounds of 10 picks each, don't have the draft on March 31st.
E-mailing or texting the next guy after you pick is helpful. Another thing to do is to leave a list with the comish. Say you're going to bed, you're on deck to pick and you know you'll be too busy to check in the morning. You can "authorize" the comish or another manager to pick for you. All you have to do is PM him a list of two names - your first and second choice, since if there's only 1 pick in front of you, you're guaranteed to get one of them. I hesitate to do this myself, as I'm kind of obsessive about keeping my draft strategy to myself, but if you know you're going to be away from the computer for awhile, it can really keep things moving.
Thank you for your input. Here is a follow up question. What is the ramifications of a manager not getting his pick done quick enough? If the limit is 24 hours and they don't make their pick, what should the penalty or next move be so it allows the draft to move forward?
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by Mateo de Lorenzo » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:13 pm 
