snake draft position advantage/disadvantage

[SpecialFNK]

is there an advantage or disadvantage on where one would draft in a snake draft?

example. I'm in a 16 team keeper league. the commissioner sets the draft order early February to allow managers to trade draft picks. out of 16 teams, I now have the 2nd pick. that means I have the 2 picks within 4 spots, and have to wait an awfully long time in between picks. would this be a disadvantage? while I would pick 2nd overall in one round and then wait many players to pick 15th overall in the next round, I would then pick 2nd overall again in the following round.

seeing how our draft order is pre set this far in advance, would it be worth trying to switch positions with someone else somewhere in the middle? or is picking 2nd overall even out and still a good spot?

[GiantsFan14]

Since it's a keeper it just depends on the guys available. Is there a big drop off in talent after the first few guys are off the board? Is there a big drop-off around 24th overall? You basically want to pick right before the drop-offs occur. For example in a re-draft picking top 3 is awesome because you get one of Braun/MCab/Trout and there really isn't much a difference between the guys available in the beginning/middle of the second round and guys available at the end of the second round.

In a vacuum, it really shouldn't matter where you pick since it's a snake draft. It should mostly even out in the end.

[OBPlover]

Personally, I'd keep #2 so that I can bag me either Braun or Miggy. I think if you blow your first round pick you have a huge hole to dig out of. Beyond Braun and Miggy, all the other first rounders are surrounded by question marks. Trout's amazing but he only has one year of history. Kemp has had off and on injury problems. Mccutchen also broke out and is with a poor offensive team, limiting his counting stats. etc. So why not grab yourself something with as close to certainty as you can get in Fantasy baseball?

[GiantsFan14]

Personally, I'd keep #2 so that I can bag me either Braun or Miggy. I think if you blow your first round pick you have a huge hole to dig out of. Beyond Braun and Miggy, all the other first rounders are surrounded by question marks. Trout's amazing but he only has one year of history. Kemp has had off and on injury problems. Mccutchen also broke out and is with a poor offensive team, limiting his counting stats. etc. So why not grab yourself something with as close to certainty as you can get in Fantasy baseball?

It's a keeper league so those guys might not even be available. In his case it could make sense to move down in the draft. It all depends on who's not being kept.

[SpecialFNK]

this is a keeper league where we keep 5. so what would be the 1st round is actually the 6th round after keepers.
you protect 10 players from the season before. then you can trade draft picks and/or players from your protected 10, before having to cut down to the 5 keepers shortly before the draft.
I personally hate waiting and waiting and waiting while a run of players happens, such as closers.

[Ender]

Each player picked during the draft has a smaller delta than the one picked before it so if you pick #2 you should always have more value than a later pick unless the keepers are set up so that you see a flat talent pool in the 1st round with a huge dropoff in talent sometime in the 2nd round. It really depends on who is out there to pick.

[fsbarren]

I would love to be a team in your league, as there really are some different ways to approach this. If you could somehow keep your 1st rounder (6th overall) and trade your 2nd and 3rd (7th/8th) for a late 1st or high 2nd (plus and 4th or 5th) I think you might be able to maximize your return even if you lose a draft pick along the way.

At the same time I have to believe that a couple of teams built up a fantastic roster with more than five keeper-worthy players. Since it makes sense to maximize their value by getting a draft pick for it, it'll just be a matter of being the highest bidder (unless you give multiple later round picks). Despite all of that, I have to believe that at least a couple of great players will fall to the draft (even though the free market says they should all be traded for picks before the deadline).

Sorry if it's random thoughts, but there are just a lot of ways to approach this, depending on the rosters some teams have and the personalities of the owners to potentially trading with, and if any of them have an irrational man crush on one of your players that you can maximize to your trading advantage.

Short answer, I think my ideal situation would involve you keeping your first round pick and trading some combination to improve your next pick. If you have a link your league I wouldn't mind taking a quick peek.

Good luck.

[bayside]

Is there any draft cost for keepers, or does every owner just keep his top 5 players regardless of previous draft position, and those keepers occupy the first 5 draft slots?
Give us an idea of the top ~10-15 players that will be available in the draft and I can give you a better answer.

[SpecialFNK]

teams just keep their top 5 players, no money involved.
right now it's hard to tell which players will be available in the draft. everyone protects 10 players. some teams have 7 or 8 keeper worthy players, while some other teams might not even have 2. in those cases a weaker team will trade a good draft pick for a keeper worthy player and a lower draft pick (since picks have to be even).
only concern I have is that there will be 28 players picked between my picks, but then I have 2 picks within 4 spots. I could have to change my approach and maybe grab a specific player I'm targeting before I really want to.

[AussieDodger]

I've always liked being on the turn in a snake draft.
It's not that you have an advantage, I just find it enjoyable building my team 2 players at a time