TWIFS FABL DRAFT GUIDEThe draft in FABL is fairly unique and one of the highlights of our off-season. We are a stats-only league so that, coupled with the two phase approach we use makes preparing for the draft a little different of a process for General Managers. Since FABL has some new GM's, and the existing ones are likely still getting back into the swing of things following a long hiatus for the file fix and decade long fast-forward, This Week in Figment Sports has prepared a draft guide.
Is it the only way to prepare for a FABL draft and must GMs follow all of these steps? Of course not and it may not even be the best way but it is an approach that has been honed during my 35 or so seasons of actively running a team in the league.
The FABL Draft Structure
The official in-game drafting of players in FABL takes place in June but using Stats+ our commissioner runs the draft in two segments. The first, typically done in the January sims while hockey and basketball dominate the news pages, covers the first ten rounds and is done entirely by human GM selections in Stats+. The second segment is done in mid-June on the actual in-game draft day and covers the remaining 10-15 rounds and is done by computer picks based on our scouts draft lists but GMs are allowed to adjust the draft lists in any way they see fit.
I typically focus almost entirely on the January phase but between April and June, once we get the mock draft and the game generated high school and college stats, I may have a short list of players that I will place at the top of my Scouting Director's lists for rounds 11-15 or so.
It is so rare that a player selected after round 10 has any impact in the big leagues so the later rounds really can be ignored if you have limited time.
PREPARING FOR THE DRAFT
In a typical year I will begin preparation for say the 1976 draft almost immediately after the 1975 draft is officially conducted in June. I use shortlists in game and immediately sort the 450 odd players in the draft class down to a much more workable group of roughly 150 names. Those will be the players I will scout heavily and will be the ones I focus on for the January phase. Some GMs do not like to narrow the class down that quickly but I find doing so allows me to focus my SD (Scouting Director) on the top prospects and with OOTP 25 I could get everyone to VERY HIGH scouting accuracy. It is my understanding that will be much more difficult to do in OOTP26 so in my mind that means it is even more essential I get my draft class focus down to the top 150 or so quickly.
Shortlists are Your Friend
Shortlists are huge in scouting for a draft in Stats-Only.
My first task in late June or early July is to read through the scouting reports on all players and quickly sort them into one of three short-list groups that I create: First or Second Round candidates, Third through Sixth Round and Seventh thru 10th. I also put all the players who are not on any of the three shortlists on a fourth shortlist I label Round 11-25. I do this in case there are some very late additions added to the game when OOTP flips to the new season on January 1. This way I know if a draft class player is not on a shortlist that he is brand new and I need to look at him. Now that sounds like a real time consuming project but it is not as much work as you might think.
First tip is to break it down over multiple sims which is why I start immediately after the completion of the previous draft. One sim I will go through all the college pitchers, the next one the high school pitchers and then do the same for position players. A key thing to remember is make sure you export after creating your shortlist (that was a lesson I learned the hard way in the early days) to ensure your shortlists are there when the game moves ahead.
Another tip to greatly reduce the reading. In my initial run through I simply glance at the last line of both the OSA scouting report and that of my scouting director. It is pretty easy to decide this guy goes in the Round 11-25 scrap heap.
How do you break them into groups: Well, pitchers who are said to have #1 or #2 starter potential or position players who are described to be first-division starters or better go into the Round 1 or 2 group. Everyday players or middle to end of rotation arms go into the third through sixth round group and spot starters, upper tier minor leaguers or players with another interesting scouting note that catches their attention end up in the round seven to ten list. The result is that I have quickly cut my scouting focus and work down to about 150 players as usually 20-40 going on the round 1 or 2 list and 40-60 end up in the round 3-6 list with another 25-50 in the seventh to tenth group.
Here is how my shortlist drop down typically looks
I clear out my draft shortlists immediately after each draft so I can use them again. I also keep a list I called "Already Drafted" that I move players to as they get selected during the January phase so I always can see who on my draft lists might still be available (some do this exclusively in Stats+ but I found this works for me). In this case my team picks second in the draft so I have also made a very exclusive list of half a dozen players I am seriously considering for my pick at #2 overall (all of those players are also on my Round 1& 2 shortlist). Ignore the College and High School players for stats - they are part of my TWIFS prep work when we were picking High School and College All-Americans but I do recommend you make a list to track the top prospects in your system. It is not draft related, but I find it assists me in making sure my top prospects are playing and are at the appropriate level for their development. It has been my experience that the OOTP engine does an awful job giving minor league playing time to your best prospects, so I always force start key prospects at the positions and level I want them at.
Now that I have those shortlists complete I am ready to have my SD focus on scouting them. I assign him tasks every sim during the second half of the regular season continuing weekly right up to the January draft to ensure those on my 3 key shortlists are scouted heavily.
Other Things to Focus On
Once I have those lists and my scouting director assigned regularly to scout these players I just let him do his thing until the calendar approaches January. So all of that sounds like a lot of work but it really is only about 5 minutes per sim making sure my SD is busy but not overworked. The 4 sims to get my draft lists sorted take a little longer, maybe a half hour each at most to do the high school pitchers and hitters but far less (because there are fewer) time for the college lists.
Once we hit December I began to make a final draft list. Again I like to spread it out over several sims to minimize the work but that is completely optional. I will export to csv my three shortlists and combine them in an excel document so I have my 150 or so draft candidate split into three groups.
The next step is fine-tuning that excel sheet to get to a ranking order for my picks. I usually go with two lists - one for pitchers and one for position players. Here is an example from the 1951 draft of what my pitcher draft list looked like. Jim Norris, at the top of my list was drafted by my team and became a superstar. Mike Quigley and Buster Scott, who were 2nd and third, most certainly did not pan out. I have kept many of my lists in order to look back on.
You notice I have a few things I look for included in my csv export. Work Ethic is a big one for me, so big they I will move a player up or down my list based on it. I also really look for ground ball pitchers, and often penalize guys who only have 3 pitches. Velocity is also a factor that helps me determine where to rank a player in his group. The HS/College stats can become a small factor as well and I include a quick phrase from my SD and the OSA assessment.
Now all of that is extra and not necessary if you don't want or have the time to do it. Simply having a block of 20-40 names as potential first and second round candidates puts you in a good position to draft. I also lean, when possible, towards college players- especially pitchers- because they should have less risk and from my understanding high school pitchers are even riskier in OOTP26 than they were in previous versions, which is something that feels like it is an improvement when compared to real life, especially in the era that we are playing in.
You Do Not Need To Go Into This Much Detail
I just mention the other things because there is so much you can focus on in a game that hides the ratings. If ratings were enabled I would still use a spreadsheet but it would be very black and white as to who slots where based on potential. I much prefer the uncertainty of stats-only, especially when a GM gets comfortable identifying all of the things aside from ratings one can use to assess talent.
January 1 Until The Draft Begins
Once the calendar flips to January 1 in OOTP online leagues give you a nice option in that your Scouting Director can be asked for his recommendations for each round of the draft and you will have a nice list to choose from. Make sure you use Scouting Director's "DRAFT LIST" to help you assess player rankings. It is an online league exclusive feature I believe but you can click on the DRAFT LIST tab from the draft screen and then under ACTIONS ask your scouting director for his draft list for all rounds. I wish it could be exported to a CSV but I don't believe it can but if you don't want to do all of the work above to prepare for the draft the Scouting Director lists can certainly be used to make your Stats+ draft lists.
PRO-TIP: Be ready when it is your turn to draft I cannot emphasize that enough. There are 23 other teams waiting to draft and with all the time we have to prep (even this year with the quick jump into the draft) and scouting director lists available there is no reason for you not to be ready to pick when your turn comes up. Not sure if you will be available when it is your slot then make a short list in stats+ and set it to pick from list so you do not slow the process down. Yes, the commissioner is very relaxed especially in the first round in giving us plenty of time to pick but do your best to ensure you have a list if you are not around when your turn comes up.
This Draft is Unique
The 1975 draft is beginning just a couple days after our first sim so all of that scouting prep time will not be available. I have spent time the last few days running through the draft pool to get my normal lists sorted by round in place but because my SD is LOW accuracy on nearly the entire class I found I am relying much more on what OSA says. Come draft day because I do not know the class well enough I may even defer to my Scouting Director list once we get past the first two or three rounds. We will have a couple of sims on Monday and Tuesday to do some scouting so I am focusing entirely on my round 1 and 2 list to assign tasks to my SD in hopes I get some more accurate information for the draft.
We are all going to be in the same boat but for this draft I may rely more heavily on the stats. Something to keep in mind with stats and pay attention to is that college players have different levels of competition so numbers against Great competition I would assume are more telling than high totals against Fair Competition. For high school players the playing field is equal as all schools are set to average competition levels.
Even without ratings our GMs have become pretty good at identifying talent over the years but 1975 may be a draft with some real stars coming from later round picks and earlier busts because we won't have the level of knowledge we might normally gather. Also, I believe from watching the fast play is that it appears there are a higher percentage of draft picks in OOTP26 that do not pan out. From following 1963-74 in OOTP26 I feel like a lot more top 25 OSA pipeline list players failed to meet expectations and not just pitchers. I like it as the draft, especially in the mid-1970s should have a lot more busts than previous versions of OOTP gave us.
Even for an experienced Figment GM this is a steep learning curve in reacquainting ourselves with our organizations while also preparing for the draft. Lean on your Scouting Director's lists if need be. Maybe not for the first round, where I always believe you should try and find a player you like but certainly in later rounds. Also, do not draft simply for a position of need. Maybe you think you have a great shortstop in your system already but if when it is your turn to draft and you like a SS the most out of the available players, draft him. You will also find that a lot of existing GMs have had a habit (at least in the past) of wanting to draft pitchers and leave talented position players on the board. I would suggest don't do that although with the caveat that pitching prospects, especially those in the OSA top 50 or so have fetched a premium on the trade market in the past. Will that change, especially if it is true and we see a lot more highly ranked young pipeline pitchers never reaching their potential? Who knows?
Good luck with your draft and for new GM's to the league feel free to reach out to our commissioner or any of the veteran GMs as we are always willing to share our experiences. Hopefully this draft prep article has some points that will help your FABL club reach the World Championship Series someday soon.
A Mock First Round To Get You Started
A long standing tradition of This Week in Figment Sports during the early days of this periodical was to provide a mock-draft courtesy of founding editor Jiggs McGee. McGee is no longer with us but the tradition will live on as we present a ranking of the top 24 candidates for the FABL amateur player draft which is set to begin over the coming weeks. This list was created with the assistance of the OSA- the official scouting service of FABL.
Happy drafting!