Please Use The 1-Round Auto Pick In Draft Champions

[Greg Ambrosius]

As we prepare for the upcoming Draft Champions Leagues, let's get the ball rolling in the right direction with some easy tips. We all know that each owner is allowed 8 hours per pick, but there's really no reason for anyone to take hours upon hours to make a pick. If everyone is courteous of others, these leagues can be done in 21 days or less.

Let's make it a goal of each league to complete at least 2 rounds per day. That really shouldn't be so tough if everyone cooperates and stays on top of things. Each pick is emailed to every owner, so you definitely can stay on top of the selections and know when you are coming up. As your pick approaches, do this:

** Set the players at the top of your want list in your Que to the right. All you have to do there is highlight the player and click on the "Add Player To Que" button. That will set your most wanted players where you want them.

** Arrange those players in the Que the way you want them with your most desired player to the top.

** Then if you are 2 or 3 picks away, feel confident in selecting the box that says "1 Round Auto". What will happen there is that the computer will select the top player in your Que at the time of your pick and keep the draft moving. You can go to sleep at night comfortably knowing that you got the player you wanted and you didn't hold up the draft. It won't make a second pick for you, so if you are back on the clock when you wake up you'll have plenty of time to make your next pick. But 1 Round Auto works well and it keeps drafts moving while giving owners their most desired players. Just make sure you have enough players in your Que or it will take the top player from the default list.

** Set your Draft Prep early in the off-season. We won't have all of the flashy tools ready at the start of the NFBC drafting season to make setting your Draft Prep easily like we have in football now, but it will be arriving soon. Either way, take the time when you can to set your player default list in Draft Prep because you can import your rankings from your last online draft into future online drafts. It's a great way to have your rankings in every NFBC online draft this off-season. Again, we'll have tools to make this process easier soon, but even working on the top players now is worth the effort.

** Enjoy the Chat Room. These "slow drafts" are like social media offerings where you get to talk about MLB players, draft strategies, families, work, whatever you want with 14 like-minded owners for 21-25 days. Enjoy it. If you can do it, set a few hours aside at night and enjoy several picks in a row while talking baseball with the other owners. These drafts are meant to work around your busy schedules, but during the winter it doesn't hurt to take a few hours out of your night to make a few picks and talk baseball with others. Usually there is one guy in each league who takes charge and gathers folks together and those leagues are more fun and move along more quickly.

** Be Courteous. This goes both ways as some owners are too lax in making their picks and thus make the experience unenjoyable, while others are too pushy and make the draft unpleasant. Every owner should realize that 14 other owners are waiting for your picks and yet all 14 owners should realize that someone may have something personal or work related that is preventing him/her from jumping online right away. Still, that's where 1 Round Auto comes into play or a text to a fellow owner to help with that pick. If needed, you can email me or Tom and we'll even jump into your account if needed and make a selection. It's not hard to keep leagues moving if needed.

** Please realize that all NFBC Draft Champions Leagues start at 1 pm ET, so have your first picks ready to go. Anyone with a Top 3 pick can easily set up his Que and 1 Round Auto Pick for the start of that draft and have his pick ready to go. Draft spots are emailed to everyone the morning of the draft and drafts start the day after they fill if they fill before midnight ET. Plan accordingly.

** Enjoy. Again, these are great contests to enjoy baseball with 14 other like-minded baseball die-hards and nothing prepares you for the MLB player pool more than these 15-team, 50-round drafts. Enjoy them. And if 8-hour slow drafts aren't for you, we'll create some with 4 hours between picks, 6 hours between picks and even offer DC Express Leagues earlier this year where all 50 rounds are done in one night, one minute per pick. We'll even create regional drafts if the demand is there. We have plenty of time to do these right this year.

Here are a few more items of note:

1. If you want to draft a minor-leaguer or international player who isn't in the player pool, just click on a PLACEHOLDER link and make that your selection. Then type in the player you drafted in the League Chat Room and at the end of the draft email me your Placeholder picks. For example, let's say that first baseman Jose Daniel Abreu isn't in the player pool to start these drafts and you want him. Click on Placeholder 1B and make that as your pick. Then type in the Chat Room "I am picking 1B Jose Daniel Abreu as my Placeholder." We'll replace your Placeholder with Abreu once the draft is complete.

2. All players are available to be drafted. We know that there are some international players now who haven't signed yet with an MLB team, like Masahiro Tanaka, but again you can draft him by selecting Placeholder P and then typing in his name in the Chat Room. Tanaka will be added to the player pool once he is signed by an MLB team, but we'll have several minor-leaguers who won't be in the player default system right away. You guys usually draft deeper than we have the list, so plan accordingly and use the Placeholders.

But use the tools we have for you this year. 1 Round Auto is worth trying out and feeling comfortable about it. The Draft Prep tool is going to be extremely handy for owners who do multiple online leagues with us. Use them and then use your skills to draft the best teams in a reasonable time. Thanks all and good luck.

[Raskol]

Thanks, Greg. This is great information for those new or kind of new to the NFBC and the DC drafts in particular.

But when will the dang things start???

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks, Greg. This is great information for those new or kind of new to the NFBC and the DC drafts in particular.

But when will the dang things start???

Sorry for the one-day delay here, but the full NFBC $150 DC's will start on Thursday, Nov. 21st at 1 pm ET. Good luck all.

[mbendar16]

Greg,
I think it would be a good idea to put your post in a NFBC newsletter and/or the rules so that those not following the message boards/new players can see how these DC leagues should be.

Mark

[Deadheadz]

Greg,
I think it would be a good idea to put your post in a NFBC newsletter and/or the rules so that those not following the message boards/new players can see how these DC leagues should be.

Mark

Speaking of the newsletter, I've never received one. Do I need to subscribe?

[Tom Kessenich]

Greg,
I think it would be a good idea to put your post in a NFBC newsletter and/or the rules so that those not following the message boards/new players can see how these DC leagues should be.

Mark

Speaking of the newsletter, I've never received one. Do I need to subscribe?

All NFBC participants should be receiving the newsletter when it's sent out. I asked our Marketing department today to make sure all signups from last year and this year are on the list. We'll send another one out tomorrow or Friday. If you don't receive it email me at [email protected].

[Deadheadz]

All NFBC participants should be receiving the newsletter when it's sent out. I asked our Marketing department today to make sure all signups from last year and this year are on the list. We'll send another one out tomorrow or Friday. If you don't receive it email me at [email protected].

I'd better check the junk folder in case that's where it's winding up. I seem to get all other NFBC email though.
Thanks.

[Deadheadz]

Bump

[Bluecat]

Thought I'd bump this for those selfish drafters out there who are hijacking some drafts!

[Deadheadz]

Thought I'd bump this for those selfish drafters out there who are hijacking some drafts!

Like the slowbie who took the full minute every round in last night's Express?

[Bluecat]

Bumping again for some of the folks in the January 11 draft who think it's ok to take hours on end because after all, "it's a slow draft."

[NorCalAtlFan]

add their names to Dan's list

[meanguy]

Greg's post should just be posted in every draft room or league board. I doubt the 'slow drafters' are reading these boards.

[Captain Hook]

Greg - PLEASE pin this

[DOUGHBOYS]

Yeah, I'm a little peeved at myself. I took almost 30 minutes off the clock in our fast/slow...
We've done 25 rounds in a little over 48 hours...

[Steel Lugnuts]

I wonder if it's possible to add a conditional pick option (or maybe pick one and then a pick two), this would be helpful for those that draft on the turn or close to it.

Say I'm picking on the turn, and I'm coming up in 4-picks, and I know I want a SP with the first pick, and then a SS with my next pick. I can pre-draft (4) SP with pick one, then (5) SS with my pick two. This would definitely move the draft along. As it is now, using Auto pick is pretty tough to do, especially early on, and something I won't do.

Not sure if I worded this correctly, or if it's even possible without too many issues...but just a thought.

[Deadheadz]

I've sometimes wished for a simpler version of a conditional auto-pick.

Have a conditional queue where you are on auto until the conditional queue is empty, then auto shuts off. The way I understand it works now, if you were on auto and your queue went empty you would get an auto pick from the top of the default rankings (or your custom rankings) list.

[CALI CARTEL]

I wonder if it's possible to add a conditional pick option (or maybe pick one and then a pick two), this would be helpful for those that draft on the turn or close to it.

Say I'm picking on the turn, and I'm coming up in 4-picks, and I know I want a SP with the first pick, and then a SS with my next pick. I can pre-draft (4) SP with pick one, then (5) SS with my pick two. This would definitely move the draft along. As it is now, using Auto pick is pretty tough to do, especially early on, and something I won't do.

Not sure if I worded this correctly, or if it's even possible without too many issues...but just a thought.

I've wanted something like this for the last two years of Baseball/Football Draft Champions. Rather than a single list "Auto-One" or "Autopick", there needs to be two lists something like "Current Round" and "Next Round". There could be a function to copy the list from "Current" to "Next", but as is the Autopick setup is useless for the end picks; I mean you can use the Auto-one option, but that doesn't speed the draft up any since everyone would just have to wait when the turn happens. And if you want to lock in two separate positions, like the previous post said, it's impossible to set your list up properly in the current setup.

[Bama]

Yeah, I'm a little peeved at myself. I took almost 30 minutes off the clock in our fast/slow...
We've done 25 rounds in a little over 48 hours...

Damn Slacker. might have to go on your bad list.



A little jealous though. doing 2 slow right now and one only took 11 12 days to get to rd 25 and the other has did a little less than 5 rds in the last 48 hrs.

[Atlas]

I wonder if it's possible to add a conditional pick option (or maybe pick one and then a pick two), this would be helpful for those that draft on the turn or close to it.

Say I'm picking on the turn, and I'm coming up in 4-picks, and I know I want a SP with the first pick, and then a SS with my next pick. I can pre-draft (4) SP with pick one, then (5) SS with my pick two. This would definitely move the draft along. As it is now, using Auto pick is pretty tough to do, especially early on, and something I won't do.

Not sure if I worded this correctly, or if it's even possible without too many issues...but just a thought.

I've wanted something like this for the last two years of Baseball/Football Draft Champions. Rather than a single list "Auto-One" or "Autopick", there needs to be two lists something like "Current Round" and "Next Round". There could be a function to copy the list from "Current" to "Next", but as is the Autopick setup is useless for the end picks; I mean you can use the Auto-one option, but that doesn't speed the draft up any since everyone would just have to wait when the turn happens. And if you want to lock in two separate positions, like the previous post said, it's impossible to set your list up properly in the current setup.

Sounds like you'd almost need 2 queue's. And I'm the first one to tell you that I am no IT expert, but if we had a Queue 1 and a Queue 2 side by-side, you could copy selections to one or both. This way you could load 5 shortstops in the first and pitchers in the second. Once the first was tapped, the second kicks in, if checked.

Meh...I just keep checking back.

[Corleone]

Bumping this thread, should be required reading when you sign up for a DC league.

[orangemen90]

really.. the mobile device function must be improved....smartphones both iPhone and Android must work... no reason in this mobile device age that there are not apps to use our mobile devices....with out that one is stuck to a pc..

[Deadheadz]

really.. the mobile device function must be improved....smartphones both iPhone and Android must work... no reason in this mobile device age that there are not apps to use our mobile devices....with out that one is stuck to a pc..

I'm able to make picks on the go using my iPhone or my Android web browsers. An app would be nice, but isn't coming this spring from what it sounds like. It's being worked on though.

Of the two devices I prefer using my iPhone for most web browsing but without Flash you're stuck using the HTML draft room.

The big thing to remember whatever device on which you're using the HTML draft room is that if you've set Auto-One you must then navigate to another NFBC League page (such as the Owners List or the ADP list, the League Home page, etc) or else it won't be long before the draft room page refreshes and cancels out your Auto pick.

Just a heads-up for those who don't already know.

[orangemen90]

i can do most anything on my smartphone... but of course no flash player.. so html.. the draft que does not come over to the one... making that useless...thanks for the write up an app is required in this technology age... not something that would be nice,,,,,success does not equal good product... its fleeting...

[orangemen90]

really.. the mobile device function must be improved....smartphones both iPhone and Android must work... no reason in this mobile device age that there are not apps to use our mobile devices....with out that one is stuck to a pc..

I'm able to make picks on the go using my iPhone or my Android web browsers. An app would be nice, but isn't coming this spring from what it sounds like. It's being worked on though.

Of the two devices I prefer using my iPhone for most web browsing but without Flash you're stuck using the HTML draft room.

The big thing to remember whatever device on which you're using the HTML draft room is that if you've set Auto-One you must then navigate to another NFBC League page (such as the Owners List or the ADP list, the League Home page, etc) or else it won't be long before the draft room page refreshes and cancels out your Auto pick.

Just a heads-up for those who don't already know.

it there was a useable interface on a smartphone... I would have bought more teams... but 50 rounds and having to navigate away... just does not get it one... maybe next year,,,,