Posted by: Guru
- [330592710] Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 11:28
Our draft will start on Saturday morning, August 26. I may actually turn it on on Friday evening, in case someone wants to get a jump.
The clock will be eventually be set at 4 hours per pick, with a pause from midnight to 8am ET. The clock will be turned on at the end of the first round, but no later than Monday morning.
In each of the past several years, the RIFC draft has taken 6-9 days. At that pace, we should be finished by Labor Day (Sept. 4) or earlier. Assume that we'll average three rounds per day. Early rounds tend to be a bit slower than the later rounds.
Starting this year, I am implementing some additional time limits to attempt to coax habitually slow drafters into a better flow. Here is the framework:
We establish a point system. If you timeout (i.e., you don’t make your pick before your allotted time expires), you accumulate 2 points.
If you exceed three hours of clock time but don’t timeout (the clock will initially be set at 4 hours), you accumulate 1 point.
Points will only be assigned after the first round, which is generally an untimed round anyway.
If you accumulate 2 points in total (either one timeout or two close calls), your clock time is reduced to 3 hours per pick for the remainder of the draft. That means your next timeout would be at 3 hours.
If you accumulate 4 points in total, your clock is shortened to two hours. At 6 points, your clock is shortened to one hour. That’s the ultimate limit.
Commissioners will need to monitor this, and will have the discretion to defer penalties if they believe the draft is moving OK and the time delays haven’t been too aggravating (or if the offending drafter has a good story.) Commissioners will also need to enforce the shorter clocks, since the system won’t be able to handle different time limits for each manager.
Hopefully, by adding some incentives to avoid multiple lengthy delays, the penalties won’t have to be enforced.
1
Guru
ID: 330592710 Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 11:29
Starting in 2015, I made the following offer to all RIFC leagues, some which plan to start earlier than we do. I'll apply the same standard to this league, although it will have limited impact - since our draft will start after some of the 3rd preseason games have been played. This adjustment applies only to players injured in preseason week #3. We'll "protect" a team who drafts a player before his week #3 game and who is injured in that game. If you are in that situation, you'll have a limited time to make a substitute pick - but only from the player pool still remaining.
So, for example, if Tim Tebow is drafted by Team X prior to his game on Aug 26, and Tebow is injured in that game, then Team X can jettison Tebow and substitute any other player who is still in the undrafted pool at the time of the jettison. This, however, must be done by the end of Monday, August 28.
While this obviously isn't complete insurance, it is designed to keep the draft moving during that first weekend. And it's certainly better than being stuck with an eventual free agent to replace an early draft pick. Hopefully, this situation will never come into play.
2
Guru
ID: 330592710 Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 11:33
Here are some guidelines for executing your draft picks. (These are copied from last year's thread. Please let me know if I have misspecified anything)
1. "My Draft List" - Under the "For Owners" menu (at the top), there is an item called My Draft List. You can think of this as your personal pre-ranking of players if you wish, although it has one important operational impact. If your 4-hour clock expires, then your pick will be automatically selected as the top name on your "My Draft List". Only if that list is empty will your pick be skipped. (More on this in a moment.)
2. "Pre-Draft Pick" list - You access this through "For owners->Draft" These are the equivalent of the Drafttime.com "queue", with several important distinctions: There is a separate list/queue for each round, and they do not carry over, and If there is a name in your queue, that player will be immediately selected when it is your turn to draft. The only way to turn off a round-specific queue is to empty it. Therefore, it is important to keep your queues empty unless you are sure that they should be used. If you expect to want to load & unload your queue frequently (similar to turning it on or off), then you should probably keep a list of players in "My Draft list", as you can quickly pull up that short list to add players to any queue.
Of course, if you have players in "My Draft List", then you are also subject to having those players selected if you should time-out. Typically, that shouldn't be a problem, as timing-out should be a rare occurrence.
If you want to keep players loaded in "My Draft List" and you don't want to risk the top name being selected automatically upon timeout, then I suggest putting a "placeholder" player at the top of your list - preferably someone who is retired, or injured, or clearly not a viable pick. We can come up with specific placeholder options, if needed. If you time-out and a placeholder player is automatically selected for you, then you can have the commish replace that player with a real pick when you are available.
Note that because queued picks are automatically processed, there is no role tantamount to a designated picker. As commissioner, I can enter a pick on anyone’s behalf. Other than that, you – or anyone else with access to your MFL password – will be the only one who can directly enter a pick.
If your pick times out and is skipped, only the commissioner can insert a pick afterwards. If this happens to you, please send your make-up pick to me by email or text message. You can post here as well - but do not rely on this thread as the primary means of communication for a make-up pick.
If any of these instructions are unclear, please ask. And if anything is incorrect, please alert!
3
I_AM_CANADIAN
ID: 15317315 Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 11:44
GURU: Just to be clear...any special rules for the "end-pickers" (Slot #1 & #14)?
4
Guru
ID: 330592710 Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 15:08
Under this setup, I don't think special rules are really needed for people on the turns.
5
deepsnapper
ID: 406282323 Tue, Aug 15, 2017, 20:22
Guru - Question, do the managers on the turn-around "myself for one" have a double-timeout (4 Pts) or one timeout and both picks skipped (2 points)?
I checked the draft selection thread and didn't see anything in the thread.
Thanks for the clarification.
ds
6
I_AM_CANADIAN
ID: 432322919 Tue, Aug 15, 2017, 23:20
RE 5: I'm hoping for double timeouts and double penalties. ;)
7
Guru
ID: 330592710 Wed, Aug 16, 2017, 11:54
Good question(s).
Our common practice in the past (all sports) is that once a drafter times out, all subsequent picks for that drafter may also be skipped until the pick has been made up by that drafter. This applies whether you are on the turn or not - so it's not really a special rule for people on the turn.
So, for a picker on the turn, if the first pick times out, the commissioner has the right to immediately skip ahead past the second pick as well. If so, that second skipped pick would not count as a second 2 point timeout.
The commissioner will have discretion to decide what makes sense. If the Commissioner has mitigating info about the drafter's "issue", or if the draft is speeding along ahead of the target pace, or if it's very early in the draft and two skipped picks would severely damaged the team's prospects, the Commish can make a less draconian decision.
8
deepsnapper
ID: 406282323 Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 02:59
Thanks Guru,
I had a worse option in mind. U a guud man ;)
9
deepsnapper
ID: 406282323 Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 03:41
Guru - When will you set up the Rationale Collection Thread? My rationale(s) requires removing some irrational tweaking before posting.
ds
10
Guru
ID: 330592710 Fri, Aug 18, 2017, 10:07
Will set up the rationale collection thread after the draft starts. For football, you can also post rationales in the comments section for each pick at the draft site.
11
deepsnapper
ID: 27762113 Sat, Aug 26, 2017, 01:47
Kyle - FYI - you're going to be up at #4 when Guru kicks off the draft as 1-3 are on auto.
ds
12
twolves
ID: 862838 Sat, Aug 26, 2017, 09:06
Is the draft open yet? I do not see any action yet.
Not me, I've set up draft queue and list since midweek. I emailed Guru a few min. ago.
I'll try deleting my queue and selecting again. I have my draft list to fall back on.
ds
16
deepsnapper
ID: 27762113 Sat, Aug 26, 2017, 11:58
The draft kicked off as I was typing, off we go!
ds
17
Guru
ID: 330592710 Sat, Aug 26, 2017, 11:58
Perhaps deepsnapper had his list set up in "My Draft List", which is not the same as a queue. To set a queue, you must use "pre-draft list". For more complete instructions, see post [2] above.
It's also possible that there was no way to set a queue for the opening pick. Not sure about that.
Regardless, I just pushed deepsnapper's pick through, so we are rolling now.
I was using the "Pre-Draft List" as RDs 2-4 are still there. Also in "Pre-Draft Selection" for each round.
Unclear what happened. If I caused the delay, I apologize as I was up at 7AM CDST ready to go...
ds
19
deepsnapper
ID: 27762113 Sat, Aug 26, 2017, 12:29
Upon further review, I had same players in "My Draft List" in addition to the "Pre-Draft sections, I must have confused MFL trying to cover all the bases.
8 hour clock has been turned on. Moratorium from midnight to 8am ET
24
Guru
ID: 330592710 Sun, Aug 27, 2017, 08:30
That should have said 4 hour clock, obviously.
25
Guru
ID: 330592710 Sun, Aug 27, 2017, 23:36
We just had our first timeout. Artofmonk has earned 2 demerits, and his draft clock will be shortened to 3 hours for future picks. He should email his missed pick to me ASAP, and also post it in the league draft thread. I'll do my best to enter it in the system as soon as I can, but once it is posted in the forum, that pick is protected and drafters should not take that player.
A thread has been set up for rationale collection You can post rationales there, or you can post them in the comment section of the draft page at MFL. Rationales are due on a 2 round lag, so 1st round rationales are now due.
26
holt
ID: 516502217 Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 01:17
Are there links to all of RIFC drafts posted somewhere? Can't find it.
27
Slackjawed Yokel
ID: 107391212 Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 09:50
I think I found them by searching for rotoguru on MFL.
Sorry for the timeout, everybody - I wasn't expecting 17 picks in under 2 hours!
30
Guru
ID: 330592710 Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 14:51
mmikulka has timed out, and will have his clock shortened to 3 hours going forward. He subsequently picked K. Benjamin.
Two timeouts in the first five rounds. SAD!
31
I_AM_CANADIAN
ID: 432322919 Mon, Aug 28, 2017, 23:52
RE 30 / SAD: Agreed. After hammering out 21 picks in ~ 12 hours (1.75 picks per hour) on Saturday (the first day of the draft), we've really slowed down our pace (1.33 picks per hour) since.
Normally, you'd expect it to be quicker since we all did our first day check-ins / setups?!
If we keep up this pace, we won't be finishing till two days before the opening game.
That won't be optimal, as it would be good to be able to run a Free Agency period.
32
Twolves
ID: 241117622 Tue, Aug 29, 2017, 10:27
On airplane fight and will be out 4-5 hours. Did leave short que for next pick before leaving home. Hopefully will be fine. I am on phone and cannot figure out how to fill or change que on MFL app for phone. Any thoughts on how to do that for future ref?
33
I_AM_CANADIAN
ID: 432322919 Tue, Aug 29, 2017, 10:33
RE Twolves:
I don't use the app... but you should still be able to use a browser to access the site?
34
Guru
ID: 330592710 Tue, Aug 29, 2017, 23:35
After a slow start, we flew today - about 4.5 rounds. Overall, we're back on a good pace.
35
Guru
ID: 330592710 Thu, Aug 31, 2017, 12:52
looks like deepsnapper is trying to corner the market on DLs. He's got 4 so far. Three have the same week 9 bye, too - which may explain his most recent pick (week 11)
36
Guru
ID: 330592710 Thu, Aug 31, 2017, 15:22
Just a heads up. I will be at the UConn football game tonight, leaving home around 6pm and not returning until 11-ish. I will have me cell phone at the game, but cell service at the games is unreliable - and I won't likely be checking as often - so I'm really hoping I won't be needed during that time. I'll attempt to leave ample queues.
37
deepsnapper
ID: 127373115 Thu, Aug 31, 2017, 16:37
RE (35) Yea, though I walk thru the valley of DEs, I have learned my lesson on back2back queues.
One works, doubles don't.
ds ;-(
38
Guru
ID: 330592710 Sat, Sep 02, 2017, 14:26
23.14 and 24.01 artofmonk picks have been skipped, per 3-hour clock.
Make-up picks will need to be emailed to me. If the draft ends before that, then those last two picks will need to be filled by waivers or F/A pickups.
The draft is now ended. Please get the remainder of your rationales posted pronto.
All undrafted players will be subject to blind bidding waivers on the regular weekly schedule: Wednesday at 7pm. More details on the waiver schedule to follow next week.
Looks like 12 managers have completed rationales. Still awaiting completion from Kyle and artofmonk.
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