*** VD 15 Commentary Thread ***

[Ken]

reputation demerit incoming.

liar, you were supposed to tell me to fuck off.

[heyelander]

liar, you were supposed to tell me to fuck off.

check your notifications.

[Ken]

liar, you were supposed to tell me to fuck off.

Nevermind I see it now. Good work!

[heyelander]

what the hell were lap points? Was that like extra points for standings at certain times in the draft?

[jmaeroff]

Thanks. How much time is given for each pick? And if there's no official time limit, is there commonly-agreed-upon etiquette for how long an owner can acceptably take?

[heyelander]

Thanks. How much time is given for each pick? And if there's no official time limit, is there commonly-agreed-upon etiquette for how long an owner can acceptably take?

I think it's 24 hours... people will start to get antsy after a few though, but if you manage expectations, you can probably take up to 12. You're not going to get skipped unless you don't log on for a day or so.

Early in the draft you can forward picks to other people too. Johnny is here pretty much 24 hours a day. Later in the draft it's a bit more frowned upon as information becomes really useful later.

Also, you can talk as much strategy as you want in here, just don't name names (or allude to individual players).

[The Feral Slasher]

Immediate regret on Bonds...but stuck in all day meeting and no time to accurately compare to other choices

[heyelander]

Immediate regret on Bonds...but stuck in all day meeting and no time to accurately compare to other choices

I thought it sucked as a pick.

I immediately regret Yount.

[Ken]

Thanks. How much time is given for each pick? And if there's no official time limit, is there commonly-agreed-upon etiquette for how long an owner can acceptably take?

I really depends - does it bother you if heye tells you to fuck off? If not, then it's almost limitless

[johnnya24]

Thanks very much for this breakdown. I guess I'm looking for very basic information such as (1) how are aggregate stats calculated / how is the winner determined? (2) How much time does an owner have to make his or her pick? (3) I see the spreadsheet for eligible players, is there a spreadsheet for taken players and how the teams are constituted so far? (4) etc., just very basic things re operationally how this works (as opposed to what are good strategies to use).

(1) how are aggregate stats calculated / how is the winner determined?

Like 5x5, only 10x10. If you download the previous VD Spreadsheet from here, it'll answer a lot of questions.

(2) How much time does an owner have to make his or her pick?

24 hours, picks are normally every couple of hours on average.

(3) I see the spreadsheet for eligible players, is there a spreadsheet for taken players and how the teams are constituted so far?

I'll get that ready at the end of Round 1 when it's confirmed we won't have any late entrants. As I mentioned above, check the VD14 Draft Thread for the previous Spreadsheet to get a taste for things.

I'll get the formal rules post up tonight.

Also, I bumped the Intro to vintage Drafting Thread, which might have some basic information.

[johnnya24]

jmaeroff's query:

Thanks for posting the "General Rules". Is there an expanded set of rules/procedures for a rookie like me to look through?

Cavebird's post from the Draft thread

Johnny--delete this after this conversation is over. jmaeroff, what kind of information do you want? It's a weird world in VD's. The best info is from prior drafts---even if the rules aren't the same (this is letters and franchises; that hasn't happened in a while). Just look at previous ones and understand that ones from decades drafts would, for example, put hitters from the 1900's or 1910's above where they would be otherwise. This one will put players who are eligible for franchises that are not the traditional 16 (16 franchises have played at least 107 seasons; the rest, at most have played about 60) higher than they would be otherwise. Limited players (i.e. deadball hitters and pitchers and contemporary hitters) will also be a little lower than they would be otherwise---but not as much as in a decades draft. For example, in a decades draft, you get at most 2 hitters from the steroid era. This time, you get four.

Still, the biggest difference is the letters thing. QUIZY players (players whose last names start with Q, U, I, Z, or Y) go way above their numbers. There just aren't that many of them. With 13 people in this and having to draft four QUIZY players the QUIZY guys by the end are usually pitching "blanks"---i.e. pitchers who didn't pitch long enough to really hurt your ratios and have a decent enough eligible season (has to have 40 appearances or 100 IP) to not kill your best year ratios. Trying to stick a weak hitter at QUIZY is tougher, but sometimes people will try to take a more or less hitting blank (i.e. a guy who barely ever played) at catcher or something. The next worst tier of letters is OVEN. They aren't good, but not nearly as bad as QUIZY--or at least QUIZ. I usually break it into QUIZ and ENVOY because I think Y is closer to OVEN than QUIZ. But it is a close call. The easiest letters are B, C, M, S, and W. G and R are close, as well as H. Players with those last names are discounted. But still the all-time best stat guys with those letters still go early. Ruth is a top-three pick in almost any format, for example. What you decide to do vis-a-vis difficulty of franchise (you have 27 players---11 have to be eligible for non-16 big franchises---and not all 16 big franchises are the same, some are better than others) and letter, and whether deadball or contemporary, well that's the strategy and fun of this. If there was an obvious way to make that decision, it wouldn't be any fun. Sometimes grabbing QUIZY early wins; sometime grabbing the bigger stats early wins. There really is only one player who has all of franchise, stats, and letter, and since you aren't drafting 1-3, you won't get him. And he isn't even the obvious #1 overall pick because his numbers aren't as good as the best pitcher numbers (Johnson, who was taken first) or the best hitter numbers (Ruth).

[heyelander]

So each player you draft, you need to take into account
Career Stats
Best Year Stats
Letter Scarcity
Franchise Scarcity
Position Scarcity/Team Needs

Also, later on, look at who can still take the guy you are looking at.

We've done a million of these too, so you can fall back to looking at who was drafted previously (accounting for different rules for each draft).
Also, it's probably a bad idea to take any advice from me, I'm really bad at this.

[Ken]

So each player you draft, you need to take into account
Career Stats
Best Year Stats
Letter Scarcity
Franchise Scarcity
Position Scarcity/Team Needs

Also, later on, look at who can still take the guy you are looking at.

We've done a million of these too, so you can fall back to looking at who was drafted previously (accounting for different rules for each draft).
Also, it's probably a bad idea to take any advice from me, I'm really bad at this.

Agree, in fact don't even read that post.

[cavebird]

(1) how are aggregate stats calculated / how is the winner determined?

Like 5x5, only 10x10. If you download the previous VD Spreadsheet from here, it'll answer a lot of questions.

(2) How much time does an owner have to make his or her pick?

24 hours, picks are normally every couple of hours on average.

(3) I see the spreadsheet for eligible players, is there a spreadsheet for taken players and how the teams are constituted so far?

I'll get that ready at the end of Round 1 when it's confirmed we won't have any late entrants. As I mentioned above, check the VD14 Draft Thread for the previous Spreadsheet to get a taste for things.

I'll get the formal rules post up tonight.

Also, I bumped the Intro to vintage Drafting Thread, which might have some basic information.

But it is not just 10x10, it is multiplicative scoring---so instead of adding all the totals together, you multiply (total scores shown logarithmically so it looks normal). This is because otherwise tanking some category or categories (especially ERA and WHIP) would always win.

[cavebird]

I thought it sucked as a pick.

I immediately regret Yount.

Interesting picks already. FWIW, I had Bonds fourth on my list and Yount seventh. I was sort of hoping Yount would make it to tenth. Silly me. People reacting to franchises and more contemporary hitters being available very quickly. Looks like I am going to have to try zagging.