In Season 4, I had the joy and honor of being the General Manager of the San Antonio Marshals, a team I am looking forward to re-joining as a DSFL player. However, after the Season 4 DSFL draft, I posted our entire draft board, with notes, explaining the decisions we made. It was a ton of work, but also pretty easy because I could talk to each prospect in overwhelming detail. This year, I had the…experience of once again making draft picks, this time for the Philadelphia Liberty. I *can’t* do a full draft board article, because I didn’t build the draft board, nor did I do any of the scouting to do so (aside from a bit of math that I’ll mention later). What I will do is talk a bit (or a lot) about the experience in general and some of the decisions that had to be made, because I am always willing to disclose my methodology for a little cash.
First off, did you guys know the draft wasn’t actually on Wednesday? I fucking didn’t. Several days prior, over the weekend, GMs started talking about how they were ready to draft “today,” and at first, in my groggy state, I thought they were just bragging on how prepared they were. It eventually became obvious that we were going to draft then. I have been busy as hell lately, and was still re-learning the landscape of the league, so I hadn’t been involved at all in scouting. I hadn’t even viewed the actual scouting responses from PDX’s contact. However, PDX was away, so I would be running Philly’s draft. Shit. Oh well, at least I had his draft board to use. It was sorted by total TPE. Did that mean that was the order he wanted me to follow or had he just been playing with it? In the comments, he had the words “top pick” by 5 different players.
Ricky Ramero was, as expected, first off the board to the Colorado Yeti. I’d heard rumors about Ramero possibly being another Noble, which I haven’t seen any evidence of, but that did make the thought of him “returning” to the Yeti kinda funny. PDX had written “easily #1 pick, no chance at him.” So, at least things were going to plan.
New Orleans picked next, and surprised me a little by going with William H. Harrison. It’s worth noting that Harrison was the ONLY defensive back with a first round grade in the draft class and was over 200 TPE, so I can’t say it’s a bad pick at all. However, Harrison was only 6th in TPE earned per day, which was the only contribution I made to the draft board. He was a little under ½ TPE per day behind Ramero. But Ramero wasn’t first, either.
Next up was San Jose, and I’d heard a rumor that they had been planning on drafting the only worthwhile QB even prior to Chris Orosz’s retirement. I was worried they wouldn’t draft him high enough, though. With Molarpistols and I having already recreated as Quarterbacks, the SaberCats could, in theory, afford to wait until their next pick at #6. However, I had previously stated that I would pull the trigger and trade up to #5 for Brad Pennington if he was still available. It wasn’t a bluff. I had Pennington #1 on my list. To put this guy in perspective, he was earning a full TPE per day more than Harrison, who was picked at #2. He was over ½ a TPE per day above the #1 overall pick. He was already great value at 3rd. I couldn’t let him fall to 6, even if it was a bad team getting the deal. As he had stated he was unwilling to switch, that meant *I* would have to switch, and I was willing to. Fortunately, SJS did the right thing and picked him up. Since I had not eaten yet that day, I took the opportunity to go pick up some food, so I completely missed the next FOUR picks, which flew by.
Baltimore picked 4th, and, for the first time, I got worried. When a team makes what you think is a bad pick, generally you just cheer to yourself. When it’s your biggest rival, you cheer a little louder. But, when the person MAKING that pick is someone you know knows his shit, you start to question the quality of your team’s draft board. I thought Childish Gambino was not a top 5 guy. I mentioned positional scarcity a bit with Harrison, so I completely get not taking one of the 4 first round-worthy linebackers. However, if you are going for defensive line, why not Omar Wrong? I had him a little higher based on his ability to earn money.
Next up was Yellowknife at 5, and they had a solid pick with Chad Pennington. I am going to guess that teams held off here due to the variety of options at linebacker as well as concerns about not matching him with the other Penningtons. I think that’s understandable, but the guy was 3rd in TPE, 3rd in TPE per day, and known in SHL. Great pick for Yellowknife. Sometimes, it kinda sucks being in the conference with capable GMs all round.
SJS was back on the clock, and picked up Ben Horne. Horne had started off developing slowly, but had intended to step it up with a now-easier schedule. Again, I would have gone with Omar Wrong here, but I can’t at all say this was a bad pick.
New Orleans picked again, and if I had been home, I would have tried to trade up. Omar Wrong at 7 was a great pick even BEFORE considering how many LBs there were in the first round, and before considering two more had already created for the next year’s draft. When I saw the pick, I actually DM’d AsylumParty to ask about the cost to get him. He wasn’t for sale.
The fact that he wasn’t for sale says a lot, because I was able to offer the #8 pick, only one spot behind where Wrong went, and still two first round talents were on the board. Viggo Squanch was easily a first round talent (4th in TPE per day), but he didn’t want to play for us. Well…shit. So that meant that Brock Weathers was the pick. He was 9th in TPE, but 7th in TPE per day, so this was a solid pick, especially when considering that he was active in PBE as well. This season he’ll be my teammate in San Antonio, hopefully part of a championship team.
So there ends the first round. Prior to the draft, we had traded back as part of a deal to acquire Alex Hayden, so we were picking 13th. Viggo Squanch, far and away the best receiver, was still on the board. So were Thad Pennington, the second-best DB in the draft, Balthazar Crindy, a latecomer TE who was getting a lot of attention, James Brown, Vance Sachs, Ramadan Steve, and one other name that I had been following pretty closely. In short, I was confident we could get someone worth picking at 13, which was why I had been okay with the trade.
Squanch, Crindy, Pennington, and Steve were all off the board by the time Philly came back to pick. That was fine, because two players were left that Philly wanted. The first was James Brown. Brown was a DT, a definite position of need, who had had good contact with PDX and seemed optimistic. However, he was only in one sim league and was at semi-active status. To me, that was a concern.
Besides, I had my eye on someone else. Beat Meoff was 9th in TPE, and his rate of earning was 12th. By either standard, he was good value at 13. It’s a fun little coincidence that 13th was where I was picked in Season Two after falling due to “character concerns.” However, there hadn’t been any recent issues with him, and most of the concern seemed to be from SHL drama, which I just didn’t care about. I’m not knocking SHL by any stretch, but just as I had a lot of drama in NSFL and none in SHL, why couldn’t the opposite happen?
By the time the 13th pick came around, PDX was home, and Brown was his guy. I was worried about Brown’s bust potential, though. PDX pointed out that DT was far more important than kicker, but I think that difference is overrated. Kickers may not seem to scale much with TPE, but I definitely feel like punters do, and Meoff would be both. It was a gamble, but good value picks come with risk.
Brown, by the way, was selected with the very next pick. I am sure Yellowknife was grateful to us for leaving him available.
That is where the Philadelphia draft ended. Yes, there were other players, and my apologies if you weren’t mentioned, but I didn’t wanna talk out my ass too much about you and the truth is that I just didn’t put in the kind of work I normally would for a draft. Next year, I’ll have had an entire season back in the league, though, and I look forward to writing about that one (especially since I don’t have to worry about the second round pick being a bust).
((Give PDX 20% for using his draft board))
First off, did you guys know the draft wasn’t actually on Wednesday? I fucking didn’t. Several days prior, over the weekend, GMs started talking about how they were ready to draft “today,” and at first, in my groggy state, I thought they were just bragging on how prepared they were. It eventually became obvious that we were going to draft then. I have been busy as hell lately, and was still re-learning the landscape of the league, so I hadn’t been involved at all in scouting. I hadn’t even viewed the actual scouting responses from PDX’s contact. However, PDX was away, so I would be running Philly’s draft. Shit. Oh well, at least I had his draft board to use. It was sorted by total TPE. Did that mean that was the order he wanted me to follow or had he just been playing with it? In the comments, he had the words “top pick” by 5 different players.
Ricky Ramero was, as expected, first off the board to the Colorado Yeti. I’d heard rumors about Ramero possibly being another Noble, which I haven’t seen any evidence of, but that did make the thought of him “returning” to the Yeti kinda funny. PDX had written “easily #1 pick, no chance at him.” So, at least things were going to plan.
New Orleans picked next, and surprised me a little by going with William H. Harrison. It’s worth noting that Harrison was the ONLY defensive back with a first round grade in the draft class and was over 200 TPE, so I can’t say it’s a bad pick at all. However, Harrison was only 6th in TPE earned per day, which was the only contribution I made to the draft board. He was a little under ½ TPE per day behind Ramero. But Ramero wasn’t first, either.
Next up was San Jose, and I’d heard a rumor that they had been planning on drafting the only worthwhile QB even prior to Chris Orosz’s retirement. I was worried they wouldn’t draft him high enough, though. With Molarpistols and I having already recreated as Quarterbacks, the SaberCats could, in theory, afford to wait until their next pick at #6. However, I had previously stated that I would pull the trigger and trade up to #5 for Brad Pennington if he was still available. It wasn’t a bluff. I had Pennington #1 on my list. To put this guy in perspective, he was earning a full TPE per day more than Harrison, who was picked at #2. He was over ½ a TPE per day above the #1 overall pick. He was already great value at 3rd. I couldn’t let him fall to 6, even if it was a bad team getting the deal. As he had stated he was unwilling to switch, that meant *I* would have to switch, and I was willing to. Fortunately, SJS did the right thing and picked him up. Since I had not eaten yet that day, I took the opportunity to go pick up some food, so I completely missed the next FOUR picks, which flew by.
Baltimore picked 4th, and, for the first time, I got worried. When a team makes what you think is a bad pick, generally you just cheer to yourself. When it’s your biggest rival, you cheer a little louder. But, when the person MAKING that pick is someone you know knows his shit, you start to question the quality of your team’s draft board. I thought Childish Gambino was not a top 5 guy. I mentioned positional scarcity a bit with Harrison, so I completely get not taking one of the 4 first round-worthy linebackers. However, if you are going for defensive line, why not Omar Wrong? I had him a little higher based on his ability to earn money.
Next up was Yellowknife at 5, and they had a solid pick with Chad Pennington. I am going to guess that teams held off here due to the variety of options at linebacker as well as concerns about not matching him with the other Penningtons. I think that’s understandable, but the guy was 3rd in TPE, 3rd in TPE per day, and known in SHL. Great pick for Yellowknife. Sometimes, it kinda sucks being in the conference with capable GMs all round.
SJS was back on the clock, and picked up Ben Horne. Horne had started off developing slowly, but had intended to step it up with a now-easier schedule. Again, I would have gone with Omar Wrong here, but I can’t at all say this was a bad pick.
New Orleans picked again, and if I had been home, I would have tried to trade up. Omar Wrong at 7 was a great pick even BEFORE considering how many LBs there were in the first round, and before considering two more had already created for the next year’s draft. When I saw the pick, I actually DM’d AsylumParty to ask about the cost to get him. He wasn’t for sale.
The fact that he wasn’t for sale says a lot, because I was able to offer the #8 pick, only one spot behind where Wrong went, and still two first round talents were on the board. Viggo Squanch was easily a first round talent (4th in TPE per day), but he didn’t want to play for us. Well…shit. So that meant that Brock Weathers was the pick. He was 9th in TPE, but 7th in TPE per day, so this was a solid pick, especially when considering that he was active in PBE as well. This season he’ll be my teammate in San Antonio, hopefully part of a championship team.
So there ends the first round. Prior to the draft, we had traded back as part of a deal to acquire Alex Hayden, so we were picking 13th. Viggo Squanch, far and away the best receiver, was still on the board. So were Thad Pennington, the second-best DB in the draft, Balthazar Crindy, a latecomer TE who was getting a lot of attention, James Brown, Vance Sachs, Ramadan Steve, and one other name that I had been following pretty closely. In short, I was confident we could get someone worth picking at 13, which was why I had been okay with the trade.
Squanch, Crindy, Pennington, and Steve were all off the board by the time Philly came back to pick. That was fine, because two players were left that Philly wanted. The first was James Brown. Brown was a DT, a definite position of need, who had had good contact with PDX and seemed optimistic. However, he was only in one sim league and was at semi-active status. To me, that was a concern.
Besides, I had my eye on someone else. Beat Meoff was 9th in TPE, and his rate of earning was 12th. By either standard, he was good value at 13. It’s a fun little coincidence that 13th was where I was picked in Season Two after falling due to “character concerns.” However, there hadn’t been any recent issues with him, and most of the concern seemed to be from SHL drama, which I just didn’t care about. I’m not knocking SHL by any stretch, but just as I had a lot of drama in NSFL and none in SHL, why couldn’t the opposite happen?
By the time the 13th pick came around, PDX was home, and Brown was his guy. I was worried about Brown’s bust potential, though. PDX pointed out that DT was far more important than kicker, but I think that difference is overrated. Kickers may not seem to scale much with TPE, but I definitely feel like punters do, and Meoff would be both. It was a gamble, but good value picks come with risk.
Brown, by the way, was selected with the very next pick. I am sure Yellowknife was grateful to us for leaving him available.
That is where the Philadelphia draft ended. Yes, there were other players, and my apologies if you weren’t mentioned, but I didn’t wanna talk out my ass too much about you and the truth is that I just didn’t put in the kind of work I normally would for a draft. Next year, I’ll have had an entire season back in the league, though, and I look forward to writing about that one (especially since I don’t have to worry about the second round pick being a bust).
((Give PDX 20% for using his draft board))
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