Questions about drafting

We always get many questions regarding draft procedures, and I'm sure many of the same questions will arise this year. The most asked question is: Can I draft a player to fill a position other than what he is listed at on the player lists? In other words, many of you want to do something like draft a guy we might have listed at SS to play 3B for you, and then draft another guy listed at SS to play SS for you. Once the season starts you can play a player at a position without an out of position penalty, as long as he is shown as qualifying at that position on these player lists. But for draft balancing purposes, a player can ONLY count at the position he is listed under on our player lists. (This does NOT mean a player counts for roster balancing at every position he qualifies at. During the draft a player only counts at the position he is listed under for roster balancing purposes.) In the past we tried listing some players at two positions, and it seemed to cause much more confusion than it was worth. Also, we really believe you will do better in Scoresheet Baseball if you stick for the most part to our recommended positions. We have found in the past that if we let owners list additional positions for players during the draft process that many teams will NOT end up with a balanced roster.

But, we do have an advanced option you can use. If you choose, you can put a plus sign (+) next to a player's number on your ranking sheet. What this means is that you want to draft that player even if you already have a player at that position. For instance, you may have already gotten someone as your third baseman, but a second 3B is still undrafted when his spot on your list is reached. If you have a plus sign (+) next to the second 3B's player number you will get him also, even though you already have a third baseman. (A plus sign will only override roster balancing for one extra player at each position. For example, you could get a second shortstop, or a 4th starting outfielder, before you get a starting catcher. However, you will NOT get a second backup at a position before you get a starter everywhere else.) Once you get a plussed player he does count at that position. We feel the number of times you should use this option is very limited (in fact we feel most of you will not use it at all). Do not get carried away. Our roster balancing procedures are designed to help you get a balanced team. (We recommend keeping the number of plusses you use under 10!) This plus option is the reason that some teams may NOT have a starter at every position exactly at round 15, or have a starter and backup players everywhere by round 30 exactly.

Many owners write detailed notes asking if they can get a different number of players at a certain position under special circumstances. For instance, they write and say: "If a short reliever that I have listed in my top 30 picks is still available then I'd like two short relievers before I get a starting second baseman, but not before I get a starting shortstop". Unfortunately, there are limits to what can be done with a draft by mail. We do our draft with a computer (we type in player numbers, check for typos, then the computer does the actual draft.) If we tried to manually draft and included every owner's individual request for draft balancing, we would never get the season started. We want everyone in the same league to draft using the same rules, and so we WILL stick to the rules as listed in this packet.