Official Draft Thread for Small Rocks 2006-7 League

Welcome survivors and victors from last season and the two promoted teams from 2005-6 Very Small Rocks, Vegas Virgins and Pork Soda.

These are the team names (assuming the managers will reuse last season's team name), and the manager's Bigsoccer.com nickname and their first name.

1800-Fly.com 1800-WorldCup.com Michel
Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24 Jay
Pork Soda djangone Richard
Nocturnal United Darr_ Jason
Vegas Virgins vegas2u Craig
Aviators Hal Hal
FC Springfield ibreak4coffee Ralph
Kopite Juniors kopiteinkc Mark

I'll be doing the double blind draft and posting the results with edits of this post until we've established the draft order for the Small Rocks 2006-7 League.

Round 1 and all Odd-Numbered Rounds:

Pick Team Name Bigsoccer Nickname
1. Vegas Virgins vegas2u
2. Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24
3. Pork Soda djangone
4. 1800-Fly.com 1800-WorldCup.com
5. Kopite Juniors kopiteinkc
6. Aviators Hal
7. FC Springfield ibreak4coffee
8. Nocturnal United Darr_

Round 2 and all Even-numbered Rounds:
Draft Order

9. Nocturnal United Darr_
10. FC Springfield ibreak4coffee
11. Aviators Hal
12. Kopite Juniors kopiteinkc
13. 1800-Fly.com 1800-WorldCup.com
14. Pork Soda djangone
15. Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24
16. Vegas Virgins vegas2u

Bowl A has slips numbered 1-8
Bowl B has slips with team and manager names

The first draw:
Bowl A: 7
Bowl B: FC Springfield ibreak4coffee

The second draw:
Bowl A: 6
Bowl B: Aviators Hal

The third draw:
Bowl A: 5
Bowl B: Kopite Juniors kopiteinkc

The fourth draw:
Bowl A: 4
Bowl B: 1800-Fly.com 1800-WorldCup.com

The fifth draw: (And the tension mounts! There's a hush in the room.)
Bowl A: 3
Bowl B: Pork Soda djangone

The sixth draw:
Bowl A: 2
Bowl B: Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24

The severth draw:
Bowl A: 1
Bowl B: Vegas Virgins vegas2u

And the final draw: (no suspense now)
Bowl A: 8
Bowl B: Nocturnal United Darr_

The Small Rocks 2006-7 League Draft Order is set.

Some team named Green Onions witha manger called Booker T and the MG's has registered in the Small Rocks 2006-7 League. If this is a name change for our managers, please identify who it is.

The following managers have yet to join the Small Rocks 2006-7 League:

Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24 and
1800-Fly-com 1800-WorldCup.com

If you need the league password again, please PM me. As soon as we get all 8 signed up, then I'll close the league and evict any mangers who manage to sign up for our league without the proper credentials.

 

With Vegas2U's selection of Henry, it looks like he has started the Small Rocks go as slow as you like phase of our draft.

Jay is up but is not on the clock. If there is interest, we might get in a round or two this week, but if someone is not ready, the draft will hold until Saturday.

Our Go Slow Phase will start Saturday, 29 July, at 10 AM EDT, based on most of the other comments made in this thread. Hopefully we can get in a couple a rounds per day on Saturday and Sunday, then at least one round per day during the week. I target 1 round during weekdays, because I, like some others, have restrictions on what I can do from work. In reality, if I'm constrained and it's my turn, I expect Jay will give me a call and I'll discuss my pick at the break from whatever meeting I'm in and Jay can make my proxy pick rather than me going on the computer and making my own selection.

Our go Fast Phase will start on Saturday, August 5, at 10 AM EDT.

As far as draft time windows, I like some of what was said on the other thread.
In the Go Slow Phase, our concerns should be to give deference to the time zone issue. Most of our day's draft activities on Saturday and Sunday should occur between 10 AM EDT (7 AM West Coast USA, and 4-5 PM European time) and 6-8 PM EDT (3-5 PM West Coast time and Midnight-2 AM European time). Along with their draft preparations, everyone should make some proxy arrangements. I know Jay is on his annual boat trip. Hopefully, I can reach him by cell phone to update him on who's been chosen and confirm his proxy pick selection.

I'm looking at 8-10 hours of prime time for drafting (10 AM EDT - 8 PM EDT) for both Saturday and Sunday and I'm looking for managers to be able to make their picks in about 30 minutes, especially with the use of proxy pickers to keep the draft moving. This would allow us to get in 2 rounds for both Saturday and Sunday. Depending on the extreme time zones in the draft, we may get in a half or more of another round. Say Michel makes a pick and then heads to bed, the US based managers might pick until midnight EDT instead of stopping at 7 or 8 PM and get another half round or maybe all the way back until Michel's next pick. Then, in his morning, while we are all sleeping, Michel may make his next selection. Flexibility and well-planned use of proxy pickers can keep this flowing smoothly.

That said, we are not rigid in the go slow phase. If someone takes an hour during the prime draft window time, it'll stress the other managers a bit, but as long as one manager doesn't repeatedly hold up the draft, we'll press on. The goal is to get as many rounds of the draft done before Saturday, 5 August, in which case we'll set rigid draft time limits for picks based on how many more rounds we have to complete the squads to ensure we get the squads selected that Saturday or, if necessary, no later than Sunday.

Remember, there is always a lot of post-draft, pre-season squad tinkering that we want to allow starting on Monday, 7 August.

As always, a player must be in the database to be selected. The risk of the Go Slow draft phase is that some transfers in won't appear in the database until after some early draft rounds in the go slow phase. Managers should plan their draft strategy accordingly to perhaps, have sufficient funds to select a 9-11M valued player in the later rounds.

I've been lazy in not already determining exactly everyone's drafting time zone. Perhaps we don't have someone drafting from the West Coast. Maybe we have someone drafting from Hawaii? I think Michel drafts according to the time in Switzerland (6 or 7 hours later than EDT). If my draft window is too constraining because managers are not so geographically dispersed, perhaps we can open up the draft window to start earlier (better for European).

ACTION REQUEST: Please post or confirm what time zone you will be drafting from.
I'm EDT.
Jay's 1 hour earlier in CDT
Mark is in KC and I think that is CDT like Jay.
Coach Wiggum is in EDT.
Michel is in Switzerland and I presume it is an hour later than UK time or GMT.
Richard?
Craig? I think Craig is in Las Vegas which I think is only 2 hours earlier than EDT and on MST.
Jason?

Further, Please confirm your availability to participate fully or partially, via proxies, on this Saturday and Sunday's Go Slow Phase of this year's Small Rocks draft.

Also, please post any pre-planned proxy picker arrangements. As always, I can be anyone's proxy picker. I don't open up the PM with the proxy instructions until it is the turn for which I'd be making the proxy. I also do not make proxy picks using my judgement. All proxy picks I make are to specific instructions with whatever conditions the real manager imposes.

After you make your selection by posting same in this thread, please do not immediately disappear for 3 hours. Hang around for a few minutes at least, in case someone notices you picked a player who has already been selected. We'd like to avoid having to go to all stop this Saturday and Sunday awiting a manager to return and correct his selection to a legal pick.

I'll try to post Round Summaries after each round. I would also like each manager to show his latest roster with his latest pick in bold in the same post he announces his next selection. That way, people only have to review the last couple of pages in the thread to get caught up on player selections since their last pick.

Now, since Vegas2U has started the go as slow as you like phase of the draft, I'd better go and do my draft preparation. I haven't really done any preparations yet!

 

Round 1 of Small Rocks 2006-7 Draft: Go as Slow as You Like Draft Phase

Pick Player Position Team Vaulation Team Name Bigsoccer Nickname
1. Henry Striker Arsenal 14.0 Vegas Virgins vegas2u
2. Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24
3. Pork Soda djangone
4. Green Onions 1800-WorldCup.com
5. Kopite Juniors kopiteinkc
6. Aviators Hal
7. FC Springfield ibreak4coffee
8. Nocturnal United Darr_

Round 2 Draft Order

Pick Player Position Team Vaulation Team Name Bigsoccer Nickname
9. Nocturnal United Darr_
10. FC Springfield ibreak4coffee
11. Aviators Hal
12. Kopite Juniors kopiteinkc
13. Green Onions 1800-WorldCup.com
14. Pork Soda djangone
15. Yellowcake Phantoms DoctorJones24
16. Vegas Virgins vegas2u

 

Thanks for the recap. If Cannon isn't available I can be your proxy picker. You might want to send me your blackberry # and I'll give you a shout when it's your turn.

I haven't been into text messaging, so maybe someone who is used to text messaging would be a better proxy picker, someone who can text you a summary of what's happened in the last round to confirm your pick. Can one cut and paste the round by round pick summaries from the BigSoccer draft thread into a text message to send to Ralph's blackberry? Or, if we send Ralph an email with the latest draft info, can he read that on his blackberry? Considering how to reach Coach Wiggun when he is not plugged into the internet and not sure if his blackberry phone voice mail gets full or whether or not his email forwarding gets full.

It sounds like you've planned a great trip. Hopefully, we can get in a few rounds this week and on Saturday before you go to the Orient.

With Coach Wiggun traveling to Japan on Sunday, he will probably be totally incommunicado in a plane somewhere over the Pacific. Sunday's draft might be constrained based on his proxy picking instructions.

Don't forget about crossing the international dateline. Your Monday in Japan will be like our Tuesday here. In fact, or at least in fiction, you could leave on Sunday from the US and travel back to Saturday in Japan and maybe make a different draft selection in our Go Slow Phase starting next Saturday!

This reminds me of some trivia questions.
A) What is the easternmost state in the United States?
B) What is the westernmost state in the United States?

Usually, people waiver between Alaska and Hawaii as to which is the westernmost and between Maine and Florida for which is the easternmost.

In fact, Alaska is the correct answer for both since some of the Aleutian Islands stretch out across the international date line.

Imaging, learning geography on a soccer thread!

Too funny. I'm already liking your sense of humor.

I also recommend all the Small Rocks 2006-7 League managers subscribe to this thread to get an email notification for each new post.

Also, I suggest sharing a phone number with at least one other Small Rocks' manager so he can give you a quick phone shout that it's your turn to pick. Finally, we've also successfully used having each manager send a PM to the next manager to pick once he's made his selection. This should be especially helpful in the Go Very Slow and during the week in the Go Slow Phases of the draft.