I may have to use some proxy options on Saturday as I know at least that night, I'll be attending some Bach performance (any relation, blech?) in the evening - prime afternoon hours for most of you. But you may be glad to know that the dog went to live in the States with my parents, so the annual "dog walk" delay is no more. Although that was just a way to stall and rejig my plans after seeing the guys I wanted taken anyway... I've finally managed access to most google docs - except that beta one, which I presume is the full league roster. Not sure why that is, but links I've received all open the (very nicely formatted) blank spreadsheets that we'll fill out. It's no worry, but I'd appreciate if someone might email me the link on my hotmail addy, which I guess you all have from Hal's emails. You may also note that LSG has replaced nuclear physicist J. Frank Parnell, who we feel found his level in VSR but whose mind would start to erode in the more competitive SR league. So, to build our team, we've gone with master architect Art Vandelay as this year's manager.
As I mentioned before, google docs are a no go for me at work, so anything we draft Friday and after the weekend during the workday I cant input until I get home. Also, unexpectedly my wife is dragging me away from home for the weekend. I'll be gone from Saturday morning until Sunday night. That said, I'll have my iphone with me and will religiously check bigsoccer and my gmail account to make sure I'm not holding things up. But again, as a result, updating the google docs will be impossible for me over the weekend. Can the google docs admin pinch hit for me?! Can I just throw it out there that with all these travel plans on the weekend, it might make more sense to start Monday, August 3?
I have no preference between starting Monday or starting Friday and then resuming on Monday after taking the weekend off. I guess the benefit of the latter is we get in a few rounds and may get a sense of how the daily schedule will play out, but I don't know that it matters. Just let me know.
I'd propose starting then stopping over the weekend if/when we have to. But to be honest, that's just because I'm tired of building and rebuilding my projected squad 3 times a day. I know I'll get few sympathisers if I say I'm a bored teacher on summer vacation...
Just checking in. A few announcments and comments: 1) I was skeptical about google docs, but the beta spreadsheet is sweet, sweet nice. Nice work Hal. 2) I am available to draft tomorrow, but I do have a meeting that morning from approximately 11am to 1pm eastern. I will be unavailable during that period. 3) In terms of postponing the draft vs starting and stopping, I vote to go ahead and start. We could make some decent progress and I think it will make the rest of the draft go faster because folks will have a better idea of how to strategize for the restart given the positions drafted and salary commitments they have made. 4) I will be drafting under a brand new Big Soccer user name, yet to be determined. I will confirm my identity with Hal if needed to very the authenticity of my picks. Let's get to it!
Alright... lets just start Friday. Though I'm not sure Clan will be talking to me after I steal Lampard from him (who would of course then be available for a trade including extra draft picks )
We just need 1800 to confirm he'll be around to kick us off at the designated time on Friday (or to proxy his first pick if he won't be or make it earlier subject to withdrawal, etc.). Then, if I correctly understood his post, it's just a question of whether we can get down and back in 6-8 hours before whatever time he checks in at the end of his day. Looking at the time zones and knowing everyone's activity, we could easily get in close to 4 rounds before we break, and it's possible we could get close to 6 rounds done if ibreak can get in his 5th round pick just before he leaves Saturday morning. Of course, I'm always an optimist and vegas may be right that it's only 2 rounds per day!
I don't know what Hal's planning to do for his update of the player list - if he's got a new sheet he's going to import from scratch, or just that page into this one. If he brings the updated EPL rosters into the existing sheet, he should then be able to disable everyone not in the league from making edits or he can copy it into a new sheet and send out invites only to league members for the new sheet. Hal, If there's anything you want me to do to assist in setting that up tomorrow so that we're ready to go, let me know.
Draft Good job you guys didn't want to draft right away as I've been staying in places with no Internet connection. Yes, they do still exist. Will have a read up of what's been happening in the world of football and send out my first pick (shortly), for the rest of you to squabble over the left-overs. It's 5.15pm as I write this. Once I make my pick, I'll log-on again (briefly) shortly before 7am; to see if you've all been active. All going well, we should be in a decent hotel with cable tomorrow (afternoon). Then, to try and get the draft moving I might stay in one place (that I checked out earlier today - with Internet) for three nights. Didn't reserve a room there, so will have to hope they're not full when we get back.
No Surprise It was hinted at earlier and was not meant as a smokescreen. 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 (Captain) 2 FC Springfield 3 blechs_dawgs 4 Vegas Virgins 5 Rat Face Villains FC 6 LSG Cambridge 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post
Friday Well, it's almost 6.30am on Friday from where I'm sitting. Leaving in about half an hour; but as most of you are probably asleep right now, I doubt much will move by the time I log-in again.
Wow... this was a terribly difficult pick to make. Easily considered seriously 6 different guys. My heart said Arshavin or Torres, but my head prevailed and FC Springfield would like to welcome back the heart of our 2005-2006 Small Rocks Championship Team - Fat Frank Penalty Taker Lampard. Sorry Clan Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 (Captain) 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs 4 Vegas Virgins 5 Rat Face Villains FC 6 LSG Cambridge 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post Google docs updated
Don't feel like I have any choice, but not upset about it either.... Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 (Captain) 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs - Gerrard - M - LI - 12.5 4 Vegas Virgins 5 Rat Face Villains FC 6 LSG Cambridge 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post Good luck all!
I updated my FPL player database as of midnight EST on 7/30. I emailed that database to all the Small Rocks managers and asked blech, aka Paul, to do his edits and load it into Google Docs so we can all use it. This will be the last 'banter' type post in this thread, from now on it's picks only. I'll open another thread for the banter. The way I'd like to try to use Google Docs is like we did with the Sand League draft. I even made a post in there of all the steps I went through to update the Google Docs spreadsheet after the pick was posted in the official BigSoccer.com draft thread. As we already have 3 picks announced pre-draft, let the games begin.
One note - in a development straight out of most sitcoms, it turns out I was wrong to remember my anniversary as yesterday... it's today So I'll be around through the afternoon GMT, then, as I'd like to have another one next year, I'll be out with my girlfriend in the evening. Hopefully it won't matter - but if the draft hasn't gotten to me by then I'll send a short proxy list for first pick. I should be able to check in again around 11 my time so it shouldn't hold things up too much, but not sure I can pull an all nighter in front of the computer as I'd originally hoped.
Was never sure when others would pick up on Michel's start, and now I feel like I am late to the party! 3:30a here! Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 (Captain) 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs - Gerrard - M - LI - 12.5 4 Vegas Virgins - Torres - Liverpool - 11.5 5 Rat Face Villains FC 6 LSG Cambridge 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post Just love to watch Torres play. Can he stay healthy???? I will take a shot.
Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs - Gerrard - M - LI - 12.5 4 Vegas Virgins - Torres - Liverpool - 11.5 5 Rat Face Villains FC - Arshavin - Arsenal - 11.0 6 LSG Cambridge 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post The first pick is in for the Rat Face Villains. This is my new username, so ping me with PMs here. I will update google docs this afternoon since I can't access it from work.
Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs - Gerrard - M - LI - 12.5 4 Vegas Virgins - Torres - Liverpool - 11.5 5 Rat Face Villains FC - Arshavin - Arsenal - 11.0 6 LSG Cambridge - Van Persie - F - AR - 10.0 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post Replace one Arsenal attacker with another. I'll cover Mr. F's google update when I do my own, barring any unforseen difficulties.
Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs - Gerrard - M - LI - 12.5 4 Vegas Virgins - Torres - Liverpool - 11.5 5 Rat Face Villains FC - Arshavin - Arsenal - 11.0 6 LSG Cambridge - Rooney - F - MU - 11.0 7 Aviators 8 In Off The Post This one stays. Had him a dead cert to go before me and forgot to unmark him as such.
Round 1 1 1800-UK.com - Anelka, Chelsea, Forward, 10.5 2 FC Springfield - Lampard, Chelsea, Midfielder, 12.5 3 blechs_dawgs - Gerrard - M - LI - 12.5 4 Vegas Virgins - Torres - Liverpool - 11.5 5 Rat Face Villains FC - Arshavin - Arsenal - 11.0 6 LSG Cambridge - Rooney - F - MU - 11.0 7 Aviators - Lescott - D - EV - 7.5 8 In Off The Post