Keeper Draft

[Isotopes]

Hey fellas, been brainstorming with the commish a little bit today. His current plan is to have the MLB draft in March 2018, instead of using the entire 2017 offseason to ease ourselves into how this type of league operates.  I threw the suggestion out there to instead have the offseason play out with an initial keeper draft, then proceed with a normal offseason.

Here's a suggested breakdown of how the offseason schedule would play out with explanations for why it might work better for everyone...please reply with your thoughts and opinions. 

Keeper Draft November - Conducted in November, following end of the World Series.  One draft for AL, one draft for NL. Similar to farm draft. 

Note - Each league would hold a keeper draft to select players eligible for keeper declaration in February. # of rounds would be voted on. Primarily drafts like this are used to select at least your potential 6 keepers plus a few extra players to have as trade bait or secondary options up until the keeper deadline.  This will give everyone players to build with and be excited about over the offseason. Trading of keepers and farm players can be opened, restricted, or eased into things the first offseason. I feel like having an entire offseason without some sort of MLB roster to work with, would lead to lost interest from GM's and risk having an active league overall. 

AM Draft Jan 15th - Would be conducted as normal in January. 

Note - Players eligible for this draft are any 2017 first year player draftees(Lewis, McKay, Greene, Gore, Wright etc), or any international signees under 24 years of age at time of signing prior to the start of the AM draft. Another reason to get our keepers in place, GM's could deal extra keepers for AM draft picks, mlb picks and prospects for AM draft picks or any combo of the sort. Should Shohei Otani come over and sign by Jan 15th, he would be eligible for the AM draft. 1st overall AM draft pick in whichever league he signs with, would hold TONS of value. A team could potentially get quite the package in a trade offer for a player of his caliber, which in the current set up wouldn't even be allowed. 

Keeper Deadline Feb 15th - Everyone will declare keepers from the players they drafted, and freshman carryovers from farmed players who exceeded the farm limits in 2017. Sophomore carryovers wouldn't come into play until next season, as we have to have a full season of freshman declared to select from. 

Note - Current plan is go into the MLB draft in March without keepers or carryovers, leaving our farms in limbo with players like Bellinger, Judge, Benintendi, Bell, Happ, Margot etc who will exceed farm limits and would become freshman carryover eligibles going into the upcoming keeper deadline. Without declaring at least carryovers, I think this will lead to some confusion going into the first season as to how to manage the farms and carryover setup. Spacing everything out should allow for everyone to relatively ease into the league and get a feel for how keeper values, carryover values, and farm values work before the next years real season begins. You'll also get a feel for how the farm roster works in the offseason as players graduate from farm eligible to carryover eligibles. 

MLB Draft March 1st - Would begin in March as regularly scheduled, from the 2018 MLB player pool on Yahoo. 

Let's get some feedback going! Thanks guys. 

[Admin]

My concerns with keeper draft in November is that the AL, NL only component will come back to bite us in the arse. The easy way around this is that for the first year only regardless of status come opening day if you drafted them as a keeper you get to have them for 2018.

[Isotopes]

That's not a bad idea either. So basically all farmed players that exceed eligibility during the 2017 season, would be automatic freshman carryovers and ownership retained by each team at the MLB level in 2018, that would make the pool bigger for sophomore eligibles going into 2019. I can get behind that. There is the free agency and trade factor I'm just not used to in a league like this.

[Isotopes]

on the contrary though, that would create an unfair advantage for those teams that would normally have to either trade their extra carryovers, or use a keeper spot on em. I would've drafted a bit differently if I would've known we'd be able to retain all our carryover eligibles

What if one team has 5 carryover eligibles, another has only 1 or something. That's a huge advantage for the team with 5, and a major disadvantage for the team with weak carryovers that can't even trade for upgrades. 

[natsfan]

couldn't we just move the eligibility for Minors for this first year so that we take into account this first season of inactivity...basically, just multiply it x 2? that way the freshman and sophomore piece doesn't come into play until after the first full season and second full season?

[Isotopes]

Honestly, what we probably should've done, is waited to draft farm rosters so we only owned players that would be eligible going into next season. Now, the best way forward is probably with Davids suggestion, unless we only declare our 2 freshman carryovers going into the keeper deadline in 2018. I figured we'd be chomping at the bit to draft our potential keepers in the offseason and go into 2018 with a normal schedule.

If we do what you're suggesting, it doesn't solve the problem. Teams would still have guys go over the limits and have carryover eligibles stuck in limbo. An extra year of free farm eligibility is HUGE in a league like this. Right now, I'm currently hoping and praying that Devers finishes the year under 250abs, so I can stash him back on my farm and gain another full season of farm eligibility out of him before I have to even consider him as a freshman, then followed by sophomore carryover status. That's such an advantage, 3 full seasons before he'll need to be a keeper.

Since we drafted though, no one should lose rights to their guys without the option to own next year or have the chance to trade and be compensated for depth. I'd be for what David suggested, and just allow the would be freshman be added to MLB rosters immediately in 2018 before the draft starts. Some teams will have an advantage if they have 3 or more on the farm. Or the alternative, open up business for farm to farm trading, am pick trading, mlb pick trading....then allow teams to deal away extra carryovers for assets, so the teams weak at carryover have a chance to upgrade their 2 spots. Then, at the keeper deadline we all just equally declare 2 freshman and go from there. Any undeclared freshman would go back to the MLB draft pool.