Feeder System Expansion

[Qdog915]

Yes to more rounds.

[JKGuy16]

Also should expand the draft from 8 rounds to 10 rounds? I would say yes pending the implementation of moving the draft date from the offseason to midseason.

I pretty much auto draft after round four now because it's mostly just half star, garbage players who will never see AA ball.  I see no reason to increase rounds unless there is going to be a larger distribution of quality players.

[tjsmith7 GA]

if you had more quality players, you'd have more of a logjam in the upper minors.  I've found some useful guys in the later rounds.  They are lottery tickets though, need a lot of things to go right to make it - just like real life!

I'd rather have the extra rounds now and cut back later.  And if we auto-draft anyway, there's no harm.

[claphamsa]

Also should expand the draft from 8 rounds to 10 rounds? I would say yes pending the implementation of moving the draft date from the offseason to midseason.

I pretty much auto draft after round four now because it's mostly just half star, garbage players who will never see AA ball.  I see no reason to increase rounds unless there is going to be a larger distribution of quality players.

when you expeand the drafts you get more talent!  Im all for it.

[tjsmith7 GA]

not sure what the timer is set for at the back end of the draft.  Could we set another tier to say 1-hour for rounds 8 and beyond?  Shouldn't be too much objection. 

[mstreeter06]

not sure what the timer is set for at the back end of the draft.  Could we set another tier to say 1-hour for rounds 8 and beyond?  Shouldn't be too much objection.

Yeah I typically get down to 1-2 hours for the final two rounds of the draft. Usually everyone is on 'Auto' by then with a few 'List' teams and 2 or 3 teams making their own picks (I'm always one of these ).

[mstreeter06]

Quick overview of the game plan for the AFBL HS feeder league...
-added 4 HS feeder teams for the 2025 season
-none for the 2026 season (oops)
-none for the 2027 season (oops)
-adding 6 HS feeder teams for the 2028 season
-adding 6 HS feeder teams for the 2029 season
-adding 4 HS feeder teams for the 2030 season

This will add 20 additional HS feeder teams to bring our total to 40 HS feeder teams. I originally decided to add 16 but doubling our original total of HS feeder teams seems like a better option.

I'm not planning on adding any COL feeder teams unless there are enough who think we should and that it won't saturate the league with too much talent.

I'm also planning on keeping our total number of draft rounds at 8 instead of adding two more to get us to 10 total rounds. This could change if we move our draft to mid-season however.

[mstreeter06]

We will be adding the final phase (4 teams) of additional HS feeder league teams for the 2030 season.

This will get us to 40 HS feeder teams and 20 COL feeder teams.

Are we now at a good number and balance of feeder league talents coming into our draft pool (plus the international amateur free agents)?

I know it was suggested we add 2 rounds to get to a 10 round draft which we could just auto the final few rounds? I'm fine with keeping 8 rounds or adding 2 more if there is enough interest.

Does anyone have any thoughts/opinions about this?

[LT]

I don't think we need to add rounds to the draft - I keep looking back at draft history and we have so few picks from after round 4 that ever play in when they do their impact is minimal at best.

I don't care if we add rounds but I don't think it matters if those guys are picked in rounds 9 or 10 or are added via free agency...

[claphamsa]

I don't think we need to add rounds to the draft - I keep looking back at draft history and we have so few picks from after round 4 that ever play in when they do their impact is minimal at best.

I don't care if we add rounds but I don't think it matters if those guys are picked in rounds 9 or 10 or are added via free agency...

i very strongly disagree with this. if it was up to me ALL players would be drafted, I hate the minor league FA with a fiery passion!

[tjsmith7 GA]

balance seems good right now.  And believe I have had some good prospects in round 4 and after.

[mstreeter06]

Revisiting this...

Any thoughts about expanding the number of rounds in the draft from 8 to 10?

I'm also continuing to work on getting the balance correct in the HS and COL feeder leagues so we can get more COL players in our drafts since currently it is mostly HS players at the top end.

[mstreeter06]

Should we increase the number of rounds from 8 to 10-15? rounds?

If we did increase the number of rounds, we would only draft as normal for a limited number of days then would auto the remaining with S+ list or auto.


I'm also looking into getting the balance of high school and college feeder league draft eligible players. It's currently heavy on the high school players.

[Chappy]

I'd be fine with moving to 10 or more as long as I can still submit a list.   

[Ohio GM]

I am fine with 8, but if we increase, not more than 10 rounds.  We already increased the AAA and AA to 35 players, so adding more draft picks would need just put more pressure on the number in AAA and AA.