Draft Scouting Question (How much time do you spend)

[flair1234]

I made an Excel spreadsheet, complete with formulas... that I use to grade the top 20 players in each position. Then I also go through the remaining players and grade the ones with promising bars or decent combines.

Takes about 1.5 hours per position... so roughly 24 hours (ends up taking me about 2-3 weeks depending how busy I am with life).

How much time do you guys put in?

[Raiders Army]

I put in about 5 minutes. Then again I go through an entire season in about 2 hours.

[wishbone]

I go through each season in about an hour, the draft is 10-15 minutes of that.

[flair1234]

I go through each season in about an hour, the draft is 10-15 minutes of that.


Do you let the CPU do all yoour gameplanning?

[Dave Hansen]

Draft: 4-6 hours.

FA 1-12: 3-5 hours.

FA 1-5: 1-2 hours.

Contact/CAP/Bonus structure review/plans over 4 year horizon: 2-3 hours.

Regular/Post Season: call each and every play.

Season: 3-3.5 weeks.

[gstelmack]

If there are features I can add to Analyzer to help you generate your grades, let me know.

[flair1234]

If there are features I can add to Analyzer to help you generate your grades, let me know.

The post I made came out sounding bad. Like I was bragging.

Actually I am a little exasperated. I would like to do thourough job drafting but at the same time, spending 8 hours a week doing what amounts to data entry is kind of tedious and not very enjoyable.

Basically what my "formula" amounts to is a weighted average.

I assign value to each of the bars I value by each position.

I then assign a number grade to each combine score. Express everything in terms of %.

The I do the formula:

(Bar formula).35 + (Combine score).35+ (Devlopement).10+(Experience).10+ (Bureau Grade).10

I use that to rate the players. The reason I scout 20 no matter what is more to get an idea of the strength of the class. Then I scout a few more players who have interesting bars or a competitive combine score.

I have only been doing this a couple seasons, but it seems helpful in identifying undervalued players. A few occasions where a player not rated in the top 20 by the bureau rating, broke the top 10 by my scale.

Still toying with this because I think it takes too long. Probably will scal back to scouting top 10, and then any interesting players. Because looking at the scores, they have pretty much clumped after 10 (meaning there is usually not a huge difference between number 11 and number 20). And any standouts from 11-20 I would spot as interesting players anyway.

Basically I am wondering if anyone has any better ideas that let me be thourough and organised, without spending so much time.

[stevew]

I usually let the computer pick for me after the first round. I will scout about 40-50 players to make that #1 pick though. Sometimes I'll make more selections, but mainly if I want to target a specific position.

[Tasan]

The post I made came out sounding bad. Like I was bragging.

Actually I am a little exasperated. I would like to do thourough job drafting but at the same time, spending 8 hours a week doing what amounts to data entry is kind of tedious and not very enjoyable.

Basically what my "formula" amounts to is a weighted average.

I assign value to each of the bars I value by each position.

I then assign a number grade to each combine score. Express everything in terms of %.

The I do the formula:

(Bar formula).35 + (Combine score).35+ (Devlopement).10+(Experience).10+ (Bureau Grade).10

I use that to rate the players. The reason I scout 20 no matter what is more to get an idea of the strength of the class. Then I scout a few more players who have interesting bars or a competitive combine score.

I have only been doing this a couple seasons, but it seems helpful in identifying undervalued players. A few occasions where a player not rated in the top 20 by the bureau rating, broke the top 10 by my scale.

Still toying with this because I think it takes too long. Probably will scal back to scouting top 10, and then any interesting players. Because looking at the scores, they have pretty much clumped after 10 (meaning there is usually not a huge difference between number 11 and number 20). And any standouts from 11-20 I would spot as interesting players anyway.

Basically I am wondering if anyone has any better ideas that let me be thourough and organised, without spending so much time.

You know, I really want to do this but don't have the time or the patience. I wrote the draft pick trade calc to cut down my time during draft.

I'd really like to see bar evaluation in the analyzer if possible. It was the one thing I tried it for, and was disappointed that it was there. I definately have prefs by position for bars I like to see. Is this data taken by Extractor? I know you do a pixel by pixel eval of the player card, and figured you pulled the bars but I don't see them used anywhere.

[gstelmack]

I'd really like to see bar evaluation in the analyzer if possible. It was the one thing I tried it for, and was disappointed that it was there. I definately have prefs by position for bars I like to see. Is this data taken by Extractor? I know you do a pixel by pixel eval of the player card, and figured you pulled the bars but I don't see them used anywhere.

What was the last version of Analyzer you used? The UtilitySuite one for 2k7 has displayed the bars since it was released. A definite possibility for future use is to let you create your own rating off those bars. If only the bureau rating was on the player card like it used to be...

And I no longer do pixel-by-pixel eval, I've figured out how to grab the listbox data directly. You are very behind the times ;)

[wishbone]

Do you let the CPU do all yoour gameplanning?

Yeah, I play more of a GM role than a lot of people do it seems. I try to get the best players I can and blame the coach if it doesn't work. Sometimes I will create a gameplan and not allow the coach to change it at all, then find the personnel to make it work for a change pf pace.

[flair1234]

A definite possibility for future use is to let you create your own rating off those bars.

If it could do this I would learn to use it.

[Subby]

Between Greg's Draft Analyzer and the FOFL cuervo combine tool (http://www.thefofl.com/league/combines.php), I have cut many hours from my draft prep (and we probably draft six times per year in FOFL.)

I think letting the computer draft for you is a mistake - at the very least I like to try and get guys that my scout liked (and the guys I interview are usually combine guys.)

Most of my work now is probably figuring out who to interview.

[Synovia]

SP: about a half hour each draft.


MP: hours upon hours.

[Tasan]

What was the last version of Analyzer you used? The UtilitySuite one for 2k7 has displayed the bars since it was released. A definite possibility for future use is to let you create your own rating off those bars. If only the bureau rating was on the player card like it used to be...

And I no longer do pixel-by-pixel eval, I've figured out how to grab the listbox data directly. You are very behind the times ;)

Actually, I've got the one with the bars, I just wasn't very clear on what I was looking for ;- )

I would like to be able to sort by the bars, if you get what I mean. Maybe translate the bars into numbers, like est. pass rush low and est. pass rush high, so I can sort the draft by the best potential pass rushers, or let me create a filter where I can say give me all DE's with est. low Pass Rush of at least 50 and est low endurance of 35. And of course, this conversation should prolly be moved to your thread, so I'll copy and paste this post in there too.

[gstelmack]

Yeah, more advanced filtering would be handy, along with more advanced formulas.

One idea I've toyed with is adding something like Lua script support, where people could write their own functions that query everything about a draftee and generate whatever number they want. Maybe when the WOOF site settles down a bit...