Division Realignment Details for 2011

Looks like we will have Division Realignment this year according to the poll as of now. I want to pitch the following idea that we have a "Division Draft". We will start the "Division Draft" the same day as the MiLB Draft, so here in a few weeks. In the "Division Draft", the four division winners from 2010 would start the draft. The draft would be in the following order;

1 - The Process (or whatever it's called now, Craig's team haha)
2 - OC Milf Hunters
3 - The Cutoff Men
4 - Louisiana Lightning

*I believe this is the correct order of finishes, if I'm wrong, then this would change


The draft would conduct in a Snake Style, which I believe would allow us to spread out the division as evenly as possible on paper. To make sure everyone is involved, in the 2nd Rd. the teams that were picked in the 1st Rd. would pick and so on in the following rounds. So it'd look like this possibly;

1 picks 20, 20 picks 13, 13 picks 12, 12 picks 5 = 1, 5, 12, 13, 20
2 picks 19 19 picks 14, 14 picks 11, 11 picks 6 = 2, 6, 11, 14, 19
3 picks 18, 18 picks 15, 15 picks 10, 10 picks 7 = 3, 7, 10, 15, 18
4 picks 17, 17 picks 16, 16 picks 9, 9 picks 8 = 4, 8, 9, 16, 17

So the only teams that would not participate in the draft would be the last teams drafted in the final round.


We would do this process every three years, I believe this could be a fun event that adds a little something extra to our off-season every three years and seems to be a fair way of evening out our divisions without randomizing them every single off-season. I've already discussed this with Two Buck Chuck and he said it sounded good to him and asked if I'd pitch it here at the forums.

Why wouldnt we just balance the divisions based on final standings last year, would be the easiest.

Oh, and I won the west

ThunderBalls wrote:

Why wouldnt we just balance the divisions based on final standings last year, would be the easiest.

Oh, and I won the west

Because alot has happened since then, and even though that might be the quickest way, it's not the best way of evening out the divisions. Evening out the divisions the best way possible is what we all want or we wouldn't have voted for realignment. A draft, should theoretically even out the divisions on paper, provided each team drafts the worst possible team they can. We all have our opinions about who the best teams are, and who the worst are. It'll be a pretty cool new element to see what kind of strategy one employs on who they pick and when. Like I said, with the changes that have happened since the end of the season, the most logical way of evening out the divisions is a draft.

I guess, but there would be something mildly insulting to owners who get "picked" first, etc. Like picking teams in the schoolyard.

You could always just assign each team a number and have one of those autodraft randomizers determine the divisions, or do a reverse snake type realignment like this:
based on last years standings.

1 8 9 16 17
2 7 10 15 18
3 6 11 14 19
4 5 12 13 20

ThunderBalls wrote:

I guess, but there would be something mildly insulting to owners who get "picked" first, etc. Like picking teams in the schoolyard.

You could always just assign each team a number and have one of those autodraft randomizers determine the divisions, or do a reverse snake type realignment like this:
based on last years standings.

Were all big boys here, in 99.9% of cases the teams know why they're bad and actually have a plan which they're in the midst of like rebuilding.

Auto draft randomizers don't fix our issue and why we want to realign, because it's just purely random and could cause another New York Division, which is one of main reasons were realigning now.

Like I said, going off last years standings just doesn't work in terms of accomplishing the goal of making the divisions as even as possible. There are far too many teams that have made moves that will greatly impact their records in 2011 that you can't base anything off their 2010 records and achieve the goal.

my only request is that i do not be placed in Bryan's division

jake wrote:

my only request is that i do not be placed in Bryan's division

LOL This guy's a joke... If I get the chance, I'm picking him to my division so I can whoop up on him the entire year!

At first I didn't like this idea, but I think it adds a whole new level.

I find it funny that we're worried about hurting someone's feelings in a pay, competitive league. If we want intramurals, let's eliminate the $ (and with it all the owners...).

I think it will be fun to see what certain teams think of each other and to see if there is "coaching" or bitching from the teams above that want their division mates that they just effectively insulted to pick certain teams.

It will also be interesting to see after a couple years how those picks played out.

Can I also propose doing away with the "conferences" at this point and just have the 2 best teams be wild cards and then seed the overall playoffs? I know it's late in the rule making process, but it sort of goes hand in hand with this, and is not really effected by how off season moves have been made. It's silly to have artificial conferences that create another luck factor in making the playoffs.

jamcam13 wrote:

Can I also propose doing away with the "conferences" at this point and just have the 2 best teams be wild cards and then seed the overall playoffs? I know it's late in the rule making process, but it sort of goes hand in hand with this, and is not really effected by how off season moves have been made. It's silly to have artificial conferences that create another luck factor in making the playoffs.

Couldn't agree more!

bryanmurphy9 wrote:

jake wrote:

my only request is that i do not be placed in Bryan's division

LOL This guy's a joke... If I get the chance, I'm picking him to my division so I can whoop up on him the entire year!

it was meant as a compliment

i think the only way i would beat you is if you had a major rash of injuries ..to about 15 or 20 players

i agree with Thunderballs - going the schoolyard way is too clique-ish

jamcam13 wrote:

Can I also propose doing away with the "conferences" at this point and just have the 2 best teams be wild cards and then seed the overall playoffs? I know it's late in the rule making process, but it sort of goes hand in hand with this, and is not really effected by how off season moves have been made. It's silly to have artificial conferences that create another luck factor in making the playoffs.

agreed

jake wrote:

i agree with Thunderballs - going the schoolyard way is too clique-ish

Too clique-ish? Were all grown-ups here, atleast most of the time haha... It's strategy, and will give you a cool look into what your peers really think of you. Does anyone cry about having a top 5 pick? Because that means they sucked the year before too...

bryanmurphy9 wrote:

jake wrote:

i agree with Thunderballs - going the schoolyard way is too clique-ish

Too clique-ish? Were all grown-ups here, atleast most of the time haha... It's strategy, and will give you a cool look into what your peers really think of you. Does anyone cry about having a top 5 pick? Because that means they sucked the year before too...

well you already want to pick me based on how you feel about me .. so yea, it seems to be going that way

jake wrote:

bryanmurphy9 wrote:

jake wrote:

i agree with Thunderballs - going the schoolyard way is too clique-ish

Too clique-ish? Were all grown-ups here, atleast most of the time haha... It's strategy, and will give you a cool look into what your peers really think of you. Does anyone cry about having a top 5 pick? Because that means they sucked the year before too...

well you already want to pick me based on how you feel about me .. so yea, it seems to be going that way

I was kidding because of what you said, I will pick whoever I think will benefit my team the most... everyone will.

Just do completely random. Works the best.

spundin wrote:

Just do completely random. Works the best.

Chance that we end up with the same issue we have currently, there's no easy way to do random. There is an easy way to do a draft, everyone except the last 4 picks would have one choice of who's in their division. I can't think of another way thats easier and achieves our goal of evening out the divisions than a draft.

With random, there's a good possibility we could be right back in the same boat in year 1 of realignment or year 2.

With draft, there's virtually no way a division gets loaded with good teams in year 1 or year 2.

bryanmurphy9 wrote:

spundin wrote:

Just do completely random. Works the best.

Chance that we end up with the same issue we have currently, there's no easy way to do random.

No easy way to do Random? Don't be silly, you go to any of the draft order free sites, put all the team names into it, it spits out a list from 1 - 20. Every 5 names is a division. Done, takes all of 3 minutes without any bias. There is every bit the same probability of having the same issues in a couple years as there would be otherwise, a lot can happen. Mathematically the odds are identical - literally.

No I meant by easy, that in the draft scenario, everyone has a say. It's not just theoretically balls being put in a hopper and it's done. If you put balls into the hopper, you could come out with the four 2010 division winners in the same division. Not possible under the draft scenario.

I'd rather let the 4 teams with the worst record, since the beginning of the league, do a snake draft of who they want in their division. And continue that every 3 seasons.

By the way, whats wrong with division winners in the same division?

aaronfoster13 wrote:

I'd rather let the 4 teams with the worst record, since the beginning of the league, do a snake draft of who they want in their division.

I like that, hadn't really thought of it that way. I would still like to see picks made by everyone but the last 4 picks. Just think it's a neat event and would like to involve as many as we can so they kind of "have they're say" to who's in their division.

I will cry if I am picked first... I think it is a good idea to have the best teams draft divisions. The worst teams already get the best draft picks.

huztler wrote:

I think it is a good idea to have the best teams draft divisions. The worst teams already get the best draft picks.

That was my initial thinking, though Aaron's makes sense as well. If it was up to me, I'd still go with 2010 Division Winners starting the Division Draft.

In theory, if we have the 4 worst pick, worst team would have the 5th worst but also the best team of their choice. I just like the fact that the worst teams are picking the teams based on what their strengths are, rather than the best teams picking the teams in their division based on their strengths.

I don't understand the opposition to the draft idea. Is it really b/c we're worried about hurting people's feelings? I thought (within reason) trash talking was a part of the deal. And this doesn't even amount to that.

Like I said, at first I thought the draft thing was a bit over thinking this. But, the more I see the discussion, the more I think it's really the only logical way to assure balancing the divisions (at least for this year). It actually helps the worse teams. Right now, there were teams in Process and my (if I may be so arrogant) division that had 0 shot at the playoffs. Not because they weren't good teams. But, because they had 2 very good teams in their division that not only would finish ahead of them, but play them twice. A bit of an overstatement, but meant to highlight that if divisions were more evenly alloted, not only do you avoid power house vs. power house in 1 division (so to speak), but you avoid very good team vs power house and power house (again, overstating the case to make the line of thinking a bit clearer).

In actuality, I should want to be in Process' (we have to stop renaming these teams unless we have new owners. I get used to who is on who's team and then their name changes) to be in my division, so he can beat down the other quality teams along with me. I don't have to worry about the couple of very good teams that are currently in my division getting a foe that they can handle, thus evening out the records at the end of the year.

Bottom line - if the San Francisco Giants had been in a division with the Yankees, Red Sox and Ray, would they have enen made the playoffs last year?

Just do the draft either way that's been described and have a little fun with it (which is the whole point of this endeavor).

I'm down for whatever at this point. I'll be in the playoffs as long as my team doesn't nose dive. Book it.