Thursday, November 03, 2005

The A1Draft... the Final Word

All in all, I thought the A1 Draft was a success up through the end of the free agent period. There weren't very many flake-outs, people were generally enthused and it was a good time for most. Of course, there were bumps on the road, most specifically the handling of guys who were put back in the draft after their owners struck/dropped out for whatever reason. It's something that could easily be fixed for next year.

What I'm most disappointed in though is the lack of booking. I know that I'm partially to blame for that because I started my booking and never finished it. I think I got a little ambitious doing a whole four/five show arc. I do plan on finishing it one of these days just to get the spark going again, but the number of people who didn't even try to book their rosters really are the ones who I'm most bummed at. Maybe they couldn't book their cards cuz of time constraints, and that's understandable, but there were some really good rosters drafted, and also some really interesting/questionable ones that might have benefitted from creative booking.

Now, you may be wondering why three of the original teams were left out of the analysis. Those were mine, Fordyce's and James Irish's. Well, in good conscience, I couldn't objectively rate my draft because every pick, to me, made sense, so of course I'd give me an A+. Fordyce and James both dropped out and had incomplete drafts, so I couldn't rate them. I could probably have rated James' because he had 16 out of 18 picks completed, but really, it wouldn't have been the same.

You also might have read a lot of stuff about "reaches" and "steals," but I know things are all relative. To put it in perspective, I'm going to go with how I thought the first two rounds should have gone:

1. Spoiler
2. Freakfish
3. Housefly
4. Big Dog
5. Beast
6. Maggot
7. Euclid
8. Hida Yakamo
9. PILE
10. Mr. Hyde
11. Ken Cloverleaf
12. Dan Ryan
13. Professor Tremendous

14. Gladiator
15. Chip Friendly
16. Prisoner 187
17. Promo
18. Jericoholic Anonymous
19. Cross
20. Paco The Wetback
21. Sensational Steven Shane
22. Torment
23. James Irish
24. Lindsay Troy
25. Richard Farnswirth
26. Andrew Gilkison

As opposed to how it really went

1. Spoiler
2. Chip Friendly
3. Freakfish
4. Dan Ryan
5. Housefly
6. GUNS
7. Big Dog
8. Mr. Hyde
9. Euclid
10. Hida Yakamo
11. James Irish
12. Jericoholic Anonymous
13. Duchess

14. IrishRed
15. Beast
16. Richard Farnswirth
17. Professor Tremendous
18. Kodiak Vic Creed
19. Gladiator
20. Ken Cloverleaf
21. Maggot
22. Sensational Steven Shane
23. Prisoner 187
24. PILE
25. Freakshow
26. Andrew Gilkison

As you can see, a world of difference between what I thought should have happened and what really happened. I guess the other drafter's philosophies were different than mine, but hey, variety is the spice of life. All I know is, I got two first round caliber talents and a second round caliber one in my first three rounds, so that's why I'm happy with my draft.

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