A quick and dirty guide to the Queue system
A brief history: In 2001 we found that the league and grown too large and too far spread to comfortably conduct an in person draft. Dan Elmaleh, our commissioner, wrote a draft web site for us to use and we conducted the entire draft online. The good thing about this is that everyone has time to do it, as it is spread over two or three weeks instead of eight or nine hours. Unfortunately, sometimes owners take their entire eight hours to pick. A couple owners like this in a row can be quite frustrating. To address this issue, Dan had folks start emailing in proxy lists for their upcoming picks. That way any of the league officers could select the next player remaining on the list when the team's turn came and we started to pick up a lot of speed. Unfortunately, the lists had drawbacks as well, as some owners would send in lists of 30 names only to have us realize that 26 of them had already been taken. And of course, since we were drafting too, there was always the posibility of conflict of interest when preparing other folks lists. The draft process was completed with the utmost integrity, with the officers only opening emails when it was the team's turn, but that process was not visible to the other owners. To avoid all of the potential headaches, we decided that this year we would implement an automated list system. Hopefully it will fix the major problems with the way things were run last year. No doubt it will cause a few problems of its own. If you have any questions or concerns about the queue process, email Dan Elmaleh.
Getting Started: To use the queue system you need to log in to the draft site. Be sure you are logged in, as your session will timeout after a while. If you ever have any problems adjusting your queue in any way, your first action should be to log back in and try again. Follow the Add Player to Your Queue link. You should see a screen that will allow you to select an existing (not yet drafted) batter or pitcher or to add one who is not in the database yet, similarly to what you would see if you were making your pick in person. After you select a player you must choose what position you would like them to fill (pitchers skip this step). When you are picking in person the site will look at which positions are open on your roster force you to choose from them. So if you had a 2B and wanted another, you would have to put him in as an MI or as a UT. The queue, however, will let you pick multiple players to fill the same position because it is possible that you will not get your first choice player. Once a position is filled, other choices for that position will be ignored and the queue will go with the next eligible pick on your list. For our examples we will be selecting Craig Counsell and Craig Biggio because they can illustrate several finer points of using the system.
Queueing a player: Players are chosen in order that you rank them. The default ranking is 99. In the case where two players are ranked numerically the same, they are chosen in the order that they are placed into the system. Let's choose Craig Counsell first, as our 2B. He is ranked 99. Now let's select Craig Biggio, also as a 2B. You will see that he is also ranked 99. Now lets edit the ranking.
| ID | Team | Q_Player | Q_ID | Q_Position | Rank | Date | Time | Newport Helmsmen | COUNSELL,CRAI | 1793 | 2b | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:14 AM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport Helmsmen | BIGGIO,CRAIG | 2361 | 2b | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:34 AM |
Editing the Queue: Click on the Edit Queue. You will see Craig Counsell and Craig Biggio listed with 99 as their rank. In the next two columns you will see the date and time that you selected them. If you change nothing, Craig Counsell will be considered before Craig Biggio is. According to The Sporting News' ranking, we're making a mistake. They have Biggio as the 116th overall major league player, while Counsell #488. Let's fix our order. To make any changes, you must select the checkbox in the first column, labeled ID. Put a check next to both of the players. Now in the Rank column let's put Counsell in as 2 and Biggio in as 1. Click on Submit. When the page reloads you should see the appropriate changes reflected. If you don't, make sure you checked the ID boxes when you made your changes. If you change nothing else, when your turn comes up the Queue will select Craig Biggio as your 2B, and on the subsequent pick it will ignore Craig Counsell since you've filled the 2B spot.
| ID | Team | Q_Player | Q_ID | Q_Position | Rank | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport Helmsmen | BIGGIO,CRAIG | 2361 | 2b | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:34 AM |
|
Newport Helmsmen | COUNSELL,CRAI | 1793 | 2b | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:14 AM |
But wait! Counsell was a World Series Hero last year! You need that kind of leadership on your team! Where can we fit him in? Counsell has a lot of positional flexibility (he qualifies at 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, or UT) so if you have one of those other slots open, you could get him there. If you really wanted to land him for your team, you could add him to the Queue again as an MI. Then you would have a Queue that looks like this:
| ID | Team | Q_Player | Q_ID | Q_Position | Rank | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport Helmsmen | BIGGIO,CRAIG | 2361 | 2b | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:34 AM | Newport Helmsmen | COUNSELL,CRAI | 1793 | 2b | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:14 AM | Newport Helmsmen | COUNSELL,CRAI | 1793 | MI | 3/13/2002 | 11:53:57 AM |
So, in addition to listing multiple players at the same position, you can list the same player at multiple positions. Of course, once you get a player he's yours and subsequent listings of him at other positions will be ignored. If you decide later that you were having delusions about Counsell being a must have, there are two ways to fix this. You can either rank him extremely low (say, 1000) and then leave him available in case all of the rest of your list has been taken or you can go in through the edit screen, select all of his spots in the ID column, and click on the delete button.
Editing Queue Wait Time: A handy feature of the Queue is that it can be set to wait before making your pick. This will allow you to make a pick by hand and then either readjust your list or leave it alone for the coming picks. Depending on your internet availability and the volitility of the draft (is there a run on a position that you need to get involved with that your list didn't address?) you may want to set your wait time anywhere from half an hour to the full 8 hours. If you are comfortable with your list, you can even set your wait time to 0, which will instruct the computer to make your pick as soon your turn comes up. This being said, as a matter of courtesy you should probably set your wait time to either .5 or 1 hours so that other owners don't have to wait excessively for your pick if you can't get to a computer when it is your turn. Of course, if your list runs out of names then you will have the full eight hours to log in and pick a player and start updating your Queue.
Also note, there are now provisions in the consitution to shorten the maximum Queue wait time for teams that consistantly use their entire wait time. See the Draft Site section of the constitution for more details.
If you have any questions about the Queue system or the draft in general, please email Dan Elmaleh, or qcfl@hotmail.com. We have run a complete mock draft and have tried to work all the bugs out. If you find additional ones let us know so that Dan can fix them.