What's the best way to use Draft Buddy on Draft Day

[rsekine 0]

Last year I used Draft Buddy and was not able to find players quick enough to input the players correctly. Sometimes the picks went really fast. I stayed in the "Overall Ranking" page, and used Control-F to search for players. The guys in my league laugh at me with my laptop and they will not wait for me to catch up. What is the reccomended way to use Draft Buddy in a real draft? Describe how you use draft buddy in your draft. Are there certain pages you stay on?

 

I can see that the Summary screen would be useful to see what players have been picked by other teams. The By Team page as well. Also, could you let us see more than7 players available in the Summary page. How about increasing the number to top 20 available for ADP and Ranked Players Available.

 

Finally, since I am the only one using Draft Buddy, and they rest of my League the various ADP lists in the internet, how can use this to my advantage? If I have to choose between Kevin Smith and Selvin Young, I take Smith since your pretty high on him. But since ADP shows Selvin young 12 picks back, I may want to pass on Smith and hope to get him on the way back. Is this the proper way. Any more tips?

 

How about a "Best Pratices" stick it?

 

Thanks for all your work!

[edgarb 0]

I have these same questions....the draft moves too quickly (inmy leage you only have 90 sec to pick) to keep up...it isn't the end of teh world, b/c cheatsheet can be marked off, but any tips would be nice. thanks

[Trinity 0]

I have the same problem. I have been a customer to this tool for several years but starting last year my Yahoo league began to do online drafting that goes by very fast (I think it was 90 sec each turn) so I couldn't keep up using Draft Buddy. If there are no compelling advantage or way to use this tool effectively with this kind of draft, I can't justify the purchase. Hope anyone who are in the same scenario can give some tips. Thx

[jugobeer_2 0]

I have the same problem. I have been a customer to this tool for several years but starting last year my Yahoo league began to do online drafting that goes by very fast (I think it was 90 sec each turn) so I couldn't keep up using Draft Buddy. If there are no compelling advantage or way to use this tool effectively with this kind of draft, I can't justify the purchase. Hope anyone who are in the same scenario can give some tips. Thx

 

Pay some beers to your friends, then they will ask for a "pee" break each 3-4 round...

 

 

Seriously, i dont have that problem, it's take me about 10 sec max to find someone using the draft input TAB. dont be shy to use the sort by (ranking or alphabetical) it help a lot. By default, i go by ranking but when we are past the 8-9th round i go back to the alphabetical order.

[rsekine 0]

Pay some beers to your friends, then they will ask for a "pee" break each 3-4 round...

Seriously, i dont have that problem, it's take me about 10 sec max to find someone using the draft input TAB. dont be shy to use the sort by (ranking or alphabetical) it help a lot. By default, i go by ranking but when we are past the 8-9th round i go back to the alphabetical order.

 

Staying on the Overall Tab, then ctr-l to search for the name, then clicking "Draft Player" button seems better in the sense that you can also see who is left in the draft. The draft input tab, you have to scroll down and find the right guy. I'll try it in a mock to see if its any better. Thanks.

 

Any more suggestions?

[Mike MacGregor 20]

I had let this topic go a bit because I wanted to see how other people responded as it is good feedback for me. The interesting thing is I thought the direction of the question was along the lines of what tabs people find the most helpful, that kind of thing. Instead more focus has gone on to speed of inputting the picks.

 

Lets talk speed...

 

I'll be the first to admit that doing an online draft with a strict low time limit (90 sec.) and using Draft Buddy at the same time can be a bit tough. The biggest distraction I find is flipping windows between the online draft progress, and Draft Buddy, and back and forth. Probably the best thing to try here is to resize the windows so you can see both on the screen at the same time. Sure, it narrows the view of what is going on, but I personally think it is better than tabbing between windows.

 

A couple other minor tips:

 

- I still think the best way to draft a player is the Draft Player button, but rather than find him in the overall, use the offense tab. Then the players are already sorted/filtered by position for you.

- I'd go with the Blank (Classic) look, which makes it less likely you're going to pick the wrong player (i.e. a player already selected).

- If the player is not listed in the rankings, then the draft input tab sorted alphabetical is a great option as jugobeer mentioned.

- If you realize you missed a pick, you don't need to remove all the other picks and put them in again. Go to the draft input tab, highlight and copy the picks made since the miss, move down to line them up with the correct pick(s) and paste. Then go back and input the missed pick with the drop downs on draft input.

- If Buddy is running slow, close other Excel files (i.e. Compiler) and if your draft does have a break, save Buddy, close Excel, open it back up and open Buddy again. Even reboot the whole computer if time allows it.

 

Now on the other topic, what tabs to utilize. Here is something I wrote in response to a question on the main board about which rankings I use, the overall or positional, that might be helpful:

 

During the draft I put more weight on the tiered positional rankings than the overall list myself.

 

The overall list I like to review pre-draft to get a good sense how a particular league values different positions. How high are the QB and WR relative to RB? Where are we pegging the first couple TE to go? I might mix in the DEF if they score a lot... not that I would probably draft the top DEF wherever it says, but to have an idea when other owners might start grabbing DEF. I think the overall list has a lot of value answering these types of questions. Give you a good big picture outlook of the draft and league so you can plan accordingly. Then I'll mock out the first couple rounds mostly using Draft Buddy and the overall list. Try a few scenarios for my picks.

 

The tiered list I agree with you lets me "see" it better what is going on, although I've never thought to phrase it that way. As jgc shows from his example, you're going to maximize value using the tiered list (properly). I wouldn't say necessarily in the early stages of the draft, but more in the middle and late stages. Not to mention, once you get into the mid to late stages of the draft, you have to give some consideration to drafting based on need (i.e. filling different positions), so the positional list is going to be more beneficial there.

 

Basically, I use a combo. Hope that helps.

[rsekine 0]

 

Thanks Mike! My Draft is next Tuesday and Wednesday, so I may have a few more questions. You have a great product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had let this topic go a bit because I wanted to see how other people responded as it is good feedback for me. The interesting thing is I thought the direction of the question was along the lines of what tabs people find the most helpful, that kind of thing. Instead more focus has gone on to speed of inputting the picks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lets talk speed...

 

I'll be the first to admit that doing an online draft with a strict low time limit (90 sec.) and using Draft Buddy at the same time can be a bit tough. The biggest distraction I find is flipping windows between the online draft progress, and Draft Buddy, and back and forth. Probably the best thing to try here is to resize the windows so you can see both on the screen at the same time. Sure, it narrows the view of what is going on, but I personally think it is better than tabbing between windows.

 

A couple other minor tips:

 

- I still think the best way to draft a player is the Draft Player button, but rather than find him in the overall, use the offense tab. Then the players are already sorted/filtered by position for you.

- I'd go with the Blank (Classic) look, which makes it less likely you're going to pick the wrong player (i.e. a player already selected).

- If the player is not listed in the rankings, then the draft input tab sorted alphabetical is a great option as jugobeer mentioned.

- If you realize you missed a pick, you don't need to remove all the other picks and put them in again. Go to the draft input tab, highlight and copy the picks made since the miss, move down to line them up with the correct pick(s) and paste. Then go back and input the missed pick with the drop downs on draft input.

- If Buddy is running slow, close other Excel files (i.e. Compiler) and if your draft does have a break, save Buddy, close Excel, open it back up and open Buddy again. Even reboot the whole computer if time allows it.

 

Now on the other topic, what tabs to utilize. Here is something I wrote in response to a question on the main board about which rankings I use, the overall or positional, that might be helpful:

[seh2000 5]

A couple other minor tips:

 

- I still think the best way to draft a player is the Draft Player button, but rather than find him in the overall, use the offense tab. Then the players are already sorted/filtered by position for you.

- I'd go with the Blank (Classic) look, which makes it less likely you're going to pick the wrong player (i.e. a player already selected).

- If the player is not listed in the rankings, then the draft input tab sorted alphabetical is a great option as jugobeer mentioned.

- If you realize you missed a pick, you don't need to remove all the other picks and put them in again. Go to the draft input tab, highlight and copy the picks made since the miss, move down to line them up with the correct pick(s) and paste. Then go back and input the missed pick with the drop downs on draft input.

- If Buddy is running slow, close other Excel files (i.e. Compiler) and if your draft does have a break, save Buddy, close Excel, open it back up and open Buddy again. Even reboot the whole computer if time allows it.

 

Mike - 2 questions on this, you'd think I never used this before!

What hotkey should we use to search players on the overall tab - or are you saying just look for them? If I do CTRL-F, it always goes over the to right side where you'd Re-Rank...then I have to scroll over to get the draft player button. (searching Next, stays there and never goes to the 'regular' listing).

 

#2 - you say you go with the Blank (Classic) look...what do you mean and where?

 

Thanks.

[Mike MacGregor 20]

The reason the CTRL-F goes to the player name on the right is because that is flat data, while the cheatsheet on the left is formulas. However, even if you've selected a player on the right (clicked on him, or CTRL-F takes you there), you can still use the Draft Player button on that cell. It does not have to be clicked on a player from the left cheatsheet. You just need to be careful to scroll back to the left to click the Draft Player button without clicking on another cell first.

 

The Blank (Classic) look is where it drops the player from the cheatsheet entirely, not just greys them out once drafted. That is the method we've always had in prior years with no options. Go to the setup tab and the first drop-down you can switch the look to Blank (Classic).