Just had a sitemail exchange with an owner, and I want to clarify some important points:
1.) No twisting. If you have the Pirates and want to use Barry Bonds, you must use one of his Pirates seasons.
2.) Each owner must pick exactly 1 of the original 16 franchises and exactly 1 expansion/defunct franchise. There are 14 expansion franchises, meaning at least two owners will need to select one of the defunct franchises. This will be make for some very interesting drafting strategy.
You can choose either type of franchise in either round, but at the end of the two rounds you must have 1 of each.
There is no minimum number of players you must use from each franchise; that's entirely up to you.
3.) I fully expect that some owners may be interested in trading their draft position. Once the draft order is posted, I will allow owners 48 hours to swap their draft positions, but then the draft orders will be fixed. I am going to run the draft off the clock, at least initially, but if it proves to be moving too slow (we should be getting through 2-3 picks per day at minimum), I reserve the right to put us on the clock at some point. Obviously, if owners decide to swap draft positions, I am going to assume they are swapping spots in both rounds unless both owners declare otherwise. If owner A has the first pick in round 1 (and therefore the 16th pick in round 2), and owner B has the 8th pick in round 1 (and therefore the 9th pick in round 2), they can swap both picks. In which case owner B gets the 1/16 slot and owner A gets the 8/9 slot.
4.) It is definitely not too early to start your research. The draft will start no earlier than the first week of October, so that gives everyone almost a month to do research...should be plenty of time.
9/17/2014 11:50 PM (edited)