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THE DRAFT
The draft is probably the most important day of the fantasy baseball season. Contestants that have a strong draft will most likely find themselves at the top of the standings during the regular season. The first step in a successful draft is choosing your draft method. STATS Fantasy Baseball offers three draft methods: Live, multi-list, and email draft.
Regardless of the draft method you select, each team will draft a roster of 26 players during the draft. Players may only be drafted at the position listed on the official player list. If your league is using the Waiver Wire system, all un-drafted players become free agents following the draft and be claimed off waivers. If your league is using the traditional Once a Week Free Agent Draft, you will be able to pick up undrafted players on Monday, April 8th, (rankings will be due that Monday and every Monday at 10AM Central Time). Once you have received your roster following the preseason draft, you may expand to 28 players by signing free agents or trading.
Drafts for team who have chosen the multi-list draft will all be processed on March 25th. If you sign up for a team after that date, you'll be placed in a league and draft as soon as 12 owners sign up. Draft lists must be prepared and finalized by 11:59 PM CT on March 23rd. Team owners using the multi-list draft do not need to be online for their drafts. For live and email drafts, dates and times are determined by the Commissioner's office and are available at different times and days throughout the pre-season. For time concerns, email drafts will begin on March 1st.
All returning leagues default to the multi-list draft method.
Multi-List Automated Draft
That's a total of 390 players you can rank. That's a lot of players, so if you wish to rank only the top 10 or 15 or even five at a position, you can, and we'll automatically fill in the rest by ranking the other players according to how well they did last year. If you get the number six pick at shortstop, that doesn't mean you'll get the shortstop you've ranked six. It means that five people will pick ahead of you, and that you'll get the shortstop you ranked highest (best) who hasn't already been picked. You may get the shortstop you ranked third or fourth. The draft reverses in the second round, so if you draft first at catcher in the first round, you will also draft 30th at catcher in the second round. If you drafted 15th at first base in the first round, then you'll draft first at first base in the second round (16th overall pick). The draft is arranged so that an owner's picks are not concentrated in similar categories. No owner will be able to, say, draft first at left-handed American League starter, second at right-handed AL starter, third at closer. We've also arranged the draft so that each owner gets some high picks at the higher pointing positions, and some at the lower-pointing positions. If you're drafting an entirely new fantasy team (as opposed to freezing players from an existing roster), there's no way to tell at what position you'll draft first, second, etc. The order of draft in a new league should not affect the way you fill out your Draft Rankings. NOTE: Some Returning leagues from 2004 will have 15-teams per league, so there will 15 draft categories with Right/Left Handed Starters and Middle Relievers split into American/National League. You will draft 2 AL and 2 NL Right-Handed Starters, and 1 AL and 1 NL Left-Handed Starter, etc. etc.
Live Draft You will have 90 seconds to draft a player in each of the 26 rounds. If you do not select a player within the time limit, a player will be chosen for you. If you can't participate in the live draft, you will have the option to rank all players in order of preference and have our auto-draft draft for you. The auto-draft will look at both a player's position and ranking before making a selection. The computer looks to see which starting positions you need to fill, then selects the highest-rated player to fill one of those positions. If you do not rank players, you will be provided a set of default rankings based on last season's point totals. So, if you are given a catcher in the first round, another will not be selected until all your other starting positions are filled. If you choose to rank players and not participate in the live draft, the positions from which you will be drafting and the number of players you will draft at each position are as follows:
E-mail Draft
The draft will begin with an automated e-mail sent to all 12 contestants informing them that the team selected to pick first in the first round is on the clock. At that time the contestant on the clock can go to the web site provided in the e-mail to make his/her selection. A list of available players at each position will be provided. After the selection is made, an automated e-mail will be sent to all 12-league members to inform them of the player picked and what contestant picks next. This process will continue for all 26 rounds. Each contestant will have 24 hours to make their selection in each of the 26 rounds. A contestant does not have to take 24 hours to make a selection. If a contestant chooses a player before the 24 hour time limit has expired, the clock will start running for the next contestant as soon as the selection is made. If you do not select an player within the time limit, a player will be chosen for you. Because of the length of time allowed to make each pick, if a league's draft has not completed by Noon on Friday, March 28th, 2004, all remaining picks will be selected automatically. Automatic selections will award each contestant the available player with the highest number of fantasy points from last year.
 
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REGISTRATION 
