Live in-person draft strategy... LAPTOP?

[Doc19]

Our league is holding a live in-person draft this year for the first time. I am starting to do the major grunt work associated with draft prep, which will be very different this year since there is no "yahoo default list" to predict where many players will go in the draft.

Our draft uses 1-2 minutes per pick. I am wondering what the advantage is (if any) of using a laptop during the live draft in-person? This would be opposed to my intial idea of pencil/paper list of overall rank / projected stats, and a tier list /rank by position.

Aside from looking up statistics quickly, which I intend to study prior to the draft when making my projections, and picking up any last minute injury reports, is there another value that I am missing?

Thanks!

[smackthefirst]

There are plenty of advantages to having a laptop at your draft. Personally, I haven't used a piece of paper for any of my drafts in the last 10 years I think and I would never want to go back to it. Aside from what you mention such as looking up stats quickly and finding out about last minute injury reports, you can pretty much find any information that you need within seconds. Look at it like this. With a piece of paper you have no more info than what's on those few pieces of paper whereas if you have your laptop, you literally have instant access to millions of pieces of paper. You have ranking lists, schedules, injury reports, player histories, depth charts, and projections. And the two most important advantages of having a laptop are that you have the option of using drafting software if you choose (I'd recommend Footballguys Draft Dominator) and you also have the advantage of forums. I've seen numerous posts pop up over the years where the poster literally asks do I take player A or player B and hopes for a response within their draft time limit.

The only word of caution that I can give you is to make sure that battery is fully charged and/or make sure you have you power plug because the last thing you need is for your laptop to die out mid draft and leave you clueless, scrambling, and making blinds picks.

[mikus]

Well I will go ahead and argue for the old-fashioned way. Printed out cheat sheets, average draft position, bye weeks and a few rankings are all you should need at the draft. Do your homework on injuries and other updates before the draft. Sometimes, the access to all that information listed above is that it is too much information. When you have only 1-2 minutes per pick, it is better to focus on the pick at hand rather than searching out obscure stats on the internet for a majority of the time.

Keep it simple.

[scottaa1]

When you have only 1-2 minutes per pick, it is better to focus on the pick at hand rather than searching out obscure stats on the internet for a majority of the time.

Keep it simple.

Yeah, having a computer in front of me during a timed draft seems to add difficulty via the ability to try to find out whatever last minute information I can.

Plus, if it's an in-person draft and you bring the laptop, I've been in that situation and had the commish say "Hey you brought your laptop? How about recording everyone's picks for me in an Excel sheet." Which takes even more time away from your draft.

[dgan]

Yup, that's an easy way to start over-thinking. Having stats and columns and such at your draft will talk you into drafting that sleeper a round to early or sour on that WR you have next on your board.

Do your homework, trust your rankings, and enjoy the draft. It's the best afternoon of the year - you don't want to spend it stressing yourself out.

[moochman]

I guess I will always favor a more laid back approach. Do your homework, makes a few draft boards to keep track of who is falling and which positions are getting over drafted. To me a laptop interfers with the interaction of an in-person draft. More importantly, I never got upset when someone* spilled a beer on my sheet.

*Most common culprit being yours truly.

[dmacblue]

Yup, that's an easy way to start over-thinking. Having stats and columns and such at your draft will talk you into drafting that sleeper a round to early or sour on that WR you have next on your board.

Do your homework, trust your rankings, and enjoy the draft. It's the best afternoon of the year - you don't want to spend it stressing yourself out.

Nail on head

[smackthefirst]

Well it looks like I'm in the minority here, but I can see where everyone else is coming from with the stressing out and enjoying the draft factor. Personally though, my laptop never causes me to stress out as I just keep the one screen open for the draft dominator application. I use the program as a tool that replaces all the pages that I used to keep for the draft. So as opposed to flipping through pages, I'm simply clicking off players as they're drafted and spending the rest of the time drinking and enjoying the day.

The application provides rankings, projections, ADP, and all the info you would need for your draft in one neat little package. The other good points are that it allows me to see how many picks until my next pick (we trade draft picks a lot in my league so it can be confusing) as well allows me to see which players other teams have taken so I can figure out if a guy is likely to come back to me in the next round or not if I pass on him during this round. Finally, the program also allows me to analyze everyone's teams as soon as the draft is done which is nice because I always like to start the year off with an article detailing the strengths and weaknesses of all the teams in the league.

****DISCLAIMER****
I've lost one laptop due to me spilling a beer on my own laptop so use this strategy at your own drunken risk.

[mrblitz]

I see valid point from both sides. For me, I always have my positions tiered, along with their bye weeks, and simply cross off the players as they are taken. Sometimes as previously mentioned, if you have a laptop with you, it could easily promote access to too much information. Whatever the route you decide, do your homework before hand.

[smackthefirst]

Whatever the route you decide, do your homework before hand.

The best advice given thus far, even with my posts. I just love it when you see someone walk into the draft 10 minutes before it starts and opens up a magazine and says "so who's the starting QB for [insert team here]" and you just laugh. Pre-draft preparation is the ultimate key. Knowing the players and fitting in as many mocks as possible to get more adept at working with what the other owners are doing.