My Thoughts on Second SBL Draft

As I said in my first draft review, Dallas would be essentially tanking the first season with what they picked and I am, indeed, not wrong. This gave them a premium spot to get assets this season, no pun intended, as they are in the most controlling spot int he draft, with first pick and all. They did not went with my 8D chess plan though, instead they be grabbing every fielder they can get their hands on. It's a fair strategy, no doubt, especially if the management truly believes in their 3 SPs last season.

Personally, I think picking up a fourth pitcher to complete the rotation isn't so bad, but you know, it's Dallas, they are daring enough to go full pitchers last season and I expect them to be swinging hard when they decide on a plan. Interestingy, they did trigger sort of a chain reaction as all the GMs eventually go harder on fielders in a draft where people would sort of expect the GMs to go heavy in pitchers. After 1.1 and 2.1, the GMs kinda know they HAVE to grab the fielders they want before 3.1, or it's gone for sure.

Do I like the current Drillers though? I think they definitely improved vastly with guys like Gustav and Landry in the mix now. I also think Ryoma at 4.1 is a bang-for-value pick as I think the man could be worth a 2nd or 3rd round pick. He's also an offensive catcher, which I had said it again and again that it is a better choice in the current meta of this league. I think they will still struggle a little bit this year having to move the GM player to 3B so Gustav can play 1B, or vice versa, but in the end they have a position with someone with 0 positional XP. That really hurt the defense, even for a less important spot like 1B or 3B.

Here's another 8D chess move: accept, once again, that this isn't your season and train literally every.single.fielder at a different position. Positional XP is the rarest asset one can get in this league and having two positions player is huge. By next draft, options are going to be wonky if you only have single positional players because it limits your choices. Also, I would point out that this is actually a common strategy employed in the online multiplayer mode with cards known as Perfect Team. Hardcore players who know they aren't going into playoff will always do positional training by the second half of the league. Of course, Drillers might believe they have a chance and just challenge for a playoff spot, and they could be right, we will see about that.


In last draft, I did say that Cardinals had the ingredients to form a lockdown team and go defense-first. I also said that every team should decide on a theme and go hard on a theme because theme wins games. Forming a OOTP team is not too different from making an efficient deck in a card game, I would argue moreso than some other sim engines. Like in the engine SBA used, everyone's kinda too efficient and it becomes sort of a TPE game. In Football Manager or OOTP though, you have so many attributes that everyone's not gonna be perfect. So, you want players who play YOUR style to be on your team, or you go "midrange" with a well-balanced approach. Both are fine options, but you gotta decide. I am not sure if this is their true intention or Cardinals just happened to draft these players, but it looks like they are sticking to a more defensive approach with the draft here.

With three SPs picked here, they essentially established their core as long as everyone continues to grow to the potential. They drafted some very defensive fielders in S1 so I don't see them having any other alternative than to stick their guns on the D. If they are running this team on a full 1.15 batter's park, then I don't know what the fuck is the management's planning, if I can be very blunt.

Do I like the current Cardinals though? If they stick to defense, absolutely. They still need some slots filled for sure and some of the players there are looking like they won't hit the projected potential, so they have a long way to go. Could they be lower than Drillers this season? Maybe, but if they can find some defensive specialists in S3 draft, they are on their way to build a wall on this league. Currently though, I don't see them being very threatening.


Honestly, I am not very sure about this one, chief. I think I like the 3.3 more than every other pick. Grabbing a SP from a good player agency there is amazing, but the other three picks I can't feel as great. I think Bighorns are just stuck in a bad spot in this draft, and they had it even worst due to how the draft flows. Bighorns are probably banking on there being fielders on round 3 and 4 but since other teamas are picking those early, they had to pick one on round 2 just to get a fielder and then go back to pitchers for the latter rounds. Not too bad since I really liked the 3.3.

Do I like the current Bighorns though? Eh, it's one of the most balanced teams as of now, and they had a good first season so I don't see them doing too bad with a bolstered SP rotation.


It's expected for the season winner to have the worst draft just by their draft position, but I'd argued that grabbing Ezekiel Bridges at 2.4 is a crazy steal of excessive value. I feel like the draft priorities of other teams essentially helped Invaders here more than anything. If other teams are grabbing SP first, Invaders would have a very hard time securing anything on that side and they truly need them. They won this first season largely out of insane batting but that won't be forever. They need pitchers to win yet no one is denying them pitchers at all. Bridges at 2.4? Like what the heck, steal of the century unless the agency somehow abandons the league.

Do I like the current Invaders though? What is there to dislike, really? They had an amazing batting lineup of death already and they are now adding their pitchers. Feels like everything is working wonderfully for the Invaders and I see them still doing exceptionally well this season. Their concern might just be the staying power of Shaman and Maddux. If both these pitchers improve like they need to, the Invaders will be dominating the league like the great Genghis Khan invading Europe and wrecking everything in their path.