Amateur Draft Coup

[Wrathchild]

In the 1904 draft I was able to get an 18 year old Ty Cobb. Out of 16 teams I was 14th in the order and I even waited until round 5 to take him, to let the other teams have a chance at him. But they just kept picking scrubs for the most part so I grabbed him as my last choice. Maybe historical hindsight drove my decision but I find it odd that no other team saw the potential in him.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Wrath,
 
Was he called in prior to his actual MLB start year?

[Wrathchild]

Yes, 1 year early.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Then perhaps he wasn't selected because the other teams can't "see" into his potential future and/or they don't know what he's going to do. I guarantee it that even back then, no one knew what a talented player he would evolve into. You, but they would have no way of knowing for themselves.
 
Just a hunch.

[Wrathchild]

You're probably right, but his stats still seem like something someone would've wanted to jump on. I'll post them here for opinions. Remember, this is 1904 and he's 18.

Contact 77
Power 56
Eye 52
Speed 51
Range 100
Arm 65
Hands 61
Potential 100

That beats any of the outfielder scrubs that were being drafted. I put him in AA for this season and here's how he's performing towards the end of April:

Avg .417
HR 0
RBI 2
AB 24
H 10
2B 0
3B 1
BB 7
SO 2
OBP .548
SLG .500

Not too shabby.

[KG Erwin]

I can see the logic for using early entry in early 20th century draft associations, if you wanna maximize the percentage of real players vs fictional scrubs.

After Shaun introduced the 40-man rosters for historical leagues, I set aside the notion of doing a start-from-scratch draft. Hopefully he can build upon this in the new game.

[Wrathchild]

I really enjoy the early entry, as you never know when a given player will show up. I've had players show up 5 years before their real start and then others, like Cobb, show up only 1 year early or not early at all.

[throttle8]

That's how I set up my associations also!!