Adopt-A-Prospect 2017 Discussion Thread

[Seth Stohs]

Hey everyone,

 

We wanted to get people thinking about this right away. The first few years at Twins Daily, we held an Adopt-A-Prospect in which readers were encouraged to 'adopt' a prospect or two fro the system and start a thread on that player. That person was then responsible for posting updates, highlights of big games, awards, newspaper stories from their towns, and anything else.

 

Last year, we didn't run anything officially though some of you took it on yourself.

 

If we want to give it a shot, a real shot to work this year, we need to plan it. 

 

What do people want to see from it? Who would be interested in reading the information keeping up with the forums?

 

Here's what I'd like to see, but feel free to share your thoughts.

 

1.) Encourage and have threads on all minor leaguers. It bugged me that there would be stories on minor leaguers, things that would have fit perfectly into what we'd like to know about players. How do we get more participation?

 

2.) We had a lot of people adopt players and then they go quiet. That's frustrating too.

 

If we're going to do this for 2017, we need help. We need to discuss it now and prepare. Do we continue the adoption process? Do we have groups of people help get a roster done? Should we start these threads now, listing all players? 

 

What do you think?

[goulik]

Some things that could make this helpful:

 

What do we consider a "prospect"?

Thrylos limits it to no MLB service. This leaves out some guys but may be a very good rule for AAP. What are other qualifications for a prospect? Under a certain age?

 

Some guys carry more interest than others. Do we start with an initial prospect list for people to choose from. A group of "these guys REALLY need to be adopted." To start

 

I like having a date and time for a draft to start. It builds hype and gets things going with a strong start. Maybe there's a date and time for rounds one through three of a draft with a free agency period after that(first come first serve for each round)

 

A moderator assigned to message posters that are not updating their prospects. If no moderator wants that task, maybe assign Shane or I or both of us that task. After not heeding warning (s) maybe that poster loses that prospect and the right to draft a prospect for the following year?

 

Prospect trading? If you didn't get the guy you really wanted? (Or if you have always had James Beresford but didn't get him this year type thing)

[Vanimal46]

Concur with goulik. I think limiting the prospect pool would be helpful and generate more engagement. I'm sure the research and dedication that goulik and others do for prospects takes a lot of time. And let's be honest, there's probably not a lot of people clicking on the Logan Darnell thread.

 

Perhaps have monthly updates on the top 30-ish prospects? 

 

[markos]

The biggest problem with Adopt-A-Prospect is that the daily Minor League reports are too good. I adopted Alex Meyer for two years, and after every start 90% of the info that I'd want to share in the Alex Meyer thread was already reported in the Minor League report thread. And if there was any discussion to be had, it was mostly done in the Minor League report thread as well. It is hard to stay motivated to continue to update a prospect thread when you know the lion's share of the discussion and info will be elsewhere.

[Seth Stohs]

I get wanting to do the draft for interest, at least in the first group. 

 

My problem is then like 25-30 guys (out of 150+) get drafted.  I get that the lesser-known prospects might have less interest, but they still deserve a thread. 

 

And markos, there's no reason that information from the daily reports can't transfer over to their prospect page. In fact, it should, especially if they have a home run, or a multi-hit game, or throw a quality start or something. And, there should be a bunch more on all the players, local news paper articles, video, etc.

[goulik]

I get wanting to do the draft for interest, at least in the first group. 

 

My problem is then like 25-30 guys (out of 150+) get drafted.  I get that the lesser-known prospects might have less interest, but they still deserve a thread. 

 

And markos, there's no reason that information from the daily reports can't transfer over to their prospect page. In fact, it should, especially if they have a home run, or a multi-hit game, or throw a quality start or something. And, there should be a bunch more on all the players, local news paper articles, video, etc.

I concur but Having 50 guys adopted and updated regularly is better than none. I like and feel your passion for all 150 but realistically it won't get done on a monthly basis at this stage of the project. I think we should more realistically set targets for the number of adoptions and increase that annually to build that passion in others. If we could for instance get all 60 of Thrylos' top 60, that would be a wonderful number this year. (And I'm sure there would be other adoptions from outside that 60) At years end, assess and set a higher goal for adoptions for next year.

 

Another separate thought, a post draft draft of new prospects.

[Squirrel]

I think it would be nice if the daily reports could link to the prospect page, and vice versa, when a particular player gets singled out for performance in a game. When I read the daily reports and see a particular mention of a prospect having a good game, I head to the Adopt-A-Prospect forum to see what else there is on that person, to fill in the gaps. Was this game an outlier? Has this person been steadily on the climb? Has he been working on something to make this game stand out? By linking back and forth, it could help to generate more traffic into the forum, and more traffic could generate more interest and discussion. And I think Seth is right, just because a prospect gets a mention for a particular performance in that game, I think you should still continue to put that into your prospect page. You could easily say 'What a night so and so had, he did this, that and the other thing. Here's the TD write up (then link it to the daily update), but these are my thoughts.' Or something like that. And I think you should feel free to also self-promote in a way. If you see your prospect mentioned in a daily update, post a comment saying how he's 'your guy' and you've been following him all season and link your page in the comments.

[goulik]

I'm sure the research and dedication that goulik and others do for prospects takes a lot of time.

 

To be honest, with so many threads started last year I felt I was doing a very shoddy job of really looking into the individual prospects after the first 4-5 threads.

[King]

I'd be interested if you guys work out the kinks.

[Bob Sacamento]

I'd be interested in doing some of the lower levels like GCL and EXST+Instructs.

[Vanimal46]

 

I'd be interested in doing some of the lower levels like GCL and EXST+Instructs.

I really enjoyed reading your breakdowns of Romero and others last year. The videos you posted were great too. Hope to read some of your work this season! 

[Bob Sacamento]

 

I really enjoyed reading your breakdowns of Romero and others last year. The videos you posted were great too. Hope to read some of your work this season! 

Thanks! Glad someone enjoys them outside of myself!  I'll try and have some more this season but my patient load is starting to pick up so less free time on the backfields. 

[Steve Lein]

While it would be awesome to consider all prospects in the system for their own thread, I think that's a bit ambitious.

 

Almost certainly I would do the Top 20 Twins Daily prospects that we write specific articles for. Then beyond that anybody that any member wants to follow for the year. Could have just 20, could have all of them, never know.

 

Definitely should include same/similar information that the Daily Reports identify in the Adopt-A-Prospect thread. 

 

As a writer of those, however, I would find it to be a tedious task to link to all the player's threads in them. We could however, be better about tagging the MiLB posts with the names of the day's strong performers. By clicking on a players tag in the MiLB report, you should be able to find their Adopt-A-Prospect thread pretty quickly.

[Guest]

I tried to update any CR player's thread when they did something notable when I thought about it, in addition to trying to keep my own player (Beresford) relatively current.

 

If it helps, I'll pass on adopting other players this season and instead "adopt" any Kernels player that isn't adopted by anyone else.

 

I can't promise I would update every player every week (the Kernels had over 50 guys come through last year, I think), but I could try to at least put something out there whenever one of them did something newsworthy. 

[Seth Stohs]

Well, what's the consensus? What would you all want to do? Lay it out, how you envision it.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I will sign up for a couple of guys. Or I can comment on prospects already adopted unless people feel like that's not in the spirit of it or stepping on their territory.

[caninatl04]

Given that I was once a (very, very, VERY) bad catching prospect, and that I have homes in Atlanta and Nashville and travel frequently through Chattanooga, I'll take Brian Navarreto or whomever ends up being the Lookouts primary catcher.

[goulik]

Lets set a date and time for a draft to begin. I am ready to start now but that is a little silly since the MiLB seasons are so far away from starting. Maybe a week or so before the actual MiLB seasons start? I like using Thrylos' list as he has a set of standards on what a prospect is/is not. Thrylos, can you attach those standards and your list to the Draft page when this begins?

 

AAP Rules

1: You Can only draft one person first day from a preset list of prospects.

 

2: After the first day, you can select anyone/as many additional as you want from the list or beyond as long as they remain rookie eligible.

 

3: Prospect pages are updated every 2 weeks during their playing season.

 

4: If your prospect ends up in ExST, your first update would be after they go to DSL, GCL or Elizabethton. Begin updates after the first week of rookie ball.

 

5: If they go on the DL, let us know how long you think they will be out and updates can be suspended until a week after they return.

 

6: If you miss 2 updates your prospect goes on the waiver wire to be claimed by anyone that wants him. An AAP authority will warn you in a direct message after the first 2 week deadline is missed and announce the Waiver Wire after the second one. (AAP moderators do not have to be official TD moderators and do not need their power(s) as moderators...maybe a different word could be used other than moderator. I just have not thought of that word yet. These guardians of AAP could be appointed by Seth/otherTD owner/moderator from a list of volunteers?)

 

7: Within 3 days of draft, start a page with a brief bio. (Thrylos/Seth/Anyone Else, can we copy and paste your bios if we also put a link to the page we borrow it from?)

 

8: When the season ends, put a wrap on the year and your projection for the next year.

 

Did I miss anything? Should anything be changed? When do we start?

 

 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I like the above posters idea too. I was thinking Cedar Rapids for myself. Whichever pitchers are coming or going through the system.

[ashbury]

An AAP authority will warn you in a direct message after the first 2 week deadline is missed and announce the Waiver Wire after the second one. (AAP moderators do not have to be official TD moderators and do not need their power(s) as moderators...maybe a different word could be used other than moderator. I just have not thought of that word yet.

Since this has a Fantasy Draft feel to it, I'd go with "Commissioners". At least, that's the term used in the League I am familiar with.

[King]

I'm in for joining.

[King]

Is this happening? Minor league season just around the corner

[goulik]

I like the above posters idea too. I was thinking Cedar Rapids for myself. Whichever pitchers are coming or going through the system.

Some tried this type of thing last year and it fell apart with only a few of us keeping up on AAPs. I really think there needs to be a draft to get more involvement. Most people only want one or two players but maybe a hy-brid version could exist where there's room for adopting an MiLB teams hitters or pitchers outside the top prospects already adopted?

[goulik]

Is this happening? Minor league season just around the corner

Seth, can we set a draft date time for the VERY near future?

[ashbury]

My suggestion, a hybrid between the draft-players solution and someone-be-in charge-of-an-entire-team.

1. 4 people volunteer as stalwarts (goulik and 3 others?) to be in charge of each of the 4 minor league teams that play in April: Rochester, Chattanooga, Ft Myers. and Cedar Rapids.
2. Open up all players for these teams to a draft, for whoever wants them, as done in past years (after a day, another round of drafting if people want 2 or more).
3. Any players not drafted, the 4 stalwarts maintain rudimentary pages for, and also monitor the players who were drafted.
4. After the June draft, we figure out something similar for E-town and GCL.

I want to see something happen! It needs buy-in from Seth, however.

 

 

[Seth Stohs]

I'm in... I think we can do a draft...

 

What I'm thinking is that we draft 30 players a day for three or four days. The first day, I'lll list our Top 20 or 25, and people can draft those players. The next day, I'll create another list of 20-25 players, and people can draft one of them. And so on for 4 days. I think we can start it on Wednesday and draft Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then I'll take a look at where we are and next week we can do 1-2 more days. But if we can get 20-25 people who promise to be very active and they each take 4-6 players, we can cover more ground and be a bit more organized. 

 

Any thoughts on this plan??

[goulik]

My suggestion, a hybrid between the draft-players solution and someone-be-in charge-of-an-entire-team.

 

• 4 people volunteer as stalwarts (goulik and 3 others?) to be in charge of each of the 4 minor league teams that play in April: Rochester, Chattanooga, Ft Myers. and Cedar Rapids.
• Open up all players for these teams to a draft, for whoever wants them, as done in past years (after a day, another round of drafting if people want 2 or more).
• Any players not drafted, the 4 stalwarts maintain rudimentary pages for, and also monitor the players who were drafted.
• After the June draft, we figure out something similar for E-town and GCL.

I want to see something happen! It needs buy-in from Seth, however.

*Wants to by ashburyjohn a steak*

[goulik]

I'm in... I think we can do a draft...

 

What I'm thinking is that we draft 30 players a day for three or four days. The first day, I'lll list our Top 20 or 25, and people can draft those players. The next day, I'll create another list of 20-25 players, and people can draft one of them. And so on for 4 days. I think we can start it on Wednesday and draft Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then I'll take a look at where we are and next week we can do 1-2 more days. But if we can get 20-25 people who promise to be very active and they each take 4-6 players, we can cover more ground and be a bit more organized. 

 

Any thoughts on this plan??

I like the idea of working off of a list to get more drafted but wonder if we can have a larger number to choose from day one since some people will be unavailable at the moment the draft opens...lots of people working lots of different shifts you know? Everyone should get a shot at someone they REALLY want.

[Seth Stohs]

 

I like the idea of working off of a list to get more drafted but wonder if we can have a larger number to choose from day one since some people will be unavailable at the moment the draft opens...lots of people working lots of different shifts you know? Everyone should get a shot at someone they REALLY want.

 

Sure, we can do 40 on Day 1 and play the next days by ear. 

[Seth Stohs]

We'll have Round 1 of the Adopt-A-Prospect Draft tomorrow morning. More details to come...