Bad drafts happen to everybody from time to time. Sometimes there’s one big mistake, sometimes a series of little ones. Sometimes all your targets cost twice what you thought they would, sometimes you run out of talent before you run out of money. Any number of things can be responsible, but the result is the same: you had a crappy draft, and it looks like you’ve ruined your team. Now what?
Panic at the disco
Absolutely, freak out and panic for a while. Get it all out of your system. Cry, scream, curse your wretched fate, curse your wicked, cackling, despicable league mates, whatever you need to do. In fact, I would advise you to panic for about two weeks post-draft, because you shouldn’t do anything at all with your team for that period of time unless you absolutely must.
Your emotions will be raw, and the memories of your misdeeds during the draft will haunt you like ghosts. How could I possibly have paid that much for Player X? Why oh why didn’t I go $33 on Player Y? How did I completely forget about Player Z? If you need to beat yourself up for awhile, go ahead. But don’t touch your team. You will regret it if you do. Trust me on this one.
You need a couple weeks for the draft memories to fade and for your dislike of your team and the players you drafted to calm down a bit–that, and you need a little time to see what your players are doing on the field and in your league standings. Once a couple weeks have passed and you’re feeling better about the whole thing, you’re ready to move on.
Do a post-mortem
Everybody makes mistakes sometimes. What matters is how you respond to the mistake. Making a mistake once is fine but making the same mistake over and over is a big problem. You can blame yourself and say something like, “I knew better,” or “I just did something dumb,” but you’re not learning anything by saying that, and it’s probably not even true. How often in your life do you just randomly do something you know is stupid? Especially when money is on the line?
What you need to do is to think about why the mistake was made. What was the process that led up to the mistake? Was it a lack of information, organization, or discipline? Was it a weakness in your strategy? How could the mistake have been prevented? How can you avoid repeating the mistake? All these are ripe grounds for self-analysis, and the time for that analysis is about two weeks after the draft, when your emotions have calmed down, but your memory is still clear enough to remember what transpired.
Whatever the mistake and however it happened, don’t beat yourself up too much. Sometimes “mistakes” aren’t even your fault. If the draft is short on talent and everybody comes in targeting the same players, you’re going to end up in a mad scramble, falling back to plans B, C, and D before just frantically reacting, and your roster is not going to look anything like you thought it would. That’s not your fault–it just happens. Don’t blame yourself for things out of your control.
Often, though, mistakes happen that could have been avoided, and now is the time to try to figure out what went wrong so you can avoid a future recurrence.
Assess the damage
Once you’ve figured out what happened and why, you’re ready to analyze the results. For better or worse, you’re stuck with the team you drafted. Now you have to figure out where to go from here. First and foremost, you have to revisit your pre-draft assessment of your team’s competitiveness in the current season. Can you still compete with the roster you assembled in the draft? Can the problems be solved by the waiver wire, reserves, trades? Or is it so bad that you have no chance this year and need to rebuild for the future?
Don’t feel rushed to come to a final decision about your ability to be competitive. Often, two weeks isn’t enough time to know whether you can compete or not. In that case, it’s best to just wait. It’s a long season, and you have plenty of time to fold up the tent if that’s what you decide to do. Don’t rush your decision. The important thing is that you don’t make any dramatic roster moves until you know where you are going with your franchise. Don’t start making trades until you have determined in your own mind what your plan is for the season.
Wait ‘til next year
There’s an exercise that I think everyone in a keeper league should do every year after their draft, but that is especially important if you had a bad draft and are considering a rebuild. Make next year’s freeze list out now. Pretend it’s next March and your freeze list is due to the commish, pronto. Who would you freeze? Who would you dump? Who is on the bubble?
Doing this exercise after the draft, even if you had a good draft, is very useful, but it is absolutely crucial if you’re rebuilding. When you’re rebuilding, what are you actually trying to do? Well, you are trying to improve next year’s freeze list. That’s it. The whole enchilada. So how can you improve your freeze list if you don’t even know who’s on it right now?
Oftentimes doing this will help you realize that the draft wasn’t as bad as you thought. You almost always walk away from a draft with a few bright spots on your roster, or at least potential bright spots. Keep next year’s freeze list handy and update it as you make roster moves throughout the season. Even if you’re going for the brass ring this year, it’s always good to keep one eye on your freeze list, and if you’re rebuilding, it will be an invaluable tool, a map of sorts guiding you along the way to next year’s draft, which will of course run smoothly and perfectly. Don’t they all?
