Introduction

This section of the help guide describes what each tab in the Draft Buddy is for.

Draft Buddy

Setup

The Setup tab is used to run the Draft Buddy setup process, during which it copies the Cheatsheet Compiler created cheatsheets to Buddy and customizes all of the Draft Buddy tabs specific to your league (as entered in the Compiler setup tab previously). Similar to the Compiler, all boxes highlighted in yellow can be altered by the user.

The most important box is the one marked Cheatsheet Compiler filename. Please ensure the Draft Buddy file you are using is in the same directory on your computer as the Compiler file you want to pull the cheatsheets from. Make sure that Compiler file is set on the league profile you want to use and has the cheatsheets in the final form ready for your draft (click the Compile Cheatsheets button in the Compiler if appropriate). Then, make sure the filename for the Compiler is entered correctly so Draft Buddy can find the file.

Enter all the owner and team names participating in the draft in the Team Information box. In most cases the best thing to do is to put them in the same order as the draft order for round 1 of the draft.

Then click the Setup Draft Buddy button for Draft Buddy to find the Cheatsheet Compiler file and copy over the cheatsheets, plus prepare the remaining Buddy tabs for the draft.

Warning: When you run the Draft Buddy setup, it will erase any keepers and/or draft picks you may have already entered into Draft Buddy unless you uncheck the Clear Keepers and Draft Picks During Setup? next to the Setup Draft Buddy button.

To save old copies of Draft Buddy, such as for different leagues, select File > Save As.., select a new name for the Draft Buddy file and save. This will create multiple copies of Draft Buddy on your computer, each with different data which you can go back and refer to. You can also use the Save As.. League Name_buddy.xls button from the setup tab.

Summary

The Summary tab is for the most part an information tab which is fairly self explanatory. It includes a Draft Pick Status box showing the last pick, current team that is to pick, the next two teams due up and when your next two picks are. The Draft Recap By Team shows how many players at each position each team has drafted, the required starters (copied from the Compiler), salary cap status for auction leagues and a sum of projected fantasy points.

For the next three boxes select the position you want to review using the drop-down beside the title Top Ranked Players Available. Each change of the position, and as picks are made, will update the the top ranked players available based on your rankings in Draft Buddy, the top average draft position players available to assess when players might get taken, and your current roster at that position.

The next box counts the number of players still available in each tier as indicated from your rankings on the offense and idp tabs. You can change the tier headings by using the drop-down in the first heading highlighted in yellow.

The final item on the summary tab is a Draft Pick Countdown Timer. The countdown timer setup is a bit to the right of the summary tab. Enter the available time per pick as mm:ss (minutes:seconds) to a maximum of 23:59. Choose to enable or disable sound effects to work with your timer. You can start, stop and reset the timer using the buttons next to the timer.

To take full advantage of the summary tab make sure you indicate correctly which team is yours on the setup tab.

At the conclusion of your draft, scroll to the right of the summary tab and you will notice a caption and button to submit your draft data to FF Today. If you click the button you will be directed to a webpage on FF Today to send us your draft data. This is optional but would be appreciated.

Keepers

If you indicated in the Compiler setup tab that your league does not keep any players, and run the Draft Buddy setup, then this tab will not appear. The Keepers tab allows you to enter all the players each team has kept from the prior year before entering the draft this year. Select the appropriate player(s) using the drop-down boxes under each team. Similar to the draft input tab, select the appropriate position and then the name from the player drop-down.

For auction or salary cap leagues, you can also enter the cost of the player and this will be deducted from the team's current year available spending budget.

If your league uses a keeper system whereby you lose draft picks for keeping players, then do not use the keepers tab and just enter the kept players, in advance, right on the draft input tab for the corresponding draft pick that each owner is giving up to keep the player.

Draft Input or Auction Input

The Draft Input or Auction Input tab is the main tab in Draft Buddy to be used during the draft. This is where the players are entered as each player is selected, and then Draft Buddy updates the remaining tabs. Each of your team's picks should be highlighted in light green as long as you identified which team is yours in the Team Information box on the setup tab.

For each player selection, choose the position under the Pos heading first using the drop-down box. Then select the player using the drop-down under Player Name. Players can appear in the drop-down in two different orders, by your cheatsheet ranking or alphabetical. Sometimes you can only find players on the alphabetical list if someone chooses a player that is not ranked. Change the drop-down at the top of the tab to change this, and this can be changed back and forth during the draft.

If you need to change the draft order from serpentine to straight order, or vice versa, then use the drop-down at the top. If you need to customize the draft order, then simply select the teams using the available drop-downs beside each pick under the Original Draft Pick Owner column. Note if you have a custom draft order input, DO NOT use the straight or serpentine drop-down as it will remove your custom draft order.

If picks or players are traded then choose the new team using the drop-down under the Pick or Player Traded To column.

For auction leagues input the final dollar bid for the player, and the team that won the player under the Winning Bidder column.

By Team

The By Team tab keeps up to date team rosters as the draft progresses, tracking the number of players each team has by position, the player bye weeks to quicky see if there is a potential conflict, the projected fantasy points for each player and remaining auction dollars for an auction draft. Some of the columns and rows are hidden by default to provide for a cleaner and more compact look. To open up the hidden sections click the "+" (plus) signs above or to the left of the data. Alternatively, to re-hide the sections click the "-" (minus) signs.

Offense and IDP

The Offense and IDP tabs, along with the Overall, ADP and Depth tabs, are all structured the same way. They each have 2 identical copies of the cheatsheet or ranking list on the tab beside each other. The cheatsheet on the right is the cheatsheet copied from the Cheatsheet Compiler during the Draft Buddy Setup step. The cheatsheet on the left will update and remove players as they are added to the auction or draft input tab (as they are drafted). Therefore, you can quickly move to this tab and see who your next highest rated player available is at each position.

Using the cheatsheet on the right for each of the offense and idp tabs, you can re-rank and re-tier the players without having to adjust the projections as you would have to in the Cheatsheet Compiler. This is convenient as a quick and easy method of adjusting the rankings for late info, or so they coincide with your own personal preferences. To change the rankings, simply re-number the players under the Rank and Tier columns and click an appropriate re-rank button.

For auction leagues, there are additional options to adjust the Compiler calculated auction values. Scroll to the right of the second cheatsheet and there should be an option box to adjust or set auction values for each position.

Overall

The Overall tab also removes players from the cheatsheet as they are drafted, as described above. The other feature it has is the ability to highlight selected positions using the same method as in the Compiler. Select the position using the drop-down box for each of the three colors at the top of the page where it says Highlight these positions.

ADP

ADP stands for Average Draft Position, which is a calculation of the average spot each player is drafted in either 10, 12 or 14 team redrafts this year. The average is based on a mix of mock and real drafts thankfully provided by AntSports (www.antsports.com). You can use this data to estimate when a player might be picked in your draft, so you can assess just how long you might be able to wait before drafting that player, and hence getting more value for your draft picks. The ADP tab also removes players as they are drafted similar to the Offense tab.

Depth and IDP Depth

The Depth and IDP Depth (when applicable) tabs are the same as from the Cheatsheet Compiler, except each remove players as they are drafted similar to the Offense tab.

By Pos

The By Pos tab, or by position tab, keeps a running list of the order players are drafted in by position. This list is probably most useful after the draft to prepare for future drafts by understanding when certain players were drafted and what players are under or overvalued.

By Round

The By Round tab shows the order all players have been selected, read with round down the side and pick number across the top. For serpentine drafts, the picks will wrap back and forth every other round. Assuming there are no trades of draft picks, then each column should represent the picks by a particular team in the order the team picked the players.

Misc

The Misc tab stands for Miscellaneous, and includes a simple table showing special team players and head coaches for leagues that use these positions. These players/coaches are not ranked, but are included for reference purposes and will fall off the table on the left as they are entered on the draft input tab.

Questions?
Check out the Compiler Message Board or send an email to Mike MacGregor and he will respond ASAP.