Unlike other fantasy games, a Baseball Manager draft is as close to real drafting as you'll get.

A lot of planning goes into drafting: ordering your picks, guessing who will have an MVP year, and searching for that promising rookie. You have to fill up a full 28 man roster, so you need to select carefully and manage your budget!

It's just like in the big leagues. Every position requires smart thinking on the part of each owner to not only decide which player you want, but to try to make a player you don't want really expensive for another team. You control that by placing players high on your preference list, increasing both the chances you will get them, and a higher salary.

You are bidding against the other owners in your league for every player in the majors. And the BBM salary cap adds a lot of strategy to the draft, in that you have to always keep an eye on how much you are spending at every position.

Each team begins the draft with $40 million to draft a 28-player roster. The minimum player salary in the draft is $100,000 and the maximum salary is $5 million. Salaries are set according to where the players are ranked in each team's draft lists. For example, if all 10 teams in the league rank Alex Rodriguez as the top pick in the shortstop draft his salary will be $5 million.

It's important to draft quality players, but it's important that you don't spend all our your money in the draft. Remember it's a long season -- be sure to save money in your payroll so you can afford to claim free agents, make trades and cover the costs of your players' bar tabs at the BBM Bar and Grill :).

Two Types of Drafts
There are two types of drafts - a four-round draft or an eight-round draft.

The type of draft you depends on the type of league you select when you enroll and the time when you enroll. To determine which type of draft your league will be participating in, please read your headlines page as it will tell you exactly what type of draft you will be conducting. The headlines page will also tell you when your draft begins so please read the headlines page daily for draft information.

In both types of drafts, you set your draft lists and salary caps in advance and the actual draft is conducted overnight with the results viewable the next morning.

A four-round draft is conducted over four days in the following order:

1. Draft six starting pitchers in round one.
2. Draft six outfielders in round two.
3. Draft eight infielders in round three.
4. Draft three catchers and five relief pitchers in round four.

1. Draft six starting pitchers in round one.
2. Draft six outfielders in round two.
3. Draft two first basemen in round three.
4. Draft two second basemen in round four.
5. Draft two shortstops in round five.
6. Draft two third basemen in round six.
7. Draft three catchers in round seven.
8. Draft five relief pitchers in round eight.

All players who are not drafted in a league's draft will appear as free agents in the free agent pool when the draft is over.

Setting Draft Lists
To prepare for the draft, you need to set your draft lists and salary caps before each round of the draft occurs. This is where you orchestrate your draft strategy to a rousing crescendo of creativity.

To set your draft listsn select the position you wish to set draft lists for from your Team page.

To set the order of each player at each position just enter the priority number for each player in the box next to his name. For instance, if you're setting the draft lists for first basemen and you want to draft Jason Giambi first, type 1 next to his name. If you want to select Jeff Bagwell second, type 2 next to his name. If you want to select Todd Zeile third, type 3 next to his name and so on until you have assigned a number to each player at each position in the draft list.

Be sure to click on the OK button after setting your draft lists and it's also a good idea to print out the lists so that you have a hard copy of them.

Setting Salary Caps
Once you've set your draft lists, you're ready to set the salary caps for each position. Salary caps are like baseball caps - they come in different sizes.

Each team starts the draft with a $40 million payroll. You allocate the amount of money you want to spend at each position in the draft by setting your salary caps. For instance, if you want to spend $8 million on your starting pitchers, then set the starting pitcher cap for $8 million. You can revise your salary caps between rounds of the draft. The game computer will honor your most recent revision provided you set the cap before the draft round begins.

If you want to ensure you get the top pick at first base, then you should set your starting pitcher and outfielder salary caps lower so that you can be sure you have the most cash remaining in your payroll when it comes time to draft first basemen. Remember, the team with the most remaining cash in its payroll before a draft round gets the first pick in the draft for that round.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When setting your salary caps at each position, remember you need to have enough cash allocated at each position to draft a starter PLUS a reserve.

For example, if Mike Piazza's salary in the draft is $3 million and you have set your catcher salary cap at $3.1 million in an effort to get Piazza, you will NOT be able to afford to draft him. Because you need $3 million to pay Piazza PLUS a minimum of $200,000 ($100,000 for each backup catchers) to draft two reserve catchers. You should always take into account the number of players you need to draft at each position and set your salary caps accordingly.

While you want to draft the best players at each position, be sure that you have enough cash in your payroll when the draft is complete. There are three reasons why you need cash in your payroll when the draft is complete:

1. You need cash to make free agent claims.
2. You need cash to make trades in the event of salary disparity between the players you're trading.
3. Winning a BBM league championship with cash left in your payroll is about as easy as winning the Indy 500 without any fuel left in your gas tank.

Your draft results in each round will depend on the player rankings you set on your draft lists, the salary caps you set for each position, and the decisions made by other managers in your league. You can revise your player rankings and salary cap for each position right up until curfew (historically around 4 AM ET) on the night that each position is drafted. Once your BBM league is filled with 10 managers, your league's draft will be ready to begin. A round of the draft will occur every night over a four-day period until the draft is complete.

The order of the 4 day draft is: starting pitchers, outfielders, infielders and then catchers/relievers. This is described below.

Round One: Starting Pitchers
On the day leading up to the first draft round, which will occur overnight and not within your sight, managers can adjust scouting lists and salary caps for all player positions and are reminded to commit their final starting pitchers decisions before curfew. Always commit early and often. That night, BBM first determines the salary of every starting pitcher according to the rankings of all 10 managers. Then BBM sets up a random team order for the first selection of the round. (This is the only time a random order is used.)

1. The lucky team with first pick gets the starting pitcher ranked #1 on its list, if he's under the salary cap he set.
2. The other teams, following the random order, get the highest-ranked starting pitcher on their list who is still available (and within the salary cap limits).
3. As each starting pitcher is assigned to a team, that pitcher's salary is subtracted from the team's payroll remaining.
4. BBM figures the draft order for the second starting pitcher selection. From now on, the team with the largest remaining payroll will pick first, and the team with the smallest payroll will pick last.
5. BBM assigns each team, in payroll order, a second starting pitcher--the highest-ranked pitcher on its list who is still available. That pitcher's salary must also fit under the team's salary cap for Starting Pitchers, with enough money left over to pay at least a minimum salary for the remaining four pitchers.
   
   Example
   Let's say your salary cap for your six pitchers is $4.5 million (the amount BBM sets for you if you don't set it yourself), and you get Randy Johnson as your first choice for a salary of $2 million. You now have $2.5 million left to pay your five remaining pitchers. Let's say the next pitcher on your scouting list is Tom Glavine and his salary is set at $800,000 (second-tier pitchers will always go for far less than those first-choice all-stars). No problem there. You've now got two set starters and $1.7 million left for four more pitchers. Your final four pitchers will probably cost you something like $350,000, $150,000, $100,000 and $100,000. This brings your total salary outlay for six starting pitchers to $3,500,000, leaving you $1,000,000 under your starting pitcher salary cap. (That remainder can now be added to other position salary caps, or you can keep it as money in the bank.)
   
   But just for the sake of argument, let's say you want to save your money for the best third-string catcher in the universe, and you cut your starting pitcher salary cap down to $3.00 million. You'd still get your first pick of Johnson for $2 million. But BBM would realize that with only $1,000,000 left and five pitchers to go, you can't afford your second pick of Glavine at $800,000. In fact, the game would figure out that you'd need five pitchers at $100,000 each -- the minimum salary for any player. Thus, the rest of your starting pitching staff would be chosen from far lower down on your pitcher scout list. If your salary cap were any lower than $3 million, you wouldn't even get Johnson -- you wouldn't have enough to pay $100,000 each for the five other pitchers you need to fill out your staff.
6. This sequence continues until every team in the league has six starting pitchers.
7. Any pitchers not chosen in the draft will appear in the free agent pool, at the salary assigned by the draft, when the Pre-Season begins. There are no games played in pre-season.
8. After the first round of the draft, leagues move right into Round Two.

Round Two: Outfielders
Managers can adjust all scouting lists and salary caps (except for starting pitchers, who have already been drafted) and are reminded to commit their outfielder decisions before the deadline. Always commit early and often. That night, BaseballManager executes Round Two for outfielders in the same manner as it did for starting pitchers.

First it determines outfielder salaries according to the 10 manager rankings. Then it sets a team draft order according to amount of remaining payroll. Finally it assigns the highest-ranked unpicked players to each team in order (respecting each team's salary cap for outfielders), and deducts their salaries from each team payroll. Round Two continues until each team has six outfielders.

Round Three: Infielders
Managers can adjust scouting lists and salary caps for all remaining positions, and are reminded to commit decisions for all four infield positions before the deadline. That night, BBM executes Round Three, first for two first basemen, then two second basemen, then two shortstops and finally two third basemen.

In the Long Draft, each position is drafted on consecutive days.

Round Four: Catchers and Relief Pitchers
BBM executes Round Four to assign each team first with three catchers and then with five relief pitchers. The draft phase is complete.

Pre-Season
Now you can print out your roster and review your team. You'll also want to print out the rosters of the other teams -- it helps to know the competition's holes and weaknesses -- when they become available the following day, the start of pre-season. You can start acting on this information as soon as your pre-season begins. The pre-season lasts 5 days. There are no games in pre-season, but it is a good time to set your lineups and starting rotation, pick up free agents, or even make trades.

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