Assigning Players

If you have imported existing teams into your league and don't plan to change their rosters, you are ready to check their computer managers or create a league schedule.

But if you plan to make roster changes, Diamond Mind provides you with three options for doing so: running a draft, signing individual free agents through a team's roster window, and making trades.

We'll introduce you to each in turn, and provide links to detailed discussions of each option. If you follow a link to material elsewhere, click Back on your browser when ready to return to this tutorial.

1. Drafting

A draft is an organized process in which teams select players from a free agent pool. If you want to have every team in a league or organization take turns drafting free agents -- manually, by computer, or in combination -- setting up and running a draft is the way to go. You will find the computer to be a skilled general manager, one that makes choices by comparing a team's needs and the available players with each passing round. A complete overview of the drafting process is available elsewhere.

Before conducting a draft you must create a pool of free agents, either by importing players individually or by releasing them from their current teams. If the pool contains players who played for more than one team, you should delete their partial season records while leaving a single, composite record for the player in place. More on creating the free-agent pool is available elsewhere.

Your options for structuring and conducting the draft are many. The following topics elsewhere in the Help file explain the process in detail:

Creating a draft
The draft window
Setting the draft order
Adding, deleting, and trading picks
Making manual picks
Computer drafting
Drafting and manager profiles
Pausing and resuming a draft
Deleting a draft

2. Signing individual players

If you wish to sign a few free agents for a particular team, or to release a few players from the roster, you can do so through DMB's Roster/manager profile window. An introduction to this window is available elsewhere, as are detailed instructions on how to sign free agents, release individuals and make other changes to a team's roster.

3. Making trades

Perhaps you wish to adjust your rosters by trading two or more players between two teams. DMB's Trade Players function allows you to manage such transactions in a single, simple process.

If you have built your roster manually, or have signed individuals or made trades, it's necessary to update your computer manager; in any case, you may wish to check and tweak the managerial decisions the computer has made. Then, with one more step -- generating a schedule -- you'll be ready to play.