In the Draft Dominator Quick Start Guide, we talked about utilizing shortlists, but that is not the only sort of list tool available for fantasy owners using the Draft Dominator. You may also go through the player lists and designate players as prospects to either Watch or Avoid. By using the various options available in the Filter menu, you can sort lists based on your Global Watch and Avoid lists. The key difference between this Global Watch and Avoid Lists and the shortlist is that the shortlist applies only to the context of one draft and will clear when you go to a new draft. Global Watch/Avoid lists apply to every draft of every league that you ever enter into the app. So, if your opinion about a player on the Watch/Avoid lists changes over the course of the preseason, you'll want to make sure to either add or remove them from the list you've built because the program assumes that you want the Global lists to function for each of the drafts you operate during the preseason.
Designating a Player to Watch and Filtering for the Watch List
If you have a list of preferred players at each (or any) position that you would want to add to your team because of intangible reasons beyond their projected fantasy points, you can employ the Global Watch List to tag these players. The procedure is similar to establishing a shortlist, but the Watch designation will appear on the draft board under the player's rank - there will be a green spotlight with a white star in the middle and the words "watch list" next to the star. Click on the player's name in question, and when his information box pops up, you will see in the center of the bottom line of the box (between the green Pick button and the green Add button) the word "Watch" with the green spotlight and a white star in the middle just under the word "Watch". Hit the Watch button and the word Watch will turn green (and the watch designation will be added to his name on the larger draft list). See the graphic below:
Where this feature is useful is when you start using the Filter button during the draft. If you want to quickly see a list of the remaining players you prefer at any position, you hit the blue Pos button at the top left of the player list column, select the appropriate position, and then hit the blue Filter button to the immediate right of the search box. See the graphic below:
Then you'll see a pop-up box that allows you to filter the player list according to the following categories: NFL Team; Include Picked Players; Watch List Only; Exclude Avoid List; Exclude Injured, and Rookies Only. To filter the list so that only your watch-listed players at this position appear, tick the check box next to Watch List Only - and you'll see your most preferred players still available at this position. To go back to the full list of available players at this position, hit the blue Filter button again and uncheck the Watch List Only option.
Designating a Player to Avoid and Filtering to Exclude Avoided Players
There may be a list of players that you prefer to not add to your fantasy team this year, regardless of their projected points (perhaps they have been suspended by the NFL and are liable to a long-term suspension if they make another mistake, or perhaps they have started to exhibit symptoms of a degenerative knee or a bad disk in the back). If this is the case, you may designate selected players to Avoid. Click on the player's name in the player list and his information box will pop up. In the center of the bottom line, between the green Pick and green Add buttons, you'll see the word "Avoid" and a small red Ban symbol below the word. Click the Ban button and the word "Avoid" will turn red (and on the larger player list, the ban symbol along with the word "Avoid" will appear under the player's rank).
If you want to quickly see a list of the remaining players that does not include your "Avoid" players, you hit the blue Pos button at the top left of the player list column, select the appropriate position, and then hit the blue Filter button to the immediate right of the search box. Then you'll see a pop-up box that allows you to filter the player list according to the following categories: NFL Team; Include Picked Players; Watch List Only; Exclude Avoid List; Exclude Injured, and Rookies Only. To filter the list so that all your "Avoid" players are removed from the pool of available players, tick the Exclude Avoid List box, and Draft Dominator will take them out of consideration. To go back to the full list of available players at this position, hit the blue Filter button again and uncheck the Exclude Avoid List box.
Other Filtering Options - Including Rookies Only and More
Besides filtering for your Watch or Avoid lists, you may also sort the draft list according to other criteria. To only list players from a particular NFL team, select the team from the drop-down box next to the NFL Team label, and then close the Filter Players pop-up box. Only players from your designated team will appear on the draft list. To go back to the full list of players, select "All" from the drop-down menu, and close the Filter Players pop-up box.
If you prefer to exclude all players currently listed as injured in Draft Dominator, you may tick the box next to Exclude Injured and close the Filter Players pop-up box. Draft Dominator will remove all injured players from the player list. To turn this option off, click the Filter button and uncheck the Exclude Injured box.
Finally, you may filter the player list for Rookies Only by ticking that box in the Filter Players menu. If you have used multiple filters and would like to go back to the complete player list with no filters in place, you may click the blue Clear All button which automatically removes all filters and closes the pop-up box.