If you're doing a last minute auction league draft, this article is for you. Auctions are a tricky beast. Many say that auctions are the best form of fantasy football because they allow any owner to grab any player, so there is less luck of the draw involved. It's pretty hard to screw up a standard snake draft; just take the best available player if you don't know what to do. But it's quite easy to screw up an auction. You don't want to blow your load too early, but you definitely don't want to have leftover money at the end, because that's worthless. Here are some tips:
1) Always nominate players you don't want. In most leagues, people overpay for the early players and underpay for the late players. So if you want Matt Schaub, nominate Brees, Rodgers, Brady, Romo, and Rivers, and you will probably get Schaub at a lower price than all of them (which is a steal because Schaub is better than Romo, Rivers, and possibly even Brady). Especially nominate over-hyped players that you know people in your league want - perhaps because the players are on their home team or went to their alma mater. I played with some Cal kids tonight so I was sure to nominate Rodgers, Tony Gonzalez, Jahvid Best, and DeSean Jackson early.
2) Don't pay more than the recommended price for any of the 1st rounders. The prices and bids are just insanely high. AP, CJ, MJD, and Rice all go for $60+ (with a $200 budget). Those managers are immediately put on a tight budget.
3) Conversely, don't miss out on everybody in the first 3 rounds. It's smart to wait but not too long. Remember, Ryan Grant deserves to go for twice as much as Marion Barber, even though Grant won't get twice as many points. It's about Value Based Drafting (VBD) in which you compare a player to the worst starter to determine his worth. Moreover, while depth is important, players on your bench don't get you any points (this is the problem I had in my draft).
4) Don't spend more than $2 on any Kicker or Defense. If someone nominates a top 5 Kicker or Defense for $1, bid $2 and he's probably yours. If someone ups the bid to $3, then they just paid $3 for a Kicker or Defense, so shame on them. You may even want to nominate the Jets Defense early and watch some schmuck pay $8 for a defense after a brief bidding war. Then grab the Niners towards the end for $1.
5) Be very flexible. Maybe you end up with 2 mediocre QBs; maybe you get Rodgers. It just all depends on who is significantly undervalued by your league. And I mean significantly. I wouldn't grab everyone who you can get for a dollar less than the asking price. You'll get no one in the 1st round, but then spend your entire budget in the 3rd and forget to get a QB and TE. There will be big discounts later so wait for the real bargains throughout.
6) When bidding, especially on the early players, jump the bid up high quickly. Don't let MJD slowly get to $50 dollar by dollar. Just bid $30 to get things going early and then people will feel better about bidding him up past $65. Worst case scenario in rushing the bid up is that you end up with him at that amount, and $30 for any of the 1st rounders is a steal.
Here is my team from tonight's draft in a 10 team league, I'm pretty happy with it, except that I actually ended up with $8 leftover. I wish I had been less conservative and grabbed Finley for $12 rather than Winslow for $4. It will be difficult to drop anybody on this roster should I need to add a bye week replacement or hot waiver wire add. I think I'll try to consolidate my talent via 2-for-1 deals (i.e. Welker and Spiller for Jennings or something). Thoughts?
| 22 | Rashard Mendenhall, Pit RB | $29 |
| 34 | Stephen Gostkowski, NE K | $2 |
| 35 | Brandon Marshall, Mia WR | $33 |
| 36 | Pierre Thomas, NO RB | $21 |
| 40 | Joseph Addai, Ind RB | $17 |
| 41 | DeSean Jackson, Phi WR | $26 |
| 54 | Eagles D/ST, Phi D/ST | $2 |
| 55 | Wes Welker, NE WR | $15 |
| 82 | C.J. Spiller, Buf RB | $8 |
| 85 | Jerome Harrison, Cle RB | $14 |
| 87 | Ben Roethlisberger, Pit QB | $8 |
| 97 | Malcom Floyd, SD WR | $6 |
| 102 | Lee Evans, Buf WR | $4 |
| 108 | Kellen Winslow, TB TE | $4 |
| 121 | Jay Cutler, Chi QB | $1 |
| 126 | Johnny Knox, Chi WR | $2 |
9 comments:
wow. stacked team.
Yah but you've gotta be a little worried about the QB situation. Once Ben comes back, you'll probably strt him and rotate b/w the 2. But in the mean time, you've got to ride the interception-machine.
auctions sound complicated - i prefer regular snake drafts
auctions are way better for normalizing substantial value breaks that aren't compensated for by the snake draft. Chris Johnson + the 21st best player is still better than whoever is drafted 10th and 11th.
That's true. I always hear that auctions are how real pros do fantasy
Cutler for $1??!?!
Steeeallllll!!!!!!
I thought you put DeSean on the "Guys You Don't Want" list??
That's true, but remember that "Guys You Don't Want" really means "Guys You Don't Want RELATIVE TO THEIR ADP". If you can get DeSean in the 3rd round of a snake draft, by all means, get him. In the auction, Calvin Johnson and Roddy White (who are just above DJax in our rankings) went for $32 and $33, so I thought DJax at $26 was a good deal.
In the interest of full disclosure, I regret the pick because Colston and Steve Smith are just below him in our rankings but went for $23 and $20, so I would have rather bought one of them. But I'll roll with DJax.
Nice blog Brett. I went with an opposite strategy (I'm in Brett's Cal League), get studs early, and with such a small league (10 teams) there will be plenty to poach towards the end. This was the case with Shiancoe, and arguably with VJax as well. And, I got two of the four best running backs, and arguably a top-5 QB. Very happy with my team, though not as much flexibility if one of my allstars flops/gets hurt.
Team Bacon
QB Tony Romo 24
RB Adrian Peterson 68
RB Maurice Jones-Drew 59
RB/WR Vincent Jackson 2
WR Devery Henderson 2
WR Marques Colston 23
TE Visanthe Shiancoe 2
D/ST Colts D/ST 1
K Neil Rackers 1
BE Brandon Jacobs 11
BE Willis McGahee 1
BE Thomas Jones 2
BE Devin Aromashodu 1
BE Tarvaris Jackson 1
BE Mark Sanchez 1
BE Josh Cribbs 1
Total: 200
Remaining: 0
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