Exhilarating. Invigorating. Mind-Blowing. Life-Changing.
These are terms that I have heard to describe the auction format by long-time fantasy players who have dipped their toes in the water for the first time. If you’r’e a seasoned snake-drafter and haven’t had the pleasure, what are you waiting for?
The auction draft is fantasy baseball in its absolute purest form. There are no gripes over what draft slot that you got stuck with in the snake, or which players were unavailable when it was your turn on the clock. You have a chance to acquire any and every player that you want, provided that you have budgeted properly.
The majority of mixed-league auction drafts utilize a budget of $260. How you choose to allocate that budget is entirely at your discretion, but the most commonly utilized method is 70/30, in which you devote $182 toward hitters and $78 toward pitchers.
The first thing that must be done when preparing an auction strategy is to assign dollar values to every player in the draft pool. If you have the time, ability and wherewithal to create your own personal projections for each player, and then the knowledge to convert those raw stats into auction values through a method such as standings gained points (SGP), that’s a fantastic idea. If you’re like most of the fantasy baseball playing population though, and don’t have the time to project 450+ players or the mad Excel skills to make the calculations, this may not be feasible.
If you have never competed in an auction draft before and aren’t able to create your own values, it may not be wise to simply guess and assign random values to each particular player. What’s advisable is to find a source that you trust and are comfortable with (Rotoworld for example), and use its initial values as a base and adjust from there based on your own personal preference.
Keep in mind that every league has a different format and some utilize budgets other than $260. The total sum of the auction values that you assign needs to equal the total money being spent during the auction. If you’re competing in a 12 team league that starts 23 players (14 hitters and 9 pitchers), there should be 276 players (12 x 23) with dollar values assigned to them and their total should equal $3,120 ($260 x 12).
What I like to do before heading into an auction is to examine the player pool at each position to determine how many players I’d be comfortable ending up with. I then use that information to assign an estimated cost for each roster slot available. For example, looking at the player pool heading into 2018, I feel that first base is way more shallow than it has been in recent years, especially in leagues that utilize a corner infield slot as well. That means my goal will be to acquire one of the top 7-8 guys at the position as I believe there is a significant drop-off after that group.
We have also seen a change in the overall batting versus pitching dynamic due to the massive influx of power over the past few seasons. Home runs are no longer a scarce commodity at the draft table, especially in 12-team formats. That means it’s no longer a skill that requires paying a premium for.
Instead, the focus has seemingly shifted to high-end starting pitching, as the amount of true aces left around the league has diminished considerably. While taking pitchers not named Clayton Kershaw in the first round used to be considered taboo, there are now four hurlers who are being drafted in the first round on average in snake drafts (Kershaw, Scherzer, Kluber and Sale) with up to nine others going in the next two rounds (Strasburg, Bumgarner, Verlander, Severino, DeGrom, Carrasco, Syndergaard, Ray and Greinke.)
As I tend to lean towards a stars and scrubs type of roster construction in auctions in general, I’m certainly willing to pay a premium to ensure that I land one of those elite options.
Prior to every auction draft, I lay out my entire budget beforehand based on my analysis of the player pool. As I fill in each spot on my roster, I’ll re-allocate any extra funds if I purchase a player at a discount, or have to take from other positions if I’m forced to go over my budget for a particular player.
For example, if participating in a 12-team mixed league auction that utilizes 23 roster spots, how I choose to allocate my funds would look something like this:
| Position | Budget |
|---|---|
| Catcher 1: | $4 |
| Catcher 2: | $1 |
| First Base: | $38 |
| Second Base: | $8 |
| Shortstop: | $20 |
| Third Base: | $10 |
| Corner Infield: | $16 |
| Middle Infield: | $4 |
| Outfield 1: | $36 |
| Outfield 2: | $22 |
| Outfield 3: | $10 |
| Outfield 4: | $6 |
| Outfield 5: | $2 |
| Utility: | $2 |
| Position | Budget |
|---|---|
| Starting Pitcher 1: | $31 |
| Starting Pitcher 2: | $16 |
| Starting Pitcher 3: | $7 |
| Starting Pitcher 4: | $4 |
| Starting Pitcher 5: | $3 |
| Starting Pitcher 6: | $2 |
| Starting Pitcher 7: | $1 |
| Relief Pitcher 1: | $11 |
| Relief Pitcher 2: | $6 |
While this may seem like a very simple exercise, it’s one that I believe is critical to success. If you don’t have a detailed plan like this going in, it’s very easy to overspend and back yourself into a corner, leaving you with $9 left to fill your final nine roster spots and winding up completely at the mercy of the rest of the league. On the flip side, without a proper plan in place, you could end up leaving money on the table, which is the single biggest atrocity that you can make in an auction draft.
Another aspect that many who are new to auction drafts don’t fully consider is choosing which players to nominate for bidding. As a simple and basic rule, you generally don’t want to nominate players that you want early on in the auction. There’s no sense in putting the players that you covet up on the auction block when every team in the league is flush with cash and may be willing to go an extra dollar or two to get that player. It’s a sound strategy to nominate players who are expected to fetch a high price, but that you have no interest in at all, thereby flushing money out from your league-mates. It may also be a wise idea to continue nominating high-priced players at a position that you have already filled, especially as the inventory at that position starts to deplete, possibly causing owners to overpay to avoid missing out on the last player they deem worthy at that particular position.
This isn’t a steadfast rule though, and there are certainly reasons where you may want to nominate a player that you actually want early on in the draft. The primary reason for this would be if you need to know whether you can obtain a particular player in order to determine the rest of the draft strategy. For example, let’s say after preparing your draft plan, you determine that you simply have to have Trea Turner. His speed is critical to your strategy and you want him as your shortstop. If your plan going into the draft is simply to “get Turner”, what happens when other high-end shortstops like Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor are nominated within the first few picks? Do you pass on them, even perhaps at a discount relative to your auction value, because your plan is to get Turner? In situations like this, it’s best to get that player out as soon as possible so you know whether you’ll have him to build around, or if you need to reallocate your auction dollars elsewhere and find another shortstop.
Regardless of how you choose to create your draft plan, there are a couple of very basic lessons that you should keep in mind throughout the auction process.
1) Spend every dollar. There is no greater mistake than leaving money on the table in an auction draft. You can’t take the money with you, so every dollar that you have left in your pocket at the end of the draft negatively impacts the quality of your team. You may not think that backing yourself into a corner and finishing with $8 left is a huge deal, until you stop and think that your $8 SP3 could’ve been another stud at $16.
2) Save an extra buck or two for the end-game. As auction drafts wind down, there are usually tremendous values to be had as most drafters have spent their full allotment and left themselves with $1 left for each remaining roster slot. This means that once they nominate the player they want for $1, you can swoop in and score some terrific value plays for only $2.
3) Discipline is key. The goal is to purchase as many players as you can at a discount relative to your predetermined auction values. There are times when it doesn’t matter how much you like a particular player, you shouldn’t bid up to $50 on Mike Trout if you only have him as a $44 player. Conversely, there are times where this works the other way. Say you have a personal vendetta against Mike Moustakas. Your bias is already factored into your projection for him and his auction value. Yet still, he’s a $16 player in your mind, and the bidding is stalled at $10. It would be wise to bid $11.
4) Be willing to go the extra dollar for a player that you really want. In the example that I gave above, I noted that I want one of the top four starting pitchers to front my rotation. Given what I’ve budgeted; I’m priced out on Kershaw unless he goes at a major discount. With $31 slotted for my top starting pitcher, I won’t be afraid to go up to $33 or even $34 if it means landing a guy like Max Scherzer.
5) There’s no need to get cute with your nomination amounts, simply start at $1. It would be a travesty to nominate a player that you don’t want for $8 simply because you think he’ll go for more, and you wind up hearing crickets.
6) Have fun and enjoy! Remember, this game is supposed to be fun. Most of us are playing because of a deep-rooted love and passion for the greatest game on Earth. Enjoy every minute of it. Draft season is the greatest time of the year and should never be taken for granted!
