Auction league advice (1 Viewer)

[Titans_fan]

OK, so I've been running a 2-keeper redraft league for several years now and have some owners asking to move to an auction format. Brought it up this year, and a couple wanted to hold off due to good keepers and some draft pick trades, which I totally understand. As a consolation, all agreed to a new auction format league with a lower entry fee to get the feel of how it might work. Now, on to the point at hand...

I need some help hammering out a good set of rules. The starting lineups, scoring, roster spots and such will be the same as the regular redraft league, what I need advice on is waivers and future year situations. (Here is a link to the redraft league rules, if you want to read them.)

First, what is the recommendation for type of waivers? I'm leaning towards a blind-bidding system (to keep with the auction theme), but not sure how to fully implement it. I'm thinking of a waiver period that is blind-bid only, then FCFS where every acquisition is $1. Is the FCFS for $1 wise, or should it be free as to not eliminate owners who may have no money left?

Should dropped players hold their value as the minimum bid for the next waiver period or can they be acquired for the highest bid even if it is lower than the current value? How long do they hold that value before they become a no-minimum free agent?

In addition, should all owners start with the same amount of blind-bidding money or should I have a set amount for everyone (say $100 for the season), but add to that total any amount not spent during the initial auction? As an example, say I have $10 left and I've filled my roster after the auction. Should I start the season with $110 in blind-bidding money or is the $10 a loss?

What about potential keepers? I would assume their value should increase from season to season, but how much? Percentage increase? Average value of top X at position? What about free agent acquisitions? Do they fall under the same rules?

That's the majority of issues I can think of at the time, so thanks in advance for any and all advice. If you have a link to some great auction rules, I'd love to take a look at those (and maybe steal some!) as well.

I look forward to hearing from those of you who have switched to the auction format!

 

[TheGrimReaper]

Go to myfantasyleague.com look up "addicts" for league name. There are some leagues there for both auction and dynasty auction. The commish has

a really good example for you to use....look under message board for the "bylaws". Most of your ?'s can probably be answered by reviewing this.

Good Luck

 

[Boss Tweed]

I co-created an auction keeper league last year. Here's what we came up with:

AUCTION

--$200/team

WAIVERS

--blind bid auction

--$100/team, $1 minimum bid (if an owner ran out of $$, hey, that was their choice)

--leftover draft $$ did not carry over (we figured the values of the draft $$ and the waiver $ didn't really correspond)

--dropped players went right back in the pool, their draft values becoming irrelevant (again, the values don't really correspond)

KEEPERS

--after a good four hours of debate and probably 20+ additional emails, the other creator and I came up with a year-by-year cost-increase scale. Though our league has only been around one year (i.e. 2012 is the first season we'll have players being kept), all the indications are we've done quite a good job in coming up with values that reward truly high-quality pick-ups while making mid-quality ones a meaningfully tough decision (though admittedly, you'd need to see the results of our entire draft for me to really prove that).

--for drafted players:

--RBs: (original purchase price + $10 auction dollars/year)

--QBs/WRs: (OPP + $6/year)

--TEs: (OPP + $3/year)

--other positions (OPP + $1/year)

--for players acquired via waivers, there's a set keeper price per position, regardless of the cost in FA dollars (RB: $13/QB: $10/WR: $9/TE: $4/other: $2), with same year-to-year increases as above if they're kept more than once

--there's been some discussion that we may have gone a little too light on the TE cost, which may be true, though I tend to think the historic success Gronk/Graham had last year is throwing the scale off a bit

--we also have a "franchise" mode where you can keep one expensive player a year for the average cost of the 5 most expensive players at that position, the catch being that that player returns automatically to the pool the following year

Hope this helps.

 

[Titans_fan]

I co-created an auction keeper league last year. Here's what we came up with:

AUCTION

--$200/team

WAIVERS

--blind bid auction

--$100/team, $1 minimum bid (if an owner ran of $$, hey, that was their choice)

--leftover draft $$ did not carry over (we figured the values of the draft $$ and the waiver $ didn't really correspond)

--dropped players went right back in the pool, their draft values becoming irrelevant (again, the values don't really correspond)

KEEPERS

--after a good four hours of debate and probably 20+ additional emails, the other creator and I came up with a year-by-year cost-increase scale. Though our league has only been around one year (i.e. 2012 is the first season we'll have players being kept), all the indications are we've done quite a good job in coming up with values that reward truly high-quality pick-ups while making mid-quality ones a meaningfully tough decision (though admittedly, you'd need to see the results of our entire draft for me to really prove that).

--for drafted players:

--RBs: (original purchase price + $10 auction dollars/year)

--QBs/WRs: (OPP + $6/year)

--TEs: (OPP + $3/year)

--other positions (OPP + $1/year)

--for players acquired via waivers, there's a set keeper price per position, regardless of the cost in FA dollars (RB: $13/QB: $10/WR: $9/TE: $4/other: $2), with same year-to-year increases as above if they're kept more than once

--there's been some discussion that we may have gone a little too light on the TE cost, which may be true, though I tend to think the historic success Gronk/Graham had last year is throwing the scale off a bit

--we also have a "franchise" mode where you can keep one expensive player a year for the average cost of the 5 most expensive players at that position, the catch being that that player returns automatically to the pool the following year

Hope this helps.

Some great advice in here....thanks.One question on the bolded, however. How would you handle an owner dropping an expensive player who is struggling or gets injured for several weeks then reacquiring him at a lower price? For example, you get Wes Welker for $30, but he has a couple bad games then breaks his hand in week 3, out 3-4 weeks. He gets dropped and some savvy owner (thinking ahead) grabs him off the waiver wire for $10. Is his keeper value next year $10 or $36 (OPP + $6)?

THANKS!

 

[J Giles Band]

I co-created an auction keeper league last year. Here's what we came up with:

AUCTION

--$200/team

WAIVERS

--blind bid auction

--$100/team, $1 minimum bid (if an owner ran of $$, hey, that was their choice)

--leftover draft $$ did not carry over (we figured the values of the draft $$ and the waiver $ didn't really correspond)

--dropped players went right back in the pool, their draft values becoming irrelevant (again, the values don't really correspond)

KEEPERS

--after a good four hours of debate and probably 20+ additional emails, the other creator and I came up with a year-by-year cost-increase scale. Though our league has only been around one year (i.e. 2012 is the first season we'll have players being kept), all the indications are we've done quite a good job in coming up with values that reward truly high-quality pick-ups while making mid-quality ones a meaningfully tough decision (though admittedly, you'd need to see the results of our entire draft for me to really prove that).

--for drafted players:

--RBs: (original purchase price + $10 auction dollars/year)

--QBs/WRs: (OPP + $6/year)

--TEs: (OPP + $3/year)

--other positions (OPP + $1/year)

--for players acquired via waivers, there's a set keeper price per position, regardless of the cost in FA dollars (RB: $13/QB: $10/WR: $9/TE: $4/other: $2), with same year-to-year increases as above if they're kept more than once

--there's been some discussion that we may have gone a little too light on the TE cost, which may be true, though I tend to think the historic success Gronk/Graham had last year is throwing the scale off a bit

--we also have a "franchise" mode where you can keep one expensive player a year for the average cost of the 5 most expensive players at that position, the catch being that that player returns automatically to the pool the following year

Hope this helps.

Some great advice in here....thanks.One question on the bolded, however. How would you handle an owner dropping an expensive player who is struggling or gets injured for several weeks then reacquiring him at a lower price? For example, you get Wes Welker for $30, but he has a couple bad games then breaks his hand in week 3, out 3-4 weeks. He gets dropped and some savvy owner (thinking ahead) grabs him off the waiver wire for $10. Is his keeper value next year $10 or $36 (OPP + $6)?

THANKS!

This is an easy one for me... if the Welker owner is willing to risk losing him by exposing him to the highest bidder, allow market factors to take it from there. In the example you gave where a 'savvy' owner picked him up at a reduced price, that owner shouldn't be punished if no one else was willing to bid more. Good for him.And if you are still concerned teams may drop their expensive guys (possibly late in the season or if they fall out of contention), you can impose a one week moratorium from bidding on the team who dropped the player. That way every other team in the league would have a shot at the player for one week and the only way the originial team could bid on the player is the following week if he wasn't signed previously. Though most likely not a necessity (we've debated this but found we haven't needed it in our league), it effectively prevents a team from dropping an expensive player for their own benefit.

Carrying an IR spot is another mechanism to reduce the chance teams feel the need to release an expensive guy who gets hurt and is expected to miss a significant chunk, if not the remainder of the season.

 

[stugnut]

If you are going to have a $1 for FCFS pickups, you should also look at whether you have penalties for submitting an illegal roster (ie, with a player on a bye or on IR) as an owner with $0 waiver money may not be able to field a legal roster.

 

[Boss Tweed]

I co-created an auction keeper league last year. Here's what we came up with:

AUCTION

--$200/team

WAIVERS

--blind bid auction

--$100/team, $1 minimum bid (if an owner ran of $$, hey, that was their choice)

--leftover draft $$ did not carry over (we figured the values of the draft $$ and the waiver $ didn't really correspond)

--dropped players went right back in the pool, their draft values becoming irrelevant (again, the values don't really correspond)

KEEPERS

--after a good four hours of debate and probably 20+ additional emails, the other creator and I came up with a year-by-year cost-increase scale. Though our league has only been around one year (i.e. 2012 is the first season we'll have players being kept), all the indications are we've done quite a good job in coming up with values that reward truly high-quality pick-ups while making mid-quality ones a meaningfully tough decision (though admittedly, you'd need to see the results of our entire draft for me to really prove that).

--for drafted players:

--RBs: (original purchase price + $10 auction dollars/year)

--QBs/WRs: (OPP + $6/year)

--TEs: (OPP + $3/year)

--other positions (OPP + $1/year)

--for players acquired via waivers, there's a set keeper price per position, regardless of the cost in FA dollars (RB: $13/QB: $10/WR: $9/TE: $4/other: $2), with same year-to-year increases as above if they're kept more than once

--there's been some discussion that we may have gone a little too light on the TE cost, which may be true, though I tend to think the historic success Gronk/Graham had last year is throwing the scale off a bit

--we also have a "franchise" mode where you can keep one expensive player a year for the average cost of the 5 most expensive players at that position, the catch being that that player returns automatically to the pool the following year

Hope this helps.

Some great advice in here....thanks.One question on the bolded, however. How would you handle an owner dropping an expensive player who is struggling or gets injured for several weeks then reacquiring him at a lower price? For example, you get Wes Welker for $30, but he has a couple bad games then breaks his hand in week 3, out 3-4 weeks. He gets dropped and some savvy owner (thinking ahead) grabs him off the waiver wire for $10. Is his keeper value next year $10 or $36 (OPP + $6)?

THANKS!

We would deal with it as J Giles Band described above: Welker would be available for anyone to pick up as a free agent, and he would be keepable the next year for $9 (and $15 the year after that, etc.). However, since teams can keep as many players as they want (sort of like a dynasty league), we have pretty deep benches (like most dynasty leagues) so it's unlikely that a big star player would be dropped unless he was truly done for the year (and even then we have a few IR slots if you want to stash a guy there in case he's healthy and keepable the next year).If somebody tried to manipulate the system, like dropping Arian Foster five minutes before the waivers deadline, then picking him up and trying to claim he was keepable for $13 and not his actual cost ($67 this year), it would be pretty easy to notice and call shenanigans on it.

 

[GregR]

If you are going to have a $1 for FCFS pickups, you should also look at whether you have penalties for submitting an illegal roster (ie, with a player on a bye or on IR) as an owner with $0 waiver money may not be able to field a legal roster.

I don't know about other sites, but on MFL this wouldn't be an issue. You can set a league up so that FCFS additions do not count against your blind bidding money.

 

[GregR]

General comments... first I would decide if you want to just use auctions to handle player acquisition, or whether you want to go full on hard salary cap. Some good and bad things about each...

With a hard salary cap your free cap room is your blind bidding money. A benefit there is that the value of players acquired from waivers is based on the same money pool as players taken in the preseason auction... so they equate better as a keeper value than if you have a separate blind bidding pool, where guys taken in early season waivers are probably overpriced, and late season waivers are probably underpriced.

A hard salary cap can make things like trading more difficult since you have to make the cap room work out. If your owners are smart, you'll probably see more players hit waivers as teams cut overpriced players to either try to reacquire them cheaper and free up money for bidding. It isn't as big a deal in a keeper league versus a salary cap dynasty, but you'll still see more than in the other option.

If you go without a hard cap, on the question about what to do with keeper prices, it's really a matter of preference. Some leagues have owners who like the chance to keep a $1 stud. Other owners don't want to see an Arian Foster be kept for $1, especially for multiple years.

If the latter, a couple of options. One is that you could increment all salaries by some amount. Another is that you could set a minimum salary for any keeper. A good way to do that would be to use an average salary of players at his position the previous year. In my hard cap league, we have franchise and transition tags based on average of top 5 or 10 players at the position sorted by salary... and we have rookie salaries that use the bottom half of fantasy starters at the position (so RB would be average of 13th to 24th highest paid RBs). Using something like that you should be able to find an amount that would be fair but not give to big of an advantage.

I would also suggest that you play with your league website to determine what it can handle. The only downside I can think of in the MFL conditional blind bidding is that you can only specify one player you're going to drop if you acquire a new player. Not an issue with a soft cap, but needs to be known and taken into account in a hard cap though not a deal breaker.

On the question about do you have players retain previous salary or not... in my hard cap league I originally wanted to set it up that way, so there was a worst-to-first waiver selection period where you pick the player back up at his current contract, and if he clears waivers same as the NFL, then he goes into blind bidding. We didn't go that route because of an issue I hit with... IIRC, MFL not being able to handle clearing out the contract years left in one situation but not the other, though that wouldn't affect you. But in any event, we didn't do the true NFL-style waivers then, instead we just clear the old salary immediately and set it equal to the winning bid, or $1 for FCFS. We have 2 waiver periods ending Wednesday and Saturday, and then FCFS through Monday Night Football. And dropped players are locked from FCFS until they've gone through a blind bidding waiver session, so you can't drop a guy and immediately pick him back up for $1.

 

[Captain Hook]

I find one sentiment repeated several times particularly bothersome.

IF this is a keeper league, then you need to protect the values established by the auction

So if a player (I'll use the Welker example but any will do) costs $30 in the auction, his price THROUGHOUT this particular season should be $30 .........That is what the league decided he was worth on auction day - it should also be the price (or starting place if you add each year for keepers) next year.

So there is NO way that should be lowered.

IF you use FAAB for your free agents - and you should, What is bid for players does NOT constitute their keeper salary - it is merely what the blind bids were to acquire the player - so again, if Welker was dropped (and the reason doesn't matter but could if you did not enforce the prices) and was picked up by the winning bidder the following week his salary for THIS year and thus as a keeper for NEXT year should be......$30 - that is what the league determined his value was on auction day.

For all the "true" free agents there should be a retention salary (what it would cost if this player became a keeper for next year). I would suggest $15. IF your league is going to use a salary cap (and I strongly agree you should because otherwise trades can create a powerhouse without any restrictions or fairness to the entire league) then a much lower number would be their value against the cap. This would likely be a relatively low number - $5 at the most and perhaps less - that depends on your salary cap.

 

[J Giles Band]

I find one sentiment repeated several times particularly bothersome.IF this is a keeper league, then you need to protect the values established by the auctionSo if a player (I'll use the Welker example but any will do) costs $30 in the auction, his price THROUGHOUT this particular season should be $30 .........That is what the league decided he was worth on auction day - it should also be the price (or starting place if you add each year for keepers) next year.So there is NO way that should be lowered.IF you use FAAB for your free agents - and you should, What is bid for players does NOT constitute their keeper salary - it is merely what the blind bids were to acquire the player - so again, if Welker was dropped (and the reason doesn't matter but could if you did not enforce the prices) and was picked up by the winning bidder the following week his salary for THIS year and thus as a keeper for NEXT year should be......$30 - that is what the league determined his value was on auction day.For all the "true" free agents there should be a retention salary (what it would cost if this player became a keeper for next year). I would suggest $15. IF your league is going to use a salary cap (and I strongly agree you should because otherwise trades can create a powerhouse without any restrictions or fairness to the entire league) then a much lower number would be their value against the cap. This would likely be a relatively low number - $5 at the most and perhaps less - that depends on your salary cap.

Glad to see you're strong in your convictions Captain, but you might temper the 'This is how it should be' stuff as you can rest assured not everyone is going to agree with you (veteran auction folks included).I don't see the auction as the end all, be all for player salaries in the event the circumstances of the players in question change either in your league, the NFL or both. What's the point of blind bidding with a FAAB if you just toss out the amount the player is acquired at? Makes zero sense to me...That said, I'm sure the OP finds all of the input here beneficial (even yours), and although I don't agree with your take, the OP or others may. I'd just take it easy with the 'this is the only way to do it' stance.

 

[stugnut]

As an auction aficionado, I've never understood the marriage of Auction and Keepers. Isn't the whole idea of an auction format that of being able to have a crack at any player you want, being able to draft a Frankenstein team of 3 "1st round" RB's, if you so choose? Isn't that the beauty of an auction draft, being able to kick convention to the curb and roll your own version of the perfect draft? Keepers just seems to kill this.

 

[ddarroch4]

As an auction aficionado, I've never understood the marriage of Auction and Keepers. Isn't the whole idea of an auction format that of being able to have a crack at any player you want, being able to draft a Frankenstein team of 3 "1st round" RB's, if you so choose? Isn't that the beauty of an auction draft, being able to kick convention to the curb and roll your own version of the perfect draft? Keepers just seems to kill this.

That's a great point. There really isn't need for keepers in auction because every team has an equal chance at acquiring all players. In a snake draft your guys can get "stolen" from you, but not in an auction.

 

[Captain Hook]

As an auction aficionado, I've never understood the marriage of Auction and Keepers. Isn't the whole idea of an auction format that of being able to have a crack at any player you want, being able to draft a Frankenstein team of 3 "1st round" RB's, if you so choose? Isn't that the beauty of an auction draft, being able to kick convention to the curb and roll your own version of the perfect draft? Keepers just seems to kill this.

Auction leagues can be both keeper or redraft - up to the preference of the league membersBut there is nothing wrong with an auction keeper league - you have a system where you keep X (limited) number of guysSo if you got a great value on a WR in last year's auction you have a better price with him this yearNothing wrong with building teams using keepers

 

[Captain Hook]

Glad to see you're strong in your convictions Captain, but you might temper the 'This is how it should be' stuff as you can rest assured not everyone is going to agree with you (veteran auction folks included).I don't see the auction as the end all, be all for player salaries in the event the circumstances of the players in question change either in your league, the NFL or both. What's the point of blind bidding with a FAAB if you just toss out the amount the player is acquired at? Makes zero sense to me...That said, I'm sure the OP finds all of the input here beneficial (even yours), and although I don't agree with your take, the OP or others may. I'd just take it easy with the 'this is the only way to do it' stance.

Sorry if it sounded dogmatic but OTOH the OP was looking for advice for rules for his new auction league. The number one reason that leagues across the country - Especially keeper leagues - fail, disband, or have to look for new owners is that they started with no rules or a very poorly written set of rules that will tear a league apart (especially on salaries and trades).Again my thoughts (the result of over thirty years of playing in, commissioning, auctioneering for, writing rules for, handling disputes as an independent judge for players and leagues across the country) were designed to help the OP take a look at some of these things so he has a good set of rules and avoids the pitfalls in starting a new keeper league.The point about auction prices and values for the player are obviously (almost) totally negated IF the league is a redraft league - BUT he was specifically talking keeper, auction league.PVH

 

[GregR]

...That is what the league decided he was worth on auction day - it should also be the price (or starting place if you add each year for keepers) next year.So there is NO way that should be lowered....

There's no single right answer, it is just a matter of preference. No different in that regard between auction and draft leagues.Some draft keeper leagues you keep a player with a pick of the round he was drafted the year before. Some leagues the pick you use has to be 1 or 2 rounds better each year, and a previously 1st round player can't be kept, or in others he just still costs a 1st.Still other leagues, your first keeper costs your 1st round pick, your second keeper costs your 2nd round pick, etc, and if you choose not to keep a player you use the pick to select a player normally, essentially letting teams who don't keep players draft before teams who did.There is no single correct answer for keeper rules. They are all legitimate and it just comes down to preference. Auction is the same. If a league wants to use previous year cost that's fine. If they want to use previous cost + 20% that's fine. If they want to take the price from an agreed on Average Auction Value site, or use some fixed cost based on final positional rankings, that's fine. Whatever the league prefers they should do.

 

[Captain Hook]

...That is what the league decided he was worth on auction day - it should also be the price (or starting place if you add each year for keepers) next year.So there is NO way that should be lowered....

There's no single right answer, it is just a matter of preference. No different in that regard between auction and draft leagues.Some draft keeper leagues you keep a player with a pick of the round he was drafted the year before. Some leagues the pick you use has to be 1 or 2 rounds better each year, and a previously 1st round player can't be kept, or in others he just still costs a 1st.Still other leagues, your first keeper costs your 1st round pick, your second keeper costs your 2nd round pick, etc, and if you choose not to keep a player you use the pick to select a player normally, essentially letting teams who don't keep players draft before teams who did.There is no single correct answer for keeper rules. They are all legitimate and it just comes down to preference. Auction is the same. If a league wants to use previous year cost that's fine. If they want to use previous cost + 20% that's fine. If they want to take the price from an agreed on Average Auction Value site, or use some fixed cost based on final positional rankings, that's fine. Whatever the league prefers they should do.

Greg while I agree that differing methods are up to the league my point was that regardless of which rule you use, a player bought for $X in an auction should have that value at least for that season - how the prices change the following year is up to the league.But to again use the Welker example, if he is bought for $30 in the auction (roughly equivalent to a 2nd round draft pick) that shouldn't go to $5 or an 8th round draft pick because one owner dropped him and the value changed when added as a free agent by another team because then that team would (assuming he was back to form) have an extreme value with the following year's price that they did not pay for in the draft.

 

[Titans_fan]

Ok...here's what I think I'm going to do and would like your thoughts...I've tried to invite incorporate all the ideas and arguments I liked and came up with the following:

1) auction dollars and blind bid dollars separate

2) dropped players will hold their value for 4 weeks, dropping 25% each week they are not picked up...in the Welker example, the minimum bid to acquire him the first week would be$30...the next week, the minimum drops to $23 (75% of $30, rounded up)..the next, $15 and so on.

3) keepers salary will increase by 20% or $3, whichever is greater each season kept

Would still love any advice, but what do you think about the above?

THANKS!

 

[Captain Hook]

Ok...here's what I think I'm going to do and would like your thoughts...I've tried to invite incorporate all the ideas and arguments I liked and came up with the following:

1) auction dollars and blind bid dollars separate

2) dropped players will hold their value for 4 weeks, dropping 25% each week they are not picked up...in the Welker example, the minimum bid to acquire him the first week would be$30...the next week, the minimum drops to $23 (75% of $30, rounded up)..the next, $15 and so on.

3) keepers salary will increase by 20% or $3, whichever is greater each season kept

Would still love any advice, but what do you think about the above?

THANKS!

It's a good start but you still need to define the retention salary of a free agent and that affects your #2(to use the Welker example if that is going to be $10 which is certainly reasonable [i like $15 just because there are always RB/WR who are undrafted who become starters during the year] then Welker would be $30 week 1; $24 week 2; $15 week 3; AND then should stay at $10 for the rest of the year - same as all other free agents)

 

[J Giles Band]

But to again use the Welker example, if he is bought for $30 in the auction (roughly equivalent to a 2nd round draft pick) that shouldn't go to $5 or an 8th round draft pick because one owner dropped him and the value changed when added as a free agent by another team because then that team would (assuming he was back to form) have an extreme value with the following year's price that they did not pay for in the draft.

I think most of us get the point in your example. And your opinion is welcome. But let's not confuse opinion with a right and wrong way to do it.

 

[J. Cyrus]

I like to use this as a means to determine keeper cost:

(last year's acquisition cost) + (this year's end-of-season value) ÷ 2

The first component is usually going to be "price paid for in last year's auction" but could also be "last year's keeper cost"

I use this in all my leagues and everyone loves it.

 

[J Giles Band]

Ok...here's what I think I'm going to do and would like your thoughts...I've tried to invite incorporate all the ideas and arguments I liked and came up with the following:

1) auction dollars and blind bid dollars separate

2) dropped players will hold their value for 4 weeks, dropping 25% each week they are not picked up...in the Welker example, the minimum bid to acquire him the first week would be$30...the next week, the minimum drops to $23 (75% of $30, rounded up)..the next, $15 and so on.

3) keepers salary will increase by 20% or $3, whichever is greater each season kept

Would still love any advice, but what do you think about the above?

THANKS!

I would suggest throwing out #2. Clunky and much more complicated than need be.Most leagues use the FAAB bid for the salary amount for in-season free agents (whether the player is released during the season or not). I would recommend going this route your first season and see what you think. If you still have concern that players may be purposely released in the attempt to reacquire them at a lesser salary, again you can force the team releasing the player to wait an additional week before they can bid as a deterrent (with the team sitting out a full bidding cycle, it is extremely unlikely the player is available 2 weeks later if it is a significant player). But for what it's worth, this has never been a problem in my auction league which has been together for years.

Or if you believe strongly that the auction salary should remain the player's salary for the entire season even if he is released and signed by another team, you can make that your league rule. I don't recommend it, but that is your call.

When I am torn on issues like this in my auction league, I use the following as my guide: how would this work in the actual NFL? If a player in the actual NFL is released during the season and signed by another team his new contract salary amount is what his new team agrees to, not his old contract. This is true unless the player is claimed on waivers (in this scenario the team assumes the player's original contract and terms).

So unless you are going to incorporate a waiver system (not recommended) to go along with your FAAB process, if you want to use the system that most closely resembles the NFL (and one which has the ability to reward a team for being smart with their FAAB $) I suggest keeping it simple and using the FAAB bid as the salary for in-season free agents.

 

[GregR]

...That is what the league decided he was worth on auction day - it should also be the price (or starting place if you add each year for keepers) next year.So there is NO way that should be lowered....

There's no single right answer, it is just a matter of preference. No different in that regard between auction and draft leagues.Some draft keeper leagues you keep a player with a pick of the round he was drafted the year before. Some leagues the pick you use has to be 1 or 2 rounds better each year, and a previously 1st round player can't be kept, or in others he just still costs a 1st.Still other leagues, your first keeper costs your 1st round pick, your second keeper costs your 2nd round pick, etc, and if you choose not to keep a player you use the pick to select a player normally, essentially letting teams who don't keep players draft before teams who did.There is no single correct answer for keeper rules. They are all legitimate and it just comes down to preference. Auction is the same. If a league wants to use previous year cost that's fine. If they want to use previous cost + 20% that's fine. If they want to take the price from an agreed on Average Auction Value site, or use some fixed cost based on final positional rankings, that's fine. Whatever the league prefers they should do.

Greg while I agree that differing methods are up to the league my point was that regardless of which rule you use, a player bought for $X in an auction should have that value at least for that season - how the prices change the following year is up to the league.But to again use the Welker example, if he is bought for $30 in the auction (roughly equivalent to a 2nd round draft pick) that shouldn't go to $5 or an 8th round draft pick because one owner dropped him and the value changed when added as a free agent by another team because then that team would (assuming he was back to form) have an extreme value with the following year's price that they did not pay for in the draft.

I don't think that the preseason auction is the truest measure is the issue, so much as whether it is a hard cap or not.If it's a hard cap, then there is no difference in cap dollars between waivers and preseason auction. In which case the most recent auction would be the most recent and therefore best measure of his perceived value. For every player taken in waivers whose value exceeded his waiver cost, there's a player who was vastly overpaid for in the regular auction. (Yes, I'm talking to you Ochocinco ).If it is a soft cap, it's more problematic because the two salaries don't necessarily equate. The size of the salary pools can differ. Some people will blow their entire BB cap on a single player hoping they'll get that year's Warner, Boldin, Foster, etc.I'm still not liking the idea of using an auction price for a player whose value was seen during the season as not being worth his roster spot. Since a league needs a salary of some sort for players taken from waivers (since not everyone had a preseason auction price), I'd probably prefer to use that for someone who hit waivers during the year.

 

[Sabertooth]

And remember crazy things happen in an auction depending on the order players come up for bid. If you are in with a bunch of noobs, you can get value very early and very late. For instance I was in dynasty startup last night with 200 cap and got Aaron Rodgers for $51. He was the second player up for bid. Gronk went for $30 right before that. Cam Newton came up a bit later and went for $70. So Rodgers was quite a value, but nothing compared to Percy Harvin, who went for $6. The worst place to bid is right in the middle. Because that's when you pay full market. Early on, you can get steals before the market is set. Late, and nobody has money left.

 

[Topes]

And remember crazy things happen in an auction depending on the order players come up for bid. If you are in with a bunch of noobs, you can get value very early and very late. For instance I was in dynasty startup last night with 200 cap and got Aaron Rodgers for $51. He was the second player up for bid. Gronk went for $30 right before that. Cam Newton came up a bit later and went for $70. So Rodgers was quite a value, but nothing compared to Percy Harvin, who went for $6. The worst place to bid is right in the middle. Because that's when you pay full market. Early on, you can get steals before the market is set. Late, and nobody has money left.