My First Auction Draft (1 Viewer)

[shuffm]

Hey guys! Love the show. Long time listener of the podcast (and fan of Dr. Rockso). Tonight is my first live show!

Speaking of firsts, I'm heading to my first auction style draft this weekend after 20 years of fantasy football.

Got any general tips for auction drafting?

If you want to know more about the format:

10 team redraft no PPR

Start 2 QBs, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 Flex (RB/WR), 1 TE, K and D.

$200.

Stay Sassy!

 

[shuffm]

Meant to put this in the Audible section for tonight, but I started a new topic instead of replied. Sorry. First time!

 

[BroadwayG]

The good thing about auctions is that you can only spend $1 more than someone else was willing to pay.

 

[Mash]

1) Go out early and grab an uber stud. That's Rodgers, Brees, Brady, Foster, Rice, McCoy, Calvin, Graham, Gronk. You need them to win. Try to envision your team as if you just crushed a regular snake draft. All of your auction picks should roughly "fit" as if they were picked in a snake draft.

2) I've noticed that you can typically get one of these uber studs a few dollars cheaper than they should go if you are aggressive early. I've seen all too many times people pass up spending $74 on Arian Foster, and end up getting Chris Johnson for $70 or McFadden for $68. Go out early and be one of the first winning bids and you may end up with a steal.

3) Use the VBD Excel app to plug in your league scoring and turn on the auction mode. You can use the "fudge factor" to tweak your auction price levels. Since this is your first auction draft and you have no historical price levels to use, adjust the fudge factor after the first few guys are auctioned off. This will greatly help you find value in the middle and end of the draft.

4) If you reach for QB (Rodgers, Brees, Brady), RB (Foster, Rice, McCoy), WR (Calvin), or TE (Graham/Gronk), you probably aren't going to be in play to get another one of these uber studs. If you do get two of these guys, you are leaving very little room to fill out the rest of your roster. You still need a bench, even when you aren't locked into a draft slot like a snake draft. Set the foundation for your team with one of these guys and find value later on to fill out the rest of your roster.

5) I've always used the "draft one stud and find values later on" approach, and it has worked out very well for me. You can go for the "studs/duds" approach. I've seen this work before when both studs stay healthy, but you really need to nail every single value pick. I would not recommend trying to skip out on a stud and take 5-6 2nd Tier/3rd Tier guys. They are in those tiers for a reason. They don't perform like a stud on a week-to-week basis.

 

[Conkie]

I've played in a similar 2 QB league for 8 yrs. Having 2 good QB's becomes exponentially important in this format. I'd spend 35-40% on 2 studs and 1 bye week filler like Tannehill or Gabbert. At the end of the draft you'll be shocked at how cheap some mid range WR's and RB's go for. I usually try to get 1 top 10 WR and wait on the bottom to drop out of the prices on the lesser guys. I don't over reach for a stud RB either and wait for a couple of serviceable backs to fall to me.

If you get to nominate a player early, try throwing out someone you really want - like Rodgers and you may get a bargain as guys are getting warmed up and may be a little tentative about diving right in and spending a bunch on the first stud.

 

[Varmint]

I've been playing in an auction format league for quite some time now.

14 teams...12 roster spots.....$100 cap.

PK and DEF/ST are taken by every team at the beginning in a 2 round "mini-draft"....this leaves 10 roster spots to fill with your $100.

My strategy is to get as many players as I can from my top 20.

Hopefully....ONE of them will be a QB....ONE will be a RB....and ONE will be a WR/TE

For example: this year I was able to land T. Brady ($31), M. Forte ($24), W. Welker ($20), and R. White ($19).

The rest of my roster is comprised on $1-$2 "fill ins" and backups.

 

[wudaben]

The thing about auctions is that you can never count on anything. Once you devise a strategy you need to have a contingency for when others are willing to pay more for the players you want.

What I do is come up with several templates teams beforehand and place a budget on each position. Ex; One based on a stud QB, one based on a RB, one WR heavy and one of value picks. Once you come up with your template team layouts you should label your cheatsheets into tiers, be prepared that if you don't get a specific player that you have another player from an acceptable tier that you are willing to take. For example, in my auction last week I went into it wanting to acquire Foster or Rice but the dollar amounts were simply too high for me to buy any of Foster, Rice or McCoy so I ended up going for upside and took McFadden. Since I saved $15 on the amount I was willing to spend on Foster I made a +15 count off to the side so that I knew what amount I needed to add or subtract from my budget at other positions.

One of the places I would especially watch is TE. Even in a year like this the best TE never seems to command a price as high as a comparable WR. Jimmy Graham is essentially a top tier WR, if he goes for a dollar amount less than or equal to a similarly priced WR I would snatch him up. In the end you'll have #1 WR points/value and you'll be able to get acceptable value much cheaper late in the draft at WR than at TE.

 

[LarryAppleton]

I've been doing auction drafts for 5-6 years and will never go back. So first off enjoy the draft its exciting and different from other drafts you've done.

1. Know going into draft that you will have the opportunity to buy ANY player. Just cause you can doesn't mean you should.

2. Know that some elite players can go very late in draft, so keep that in mind and save your money. Draft i just did last week Rice and Mccoy basically (or 100+ players drafted) went in the 9-12 rounds.

3. In my drafts the winning bids for players drops off VERY fast. People either are paying $30-50 for top lvl players or its under 10.

4. Do not try and grab a bunch of middle of the road players (due to #3). You need to decide before draft the players you want to focus on and getting them at any cost.

5. early in draft put up players you don't necessarily want. It will cause other owners to spend money early on players you don't want.

 

[dwarfboy]

One thing I've learned from baseball auctions is not to bid on players you don't want. Don't bid to get things moving or bid just to drive up the price. Getting stuck with a player you don't want even at an inexpensive price can really hurt a roster. Early on you can nominate players you know others will bid on, but be careful in the endgame. I've seen many an owner nominate players for $1 expecting other bids and then get stuck.