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Auction Draft Strategy 2012 (1 Viewer)

jdelsas

Footballguy
I asked this question last year on a different forum, and recieved pretty good feedback. The question: When participating in an Auction Draft, what is the strategy/methodology that you like to use? To make things simple, let's just assume a standard 10/12 team redraft league.

Do you have a list of players you like for a current year, and wait until draft day to see how the bidding is going?

Are you the type of guy who sits back and looks for value all draft, passing up high priced studs and going with a more balanced mixed of moderate talent?

Are you the type of guy that goes Stars and Scubs...you know the players you want, and you will shell out just about any amount of $$$ to acquire them?

Do you go RB heavy or WR heavy, or a mixture of both? Do you take a stud QB, or do you settle with someone in the Rivers through Freeman range?

Any other strategies? I certainly did not touch on all of them above.

Last year, I went Stars and Scrubs and I came out the champion of my league. I was the first guy pretty much out of money about 30 minutes into the draft, but I had all the guys I tagged on my draft board. This strategy can be very risky, but if you are able to find value at the top of the pyramid, I think it is the best strategy to use in an Auction format.

The way I went about it was: I grabbed a stub QB first. I think that have a stud QB who will outscore other QB's in the league on a weekly basis is very valuable because only a handful of QB's possess that kind of talent. With the league shifting to more of an offensive focus, this reiterates my point on grabbing a stub QB even more.

Second, I wanted to make sure I had two top 10-15 WR's. I budgeted about 30-35% of my dollars to accomplish this. I did the same thing with RB's where I wanted one to be Top 3 caliber, and another RB2 with RB1 upside. I sort of failed on my RB2 picking F Gore, as he certainly did not have RB1 upside last year, but he was a good value on draft day so I went with it.

I plan on rolling with this same strategy again this year. If pick "safe" studs, who have had a history of consistently putting up points on a weekly basis, I think it gives you an edge on at least 70% of the rest of the league. The one caviat to this strategy is, you HAVE to be good at picking people up off the waiver wire or you may be setting yourself up for failure.

Let's here other strategies that some of you other FBG's like to use...

 
Do you have a list of players you like for a current year, and wait until draft day to see how the bidding is going?
Yes, but I dont get too attached.
Are you the type of guy who sits back and looks for value all draft, passing up high priced studs and going with a more balanced mixed of moderate talent?
No way. This is a losing strategy. I love watching the guys who shake their heads at the start of the draft acting superior by waiting because they think everyone is overpriced. Then, when its all said and done, their best player is Shonne Green.
Are you the type of guy that goes Stars and Scubs...you know the players you want, and you will shell out just about any amount of $$$ to acquire them?
Not any amount of dollars, but I will go over budget on guys depending on who's left at the position and based on the prices so far in the draft.
Do you go RB heavy or WR heavy, or a mixture of both? Do you take a stud QB, or do you settle with someone in the Rivers through Freeman range?
Depends on prices. I'm comfortable with any mix so long as I spend all or most of my cap and end up with a team of guys I like.
Any other strategies? I certainly did not touch on all of them above.
One thing I do during a draft is compare the guys I'm getting to their equivalent ADP in a snake draft. If after my first 3-4 players I see that I have 1 guy with a round 1 ADP, another guy with a round 2 ADP, etc., I'm generally happy. If I ended up with two round 1 guys or even 2 round 2 guys, I'm extremely happy. A lot of times with teams who like to sit back and wait for bargains, you'll noticed that they have no one on their team with an ADP in rounds 1 or 2. This is bad. They might have depth by having lots of ADP 3-5 guys, but with no true studs, their starting lineups will suck.Another thing I like to do, since my league is fairly RB-hungry, is nominate a WR early knowing that I'll get him for a bargain. Especially this year since the consensus is that WRs are deep, I'm hoping to get value on a guy like Andre or Fitz because no one wants to spend before the big RBs are nominated.
 
auction drafts are the best kind, and the reason why is that you really can't have a strategy. You have to go with the flow of how other owners are drafting. Some good skills to have are to be patient, look for bargains, know the lineup/scoring (still surprised at how many owners disregard this) and most important is to have players ranked in tiers. If you rank in tiers and miss one or two guys that you think were over priced you just wait for the next one or two guys from that tier to pop up.

That being said I like to get a solid starting lineup, younger players, and fill in the rest with more lottery ticket type of players. Always look for upside guys and never play it safe

 
In smaller leagues do not be afraid to spend freely on stars. In these formats depth is usually fairly easy to come by on the waiver wire. Here's an example: I play in two auction leagues; one is ten teams with 16 spots per team (160 total players. In this format I'm agressive in going after the players I really like, spending close to 90% of my budget on my starting lineup. There are always players to be had on waivers, so if, let's say you have a weak WR #2, just wait one or two weeks and you'll be able to find a good one via the waiver wire.

In contrast, I'm also in a 16 team, 20 man roster league (320 total players. My approach in this format is much different; I may go a little high on one or two players but I try to stay disciplined becuase there is NOTHING on the ww. If you find yourself spread to thin, it becomes difficult to find a replacement.

 
'jdelsas said:
I asked this question last year on a different forum, and recieved pretty good feedback. The question: When participating in an Auction Draft, what is the strategy/methodology that you like to use? To make things simple, let's just assume a standard 10/12 team redraft league. Do you have a list of players you like for a current year, and wait until draft day to see how the bidding is going? Are you the type of guy who sits back and looks for value all draft, passing up high priced studs and going with a more balanced mixed of moderate talent? Are you the type of guy that goes Stars and Scubs...you know the players you want, and you will shell out just about any amount of $$$ to acquire them? Do you go RB heavy or WR heavy, or a mixture of both? Do you take a stud QB, or do you settle with someone in the Rivers through Freeman range? Any other strategies? I certainly did not touch on all of them above.
I never go in locked into a strategy, because you always need Plan B, Plan C, etc. in auctions. They never go exactly as expected. But, the smaller the league, the more likely that a stars-and-scrubs strategy will work. This is because $1 players in 10-team leagues are going to be much more useful than $1 players in 14-team leagues. As for positions, knowing your league tendencies is a must. The guys in my auction league tend to spend heavy on RB and WR, light on QB and TE, and virtually nothing on K and D. This way, you have some idea of where you need to throw down money and where you can come away with bargains. As with all leagues, knowing your scoring system and lineup requirements help determine the value of QB relative to RB, and so on.
 
'eaglezzz said:
and most important is to have players ranked in tiers. If you rank in tiers and miss one or two guys that you think were over priced you just wait for the next one or two guys from that tier to pop up.
Totally agree. Another reason to have tiers is so that, if you want someone from a certain tier, you pounce before there is only one guy left from it. Those are the guys who spark bidding wars.
 

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