Having an Early Auction Draft (1 Viewer)

[drutero235]

I've been with a league of 12 loyal high school friends for about seven now. We've been doing the Auction style draft for 4 years now and were not willing to give that up, ruling out an online draft at a later date. Being that we now all live in different parts of the country and this is the only time were all together, we are forced to draft tonight. I'm sure there are more people in my situation (above and beyond the other 11 guys in my league )

Being that in an auction you can really decide the dynamics of your team, (whereas a draft you're typically always using VBD)

The Question Lies:

Do you go for a few more studs than usual getting more safe picks that have jobs locked up? Risking injuries in training camp shattering your hopes of keeping your playoff streak going.

--or--

Do you stack your team with depth, giving you insurance if one of your players were to go down, furthermore giving you more trading power when someone else in the league's stud horse goes down and they are desperate for any player that will get the ball to fill their lineup. However, where by having slightly lower caliber players your risking your men losing touches/looks/snaps to others in position battles in training camp. (i.e. Corey Dillon/Laurance Maroney)

I'm trying to develop a strategy that will be a good balance of the two, but I'm finding out it's going to be closer to one or the other as I sit here and price them out.

Any educated opinion is apprectiated

 

[BigRed]

I've been with a league of 12 loyal high school friends for a long time now. We've been doing the Auction style draft for 4 years now and were not willing to give that up, ruling out an online draft at a later date. Being that we now all live in different parts of the country this is the only time were all together we are forced to draft tonight. I'm sure there are more people in my situation (above and beyond the other 11 guys in my league )

Being that in an auction you can really decide the dynamics of your team, (whereas a draft you're typically always using VBD)

The Question Lies:

Do you go for a few more studs than usual getting more safe picks that have jogs locked up? Risking injuries in training camp shattering your hopes of keeping your playoff streak going.

--or--

Do you stack your team with depth, giving you insurance if one of your players were to go down, furthermore giving you more trading power when someone else in the league's stud horse goes down and they are desparate for any player that will get the ball to fill their lineup. However, where by having slightly lower caliber players your risking your men losing touches/looks/snaps to others in position battles in training camp. (i.e. Corey Dillon/Laurance Maroney)

Any educated opinion is apprectiated

IMO there's no clear answer there as it depends how the draft unfolds. You could argue that since the draft is earlier, it's safer to go for depth, but most of the top stud RBs (for example) aren't known for getting dinged (as opposed to some of the 2d tier guys) - so I wouldn't change my strat much if at all due to an early draft.

 

[Wilbur Wood]

I've been with a league of 12 loyal high school friends for a long time now. We've been doing the Auction style draft for 4 years now and were not willing to give that up, ruling out an online draft at a later date. Being that we now all live in different parts of the country this is the only time were all together we are forced to draft tonight. I'm sure there are more people in my situation (above and beyond the other 11 guys in my league    )

Being that in an auction you can really decide the dynamics of your team, (whereas a draft you're typically always using VBD)

The Question Lies:

Do you go for a few more studs than usual getting more safe picks that have jogs locked up? Risking injuries in training camp shattering your hopes of keeping your playoff streak going.

--or--

Do you stack your team with depth, giving you insurance if one of your players were to go down, furthermore giving you more trading power when someone else in the league's stud horse goes down and they are desparate for any player that will get the ball to fill their lineup. However, where by having slightly lower caliber players your risking your men losing touches/looks/snaps to others in position battles in training camp. (i.e. Corey Dillon/Laurance Maroney)

Any educated opinion is apprectiated

IMO there's no clear answer there as it depends how the draft unfolds. You could argue that since the draft is earlier, it's safer to go for depth, but most of the top stud RBs (for example) aren't known for getting dinged (as opposed to some of the 2d tier guys) - so I wouldn't change my strat much if at all due to an early draft.

I usually play in a couple of auction leagues, with 1 draft early (early Aug) and 1 late (late Aug/early Sep). Agree that each auction is unique and it only takes 1 other guy to force an "adjustment". However, as a general rule I think that there is a big advantage in an early auction to the more sophisticated owner. Face it, by the end of Training Camp most all of the ?'s have been resolved.If you are high on Chester Taylor, Ron Dayne, Cedrick Benson, Jon Kitna types of players, you should be able to get them much cheaper at the start of training camp. To me, this suggests that a depth strategy or a Stud RB + depth thereafter (my own approach) is the way to go in an early draft.