How do you translate Snake advice to the Auction format? (1 Viewer)

[PartyTyme]

Our 10-team redraft league is making the transition from snake to auction format. (I am glad.) Unfortunately most of the fantasy tools, analysis and insights are based on snake drafts. For those who have already made the change I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. How do you take the best player available if any player at any time can come up for bid?

2. Can you still use ADP to help you determine auction value? Is there an auction equivalent of the "turn" in a snake draft?

3. Aside from the uber-studs, can you even break players down into categories like WR1, WR2, WR3, etc.? Or do you have to take a more fluid approach to value? And if so how?

The big night is Thursday. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[butcher boy]

1. How do you take the best player available if any player at any time can come up for bid? 2. Can you still use ADP to help you determine auction value? Is there an auction equivalent of the "turn" in a snake draft? 3. Aside from the uber-studs, can you even break players down into categories like WR1, WR2, WR3, etc.? Or do you have to take a more fluid approach to value? And if so how? The big night is Thursday. Any advice would be appreciated.

1. This strategy changes. Instead of best player available, you have a number of options. I like to get one or two of the top 15 RBs, then sit back and let the bargains come to me. When I say bargains, I dont mean $1 players. I mean guys who should outperform their cost compared to what other similar players have been going for. For example, in my auction last night, TO went to me for 30 dollars, while guys like Harrison, Wayne, and CJ went for nearly or above 40. 2. I use ADP to help me determine if I'm picking up the right number of players at the right pace. I like to make sure I end up with a first rounder, 2nd rounder, 3rd rounder, etc. Of course this could change. In my auction, I ended up with a first round RB and 2 2nd round WRs, which is ok, but it probably means you may not get a third or fourth round caliber guy (unless the value is there). Just make sure you dont get LT2, then your next player is someone with an ADP of 6 or 7. You dont want to be that far off. I see some people do this.3. Of course you can use tiers, but make sure you keep track of how much guys are going for, so you can scoop up some of the better bargains in any given tier.

 

[GroveDiesel]

Disclaimer: I'm not in any auction leagues but like the idea and have tried to get my league to convert.

I don't think that some of those apply. You're right in that best player available certainly isn't possible.

I think ADP could help you gain an idea of how people value players. I'm not sure if there are any ways out there to translate those into approximate dollar amounts though.

I think a decent strategy to use is to budget how much you want to spend at each position. Then try to stick with those amounts. So while you won't necessarily be thinking WR1, WR2, etc, you'll be thinking WR $15-20 range, WR $12-15 range, etc. Then, if you get some values or overspend slightly on one player in that grouping you have to adjust your ranges on your other players. Or, if the value at one position is much better than another, you change your allocation across positions.

IMO, the DraftDominator seems like a great tool for converting your values and VBD into auction values. Once you have those values you should be fairly good if you stick with them and my suggestions above.

 

[BigRed]

Our 10-team redraft league is making the transition from snake to auction format. (I am glad.) Unfortunately most of the fantasy tools, analysis and insights are based on snake drafts. For those who have already made the change I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following: 1. How do you take the best player available if any player at any time can come up for bid? 2. Can you still use ADP to help you determine auction value? Is there an auction equivalent of the "turn" in a snake draft? 3. Aside from the uber-studs, can you even break players down into categories like WR1, WR2, WR3, etc.? Or do you have to take a more fluid approach to value? And if so how? The big night is Thursday. Any advice would be appreciated.

1. This only comes up in the end game for the most part. When auction drafting, you generally have targeted players and bid up on those players. That isn't to say you ignore others. In fact if someone is going way too cheaply, I will sometimes bid them up, assuming I would not mind getting "stuck" w/them on my team for that price of course. 2. Sure, it's more or less the same thing in fact - you're just using $ amounts vs "a round 4/5 guy" etc. And forget "the turn." That no longer exists.3. Yes to both questions. There is no short answer to how - really you have to do a few (strongly suggest doing some mock drafts if you can) to get a feel for it.

 

[pizzatyme]

I have found that tiers are the best solution going into an auction. If you have 6 WRs in a tier or bucket, track what they are going for and buy the one with value.

Stay away from the top 3-5 RBs, and top 4-6 WRs and load up on the next tier if it is a best-ball type auction. Either way, this is a pretty solid strategy.

 

[PatsFan72]

After about 10 years of snake drafting, the main league I'm in went to auction last year. Some things I've noticed so far...

There will be bargains at the end. Some 2nd tier guys will go for far less then they should, because people are much lower on money later on then they thought they would be.

Each auction has its own life, so pay attention. Our league is 4 divisions of 10, with a separate draft from each division, but the same rules in each. We have $375 to spend (no idea how that amount was reached), and 22 positions to fill. Here are some of the top players, and amounts, from a draft on 8/25, all at the same time, in the same room...

Tomlinson, LaDainian RB SD 195

Tomlinson, LaDainian RB SD 174

Tomlinson, LaDainian RB SD 151

Tomlinson, LaDainian RB SD 135

Jackson, Steven RB STL 175

Jackson, Steven RB STL 154

Jackson, Steven RB STL 135

Jackson, Steven RB STL 119

Smith, Steve WR CAR 85

Smith, Steve WR CAR 81

Smith, Steve WR CAR 72

Smith, Steve WR CAR 48

Harrison, Marvin WR IND 84

Harrison, Marvin WR IND 77

Harrison, Marvin WR IND 74

Harrison, Marvin WR IND 70

Manning, Peyton QB IND 102

Manning, Peyton QB IND 100

Manning, Peyton QB IND 95

Manning, Peyton QB IND 82

As you can see, it's all over the place.

People will over spend for the studs in the beginning, which will leave them poor at the end, but sometimes that's OK, it depends how crazy the amount is.

By the way, I'm the guy that got Steve Smith for $48, no idea how. At the end of the bidding I was looking around thinking, "Really?, No more bids? SWEET!" I just got lucky by being in the division where people were not that high on him.

 

[BroadwayG]

Our 10-team redraft league is making the transition from snake to auction format. (I am glad.) Unfortunately most of the fantasy tools, analysis and insights are based on snake drafts. For those who have already made the change I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following: 1. How do you take the best player available if any player at any time can come up for bid? 2. Can you still use ADP to help you determine auction value? Is there an auction equivalent of the "turn" in a snake draft? 3. Aside from the uber-studs, can you even break players down into categories like WR1, WR2, WR3, etc.? Or do you have to take a more fluid approach to value? And if so how? The big night is Thursday. Any advice would be appreciated.

1. You have assigned values for every player. The next most valuable on your list is the BPA.2. Yes; Not until everyone is down to the $1 per player mode3. You have assigned values for every player. You can dynamically change these as the auction unfolds, just like in a snake.

 

[PartyTyme]

This is all good advice. Thank you. We have a $200 cap to fill a 17-player roster (including IDPs) so it will be interesting.

 

[Sweat Hog]

If you haven't done this, DEFINITELY use the VBD application and input your league settings to come up with what I have found to be a very accurate cheat sheet.

Also, read this: http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2006/0...fectauction.php