I have a draft in the morning... (1 Viewer)

[Donny Loved Bowling]

I have an auction draft in the morning, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I've been in this league for several years, and we've used an auction format for the last couple. Last year I won. We've got 12 teams, $250 cap, start 1 QB, 1 RB, 1 WR, 1 TE, 3 Flex, 1 K, and this year we added limited IDP. (1 DL, 1 LB. 1 DB, 1 Flex) I haven't had as much time to prepare as I have in the past, because my wife and I have a 5-month-old daughter now. So I let things go a bit, and now I'm panicking. I can't seem to use the Draft Dominator and VBD spreadsheet properly - I have virtually no spreadsheet knowledge, but I've tried to follow the guidelines in the Apps forum. No matter what i do, the auction values on the cheatsheets are screwed up - top tier players sky-high, all other players a buck or two. Or sometimes the players are rated more evenly, but there are virtually no $1 players - even kickers are $12. I'm really behind the 8-ball, and I'm not looking forward to just winging it - I ususally can't wait for draft day. I am so screwed here. Can anyone offer advice?

 

[PewterFan]

I'd wonder what's wrong with you if you weren't nervous the night before the big day. You're going to wing this and you're going to own it like you did last year.

 

[baldbird]

Good thing is you have done this before just sit back dont panic and let the players come to you .main thing is draft for your scoring settings .grab the value when its there.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

I'd wonder what's wrong with you if you weren't nervous the night before the big day. You're going to wing this and you're going to own it like you did last year.

/thread

 

[mjd2]

 

[Donny Loved Bowling]

Thanks for the encouragement. I've never been so poorly prepared for a draft. I know the players and projections well enough - had a serpentine draft last week and it went really well. But auction is a different monster, and I haven't been able to generate anything resembling a decent price cheatsheet. I figured I would just plug my scoring system into the Dominator and I'd be fine - but I must be doing something wrong, 'cause it just doesn't look right. Should make for an interesting draft - I will have to be extra alert for value.

 

[PewterFan]

I'm guessing from what I've read that you're a subscriber? If so, Doods wrote a Perfect Draft for Auctions article recently. Should help you some.

 

[Black]

Thanks for the encouragement. I've never been so poorly prepared for a draft. I know the players and projections well enough - had a serpentine draft last week and it went really well. But auction is a different monster, and I haven't been able to generate anything resembling a decent price cheatsheet. I figured I would just plug my scoring system into the Dominator and I'd be fine - but I must be doing something wrong, 'cause it just doesn't look right. Should make for an interesting draft - I will have to be extra alert for value.

Print out a Cheat Sheet for your Auction from the 163 Cheat Sheets on the FBG Homepage. This has FBG Auction values, not Average Values, but you can use it to gauge if a guy is 'worth' what he is going for.Grab the David Dodds article on The Perfect Auction, which lists FBG Values and Average Auction values...folllow his advice on bidding.Just pace yourself...but don't be afraid to pay a buck or two more for a guy you really like. In the mid rounds, fill our your roster with good values, esp if others are spending alot early. BE FLUID...watch for your Roster needs, and focus spending on your perceived starters. Don't get a roster full of 'maybe' players because you want a deep bench. Remember that auctions take a long time, so you'll have time to soak it in.

 

[GregR_2]

In Draft Dominator, set up your league in the first window. Make sure you have 1 starter at each position you support, 3 flex, and click on the check mark on the positions that can be flexed (I assume RB, WR and TE). Also 1 at each IDP and 1 in the IDP flex and check mark those 3 positions as being flexed.

Hit ok and let it generate values. Then open the Setup window again and go to VBD Baseline. While I normally use Maurile's method, I'd suggest you use the Configurable by position rank. Find the last QB you think should go for more than the minimum bid and put his rank in for QB. Do the same for each position. For IDPs, I'm hoping you won't have more than the top 3 or 4 IDPs as going for more than $1, as you just don't start enough of them that they are worth that much.

It looks like your flex should use about 16 WRs and 20 RBs in addition to the 12 starters at the dedicated positions, so WR 28 and RB 32 would be your last starters. (Edit to add: That's with default scoring, if your scoring differs, just find the top 36 highest scoring RBs and WRs from positional rank 13 on down and you'll know how your flex should be split up). Figure some of the backups should go for more than minimum so we'll set the baseline lower than that.

So for your league I might go with the following as the last players worth more than $1:

QB 18

RB 47

WR 44

TE 11

PK 3

DB 3

DL 3

LB 3

Using default scoring, 20 man rosters, $200 cap, $1 min bid, and default projections, that has the top IDPs worth about $5-7. The top kickers worth $2-$3. Brady worth $59. AP worth $72. Moss worth $43. That's probably getting you in the ball park to start with. Just go look at the positional lists then and see if you agree with them. If you think Mendenall, Norwood, Hightower are not worth more than $1 than move the rank up higher. If you think Jamaal Charles, Edge, Faulk, or McCoy should be worth more than the $1 they are showing, then move it down.

I don't think those are perfect... I don't think any of the methods handle backup players the way I'd like to see them handled as I want to be able to use 2 different baselines, one for starters and one for backups. But that should at least give you some ballpark figures to go off of that should at least be reasonable consistent amongst the main starting players, and you can further tweak them by adjusting those positional ranks in the baseline tab.

 

[Donny Loved Bowling]

Thanks for the encouragement. I've never been so poorly prepared for a draft. I know the players and projections well enough - had a serpentine draft last week and it went really well. But auction is a different monster, and I haven't been able to generate anything resembling a decent price cheatsheet. I figured I would just plug my scoring system into the Dominator and I'd be fine - but I must be doing something wrong, 'cause it just doesn't look right. Should make for an interesting draft - I will have to be extra alert for value.

Print out a Cheat Sheet for your Auction from the 163 Cheat Sheets on the FBG Homepage. This has FBG Auction values, not Average Values, but you can use it to gauge if a guy is 'worth' what he is going for.Grab the David Dodds article on The Perfect Auction, which lists FBG Values and Average Auction values...folllow his advice on bidding.Just pace yourself...but don't be afraid to pay a buck or two more for a guy you really like. In the mid rounds, fill our your roster with good values, esp if others are spending alot early. BE FLUID...watch for your Roster needs, and focus spending on your perceived starters. Don't get a roster full of 'maybe' players because you want a deep bench. Remember that auctions take a long time, so you'll have time to soak it in.

Thanks for the advice. I have read Dodds' article, and I do plan to try implementing several of his strategies. I checked out the cheatsheets, but none of them really come close to my league parameters. I'm going to take a final stab at setting up the Dominator, and hope that the Dynamic Auction feature will allow me to adjust to other owner's actions on the fly. According to the Apps FAQ, I may need to tweak the "Auction.csv" values... I don't know what these are or where to acces them. Help anyone?

 

[Donny Loved Bowling]

In Draft Dominator, set up your league in the first window. Make sure you have 1 starter at each position you support, 3 flex, and click on the check mark on the positions that can be flexed (I assume RB, WR and TE). Also 1 at each IDP and 1 in the IDP flex and check mark those 3 positions as being flexed.Hit ok and let it generate values. Then open the Setup window again and go to VBD Baseline. While I normally use Maurile's method, I'd suggest you use the Configurable by position rank. Find the last QB you think should go for more than the minimum bid and put his rank in for QB. Do the same for each position. For IDPs, I'm hoping you won't have more than the top 3 or 4 IDPs as going for more than $1, as you just don't start enough of them that they are worth that much.It looks like your flex should use about 16 WRs and 20 RBs in addition to the 12 starters at the dedicated positions, so WR 28 and RB 32 would be your last starters. Figure some of the backups should go for more than minimum.So for your league I might go with the following as the last players worth more than $1:QB 18RB 47WR 44TE 11PK 3DB 3DL 3LB 3Using default scoring, 20 man rosters, $200 cap, $1 min bid, and default projections, that has the top IDPs worth about $5-7. The top kickers worth $2-$3. Brady worth $59. AP worth $72. Moss worth $43. That's probably getting you in the ball park to start with. Just go look at the positional lists then and see if you agree with them. If you think Mendenall, Norwood, Hightower are not worth more than $1 than move the rank up higher. If you think Jamaal Charles, Edge, Faulk, or McCoy should be worth more than the $1 they are showing, then move it down.I don't think those are perfect... I don't think any of the methods handle backup players the way I'd like to see them handled as I want to be able to use 2 different baselines, one for starters and one for backups. But that should at least give you some ballpark figures to go off of that should at least be reasonable consistent amongst the main starting players, and you can further tweak them by adjusting those positional ranks in the baseline tab.

Thanks a lot... this will be very helpful in getting me straightened out. I will need to adjust the cap to $250. One part I'm unsure of is the second column of values next to each starting position "Roster spots"... best to use default values, or leave them blank? My roster typically has 5-6 Rbs on it, use 6 as the value for RBs?

 

[Donny Loved Bowling]

Thank you VERY much GregR. I just finished setting it up, and the values look much better. I actually anticipate that the top RBs will go for more, but moreso because owners will fall in love with a guy. And their overspending will only open up value elsewhere. Historically, our spending breakdown tends to be about 90% of cap spent on starters. I really appreciate your input, I don't feel quite so lost now. With these values loaded, the DD ready to rip and Dodds' article fresh in my mind, I feel much more comfortable heading into tomorrow.

 

[GregR_2]

In Draft Dominator, set up your league in the first window. Make sure you have 1 starter at each position you support, 3 flex, and click on the check mark on the positions that can be flexed (I assume RB, WR and TE). Also 1 at each IDP and 1 in the IDP flex and check mark those 3 positions as being flexed.Hit ok and let it generate values. Then open the Setup window again and go to VBD Baseline. While I normally use Maurile's method, I'd suggest you use the Configurable by position rank. Find the last QB you think should go for more than the minimum bid and put his rank in for QB. Do the same for each position. For IDPs, I'm hoping you won't have more than the top 3 or 4 IDPs as going for more than $1, as you just don't start enough of them that they are worth that much.It looks like your flex should use about 16 WRs and 20 RBs in addition to the 12 starters at the dedicated positions, so WR 28 and RB 32 would be your last starters. Figure some of the backups should go for more than minimum.So for your league I might go with the following as the last players worth more than $1:QB 18RB 47WR 44TE 11PK 3DB 3DL 3LB 3Using default scoring, 20 man rosters, $200 cap, $1 min bid, and default projections, that has the top IDPs worth about $5-7. The top kickers worth $2-$3. Brady worth $59. AP worth $72. Moss worth $43. That's probably getting you in the ball park to start with. Just go look at the positional lists then and see if you agree with them. If you think Mendenall, Norwood, Hightower are not worth more than $1 than move the rank up higher. If you think Jamaal Charles, Edge, Faulk, or McCoy should be worth more than the $1 they are showing, then move it down.I don't think those are perfect... I don't think any of the methods handle backup players the way I'd like to see them handled as I want to be able to use 2 different baselines, one for starters and one for backups. But that should at least give you some ballpark figures to go off of that should at least be reasonable consistent amongst the main starting players, and you can further tweak them by adjusting those positional ranks in the baseline tab.

Thanks a lot... this will be very helpful in getting me straightened out. I will need to adjust the cap to $250. One part I'm unsure of is the second column of values next to each starting position "Roster spots"... best to use default values, or leave them blank? My roster typically has 5-6 Rbs on it, use 6 as the value for RBs?

I'll paste what the online help says about it below. However, I've played with it before and I didn't see any difference in the overall rankings, at least amongst the top players. I'd surmise that if you were going to have Draft Dominator do a mock draft for you, it might come into play then as to how it decides to use bench spots. But I normally just set higher than I expect any team to draft.And you're welcome, and good luck with your auction.

Roster Spots—enter the maximum number of players that you want to draft at each position. Sometimes this is dictated by your league rules. For example, your league might state that you must draft 2 QBs, 4 RBs, 5 WRs, 2 TEs, 2 PKs and 2 Defs for a total of 17 rounds. If your league doesn't dictate this, then you will need to enter reasonable numbers on your own. For example, if you know going into the draft, that you want at least 2 QBs but not more than 3 QBs, then enter 3 QBs for the Roster Spots. If you know you want somewhere between 4 and 6 RBs, then enter 6 RBs for the Roster Spots. Tip: The total number of Roster Spots should be greater than or equal to the Number of Rounds in your draft. For best results, you don't want the total Roster Spots to be much greater than the Number of Round in your draft.