Strategy question (1 Viewer)

[Michael Brown]

Yup, I agreed to take part in an auction at my girlfriend's job because they couldn't get enough people. I make EIGHT.

So anyway I've never done a league with fewer than 10 teams and even that was about 7 years ago. I'm going back and forth on a strategy for this thing. I mean sure, we'll all have super teams. It's a redraft mixed league auction with the standard $260/23 5x5 roto setup. So I'll be strong everywhere.

But as far as a plan of attack, I know the smaller the league gets, the more depth there is to go around. But what about the top-shelf guys? A Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton might still go for $35-$40 but is it as necessary to bid high on those guys when I can probably grab very good non-studs for a fraction of the cost (i.e., Raul Ibanez for the mid-teens in all likelihood). Basically, in a setup like this I would expect the teams with the superstuds to have a distinct advantage. That said, with only $2,080 being spent in total on all players does it make sense to blow $40 on any one guy?

Would I be better served grabbing insane value the entire time and having a team with zero holes? Or should I grab the top-end studs for whatever they cost and fill in my team with a bunch of $2 and $3 guys who are still starters and in all likelihood pretty valuable since those kind of players would go for $8-$9 in a standard auction?

What says the baseball forum?

 

[jfranco77]

Yup, I agreed to take part in an auction at my girlfriend's job because they couldn't get enough people. I make EIGHT.So anyway I've never done a league with fewer than 10 teams and even that was about 7 years ago. I'm going back and forth on a strategy for this thing. I mean sure, we'll all have super teams. It's a redraft mixed league auction with the standard $260/23 5x5 roto setup. So I'll be strong everywhere.But as far as a plan of attack, I know the smaller the league gets, the more depth there is to go around. But what about the top-shelf guys? A Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton might still go for $35-$40 but is it as necessary to bid high on those guys when I can probably grab very good non-studs for a fraction of the cost (i.e., Raul Ibanez for the mid-teens in all likelihood). Basically, in a setup like this I would expect the teams with the superstuds to have a distinct advantage. That said, with only $2,080 being spent in total on all players does it make sense to blow $40 on any one guy?Would I be better served grabbing insane value the entire time and having a team with zero holes? Or should I grab the top-end studs for whatever they cost and fill in my team with a bunch of $2 and $3 guys who are still starters and in all likelihood pretty valuable since those kind of players would go for $8-$9 in a standard auction?What says the baseball forum?

Studs and duds. Replacement level is going to be insane. Get Hanley, Pujols, Braun, McCann, Reyes, etc... and then a bunch of $1-$2 guys. Don't spend for saves because there should be lousy closers on the WW - but do get some good ratio SPs to make up for that.

 

[Michael Brown]

Yup, I agreed to take part in an auction at my girlfriend's job because they couldn't get enough people. I make EIGHT.So anyway I've never done a league with fewer than 10 teams and even that was about 7 years ago. I'm going back and forth on a strategy for this thing. I mean sure, we'll all have super teams. It's a redraft mixed league auction with the standard $260/23 5x5 roto setup. So I'll be strong everywhere.But as far as a plan of attack, I know the smaller the league gets, the more depth there is to go around. But what about the top-shelf guys? A Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton might still go for $35-$40 but is it as necessary to bid high on those guys when I can probably grab very good non-studs for a fraction of the cost (i.e., Raul Ibanez for the mid-teens in all likelihood). Basically, in a setup like this I would expect the teams with the superstuds to have a distinct advantage. That said, with only $2,080 being spent in total on all players does it make sense to blow $40 on any one guy?Would I be better served grabbing insane value the entire time and having a team with zero holes? Or should I grab the top-end studs for whatever they cost and fill in my team with a bunch of $2 and $3 guys who are still starters and in all likelihood pretty valuable since those kind of players would go for $8-$9 in a standard auction?What says the baseball forum?

Studs and duds. Replacement level is going to be insane. Get Hanley, Pujols, Braun, McCann, Reyes, etc... and then a bunch of $1-$2 guys. Don't spend for saves because there should be lousy closers on the WW - but do get some good ratio SPs to make up for that.

Yeah I was definitely going to steer clear of paying big bucks for saves, that's for sure. And I was thinking about it, and the more I did the more I realized it makes sense to grab the studs. Because the difference between the $1 guys and the $14 guys is going to be about the same as the difference between the $14 and $28 guys, except now I'll have studs that are far more reliable.If anyone has any more input though, I'm all ears still.

 

[dparker713]

Yup, I agreed to take part in an auction at my girlfriend's job because they couldn't get enough people. I make EIGHT.So anyway I've never done a league with fewer than 10 teams and even that was about 7 years ago. I'm going back and forth on a strategy for this thing. I mean sure, we'll all have super teams. It's a redraft mixed league auction with the standard $260/23 5x5 roto setup. So I'll be strong everywhere.But as far as a plan of attack, I know the smaller the league gets, the more depth there is to go around. But what about the top-shelf guys? A Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton might still go for $35-$40 but is it as necessary to bid high on those guys when I can probably grab very good non-studs for a fraction of the cost (i.e., Raul Ibanez for the mid-teens in all likelihood). Basically, in a setup like this I would expect the teams with the superstuds to have a distinct advantage. That said, with only $2,080 being spent in total on all players does it make sense to blow $40 on any one guy?Would I be better served grabbing insane value the entire time and having a team with zero holes? Or should I grab the top-end studs for whatever they cost and fill in my team with a bunch of $2 and $3 guys who are still starters and in all likelihood pretty valuable since those kind of players would go for $8-$9 in a standard auction?What says the baseball forum?

Studs and duds. Replacement level is going to be insane. Get Hanley, Pujols, Braun, McCann, Reyes, etc... and then a bunch of $1-$2 guys. Don't spend for saves because there should be lousy closers on the WW - but do get some good ratio SPs to make up for that.

Yeah I was definitely going to steer clear of paying big bucks for saves, that's for sure. And I was thinking about it, and the more I did the more I realized it makes sense to grab the studs. Because the difference between the $1 guys and the $14 guys is going to be about the same as the difference between the $14 and $28 guys, except now I'll have studs that are far more reliable.If anyone has any more input though, I'm all ears still.

I'd probably make wright my top target, he's the biggest gap at the top of any position. Also, if you're starting 5 OF, I'd probably spend heavily there as there is a significant drop between OF1 and OF40.

 

[Michael Brown]

Basically, the two suggestions are reinforcing what I already assumed...I guess I was just overthinking it because it was a foreign idea to me. This league is going to be absurd.

 

[Michael Brown]

So here's my team:

C - Wieters

C - R.Hernandez

1B - Pujols ($37)

2B - J.Lopez

3B - Wright ($40)

SS - Tulowitzki

CI - Howard ($32)

MI - Kendrick

OF - Hamilton ($28)

OF - Sizemore ($40)

OF - Braun ($33)

OF - Granderson ($14)

OF - T.Hunter

UT - D.Lee

P - Kazmir ($12)

P - Bedard ($8)

P - Greinke

P - Garza

P - Kershaw

P - Lilly

P - Scherzer

P - Baker

P - M.Gonzalez

We also had a post-auction draft so here's the bench.

H.Pence

I.Rodriguez (to use until Wieters is called up)

Cantu

Weeks

Taveras

Del.Young

Devine

F.Francisco

Jurrjens

W.Rodriguez

Buehrle

Hanrahan

And there are still saves sitting on the WW if need be, so I'm not worried about the quality of my closers in the least.

Basically what I did was, I was ultra-aggressive early on for the guys with the higher salaries, then sat back as the others fought over $20 for Derek Jeter and $30 for Francisco Rodriguez. By the time the rest of the league only had 1 or 2 spots to fill, I still had 14 open spots in my lineup. Once they all finished up their auctions, I picked off the following guys for $1 apiece (much to the chagrin of the entire room): Wieters, D.Lee, J.Lopez, Tulo, Kendrick, Hunter, Greinke, M.Gonzalez, Scherzer, Lilly, Baker, Kershaw, Garza. It wasn't just a matter of them not having the money -- they simply ran out of spots in their lineups to fit players. Obviously you can't bid on Derrek Lee if you've already got your 1B/CI/UT filled up!

My pitching could be a problem, but the great thing is that I was still able to land a bunch of high-strikeout guys. I was afraid I was going to have to fill out my rotation with guys like Buehrle and Wang, but a ton of high upside guys ended up falling to me. Plus if I REALLY need to, I can always move a bat for an arm. I've already begun shopping around Pence and Hunter.

Thanks for the input guys, auction went about as well as I could've hoped. The only thing I would've done differently if I had to do over again is to not bid $8 on Bedard early on because there were a ton of guys available late for a buck each anyway. It didn't cost me though so no big deal. I might have considered not bidding on Braun and using that $33 to go get a few better pitchers (maybe Felix and Liriano instead of Scherzer and Garza, for example). But that's being a little picky.

My team name: Studs and "Duds"