Yahoo leagues (1 Viewer)

[wildbill]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option. We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

 

[Mooks77]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option. We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

I honestly don't understand this. What is the point of playing fantasy football if you don't select your own team.

 

[KnowledgeReignsSupreme]

The computer selects starters before backups. Use that to your advantage.

 

[Mystery Achiever]

The computer selects starters before backups. Use that to your advantage.

definitely. stick the kickers, etc near the end. this is different, btw, than espn autopick, that has no problem drafting you three tight ends and no quarterbacks if you're not careful with your rankings.

 

[gocats]

what happens if you remove kickers entirely from your rankings?

 

[ImTheScientist]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option. We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

You are waisting your time

 

[Mystery Achiever]

what happens if you remove kickers entirely from your rankings?

i haven't tried it - i know some have, so hopefully they'll check in. my guess is that you'll end up with one kicker -- the one highest rated by yahoo left when the computer drafts him.btw, yahoo only lets you rank the number of players that will be drafted, i.e. ten team league with 15 roster spots ----> 150 players can be ranked.

 

[sholditch]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option. We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

do a forum slow draft.

 

[Mystery Achiever]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option.  We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

do a forum slow draft.

you have to be a patient person for that.

 

[Jaysus]

tip #1: ignore the boners giving you a hard time about autodrafting... you gotta do, what you gotta do

tip #2: Regarding kickers, only rank one or two that you really want - they'll prob be gone by the time yahoo tries to pick one for you anyway. Add the restl to your exclude list.

tip #3: see tip #2 but change "kickers" to "defense"

tip #4: see tip #3 but change "defense" to "tight ends" and change "one or two" to "five or six"

tip #5: rank at least enough players so that your rank list is = to the number of players that will be drafted

tip #6: as previously mentioned, and this should prob be tip 1a, but the autodraft will fill out all of your starters before moving on to your backups - use that to your advantage.

tip #7: be the first owner on your waiver wire after the draft is over.

tip #8: see tip #1

 

[JohnDoe]

what happens if you remove kickers entirely from your rankings?

i haven't tried it - i know some have, so hopefully they'll check in. my guess is that you'll end up with one kicker -- the one highest rated by yahoo left when the computer drafts him.btw, yahoo only lets you rank the number of players that will be drafted, i.e. ten team league with 15 roster spots ----> 150 players can be ranked.

IIRC yahoo will only let you rank the number of players that will be drafted. Once you get past that it goes to the yahoo default list. Also, yahoo will draft from your list unitl all starting posistions are filled and then they will draft the backups. If you leave out the kickers it will go the the default list to draft your starter and then go to your pre-ranked list to fill out the backup slots.

Some people prefer to rank players by posistion (say 40 RB, then 40 WR, 20 QB, 20 TE) that way your draft will go RB,RB,WR,WR,WR,QB,TE,K,DEF, then Bench posistions.

 

[ultramattman]

Okay it's been a couple years, but I've manipulated the autopicking before. I also seem to always have a couple people in my leagues who don't show up for the live draft so I get to observe yahoo's autopick system each year. Autopicking a draft is a completely different strategy than a live draft. In fact, it's almost an opposite strategy...

(Note: I'm going to assume a 12 team league, yahoo default lineups of qb/rb/rb/wr/wr/wr/te/def/k. Rework the numbers if it's different)

1. This is the most important thing to understand - autopick will fill your entire starting lineup before choosing backups. This means everyone will have a kicker and a defense before the RB25 (Chester Taylor in Yahoo's prerankings) is taken. What does this mean? It means that in an autopick draft, instead of putting off 'luxury positions' like kicker and DEF until later, you should be targetting them early. Hey, if you're going to take a defense in the eighth round, then it might as well be a good one, right? Try to get the jump on the other teams by taking these positions a round early. Overrank the Bears D, Rackers, or Viniateri. Look for Gates in the early second round. Take Manning in the first if you want. Go RB/WR/WR/WR in the first four rounds. You can afford to do this because decent running backs will still be available in the middle rounds, because every team will only take two. In fact, you can wait till the EIGHTH ROUND to take your first RB and still be guaranteed two of the top 24 backs! It's possible in an autodraft to get the top player at four positions - QB, TE, K, and DEF - without suffering at RB and WR.

2. The next thing to understand is that autodraft will choose a backup at every position. Every team will have two kickers and two defenses. This means outside of the very top guys at those positions, PUSH THE REST OF THE GUYS WAAAAY DOWN IN YOUR RANKINGS. You don't want to be taking a second kicker, even if it is Vinny, when someone else is getting Frank Gore or LenDale White.

3. Know the very second your autodraft goes live and hit the wire immediately. There will be good players available; with all the backup kickers and defenses assigned, there will be two full rounds' worth of draft-worthy players on the wire.

4. Do your pre-rankings thoroughly. In addition to upgrading the luxury positions, study yahoo's rankings and look for guys who are too low or too high. I'm guessing several people in your league won't prerank or will only do the first 25 players or so. You can gain an advantage by carefully combing through the entire list. Get an idea what rounds the running backs will go, so you can target other positions early. And watch for guys who are too high - Priest Holmes is a top 100 player on their list, and Bettis is on the list at #227. Somebody's going to get stuck with these guys, don't let it be you (unless you think Priest is going to play). If somebody's too low, you have a pretty good chance of snagging them.

Anyway, those are my absurdly extensive thoughts on Yahoo autodrafting. Hope it helps.

Oh, one more thing - Yahoo will update its rankings, but if you've preranked, it won't change them. I remember when Ricky Williams retired, Yahoo moved him off their rankings (or into the 1000's), but some guy got stuck with him in the first round because he still had him preranked in the top 10. So beware.

 

[wildbill]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option.  We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

I honestly don't understand this. What is the point of playing fantasy football if you don't select your own team.

I won't actually make my picks, but the autopicker will choose my players based on the rankings I submit.I'd much rather hold a live draft, but I enjoy this league because I have a few friends in there.

 

[wildbill]

what happens if you remove kickers entirely from your rankings?

I remember (but couldn't find) a thread from last year where someone excluded all the kickers, and still ended up burning two early picks on them. I don't want that to happen to me.

 

[wildbill]

Okay it's been a couple years, but I've manipulated the autopicking before. I also seem to always have a couple people in my leagues who don't show up for the live draft so I get to observe yahoo's autopick system each year. Autopicking a draft is a completely different strategy than a live draft. In fact, it's almost an opposite strategy...

(Note: I'm going to assume a 12 team league, yahoo default lineups of qb/rb/rb/wr/wr/wr/te/def/k. Rework the numbers if it's different)

1. This is the most important thing to understand - autopick will fill your entire starting lineup before choosing backups. This means everyone will have a kicker and a defense before the RB25 (Chester Taylor in Yahoo's prerankings) is taken. What does this mean? It means that in an autopick draft, instead of putting off 'luxury positions' like kicker and DEF until later, you should be targetting them early. Hey, if you're going to take a defense in the eighth round, then it might as well be a good one, right? Try to get the jump on the other teams by taking these positions a round early. Overrank the Bears D, Rackers, or Viniateri. Look for Gates in the early second round. Take Manning in the first if you want. Go RB/WR/WR/WR in the first four rounds. You can afford to do this because decent running backs will still be available in the middle rounds, because every team will only take two. In fact, you can wait till the EIGHTH ROUND to take your first RB and still be guaranteed two of the top 24 backs! It's possible in an autodraft to get the top player at four positions - QB, TE, K, and DEF - without suffering at RB and WR.

2. The next thing to understand is that autodraft will choose a backup at every position. Every team will have two kickers and two defenses. This means outside of the very top guys at those positions, PUSH THE REST OF THE GUYS WAAAAY DOWN IN YOUR RANKINGS. You don't want to be taking a second kicker, even if it is Vinny, when someone else is getting Frank Gore or LenDale White.

3. Know the very second your autodraft goes live and hit the wire immediately. There will be good players available; with all the backup kickers and defenses assigned, there will be two full rounds' worth of draft-worthy players on the wire.

4. Do your pre-rankings thoroughly. In addition to upgrading the luxury positions, study yahoo's rankings and look for guys who are too low or too high. I'm guessing several people in your league won't prerank or will only do the first 25 players or so. You can gain an advantage by carefully combing through the entire list. Get an idea what rounds the running backs will go, so you can target other positions early. And watch for guys who are too high - Priest Holmes is a top 100 player on their list, and Bettis is on the list at #227. Somebody's going to get stuck with these guys, don't let it be you (unless you think Priest is going to play). If somebody's too low, you have a pretty good chance of snagging them.

Anyway, those are my absurdly extensive thoughts on Yahoo autodrafting. Hope it helps.

Oh, one more thing - Yahoo will update its rankings, but if you've preranked, it won't change them. I remember when Ricky Williams retired, Yahoo moved him off their rankings (or into the 1000's), but some guy got stuck with him in the first round because he still had him preranked in the top 10. So beware.

This is the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks!

 

[secretid]

Most managers won't modify the order after a certain point

Imagine a draft where you had near-perfect ADP info for the draft you're in. That's basically what you're looking at here.

 

[UncleZen]

Why not set it up for live draft and let those who can't make it use autopick? Everyone doesn't have to be there.

 

[wildbill]

Why not set it up for live draft and let those who can't make it use autopick? Everyone doesn't have to be there.

I'm all for that, but this is the way they've always done it, and a couple of the guys don't want to change.

 

[ManODaHour]

Has anyone actually tried these strategies or are you just assuming that these will work? Namely, I'm questioning leaving out K's alltogether on my pre-rankings along with almost all Def, TE, and QBs. Is this fact or theory?

 

[velho]

Most info above is very good.

I would emphasize the exclude all kickers, all but top tier or two Defenses, and top 12 TEs. This means in Rd 7 (or so depending on your league rules) when Yahoo goes to grab K, you will be grabbing a backup RB (Like Chester mentioned above). From then on you are 1 round ahead of everyone else - grabbing a backup WR when they are grabbing RB, backup QB whne they are getting WRs, etc.

THAT IS THE KEY TO THE DRAFT.

Want to make sure? Go make test leagues. Go get 3 or 4 email addresses and do an autodraft to prove the concepts you want to do. This will prove to you that it will not pick a K if you exclude all of them (it did not do it last year - I did Yahoo last year myself. I can't say about this year).

Good luck.

 

[velho]

Has anyone actually tried these strategies or are you just assuming that these will work? Namely, I'm questioning leaving out K's alltogether on my pre-rankings along with almost all Def, TE, and QBs. Is this fact or theory?

It was a fact last year. Can't say about this year. See my post above.

 

[Longtime Lurker]

Has anyone actually tried these strategies or are you just assuming that these will work? Namely, I'm questioning leaving out K's alltogether on my pre-rankings along with almost all Def, TE, and QBs. Is this fact or theory?

I ranked my top 3 K's, top 3 Def & Top 5 TE's and excluded all others. The auto pick choose my #3 Kicker and #4 TE and I never got a defense or backups at those positions. It allowed me to pick my RB3 Kevin Jones in the 8th round while the other owners were still choosing their last starter. Also note (not sure if this is new this year) but it will choose backups for some positions before choosing best player available. It will not pick RB4 before it auto picks WR4 and QB2 for you. So the more players you exclude the better off you will be. My 13th-15th round picks were all RBs and were ranked much higher on my overall list than my 10th-12 round picks. Below is a quote from their rules:After all of your starting positions are filled, the system determines a list of bench positions based on the number of starters at a position vs. the overall roster size. The system then selects the highest-rated available player (based first on your pre-rankings and then our default rankings) that can play one of the bench positions.

 

[Nugget]

I go a different route. I try and load up at WR and QB first, and get a top D and Kicker. I know my RB, even if picked in the 7th and 8th rounds would still be # 19 and 20 at the position. If I can get Manning, Holt, Smith, and Gates, with Chicago D and a top kicker, then have KJ, Bush, Droughns, Parker combo at RB, that would be a pretty good team.

 

[jpwest]

Has anyone actually tried these strategies or are you just assuming that these will work? Namely, I'm questioning leaving out K's alltogether on my pre-rankings along with almost all Def, TE, and QBs. Is this fact or theory?

It was a fact last year. Can't say about this year. See my post above.

There seemed to be a difference last year between an autopick draft and a live draft in which you allow the system to pick for you. I was in two leagues (one of each) with the same player ratings list and the exclude kickers strategy worked great in the autopick but I was absolutely hosed in the other. At the time, I thought Yahoo had closed the loophole in between my two drafts.

 

[azcards33]

1. start with a long list of RBs since you obviously want to ensure that you get one, regardless of where you pick in Round 1. Use top tier guys here.

2. top shelf WRs or QBs, whichever you prefer

3. another long list of RBs

4. WRs, TEs, K, Defense, whatever you prefer

5. More RBs

6. whichever position you failed to address

7. more RBs

8. another positon you failed to address

etc

 

[velho]

Has anyone actually tried these strategies or are you just assuming that these will work? Namely, I'm questioning leaving out K's alltogether on my pre-rankings along with almost all Def, TE, and QBs. Is this fact or theory?

It was a fact last year. Can't say about this year. See my post above.

There seemed to be a difference last year between an autopick draft and a live draft in which you allow the system to pick for you. I was in two leagues (one of each) with the same player ratings list and the exclude kickers strategy worked great in the autopick but I was absolutely hosed in the other. At the time, I thought Yahoo had closed the loophole in between my two drafts.

Good info. I don't know since I didn't do an autopick this year. Running a mock draft (where you control all the teams) will show what is what.

 

[wildbill]

Had my draft this week, here's how it went.

Round 1: I had the seventh pick, so I put my top seven running backs at the top of the list, knowing I'd get one of them. I got Cadillac Williams.

Round 2: I bumped Gates up to eighth in my rankings, hoping he'd fall to the 2.06 pick. He did.

Rounds 3-5: I figured I'd miss out on the top receivers, so in these rounds I targetted guys from the next level. I got Wayne, Driver and Mason.

Round 6: Time for a defense. I was targetting Chicago, but they were already taken. I got Carolina instead, which is fine with me.

Round 7: I was targetting quarterbacks here, and got Bledsoe.

Round 8: Time for a kicker. I was targetting Rackers, but I settled for Elam.

Round 9: Time for the second running back. The plan was to rank enough players at the other positions ahead of the running backs outside the top ten that I'd be the last player to take a second RB. The 23rd running back was taken at the end of the 5th round. This allowed me to take my quarterback, defense and kicker a round early, which gave me better choices at those positions without sacrificing my second RB. And I still got the guy I wanted, Chester Taylor.

Through the first part of the draft, where all of the starters are taken, my plan was executed about as well as I could have expected. Based on my own personal rankings, I got a top ten quarterback, a top ten running back, three recievers in the 10-20 range, the #1 tight end, a top two kicker, a top two defense, and a second running back who's about as good as anyone I could have gotten in the second round.

Round 10: I was targetting a third running back, but got Aaron Brooks instead. He was one of the quarterbacks I had targetted in the seventh round, but since no one else had picked him, he was at the top of my list.

Round 11: Getting Brooks in the tenth didn't hurt me, as I was able to get Frank Gore here.

Rounds 12-16: Continued picking backups at wide receiver, tight end, defense and kicker.

Round 17: The final round. I was hoping to get a fourth running back, but Yahoo gave me Billy Volek instead. Most of the other teams got their fourth running back here, and there's not much left on the waiver wire, so I don't have much depth there.

Overall I'm very happy with my team. I should have an advantage at tight end, kicker or defense almost every week. My starting running backs are probably the fourth best in the league, and my starting receivers are probably the second best in the league. My quarterbacks are mediocre, but they're the same kind of players I always end up taking in live drafts anyway. The only change I'll make next time is to bump my backup running backs a little higher.

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[red]

these are great tips, but i assume it only holds true if everyone or mostly everyone in the league is autopicking....i assume that if i'm the only one autopicking then the owners are free to draft at will as long as they eventually get their starters (i.e. they can go rb-rb-rb before getting a WR). is this true?

 

[Mystery Achiever]

....i assume that if i'm the only one autopicking then the owners are free to draft at will as long as they eventually get their starters (i.e. they can go rb-rb-rb before getting a WR). is this true?

True.

 

[Redbullvodka]

I did a practice autopick LIVE draft last night to see what happened ahead of another draft that I do care about tomorrow, which I can not be at.

Rather stupidly I thought the tips above only corresponded to Autopick ONLY drafts, and didn't work on LIVE drafts.

However I can now confirm on LIVE drafts the computer does indeed pick starters for every position before it goes to backups.

I ended up with the following team (draft slot 2 - 12 teams):

2: LJ

23 Moss

26 Westbrook

47 Chester Taylor (Flex)

50 Hasselbeck

71 Derrick Mason

74 Carolina

95 Winslow

98 Vinatieri

119 Favre

122 Bennett

143 Edwards

146 Gado

167 Cincinatti

170 M Lewis

191 Janikowski

Not horrendous...but severely lacking in depth at RB. The picks of Carolina / Winslow / Vinatieri really hurt when I should have been picking up some backup RBs. In fact the two picks before then - Hasselbeck / Mason could have easily been a RB / WR, and still got a decent QB double in later rounds.

So what have I learnt?

After re-reading posts here amd Yahoo rules I think excluding players (these won't be picked under any circumstances) is obviously important. Straight away I have ruled out all kickers - it means I shoudl n't draft one at all, but they are easy to pick up off waivers -and all bar 3 Defenses.

I think the kickers are obvious - but I'm also considering leaving out all defenses. I'd be interested in any thoughts. If I leave them in I will almost certainly get one of the top 3 in round 6 or 7 I suspect. If I don't get any of those I won't get one at all (I think)- I can live with that I think.

But if I get one it will waste a round 6/7 pick when I can get more RB / WR depth. So should I exclude them all?

 

[Jeff Pasquino]

In one of my leagues it's impossible to get everyone together for a live draft, so we use the Yahoo autopick option. We can update the player rankings, but otherwise have no control over which player or position we take with each pick.

Are there any tips on how to use autopick?

Wildbill,Just to give you an idea of the quality info we get on this site, even from freelance, this is from 2005:

The Perfect Auto-Pick Draft.

It does work.

 

[Solidsteel Rats]

Okay it's been a couple years, but I've manipulated the autopicking before.  I also seem to always have a couple people in my leagues who don't show up for the live draft so I get to observe yahoo's autopick system each year.  Autopicking a draft is a completely different strategy than a live draft.  In fact, it's almost an opposite strategy...

(Note:  I'm going to assume a 12 team league, yahoo default lineups of qb/rb/rb/wr/wr/wr/te/def/k.  Rework the numbers if it's different)

1. This is the most important thing to understand - autopick will fill your entire starting lineup before choosing backups.  This means everyone will have a kicker and a defense before the RB25 (Chester Taylor in Yahoo's prerankings) is taken.  What does this mean?  It means that in an autopick draft, instead of putting off 'luxury positions' like kicker and DEF until later, you should be targetting them early.  Hey, if you're going to take a defense in the eighth round, then it might as well be a good one, right?  Try to get the jump on the other teams by taking these positions a round early.  Overrank the Bears D, Rackers, or Viniateri.  Look for Gates in the early second round.  Take Manning in the first if you want.  Go RB/WR/WR/WR in the first four rounds.  You can afford to do this because decent running backs will still be available in the middle rounds, because every team will only take two.  In fact, you can wait till the EIGHTH ROUND to take your first RB and still be guaranteed two of the top 24 backs!  It's possible in an autodraft to get the top player at four positions - QB, TE, K, and DEF - without suffering at RB and WR.

2.  The next thing to understand is that autodraft will choose a backup at every position.  Every team will have two kickers and two defenses.  This means outside of the very top guys at those positions, PUSH THE REST OF THE GUYS WAAAAY DOWN IN YOUR RANKINGS.  You don't want to be taking a second kicker, even if it is Vinny, when someone else is getting Frank Gore or LenDale White. 

3.  Know the very second your autodraft goes live and hit the wire immediately.  There will be good players available; with all the backup kickers and defenses assigned, there will be two full rounds' worth of draft-worthy players on the wire. 

4.  Do your pre-rankings thoroughly.  In addition to upgrading the luxury positions, study yahoo's rankings and look for guys who are too low or too high.  I'm guessing several people in your league won't prerank or will only do the first 25 players or so.  You can gain an advantage by carefully combing through the entire list.  Get an idea what rounds the running backs will go, so you can target other positions early.  And watch for guys who are too high - Priest Holmes is a top 100 player on their list, and Bettis is on the list at #227.  Somebody's going to get stuck with these guys, don't let it be you (unless you think Priest is going to play).  If somebody's too low, you have a pretty good chance of snagging them. 

Anyway, those are my absurdly extensive thoughts on Yahoo autodrafting.  Hope it helps.

Oh, one more thing - Yahoo will update its rankings, but if you've preranked, it won't change them.  I remember when Ricky Williams retired, Yahoo moved him off their rankings (or into the 1000's), but some guy got stuck with him in the first round because he still had him preranked in the top 10.  So beware.

This is the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks!

Seems this guy knows what he talking about..never played in yahoo..the dice game yes yahoo...... ff no way...anyway good advice here by someone with knowledge of it..