Beating Yahoo autodraft (1 Viewer)

Hey, all. I'm playing in a 12-team family league that uses Yahoo! autodraft. It's a casual league, but I really want to win because a) I'm supposed to be the sports expert and b) I was 30 points off the league lead last year (my first in FF), yet missed the playoffs altogether.

As I learned the hard way last year, the Y! autodraft is pretty stupid. It prioritizes your "starting lineup" over any bench depth. Thus, in a QB/2 RB/3 WR/TE/K/DEF format, it will ensure that by the end of the 6th round, everyone has a QB. Then it'll ensure that by the end of the 7th, everyone has a TE. (Last year, seven TEs went in the 7th round.) Then it'll ensure by the end of the 9th, everyone has a K and DEF.

Additionally, the autodraft will draft a backup QB, TE, and one of K/DEF.

Since the league is casual and I should have no trouble picking up injury replacement RBs, I plan to go 0 RB. So, here's what I'm thinking.

• Put all K and DEF on the "do not draft" list. Choosing from the leftovers will be better than drafting one in the 8th/9th.
   
  
• Put all TE other than my top 12 on the "do not draft" list, so I most likely don't get a backup TE (or if I do, at least it's someone I think is ok.)
   
  
• I count exactly 24 QBs whom I can stand to own, so live with drafting a backup QB. Streaming QBs when 22 of them are owned might not work too well.
   
  
• Make a WR-top-heavy draft list. I can mix in the top RB, but at positions where I'm very unlikely to get them (e.g., if I have AJ Green and Hopkins before Gurley, I ain't getting Gurley.) Once we get to the level of guys who are plausible 0 RB options, I can mix them in closer to their ADP, knowing that the system isn't going to give me more than three WR before it moves on to RB.
   
  
• However, within that WR-heavy list, give a boost to the few QB who actually deserve to go before the 6th and the few TE who actually deserve to go before the 7th. That way, I don't, for example, use a 7th rounder on my 12th favorite TE, who is probably not a 7th round talent.
  

If anyone else has Y! autodrafted, do I understand how it works correctly? And, assuming I do, does this strategy make sense?

Thanks so much!!

For mine I put the top QBs on the do not draft list.  I also put a bunch of TEs, kickers and defenses on it.  This way it will only take the top RBs and WRs available.  I'm hoping it won't take a low end QB earlier just because it wants to fill that position for me though.

I would msybe put Gostkowski in your top 100 though

This seems like a valid plan. I don't use yahoo, but it has to have more options than just ranking guys and a do not draft list. 

For espn, the auto draft works well. I can tell the system to specifically draft a TE in round 13, a kicker in round 14, and defense in round 15.  Then I just put QB's a little farther down my list than ADP and I usually end up with a great autodraft. You can also tell the system to end up with a specific number of players at each position. So you can specifically tell the system to only end up with one QB, one TE, one K and one D, and a minimum of 4 RBs, minimum of 5 WRs...etc.

If your league insists on autodraft, maybe switching to a system that has better options for autodraft would be a good idea.

Hawkeye21 said:

For mine I put the top QBs on the do not draft list.  I also put a bunch of TEs, kickers and defenses on it.  This way it will only take the top RBs and WRs available.  I'm hoping it won't take a low end QB earlier just because it wants to fill that position for me though.

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Hmm, the QB part is kind of the opposite of what I was thinking, that you wouldn't mind going a little early for the top QB and TE, because if you don't have one by the 6th/7th round respectively, they're gonna force one onto you. (Early relative to your standard draft list, that is. Not early relative to ADP, where Cam is 16th overall or whatever crazy nonsense.)

I guess it boils down to: which is worse, something like Luck in the 3rd round, when you think he should be a 5th rounder... or something like Tyrod/Cousins/whoever your 12th QB is in the 6th round, when you think they should be a 10th rounder?

It's not at all obvious, because the difference between earlier picks is more than the difference than later picks. Also, you might not get your dead last QB in the 6th round. (Not sure that you could necessarily expect to get someone with higher ADP than Philip Rivers, though). It's tough...

(FWIW, this specific league happens to be 6 points per passing TD.)

Dan Lambskin said:

I would msybe put Gostkowski in your top 100 though

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I'll get right on that

superbigpimping420 said:

This seems like a valid plan. I don't use yahoo, but it has to have more options than just ranking guys and a do not draft list.

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I hope you're right, but if it does, I don't see it...

Bumping this thread because I just found out I'll be on a business trip the night of my main league's Yahoo draft and may not get back to my hotel room in time.

I can confirm that Yahoo's pre-draft rankings still only allow for Default Rankings, Preferred Players and Do Not Draft. In my case, since I expect to be back at least part way through the draft, I can eliminate a lot of the risk by just dumping all kickers and Ds on my DND list. There's still a chance that it'll draft a QB/TE a little early, but that's a lot better than drafting two Ks by Round 10.