My Thoughts/Strategy/Rants on Auctions

[bobbing_headz]

I just read that actually, interesting, but I still believe that $61 is too much for 1 player, no matter how dominant they are. I'd be willing to go as high as about 45-48 but after that I'd say no. Half your budget on 1 player no matter how safe they are is extremely risky.

[ChyBoy]

In my auction league I always target the top tier RB at what ever price. Last year LT scored 475 pts. in my league and the 10th and 11th RB scored 220 pts and 210 pts. Each year that is represtenative of the scoring. Ussually that costs over 1/3 of my money. Of course finding hidden gems late is part of the strategy for a winning team. In the ten years of the existence of my league the majority of the champions had a top 3 RB. The great thing about auction league is you can always push bids up. Once you get LT or the other top RB, then everybody fears you getting that 2nd great player. I use this strategy and start pushing bids up.


2nd as for people over paying at the beginning of the draft , sometimes that is not alway the case. If the first few players nominated is not a top 3 RB or Manning then I find that most of the time the bidders are trying to feel out everybody else in finding out what the line of biding is going to be. There tends to be a sense of money saving at first, sometimes you can take advantage of that and find a top 10 player for a little less than you expected.


Of course everybody has different strategies and tendencies which makes each draft unique.

[bobbing_headz]

Some more thoughts.

I was doing another mock tonight and it got me thinking about that point I made earlier about the predictability of early nominations. This was probably one of the few auctions I've done where nominations didn't follow a snake-like order. In fact they were all over the place. This lead me to realize something thats seems pretty obvious:

a) If the nominations follows a snake-like order (from best to worst) it's much harder to find value. Since the best players go first it's just a logical progression of less valuable players being available as owners start losing money. Maybe a little value can be found but much harder to find steals.

b) The opposite of that, if the auction is very different from a snake then it's much easier to find value. This makes obvious sense as the more players are gone the less money owners have (generally). For example, I picked up Andre Johnson for $6 in a $100 PPR which is absurd. There had been at least 10+ WRs I had ranked lower than him taken already.

In situation A it's not as valuable to be patient as you'll just end up missing out on the top talent and even though you may get value it's gonna probably be 2nd or 3rd string at best.

In situation B it's much better to be patient. If I see this scenario play out I will almost always wait it out until the top players available are nominated.

The way I see it I'd rather get in the 2nd scenario as I tend to be more patient then most. The problem is that it's very hard to make owners sway from simply putting out the best players available. The only thing I can think of is when it's your turn to nominate put out low-ranked players. Not too low but certainly outside of the top 10. Make sure that you have some interest though. In worst case you'll get the guy you may have wanted for $1. In a better scenario you may get owners to start putting out lower ranked players instead of throwing out the studs.

The other way would be to not have any ranked list of players to choose from and simply have them alphabetical (this only applies online). However I don't think that's possible.

[LAWDOG1975]

I love this post. I have been a successful fantasy baseball owner for years. But I can't break through in football. It has been frustrating. For the last 4 years I have bought two of the top five running backs and made the playoffs only twice. I am souring on that strategy. Also, in my league, I have noticed that the guy with the highest priced player has never won a championship. But then I have also read that going for depth equals a .500 season. What is the solution? It seems the guys who hit the right sleepers end up winning. (ie, Colston, Jones-Drew, LJ the year he filled in for Priest). Would the best strategy be to go solid with a few sleepers? Also, instead of calling out the big names early wouldn't it be better strategy to call out a top kicker or defense or te for $1? I know if someone did that it would be hard for me to get into a bidding war because I would want money for the QB, RB, WR. What are some other thoughts on strategy and specifically, ideal draft budgets for each position. (in my league there is a .5 point per reception). Thanks again for this post.