Auction v Draft v ?

[Macca11]

(Also posted in Platinum section)
Great to be back on the site. I've already said goodbye to my family for the next six or seven months!
Interesting topic on which games we all play already on the board.
I play in a 14-team mixed 5x5 league with standard categories. The League has four divisions of roughly similar size (allowing for additions and drop-outs every year), with promotion and relegation, a bit like football – sorry, soccer – leagues in Europe. So if you are either lucky or good enough (you probably need to be both) you will end up in the top division, the Premier League.
This was a straight draft (redraft) league for years, but last year became a hybrid auction/draft league. We had so much fun during the auction section it is now a pure auction league (no keepers). The budget this year is $500. One of the things I like about our league is that there are always rule changes so that you can't just take standard advice and follow a certain formula. The other thing I like is that if you are doing badly, the prospect of relegation ensures you never give up on a season. No one wants to be relegated!
This season our innings limit has gone up (1700), we have an extra middle infielder and the required pitchers have changed.
My first reaction is always that I wish we had last year's rules, because I have only just got used to them. My second is that it challenges you to use your own initiative to come up with the best plan to take advantage of your new rules.
Sorry to have gone on so long about this. But I am curious as to which draft the Mastersballers think is the most fun, auction or snake?
Draft day is great, we all know that, but I have to say that the auction was WAY more fun than the traditional snake draft.
Agree or disagree?

[cwk1963]

I like auctions much better. To me they are more fun but also there is a lot more going on and you have to try to learn to read the participants - kind of like poker in that respect.

[johnd2442]

your league has some pretty cool rules. i like the promotion/relegation aspect. but i'm with you and cwk - auctions are really, really enjoyable and more fun than straight drafts. Not only that, but it adds so many more possibilities with a league going forward, with regards to contracts and the fact that players now have a market value whereas with a straight draft, that is sort of the case, but not as easily obtained as through an auction.

[Trav The Ump]

Auction, nothing is more frustrating than getting a draft spot you don't like and watching guys you spent hours poring over notes and web updates get picked without you having any chance to do anything about it. At least at the auction table you can at least make the other owner pay to own that sleeper.