Auction Plan

[cubswin]

I'm doing an auction draft for the first time this year. I have participated in several leagues over the years and have been a member of Mastersball for 5 years. I have learned a TON from this site but have never paid any attention to anything regarding auctions. I was hoping for some advice from all of you on the best way to approach my up coming auction. BTW, most people in the league haven't done an auction draft before.

League Set Up:

12 Team mixed, 5x5 roto. 27 man roster, $270 budget
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 4 OF, MI, CI, 2 Util

What would your blueprints be for a draft of this type? Thanks for taking the time to answer this!!

[cwk1963]

A question first: Is this a NEW league or an existing auction league you're joining?

A few things you NEED to do:

1) Start reading everything you see here regarding auctions.
2) Become a Platinum Member (if you're not already). Todd and Gary have articles posted which discuss proper valuation (you need to KNOW the hows and whys of where the values come from), replacement level players, and auction budgeting. Those are a few - I'm sure they have more up their sleeves.
3) Post specific questions you might have about auctions. There's a bunch here who do them and have been doing them for many years.
4) There have been posts which discuss the computer vs paper debate. I use a computer but for someone new to auctions, I would say forget it. Go the paper route and make sure you're prepared - get your values and tiers in order and, just the same as straight drafts, make sure you know the player pool.
5) Research the different auction plans - stars & scrubs, LIMA, ZIMA, spread the risk. There is no set plan or blueprint. You have to have YOUR plan in mind but be ready to change direction when you see the script isn't being followed.

These are just a few to start with. But I think the most important thing for a new auction player is to be prepared but make sure you have fun. There's a lot to learn and you'll learn new things every year.

[cubswin]

1) This is a new league, with several members from a previous one. In the past we always did a snake draft, but this year we are trying an auction.

2) I am a platinum member and have been for 5 years.

3) I have several questions, but for now I guess I'm asking: If you were in a league lke this, what strategy would you use?

4) I am and have been reading everything on the site, but unfortuately all of the old archives are gone. I'm trying to pick everyone's brain a bit to help determine my best course of action specific to this league.

Thanks!!!

[Guest]

This is an insanely shallow league.

I'd go hardcore stars and scrubs (the scrubs being really good players).

Im a little confused about the composition of the 27 players. You list 13 offensive starters, Im assume 9 starting pitchers, 5 man bench?

I'd use the valuation program to get a feel for the players at the bottom (the $1-$10 guys) and basically I'd go for the top guys and push hard to get them, especially at positions you don't like the depth of. If you like 1B 10-15, you might not chase Howard or Fiedler, if you dislike 3B 10-15 you might go very hard at the top 3B, etc.

Pitching I wouldn't touch a MR, and might consider the Papelbon/Soria plan, maybe getting 2 very good ratio closers then waiting on SP and taking later pitchers (who are still quite good). The Derek Lowe's, Chien Ming Wang, etc types.

That's a start, others should jump in.

[cubswin]

Thanks Gary!

13 Starting Hitters, and there really isn't a defined number of pitchers. There is an 1350 innings pitched maximum and we can change lineups daily. I'm thinking 5 man starting rotation, 3 closers, and a 6th starter, or MR for spot starts or additional innings as needed.

That would make a 5 man bench

[Todd Zola]

We just posted an extensive essay on auction budgeting. You may want to check that out and come back with specific questions after reading it. We can likely figure out a way to apply the concepts to your league.

[cubswin]

I read it, and it was very helpful. With this post, I was hoping to get something more specific for my league. Here's what I was thinking:

C $10 V Mart/Doumit/Soto/Napoli
1B 20 Fielder/Morneau/A Gonz/Youk/C Davis
2B 20 Phillips/Roberts/Alexi
3B 15 C Davis/Atkins/Am Ram/C Jones/Zimmerman
SS 35 Hanley/Reyes/Rollins
OF 20 Kemp/Markakis/Crawford/Rios
OF 15 Dye/Hawpe/Hunter/Ludwick
OF 15 Hart/McLouth/Ibanez/Bruce
OF 10 Pence/Damon/A Jones
MI 5 Kendrick/Weeks
CI 5 Reynolds/Glaus/Konerko/Jacobs
U 5 Milledge/Thome/Butler
U 5 Kotchman/Lind/Blalock
B 2 Wieters/J Upton/Tavares
B 2
B 1

SP 15 Beckett/Billingsly/Liriano
SP 12 Vazquez/Gallardo/Volquez/Nolasco
SP 10 Harang/Lilly/Slowey/Bedard/J Johnson
SP 8 Baker/Danks/Myers
SP 5 Verlander/Carpenter/Kershaw/Cueto
SP 2 Wang/Pelfrey/Parra/Maholm/W Rodriguez
RP 15 Soria
RP 10 Broxton
RP 5 M Gonzalez
P 2
P 1
270

[Todd Zola]

You may get Rollins for 35, but it will take $45 for Reyes/Hanley
Your $20 OF probably need another $5-$10 as well

[cubswin]

My next question is about nomination. Is there a preferred way to go about this? When it comes to me do I nominate a guy I want, or someone I don't want? If it's someone I want should it be an expensive guy or cheaper guy? Any recommendations along these lines?

[cubswin]

You may get Rollins for 35, but it will take $45 for Reyes/Hanley
Your $20 OF probably need another $5-$10 as well

Will Mastersball provide any average auction value information?

[Todd Zola]

Honestly, there is nothing like experience for helping out with this aspect. There are a few other threads that talk about auction tactics, I'll post the links below.

Big thing is to change things up. Don't always throw a guy out you want, don't always throw out guys you don't.

Don't worry about tossing out a name to get money off the table, it will just happen. Always have a more important reason for the nomination. Maybe you want to gauge the price of a certain tier. Your research shows these 6 guys go for about the same price. You want one of the price is right. Throw out the one you want the least to get an idea of the cost. Now you know if you can get one of these guys and it helps you plan. This works well with closers.

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[Todd Zola]

You may get Rollins for 35, but it will take $45 for Reyes/Hanley
Your $20 OF probably need another $5-$10 as well

Will Mastersball provide any average auction value information?

No, because it really does not exist and if it did, it would not be particularly applicable. Each auction is different, prices revolve around when the players are nominated. The high end prices differ in each league.

We can provide guide values customized to your league's specifications with the CVRCs.

[alleyoops]

My next question is about nomination. Is there a preferred way to go about this? When it comes to me do I nominate a guy I want, or someone I don't want? If it's someone I want should it be an expensive guy or cheaper guy? Any recommendations along these lines?

The advice you got earlier is good for the early and middle parts of the auction. But near the end of the auction, you have to nominate players who you want, since there's a good chance you'll get them for $1, and you don't want to fill valuable roster positions with guys who you don't want. There's an "art" to this endgame part, though. You have to look at who needs players in the same positions that you do, what their maximum bid is, etc.

The number one mistake that likely will be made is that some owners will wind up not spending enough early. They'll either wind up with a lot of money left over at the end, or paying $25 for a guy worth $2. Don't be one of those guys! Especially in this kind of a "shallow" league, you really want more than your share of the star players, unless they're going for significantly more than their value.

As Todd said, there's no substitute for experience. Luckily for you, sounds like most or all of the other owners haven't had much experience with auctions, either. That fact could lead this first auction to be somewhat atypical, so perhaps some of the advice you'll get won't be the best for this particular auction.

[Hambowen]

In any auction especially shallow ones you need to make sure you spend your money. This may sound stupid like "no Kidding" but you will be shocked how many people have $60 left at the end of the auction with maybe 2 $15-20 guys left. Then those teams battle it out for those 2 average guys and end up spending $25-30 for them.

Tiers are the best way to avoid this because you do not get married to needing 1 guy. You have 4-5 and any you get is fine with you.

End game can provide a lot of value but early in an auction there can be a lot of value as well because sometimes people are tentative to spend on the first 5-10 top players that come out. If some of those players are going below value i would grab them.

[rotodog]

Cubby,

At CBS sportsline, they had some 1 year auctions for AL/NL and Mixed leagues. I found them under the draftprep area in Fantasy.

They show the values paid by their writers and expert group.. As a new league , these 1 year values should be a good reference to yours if you find the mixed auction... I did put the AL/NL only in a spread sheet, but not the mixed...

Go check it out

[Kelly_Leak]

One thing that I have found very useful is to actually track what some of your leaguemates tendancies are. This is easy for me as I have built it in my own excel draft worksheet; basically when someone nominates a player and then winds up drafting that player my worksheet does a count on this. With three years of data now, I know there are two people that like to draft guys they throw out early in the draft, three individuals that are absolutely opposed to drafting anyone they nominate (hence they are tossing out players they don't want), and then four other guys that are just completely random.

[viper]

One thing that I have found very useful is to actually track what some of your leaguemates tendancies are. This is easy for me as I have built it in my own excel draft worksheet; basically when someone nominates a player and then winds up drafting that player my worksheet does a count on this. With three years of data now, I know there are two people that like to draft guys they throw out early in the draft, three individuals that are absolutely opposed to drafting anyone they nominate (hence they are tossing out players they don't want), and then four other guys that are just completely random.

This seems so much more worthy of tracking than dollar amounts for any but the top half of players. By top half, I mean those rated in the top half based on skills not the dollars your league spent on them. As was stated elsewhere, players nominated towards the end can often times go for inflated prices. Also, in the case of catchers and DHs, their value is often time a function of things other than actual skill level and category contribution.

[Kelly_Leak]

Yeah, I only really pay attention to this during the first 5 to 7 rounds of the auction (we are entitled to 6 keepers, so in actuality it is more like rounds 10 to 12 or so). There are too many things that scew the data after this point.

[cwk1963]

My experience with auction leagues with new auction players has been that they get caught up in the bidding very early on trying to get the best players that they vastly overpay for those guys. I found that in this kind of situation I was able to pick off the 2nd and 3rd tier guys and get a lot more of them because I got them under value. My lineup wound up being very much spread the wealth on a bunch of these types of players and a much more balanced team. Your mileage may vary.

[daweasle]

This is an interesting idea I have seen used (used it myself)

Figure out who you think is a player you would love to get stuck with for $1 late in the draft - and throw him out early in the draft

If for example - you think matt weiters is a catcher you'd love to get caught with for $1 - odds are someone else is willing to spend $3-4 on him. So if you throw him out early when everyone has lots of money available - one of two things are going to happen - either everyone thinks they'll save their money for joe mauer and victor martinez - or someone overpays for weiters.
If everyone thinks they'll save their money then you get stuck with him for a $1 bid and probably get a steal. AND - it helps you to plan for the future of the draft knowing you don't have to pay for a big name catcher. knowing you can put that money into a better outfiield or whatever.

I have used this with random success and failure over the years - you have a big advantage with the 4-5 bench spots you will be drafting. My league has no bench so if you get stuck with too many $1 players then you can rrun out of roster spots.