Jamie Calandro runs through some Fantasy Baseball Auction Strategy tips.

As the Lead Baseball Writer at Fantasy Team Advice, Jamie is gracious enough to give us his thoughts below.

Fantasy baseball has been going strong for decades now, but even a lot of experienced players have yet to throw their hats into the auction ring, preferring to err on the side of familiarity with the common snake draft. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with a good snake draft, trust me when I say this – live auctions are SO. MUCH. FUN. Once you get into one you’ll be hooked. There are, however, certain strategies that you need to set into place beforehand in order to make sure you aren’t behind the eight-ball, and an important one people often fluff off is spending on those last one-dollar players after six hours of bidding. Don’t make that mistake this year. Mike Trout once cost a dollar, and Anthony Rendon and Corey Kluber won me boatloads last year when I got them both for a buck apiece. My article today will deal with what types of players you should be targeting late into the auction when you only have one or two dollars more to spend.

1. Players returning from the disabled list, or whose stats were down due to scattered injuries

Nothing kills players’ values more than an injury, and sometimes it’s unwarranted. Someone always wins the Comeback Player of the Year award, and generally it’s someone who is very deserving. It’s important that you research not only each player’s injury history, but also the type of injury being dealt with before pulling the trigger on him. Regardless, the beauty of it is that you’re only paying a buck or two, which pretty much means no downside (unlike the Tulowitzki’s and Votto’s of the world who you pony up an arm and a leg for only to have them miss 100 games). Base stealers with leg injuries and pitchers with arm injuries should be handled with care, but like I said, the downside is still minimal if you wait till the end with your last dollars.

Some 2015 players in this category that could be heavily discounted due to injury concerns:

HITTERS
Shin-Soo Choo, Carlos Beltran, Avisail Garcia, Nick Markakis, Mark Teixiera, Yadier Molina, Angel Pagan

PITCHERS
Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, Derek Holland, James Paxton, Matt Moore, CC Sabathia, Bobby Parnell, Patrick Corbin

2) August/September call-ups from the previous season

This is potentially the best area to target for league-winning upside. This is the only type of player where you could not only find a value play, but also snag a superstar for the price of a case of Gatorade. As I said before, late in my highest-stakes auction last Spring, I was able to corral both Anthony Rendon and Corey Kluber each for $1 with two of my last four picks. While I had other high-performance players, there’s no doubt in my mind that these guys gave me the most edge over the competition (after all, one guy spent a dollar on Adam Warren, which I’m still trying to wrap my head around). There is no need to be afraid of picking a guy who brought his .390 average in AAA up in mid-August only to stink it up in the majors. They are rookies, and there is ALWAYS an adjustment period where pitchers learn how to get around a young hitter (usually with breaking balls). That does not mean they will always stink, as they soon adjust to major league pitching as well. Remember how bad Mike Trout was when he first was called up? And Jay Bruce? And even Bryce Harper? How did that wind up working out? These guys could be your ticket to a title, so watch out for them.

Some potential 2015 young breakouts:

HITTERS
Gregory Polanco, Chris Owings, Rougned Odor, Jurickson Profar, Rymer Liriano, Mookie Betts, Cory Spangenberg

PITCHERS
Matt Shoemaker, Shane Greene, James Paxton, Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard

3) Pitchers with weak peripherals but high K-rates

The reason for this is simple. As the season wears on, your team logs so many innings that by the time August hits, your pitchers’ performances are barely making a dent in your overall ERA and WHIP categories. However, strikeouts become a very important counting stat. Therefore, players who you ordinarily wouldn’t start simply because they aren’t all that good gain a lot of value due to their ability to make batters miss. If you’re well under the innings cap (if your league has that), start streaming these guys and gain precious rotisserie points. Remember, the key stat is not total strikeouts, but the pitcher’s K/9 percentage.

Some examples of this:
Ervin Santana, Drew Hutchison, Jose Quintana, Jake Odorizzi, Justin Verlander (yes, his peripherals are now a mess), Ian Kennedy

4) Base Stealers

Since Major League Baseball has actually done a pretty good job of cleaning up the steroid problem, power numbers are down considerably. What do we take from that as fantasy players? If you’re paying top dollar for a player, it should be a power hitter. Go ahead and shell out that $45 for Giancarlo Stanton, or $33 for Jose Bautista. You’re not getting a player like that later on for pennies, so you need to pay. Base stealers, however, are a dime a dozen. I strongly discourage you from paying somewhat of a premium for Billy Hamilton or Dee Gordon when you can get Ben Revere, Rajai Davis, or Jarrod Dyson for a buck. Compare Hamilton and Revere’s 2014 stats. They are really not so different, and will contribute the exact same thing to your team. The difference is this – waiting for Revere gives you an extra $15 to outbid someone else for a first-round caliber power threat.

Some cheap base stealers:
Ben Revere, Rajai Davis, Jarrod Dyson, Alcides Escobar, Denard Span, Leonys Martin, Billy Burns (if he makes the major league roster)

5) Setup guys with good peripherals

The reason behind this is two-fold. One, they are there to stabilize your ratios. Dellin Betances was not only rosterable all season last year, but he was a top 40 pitcher in fantasy. Two, you are hoping they wind up bringing their strong peripherals with them to the closer role eventually, so you should be looking extra at teams with tenuous closer situations. A perfect example of this last year happened in Baltimore. We all scratched our heads when Tommy Hunter was named the Orioles’ closer, but begrudgingly drafted him anyway. Hopefully you saw the writing on the wall and stashed away Zach Britton. If you did, you paid for a 1.65 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. You also got a bonus of 37 saves for being proactive. not a bad way to spend a dollar.

Potential relevant RPs:
Andrew Miller/Dellin Betances (whoever winds up closing, the other should be taken as well), Tyler Clippard, Tony Watson, Ken Giles, Adam Ottavino

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You can follow Jamie on Twitter @jac3600 and read more of his fantasy baseball and DFS articles here at Fantasy Team Advice.

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