Evan Tarracciano provides strategy for your auction league draft.
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The most difficult aspect of participating in a fantasy baseball auction draft is acquiring players for the correct price for your team, while simultaneously making the other managers overspend for theirs. Balancing your own budget on the fly is often times difficult enough, let alone trying to influence someone else’s – yet this happens to be the key to having a successful draft. So what are some of the keys to dominating the financial aspect of an auction draft, and how should you apply them? Let’s examine.
Create custom auction values for your draft now 
Come prepared with your own set of auction values, rather than relying upon the providers
Regardless of which provider your league plays on, having your own set of predetermined values is critical to “winning” the draft. No one knows your leagues format and tendencies better than you, so why rely on another set of numbers? The “recommended prices” that different league hosts display is ill-suited to use as a guideline if any changes occur to the league’s rules from the default template. They don’t account if the commissioner has opted to use on-base percentage rather than batting average or if wins is replaced for quality starts. When additional variables such as extended bench slots, a keeper/dynasty format or unique points league settings are implemented, the displayed values become useless.
Factor in managerial tendencies for creating values
If you have participated in the same league for a number of seasons, remember who you are drafting with. Have a manager that you know will overspend for rookies like Kris Bryant? Factor that in when you are creating your values! A large majority of managers in “home”/”friends and family” leagues go for the “stars and scrubs” approach (spending the vast majority of their budget on top-tier talent, while saving a dollar or two for lesser players with upside). If several managers opt to use this strategy at once, you can be assured that the top 10-15 percent of the talent pool will likely be overbid upon, leaving several players the tier below at a discount. Review your league’s history to see if this strategy was used in the past by other managers, and adjust as needed.
Hometown bias is another factor to account for while creating your own values. Growing up in New England, I could pencil in players like David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Derek Jeter going for more than they should each season. While it is fun and convenient to have players on your fantasy team that happen to coincide with your local favorite, drafting with your heart over your head is a rookie mistake.
Don’t get into a bidding war
I can’t emphasize this point enough. Overspending on players early in the draft is the death of a team’s chances to win. Don’t take this to mean that you can’t be aggressive trying to acquire the top-tier talent, but should the bidding eclipse the price which you previously created for the player by more than a few dollars, don’t bid! Sticking to your set of values is critical to success. There is a reason that you put in all of that work ahead of time, trust your judgment! While spending an extra few dollars on several players in the beginning of the draft may not seem like a big deal at first, it will prohibit you from getting the sleepers at the end, where the draft is really won.
Price Enforcing
The concept of price enforcing is quite simple – if you see a player about to go for less than your perceived value, then bid and make the other managers spend more to acquire them. Yet the implementation of how and when to price enforce is much more difficult. If your team already has a dynamite pitching staff and you see Gerrit Cole about to go to another manager for $5 less than you feel is a good price, should you really price enforce at that point? Probably not. Why, you might ask? Well consider this – if no one else bids an extra dollar after you, was getting Cole a smart decision when you already have a solid staff? Not so much. I tend to only use this strategy when a player is being bid upon in a position of need. This way, I’m comfortable acquiring the player if no one else continues to bid, and can then adjust my budget. Each time that a player is “bid up” increases the risk, so be careful if attempting this.
Nominations
The most overrated piece of advice regarding nominations in an auction format is the idea that you should always toss out the most expensive player available in the hopes of reducing the overall pool of money remaining. Does this work? Sure, for the most part. Especially in the beginning of drafts, players tend to go at or near the provider’s predetermined value. However, one of the best ways to come away with acquiring players at a value is to be random and unpredictable with your nominations. As an example, last year in the RotoExperts’ in-house draft, I nominated a tier-two closer with the fourth overall selection in the draft (Huston Street), and walked away with a large discount. Why? Other managers were expecting me to nominate Andrew McCutchen or Giancarlo Stanton, and weren’t prepared to put a price to Street at the moment. The market for closers wasn’t set yet, let alone for someone who was ranked outside of the top 5 at the position. Therefore, I was able to acquire him at a discount.
One strategy that I’ve implemented with great success is nominating players from a position of strength. As I eluded to earlier with my pitching analogy for price enforcing, if you drafted the majority of your starting pitchers and feel that it is a strength, continue to nominate starting pitchers. It sounds painfully obvious, but too often I see managers nominate a player that they actually need, and end up overspending on him. By throwing out options which you don’t necessarily need to bid on in a position that you have already shored up, you are ensuring that any amount of money spent comes at a benefit to you.
Avoid bidding on the last player in a tier
Year in and out, I continue to see a copious amount of money wasted on players because they happened to be the last one in a tier at their position. Take the shortstop position this year, as an example. Most experts would agree that the top tier consists of Troy Tulowitzki, Ian Desmond, Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez. After that there is a sharp drop-off in expectations to Alexi Ramirez, Elvis Andrus or Alcides Escobar. When three of the top four players are gone, you can rest assured knowing that the fourth will go for more than their projected amount. Managers are afraid of having lesser players on their team and will be reckless to acquire their services, no matter what the cost. Plan accordingly and try to acquire players before this happens. I would recommend selecting several lower tier players that you would be comfortable starting at each position, in the event that this happens. Not every team will have top tier talent at each position and will have a weakness somewhere.
Don’t leave money on the table
This is a cardinal sin in an auction league. You can’t take the money with you, spend it. Plain and simple.
Best of luck in all of your leagues this year!
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Evan is a staff writer and social media director for RotoExperts. You can follow him on Twitter @Roto_Wizard.
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