Most people play in typical fantasy baseball snake drafts where you take turns selecting a player one pick at a time. However, the original and best way to play is the auction or salary cap draft format. Let’s dive into our fantasy baseball draft primer for auction and salary cap leagues.
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The auction format is the best way to play fantasy because it allows you to build your team any way you want. Want to build a team of a bunch of top-tier players and sleepers? You can do that. Want to have no lower-end players on your roster? You can do that, too. In a snake draft, you can get sniped. In an auction draft, everyone has an equal shot at every player. It is the truest test of fantasy skill.
However, because the format is equal for every player, it makes having a strategy and a set of fantasy baseball auction values that much more important. In this article, I will cover everything you need to know about how to win your auction league.
Before the Draft
There are two types of auction players. The prepared and the unprepared. Don’t be the latter. You should enter your auction with a few things, the first of which is fantasy baseball auction values. Every player has a value of what they are worth to each fantasy manager. Knowing what each player is worth to you will allow you to not overspend on a given player.
Some people enter saying “I am leaving the auction with player X no matter what.” This is a dangerous strategy because they could go for what they are worth or way over what they are worth. Having a set price of what you think a player is worth gives you the ability to maximize the most amount of value for your budget. If your budget is $260 for 23 players, your goal should be to leave the auction with as much value over $260 as possible while building a team that fits well together.
The next most important thing to do before you sit down at the auction is to have a plan of attack. You should know how much of your budget you want to spend on hitting versus pitching. The traditional split is between 65-70% on hitting and the rest on pitching depending on your league format. Some formats dictate you use a different hitter/pitcher split, so check the previous year’s auctions and how they went before you determine your plan. If you have a league that values particular stat categories or positions more or less, you may have to build that into your values.
When you have your hitter/pitcher split figured out, you should determine if you want to build a balanced team or a stars and scrubs team. A stars and scrubs team is when you buy up a bunch of expensive players and then leave yourself with no money and fill out your roster with a bunch of $1 players. This allows you to have the best talent in the league but you then have to hope to get lucky with some breakouts from your cheaper players. This is often better in a shallower format where there is more depth available on the waiver wire.
A balanced approach is the opposite. You tend to miss out on the stars, but you also have very few weak points because the vast majority of your roster is full of $10-$20 players. If you lose a high-priced player in a stars and scrubs approach you could be pretty screwed. With a balanced approach, however, you have the risk spread out among all of your players, which is often better for a deeper mixed league or a mono-league. You can also split the difference by creating a stars and scrubs pitching staff and a balanced offense or vice versa.
During the Draft
Once you have a plan worked out entering the auction, you need to start putting it into action. One of the most important things when you are getting into the actual bidding is to be flexible. You may have planned to do a stars and scrubs approach, but if a lot of people are doing that, it may benefit you to pivot to a balanced approach. The most important thing is to build the most cohesive roster possible while extracting as much value as possible. If the value is in waiting on players because people are overspending early then you need to be patient. If the value is early, then pounce early.
Another place where you can extract value from players or your competition is in your nominating strategy. The most common nomination strategy is to throw out players you don’t want early. This is common because it seems obvious. However, it is not always the best way to set up your team or extract the most value.
For example, let’s say you want one of the top-tier second basemen and you think they are Ketel Marte, Ozzie Albies, Marcus Semien and Jose Altuve. Most people would say, “Hey, I am going to nominate Marte first and soak up other people’s money.” The smarter play may be to nominate Semien or Altuve before Marte because there will be people who don’t bid on them. After all, they are saving their money for Marte.
You should use your nominations not to just take other people’s money out of the pool, but to gain information. Often one of the first types of players I like to throw out is whoever is the hyped-up young guy or the popular sleeper. This allows me to see who has been reading the popular articles and who hasn’t. As the auction goes on, you should be looking to use your nominations to fill other people’s positions.
If you have a sleeper at third base, you may want to nominate players at third base to fill other people’s third base positions to block them from bidding on the player you want. This means you should be tracking what each of your competitors is doing. This is easy to do when you are online, but if you are in a live auction you will need a spreadsheet or paper to track what positions each team has filled and how much money they have left. This helps in the end game when you are looking to grab your sleepers or fill out your roster. I try to keep a little more money than just $1 per player, so I can make sure I get at least a few of the guys I want in the end.
Auctions are the most fun you can have in a fantasy draft because of the strategy involved. They take more time and effort to put together and prepare for, but if you do it right, they are the most rewarding leagues to play in.
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