NFL Tickets
Fantasy Baseball Auction drafts are becoming more popular every year. They require a much deeper strategy in order to win, as you can’t simply just pick a player when your turn comes up like in typical drafts. In an auction draft each team is given a specific budget, and can use as much as their cash on one player as they want, so long as they have the minimum amount left to fill out their roster. Here are some tips to give you an advantage come draft day.
Rule #1 – When it’s your turn to select a player, don’t pick someone you want. Huh? Why wouldn’t you select someone you want? Early on in the draft, a lot of people are willing to spend a lot of money. Most people will throw out the big names like Albert Pujols or Jose Bautista. But what if you throw someone out like a Mark Teixeira? He’ll likely get overpaid in the beginning, compared to people who would provide similar value later in the draft. So this helps you in two ways. It limits your opponents budget for later in the game (by overpaying for a lower tier 1B) and it gives you a better chance of drafting the player you really want later on, when there will be less competition. Likely giving you a chance at earning a better value, which is the name of the game.
Rule #2 – Be unpredictable. Whether or not you like a player, make sure to bid on everyone. This will make it harder for your opponents to know which player you like. It’s just like in poker – if you always raise when you have a hand, people will fold because you’re being too predictable. In an auction draft, the opposite will happen. If everybody knows you only bid when you want a player, they’ll just raise to make it more expensive for you. Plus, by bidding on every player there’s a chance to make someone else pay more than they would have otherwise.
Be responsible with your bids – once other people drop out of the bidding war, you should too, or else you’ll get stuck with the player. So don’t up the bids higher than you’re willing to live with if you get stuck with someone.
Rule #3 – Take advantage of your league settings. This is important in any draft, but especially in an auction draft. If your league uses BA instead of OBP, players like Nick Swisher who post low batting averages but high OBP become significantly more valuable. If you have a LF/CF/RF spot instead of 3 outfield spots, than position eligibility becomes extremely important.
Rule #4 – Keep an eye on what positions other teams have filled. If most of the second basemen are gone, you can finally call out that two-bagger you’ve been waiting for, since nobody else will have a spot for him. This applies more to sleepers and bounce back candidates. However if half the teams have second base filled you can get a pretty good bargain at this point.
Rule #5 – Save your money. Obviously if there’s a player you want, or you see a value be aggressive. But the team with the biggest budget in the second half can dominant a Fantasy Auction Draft. Which team is better, the guy who spent most of his budget on Albert Pujols and is forced to round out his roster on cheap guys like Vernon Wells, or the guy who doesn’t have a superstar, but has an above average guy at each spot? Obviously, the second team will dominate the league. That’s not to say it’s bad to draft a superstar, but make sure you can still round out your team if you spend big on a few players.
If you follow these rules, you should dominate your league’s Fantasy Auction Draft.
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