Help with 1st Auction Draft...WHIR!

[jonance]

Hi,

I have played fantasy for about 5 years and am trying out my first auction league. It is a 12 team H2H 6x6 (OPS/HLD) league on Yahoo! We each have a $300 salary cap...and after the draft we can sign them to a 1 year or multiyear contract. Below is the amount of players we can sign to each contract length followed by the players up for auction in the 1st round. I would really appreciate if someone would give me some advice as to strategy going into the auction. I could really use an idea of what good values on each of these guys would be with the $300 cap, plus just overall stategy on balancing superstars with big contracts vs. lower end guys. I don't want to overspend in the 1st round and wind up with nobodys. Thanks in advance!

5 years - 3
4 years - 4
3 years - 5
2 years - 6
1 year - Unlimited


Francisco Rodriguez
Matt Holliday
Albert Pujols
Johan Santana
Alex Rodriguez
Hanley Ramirez
Chase Utley
Brian McCann

[San D]

One needs to know how many players are active in the starting lineup as far as hitters and pitchers. Also need to know the setup (number of catchers, MI/CI, utility, SP's, RP's, etc.). There was a mock auction (has its separate forum) earlier where a lot of the stud players were brought up early in the bidding, and their prices were inflated. There were more teams (16 v 12) but less money ($260 v 300) so the prices of the auction versus your league would be somewhat similar. The starting lineup was 14 hitters and 9 pitchers, so you'd have to mentally adjust prices depending on your league's starting lineup number.

Hanley, if my memory is correct, was $45. He was brought up early so he probably really should go for around $40. Other early first rounders (Reyes, Pujols, A-Rod) went for around 40-42 early in the bidding, so they would probably be worth in the late $30's.

I can't remember anything else. It was a blur.

[GiantsFan14]

i wouldn't be suprised to see arod, pujols, hanley and santana go around the upper $40s to low $50s. i'd expect holliday to go upper $30s, mccann and k-rod to go mid $20s, and utley to go around the low $30s. it depends how big the rosters are but 12 teamers are relatively shallow and i'd be willing to spend some money on the big guys and there will still be some solid $1 players to fill out your roster at the end of the draft. depending on how utley's price ends up, he might be a good guy to target and then sign to a long contract as this could be your chance to get him at a discount.

[fast dogs]

most of the auctions I've been in, there ARE NO VALUE PICKS the first hour of the auction. Almost all the stars go for more than they should, you hate to overbid but you also don't want to be be left totally without any of the top players either. Then things settle down in hours 2 & 3. Then there will be terrific values to be had in the last few hours of the auction, but the quality of players available isn't nearly as good either.It is very difficult to go in with a specific game plan in an auction because each 1 is different

[ayebatter]

12 teams h2h 6x6 CI/MI 3OF 9P $300 2009 values only

Francisco Rodriguez -17
Matt Holliday - 27
Albert Pujols - 42
Johan Santana - 39
Alex Rodriguez - 29
Hanley Ramirez - 36
Chase Utley - 15
Brian McCann - 18

edit: try not to pay more than 80% of value for your roster, or you'll end up in the middle of the pack, so you'll need to have $380 worth of players for your $300 to have a chance to win, although in h2h you could just squeak into a playoff spot and get lucky enough to win with $250 worth of players.