Auction. tips and stategy?

[TopChuckie]

Unless you have a spot that is open you can't nominate a player that cannot be rostered, for what if no one else bids on the player? It would make the bid null, so it would be poor form to nominate a player that you yourself could not roster.

the league I'm in has extra starting spot with CI.
if one is already set at 1B, CI, and UT, couldn't you still nominate 1B player and worse case you end up with this 1B on your bench. that's not a terrible thing, you can still make a trade before the season.

All leagues are different of course BUT IF all your position spots are filled including UT you can't nominate a player who plays that position..IF you have bench spots then YES you could slide him there...
Our auction just has the 23 player positions that are active w/a secondary snake draft for reserves that takes place after the auction

Exactly. Even if you have bench spots, eventually you WILL run out of roster openings for a particular position and at that point it should be a rule that you cannot nominate a player at that position.

[Niffoc4]

I think this is good for beginner tips, but once everyone knows the strategy of throwing out players they don't like you need to be ready to do something different. Even in auctions people like to bid on good players first, and to wait on players that aren't perceived to be in the same tier. So sometimes I like to throw someone that I like in early because people don't want to buy the #5 outfielder when they can still get 1-4. It won't get you a huge bargain, but it can save you a few bucks.

Also, on the tossing out names for filled spots, it depends on the league.

Another thing to be careful of is bid enforcing. Do not bid a $ value on a player that you don't want to pay. You may think that everyone is going to overvalue player X, but if you're wrong, then you're stuck with him. That's how I ended up paying $25 for Yovani Gallardo in an NL-Only league last year (and $27 for Jason Bay 2 years before).

[TheRock]

Ok, don't nominate players you can't use. Unless you league allows it. Or if you've centered your strategy around it. Or if it's the 2nd Tuesday of the month and the moon is in a waning phase.

[Izenhart]

In auction drafts I like to pick a position (like catcher) and do nothing but nominate C's until I get one for a buck.

If you want to create a scare (and create great trade value for later) 3B is a fun position to horde top players, there seems to be a steep dropoff after about the 10th or 11th player.

[SpecialFNK]

the league I'm in has extra starting spot with CI.
if one is already set at 1B, CI, and UT, couldn't you still nominate 1B player and worse case you end up with this 1B on your bench. that's not a terrible thing, you can still make a trade before the season.

All leagues are different of course BUT IF all your position spots are filled including UT you can't nominate a player who plays that position..IF you have bench spots then YES you could slide him there...
Our auction just has the 23 player positions that are active w/a secondary snake draft for reserves that takes place after the auction

Exactly. Even if you have bench spots, eventually you WILL run out of roster openings for a particular position and at that point it should be a rule that you cannot nominate a player at that position.

I don't know if I'm missing something.
these are the roster spots we use in the league I'm in.
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, OF, OF, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL
that's 7 bench spots.
if I happen to already have players for 1B, CI, Util, why would I not be able to nominate a 1B only player? like I SHOULDN'T nominate a 1B player? or I actually CAN'T?
from what I understand when nominating you start with $1 bid. after that I could just not bid anymore, and let everyone else bid. worst case no one else bids and I have an extra 1B player for $1.

[Niffoc4]

All leagues are different of course BUT IF all your position spots are filled including UT you can't nominate a player who plays that position..IF you have bench spots then YES you could slide him there...
Our auction just has the 23 player positions that are active w/a secondary snake draft for reserves that takes place after the auction

Exactly. Even if you have bench spots, eventually you WILL run out of roster openings for a particular position and at that point it should be a rule that you cannot nominate a player at that position.

I don't know if I'm missing something.
these are the roster spots we use in the league I'm in.
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, OF, OF, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL
that's 7 bench spots.
if I happen to already have players for 1B, CI, Util, why would I not be able to nominate a 1B only player? like I SHOULDN'T nominate a 1B player? or I actually CAN'T?
from what I understand when nominating you start with $1 bid. after that I could just not bid anymore, and let everyone else bid. worst case no one else bids and I have an extra 1B player for $1.

For YOUR league you're not missing anything. However, as someone explained earlier, in many auction leagues the bench is actually selected using a draft AFTER the auction. So during the auction you can only bid if you still have a starting roster spot. Now let's move on.

[OBPlover]

If you think you can sniff out good bargains "Stars and Scrubs" is your best strategy. Or if your league doesn't have many players and has a lot of transactions allowed. "stars and scrubs" means you spend the bulk of your money on a handful of "superstars" and then fill out the rest with bargains, hoping as the season progresses, some unpicked players shine and you pick them up and let your superstars carry the team.

If you are newer to auction/fantasy, my advice is to take a more balanced approach. Nominate the most expensive players first - Trout, Braun, Cano etc. Then save your money. DIscipline yourself. Once you get to the middle rounds, you can get a lot of good, undervalued players in the $10-$25 range.

If the league is "deep" (many team or one league only), then you almost cewrtainly want to take the latter approach as running out of warm bodies can be deadly.

Last year, I was in 2 auction leagues. In the first league, my strategy was to spend good money on scarcer positions. I bought Longoria, Tulowitzki and Michael Young (ugh). I would have been dead but I got lucky and picked up Chase Headley and Jed Lowrie and Kris medlen.

In the second league, It was 11 team, NL only and I implemented a $25 spending cap and joined the league an hour late because I slept in on the Sunday Morning the auction was held. I got a ton of good bargains and was winning the league all year until the last week of the season when my pitching fell apart.

[J35J]

Every time I'm in an auction or watch an auction it seems you always kick yourself for spending too much too early. There are almost always bargains to be had in the $10-20 range as has been mentioned already. If you get just 1 or maybe 2 top guys, hold off for a few rounds and start grabbing the bargains that will almost assuredly show up...it's not rare at all to see guys start going for half the price they would have if they were nominated in the first couple rounds.

[xbakkesasx]

How would you say a keeper league would change the auction values?

I have done auction drafts before, but never for a keeper league. It is a 12 team AL only league with 15 keepers. I have a feeling that people will overpay big time for young talent so I feel like avoiding overpaying for players would be the best approach. However, I am worried that because it is an AL only league I will be left with tons of money and not enough players worth keeping.

Does anyone know a good place to find auction values for a keeper league? All the values I have found so far are for standard redraft leagues.


Thanks for the help!

[Quackman]

surprising to read some of the opinions here. saving your money is so oh um. Not a great strat. You cant find trout/braun/miggy talent 2 rounds later. Once they are gone they are gone forever. When i see people save their money i think omg let me play with this guy every league.