Calling out players at auction & Targeting players

[BigLebowski]

It all depends on your league. How knowledgable the owners are and their strategy for the draft. If everyone has the strategy to wait then the deals come early, not late.

Last year I as able to snag Sexson for $12 in my NL only league because everyone was waiting for Helton, Thome, and Bagwell.

This is kind of like the thread about what is the best draft strategy. There is no one correct answer. You need to be adaptable to your draft because each one is unique.

[wrveres]

chalk me up as conservative... I always like to shop in the middle of the draft and Steve is right .. you want to have a couple of extra dollars to bully the other owners. Also keep track of who needs what. If you are in the middle of a closer run, and you are set, call out a closer for 1.00 ...anything possible to get the money off the table. Another trick is to call a position you have already filled. If you have 2B or C filled, call out a 2B or a C for 1.00 whenever its your turn. Just make sure they are decent players and will get drafted by somebody else. I always, always, always want my guys to fall in price.. the later the better. If there is a steal on a player going on early, I have the flexabilty to keep the table honest ..

Auctions are just as much about head games as anything else.
Know your Players .
Know your Teamates
Know your Teamates needs .. .you will be fine ...


IMHO, Going after Mauer for 14.00 from the onset of the draft, is just plain silly.

[stevelabny]

Last year I as able to snag Sexson for $12 in my NL only league because everyone was waiting for Helton, Thome, and Bagwell.

This is pretty inexcusable. Even the owners who didnt want Sexson, should have bid him up. AT LEAST to $20.

There is ALWAYS some player who goes for a bargain price. In my draft last year Halladay went for only $24 which was less than a LOT of other lesser pitchers or in my case, pitchers who SHOULD have been cheaper (seeing I had much more money than anyone else, I got bid up to $27 and $31 on kevin brown and priot who I targeted as my aces and by that point there was NO pitching left. Yes, I could have gotten Brown cheaper if I brought him up earlier, BUT in both cases I was screwed by one other owner who was paying attention to what was going on and just didnt let me get away with it. If it wasnt for him, I wouldve gotten them both under $20.)

[stevelabny]

Also keep track of who needs what. If you are in the middle of a closer run, and you are set, call out a closer for 1.00 ...anything possible to get the money off the table. Another trick is to call a position you have already filled. If you have 2B or C filled. call out a 2B or a C for 1.00 whenever its your turn. .

ANYTHING POSSIBLE TO GET THE MONEY OFF THE TABLE.

keyword: ANYTHING

before you draft, take a look at last years draft and the years before. see any players wind up on someones teams every year? see any owner usually drafting from a particular major league team or division? knowledge is power, abuse away.

this gets me EVERY YEAR.
I panic that someone will have me figured out, or that someone will know who I want. But it never gets too bad. I apparently throw enough curves to keep them guessing, and have projections that are different enough that the other owners that I dont get hosed too badly.

But Beltran has yet to be on any other team but mine, and this ISNT a keeper league.
Andruw has also been on my team for years.
Chipper used to be my mainstay.
And I had Soriano his first two years.
Dropping those guys has kept people guessing that maybe I dont really want Beltran this year.

[LBJackal]

My strategy this year was to make a budget for myself on all the players I wanted. I won't go too much in-depth, because the league is made up of Cafe members (DK's league). I have a spreadsheet with my roster and my projected roster. Initially, I had Pujols on there, and I almost had him for about $39, which I was surprised about, but then one guy raised the bid all the way up to $50 and needless to say he won Pujols. Same thing happened with A-Rod.

Using this strategy, I can adjust my budget up or down based on how much I pay for the guys I target. If I find a steal I wasn't anticipating (Vlad for $35 ), I update my projected roster by downgrading who I want to get. I have every last player I want listed, and since my max bid on Webb was about $19, and I got him for $14, I upgraded a few other positions on my projected roster.

It gets kinda technical after that, but you understand what I'm saying:

Set out a budget for who you want to get; if you find a steal, grab him and update your budget; save money for the guys who will go cheaper than they should, not the best players at each position (One guy in the league got Halladay, Pujols, and A-Rod - over 50% of his payroll in 3 players. He also now has Mike Maroth and Mo Vaughn..........seriously); and save money for the end of the draft, when guys go cheaper.

Using that strategy, I was able to get:

C-Jason Phillips
1B-Carlos Delgado
2B-
3B-Mike Lowell
SS-Alex Cintron
OF-Vlad Guerrero
OF-Carlos Beltran
OF-Jody Gerut
UT-Luis Matos
UT-Eric Hinske

SP-Jason Schmidt
SP-Roy Halladay
SP-Brandon Webb
RP-Francisco Cordero
RP-Justin Speier

I need some pitchers and a 2B, but I have the most money of anybody else left, so I think I'm in good shape. I say: use this strategy

[Hbj79]

swarmee - I appreciate what you said about Mauer. I know it seems like alot. It only will work out because of some of my league specific rules. In most cases I would agree with you.

[issyg67]

Fantastic stuff in this thread. I was going to pose a similar auction thread, but some questions have been answered.

I can see in certain situations where you might want to throw the name out of a sleeper you wanted to be sure to get, but the majority of the time it's in your best interest to auction off guys you don't want, or would take at the minimum cost.

For instance, in my league (a 10-team AL only keeper), seven teams are in dire need of starting pitching. The first few rounds, 'm going to be nominating starting pitchers. Take the money off the board, it just puts me in a better position.

Of course, someone is going to nominate the stud hitters (A-Rod, Vlad, Sheffield, etc) and I'll bid on them -- to a point.

Many times, auctions come down to having patience. Can you only buy one or two guys for the first hour while everyone has four, five or six? What if a coupl stud outfields are gone...will you be able to let a third go by if his price gets bid up?

If the other owners can't handle that, then you'll be in good shape, providing you can recognize what's happening.

Obviously, you can't let all the studs go by, but you have to be able to indentify the trends happening in your auction and when is the right time to start gobling up players.

A good way to stay on top of the auction and when it's a good time to buy a certain player or position, is by keeping track of everyone else's team and how much mney they have left. An example, say you're in a 10-team league and seven teams have second baseman. You need a second baseman and see that Bret Boone has yet to be auctioned. You have $67 left and neither of the other teams have more than $30. Now is a good time to put Boone on the block.

You have to pay attention during the auction and be quick at math or have a calculator handy to keep up with that, but it's worth it.

[justinA]

without a doubt, that is the best strategy, esp. if ur targeted players are players u dont really have a bearing on how much they will go for. Say Juan Pierre is in my auction. Steals arent really valued or devalued in my league, so I dont really know how much he will go for, so I would have to stay flexible and maybe pay a little more, but atleast i got him.

Now, if u wait around for him, and dont know exactly how much u are really going to pay for him, you may be spending too much on previous players and then once Juan comes up, he cant fit in your budget.

Just my opinion.

[Sticky Spice]

I know that a 10 team AL only league is pretty much the same ratio as my 20 team mixed league, but I don't think calling out big names you don't want accomplishes much in my league. It's like using a thimble to empty a Big Gulp.

A good example is from 2002. My poor buddy was targeting someone specific at 2b. He told me he was so pleased that this guy he was sitting on kept lasting and lasting - he just knew he was gonna get him for a good price. But when he did finally come up there were still plenty of guys out there who didn't spend when they had the chance and had wayyyy too much money left to spend. Even if they already had a 2b there was always MI or UT. My buddy did not ante up to pay the inflated price. You could see the panic on his face. Not only was he depending on this guy for his 2b, but for steals too. He ended up having to bid Pokey Reese up to $16.

I almost did the same thing last year. I wanted Chipper or Andruw, but when the bidding went to $30 (and sold for $30) I bowed out. The pool had dwindled and I ended up paying $28 for Garret Anderson anyway. I should have just ponied up for one of the Joneses in the first place.

[issyg67]

That's why you have to be able to recognize the right time t buy players in an auction -- even if its not the guy you're targeting.If you can get this guy for less than what you think he's worth and have a feeling that bidding wars over guys at a certain position is going to happen, then you have to do suck it up and do it.