What is it like auction drafting from scratch in a keeper?

[MashinSpuds]

In the NL-Auction keeper league I'm in, top players go fast and pricey early on with some veteran bargains occurring near the end of a draft. Given the state of your team, one idea to build up your team would be to draft like you're not trying to get the best players or even win this year. Spend your money on the rookies, the up-and-coming arms, the closers-in-waiting (or even in-waiting-waiting), and cheaper fill-the-ranks vets. If you hit the lottery on a few or more, those trading chips will likely be more valuable than the pricey vet who someone may or may not want to keep at the price. Given the depth of the teams and the intelligence of the owners, you may have to fight for some of your favorites.

Also, perhaps by drafting young and risky you may get a few overzealous owners who think you're a patsy, thus perhaps opening up a few surprise lopsided trades in your favor. Playing possum, that kind of thing... again, just an idea.

[SecretAgentMan]

In the NL-Auction keeper league I'm in, top players go fast and pricey early on with some veteran bargains occurring near the end of a draft. Given the state of your team, one idea to build up your team would be to draft like you're not trying to get the best players or even win this year. Spend your money on the rookies, the up-and-coming arms, the closers-in-waiting (or even in-waiting-waiting), and cheaper fill-the-ranks vets. If you hit the lottery on a few or more, those trading chips will likely be more valuable than the pricey vet who someone may or may not want to keep at the price. Given the depth of the teams and the intelligence of the owners, you may have to fight for some of your favorites.

Also, perhaps by drafting young and risky you may get a few overzealous owners who think you're a patsy, thus perhaps opening up a few surprise lopsided trades in your favor. Playing possum, that kind of thing... again, just an idea.

I find if you want to rebuild your best bet is to not only go after some rookies which might produce this year but to just look for bargains in general. Then add in one or two first rounders that maybe you pay full price for (like a $50+ MCAB). Depending on your in-season budget rules, you probably can deal them later in the year to a team that wants to win for someone not nearly as good but good nonetheless (say a round 4-5 player) that is cheap. Someone will always want a top player so it is sort of a no lose proposition.

[MashinSpuds]

... Someone will always want a top player so it is sort of a no lose proposition.

This is very true, and there are certain players that are a can't lose option. However, if one already thinks they're at a disadvantage, going for certain top talent may not be advantageous (see last year's Justin Upton and the like). Choose the big names wisely if one goes the lottery ticket/rebuilding route.

[BigLebowski]

In the NL-Auction keeper league I'm in, top players go fast and pricey early on with some veteran bargains occurring near the end of a draft. Given the state of your team, one idea to build up your team would be to draft like you're not trying to get the best players or even win this year. Spend your money on the rookies, the up-and-coming arms, the closers-in-waiting (or even in-waiting-waiting), and cheaper fill-the-ranks vets. If you hit the lottery on a few or more, those trading chips will likely be more valuable than the pricey vet who someone may or may not want to keep at the price. Given the depth of the teams and the intelligence of the owners, you may have to fight for some of your favorites.

Also, perhaps by drafting young and risky you may get a few overzealous owners who think you're a patsy, thus perhaps opening up a few surprise lopsided trades in your favor. Playing possum, that kind of thing... again, just an idea.

With only 3 year contracts I would never go this route. You would have to hit everything perfect for you to ever compete. You would never have time to flip the players and get you the team you want.

17 reserves is insane as has been stated. You will be in constant turnover with that many players. The 3 year contracts will allow a team to rebuild, but if they have a bad draft they will bail as well, and you'll struggle to fill your owner list every year.

I play in an NL only auction league that started in 1986. We have two year contracts, but a third year can be added if they are traded in the first year and half. Keepers #'s are 9-15 based on previous year standings. The rebuild happens every year for a couple of teams, but I feel we have been fortunate in the owner turnover due to the short contracts, but we still have to find an owner every couple of years.

If I was in your league I would start with 5-6 reserves, with the league constitution written that 1-2 reserves will be added every year until you reach your 17. I would actually stop it at 10 max, but that's just me.

[kab21]

Just like any dynasty draft the key is to avoid jumping on the unproven players too early. There will still be a lot of prospects available later. I targeted 25-29 yr old players 4 yrs ago and these players were largely overlooked since they weren't studs and they didn't have sky high potential. One big thing that helped our league (24 tms) is that separate majors/minors drafts were held. Obviously this isn't possible in an auction unless you have separate budgets but I can almost guarantee that you will have a couple of teams that only take prospects and unproven players. It kind of messes up the whole league when a few of the teams take all of the top 50 prospects. Sure, they will be terrible for a long time but part of the fun in a dynasty is to get some of the top prospects.

[Tommy Tucher]

I had a chance a couple years back to get into a league that had a $ value that the keepers had to fall in between. I didn't get into the league but I always thought the set up was good. Each 23 man roster had to keep 8 players that cost each team between $90-$110 of their $260 cap. The guy who ran it said that it kept people from keeping to many young cheap players or dominant stars. They limited contracts to up to 3 years but didn't allow a succession a 1 year deals to happen. So if you signed a guy you weren't sure about to a 1 yr deal and then he broke out, the player had to go back into the FA pool.

[Izenhart]

My personal favorite 'from scratch' auction setup involved every team signing the player to a 1, 2, 3 or 5 year deal when the player is picked. Each team got two (2) year contracts one (3) and one (5). The value of each contract increased by the length in dollars each year, so a $1 player on a 5 year contract costs $6 the second year, $11 the third, etc. and a $8 on a 2 year contract woould cost $10 to keep the following year. Each year every team gets four more long term contracts. We usually had about 4 players kept per team on avg every year, which was nice as it didn't seem like too many or to few, and the sign now and not later concept made the draft and in season trading even more interesting.