Auction Draft Advice
This weekend, I have 2 drafts coming up. One particular draft is a roto auction league. Looking to practice my auction skills, I joined a Yahoo public league. This league gave me a chance to experiment with a draft strategy I had been formulating over the Spring. Before I go into specifics, I will show the team I ended up with.
For Reference here were the players Values: J.T Realmuto $3, Stephen Piscotty $6, Matt Carpenter $22, Maikel Franco $21, Jung Ho Kang $3, Chris Davis $29, David Peralta $6, Delino DeShields $2, Jose Abreu $34, and David Ortiz $18. Total: $142
One thing you may notice with this lineup is the abundance of first basemen eligible players. I went into that draft to try and cause an artificial shortage at first base. It also seemed like some of these guys were undervalued. For example, Anthony Rizzo went for $45. I made the decision early not to bid on him, as Jose Abreu for $11 less is a much better value. Jung Ho Kang was a steal at $3 in the latter half of the draft. The only weakness of this team is speed, Deshields should help somewhat, but that is one category this lineup is likely to lose.
For Reference here were the player values: Jake Arrieta $33, Carlos Carrasco $20, Zach Britton $8, Delin Betances $3, Francisco Rodriguez $3, Arodys Vizcaino $3, Hunter Strickland $3, Andrew Miller $3, Luis Severino $9, Jake Odorizzi $3, Matt Moore $3, Marcus Stroman $10, and Justin Verlander $2. Total: $103
One thing you will notice is the abundance of non-closer relievers. While Miller will be the closer until Chapman is back, he is certain to lose his job in May. When I participate in auction drafts, I love to grab the Miller/Betances combo. This combo gives me a Sub 2 era, 200k+ pitcher for a combined $6. Thestaff is pretty well rounded when it comes to starting pitchers. One team did go pitcher heavy during the draft, but I would say this team has a top five staff in this particular league. What was interesting was I did not go in planning to bid on Arrieta. Two picks before Arrieta was nominated, Addison Russell was. There was a bidding war between two teams that drove his price up to $25, (for reference Corey Seager went for $21.) This lead me to believe there were two Cubs fans drafting. I nominated Arrieta expecting him to go for a massive amount, but neither team seemed interested in bidding high on Arrieta, which was puzzling. Regardless, Arrieta might be a little expensive at $33, but by no means a massive overpay.
Adding up my total spending, you will notice I left $15 on the table. This is supposedly the cardinal sin of auction drafts. You never want to leave money on the table, and granted I could have been a little more aggressive early. My thought process however, was that I wanted to be able to get every single player I desired in the latter half of the draft. If you notice, There is zero $1 players on the team. At the latter end of the draft, I had the money to overbid every other team. This allowed me to grab my reliever combo, Verlander, Moore, and every other $3 player on my team. This team doesn’t necessarily have the star power of other teams, but I can say with confidence it is the most well rounded team coming out of the draft.
