Yesterday I walked through my overarching snake draft strategy. Now let’s dig into auction drafts.
Unlike snake drafts, where—barring in-draft trading—we make only one decision per round, every player is on the table during auctions. Want to grab the #1 QB and #1 RB? You can do that, and still have enough leftover funds to land one or two near-elite guys and a bunch of cheap bargains. Want to go for broke by drafting Todd Gurley, Antonio Brown, and Julio Jones? You might have only $30 remaining to fill out your 14-player roster, but in many leagues that strategy could work . . . as long as you’re willing to overpay for that third elite player, because you know at least one opponent will try to keep you from potential dominance.
So in a system where just about anything is possible, a fantasy manager needs to prepare for anything. Auction draft research is even more intense than snake draft research. Each player should be valued compared to every other player, using whatever dimensions your league’s using (for example, $200 budget, 12 teams, 14 players per team, standard scoring, 2 RB / 2 WR / 1 Flex, etc.). This is essential: Don’t be overly influenced by expert player values based on 10-team, 1-QB leagues if you play in a 12-team, 2-QB league; you might end up overpaying or underpaying for guys based on skewed research.
I love mock drafting to get a feel for how “the market” is evaluating talent. This approach is even more important in auction drafts, so you can determine precisely what people are willing to pay for guys. So mock draft yourself to exhaustion. If you’re really hardcore, pick 20-30 guys you’re most interested in and track on a spreadsheet how much they go for in each mock draft. The point of early mocks is not to get the best team; it’s to gather intel. The final mocks you do apply everything you’ve learned, so you can practice getting the right guys at the right prices.
And who are “the right guys”? From those 20-30 guys you’ve targeted in mocks, 4-8 might be incredibly undervalued and another 3-6 could be bargains in the right environments (for example, if they’re still sitting on the board near the end of the draft). By doing all those mocks, you’re learning that since the market won’t pay more than $5 for QB “Joe Smith,” and since you believe he’s worth $8-$10, there’s a sweet spot to capitalize on. Find those gaps in enough players, and you can start targeting steals in the real event to round out an otherwise fearsome roster. Make sure you have several bargains at each position in your back pocket, so you can operate from a place of strength (rather than feel desperate to bid on a middling QB just because you need a QB).
One concept that you won’t hear about much, but which has served me well in early-to-mid rounds, is that when it’s your turn to introduce a new player to bid on, bid $1 on the best remaining on the board WHO YOU DON’T WANT. It makes little sense to start the bidding on Aaron Rodgers if you’ve identified Rodgers as a primary QB target. Let your targets remain under the radar while opponents’ coffers dwindle with each selection. If six of your eight biggest bargains remain near the end of the draft, when most opponents barely have enough money for one or two more players, that’s the time to introduce your guys and get ‘em on the cheap.
So to summarize, my four basic principles for auction drafting entail league-specific valuations, tons of mock drafting, identifying bargains—elite, near-elite, middling, or anyone else who might provide value—at each position, and opening bids on high-priced players you don’t want. While not guaranteed to win a championship, when executed effectively this approach pretty much guarantees a “I just kicked ass in that draft” tranquility.
Unlike snake drafts, where—barring in-draft trading—we make only one decision per round, every player is on the table during auctions. Want to grab the #1 QB and #1 RB? You can do that, and still have enough leftover funds to land one or two near-elite guys and a bunch of cheap bargains. Want to go for broke by drafting Todd Gurley, Antonio Brown, and Julio Jones? You might have only $30 remaining to fill out your 14-player roster, but in many leagues that strategy could work . . . as long as you’re willing to overpay for that third elite player, because you know at least one opponent will try to keep you from potential dominance.
So in a system where just about anything is possible, a fantasy manager needs to prepare for anything. Auction draft research is even more intense than snake draft research. Each player should be valued compared to every other player, using whatever dimensions your league’s using (for example, $200 budget, 12 teams, 14 players per team, standard scoring, 2 RB / 2 WR / 1 Flex, etc.). This is essential: Don’t be overly influenced by expert player values based on 10-team, 1-QB leagues if you play in a 12-team, 2-QB league; you might end up overpaying or underpaying for guys based on skewed research.
I love mock drafting to get a feel for how “the market” is evaluating talent. This approach is even more important in auction drafts, so you can determine precisely what people are willing to pay for guys. So mock draft yourself to exhaustion. If you’re really hardcore, pick 20-30 guys you’re most interested in and track on a spreadsheet how much they go for in each mock draft. The point of early mocks is not to get the best team; it’s to gather intel. The final mocks you do apply everything you’ve learned, so you can practice getting the right guys at the right prices.
And who are “the right guys”? From those 20-30 guys you’ve targeted in mocks, 4-8 might be incredibly undervalued and another 3-6 could be bargains in the right environments (for example, if they’re still sitting on the board near the end of the draft). By doing all those mocks, you’re learning that since the market won’t pay more than $5 for QB “Joe Smith,” and since you believe he’s worth $8-$10, there’s a sweet spot to capitalize on. Find those gaps in enough players, and you can start targeting steals in the real event to round out an otherwise fearsome roster. Make sure you have several bargains at each position in your back pocket, so you can operate from a place of strength (rather than feel desperate to bid on a middling QB just because you need a QB).
One concept that you won’t hear about much, but which has served me well in early-to-mid rounds, is that when it’s your turn to introduce a new player to bid on, bid $1 on the best remaining on the board WHO YOU DON’T WANT. It makes little sense to start the bidding on Aaron Rodgers if you’ve identified Rodgers as a primary QB target. Let your targets remain under the radar while opponents’ coffers dwindle with each selection. If six of your eight biggest bargains remain near the end of the draft, when most opponents barely have enough money for one or two more players, that’s the time to introduce your guys and get ‘em on the cheap.
So to summarize, my four basic principles for auction drafting entail league-specific valuations, tons of mock drafting, identifying bargains—elite, near-elite, middling, or anyone else who might provide value—at each position, and opening bids on high-priced players you don’t want. While not guaranteed to win a championship, when executed effectively this approach pretty much guarantees a “I just kicked ass in that draft” tranquility.