Auction Strategy?

[colonnaj94]

Hey guys, so I have not done an auction league in quite some time. I was just wondering what % of my budget should I spend on each position? And, if you have any more tips for auction leagues, that would also be greatly appreciated.

10 Teams.
1QB 2RB 3WR 1TE 1FLEX
$250 Budget.

Slow draft on MFL. First time using MFL for a draft.

[skip]

I was just wondering what % of my budget should I spend on each position?

Not a strategy I would ever employ just like not deciding which positions to target in which rounds of a draft... Drafts are and should always be fluid. I've never done an online auction - only in person - so I really don't know what to suggest otherwise as I don't know the overall format of the auction.

[clarion contrarion]

agree w/ skip I never have a plan ( yikes the overthinkers will stroke out). You must be flexible and be willing to change course on a dime if needed. I do like to hold some $ in reserve until the end of the auction and scoop up players that are equal to guys that went earlier for 4 or 5 or even 10 times as much $. Players always slip through the cracks down to the $1 stage of the auction and with a little extra you can scoop up some terrific depth to use for trade bait or guard against injuries.

[clarion contrarion]

just noticed this a slow draft ...(YAWN) saving $ likely will not work as well with that format .

[bruiser]

Piling on here: I don't recommend setting a budget for positions or starters/bench. In your format, there is $2500 in available funds. See the link in my sig '12tm player values' for a format where there's $2400 in available funds. It's not apples to apples, but it gives you a general idea

[Novacane]

There was a really good 3 part series on auction draft strategy about a month or two ago. Im sure you can find it on the home page.

You definately need to set a budget and the article goes into strategies of setting the budget. One of the things that I remember is that it is more precise if you budget WR1, WR2, WR3, etc instead of just a budget for the WR position. You can have a budget and still be fluid. You just need to adjust your budget as you over/under spend on each position.

[bruiser]

Never over spend. That's what you want your leaguemates to do.

As to spending all your cash on starters, I would never recommend that in a deep format.... BUT, this is a 10tm format. I would probably recommend that here.

[Tsunami]

You don't say if this is a contract league, a dynasty with an auction draft, or a redraft, or what so it is hard to give you strategy advice. I will say a couple things: every auction draft I have done recently the QBs go for much higher than other players at a similar ADP. I don't know why but I think it's just that smart fantasy players have learned to wait on a QB in a pick draft but the hype still gets the best of them in an auction. Matt Ryan might go in the last rounds if you were doing a draft but he'll go for $10 in an auction just because. You can use this to your advantage by nominating QBs, or you can budget accordingly, but this is what I've found in my leagues.

Also, in a 10 team league having studs and irreplaceable points is very important, which means buy Gronk. There are at least 15 good QBs and there are a ton of WRs out there... so don't spend on a name just because they are good, you want to spend on the absolute best and fill in the rest cheaply (at least in a win-now situation). In a redraft I wouldn't be afraid to spend 2/3rds of my budget on just Antonio Brown and Gronk. In fact, in one contract league I spent almost half my budget on just Brown this year.

[rock-hammerson]

just noticed this a slow draft ...(YAWN) saving $ likely will not work as well with that format .

It doesn't work well at all lol

[Phaded]

Know the players you want and put them into tiers.

Go from there.

[jr00027]

Various strategies and paths you can go down with Auctions.

You can try to game the system as much as you want with nomination strategies and bidding up your oppositions- but the bottom line is that auctions give you the ability to go and get the guys you like- so do that. Pick out where you value players/positions in the draft, and go after the most important ones.

Recently, I went into a superflex draft ($200, 0.5 PPR, 12 team, 15 roster spots) with the following strategy:
- get two young stud WRs (one of Evans, Cooper, Robinson - I figured that OBJ and Nuk would be out of my price range if I was getting two)
- get four QBs (at least one of Mariota/Winston)
- get some other serviceable players where value arises
- nominate top RBs as much as possible (Gurley, Zeke, David Johnson, Lacy, Leveon)
- hold out the rest of my cash for value at the end of the auction, particularly at RB positions

Results went as close to plan as I've ever experienced:
- got Cooper and Evans for cumulative $100 ($52 and $48 respectively)
- got Winston for $42, Palmer for $13, ASmith for $6 and Cutler for $6
- ended up with the following RBs for less than cumulative $20 - Melvin Gordon, Dion Lewis, Karlos Williams, Latavius Murray, Tevin Coleman
- no bench players over $1
- team in Sig 3. (the remaining 15 players on rosters were drafted via email snake)

Some things that happened in the draft:
People were gun-shy at the start, leading to some great value pickups
People held their money for the top players, meaning that they didn't bid as high on guys like Evans and Cooper
People undervalued QBs and overvalued RBs for our format - IMO

[colonnaj94]

Thanks for the responses. So I kind of over paid for 2 elite WRs, I paid $76+ for Hopkins, and $62 for Robinson. Now I guess I will sit back and wait awhile..Right?

[bonscott]

I agree. If you still have $110 or so left, I'd look to get another top shelf WR if you can, say the $40-$50 range. BUT don't overpay too much just to get one. I'd not spend much of anything on QB or TE, maybe a bit of something on RB but look for under the radar/cheap but high upside guys.

[rock-hammerson]

I spent my wad early, but it's a rush yards are worth double league. Got cam, gurley, bell, charles, rawls and demarco. Cobb us my only wr and I'm about out of cash!