This Ain't Your Grandpappy's Auction League

Over the weekend, I participated in my first Fantasy Baseball Auction League. Auction leagues are based on a bidding format where each owner has a cap of $260 to spend on players. If you are unfamiliar with this format, you can read the rules, per ESPN. As one can imagine, this type of draft necessitates a different kind of strategy than normal "snake rotation" drafts and it eliminates the advantages of picking early.

This was a 10-team, standard scoring (mixed 5x5 + OPS and Quality Starts), standard lineup settings (+ one extra OF and one IF position), and 24 roster spots. Here is how my team looked along with some draft recap analysis:

Pick 13: Alfonso Soriano, ChC OF / $32
Analysis: Soriano was one of the few "elite" outfielders I targeted in the auction. I was hoping he'd be selected much later as draft value tends to trend downward the further along an auction goes. Generally speaking, the first 25 or so picks are pretty frenzied with owners trying to "get in on the action" and nail down a top player. It is also high time for players to get overvalued. I told myself to remain calm and stay disciplined. However, I knew I had to get Soriano when his name came up. This is based solely on my belief that he will have a stand out year batting lead off for the Cubbies, coming off of what many considered a down year for him last season.**

Average Winning Bid for Picks 1-10 was $37.70.

Pick 31: Dan Haren, Ari SP / $23
Analysis: A LOT of big names came off the board in between my picks (Tex, Sabathia, Peavy, Beltran...). But like I said, my strategy was to stay disciplined until I saw something undervalued. At $23, Haren was a steal compared to Sabathia and Webb at $31.

Average Winning Bid for Picks 11-30 was $27.45. (The outlier was Brandon Morrow at $8 in this tier. Otherwise, the winning bid avg. would have been $28.6).

Pick 49: Evan Longoria, TB 3B / $25
Analysis: Another pick I was pretty satisfied with when you consider how shallow 3B is playing this year. Longo will certainly put up top 20 numbers this year (and top 3 at his position). Having let so many big boppers slip, I knew I needed someone solid at 3B before the well ran dry.

Average Winning Bid for Picks 31-50 was $20.15. (More outliers in this tier which skewed the numbers but you start to see the trend. As teams begin to see dollars fly out of their purse, the bidding wars slowed down and players were holding at right around $20 per player.)

Pick 55: Brian McCann, Atl C / $17
Pick 59: Chad Billingsley, LAD SP / $17
Analysis: Here is where I jumped into the action a bit more. McCann, while a stud, was a bit of a homer pick for me. However, I generally don't want to spend top dollars on a catcher considering how volatile their position is. I could have waited for a Napoli or Shoppach later on for under $10. But hopefully McCann will give me 25 HRs and I'll sleep well knowing I took the best catcher. Chad Billingsley is a player I've targeted in nearly every draft I've participated in. To say that I'm high on the youngster is an understatement. The great thing about auction leagues is that I didn't have to "reach" for him. He kinda came to me. Typically in a snake format, I'd have to grab him in the 4th, 5th or 6th rounds, which is much earlier than I'd like for my rotation Ace-2. But my choices in this tier were Francisco Liriano at $20 or Billingsley at $17 and I'll take Chad everytime at that price.

Average Winning Bid for Picks 51-70 was $16.55. (Starting to see some great value here as people are taking their foot off the pedal. These are the tiers where a wise owner can make a killing off good value buys.)

Pick 76: Chipper Jones, Atl 3B/IF / $15
Pick 80: Kevin Slowey, Min SP / $13
Analysis: Larry Jones at $15? I'll take me some o' dat. There is no denying his production when he's actually on the field. He'll occupy my extra IF spot and rotate with Longoria at 3B. Someone in the league questioned my pick of Slowey for $13 which kind of left me perplexed. If you can't understand why he is a good buy when he will give you 15 wins, respectable peripheral stats like Ks and a good WHIP for a third of the price of Santana and Sabathia, I'm not really sure what to tell you.

Average Winning Bid for Picks 71-100 was $11.56. (I'll stop the winning bid averages at this tier since they begin to tumble under $10. But again, you see the trend... guys like Jonathan Broxton, Russell Martin, Adrian Gonzalez and Alexei Ramirez going for around $10-13. Those, my friends, are steals. Players like these will give you a chance to win and not break the perverbial bank.)

Pick 82: Jay Bruce, Cin OF / $10
Pick 86: Magglio Ordonez, Det OF / $11
Pick 97: Alexei Ramirez, CWS 2B/SS / $11
Analysis: I needed to start rounding out my starting lineup here. I wasn't completely thrilled with Bruce, largely because I think his star has fallen a little (but maybe a good buy-low candidate?). There are some positives, namely, he will hit in the middle of the Cincy lineup and he'll have his opportunities to knock in a few runs, I'm sure. I was very pleased with Mags and Ramirez at $11 this late. I think people shied away from Ordonez cause they are afraid he'll break down at some point. I watched a lot of the WBC and he was absolutely raking for Venezuela. Faith, folks. Alexei, on the other hand, has gotten off to a slow start. He's also batting 7th in Guillen's lineup... ugh. I can't imagine he'll be there all year. A possible 20+ HR out of my 2B? Yummmmm.

Pick 107: Corey Hart, Mil OF / $13
Pick 115: Rafael Furcal, LAD SS / $11
Pick 126: Joey Votto, Cin 1B / $9
Analysis: Yahtzeeeee! I made out like a bandit with these picks. I overpayed for Corey, slightly, but he basically solidifies my OF in case some ailment does befall Magglio. Hart also had 7 dingers this spring... so underrated, but I guess $13 was about right for his services. Raffy is not the same burner he once was but he's leading off for a loaded lineup. Can we say 110 runs? That'd mean I just paid $0.10 per run scored. Thank you very much! Votto has been crushing this spring and the hype around him is for real. He will hit 30 bombs this year and he's my starting first basemen for under $10. Teixeira and Howard both fetched $30 a piece. No thanks.

Pick 131: Josh Johnson, Fla SP / $8
Pick 147: Heath Bell, SD RP / $4
Pick 151: Rickie Weeks, Mil 2B / $3
Pick 156: Vernon Wells, Tor OF / $4
Pick 163: Brad Ziegler, Oak RP / $3
Pick 170: John Danks, CWS SP / $1
Pick 171: Chris Carpenter, StL SP / $3
Pick 179: Chad Qualls, Ari RP / $3
Analysis: This set of picks pretty much rounds out my closers. I'd later pick up Mike Gonzalez as well (since you can start 4 RPs), but I basically got my 120 saves for a total of $10. Some folks spent more than $10 on a single reliever. Relievers are probably the most volatile position in baseball. Why on earth anyone overpays for a single counting stat is beyond me. But hey, I got my values late with Qualls, Bell and Ziegler (and Gonzalez). Other notables from this list are Wells and Weeks. Who knows how they will play this year but they are extra bullets at this point. If they don't pan out, oh well, I lost out on $7. I went with them because they have unbelievable upside. But if they flame out, I'll dump them and not even think twice.

Pick 181: Mike Gonzalez, Atl RP / $2
Pick 188: Milton Bradley, ChC OF / $3
Analysis: At this point in the draft, everyone was pretty much broke or had finished drafting their requisite 24. I had my pick of arms or bats. I scoured the draft data and couldn't understand why people had passed on Milton Bradley. The guy had a .969 OPS last year. I guess people think high OPS%'s grow on trees. He's a professional hitter and at the end of the day, I could care less what kinda head case he is if he can put up numbers like that.

..::..

Phew... that was a mouthful. I loved everything about the auction draft. It introduces a whole new set of variables that snake drafts just do not have. There is a great deal more thinking and anticipating involved. I won't go quite as far as saying it is better, but I'm more than intrigued and will definitely vouch for it.

My advice to auction newcomers is mainly to stay disciplined and not go bid crazy early on. The money you over pay at the beginning will severely hamstring your ability to buy complimentary pieces later on. I had a lot of financial manueverability utilizing this strategy and at no point did I feel as if I "missed out" on a player because I didn't have the money.