Fantasy Baseball : The Auction Draft-Part I : KingFish Tales

The Auction Draft
How to bid in an auction draft!
Written by: Karl Fischer

Part I
Auction drafts can appeal to the gamblers instinct of risk taking and the inherent competitive nature of an owner struggling to come out ahead of the rest league. The auction draft is just a very unique and entertaining method of selecting players for teams involved in Major League Fantasy/Roto leagues. Face to face, real time auction drafts are even more compelling as body language, verbal communications and emotions are at times laid bare for all to see. I, like so many others, enjoy live Auction Drafts immensely but I have noted that there are a great number of folks either new to Fantasy/Rotoball experience or they have had little to no auction bidding experience.

A brief recap of what an auction draft is shows that they are unique and quite unlike rotational drafts. In a traditional rotational draft each owner, in turn names a player they want added to their roster. The rotational selection method is greatly employed in on-line web drafting ala Yahoo, Sand Lot and various other Web setups. The auction draft typically has a fixed amount of funds, toothpicks, dollars or whatever available to each owner used to bid on players they want added to their roster. There is typically a minimal bid amount selected for the auction. One toothpick, one dollar or whatever you use is of no matter. The methods selected for establishing the order of naming players are many but typically you draw straws, select cards, flip a coin or any other agreed upon process to establish in which order the owners name players. The participating owners then proceed to make bids on named players against competitive bids from the other owners. It�s your turn to name a player and make a bid on them. The other owners then have the opportunity to make opposing bids. Once the bidding is over, the player is then awarded to the highest bidder. Sounds pretty simple, huh? Well if it were that easy it would not be a whole lot of fun and it is believe me. Draft day can be the very best day of the year. Better than a birthday, better than Christmas or any other major holiday. How you go about bidding and the results of your bidding has a whole lot to do with just how much fun you can have and just how good of a season your team will have!

The following will hopefully give you some valuable insights to the inner workings of the Auction Draft bidding process. There are numerous ploys, tactics and strategies that I have seen being put to use over the years and I thought you might enjoy them. Here are some of the common ones, some of the unique ones and a few really bizarre ones.

Name who you do not want!
A tactic borne of deception if ever there was one!

This is a very common practice in our league and from what I hear/read about others, it is a wide spread often used, tactic of deception. Typically there are several players that will fit the profile of needs as defined by the bidding owner. These identified players either fills a positional slot or a scoring category needed for the bidding owner. Of course each of the involved owners have their own rankings and preferences when it comes to filling these needs. Typically the bidding owner has these players ranked by their unique perspective as to which player is most valuable to them. If you were allowed to poll all the owners rankings before the draft you might not be too surprised to see a wide variation of what each owner considers to be their preferred/targeted player for any position or scoring category. The tactic of naming a player other than the identified preferred player is one way of getting another owner to fill their needs with a player that the bidding owner is not really interested in. The bonus effect of this tactic kicks in when the player named is bid up and beyond their projected value. Now, not only is there one less owner that needs to fill a particular position or scoring category need which is also needed by the naming owner but they spent to much to do it. The higher than expected cost of this bid decreases the margin between the forecasted values versus actual cost of the bid player. Not a good thing for the owner who gets the bid player. The preferred player that wasn't named is still available for the owner that started the bidding in the first place and there is now less money available at the draft to get him. Hopefully that translates into getting a player the original bidding owner really wanted for less cost than originally projected. This then can increase the preferred players� value to the owner. This is a good thing for the owner using the, �Name who you do not want!� tactic.

Name exactly who you want!
Oh really?

Almost as common as above, this tactic is generally used by the less experienced owner that has narrowly defined their needs down to specific players and is caught up in the excitement of the draft. This is not a good or recommended tactic but it is a common one for new owners to rely on. Usually they want a specific player for a specific purpose at a specific position. The bidding process may give some hint as to whether you are up against an owner that has "Named who he wants" regardless of other factors. If you counter bid and they come right back with a counter of their own, that is equal to or slightly above the smallest increment possible, I would begin to be suspicious. If this goes back and forth several times even with other owners joining in but the naming owner is always going one increment higher then you can be pretty positive that this owner wants this targeted player. How far you are willing to drive him up is your judgment call. Owners at times have hard limits set on how far they are willing to go. If you hit that limit you may end up with a player you did not want in the first place. Not a good thing at all!

There are some very shrewd auction league owners out there that understand this tactic. They can use the knowledge of this tactic to their advantage in very sneaky ways. Really astute Fantasy/Roto owners never limit themselves to a specific targeted player. Typically they have identified a group of players that fill their needs. This grouping versus the naming of a specific player provides owner bid flexibility. Not all are so astute as you might be well aware but there are certainly some devious owners out there.

For instance, a hint or a harmless word dropped casually here and there before or during the draft may lead other owners to believe that this particular owner is focused on getting a specific player. Maybe that is exactly what he wants you to think! Even if the player is named, before this owners� turn comes up to name a player, it can leave some of the other owners with the impression that, �He would have named him if he had only been given the opportunity�. Sad words aren�t they?

Now the bidding starts. The owner that was dropping the hints doesn�t say a word, he acts disinterested and no bid is forthcoming from his tightly sealed lips as he pores over his spreadsheets or stares intently at the glowing monitor in front of him. If the bidding goes back and forth and then finally settles to a seeming final bid everyone is under the impression that this guy has somehow pulled a fast one. The other owners have gone as far in the bidding process as they are willing to go. Just before the bid is awarded, just as the gavel is ready to drop, the hinting owner pops in a last second bid. Most the other owners take a second to recover and then realize what just happened. The hinting owner can now most likely get exactly whom they wanted in the first place for the bare minimum that the league as a whole was willing to pay from the get go. At least in this way the maximum may be less than if the hinting owner had been in the process all along. This can be a dangerous tactic as the bidding may have been substantial and the cost versus value may not be in the hinting owners favor but if he was after that specific guy in the first place, this may be the best opportunity to get him at the lowest cost possible.

So Sayeth the Fish!
Revised 03/2002