Auction Values

[Bigtraine 24]

The league I have run for many years is going to try out an auction draft instead of a snake draft this year. Nobody in the league has done one before so as commissioner I wanted to provide a "generic" list of auction values so some knucklehead doesn't spend $150 on one player. The best I have found is ESPN's values, although they are not published that I can find I just wrote them all down over the course of a couple of mock drafts. Anything better out there?

 

1. Do any one you auction players have recommended sites and/or auction rankings that are pretty good? Seems like auction drafts are getting more popular but I can't find alot of content compared to snake drafts for it.

 

2. More importantly, how do you guys get to your auction values? Is it general gut feeling? Do you take your rankings and just kind of go down them and put descending dollars? Do you break it out by tiers, or maybe VBD?

 

I have projections for all my players and VBD numbers, but my values still feel kind of arbitrary. If I think CJ and AP are going to outscore every other back by 30 pts, how much do I spend on them compared to MJD or Rice? And then how about down to the next tier?

 

I am very interested in the processes you auction drafters use to come up with your lists. TIA.

[0021 0]

I'm in the same boat...first year switching to an auction. After a bit of searching, I found printable auction values at fantasysports.yahoo.com. I'm using them for a loose guide.

 

Also, I've done mock auctions before, but doing one now w/ a real auction upcoming was very useful.

 

good luck

[Dr Hook 6]

I have been doing auctions for years and it comes down to gut combined with preperation. Most Auctions have a $200 cap and you need to save $1.00 for every position left. If you roster consists of 18 players you have already spent $18.00 because you must fill out a full roster in most/every case. The best part about an auction league is that if you like someone you can have that player. Simple as that. This makes it a gut reaction. How well do you like CJ or ADP? I always do a breakdown preparing to spend a certain amount on QB's say 10% RB's 50% WR's 30% etc. You MUST know your scoring prior to figuring out how much to spend on each position. 6 pt for ALL td's and you need to spend more on a good QB etc. I have been doing a mock auction draft daily this year and found that the costs are not the same as my live drafts.

 

Good Luck and Never look back.

[Bigtraine 24]

Thanks guys. I have done a ton of mocks this year to try and prepare and I always wonder how accurate they are. I have been doing them on ESPN and it seems people always drop so we get the ESPN Bots, which is OK but it skews everything towards their values.

[Mike MacGregor 20]

The Cheatsheet Compiler calculates auction values which I think are a good guide heading into your auction draft.

 

In terms of providing something to all other people in your league, what you could do is run the Compiler with your auction settings based on just the 2009 stats instead of 2010 projections. That will create a cheatsheet you can print off and hand to everyone in the league without giving away the players you are high or low on via FF Today's help.

 

Just an idea. Dancing banana for my son sitting here with me...

[huskerinct 1]

FFtoolbox has values. But, they are kinda low. You can go to the espn mocks, and view the completed mocks, and it lists the average $$ amount that players have gone for in the mocks.

Welcome to the wonderful world of a better way to put together a team. Say good bye to snake drafts forever.

[AnaheimRams 28]

Been in an auction league for 20 years (damn I'm old). I do my own values. Start with a couple different sources for auction values (the one here is VERY good usually). Set my own values based on projections, my personal biases, gut feelings, past history of my league... etc. Here's the deal though, and this is very important... you need to take the list of players that you project to be taken in your league. Let's say it's 12 teams and 16 roster spots per team... that's 192 players. Then take the total salary available in your league - $200 cap... that would be $2400. Now... assign values to the top 192 players. add 'em all up and see if it adds up to $2400. If not, you have more work to do. You would be surprised how many of these online auction values don't add up.

 

This is the most thorough way to get your values and you know your dialed in to your budget and what you can afford to stay within it. It's also a good way to see who's overpaying and get a feel for what you can grab cheaply later.

 

Will say this though... auctions are not easy. You need to be involved in everything that's going on and get a read on what your opponents goals/targets are early. There's an old saying... "If you can't spot the sucker at the table, it's you."

 

Good luck... you'll never go back.

[buffgeoff 1]

I'm in the same boat, commish of my league and going auction for the first time. Is it recommended to pass out a generic auction value list to everyone? Do most auction commish's do this?

 

Thanks!

[billyoceanfb 0]

1. Like Anaheim says, make sure everything adds up. 12 teams, $200, 16 players, whatever it is make sureyou don't have too many dollars distributed.

 

2. When my l first started auction 5 yrs ago I remember reading an article that said u should think about every value as a trade value. If you're ranking an RB1 at $40, an RB2 at $20, and a WR1 at $20, you should think that trading the RB1 for the RB2&WR1 would be a fair trade. Now, with experience building your values you won't need to literally go through every player and think like this, but it's a good way to get the feel for it. It's the same $40. Do you want one great player or two good players?

 

3. With all newbies, throw the "magazine" values out the window. Someone will go nuts on ADP or CJ. Someone will get one of the top batch of QBs for dirt cheap compared to the others in the tier. But if you do a good job preparing and stick very close to your values, you'll end up with some great bargains and a team YOU are happy with. That's what I love about doing my own values.

 

Have fun, they're awesome.

[Bigtraine 24]

Been in an auction league for 20 years (damn I'm old). I do my own values. Start with a couple different sources for auction values (the one here is VERY good usually). Set my own values based on projections, my personal biases, gut feelings, past history of my league... etc. Here's the deal though, and this is very important... you need to take the list of players that you project to be taken in your league. Let's say it's 12 teams and 16 roster spots per team... that's 192 players. Then take the total salary available in your league - $200 cap... that would be $2400. Now... assign values to the top 192 players. add 'em all up and see if it adds up to $2400. If not, you have more work to do. You would be surprised how many of these online auction values don't add up.

 

 

This is great advice, and one I didnt even think of. I knew my list was a little light on players because there were some I left off knowing I would never get them because I valued them too lowly compared to everyone else. So I added them back in and filled out the bottom end to get to 160 players (10 team, 16 per roster) and then added it all up and was surprised to find I was almost $200 under the $2000 total budget so I had some serious adjusting to do.

[Johnny Ringo 0]

The Cheatsheet Compiler calculates auction values which I think are a good guide heading into your auction draft.

 

In terms of providing something to all other people in your league, what you could do is run the Compiler with your auction settings based on just the 2009 stats instead of 2010 projections. That will create a cheatsheet you can print off and hand to everyone in the league without giving away the players you are high or low on via FF Today's help.

 

Just an idea. Dancing banana for my son sitting here with me...

 

I definitely agree. After years of serpentine re-drafts, we switched to an Auction League (and would NEVER go back, by the way). I've used the Cheatsheet Compiler/Draft Buddy both years and made the playoffs both years. I agree with the others that you tweak the auction values a bit based on your own hunches and targeted players, but since the CC/DB builds in your specific league scoring, specific salary cap, etc etc, there's really little tweaking that needs to be done. The Draft Buddy is absolutely fantastic on draft day, because you not only know exactly where YOU stand with salary cap, max bid, roster needs...but you also know exactly where everyone ELSE stands. So if you get into a bidding war with another player, you know exactly how much he has to spend, what roster spots he still needs to fill, etc. On draft day, I always end up being the "official" source of info on how much money everyone has left, etc. Our Auctioneer is screwed if I ever don't bring the Draft Buddy to the sports bar with me.

 

I know this sounded like a complete CC/DB commercial, but I swear Mike & Mike didn't plant me here....I just wanted to share.

[huskerinct 1]

I'm in the same boat, commish of my league and going auction for the first time. Is it recommended to pass out a generic auction value list to everyone? Do most auction commish's do this?

 

Thanks!

No way. Any moron can do an online search and get auction results. If they don't want to put out any effort, then screw em.