Auction Draft Keeper Help

[rwockenf 0]

I am the Commish in a 12 Team league. This is our 3rd Year doing the Auction Style draft and we love it. In Year 1, a few steals occurred...David Johnson for $1, Cam Newton for $3, etc.

 

I didn't realize that ESPN, when you select your Keeper, will deduct the original amount you bought the player for from your Auction Budget total. So, for example, the guy who bought David Johnson for $1 had a budget of $224 instead of $225, and so on.

 

Now that it is Year 3, I have about half the league that isn't sure if they want to do the Keeper because of this huge disparity in Budgets (none of the realized the Budget impact either). My question is this:

 

Do I eliminate the Keeper? The whole reason we did the Auction Draft to begin with was so that anyone could have any player...yes, an oversight on my part, I admit. What are your thoughts? We do play for money, but most players are fairly easy going...Note, this huge benefit (low cost for amazing Rd 1 Talent) is not universal across all teams. Thanks for the advice.

[Maulers1973 117]

My league is auction style, keeper. However, every team has the exact same budget. $70 is our salary cap and it's the same for every team. As for players kept. From one year to the next there is an automatic add-on of $1.50 for a player's salary if you wish to keep him.

 

So, if someone got David Johnson 2 years ago when he was a nobody, he was super cheap. If they kept him, then he's a stud at a bargain. That's the advantage!

 

This year, my league has several great, talented players going back into the draft due to them being to expensive to keep: AP, Rodgers, Brees, Mike Evans, JJ Watt, and Melvin Gordon.

[rwockenf 0]

Can you expand on that last part? Being too expensive to keep...how did you come up with the $1.50? A percentage of total budget?

[Maulers1973 117]

As an example: last year a guy drafted Adrian Peterson for $25.50. Now, if he wanted to, he could keep him this year for $27. However, it's not likely that he will want to. The risk (his role with new team) doesn't justify the risk (exposing that much salary to a guy that could be 2nd string).

 

I have had QB Drew Brees now for several years. If I kept him, his salary this year would be $35.00. I just won't do it. He's going back into the draft.

 

$1.50 is an arbitrary figure that we came up with more than 10 years ago, maybe 15. Also, our budget was $50 back then, so I thought the hold-over fee should have been bumped to $2 or 2.50, but the other owners voted it down.

[rwockenf 0]

That's excellent...one suggestion I made was to make all the Keepers cost the same amount. That way, everyone was affected the same. By way of example, the person who bought Antonio Brown paid $71. So their "keeper cost" would be reduced to X and the guy who had DJ would increase to X. I like the idea of the cost to keep...but trying to figure out the exact amount to make it worthwhile. Our budget is $225 right now, so a Tier 1 RB/WR will go for $55-$70 for sure...especially if people drive $$$ up. Any thoughts to how I might be able to alleviate this issue?

 

Also, how do you feel about the whole keeper thing with Auction Drafts? Seems counter to what the Auction is all about. Thanks for the responses btw.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

Keeper auction leaguer here

 

Whatever you bought the player at last year, add 20% on to their keeper price this year. It's a $250 budget with IDP players

 

I got Djohns for $55 last year, so it's $66 this year. You bet your ass I am keeping him for that much. Antonio went for $92 last year, so he will be back on the market for sure

 

Free agent adds get an automatic base price of $2 I believe, so $3 to keep

[Maulers1973 117]

The guys that initially started this league (and this will be year 27) wanted to create the possibility of a guy being capable of having a dynasty. That's why they made keeping a player relatively cheap, the hold-over fee. However, there really haven't been many dynasties over the years. One man has 4 championships spread out over about 15 years. There's been a handful of repeats over the years and that's it. The past 2 years were won by one guy and he retired.

 

IMO, if a guy takes a flyer on DJ 2 years ago and got him cheap, he should get the opportunity to own him for several years cheap. Sometimes, we try to apply rules of fairness, and take it to far. Just set up basic guidelines that everyone is aware of and agrees to or the majority and go with it.

[TBayXXXVII 2,116]

There should be a yearly increase, but it should be a standard amount. Like already mentioned... a set amount or percentage. The guy who got Johnson for $1 should probably be paying somewhere around $5 by now. That's how keeper leagues work though. If you find a stud for cheap, that's what you're supposed to do. You can't just disband the idea because one guy benefited the way he was supposed to do. The guy who got Jordan Howard probably got the same benefit.

[IGotWorms 3,311]

You can only keep them one year.

 

OR, you can keep them longer but there is a sizeable penalty. None of this $1 stuff. Make it like franchising a player in the NFL - do that more than one or maybe two years and it will HURT.

 

Like minimum keeper cost is $15 and it doubles every year thereafter (or whatever makes sense within your auction budget).

[rwockenf 0]

I really appreciate all the ideas. I definitely do not want to disband it just because a guy got a great deal. Hell, I kept Allen Robinson for $6. If Bortles wasn't Bortling all season long, that would have been a huge steal. Regardless, I am liking the % increase idea as well as a possible yearly increase (yr1: $5, yr2: $7, etc).

 

I'm debating now about the % increase as well as a restriction on the number of years a player can be kept. Do I use a % of the total budget to decide what the increase should be? Is it an increase based on number of years ($5 for yr 1, $7 for yr 2, etc.)? What have you guys seen work (to reward the guy who grabbed a no name for cheap who turned into a stud, but also allow for players to fall back into the market).

[Maulers1973 117]

I say scrap the restriction on number of years a guy can be kept! Not cool at all.(plus who wants to track all that yuck!) The draw of keeper leagues is keeping super stars. Only getting to keep them for 2 or 3 years would suck. Just make the salary increase painful enough, that guys will just recognize they have to throw back a super expensive guy even if he is a stud.

That is happening this year in my league with Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson.

 

I have owned Brees for about 5 years now.

[rwockenf 0]

Yeah I was thinking about that...For the increase, I was looking at what you did (the $1.50) and looked at it as a % of budget...so, I was going to implement a 3% of budget increase in kept players...which for us is about $6.75...so that would make Cam $10.75, DJ $7.75, AB $77.75...and so on...

 

OR...do I just create the rules and implement them next season...? I can already hear the complaining...Haha.

[Maulers1973 117]

I think the increase should be player specific. I think making it a flat rate would be more appropriate, but obviously your league has a higher budget so $5 to $10 might be realistic. Another way, if you want to make it %, make it 10% of current player salary. So, if Cam is $10.75, then to keep for next year make it 11.82. Any way, just set the increase with no restrictions on how often a player can be kept.

[loadedbrewer 0]

We have an auction league that is a few years old and our league set up to allow up to 4 keepers. The first keeper gets a 10% increase, the 2nd gets a 20% increase, 3rd gets 30% increase, and 4th gets 40% increase.

 

This has led to more of the upper level talent being put back into the auction each year as they get too expensive to keep without severely impacting your roster the next year.

[TBayXXXVII 2,116]

My keeper league has player salaries that is two-fold. It's based on performance (60% of the salary), and draft position (40% of the salary - which increases 2 rounds every year you keep him). We have a salary cap that allows you to keep as many players you want, as long as you come in under your cap. People are usually keeping 5 guys where 2 or 3 are studs, 1 or 2 are decent players with upside, and maybe one more that is a stash player. I drafted LeVeon Bell in the 16th round his rookie season, David Johnson in the 18th round his rookie season, and Jordan Howard in the 19th round last year. All of them have cheap draft values, but performance-wise they're still expensive, so while I'm getting away cheaper than what they should be, they aren't free.