While snake-style drafts can be routine, auctions can hold numerous other challenges. However, they do offer a greater variety of strategies to be utilized while filling your roster. Number one is to know your opposition.
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2017 fantasy baseball auction draft strategy
It’s a great advantage to know your opponents’ tendencies, and using them against them can come in particularly handy in a bidding format. Remember, there’s a reason they call it a “War Room”. Dig up what you know about each person you are bidding against and use this information to steal players, have them overspend, and, of course, keep them on-tilt throughout the process.
Note that these strategies are for standard leagues of 12 teams with a $260 auction budget to fill 23 active roster spots of 14 hitters and nine pitchers.
The first strategy up for discussion is to know your fellow owners’ favorite teams. In my home league, there are several owners who love the Orioles, and so anytime a player like Manny Machado, Adam Jones or Zach Britton get nominated, you can bet that they will go for above-value. And that’s fine. Nominate those players. Let them bid each other up. You can sit back, watch and enjoy them running low on funds.
Slightly related, you should pay close attention to your other owners’ favorite players. In the NL-only LABR draft this year, Derek Carty ended up paying $44 for Clayton Kershaw because everyone in the room knew Kershaw was Carty’s favorite player and must-have. They took the opportunity to bid him up. Kershaw should have gone for about $35, but by overpaying, the back-end of his draft was spent scrambling to fill the rest of his active roster with guys who were barely worth the dollar spent. So, while that owner feels good about getting their go-to player, you know full well that they will pay for it at the end of the draft. Advantage: You.
2017 SN RANKINGS:Catcher | First | Second | Third | Shortstop | Outfield | Starter | Closer
Another strategy for bidding up the other owners is to know the types of players they tend to target in the draft. Everyone is in a league where one or two owners like getting their hands on the young, up-and-coming studs, like Dansby Swanson. Knowing that affectation only benefits you come draft time. Go ahead and nominate a young stud and see what happens as the price goes higher and higher. Are they pained while trying to figure out what to do? Not only will you cause them to spend more than they wanted to, but those in a keeper league could also now lose the option to hold them over for multiple years.
The final strategy I will present here is paying mind to who the bargain-seekers are in the league. Inevitably, there are those owners who sit on their pile of allotted dough and let those early bidders have at it until the bargain-seeker swoops in later in the draft and steals value like Billy Hamilton swipes second. So, how can you make an owner like that spend money early? By nominating the type of player they covet – injured players, those rebounding from bad years, and still-unproven pitchers. All serve as prime examples of the bargain-seeker’s type. Sonny Gray, Drew Pomeranz, and now Ian Desmond all represent players who fit this description and could prove fruitful if you force an owner to overpay for any of these guys.
MORE: Top 50 prospects | 2017 Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide
Now there is a flip side to these strategies to consider, as well. You are undoubtedly guilty of some of these traits yourself and therefore could be a victim of being bid up, as well. So, how do you go about avoiding these pitfalls?
Don’t fall in love with any one player so much that it costs you a draft.
Yes, everyone has their favorite players and players they want to target. The trick is knowing when to let those players go when the price becomes prohibitive. I am not saying to go in and freewheel your way through the draft and hope everything goes well – not by any means. You should, however, have multiple back-up plans in case you can’t get your hands on your chosen player or players.
The last thing to note is this; It takes time. I have been in my home league for several years and over that time I have noticed the tendencies for nearly every owner in the 22-team league. That’s right, I said 22 teams but that’s for another day.
Don’t expect to know these kind of details right off the bat unless you are already very good friends with the other owners in the league. Remember, though, just because you know they love and follow a team in real life doesn’t mean they harp on getting players from said team. Take some time and notice the above-mentioned tendencies during your auction and you will be well-armed for drafts to come.
