Auction style drafts....you like, or no?

[SmokingMonkey]

Just gathering some opinions on the pros/cons of auction drafts.
Last year, I ran a $100 buy in, 12 team league with .5 PPR and .5 rush/rec 1st downs with the mission of adding and twisting little rules here and there every season. No keeper/dynasty implications, and never will be, since rules will change year over year.
QB-RB-RB-WR-WR-TE-FLEX-K-DST, 5 or 6 bench spots, I forget.

If settings allow, I'm planning on dropping PPR down to .25 --- I still think you need some kind of reward for catching the ball, since someone else is getting paid to prevent you from doing that --- and looking to do an auction for the draft this year.

I might also add an extra RB/WR only flex spot, not sure on that just yet.

back to the auction:

pros -you get to literally draft the player you want, and have the means to go get your guy -have been wanting to do one the last couple yrs -everyone in the league seems to enjoy variations to the standard fantasy league

cons -new draft style that some owners won't be comfortable with -a level of unfamiliarity in a league that I run -run the risk of losing an owner or two due to changing the set up

 

[MilkSpiller22]

Just gathering some opinions on the pros/cons of auction drafts.
Last year, I ran a $100 buy in, 12 team league with .5 PPR and .5 rush/rec 1st downs with the mission of adding and twisting little rules here and there every season. No keeper/dynasty implications, and never will be, since rules will change year over year.
QB-RB-RB-WR-WR-TE-FLEX-K-DST, 5 or 6 bench spots, I forget.

If settings allow, I'm planning on dropping PPR down to .25 --- I still think you need some kind of reward for catching the ball, since someone else is getting paid to prevent you from doing that --- and looking to do an auction for the draft this year.

I might also add an extra RB/WR only flex spot, not sure on that just yet.

back to the auction:

pros -you get to literally draft the player you want, and have the means to go get your guy -have been wanting to do one the last couple yrs -everyone in the league seems to enjoy variations to the standard fantasy league

cons -new draft style that some owners won't be comfortable with -a level of unfamiliarity in a league that I run -run the risk of losing an owner or two due to changing the set up

My money baseball league is an auction... I love it, but I must say, I have trouble taking it as seriously as I do a snake draft... there are distractions and mind games, and sometimes you bid on players you don't want just because you haven't bid for a while...

Havent done a football auction in years, so I don't really know if it is the same or different...

The hardest thing with Auctions though, is to be patient... Yes, you can theoretically get any player you want, but sometimes the wait for that player to be called is just so long that you may be too late for plan B or C...

 

[averagejoe]

Love the auction.
We do a live auction draft (as opposed to on-line). It does run much much longer than a snake draft.

You can get the players you want but it may also leave you with little to spend for the rest of your bench.
So owners still need to be smart about their bidding. (Doesn't do your team any good if you overspend for Cam Newton, Antonio Brown and AP, then have $25 for 11 more players.)

 

[Yellow Fuzzies]

Love the auction.
We do a live auction draft (as opposed to on-line). It does run much much longer than a snake draft.

You can get the players you want but it may also leave you with little to spend for the rest of your bench.
So owners still need to be smart about their bidding. (Doesn't do your team any good if you overspend for Cam Newton, Antonio Brown and AP, then have $25 for 11 more players.)

Completely agree. I do 2 auction football drafts on back to back days over labor day weekend. They are great.

 

[broncosmitty]

I've never even been to real life auction.

 

[tlance]

I like the theory of the auction, but they can be frustrating if you play with a group of knowledgeable owners.

Like in free agency the team to land the player is the one to overbid the most and all it takes is 1 other owner to drive up the price on the guy you covet. I imagine an MBBRL auction would be agony. Very few values to be had.

 

[SmokingMonkey]

I like the theory of the auction, but they can be frustrating if you play with a group of knowledgeable owners.

Like in free agency the team to land the player is the one to overbid the most and all it takes is 1 other owner to drive up the price on the guy you covet. I imagine an MBBRL auction would be agony. Very few values to be had.

But in auction format, wouldn't that turn some of the correctly priced players into values, since the amount of funds available to spend on them would be less, as the "normal" value players are being drafted at closer to their correct price?

 

[tlance]

But in auction format, wouldn't that turn some of the correctly priced players into values, since the amount of funds available to spend on them would be less, as the "normal" value players are being drafted at closer to their correct price?

Sure, but it is still frustrating. I always try to stay disclipined in auctions, and I often end up with teams I don't like very much as a result. That has almost never happened to me in a snake draft.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I only played in one auction draft and it was on line. Liked it a lot. Does make trading tough at times, but that's OK. Definely plan to join another one.

 

[TKOSpikes]

Haven't done an auction since the mid 90's...but it was baseball. Never tried football. Home leagues aren't interested and I don't join "public" leagues.

Would love to have some auctions in my life these days

 

[obxyankeefan]

Never done one.

Tend to stay away from them, because I wouldn't know what I am doing.

 

[averagejoe]

I like the theory of the auction, but they can be frustrating if you play with a group of knowledgeable owners.

But in auction format, wouldn't that turn some of the correctly priced players into values, since the amount of funds available to spend on them would be less, as the "normal" value players are being drafted at closer to their correct price?

I'll give you an example: Just based on the way guys were swooning over David Johnson and Kelvin Benjamin in our suicide draft, if it were an auction, I could see both of those guys in a bidding war with a quarter of the owners.

Which means that their price tag would exceed their actual value.

As for the free agency, in our auction league we just use a waiver system, there is no bidding on free agents.
But there too, if there was a free agent budget, if Frisman Jackson becomes the waiver wire darling after week 1 and someone wants to use half of their budget on a one week wonder.... oh well.

There are "spare no expense" Jerry Jones and "dollar" Bill Wirtz type owners even in fantasy football.

 

[TREFF]

nope don't like 'em.

 

[obxyankeefan]

I've never even been to real life auction.

My wife said that on our last cruise. So I took her to an art auction. The first item came out, and I am looking at it thinking did a six-year old draw that. The auctioneer says we will start the bidding at $21500. I couldn't get that paddle from my wife quick enough to hide it.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I'll give you an example: Just based on the way guys were swooning over David Johnson and Kelvin Benjamin in our suicide draft, if it were an auction, I could see both of those guys in a bidding war with a quarter of the owners.

Which means that their price tag would exceed their actual value.

As for the free agency, in our auction league we just use a waiver system, there is no bidding on free agents.
But there too, if there was a free agent budget, if Frisman Jackson becomes the waiver wire darling after week 1 and someone wants to use half of their budget on a one week wonder.... oh well.

There are "spare no expense" Jerry Jones and "dollar" Bill Wirtz type owners even in fantasy football.

The whole strategy on how much to bid for who is so much fun. Even better is landing a player that was a steal of a deal. It sure is frustrating to decide no more bids for me, only to see someone bid just a bit more and get the player you wanted also.

 

[SteelersPride]

ive done it once, i got killed,. How do trades work?

 

[HaroldSeattle]

ive done it once, i got killed,. How do trades work?

Basically you can only trade for a player if he fit into the cap. Lots of times someone will bid pretty high on a player, let's say like EE,someone bids 65 dollars with a $200 cap because he has to have him, also bids high on a couple of players and ends up with scrapes for the rest of his roster. So after losing 4 straight games he wants to move EE, if you want him in a trade, you got to be able to take him on and still be in the 200 cap limit. Usually that means trading a couple of medium high cost players in exchange or maybe you saved your dollars and can afford to take on the cap hit, so you offer him say Justin Forsett who cost you $2. You get the talent, he gets cap room.

 

[averagejoe]

Wow.
Harold, our auction league doesn't have those rules.
(Even the NFL restructures contracts sometimes when players change teams.)
Our auction league just applies to the draft itself.
After that, a trade is a trade.

 

[SmokingMonkey]

Wow.
Harold, our auction league doesn't have those rules.
(Even the NFL restructures contracts sometimes when players change teams.)
Our auction league just applies to the draft itself.
After that, a trade is a trade.

yea, for year 1, I'd have to leave the cap to the draft as well.
Don't think I have the time to manage 12 people's caps on all trades.
That would get complex with the knuckleheads I play with.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Wow.
Harold, our auction league doesn't have those rules.
(Even the NFL restructures contracts sometimes when players change teams.)
Our auction league just applies to the draft itself.
After that, a trade is a trade.

Be nice if the league I was in worked that way.