Re: Chasing the NFBC 2012 - A Fantasy Baseball Blog
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:54 am
We'll next take a look at my Auction drafts. Over the past two seasons, I've been part of one NFBC Auction Championship league per year. Though I had moments of competitiveness, I failed to cash with either team. So what to do? Like any fantasy player with limited resources who needs to cash while taking part in this high stakes hobby, the only reasonable course of action would be to drop out of the Auction Championships. So I did. And then upgraded to both the Ultimate and AL Auctions! Addiction's a bitch. Still, the live draft season wouldn't be the same without feeding my Auction vein. Live auctions are by far the most intense draft format available for fantasy. The ability to bid on any and/or all players, trying to decide if a player is worth that extra dollar, trying to manage your remaining budget, building your teams any way you want, getting into bidding wars, deciding whether to go all in on a player leaving you with only a dollar per for your remaining roster, going once, going twice.....there's so much involved in an auction that increases both the excitement....and the fun. The stakes and formats for the Ultimate and AL Auctions just increased that intensity ten-fold making these drafts the most exciting I took part in this season by far, for me even surpassing that of the Diamond.
I went into both these Auctions with a Stars and Scrubs strategy, though with slight differences on which stars to spend on dependent upon the format. I feel one of my strengths is finding productive players on the cheap during the end game and in FAAB, so I felt that sort of strategy would work towards those strengths. I wanted to focus most of my resources on hitting and went in with a flexible 190/70 planned split with a willingness to adjust on the fly if necessary. I wanted at least one pitching ace and would only grab relievers on the extreme cheap. Outside of that, I planned on letting these Auctions come to me while making final decisions on what I'd pay for specific players or positions dependent upon the draft flow of the auctions at any specific time.
AL Auction - 3/30 Vegas
C - Alex Avila (19)
C - Josh Donaldson (3)
1B - Miguel Cabrera (41)
3B - Brett Lawrie (31)
CI - Brandon Allen (9)
2B - Ian Kinsler (34)
SS - Yunel Escobar (13)
MI - Trevor Plouffe (3)
OF - Yoenis Cespedes (14)
OF - Nolan Reimold (6)
OF - Grady Sizemore (1)
OF - Franklin Gutierrez (1)
OF - Shelley Duncan (1)
UT - Jesus Montero (12)
P - David Price (26)
P - Neftali Feliz (12)
P - Clay Buchholz (10)
P - Luke Hochevar (10)
P - Danny Duffy (5)
P - Dustin McGowan (1)
P - Brett Anderson (1)
P - Glen Perkins (4)
P - Alfredo Aceves (2)
Reserves - Joel Peralta, Fausto Carmona, Brandon Inge, Don Kelly, Ben Francisco, Jack Cust
Summary - Having never taken part in an AL Only Auction previously, or any Only draft or auction for that matter, a big part of my preparation for this draft included studying the results of the previously completed LABR and Tout AL Auctions. The start of our auction however threw me off balance as the prices for the initial stars that were thrown out were significantly higher than those previous expert drafts. I watched in amazement as bidding wars between Childs and Stadmueller in particular, but also Nicola, Wendell, Churchill, etc., sent those early prices far higher than I expected. Watching the stars fly off the board and knowing the inventory in an Only league would be depleted quickly, I got my bearings, adjusted, and made my move to grab a few of the remaining studs I had my eye on, even if I had to overpay what I initially budgeted. I ended up grabbing Miggy, Avila, Lawrie, Kinsler, and Price, managing to fill most of the positions I intended on buying a top option in. I feel I overpaid for Miggy and Lawrie (paid $1 and $2 more than Pujols and Beltre went for respectively), but got the other mentioned buys at what I felt was fair market cost (Kinsler went for the same cost as Pedroia, Price for just less than Haren & Weaver, and Avila for a couple dollars less than Mauer). Though I have several holes in my lineup as a few of the $1 players I bought are currently injured, each should have a full time job when they return which will be a benefit. I felt a lot worse about the holes before examining everyone else's starting roster discovering that every team has their share and will be taking a zero here or there. Because of the increased price of the stars I bought, I decided during the draft to boot closers and utilize that money elsewhere. I still wanted to grab a couple closer-in-waiting types both for the opportunity to salvage the position, but also to have decent ratio options to plug in my lineups if necessary. As luck would have it, two of them were.....Alfredo Aceves and Joel Peralta. I guess I may not have completely booted closers after all. One last thought on this draft.....I thought I had money at the end to scoop up some players on the cheap. That was until I got into vicious bidding wars for Alejandro DeAza and Brandon Allen! Yes, Alejandro DeAza and Brandon Allen. You know you're in a brand new world while that's happening.
Ultimate Auction - 4/1 Vegas
C - Yadier Molina (7)
C - Geovany Soto (7)
1B - Prince Fielder (37)
3B - David Wright (21) - I owe KJ one for this buy.
CI - Mike Carp (1)
2B - Ryan Raburn (6)
SS - Hanley Ramirez (42)
MI - Stephen Drew (1)
OF - Curtis Granderson (30)
OF - Corey Hart (14)
OF - Logan Morrison (7)
OF - Lorenzo Cain (7)
OF - Colby Rasmus (5)
UT - Denard Span (1)
P - Jon Lester (17)
P - Josh Johnson (15)
P - Jaime Garcia (10)
P - Wandy Rodriguez (5)
P - Neftali Feliz (4)
P - Bud Norris (3)
P - Erik Bedard (1)
RP - Carlos Marmol (9)
RP - Jim Johnson (6)
Reserves - Henry Rodriguez, James McDonald, Josh Collmenter, Rafael Furcal, Trevor Plouffe, Pedro Alvarez, Nyger Morgan
Summary - This draft had a similar dynamic as the AL Auction as the pricing for the initial stars that were thrown out was much higher than I anticipated. Pujols went for $50 and 12 of the first 23 players nominated went $40+. I sat back for awhile once again, but then jumped in when the inventory on the positions that I felt was critical to what I wanted to do started getting light. I wanted Hanley or Tulo and got one, though I ended up paying $2 more for Hanly than Tulo went for previously. I wanted a top option at 1B and got the first one that didn't cost $40. I wanted a top power/speed option in the OF and again got the first that didn't cost $39+. Most importantly, I got my boy David Wright for what I felt was a very reasonable price when KJ dropped out of the bidding....even though we shared a laugh at the break on how he knew he could push me up further due to the "Mets" factor. Of course, that thinking ended up backfiring on him when he ended up with Andres Torres later in the draft because I wouldn't go the extra dollar. I have two potential aces in Lester and Johnson that I didn't have to pay ace prices for due to their issues last year. I also have a pair of closers with the job for close to the prices any one of the top closers had gone for alone earlier in the draft. There are a lot of question marks on this team however. How they perform will determine how I finish here. In Shawn's post-auction analysis that several of us stuck around for, he had to charitably give me some potential "in-season management" points in order to keep my team from competing for last place in his predictions. We'll see. There's a lot of season to be played out. Either way, these auctions were a blast and I'm glad I added both the AL and Ultimate Auctions to my live draft experience.
I went into both these Auctions with a Stars and Scrubs strategy, though with slight differences on which stars to spend on dependent upon the format. I feel one of my strengths is finding productive players on the cheap during the end game and in FAAB, so I felt that sort of strategy would work towards those strengths. I wanted to focus most of my resources on hitting and went in with a flexible 190/70 planned split with a willingness to adjust on the fly if necessary. I wanted at least one pitching ace and would only grab relievers on the extreme cheap. Outside of that, I planned on letting these Auctions come to me while making final decisions on what I'd pay for specific players or positions dependent upon the draft flow of the auctions at any specific time.
AL Auction - 3/30 Vegas
C - Alex Avila (19)
C - Josh Donaldson (3)
1B - Miguel Cabrera (41)
3B - Brett Lawrie (31)
CI - Brandon Allen (9)
2B - Ian Kinsler (34)
SS - Yunel Escobar (13)
MI - Trevor Plouffe (3)
OF - Yoenis Cespedes (14)
OF - Nolan Reimold (6)
OF - Grady Sizemore (1)
OF - Franklin Gutierrez (1)
OF - Shelley Duncan (1)
UT - Jesus Montero (12)
P - David Price (26)
P - Neftali Feliz (12)
P - Clay Buchholz (10)
P - Luke Hochevar (10)
P - Danny Duffy (5)
P - Dustin McGowan (1)
P - Brett Anderson (1)
P - Glen Perkins (4)
P - Alfredo Aceves (2)
Reserves - Joel Peralta, Fausto Carmona, Brandon Inge, Don Kelly, Ben Francisco, Jack Cust
Summary - Having never taken part in an AL Only Auction previously, or any Only draft or auction for that matter, a big part of my preparation for this draft included studying the results of the previously completed LABR and Tout AL Auctions. The start of our auction however threw me off balance as the prices for the initial stars that were thrown out were significantly higher than those previous expert drafts. I watched in amazement as bidding wars between Childs and Stadmueller in particular, but also Nicola, Wendell, Churchill, etc., sent those early prices far higher than I expected. Watching the stars fly off the board and knowing the inventory in an Only league would be depleted quickly, I got my bearings, adjusted, and made my move to grab a few of the remaining studs I had my eye on, even if I had to overpay what I initially budgeted. I ended up grabbing Miggy, Avila, Lawrie, Kinsler, and Price, managing to fill most of the positions I intended on buying a top option in. I feel I overpaid for Miggy and Lawrie (paid $1 and $2 more than Pujols and Beltre went for respectively), but got the other mentioned buys at what I felt was fair market cost (Kinsler went for the same cost as Pedroia, Price for just less than Haren & Weaver, and Avila for a couple dollars less than Mauer). Though I have several holes in my lineup as a few of the $1 players I bought are currently injured, each should have a full time job when they return which will be a benefit. I felt a lot worse about the holes before examining everyone else's starting roster discovering that every team has their share and will be taking a zero here or there. Because of the increased price of the stars I bought, I decided during the draft to boot closers and utilize that money elsewhere. I still wanted to grab a couple closer-in-waiting types both for the opportunity to salvage the position, but also to have decent ratio options to plug in my lineups if necessary. As luck would have it, two of them were.....Alfredo Aceves and Joel Peralta. I guess I may not have completely booted closers after all. One last thought on this draft.....I thought I had money at the end to scoop up some players on the cheap. That was until I got into vicious bidding wars for Alejandro DeAza and Brandon Allen! Yes, Alejandro DeAza and Brandon Allen. You know you're in a brand new world while that's happening.
Ultimate Auction - 4/1 Vegas
C - Yadier Molina (7)
C - Geovany Soto (7)
1B - Prince Fielder (37)
3B - David Wright (21) - I owe KJ one for this buy.
CI - Mike Carp (1)
2B - Ryan Raburn (6)
SS - Hanley Ramirez (42)
MI - Stephen Drew (1)
OF - Curtis Granderson (30)
OF - Corey Hart (14)
OF - Logan Morrison (7)
OF - Lorenzo Cain (7)
OF - Colby Rasmus (5)
UT - Denard Span (1)
P - Jon Lester (17)
P - Josh Johnson (15)
P - Jaime Garcia (10)
P - Wandy Rodriguez (5)
P - Neftali Feliz (4)
P - Bud Norris (3)
P - Erik Bedard (1)
RP - Carlos Marmol (9)
RP - Jim Johnson (6)
Reserves - Henry Rodriguez, James McDonald, Josh Collmenter, Rafael Furcal, Trevor Plouffe, Pedro Alvarez, Nyger Morgan
Summary - This draft had a similar dynamic as the AL Auction as the pricing for the initial stars that were thrown out was much higher than I anticipated. Pujols went for $50 and 12 of the first 23 players nominated went $40+. I sat back for awhile once again, but then jumped in when the inventory on the positions that I felt was critical to what I wanted to do started getting light. I wanted Hanley or Tulo and got one, though I ended up paying $2 more for Hanly than Tulo went for previously. I wanted a top option at 1B and got the first one that didn't cost $40. I wanted a top power/speed option in the OF and again got the first that didn't cost $39+. Most importantly, I got my boy David Wright for what I felt was a very reasonable price when KJ dropped out of the bidding....even though we shared a laugh at the break on how he knew he could push me up further due to the "Mets" factor. Of course, that thinking ended up backfiring on him when he ended up with Andres Torres later in the draft because I wouldn't go the extra dollar. I have two potential aces in Lester and Johnson that I didn't have to pay ace prices for due to their issues last year. I also have a pair of closers with the job for close to the prices any one of the top closers had gone for alone earlier in the draft. There are a lot of question marks on this team however. How they perform will determine how I finish here. In Shawn's post-auction analysis that several of us stuck around for, he had to charitably give me some potential "in-season management" points in order to keep my team from competing for last place in his predictions. We'll see. There's a lot of season to be played out. Either way, these auctions were a blast and I'm glad I added both the AL and Ultimate Auctions to my live draft experience.