At the risk of inundating the blog with industry drafts, I'm going to post one more. I took part in the SOFA Experts Fantasy League Auction last night, so at least this entry explores new ground with the bidding format. By way of introduction, SOFA stands for Site Owners Football Association, and this league uses PPR with a starting lineup of: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX, 1 K, 1 D/ST. Each team's budget is $200.
I participated in the SOFA Auction league for the first time last season (high points, lost in the finals), so I came back this year with a specific strategy based on what I saw at the last auction. Here was the strategy:
Go for superstars, don't worry too much about the bench. Fantasy monsters are much harder to acquire, and I can use the waiver wire in-season to bolster my depth.
Go for undervalued studs who are typically frowned upon in PPR leagues. This particular strategy seems counter-intuitive, but I noticed last season that PPR leaguers turn their noses up at every-week studs who don't catch a lot of passes (i.e. Adrian Peterson).
Grab two high-dollar, plug 'n' play RBs if possible. As a corollary, address WR with three reasonably priced WR2s. Why pay the going price for WR3s (i.e. Kevin Walter) when you can get a high-ceiling WR2 (i.e. Vincent Jackson) for a couple of dollars more?
Stay away from a RB3 flex in this format. A guy like Davone Bess at $5 can give me more consistent weekly production than a LenDale White ($12), Fred Taylor ($12), or even Thomas Jones at $23.
Below are the Top-12 players by dollar value:
$59 - Maurice Jones-Drew, FF Today
$58 - Adrian Peterson, Rotoworld
$49 - LaDainian Tomlinson, Fantasy Guru
$46 - Matt Forte, Fantasy Insights
$46 - Steven Jackson, Roto Wire
$43 - Chris Johnson, Fantasy Football.com
$43 - Steve Slaton, Fantasy Sharks
$42 - Larry Fitzgerald, The Huddle
$42 - Michael Turner, Rotoworld
$41 - Frank Gore, KFFL
$41 - Andre Johnson, Roto Experts
$40 - Randy Moss, The Huddle
Here's the Rotoworld roster:
QB - Tom Brady, $27
RB - Adrian Peterson, $58
RB - Michael Turner, $42
WR - Vincent Jackson, $16
WR - Braylon Edwards, $14
WR - Lee Evans, $13
FL - Davone Bess, $5
TE - Brent Celek, $2
K - John Kasay, $1
D/ST - Patriots, $2
QB - Brett Favre, $2
QB - Matt Leinart, $1
RB - Ladell Betts, $1
RB - DeShawn Wynn, $1
WR - Percy Harvin, $9
WR - Justin Gage, $3
WR - Michael Crabtree, $1
TE - Heath Miller, $1
A couple of notes by way of explanation:
As is Rotoworld's wont, Michael Turner wasn't on my radar going into the auction. Sometimes you get stuck bidding up a player because you can't believe he's not going for a higher price. When I saw LT2 go for $49, I thought for sure someone would put $43 on Burner. So now I'm "stuck" with two first-round RBs.
Tom Brady was a similar situation. With the potential for 40+ TDs, I just thought he was worth the $27 price tag. So now I have fantasy monsters at QB, RB1, and RB2. I'm cool with that even it means little depth at RB and no top-tier WR.
Surprisingly, I was able to land those three WR2s at lower prices than I imagined. I thought V-Jax, Edwards and Evans would all go for a few dollars more than they did. I was able to bolster that crew with a wildcard personal favorite (Harvin) and a poor man's Wes Welker (who went for $26!) in Bess ($5).
I never seem to end up with a Top-5 tight end in this format. Dallas Clark went for an unbelievable $17 (bizarrely, to the same owner who bought Jason Witten for $22) and Visanthe Shiancoe for $8. I had my eye on Dustin Keller, Jeremy Shockey and Brent Celek as undervalued tight ends, but Celek was the only one I could afford late in the auction. If he can put up low-end TE1 numbers, I'm in business.
I'm not going to need a sixth or seventh WR early in the season, so I figured Crabtree was worth a $1 flier.
I took a flier on Kurt Warner last season before he won the job, so this year I turned around and purchased the $1 Matt Leinart lottery ticket. If Warner's hip acts up, I'm sitting on nice trade bait with a QB throwing to Fitz, Boldin and Breaston. I ended up flipping Warner for Chris Johnson after a few games last year.
Comments
LOVE the auction format, where every player is an option and your draft slot doesn't automatically rule out any player you want. I can't believe any league would go back to the draft format once they have a taste of the good stuff.
Posted by: Juggs | August 20, 2009 12:20 PM
sorry chris...not a fan of ur receiving corps in this format. i would have passed on turner and spread that money over a upgraded WR, lesster RB.
Posted by: scott c | August 20, 2009 01:07 PM
Sounds like you made the cardinal mistake of auction leagues: seeing what one guy goes for and basing your bid on that (in this case, bidding more on Turner because of how much LT went for).
I think to succeed in an auction league, you need to have a list of what every player should go for. That means that when an LT goes for too much, you don't accidentally overpay for someone else (not that you overpaid for Turner, but you wouldn't have bid full price had you pegged his value around $42 or $43).
Certainly, you need to be flexible enough to adjust if you see that your dollar values are wildly off -- otherwise you could wind up with no decent players because you pass on all the overpriced studs -- but just having dollar values helps you understand the trends and how to adjust.
And I agree with the person above who said that once you do an auction, a draft is a boring joke.
Posted by: mikeKC | August 20, 2009 01:28 PM
not that i dont like the guy, i think hes really trying.. but that adam levitan really needs some help drafting. or maybe its just me. i dont mind his starters so much, but his bench is terrible. he completly goes against the rotoworld strategy of taking as many upside fliers on RB's and WR's later in the draft. there was the Wells, Bennett and Bess can make an arguement but i want to see more damn it. all these handcuffs and backup TE just doesnt make sense. at least in my opinion. not sure theres as much value on his team as could have been.
Posted by: scott c | August 20, 2009 01:52 PM
sorry chris, initially passed over ur notes and just read them now... ouch. the bid up catastrophe. that happens in auction formats. one of the better benefits in snake drafts, but each format has its charms. the gamblers/poker players seem to always love the auction format.. hmmm i wonder why.
after raking adams bench over the coals, ill just stop passing judgment here.. i think the point is made. tough, u might have to take a hit/loss on turner or brady to get some depth in return. god help u if turner or AP go down.
never a fan of having a few studs, no depth roster. i think the depth is key for so many reasons.
Posted by: scott c | August 20, 2009 02:06 PM
I love auction leagues. Biding can get pretty intense.
I would like to see the order the players were bid on. I have Rotoworld's cheat sheet for PPR leagues printed out in front of me right now. The Turner bid was horable if you were to follow your own cheatsheet. Turner is listed as the 11th rated RB projected at 230 pts. There are 15 WR with a projection of 231 pts, this goes all the way down to Chad Ocho Stinco. Chris you paid Turner as 9th highest player overall. Horable bid, and if you were trying to run up the price for another owner then Booo on you.
Posted by: Shannon | August 20, 2009 03:42 PM
I know you could argue that Turner makes a great RB2. Ok fine but not at the value you paid. I'm not trying to team up with scott c, but Roto always preaches value. Kevin Smith is the next rated player under Turner on Roto's PPR cheat sheet what did Smith go for? Horrible bid
Posted by: Shannon | August 20, 2009 03:57 PM