Auction drafts are easy to “win” but even easier to “lose.” Dave Caban overviews the preparation, thought processes, and in-auction strategies needed to ensure that you’re ready for the intensity and challenges auctions will throw at you and are poised to leave your draft with a contender. Dave brought the 2022 USA Today Huddle Auction title home to RotoViz last year and maps out his entire process in this series.
Heading into the 2020 season, I compiled a list of auction-related articles that I had written over the years. This list of articles provided what I believe to be the necessary information to properly prepare for, contextualize, and navigate an auction. It’s easy to get bogged down in the particulars of an individual season, but the key concepts that will drive the successes or failures of an auction remain the same. As a result, I’ve once again gathered this list and believe it to be a more than competent strategy guide.
This year’s guide will be split into two parts. Part 1 will include the introductory paragraphs that I wrote in prior years, links to the articles I recommend you read, and updated tier charts for 2023. Part 2 will provide an overview (presented in an audio clip) of a team I’ll be drafting later this week in an “expert auction” for the Huddle of USA Today Sports, as well as some example teams that could be constructed this year, possible approaches, and base assumptions I recommend you incorporate into your plan.[1]
Part 1: Strategy Guide Introduction
If you’ve never participated in an auction draft, or have spent little time considering auction strategy or optimal approaches, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. You might be wondering, how much is too much for Christian McCaffrey? Who should I nominate and when? How do I build a value worksheet to head into the draft with? Can I employ Zero RB? Should I really go stars and scrubs?
While a truly optimal approach doesn’t exist, there are strategies and easy advantages that can be gained by recognizing that an auction draft is an entirely different animal than a snake draft. Auctions aren’t linear and no two are the same. This is a double-edged sword. While it allows one to build a team in ways that would never be possible in a snake draft where ADP limits flexibility, it also makes preparing for and contextualizing the draft much more difficult.
I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about auction drafts, participating in expert auctions, and considering in-auction dynamics over the last six seasons. During this time, I wrote a number of articles on the topic that I believe will more than prepare you for the mentally grueling exercise that is an auction draft. A number of the principles underlying solid approaches to them are not intuitive and I find that newbie auction drafters are often asking the wrong questions when preparing for their draft. Very honestly, trying to determine the correct price for players prior to entering your draft is largely a waste of time and can often be counterproductive.
This series will make clear why that is the case, help you to understand the laws of supply and demand that are at play during an auction, get a sense of how to adapt to the specifics of your auction, and properly prepare for your draft. As is the case with other types of drafts, player evaluation is only a single aspect of a larger preparation process, and very often, it’s the other aspects that win and lose leagues.
BUILDING A GENERAL KNOWLEDGE BASE
If you were hoping for a couple of paragraphs that would impart everything you need to know, I hate to disappoint you, but there’s a lot of material to be covered. Below, I’ve gathered nearly every RotoViz article I’ve published on auctions. I’d recommend that you read or at least skim through each one, but the “required” readings and Parts 2 – 4 from 2020 should be enough to get you up to speed and position you well ahead of your league mates. I wanted to distill all of them into 1,000 words but determined that they’ll provide more value if read through each individually. This background should not only get you ready for your auction, but it will also provide the context needed to get the most benefit out of the remaining parts of the series.
The 2020 Auction Draft Strategy Guide: Part 2 – ADP VS AVG Value And Auction Tiers
The 2020 Auction Draft Strategy Guide: Part 3 – Preparation And Planning
The 2020 Auction Draft Strategy Guide: Part 4 – How I Attacked An Expert Auction
REQUIRED READING
Using Basic Economics to Approach Your Auction Draft: Supply, Demand, and Auctions
The Ultimate Post on Auction Strategy
OPTIONAL READING
The 2022 RotoViz Auction Draft Strategy Guide Part 2
2021 RotoViz Auction Draft Strategy Guide With Post Auction Audio
A Simple Trick For Finding Value And Avoiding A Deadly Mistake In Every Auction Draft
When You Leave An Expert Auction With Antonio Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, And Odell Beckham Jr.
What You Need To Know Before Your 2017 Auction Draft
Using Auction Tiers for Last Minute Prep
2023 AUCTION TIERS
Footnotes
| ↑1 | In 2022, I was the co-champion of this league, due to the situation arising in the BUF/CIN game a single champion was not crowned but a victory for me was very likely. |
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