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The Fantasy Draft: Setting Maximum Bids for an Auction

When approaching an auction draft, you should adjust your player values slightly, so that you know about how much you should be willing to pay for each player (as opposed to the number of points over waiver wire that the player will give). To get this number, you should just take the total budget for all teams combined. Divide this number by the sum of the value of every player in the league. Multiply each player value by this ratio to get that player’s maximum bid amount. As an example – let’s say all player values sum to 15,000 points over waiver wire value in aggregate. If you have a twelve team fantasy football league, each with an auction budget of $225 per team, then your ratio is (12*($225)/15000), or 0.18 $/point. A player with 145 points of value should therefore have a maximum bid price of about 145*0.18, or $26.10.

In theory, that should be all of the bid price estimation that you’ll need to use. However, I like to use a certain trick you should feel free to use yourself. The idea is that the last several spots on your roster should be occupied by relatively low-value players. There is real value in having the flexibility to add players from the waiver wire on fairly short notice, as changing circumstances often make a given waiver wire player quite valuable. Having some players on your team that are low-value by design will give you some players you will feel free to drop at a moment’s notice. If you are aiming to have a certain set number of players who are priced close to the minimum bid price, then you should modify your bid prices as follows. Figure out how many roster spots you want to reserve for low-cost players, and subtract this number from the total number of roster spots on your team. Then re-calculate values and bids using that smaller number of roster positions.

For example, say you are in a fourteen team fantasy hockey league using an auction draft. Each team has six positions for forwards, four for defensemen, two for goaltenders and five bench spots, for a total of seventeen roster spots. You want to focus your in-season effort on this league, and decide that you have the time to be pretty active on the waiver wire. In order to have room on your team for this degree of activity, you want to spend a minimal amount on the worst six players on your team. Each team’s auction draft budget is $250, with a minimum bid of $1. If we assume that you spend exactly $1 on six players on your team, that leaves you with $244 for your remaining eleven players. Basically, you should re-evaluate all player values as if you were in a fourteen team, eleven player league (essentially, setting a higher level for waiver wire value), with a $244 auction budget.

Next Section - The Fantasy Draft: Strategy and Tactics in Auction Drafts





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