Auction Draft

Here is an auction draft that I did which was conducted on ESPN, but the league is actually being run on Yahoo.

A couple of notes, I have never done an auction draft before, but I read a few strategies on various sites, and realized that this was a 10 teamer 5 X 5 with a $260 budget, with what seemed like a not necessarily experienced group (this was not a league I ran, it was with some people I found on www.fantasybaseballcafe.com ) that I was going to try a STARS and SCRUBS strategy...........this strategy suggests that you buy a handful of premium players and then count on getting a group of $1-$5 values at the end. This league requires that we start 13 hitters, 9 pitchers and we also have a 3 player bench. Along with my stars and scrubs strategy I was planning on buying some $1 middle relievers to throw into my lineup when I don't have starting pitchers going, to improve my rates and get a few K's and possibly vulture some wins and saves.

My primary goals in this draft were to get Hanley, Pujols and McCann.......it didn't work out perfectly, but I think I nabbed a good team


3B
David Wright
$41
SS
Hanley Ramirez
$40
OF
Alfonso Soriano
$25
C
Brian McCann
$17
P
Jonathan Papelbon
$17
P
Mariano Rivera
$15
P
Rich Harden
$14
1B
Carlos Pena
$11
OF
Adam Dunn
$10
P
Jonathan Broxton
$9
P
Javier Vazquez
$9
OF
Justin Upton
$7
P
Chris Carpenter
$7
OF
Lastings Milledge
$6
MI
Rickie Weeks
$5
P
Dan Wheeler
$5
CI
Paul Konerko
$4
P
Ted Lilly
$4
P
Josh Johnson
$4
OF
Chris Young
$3
Util
Adrian Beltre
$3
2B
Kelly Johnson
$1
P
Johnny Cueto
$1
P
JJ Putz
$1
P
Juan Cruz
$1


Soriano for $25 was excellent, I didn't even have him in my plans but when I saw where he was shaking out, I had to throw my bid in. .....................I wasn't able to get Pujols because he went for $52, but when I grabbed Wright as the next guy, I was very pleased............getting Broxton for $9 and Josh Johnson for $4 were nice value picks for me, as were Konerko for $4, Chris Young OF for $3 and Kelly Johnson for $1,................I realized that Stars and Scrubs is the way to go in a more passive draft with fewer teams like this.

All in all I was pleased with my team and felt like I grabbed tons of value and only overpaid for a few a players that I thought were essential to my roster, like Chris Carpenter.

I hope to do more auctions next season as I like the fluidity of the market in an auction and I like how personal preference can come into play and you truly can build the team you want.