WIth ESPN auctions, the $260 is specifically for the auction itself, once it's over free agent pick-ups are conducted through a typical waiver add/drop process. So, you're going to want to spend all your $260. You are correct. A "draft" order is determined, then we progress in that order nominating a player. Everyone has the opportunity to bid on that player until eventually the final bid brings him home. I believe there's 15 seconds that need to run off between a bid and a player being 'sold'. There is always one owner who will sit and let the clock wind down to 1 or 2 seconds then up the bid by a buck, this is annoying as shit, don't be that owner. Auctions are the most fun if the owners nominate players at random, as opposed to progressing down the ESPN list of values. Maybe you think Jeter blows and isn't worth $X amount of dollars, so you nominate him early so that other teams will spend their cash. There are plenty of strategies; some teams will nominate players they don't want early, some will nominate players they have to have and go all-in early, some will save cash to cherry pick the sleepers they definitely want, etc. It's strongly likely if this is your first auction that you won't be 100% thrilled with some players on your team afterwards, but at least you'll have the chance at any player you want. As a side-note, there are relief pitchers named 'Ryan Braun' and 'Mike Stanton' listed on ESPN, if you nominate them just to get new auction participants to waste money by bidding before realizing what they're doing then you are a douche.
I'd also never done an auction before this year. I HIGHLY recommend doing a mock auction before ours starts: <a class="postlink" href="http://games.espn.go.com/flb/mockdraftlobby" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://games.espn.go.com/flb/mockdraftlobby</a> Now, this mock will be good to get you used to the system. But since it's not a real team, there's always assholes who bid too high on everyone in a mock. So it's not going to give you an idea of the kind of team you can build, but it will help you to figure out how the system works and what you have to do. I did a real league (free...) on ESPN just to get a feel for the team you can build, it's A LOT of fun, more fun than a draft, Kinsey was right.
One other thing I'll mention is that the dollar amounts assigned to players are essentially their 'pre-draft rankings', you don't need to be tied to a certain dollar amount b/c that's what ESPN has him rated at for the auction. If you're Sherwood and you love Jason Bay, you can go $10 on him even though ESPN has him at $1. Similarly, you don't need to feel obligated to bid up a player b/c it looks like an owner is getting a "deal". Juan Pierre's listed at $10, if somebody's getting him for $6 then that's fine by me, I still don't want him. The majority of people I know who end up unhappy with their teams have at least 1 guy they were trying to bid up a couple bucks and got stuck with. Aside from that, a pretty safe recommendation is a $180/$80 split for Hitters/pitchers. There are tons of other methods, some people buy only $1 pitchers and stack their line-up, some go for a split in stars/scrubs, etc. but that's a pretty basic breakdown to work off of.
Incredibly underwhelmed by my squad and looking forward to a 7th place finish. As always, willing to wheel and deal, in addition to my roster I've got top waiver priority if there's a scrub FA you'd want included b/c you missed out and just have to have them in one of our limited bench spots. That'll change tomorrow when I dump my army of mediocre 3, glad I queued up only pitchers, nice work autodraft.
Definitely enjoyed the auction format much more than a snake draft. Nothing makes you madder in a snake than being one person away from the player you want and they grab them.
You fools. Pitching was so deep this year that I was able to get my murderers row infield, high upside OF, and still be able to grab guys like John Lackey for $1. ONE DOLLAR JOHN LACKEY. I'll be on cruise control til the finals. See you suckers later.
Besides Buckholtz I wouldn't want anyone else on your pitching staff. My team had a staff just like that last year, I came in 11th.
Jaime Garcia disagrees. Staff won't last, just have to troll the waiver wire till I build up my usual collection of stragglers and ne'er do wells having career years.
And my team limp dicks its way out of the starting gate in last place. Which of my pitchers will implode next?
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Well... fuck. Congratulations to Guinnessville Beers and Punk Ass on making the finals. Punk Ass was actually one of the randoms I picked up, so we should probably vote for Beers to win this for the pride of the league. I'd like to point out that, had the stupid thing reseeded like it SHOULD HAVE instead of sticking to brackets, I'd have been playing Kinsey and would have WON 8-2. It's kind of bullshit that seed one plays seed four in the second round while seed 2 plays seed 6. I'm writing something into the rules before next season starts that says that I'm going to manually fucking reseed the playoffs to avoid that happy horseshit. ANYWAY. We agreed upon: 100 - Best Regular season record 100 - 3rd place 300 - 2nd place 700 - 1st place So Kinsey and I fight in the 3rd place game to get our money back.
After winning or placing the last two seasons, my team was nothing short of a disaster this year. While it takes a total team effort to be as laughably bad as The Cat's Pajamas were in 2011, I'd like to single out Hanley Ramirez as the leading contributor to this embarrassment of a fantasy baseball team. Anyway, still enjoyed the league (and particularly the auction draft - hat tip to Kinsey for finally pushing that down our throats). I'll be back next season to redeem myself. Good luck to those still playing.
I forgot that 3rd place got their money back, guess I have to pay attention one more week. Good season this year, good luck to the 2 in the championship round. I knew I was in trouble when both Weeks & Rollins went down, hard to put up decent numbers in MI slots by starting guys like Bloomquist & Pennington.
Considering the state of my team, and the fact that I ran out of transactions, you shouldn't have too tough of a time here...
As a participant dating back to the days of the TMMB, it's nice to finally win a season. I'm lucky that when it counted my guys were able to "hit 'em where they aint." I had a ton of fun, this is consistently the most interesting (and fun) pool I'm in every year. Also, Justin Verlander? What the fuck? I remember him losing 20 games in a season without breaking a sweat, when did he get good? Same time next year fellas. Guinness on me.