Fantasy Baseball Auction Draft Strategy

Regardless of whether you're a novice or have been auctioning prior to Pete Rose' first gambling debt, following the steps below will help you raise your auction game to new heights. The auction draft is a poker game. Many know the other owners' strategies through the years, so they may do something totally different than expected in order to ambush you. Be awake, adjust to the trends and expect the unexpected and you should reign supreme in 2008.

I've been playing fantasy baseball since the 1997 season, I rarely miss the playoffs, and I've brought home three Fantasy baseball championships. Over the last decade, I've come up with the following can't miss strategies for fantasy baseball auctions, team management, and cheat sheet development.

1. Develop a cheat sheet that matches your league.
There many websites and magazines that provide cheatsheets, but not many are tailored exactly to your league specifications (roster limits, scoring, etc.). The first step is to allocate the right amount of money to the right number of players on your cheat sheet. A 10-team, 16-roster spot, $200 auction, for example, should have $2000 (10 teams x $200) allocated to the top 160 players (10 teams x 16 roster spots) on the cheat sheet. Look at a minimum of five sources to ensure that your rankings are more of a consensus approach and adjust them accordingly based on injuries, position battles through spring training, personal preferences, etc.

2. Allocate your budget properly but remain flexible.
The next step is to develop a budget for each position that you follow, but not stick to it exactly during the auction. You need to be able to adjust on the fly depending on how the auction is going. I generally am willing to spend more money on hitting and less on the riskier pitchers. I would strongly recommend devising a salary allocation format by position as a means to keep you on budget. Listed below is mine:

1B/3B (17%-20%)
If your league includes DH in first baseman, then this position is even deeper than usual. But in general, there are so many top tier first baseman (Pujols, Howard, Fielder, Tex, Morneau, Big Papi, Hafner) that I would not blow my budget at this position. In 2007 preseason ranking, Prince Fielder was ranked in the 15-20 range, but ended up as a top tier first baseman. The same can be said for 3B -- as any of the top 10 could become top 3 by the end of 2008 and there are some promising youngsters to take a flier on late in the auction (Gordon, Longoria, Josh Fields).

2B/SS (27%-30%)
Position scarcity is evident at these two positions -- especially at 2nd base where Chase Utley is the clear cut #1. I would be willing to buck up some of my budget to ensure I have a top 5 player at each of these positions. The drop off from top 5 to the rest of the crop is significant.

Catcher (6%-8%)
Another position where you want to get a top 5 player (V-mart, R Martin, Mauer, McCann, Posada), but buyer beware as the injury bug usually bites a top catcher every year; so if possible, you should draft a decent backup that is entrenched as the starter (Pierzynski / Ramon Hernandez to name a few) and keep an eye on rookie Geovany Soto if you miss out on the studs.

Outfield (20%-22%)
Not as a deep a position as many would expect since many of the top players are coming off of injury plagued seasons (Soriano, Sheffield, Beltran), but the talent pool is still one of the deepest. I generally try to get one top 10 Outfielder and then fill in the rest of my outfield roster with players that might be undervalued but could have bounce back seasons (Burrell, Andruw Jones, V Wells) and a few younger/upside types (Kemp, Bourn, Milledge).

Starting Pitching (20%-22%)
Very deep position and high injury risk, which is why I advocate getting many above average pitchers to minimize your risk and allow other teams to bid through the roof for Peavy and Santana. Look at their strikeouts to innings pitched ratio. The closer that ratio is to being one or above, the better. High walk pitchers are a recipe for disaster! Target pitchers on lower profile teams that have strong K:BB ratio (Harang, Vazquez, Burnett etc.)

Relievers (5%-7%)
I never spend heavily on relievers, as each year there seem to be a few guys that emerge as top notch closers that can be had on the waiver wire (ex. Jose Valverde, JJ Putz etc.)