Everybody Has A Price

Everybody has A Price

By Eric Steplitus

Hopefully "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase will not coming looking to sue me for using his catch phrase. Anyway, I have a confession to make. One that I am not proud of what so ever, but it is one that I feel like a decent portion of fantasy players also keep in their own closets. I, Enrique James Steoplinski IV, has never participated in an auction draft. I KNOW...I know. Leave your drinks in your cups; you do not need to pour them on me. I realize now how idiotic that is. Knowing I was going to write for this site, I wanted to do some mock auction drafts to see what they are like and get a feel for how they go.

Oh my sweet Beatrice, this form of draft is fantastic.

Welcome to the land of unknown. Different managers have different strategies. No two drafts are alike. Every manager is always involved. Some bidding wars are intense while some are not. This my friends is the mecca. I do not hate snake drafts...but after competing in auctions, I will not ever look at them the same. I want to share with you how my first three drafts went, and how I feel about the team afterwards. Shall we? I will be putting my players in order of amount spent, not the order I drafted them.

1st Draft

Miguel Cabrera (50) Miggy!

Roy Halladay (38)

Dustin Pedroia (33)

Cole Hamels (28)

Starlin Castro (26)

Brett Lawrie (20)

Michael Young (19)

John Axford (16)

Emilo Bonifacio (5)

Chase Utley (4)

Kendrys Morales (4)

Sergio Santos (4)

Ervin Santana (3)

Chris Iannetta (1)

Doug Fister (1)

Matt Joyce (1)

Matt Thorton (1)

Clay Buckholz (1)

Carlos Lee (1)

Lorenzo Cain (1)

Johan Santana (1)

Dayan Viciedo (1)

Chad Billingsley (1)

Well, that is top heavy, isn't it? While I did not commit that mistake as badly as others (one person had Jose Bautista, Matt Kemp and Justin Upton on his team), there is a severe price drop after the Axe Man. Making 10 $1 picks is a mistake I hope to never make again, and I do not think I would be able to be as lucky as I was here. Being able to get a starting catcher in Iannetta, a fantastic pitcher in Fister, a low risk high reward pitcher in Santana, a possible closer in Thornton, and some thump in Joyce and Lee all for a dollar. That was probably just a product of everybody being high bidders, as nobody had any money to spend late. However, besides power being a large hole, this is a pretty solid squad for my first outing.

Not wanting to be such a big spender so early, I decided to be more conservative my second time around to see how I could come out.

2nd Draft

Adrian Gonzalez (45) A-Gon

Giancarlo Stanton (29)

David Price (28)

Starlin Castro (24)

Ian Kennedy (19)

Brandon Phillips (18)

Jimmy Rollins (14)

Josh Beckett (12)

Ryan Madson (11)

Davis Freese (9)

Jose Valverde (8)

Martin Prado (6)

Kendrys Morales (4)

Jamie Garcia (2)

Jhonny Peralta (2)

Alejandro De Aza (2)

Jason Motte (2)

Emilo Bonifacio (2)

Paul Goldschmidt (2)

Hiroki Kuroda (2)

Chris Iannetta (1)

Johnny Cueto (1)

Doug Fister (1)

That did not go so hot either, as after it was all said and done, I had 16 dollars left over. Partner that with Ryan Madson going down for the year (I did the draft before the injury), and it stings to know I wasted 27 dollars. That is worth a damn good outfielder (where I clearly have a hole on this team). If we were ballin' on a budget, I'd like this team, but I wasn’t, and this is far too conservative. I especially dislike my starting pitching, as I had to overpay to even get Price. It was fun to outbid everybody at the end, but it is not worth being so friendly in the beginning. A rotation of Price, Kennedy, Garcia, Kuroda, Cueto and Fister could be a lot worse, but it will not win me much either.

Let's not do that again either. So for the third time around, I allowed the draft to dictate where my money was going.

3rd Draft

Albert Pujols (50) Pujols

Justin Verlander (38)

Dan Haren (26)

Starlin Castro (23)

Brandon Phillips (18)

Alex Gordon (18)

Brian McCann (14)

Miguel Montero (12)

Corey Hart (12)

Ichiro (11)

Josh Beckett (9)

David Ortiz (8)

Martin Prado (5)

Neil Walker (5)

Joe Nathan (3)

Frank Francisco (1)

Justin Masterson (1)

Clay Buckholz (1)

Aroldis Chapman (1)

Delmon Young (1)

Carlos Lee (1)

Neftali Feliz (1)

Brian Fuentes (1)

Let me explain something before we get all judgmental. My internet went out as someone was bidding ONE DOLLAR on Neil Walker. When it came back, the auto bid was so kind to bid 5 dollars for me. This was very late in the draft when I needed closers badly. So I was doing ok with money before this happened. I budgeted 7 dollars to closers, hoping to snag any combination of Jason Motte, Brandon League, Chris Perez or Nathan, but thanks to the internet leaving for a few seconds, I was not able to do as well as I'd like. The internet also went out during the bidding for League, and would not bid for me. He went for $2. Oh well. I did as best as I could, and as long as Feliz's transition to the rotation goes well, and all indications say it will, Nathan will get 30+ saves easily. Francisco could get high 20's low 30's, and with Madson going down (I did this draft after the injury) I spent a dollar on Chapman, hoping he could steal the closer's job from Sean Marshall. If he could not, then I took Fuentes and hoped Grant Balfour would not be able to hold the job in Oakland. If the Neil Walker incident did not happen, I would be able to get better closers, and this team would be set.

I learned a few things along the way, here are some draft tips.

- Budget 85 dollars to your stud slugger and ace.

- Do not pay for saves. There are plenty of good options late that will come cheap that will provide plenty of saves.

- 3 dollars above average is too much to spend on a player.

- Dan Haren is awesomely undervalued.

- Saving money for the end of the draft is a waste. Nobody will have anything because they have better players than you to this point, so outbidding them with 2 dollars won't do you any good come August. This money is imaginary, so spend it, but wisely. 12ish dollars with 7 picks left will be fine.

- When it is your turn to nominate someone, nominate somebody lower in the rankings. People will still have money and over value them, leaving you a better chance for better players to spend less money on them.

This type of draft is a blast. If you are like I was, and have never done this type of draft, quickly change that. Join a mock draft and realize how incredible this is. Warning - this is a lengthy process. If you have a couple hours to kill, this is a perfect way to do it. In fact, that is exactly what I am about to do now. Happy spending!

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