first fantasy football auction

[Aces McGee]

Hey guys

Sorry for the "help me out" post.

I recently took over a franchise in a ten-team keeper league, and in this league, they do free agency via an auction. I've never done an auction before.

My main question is how do I judge, roughly, what players are worth? Does anyone have a reliable source for dollar values for players? Knowing that different leagues have different salary caps, is there a way to modify those dollar values for different league formats?

Any other auction tips would be appreciated. I'm not sure that this thread has any legs, but I figured I'd try. Maybe some other people will get something out of this, too.

Thanks in advance.

-McGee

[dkgojackets]

http://www.fftoolbox.com/2006/auctionvalues.cfm

A link to get you in the ballpark.

[Jack of Arcades]

Be prepared to overpay for the top RBs if you have to. If you don't, you'll end up overpaying for the other RBs.

You should be able to pick up a servicable QB for cheap, real cheap. Don't splash for Peyton.

Don't spend more than $1 for a kicker or defense.

[Aces McGee]

Thanks, Jack. And thanks to the other guy for the link.

[ QUOTE ]
Be prepared to overpay for the top RBs if you have to. If you don't, you'll end up overpaying for the other RBs.

[/ QUOTE ]

My predecessor actually left me in pretty good shape for this year. I have Edge for this year, and Ronnie Brown, Benson, and Gore through 2007. Even so, I'm going to try to grab guys like Willie Parker and Reuben Droughns for less than market value, as Larry Johnson is a free agent this year in our league, and bidding on Parker and Droughns occurs before bidding on LJ does.

[ QUOTE ]
You should be able to pick up a servicable QB for cheap, real cheap. Don't splash for Peyton.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is basically my only need area. I have Bulger, but since all indications are that the Rams are going to run more this year, I am not totally comfortable with him as my starter. There aren't a ton of options available, but I agree that you should never spend much for a quarterback; I never draft one before the 7th round or so in a draft league. I may try to just get a one-year fill-in, like Favre, Brunell, or Volek, and hopefully get Kitna cheaply.

[ QUOTE ]
Don't spend more than $1 for a kicker or defense.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is another place where a lot of people screw up in fantasy, in my opinion. The draft equivalent of spending too much on defense and kickers is, I guess, drafting your entire starting lineup (kicker and D/ST included) before drafting backups at any position. There are some top-ranked defenses available and I'm sure they'll go for too much, so I've identified a couple of lesser-ranked teams that have some good matchups in the early season.

-McGee

[bonderman]

This has been a good thread, I liked that link to fftoolbox and the other information has been useful.

My only contribution is, if you are willing to do some math, I would say to figure out what percentage of your team's total points will come from each position, and use that as a starting point.

For example, if you estimate that RB's will contribute 40% of your total team points, then figure on spending roughly 40% of your budget on that position. Of course, you would adjust from this starting point based on a variety of factors, such as which "keepers" you already have in hand.

Another factor would be the "dropoff" in performance at each position: one reason why you won't want to spend much on a kicker or defense is that there is not much decrease in fantasy productivity from the number 1 kicker to the number 8 to the number 15. The decline in fantasy value after the top 5-10 QB's or RB's is much greater, so it is worthwhile to "overbudget" for top players at these positions.

My 2 cents.