Fantasy Baseball: The Five Commandments of Auction Drafts, Pt. 5

Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

When you’re about to throw down an imaginary $260 in a fantasy baseball auction, there are five major rules — one might even go so far as to say commandments — that one must abide by. Those rules are as follows:

Commandment #1: Do Your Homework

Commandment #2: Have a Plan, and Then Have Another Plan

Commandment #3: Respect the Nomination Process

Commandment #4: Exercise Cautious Caution

Without further ado, the last, and arguably most important rule…

Commandment #5: Pay Attention!

Pay attention! You can tell it’s important because it has an exclamation point!

What does that mean? To what should you be paying attention?

Pay attention to bidding wars, especially ones that you win.

Let’s say you’re positive Alex Cobb is going to be in the Cy Young discussion this year. You have the highest bid on Cobb at $11 and it’s going once, going twice, and “RAYSFAN1978” kicks it up to $12.

You go to $13.

He bids $14.

You try and shake him off your tail by jump-bidding straight to $16.

He goes to $17.

You bid $18…but not a penny more.

Going once, going twice, sold! Congratulations! Now you have your ace! Once you’re done high-fiving yourself, or shaking your fist at the screen because you almost got away with highway robbery, make a note of “RAYSFAN1978″‘s love for Cobb. As the season progresses you know that he’ll be interested in trading for Cobb and you can get good value. You should have a list of everyone who fought for your players for precisely this reason.

Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

Pay attention to Price Enforcers.

You’re watching, shocked, as Aaron Hill is about to go for $4, but you already have second and middle infield filled, so you have no interest. Then, with one second left on the clock, “DIRTYHARRY” jumps in with a $5 bid. The original bidder then goes to $6 and wins.

You notice that “DIRTYHARRY” does this often enough, always jumping in at the end and driving the price up a few beans but rarely actually winning the players. This guy is a Price Enforcer, self-appointed value cop, scourge of the draft room.

His entire purpose in a draft is to make sure that no one gets a good deal — at least according to his evaluations. He’ll usually bid a player up to just a few bucks underneath the default ranking of whatever site you’re using. A few things to keep in mind when encountering a Price Enforcer:

1) Do not engage in verbal parlay. The Price Enforcer holds grudges and will start to bid you up specifically.

2) Make him eat a player or two. If you found that you’re about to win a player that you’re not super in love with and “DIRTY HARRY” drives you up a dollar, back off. The Price Enforcer, like any bully, just needs to get smacked in the mouth once or twice to learn some manners.

3) If the Price Enforcer has a lot of money do not nominate your target players. In fact, pray to the diety of your choice that none of your targets are nominated by anyone.

4) Do not feed a Price Enforcer after midnight.

5) Do not become a Price Enforcer yourself. A Price Enforcer, much like a zombie, has a tendency to create more Price Enforcers after biting someone. Do not fall victim to this evil. Being a Price Enforcer is an unnecessary risk. Fantasy baseball is so full of risk already, do you really want to live even more dangerously by playing chicken with your resources? If your auction were a one-on-one battle, then that would be a calculated risk, but to endanger your team so that one eleventh of your competition has to pay an extra two bucks? It’s not worth it.

Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Pay attention to bankrolls and maximum bids.

Keep an eye on how much money your opponents have left and if they could conceivably outbid you on your target players.

If you’re following the 4th Commandment you’ll find yourself in the upper third of the league in regards to available cash. Pay the most amount of attention to those other teams near the top.

If you’re planning on making a splash into starting pitching and the richest drafter already has two aces, then go for it. If you’re planning on making a splash into starting pitching and the richest drafter has a full infield, one outfielder and no starting pitchers, then I’d start nominating some outfielders or starters you don’t care about to whittle down his bank account.

Pay attention to going rates.

If you see players you like going for prices you like, then go ahead and buy them. If you see players you don’t like going for prices you consider bargains, take this as a signal to get ready to spend some dough. When the market cools down after the initial bloodbath of high-priced studs, this is when you want to jump on your mid- to upper-tier targets, like Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Heyward, and Homer Bailey. The price tags on these players can fluctuate by as much as $10 depending on when they’re up for auction.

Pay attention to your tiers and targets.

The freedoms an auction allows you includes the freedom to not have to wait until it’s too late. In a snake draft when there’s a run on relievers, sometimes you have to just cross your fingers and hope someone reasonable makes it back to you. In an auction you can have a shot at every single one and can pick your spots, so long as you’re paying close enough attention.

Just plain pay attention. There is far more mental labor that goes into an auction than a snake draft. Do not let yourself get too distracted. You. Will. Pay.

Lesson learned:

If you attempt to do two difficult tasks at once — like defend a fantasy baseball championship and be a father to an infant — you will end up doing both of them poorly.

If you’re drafting, then lock yourself in a room with your laptop, some refreshments, and a lot of peace and quiet.

If you’re taking care of a baby, set up camp somewhere comfy with a lot of bottles, diapers, and changes of clothes for the both of you. Don’t try and multitask the really important stuff.

After much ado and lamenting, here are your 2014 Woodland Street Alley Cats. The league is 5X5 roto (R, RBI, SB, OBP, TB) x (W, SV+HD, K, ERA, WHIP). There are daily roster moves so I try to have four to five setup guys running at all times and I rotate my starters through the five remaining pitcher slots.

C – A.J. Pierzynski

C – John Jaso

1B – Edwin Encarnacion

2B – Ben Zobrist

SS – Everth Cabrera

3B – Ryan Zimmerman

MI – Martin Prado

CI – Josh Donaldson

OF – Shin-Soo Choo

OF – Domonic Brown

OF – Norichika Aoki

OF – Josh Reddick