# 2012 SDMB Fantasy Baseball Auction League **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 21, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532 "2012-02-21T16:01:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/1 "2012-02-21T16:01:27Z")
I just set up an auction league, my first for baseball. A few people have already expressed interest, so hopefully we can get at least 10 people. I’ve set the max at 12 right now, which I think is a good goal for the first year. The draft will be on 3/11 at 8pm EST. If people want something closer to the start of the season, I’m all for that - but it will have to be during the week. Settings are standard 5x5 Roto, but I’ve swapped out AVG for OBP (because I hate AVG). I’ve also set trade vetos to commish ruling. I have an extremely laissez faire attitude towards trading, and hate it see trades vetoed based on how “fair” people think they are, rather than basing it only on whether or not there is collusion (which there never is). I’m asking that people with at least some experience sign up, rather than using this as an opportunity to finally see what this “baseball fantasy game” is all about. 🙂 Other small tweaks: I’ve added a FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget) for waiver picks. We can discuss whether people want to add unused draft money to this. I didn’t change any of the standard default positions. I’d rather not rock the boat too much regarding things that directly affect the draft, like adding roster spots, changing positions around, etc. I want all the fantasy expert advice out there to be as relevant as possible during the season (aside from plugging in OBP). I switched transactions from being effective “tomorrow” to “today”. I like being able to make roster moves based on the weather, daily injuries, etc., so this allows managers to be that much more responsive in setting their lineups. Play ball! ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/2 "2012-02-21T19:06:10Z")
I’m in. It’ll add some interest to my draft prep - I’ll finally be able to use all of that “Value” data and advice that the _Baseball Forecaster_ includes. Then again, maybe I’ll just get so confused that I’ll just wind up throwing up my hands in despair. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/3 "2012-02-21T19:08:16Z")
I’m excited about it. Fantasy baseball started as auction drafts - and now it’s rare to find anyone apart from the experts that actually do auctions. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/4 "2012-02-21T19:14:14Z")
I’ve been wanting to do one for years - ever since I read _Fantasyland_. At the very least, I’ll DEFINITELY be ready for the SDMB draft. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/5 "2012-02-22T19:43:42Z")
I’ll join. I’ve played two years - I was uncompetitive the first year and mid-pack the second year. That satisfies the “some experience” requirement. Plus, I should be available for the 3/11 draft. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/6 "2012-02-22T20:10:26Z")
PM sent - we’re up to 4. I think bare minimum we need 8, and I’d love to have 12. Don’t be shy folks - Yahoo lets you sign up for at least 6 leagues these days. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/7 "2012-02-22T22:58:19Z")
I’ll join as well. I’ve done plenty of mock auctions, but never played in an actual auction league. I’ve played in about 50 roto and ten head to head leagues over the past few years. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/8 "2012-02-23T14:12:34Z")
I’ve joined… The only time I was ever in an auction league was the first fantasy baseball league I was ever in, back in college. To get an idea of how long ago that was, I remember that my big coup was grabbing a fairly unknown rookie late in the auction for $1. Turned out that Mark McGwire had a fairly good rookie year… Does Yahoo do mock auctions? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/9 "2012-02-23T14:23:55Z")
> [@Wilson](#): > > Does Yahoo do mock auctions? Yup! > **[Login - Sign in to Yahoo](https://login.yahoo.com/?.src=spt&.intl=us&.done=https%3A%2F%2Fbaseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com%2Fb1%2F73690%2Fmock_closed&specId=usernameRegWithName)** > > Sign in to access the best in class Yahoo Mail, breaking local, national and global news, finance, sports, music, movies... You get more out of the web, you get more out of life. We’re currently at 4 players, halfway there. Anybody else out there on the brink of joining? Please feel free. Looks like this is a first for most of us, so let’s all cut our teeth together. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/10 "2012-02-23T15:06:46Z")
> [@Wilson](#): > > Does Yahoo do mock auctions? Yes. [Here.](http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/73690/mock_lobby) I think I’ll do a couple this weekend. ETA: Sorry, **Munch** - for some reason, your post hadn’t shown up when I posted. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/11 "2012-02-24T16:00:38Z")
Nice, we’re already up to 8 teams. There’s been a suggestion to add some depth. I’m inclined to increase rosters a bit in order to equate the player pool to a 12 team league, but I’d rather we just get 4 more people to sign up. Please feel free to send out the league info to anyone you know that would be a good fit. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/12 "2012-02-24T16:03:04Z")
If we add depth, will we also be increasing our starting budgets correspondingly? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/13 "2012-02-24T16:04:55Z")
> [@Winnowill](#): > > If we add depth, will we also be increasing our starting budgets correspondingly? Yup. I’d just divide $3120 (12 teams at $260/team) into however many teams we end up with. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/14 "2012-02-24T16:16:33Z")
So $390 each, as it stands now. Nice! Of course, that’ll just make me think I’m more flush with cash than I really am. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/15 "2012-02-29T20:29:46Z")
Another shout out there to see if anyone is interested. We have 8 managers, so the draft is going to happen on 3/11. To the exisiting managers, how do we feel about roster expansion? Particularly, do we increase the IP max to also reflect a 12 team league? ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/16 "2012-03-01T15:49:25Z")
Basically, in order to really reflect a twelve-team league, we’d each have to run a team and a half. If we’re going to be expanding the rosters at all, we have to expand the IP max, otherwise there’s no point in expanding pitching. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/17 "2012-03-01T16:14:56Z")
I’d prefer expansion regardless of the number of teams, but I’ll put this out there - I actually think the draft goes better when teams have some reason to deviate from default values, so I’d be happy about deliberately avoiding reflecting a standard league in some way. OBP is a little bit of a reason to change your expectations, and I think the more of those reasons you have the more fun it is. I’d like to see how a draft would go without the average/projected values attached to every player’s name, or if the values were only rounded to the nearest $10. I ought to be able to get at least one more owner. I’d feel a lot better about ten than eight. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/18 "2012-03-01T16:46:09Z")
Another option is going AL or NL only. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/19 "2012-03-02T00:29:26Z")
I’ve been playing an NL only ten team league for the past few years and really enjoy the format. With ten teams, I think going AL or NL only might be the best solution. Otherwise, I"m 100% in favor of expansion and raising IP as well. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532/20 "2012-03-02T13:55:15Z")
I’d pro-AL/NL only. I’ll post it on the league board. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-sdmb-fantasy-baseball-auction-league/613532.md?page=2)