2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: 12-team mixed Rotisserie mock auction – CBSSports.com

Auction strategy is a monstrosity of a topic that could never be fully represented by a single mock.

Every auction has its own personality. The bidding skews toward the most dominant behaviors and timing can play as big of a role as a player’s actual value.

Our mock (well, it’ll be an actual league this time, but that’s neither here nor there) was a prime example of that.

Notice how all the first round-caliber players outpriced our projections, with 11 players going for $40 or more? Seems most everyone was taking a studs-and-duds approach, which is always how I’ve handled mixed-league auctions, with positive results. But when too many owners are doing it, this is what happens. And if you can only afford three or four studs instead of five or six, you’re asking an awful lot of your duds.

But this is why we publish auction values. You know the math works out for them, at least in a 12-team league, so if you see players going for too much in the early stages, you know to pull back and save your dollars for the bargains that will inevitably arise later, when everyone’s funds are running low. 

Conversely, if you see players going for too little, you know to ramp up your bidding for the studs most often nominated at that stage, recognizing that too much money will still be in circulation in the middle stages.

Clearly, the former scenario is the one that played out here, so my initial plan of drafting three first-round talents was instead limited to one, Paul Goldschmidt. It allowed me take advantage of some of these bargains among the mid-range players:

• Kyle Seager at $16
• Adrian Beltre at $12
• Aledmys Diaz at $12
• Todd Frazier at $12
• Hanley Ramirez at $10
• Evan Longoria at $9
• Jackie Bradley at $9
• Jose Ramirez at $9
• Jason Kipnis at $8
• Jose Quintana at $8
• Dallas Keuchel at $7
• Carlos Santana at $5

Nobody took better advantage of this stage of the auction than Mike Werner, though, whose unwillingness to draft a single player for $30 or more allowed him to load up on the $10-to-15 types who probably should have gone for closer to $20. It’s a deep roster, to be sure, but in settling for lesser players he’s also investing in lower-probability outcomes. 

Given the sheer volume, though, it would take an epidemic of mid-level failures for him to fall out of the running. 

Here’s who took part:

Adam Aizer, Podcast Producer/Host, CBS Sports
Heath Cummings, Senior Fantasy Writer, CBS Sports
Andrew Fiorentino, RotoWire
JB Gilpin, Razzball
Mike Kuchera, The Fantasy Man
Phil Ponebshek, Patton & Co
Garion Thorne, FNTSY Sports Network
Jeff Tobin, Director of Editorial, CBS Sports
Chris Towers, Fantasy Writer, CBS Sports
Mike Werner, Friends With Fantasy Benefits
R.J. White, Editor, CBS Sports
Scott White, Senior Fantasy Writer, CBS Sports