2.07.2007

Auction League?

I would be interested in transitioning to an "Auction" league. I would like to get a discussion going about the feasibility of changing our format to an Auction league this year, or some time in the future. I think that the Auction format is more desirable in principle. However, there are concerns with actual execution and perhaps timing. Seeing as how we have to do our draft in a chat room anyway, I don't think it would take so much more time. What does everyone else think?

7 comments:

Strobl said...

I would probably be open to the idea of an auction league, although I'd have to find out more about the differences involved before I commit. My feeling is that the new stat categories we're using might be a big enough change for this season, and perhaps a format change might be best left until next year. I think some of us would have a relatively easy time with the transition, but I fear the principle of "why should it go well?" Ultimately I'd be willing to go that route in the future though.

Dave said...

I am definitely open to the idea of an auction league. Whether that should be applied to this league or to our non-keeper league is something I'm not so sure about. I think applying the keeper concept in this league will be conceptually more difficult in that it could lead to a situation where you sign the next Albert Pujols for $1 in year 1 and then can keep him at that bargain basement price forever. We'd have to grapple with that issue. It might be easier to just have our non-keeper league be an auction league to avoid such complications, but I'm open to the discussion.

Rich said...

One idea is thatI think would minimally infringe on our current keeper league concept would be to assign any keeper whatsoever a certain value, say $30. If you turn in one of your keepers, you get an extra $30 to spend that next year. This avoids the problem of assigning salaries for the most part. Another option is inflation, say set the keeper's salary by what you paid for him and then add $5 to his cost every year. I think that there is some value in experimenting in a redraft league first. On the other hand, I think of this as our "expert" league and having an auction draft is the next step.

Strobl said...

Do you both still play in the Babe Ruth League? I don't know how many leagues you want to take on, but I would be willing to play in three if we wanted to implement an auction league in addition to the keeper league and ESPN. If you're still involved in the other I'm not sure if you'd want to do four.

I suspect that there would be unforeseen complications in addition to the question of setting value for keepers. One thing we could do is use BP values for each keeper updated annually, so if you pay $5 for Pujols one year and the next year he's valued at $30, it would cost $30 to keep him. Not an ideal method, but...

Rich said...

I can do lots of leagues.

It looks like you are interested at least. That's the important thing. I think I will send out an e-mail soon asking for money again and asking people to comment here about the auction idea for this year or next.

Dave said...

I still do the Babe Ruth league and i don't think i could up the league total to 4 so I'd prefer to either turn the BP league into an auction league (this year or next) or experiment with doing a redraft league as the auction league. Doing the redraft one as an auction league. If we were to make the BP league the auction league, I'd be more in favor of assigning a generic dollar value to keepers than any other method. I particularly have a negative gut reaction to the inflation concept, though I know it's a common one in auction leagues. If there's one thing that Stephen Colbert has taught me, it's that you've got to go with your gut as opposed to rational deliberation. As a result, my position on this is set in stone (i.e. though the facts may change, my opinion never will.)

Anonymous said...

An auction league definitely interests me. I would prefer to just go ahead and fold the keeper league into an auction draft. Given that I've managed to place in the bottom quartile of every FLB league for the past few years, I am not a candidate for managing teams in different leagues with different rules. Beyond setting a ~$30 price for the four keepers everyone gets this year, perhaps we should mandate the 2006 holdovers get dumped back into the draft pool next year. Otherwise whomever has Pujols and a couple of other clearly great players will have them locked in at the still great price for several years.