Forget ADP, what about Draft Order?

I saw a lot of talk this off-season about ADP, or Average Draft Position. That's well and good for the 20-25% of owners who draft their teams. But for the majority of us who play auction-style Roto, that doesn't help much. We can call out Jose Reyes first and there's absolutely no guarantee that we'll get him. In fact, we're probably better off not calling him out Reyes first if we really want him.

With many auctions taking place this coming Saturday (I doubt too many people are having their auctions Easter Sunday), I thought I'd run through some dos and don'ts concerning auction positioning and how to make your auction as successful as possible.

DON'T call out players you want early.

I've seen so many owners make this mistake and, worse, never learn from it. Last year, one owner called Kris Benson out in the 2nd round. He went for $13 to the same owner who called him out. If this owner had waited a few rounds, he could have picked up Benson for $7-8. It's one thing to call out a superstar early, since you know he'll go for a certain price anyway, give or take a dollar or two. It's another thing to call out a middling guy early if you want him. There's a lot of money on the table and you're just asking for an inflated price.

DO call out a player early if he's a lynchpin to your strategy or a possible strategy.

Last year, I knew I needed Johan Santana to attempt my six-category plan. I had the 9th call in the auction and was surprised that Santana wasn't called by one of the first 8 owners. I thought for a second about not calling Johan, but realized that I needed to know pretty early if I'd have enough money to grab the offense I needed OR, if I didn't get Johan, what my fallback plan would be on the pitching side. I did get Johan for $47. Could I have picked him up for less? Doubtfully. But, even if that was the case, I needed to know.

DO call out players you don't want early.

This is pretty simple, but I can't tell you how many owners just sit there and call out the most expensive player on the board in every round. If you've got Mark Teahen and Andy Marte frozen on the cheap, call out 3B for the first couple of rounds. If you've got two closers, call out closers. You don't want to do this for the entire auction; at some point you need to concentrate on what your team needs. But you do want to do this for the first three to five rounds. And...

DO target the team(s) with the strongest freezes

I'm always turned off by experts who say you should only concentrate on your own auction. If you have an opportunity to go after your opponent's weak spot(s), I say do it as often as you can. If your opponent is strong on hitting and weak on pitching, call out pitchers. If your opponent is weak on SB, call out the top speed guys. And, if you've been in your league long enough and know your opponent's tendencies, you can begin to call out the types of players you know he'll bite on.

DON'T call out a player at $1 that you don't think is worth $2 or $3 (at least)

This is a rookie mistake, but it's worth mentioning here. I've seen owners get cute in the first three or four rounds and call out some scrub at $1 that they're sure will go for $3-5 since there's plenty of money floating around. Then the room goes silent and that owner looks crestfallen because he's stuck with Carlos Silva at $1.

It's fine to call out a guy who's worth $3 or $4 early, particularly if it's at a tough position to fill like middle infield or catcher. Getting Adam Everett at $1 early isn't a bad thing: you know you'll have more money to spend elsewhere and you know that Everett is a slight bargain at $1. But calling out Cristian Guzman is a complete waste. Unless, of course, you think he's worth $3 or more.

DO pay attention to slots filled by your opponents

If only seven or your league's 12 teams have their catching slots filled, you might want to wait a couple of rounds before calling out your sleeper catcher. If three teams are about to fill up their 1B/3B/UT slots, call out that 1B you don't like. Always keep tabs on this during the auction. You might get an extreme bargain if you're watching positions as they fill up. This especially applies if you play in an A.L. league with the DH only rule.

DON'T call out cheap guys if you're low on money

This is another thing owners do that I don't get. Every year in my league, at least one owner freezes a lot of salary, then buys a big ticket player early, and then starts getting cute and calling out players he wants who are cheap.

What he should be doing (and what you should do) is calling out the best player on the board until the room catches up to him in money left to spend. The worst thing you can do, if you do get in a position where you're lowest in cash, is watch as some second-tier star who is worth $20-25 falls to $15 because you're not taking advantage of the fact that the room is still awash in cash. Make sure the room spends its dough. The cute $5-10 players you want to fill out your team will be there for you later, I promise.

DON'T make "close out" bids

I don't mean not bidding $4 when that's the highest maximum bid left on the table. I mean saying, "Carl Crawford, $60" right at the beginning of your auction. If you believe Crawford is worth $60, that's your business, but chances are the rest of the room doesn't. You'll feel better if you get him for $50 or so.

The auction dynamic is one of the most fun but also challenging portions of the Roto game. Players who have only played draft formats tell me that this is the most significant adjustment that they have to make; even valuation is easier than managing an auction. The tips above certainly won't lead to the perfect auction, but they will help you avoid the pratfalls that so many owners, even experienced ones, tend to fall prey to.