wondering your opinion re playing in an NL only, 5x5, with just 12 teams. How does this effect bid prices? Do you just reduce the prices by the percentage of fewer teams compared with a 13 team league? ie about 8%. Or do you allocate more money to the top players?Generally speaking, the prices on the top players stay the same, the prices on the players in the middle are slightly lower, and the prices on the players at the bottom of the heap vary greatly.
I talked about this phenomenon last spring. Fewer teams lead to better players being available in the endgame of your auction and better players sitting in your free agent pool at the end of the season. There's a greater chance that a player you have ranked at a $3-4 bid limit will be available in the last round or two of your auction for $1.
After a while, owners in these types of leagues figure this out. The result is that studs tend to get paid the same amount that they get paid in a "full" league auction. In one sense, they're not getting a pay raise, but in another sense they are, since they're getting a higher percentage of the league's available money in a 12-team league than they are in a 13-team league.
When I used to play in leagues like this, I would run through a mathematical process to pare down the bids. To provide an example, I'll use Mike Fenger's 2008 hitter prices from Alex Patton's software. The same exercise applies to pitchers as well, but I treat each pool separately.
1) I break Mike's bids into 14 groups of 13 hitters apiece. This is the number of hitters that would be purchased in a 13-team league. I then figure out the salaries of those hitters.
2) I break Mike's bids into 14 groups of 12 hitters apiece. This is the number of hitters I'd actually be buying in a 12-team league. I also figure out the salaries of these 12 hitters.
3) I multiply #1 by $3,120 / $3,380 (.9231). This is total amount of salary available in a 12-team league with a $260 salary cap divided by the total amount of salary available in a 13-team league with a $260 salary cap.
The results are below.
2008 Price Conversion; 13-team N.L. to 12-team N.L.
| MF-13 | MF-12 | MF-13 (*.9231) | +/- | |
| Tier #1 | $469 | $437 | $433 | -4 |
| Tier #2 | $352 | $334 | $325 | -9 |
| Tier #3 | $283 | $275 | $261 | -14 |
| Tier #4 | $224 | $218 | $207 | -11 |
| Tier #5 | $197 | $187 | $182 | -5 |
| Tier #6 | $173 | $171 | $160 | -11 |
| Tier #7 | $139 | $144 | $128 | -16 |
| Tier #8 | $107 | $116 | $99 | -17 |
| Tier #9 | $80 | $90 | $74 | -16 |
| Tier #10 | $59 | $67 | $54 | -13 |
| Tier #11 | $43 | $52 | $44 | -8 |
| Tier #12 | $31 | $38 | $29 | -9 |
| Tier #13 | $16 | $28 | $15 | -13 |
| Tier #14 | $13 | $15 | $12 | -3 |
| Totals | $2,186 | $2,172 | $2,019 | -153 |
Mike's hitting bids come out to about $168 per team in a 13-team league. My leagues typically spend $175 per team on hitters, so if your league is like mine you'll want to make this adjustment before you make the calculations above.
You'll notice that I've only pared $153 off of the hitters, not $168. This is because 14 $1 hitters are all falling off of the chart since you're buying 14 fewer hitters, and because rounding stole a $1 away from the hitter pool (you'll want to add that dollar back).
Theoretically, Gypsy Soul is correct that leagues should pare about eight percent (actually about 7.7%) off of all of the hitting prices based on what hitters will earn in a 12-team league. However, the variability of hitters at the bottom of the pool means that you shouldn't do this.
The formula I've concocted above doesn't reflect the reality of what hitters will earn in a smaller league, but what I expect teams to pay, and the fact that I know I'm going to get a slightly better hitter in the endgame. You're taking a loss on the top hitters, but this will more than be made up for by the fact that your profits at the end should be more significant.
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