Another Look at Auction Slotting

Back in March, my colleague wrote a piece about Perry Van Hook's (of fantasybaseball.com's) LABR auction.

If you're interested in Van Hook's piece on auction slotting, it can be found here. I'm going to link to another perennial expert league player, Jason Grey of ESPN.com, because his explanation is far more succinct.

In this method, you can set a slot value for each player, which can be a helpful tool to keep you on track. You create a dollar value for each roster slot. See Chart A to the right.

OK, now you have a template set up for how you are going to budget your draft to acquire each player. You can try to stick with it, and if you get over or under budget, that just means you can spend less or more on the next player(s) on the list. But you can go one step further, too, by assigning a specific position to target for each slot. See Chart B for a good example of what I'm talking about.

You could even add one more step by assigning a specific player or two for each slot that you would like to target at that slot's budget, or lower. For example, you could make a notation that for that $30 outfield slot, you would like to acquire Matt Kemp, Josh Hamilton or Carl Crawford.

If you buy a player you had tagged for the $30 slot for just $28, shift that $2 to another slot as you see fit. If you wind up getting a player for an amount over your slot number, adjust downward elsewhere. The numbers are not set in stone, of course. They're just helpful guidelines to help you construct your roster a little more efficiently if you are having difficulties with budget management.

Chart A is presented below.

Chart A (roster)

Hitters	Pitchers
30	25
25	15
20	15
20	10
15	5
15	3
10	2
10	2
10	1
10	--
8	--
5	--
3	--
1	--
Total: $182	Total: $78

Keep in mind that slotting isn't Gray or Van Hook's idea; this concept was rolled out by Steve Mann and Ken Mallin in the early 1990s. But it doesn't matter who originated the concept; I think it stinks. Why?

1) Why wouldn't you pay more than $30 for a hitter or $25 for a pitcher if that's what they're worth?
I can understand the argument for avoiding paying for top pitchers. But for hitters this argument doesn't make sense. Hitters commonly earn over $30 every season, and often it is the same hitters earning well over $30 year in and year out. If Albert Pujols goes for $45 in a 5x5 league I'm probably going to laugh. But I'll cry if he only goes for $32 because that's two dollars over my highest "slot" price.

2) There isn't much logic to slotting by position.
If a significant amount of value at the auction is in the OF, why wouldn't I spend my money there? I might pay a dollar or two more for position scarcity, but slotting in a $25 price for a 2B and a $20 price for a SS is ultimately going to force me to pay more for guys like Mark DeRosa and Mike Aviles when the superior options at those positions sail past those prices.

3) The best bargains often come in the endgame, and slotting discourages $1 bids.
Van Hook's linked article above discourages Stars and Scrubs, and I'd agree that you don't want to buy a team in an A.L. or N.L.-only league with six or seven studs at par value and a team of $1 bums. However, price variance often leads to players you have listed at $2-4 on your sheet falling to you for $1. Forcing yourself into a $2 minimum bid is simply adding a dollar worth of salary to these types of players. It isn't maximizing value.

4) You should get the bargains wherever they may fall.
In any kind of auction, the goal is to pay less than your perceived value of what you are buying. If you believe that Carl Crawford is worth $43 and he's sitting at $36, you would be foolish not to say $37. You're not going to get another opportunity in your entire auction to get another $6 bargain.

The dirty secret about slotting is that it's actually a relic from the old Stage Two days of Rotisserie Baseball. If you're in an auction where multiple owners are slotting, buy early and buy often. You should wind up with enough significant bargains on top players early that it won't matter if you buy a stars and scrubs team. Even if only half of your scrubs work out and provide marginal profits, it should still put you well ahead of the game.

Whatever you do, don't use slotting. If it doesn't make sense in a real auction to bid significantly less than something is worth, it won't make sense in Roto either.