Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: How to Craft an Elite Auction League Team

Although it may not be the preferred form of fantasy drafts, auction leagues can be a lot of fun, and once people try them, they're usually hooked. The first ever Rotisserie fantasy baseball league was of the auction variety, and it truly is the purest form of drafting, as everyone has an equal opportunity to take every player.

An auction is much different than a snake draft, and it takes a lot more planning. Auctions force you to balance a budget and to make sure that you have enough cap space to fill out your roster with quality players. It isn't for everyone, but if you can master the auction draft, then you can do anything in the fantasy sports world.

Here are three tips that will help you dominate your baseball auction. 

Nominate Players You Don't Want

There are different ways of doing an auction, but the way I have always done it is that you go around the room and each person nominates a player of their choice, and that is done until the draft is completed. While the majority of the people in the draft tend to nominate big-name players that everyone wants, that isn't the smart way to do things. What I like to do is fill a position early, and from that point forward, I only nominate players from that position.

This accomplishes a couple of things. For one, it helps in not tipping your hand with regards to what players or positions you're interested in filling. Secondly, it's a smart way of getting other people to waste their money. If you already have Albert Pujols, then don't hesitate to nominate guys like Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder, because they'll go for a pretty penny and it will deflate the cap room of others.

Finally, nominating players you don't want allows you to conserve money for longer, and it keeps players that you actually desire on the market longer as well. If you play your cards right, you can get players you like later in the auction for a discount because you have forced others to spend. 

Don't Pay for Saves

With top-notch closers like Mariano Rivera, Craig Kimbrel and Jonathan Papelbon staring you right in the face, it can be tempting to pay a premium to get one or two elite players at the position. While that might help you lock up the saves category, it unnecessarily depletes your cap space and leaves you less money to compete in all of the other areas.

While other closers may not put up peripherals as good as those of Rivera, saves is a volatile stat that swings wildly from year to year. It really isn't dependent upon anything, as a team that wins 100 games could have a closer that gets the same amount of saves as a team that wins 60 games. It has everything to do with how close the games are, and that's impossible to predict.

I've been playing fantasy baseball for quite some time now, and whether it has been an auction or a snake draft, I have always been able to find serviceable closers late or at a discounted price. Also, at least 10 or more of the league's closers currently will have lost their jobs to injury or ineffectiveness at some point this season, so there will be plenty of options in free agency. 

Value Positional Versatility

In the real-life game of baseball, utility players that can play a number of positions are like gold because of the flexibility they give managers. The same can be said in fantasy baseball, especially in auction drafts. There aren't a lot of top-level players that can play multiple positions, but the ones that can are players that you should be targeting.

One good example is Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only is he the preeminent power hitter in the game right now, but he is eligible at third base and in the outfield. If you find a way to get Bautista on your team, then it keeps your options wide open moving forward. You can draft him with the intention of playing him at third, but if a third baseman you like can be had for a good price down the line, you can simply move Bautista to the outfield.

It isn't absolutely paramount that you get players that can play multiple positions, as you can get by without it, but that type of versatility will certainly give you an advantage over your counterparts.