Best Ball Draft Review

I spend a couple of minutes every few days trolling the discussion boards on the ESPN Fantasy Football site for interesting leagues. I'm not a big fan of the "pick your favorite NFL or college team" leagues, but every once in a while somebody comes up with something interesting. So when I saw a "Best Ball" league, I was interested. The concept is based on the common golf variation where two or more players use the best individual score on each hole to come up with the low round. Transferred to Fantasy Football, the concept goes something like this: Sixteen teams draft a full team. After the draft, the teams are randomly paired off. The pairings play each other throughout the season and the best position from each pairing counts. So if we start one QB, and my partner has Peyton Manning and he scores 25 points, and I have Philip Rivers and he scores 12 points, Peyton's score counts. I thought this was a really cool concept, so I joined the league. The draft was last night at 8PM. Despite all of my practice and obsession, I wasn't prepared for a 16 team draft (I ended up with the 13th pick). Despite the shock, I think I drafted a damn good team for a 16 team league(Philip Rivers, Marion Barber, Maurice Jones-Drew, Rashard Mendenhall, Ryan Torain, Joey Galloway, Roy Williams, Donte Stallworth, Antonio Gates, Titans D/ST, Josh Scobee and assorted other filler).

And how did I manage a halfway decent roster in such a deep league? I followed my rules! I went RB/RB in rounds 1 and 2 and I didn't grab a QB until round 6 (might have been one round too late). I didn't take a D/ST until round 14 and I can tell you EXACTLY why I picked each player. Stick to the rules and it'll all work out.

Following the draft I got paired up with an owner that had not drafted quite as well. But what he lacked in roster, he made up for by brokering a dirt cheap trade for Peyton Manning today. Our combined team is now VERY solid. Of course, with the regular season over a month away, the post-draft enthusiasm will wane before too long. But it's still fun to get into the mix for a little while. I'm willing to manage four teams MAX this season. This league makes one, IDI two, friends and family league 3 (that one is up in the air). So I could potentially take on one more league. But unless I find a keeper looking for replacement owners, or I can get another league going with people I know, I think I'll stick with three.

More updates to come, but Ben's fantasy season is definitely underway.

Draft Strategy: The Next Evolution

I've continued obsessing about my FF drafting strategy and I've come up with a few more thoughts to guide my selections:
-No QB's in rounds 1 and 2. I will not be swayed by the Golden Boy, nor will I be tempted to worry about Peyton's knee. I am absolutely picking a RB round 1 and a RB or WR round 2. There will be plenty of QB's to choose from in rounds 3, 4 and beyond.
-Portis is not all bad. For some reason I've been down on Clinton Portis this year. I think it's because Portis was dissed so frequently in last year's draft. The guy is quick, has good hands and gets most of the carries. He's a legit alternative to Marion Barber with a 7-10 pick.
-Stop with the early D/ST picks. I somehow cannot help myself from grabbing a D/ST in round 8-10. To prevent myself from making this mistake on draft day, I am trying to build a better list of desirable rookies and sleepers to look to once my starters are picked.
-Know why I picked every single player. I've looked over my rosters from previous years and there are some guys with no upside. Not now, not ever. So, new rule: If I can't state one really compelling reason to draft a player, I'm not taking him.

Overall, the thing that was lacking from my previous drafts was discipline. But this year, I'm turning all that around. I want to have teams that either look great on paper, or can be readily defended if otherwise.

The Value of the EDB

As I continue my summer-long obsession with crafting the perfect fantasy football draft strategy, I am concerned that one of the most valuable commodities in FF is dying off. The unparalleled producer, the prize roster-dweller, the Every Down Back (EDB). These are the workhorses. The guys who combine talent and durability in a package so reliable that offensive coordinators will accept no substitutes. And with the popularity of the running back by committee principle (RBBC), drafting even a single EDB is no longer a certainty. And now even premier backs are being relegated to platoon duty thanks to an influx of talented rookies. New members of the committee system this season will include Willie Parker (thanks to Reshard Mendenhall), Justin Fargas (if McFadden > or = Peterson then Justin better be praying he gets the same timeshare deal in Oakland that Chester Taylor got in Minnestoa), Tatum Bell (Kevin Smith, meet Tatum Bell. Tatum, meet the bench), and DeAngelo Williams (Jonathon Stewart was built for goal-line carries). So the question is, with up-and-comers vulturing carries for established backs, is an over-the-hill, or questionable talent that gets all the carries more valuable than a truly talented back who's going to share carries? Before this latest bout of speculation, I would have skipped right over Frank Gore and Clinton Portis and taken a Maurice Jones-Drew if necessary. But now I'm not so sure. I'll have to see how the RBBC candidates shake out in pre-season before making a call. But I still submit that any draft pick after the five spot is going to be a painful pick. Maybe another mock will soothe my mind...

Auction Draft Review

As promised, I kicked off a mock auction draft on ESPN.com today. This was my first auction draft of any kind, but reading the directions ahead meant it was easy to play along. The biggest drawback to ESPN's new offering is that no one knows it's there yet. There were at least 10 auction drafts kicking off when I logged in and only one other live draftee. I elected to face off against 9 computer players, rather than having two live owners. Of course, when drafting with computer owners, you face the typical autopick issues. There is no reflection of the bullish, or bearish feelings real draft rooms often feel towards certain players. Those feelings often pushing a player much higher or lower than their average draft pick (ADP) suggests. So it would be instructive to repeat the process with real owners to see how things changed. But here's a brief summary of lessons learned from today's auction draft:
-You CAN get the players you really want. At least a few of them.
The draft format means that nobody can prevent you from bidding to your heart's content for elite players. Bu these players come at premium prices, and you will pay the price when trying to fill out your other key positions. Look at this way: Avoiding a top RB will give you exceptional buying power to pick up one or two high end receivers. Which brings me to my next point...
-Receivers are in short supply.
When you start pricing the typical draft list, it's amazing how expensive receivers can remain, even deep into the draft. But when you consider that receiving talent and production falls off steeper than any other position, it makes sense. But this is a key consideration when drafting. QB's, TE's, D/ST's and K's can be had dirt cheap, but RB's and WR's will cost you.
-The time factor.
The entire draft took about 1 hour, 15 minutes and that included a 5 minute break (that I didn't need and I doubt the computer owners were tired). This was surprising given that the auction draft requires a full 30 seconds for each player. But my initial concern about a ridiculously length draft was unfounded. However, once you've drafted most of your key position players, waiting through the rest of the process can be mind numbing. I tried to think of it as bargain shopping for players I might not have planned to own, and I began using the nominating process specifically for players I wanted to own.

There are plenty of other lessons I picked up, but since I don't intend on doing an auction for any of my real leagues and it's my day off, this post is officially closed.

A Draft Too Far?

I was perusing ESPN's fantasy football site before heading to bed last night and I notice that their mock draft lobby now includes an "auction" option. For the uninitiated, an auction draft differs from a standard FF draft in that team owners must use a pool of "auction bucks" to bid on the players they want to own. This approach is supposed to prevent the complaints that often come from owners who end up on the bottom half of the order in standard picks. For example, if Owner A REALLY wants Ladainian Tomlinson, but Owner A got the 8th pick in standard draft 10 team league, Owner A is out of luck. But in an auction draft, Owner A can outbid all comers to own LT. Of course, this approach will inevitably put a premium on the price of LT, and Owner A will have to be happy paying chump change for scrubs to fill out the rest of his roster.

Based on this doctrine of enhanced fairness, I can see the appeal of the auction draft. But in practice, it seems convoluted and unnecessarily drawn out. A standard draft is long enough as it is. How much longer will it take to nominate a player, then bid, then nominate a player, then bid, etc.? Of course I intend to find out. Sometime over the holiday weekend I'm going to participate in an auction mock on ESPN and see how long the process actually takes.

I couldn't imagine using the auction in a real league unless... It was a big money league. For those individuals who have the fanaticism and disposable income to pay a buy-in fee with more than two digits before the decimal, I think an auction league would be a very cool alternative to plunking down, say $200, and then drafting your team. Instead, have an auction draft with a fixed minimum bid for each round (round 1 nominees: $50 min. bid, round 2 nominees: $40 min. bid, etc.). Bidding with real cash would add a true risk/reward element to the auction draft and would almost certainly be a more gratifying means of building the payout pool. But unfortunately, my leagues don't function in that rarefied air. So I'll check out the auction method this weekend and post my impressions. It'll be a learning experience.