Auction Style

A week ago some friends and I participated in an Auction Style draft for our fantasy baseball NL-Only League.  It was my first auction draft and I think the first for almost, if not all of the league.  From everyone I talked with they loved it.  Personally, I'd like to do it for all my fantasy leagues I participate in.  There were many reasons I liked it among:

1. Everyone has the opportunity to have any player on his or her team.  Unlike in a normal draft where you go in a draft order, and only the first person has the opportunity to draft the best player, in this case we will say Albert Pujols, the auction style draft affords everyone the opportunity to get him, as long as they are willing to pay the most money


2. The draft is fast-paced and every "pick" everyone can be involved.  No more making your pick then waiting for numerous picks and minutes to go by before you get to be involved in the draft process again.  You're paying attention the whole draft, because at any moment a player you like or feel is going for a value price is being auctioned off.


3. You truly get to see which owners, really like which players, and the "bidding wars" for players really get the competitive juices flowing in a good way.  It makes for a early reason for some good-natured smack talk


4. An auction draft I think is a better indicator of how well each manager can evaluate the talent and dispense their resources accordingly.  There's no longer as much of a luck factor with a player falling in the draft to someone or someone not having an opportunity to draft a player they think will really do well.  As stated above, every owner has the chance to obtain any player.

Overall, I thought the auction draft was a great experience and was glad the commissioner decided to use this format.  There were somethings I would have done differently in my bidding and have seen that you really need to be prepared as to where and who you place value on, since the action is fast-paced.  It made for a great learning experience though and I really look forward to participating in the next one.