Lets say you end the draft with 50-100 bucks, probably not the best strategy, but now you gotta make the most of it? With that extra cash, do you…what?
The two things I can think of are maybe trade with teams who overspent and may want to free up some cap space? Or be a bully on the add/drops picking up every hot name?
(rookie ottoneu league, and I am trying to get some ideas for the teams in my league)
thanks,
I would evaluate each post-draft player auction very closely. Look at the price trends at the bottom of the player pages to see who is gaining broad interest. Ensure nobody of value goes below the going market rate.
There are going to be surprises and prospects who emerge throughout the season. You should be best positioned to acquire those.
I’d also keep an eye on the waiver wire. You could potentially pick up someone who is injured this year but will provide good value next season.
First, I think the most important thing to realize is that your money is still finite. A few years ago, a guy in one of my leagues left the auction with $75 or whatever but then proceeded to bid on every FA that came up for every 48 hour auction (I think because he thought was price enforcing or something). Anyway, about six weeks into the season he had frittered away his cash advantage because he had accumulated so many cap penalties and didn’t have much to show for it. So whatever you do, I would suggest that you don’t do that.
Trading cap space for players can be effective. Just realize that by giving another team cap space, you’re increasing their ability to compete for an FA that you may want when they come up for auction. So when the next Spencer Torkelson comes up for auction after the Rule 4 draft, you may be spending $12+ on him whereas bidding might have been less had people been more financially restrained. This can have long-term consequences for your team. So if you’re the only team with lots of cap space, you may want to hold onto that advantage for strategic reasons.
To that end, I would take a critical look at your roster and make a decision fairly early as to whether or not you believe that you can compete this year. Unless you came into the auction with a ton of surplus value, if you’re leaving the auction with $50-100, then you probably need to start thinking about next year and beyond. For all of my teams, as soon as the draft is over, I make a spreadsheet that has each player as a row and then what their salaries will be over the next three seasons if I were to keep them (i.e., +$1 for MiLB players until after their debut, +$2 for MLB), absent arbitration allocations. I then separate the guys into two groups: those who I expect to keep and those who I don’t. I try to keep the long-term spreadsheet updated as I move through the season. Basically, if you’re rebuilding, then you always want to keep an eye on the big picture. Unless you trade/waste away your cash advantage, your scarcest resource will be roster spots, so you want to really think through every potential acquisition as to whether or not they really fit into the long-term plan (this is true of all teams, but especially a rebuilding team with a lot of cash).
Because you only have 40 roster spots, you need to be lazer-focused on what types of players you’re competing for. For example, when I’m competing, I’m usually the most focused on finding saves following the auction (I play mostly 5x5). So I just bid $10 for Ian Kennedy in a couple of leagues, on the (hopefully good) chance that he becomes the TEX closer. If I’m rebuilding, I’d be more conservative and only make large bids for long-term plays (e.g., the next Spencer Torkelson). So once you make some strategic decisions on whether you’re competing or playing for next year, you can figure out the ways to most effectively leverage your cap space to achieve that objective.
What walt526 said is all really good advice. I just wonder how you left the draft with so much $. Did you have to leave halfway through?
I was there the whole time, night one players went for so much and night two and three they went for REALLY cheap.