Auction Draft with Keeper Twist

[SecondString]

We're trying something new this year in my local auction league, which has always been re-draft. We're allowing up to two keepers, but the keepers will be determined at the draft. When a player is nominated, the owner who ended last season with that player on the roster will not participate in the bidding. When the bidding is over, that owner will then have the option of keeping the player for the price of the high bid, or allowing the high bidder to take him. Once an owner has two keepers, the bidding on the rest of his rostered players will proceed as in a normal re-draft.

 

A few of our owners were hesitant about a true keeper method, so this was a way to incorporate some sort of keeper system. There are keepers, but we insure that fair market value is paid for the privilege. I'm hoping that it will evolve into more keepers down the road and add continuity to the league.

 

Any thoughts on this, or any other different draft ideas??

[flemingd]

The entire point for keepers is that you get a bargain on him and that's your reward for running your team well the prior year. No one will ever pay more for a keeper than he's worth on the open market, and paying going price is a wash. This makes the "keeper" nearly worthless. I suppose it keeps you from bidding your own self up on a guy, but that just seems very boring.

 

If your owners are worried about keepers being too big an impact, there are a bunch of other ways to keep it small while still getting the true impact of keepers:

 

1. Minimum contract value. I'm not a big fan of the concept, we don't do it in my auction league, but it prevent that whole "Alfred Morris is a $2 keeper" factor.

2. Limit keepers to one year. Even Alfred Morris at $2 isn't so scary when it's only one year.

3. Go with just one keeper, then add more in future years.

4. Remind them that if the keeper concept stinks you can vote it out the following year.

5. Add some $ to their keeper value over time. This keeps guys cycling back into the pool while they are still studs.

6. Make sure you start the conversation with "we're not keeping guys this year, because guys would certainly have managed their teams differently last year had they known, so we'll draft this year knowing it's a keeper in 2014". I would bet 1/2 the trepidation behind adding keepers is because three guys have huge bargains but 1/2 the league doesn't.

[SecondString]

Okay, couple of questions/comments:

 

• What do you mean by "minimum contract value"? Assigning a flat value per keeper?
  
• I like the idea of adding keepers in future years, but we are going with two for 2013
  
• Love #5, great idea
  

 

Appreciate your ideas. Thx.

[flemingd]

Okay, couple of questions/comments:

• What do you mean by "minimum contract value"? Assigning a flat value per keeper?

• I like the idea of adding keepers in future years, but we are going with two for 2013

• Love #5, great idea

 

Appreciate your ideas. Thx.

 

 

Not exactly a flat value, but a flat minimum. Alfred Morris, for example, in my auction league is a $2 keeper. That's a big, big impact. Stud RB's go for $40-$50 and he keeps him virtually free. Our league is complex, but basically that owner could keep him for 5 or 6 years at a very, very cheap price.

 

A friend has a similar league that RB's are a minimum $15 keeper and each year after add $10. TE's in that league are a $10 minimum with $5 each year. After 2 or 3 years a guy isn't a huge bargain any more and they will just keep someone else, ensuring Morris and Graham each cycle back into the draft eventually.

[SecondString]

So how did Morris get to be a $2 keeper? how are the values assigned?

[keggerz]

That is similar to how some BoTH leagues handle Franchise and Transition tags...nothing wrong with it...especially if it works for your league.

[flemingd]

So how did Morris get to be a $2 keeper? how are the values assigned?

 

Last year's draft value. Every year there are 3-4 like this though, and they are generally pretty well spread around. It's big, but it's not game changing, and they all eventually cycle through.

[SecondString]

Last year's draft value. Every year there are 3-4 like this though, and they are generally pretty well spread around. It's big, but it's not game changing, and they all eventually cycle through.

 

10-4....thus the minimum contract value provision...thx.

[NCFF Commish]

My 10-team office auction league is a redraft league. However, team team has 2 tools to use to keep a player from their season last year:

 

• Each team can keep 1 franchise player. Take your price for the player from last year and add 20% (rounding up to next dollar). However, we limit each team to franchise the same player only twice consecutively. For example, one team got Arian Foster for $1 years ago. The next year he got to keep him for only $2. The third season he was kept for $3. This team has exausted this feature on Foster, so he will go into the auction.
  
• Each team can "+1" one player each season that he drafted last year. Once the bidding on a player is done, the team can say "Plus One" and get the player for one dollar more than the market price. This method is not to give a price discount, but to give each team one of their favorite players at market value. The commissioner was getting tired of the Peterson owner always plus-one-ing him every season, so we now make teams plus-one different guys in back-to-back seasons.
  

 

My second bullet is similar to what I think you guys are looking for. Although I don't know why your teams would be prohibited to bid on their own players. Let them bid on their own players if they want. In some instances they are simply raising the price on what they could otherwise get the player for.