Fantasy Baseball Auction Values and Strategy for 12-Team Mixed Leagues

With the inaugural season of the LABR 12-Team Auction League looming, Doug Anderson shares the auction values he will use entering the draft and a few key ideas to keep in mind for this particular format.

I have a confession to make. I’m scared. I was very happy to get back into one of the LABR drafts after I took a year away from the industry a few years ago. Then I found out it was for a brand new 12-team mixed league auction. It’s not the auction part that’s scary. I’ve been doing NL- and AL-Only auctions since the early 1990s. I guarantee I could go through the player pool and be within a couple of dollars on the auction values of 85 percent of the players. I’m that comfortable deep league auctions.

The part that sends shivers down my spine is the mixed league part. In almost every aspect I consider monoleagues to be more difficult. They require a deeper knowledge of the player pool and because of the low-level players you will be forced to draft, they present tougher choices. Generally, I think you just have to know your craft a little better for these uber-deep leagues. But the auction format is one area where shallower is tougher.

I’ve done my share of mixed league auctions, though not as many as my favored deeper leagues. Every one I’ve done has been different and they’ve all been pure chaos.

I think the difference is that in deep league auctions if you blow all your money early, you will have way too many holes on your team. Owners know this so there’s a certain semblance of order and limits to the bidding. In a 12-team mixed league, there are still decent players left over. Knowing this will then bid ridiculous amounts on the top talent, confident that they can fill out their roster with useful players and continue to address any areas of need in-season.

If you’ve ever gone to the trouble to formulate your own auction values, the math will tell you that the better players lose a bit of their value because there’s not as big a difference between them and the rest of the field… Yeah, well that math doesn’t sit through an auction watching all the top players go to the 11 other teams that ignored it. Follow the mathematically calculated values by some of these dollar value calculators and you end up getting a bunch of $12 players for $8… and a lot of money left on the table… and a last-place team.

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Mixed League Auction Strategy

So if you can’t fully trust the math then what do you do in these mixed league auctions? The answer is not easy and it may be different in every damn one. The key to success in these auctions, as well as any others, is to recognize trends early and adjust on the fly. I’m not gonna repeat the stuff I put out in my article on general auction strategy. If you haven’t read that you should. It’s got plenty of sound ideas that will help in any auction. But here, I’m just gonna cover some of the key auction strategy specific to 12-team mixers.

You Can’t Sit Back

I’m frugal by nature. When I go shopping I look for generic brands on sale. That mindset helped me win quite a few NL- and AL-Only leagues when I first started doing this fantasy stuff. Back then it was predictable that one or two teams would spend big early and you could swoop in later for all the bargains. That doesn’t always work these days and I dare say it never works in shallow mixed leagues.

Here’s how it typically goes. Three or four teams spend big on the elite players that inevitably get brought up for auction early. Then three or four more teams get nervous and start overpaying for the rest of the top tier. At that point, you’ve got half the league low on funds, but the other half of the league is still sitting there with a lot of money and not much talent on hand. That’s not a situation conducive to bargains. If you keep waiting past that point because you’re just not gonna pay one dollar more than you’ve allocated for a player, you’re in trouble. You’ve got plenty of money, but there’s always still an owner to push you past the bargain point. Instead, you’ll still end up overpaying, just for worse players.

Pay Fair Value

Well, the last few paragraphs probably have you feeling like it’s a no-win situation. Don’t despair. Someone has to win the league and it might as well be you. Most often the path to winning is through paying the market price for that tier of players just below the elite. Do not be afraid to purchase the first good players at prices at or even slightly above what you have them projected at. Not every good player can go for elevated prices. You just have to be willing to jump on anything close to fair. It can get frustrating early on, but you’ll get your share of good talent and unlike most of the rest of the league, you’ll still have some money left for the end-game bargains.

If this idea sounds inexact and a bit obtuse, it’s because it is. The big idea is that you can’t win by being a scavenger. Pay fair value, but don’t get greedy. This likely means you’re not gonna roster Mike Trout or Gerrit Cole. Don’t worry you can win a league with a bunch of J.D. Martinez’s and Shane Biebers.

Salary Allocation

I do mention a salary allocation chart in that general strategy piece. It was a bit generic and the auction values were probably tilted more toward deeper formats. For these 12-team mixed league auctions, I think things will have to be a bit more top-heavy. You’ll need to spend more to get some of the better players, but you’ll also be able to grab pretty decent players near the end game; especially if you enter that phase with a little bit more cash than most of your league.

The allocation chart at the right is what I’ll be aiming for. And remember, you can borrow from one slot to help another. Just don’t get too off track. Try to hold that basic structure. The salary slots for hitters are pretty straightforward. You want the best hitters you can get with guaranteed at-bats. I treat a few of the pitching slots differently. The $2 slot and the two $1 slots are for my upside plays. Maybe it’s a young pitcher with great stuff who has struggled so far. Or maybe a low-level closer slides into your lap. Regardless it’s okay to take a couple of shots here. Just back them up in the reserve rounds with safe middle relievers and setup men.

12-Team Mixed League Auction Values

Okay, here you go. My 2020 auction values for 12-team mixed leagues are below. Feel free to disagree on quite a few players. Feel free to tweak the values to your liking. You should. It’s your league and your team. No one knows it better than you do. Besides these values start to change the minute the first player is auctioned off. Just keep track of the cumulative amount over or under bid according to your projections and you’ll have an idea when the prices might start to turn in your favor.

The table below can be sorted by value, ranking, and position. The positions listed are the most likely position you’ll use them in fantasy. If you want to see exactly where you can use each player, check out our Position Eligibility page. You can also search the table by player name using the search box at the top right of the table, but it doesn’t play nice with all browsers. If you’d rather view this data by position, I’ve created a 12-Team NL-Only Cheat Sheet w Auction Values for your enjoyment.

Feel free to nitpick my auction values in the comments below or on Twitter @RotoDaddy. I do it when I check out other values… Then I get over it and make them my own.

For all the rankings, strategy, and analysis you could ever want, check out the 2020 FantraxHQ Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit. We’ll be adding more content from now right up until Opening Day!

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