Auction Drafts: $260 Budgets, Stars-and-Scrubs

In auction drafts, every manager starts with a $260 budget and bids on players one at a time, with the highest bid getting the player. You must fill all 23 roster spots, so total spend caps at $260 — meaning your average roster slot is worth ~$11. The format eliminates the luck of draft slot: anyone can buy anyone, if they can afford it.

Two roster-construction archetypes dominate auctions. Stars-and-scrubs spends $50+ on three or four elite players, then fills outThree outs end a half-inning. Recorded by strikeout, fly out, ground out, force out, or tag. the roster with $1 lottery tickets. The thesis: you want concentrated production at the top of your lineup, and replacement-level value at $1 isn't much worse than $5-$10 mid-tier players. Balanced rosters spread the budget across the roster, paying $20-$30 for many solid contributors and avoiding the $1 sinkholes.

The strategic skill is reading the room. Most managers over-bid early to secure their must-haves. If the first 10 nominations all clear $35+, you can wait — supply tightens and budgets dwindle, and the $30 player nominated in hour 3 will go for $22. Conversely, late in the draft when everyone's down to $1-$3 per slot, a sleeper you wanted will go cheap.

Always nominate players you don't want first. This drains other managers' budgets on guys you're not bidding on. Save your real targets for the middle of the draft when budgets are tight but inflation has stabilized.