We did the RotoWire Steak League auction last night for maybe the 25th straight year. (Can’t remember if we started in 2000 or 2001.) It’s called the “Steak” league because despite the modest $20 entry fee, the stakes (pun intended) are high due to the steak dinner side bet.
Most of you already know about this, but the side bet, one in LA and one in Wisconsin, is that among six entrants, the top three total point scorers on the year eat for free, the fourth pays for his own meal (1/6th of the check), fifth pays for his own and one of the “eaters” (1/3rd) and last pays for himself and two of the eaters (1/2).
If you are an eater, as I usually am, it behooves you to order as much as you can possibly eat because (a) it’s free; and (b) you are incentivizing the buyers to become better at fantasy football and, by extension, more competent at life. For example, when the waiter asks what I’d like as an appetizer, I typically say, “shrimp cocktail AND shrimp scampi.” And then I specify I’d like the entree-sized ($42) scampi portion for that aspect of my pre-entree eating. When he asks what side I’d like with my NY steak (baked potato, fries, salad?), I answer “Lobster” the price for which is “market price”.
The only limit we really set is you can’t take anything to go — one eater once tried to order a chocolate cake for his wife. Can’t have someone ordering 10 New York steaks and feeding his family for a week.
Here’s footage from the dinner from a couple years ago if you’re curious. It may seem like I’m an asshole, but I assure you, I’m doing God’s work.
. . .
There are some other quirks about the league. It’s deep (14-teams) uses IDP (Individual Defensive Players) instead of team defenses, it’s half-point PPR and it’s an auction format.
I have an MO with auctions that’s worked well for me over the years, and that’s to identify a few star players you like, spend up for them early to deplete two-thirds to three-quarters of your budget, then bargain hunt, mostly letting players go for the next hour, but pouncing if there’s a misprice.
The reason this works is usually the star players at the beginning of the draft are cheaper than they should be because no one *needs* to get any particular player. If you don’t go the extra buck on the first 10 or 15 stars out of the gate, no big deal, there’s plenty of inventory for you later. But when you get to the last “must-have” stars, and too many people have saved their money, that’s when you see the overpays, and those overpays are correct in that situation — you just don’t want to be in that situation. If you don’t overpay for the top guys, you’ll end up overpaying for the middle guys (even worse), and if you don’t overpay for the middle guys you’ll leave money on the table, which is the nut low.
So I spend up on a few players early, put my money to work. And then I have to be a little more judicious about my bidding (don’t want to get caught price enforcing on a decent player, the cost of whom cripples your end-game optionality) and more agnostic about who I’m willing to roster. It’s not entirely up to you at the end, and you need to be okay with that.
This particular auction went about as smoothly as any I can remember. And that’s despite destroying my rough plan literally on the first player out of the shoe, Lamar Jackson. I had intended to go big on WR and get Brock Bowers, but to skimp on QB, maybe $3-4 total on the position. But I bid up almost every star player to speed the auction along (for example if Saquon Barkley is nominated at $1, I’ll just bid $40 whether I want him or not), so I bid Jackson up a bit (because he’s probably worth $30 in this format that favors running QBs), pushed it to $22, it stuck and I was now on a different plan.
What really turned things in my favor was getting Bowers for $28. I thought I’d have to pay close to $40 for him, based on his NFFC ADP, and now I had the top QB and TE and still $150 to spend. So I grabbed Bijan Robinson for $51 and Brian Thomas for $44 after Tim Schuler wouldn’t let me have Malik Nabers for $45. I was down to $50 or so, had the core stars on my team I had wanted and simply needed to wait. Which I did.
But for some reason Tetairoa McMillan stopped at $19, and I landed him, then Rashee Rice at $13, each about $15 cheaper than players at their comparable ADPs. I was shocked I was able to get either (let alone both) of them with the money I had left. Rice might be a bit cheaper here because we have only six-man benches, no injured reserve slots, so unlike the 10-man-bench NFFC, roster space is scarce and a suspension really limits your manueverability, especially if other key players on my team get hurt. Even so, an unsuspended Rice might go in the second round, and McMillan is often going in the third.
I’m a little thin at running back. I bought Brian Robinson accidentally (no I didn’t mistake him for Bijan), just bid three as a price-enforce early, and it stuck. He’s fine for that price, as he could get traded somewhere good, but I don’t really have an RB2 yet as Tyjae Spears is hurt and Keaton Mitchell might be third string. But I’m happy to attack that one problem via free agency, and I have good depth at receiver with Josh Downs, Jayden Higgins and Luther Burden all on my bench. Anything can happen in fantasy football, but I feel like this is one of the stronger teams I’ve ever drafted.
Here are the full results with prices, organized by team/position:
