Tiers are the key to this means of budget allocation. What you need to do is always make sure that there is available inventory to fill your open lines. Tiers are the easiest manner to do this. If you have a $20 spot and you note the inventory of players you expect to go in that range is dwindling, you need to make a purchase soon or distribute that $20 line to other lines that better match up with the remaining player pool. This is the biggest mistake made in auctions and it has nothing to do with your ability to evaluate and rank players. Having too much money left to buy the available talent is not the recipe for success. For me, tiers are an invaluable tool to track if I am properly budgeted to best acquire the available players.

Todd’s approach is to bring to the auction a list of 14 target dollar values for hitters and 9 values for pitchers. For example, you know you want a $35 hitter and two at $30. During the draft, you adjust the values as needed: If you overspend at one position, you have to drop the targets somewhere else. If you get a bargain, you can increase your remaining targets.

You also bring to the fantasy auction player tiers that correspond to your targets: $35 hitters, $30, $25, and so on. You watch these tiers to make sure you are able to get the kinds of players you are targeting. As Todd mentions in the excerpt above, as the players in a tier run out, you need to make sure you get one of the remaining ones or reallocate the targeted cash.

The other article comes from Advanced Fantasy Baseball, which makes the price targets specific to each position:

We should probably spend big on a 1B, maybe $25, since they normally produce big power numbers and are easier to replace than are some other positions. We should also consider spending a good bit at 3B, since they can also give you good power numbers. (Some people worry that 3B is a scarce position, but we’ll examine that idea a little later.) In the middle infield, I’ll typically allocate less money per position, maybe $15 each for the 2B and SS. Let’s say $5 for the CI and $5 for the MI.

Here, I don’t know if I can support budgeting to this extent. If you allocate $25 to a 1B, aren’t you ruling out Pujols at $40 and Billy Butler at $10 from the very start? I would be okay with Butler as my primary 1B, assuming I spend the money elsewhere (perhaps shoring up my infield with a top SS and 2B).

I find myself more comfortable with Todd’s approach that (for example) targets a $30 hitter and a $20 hitter, regardless of position. Then, if I get a $14 bargain, I reallocate the $6 I saved on my $20 target to increase other targets. That’s a an approach that provides a structured plan to the draft but is still flexible enough to deal with auction dynamics.

Having said that, both of these articles are great, in-depth reading that can apply to any fantasy auction situation.

There’s one factor that I think can give you an incredible edge on a Yahoo auction: Knowing Yahoo’s prices. Yahoo’s prices are displayed for each player that is brought up for bidding. It acts as an incredible price control — people are unwilling to stray too far from Yahoo’s recommendation. And this is an opportunity to leverage the situation.

Here are my four rules for dominating a Yahoo auction:

1. Configure the Price Guide for Yahoo leagues. The Price Guide can build values for any league, so you need to make sure it’s customized correctly for a Yahoo auction. Yahoo’s $260 cap includes 5 bench players, so I’d drop that down in the Price Guide (which only values starters) to $250 or $255. Yahoo leagues only do 1 C, no CI or MI, and 2 Util.

On the pitching side, Yahoo starts 2 SP, 2 RP, and 4 P. I think 5 SP and 3 RP gives a pretty good approximation. I also set a custom hitter/pitcher split to tone down the values for pitchers — 60/40 seems to be pretty close. This should be pretty close to what you need.

2. Be willing to spend on top-tier talent. Yahoo’s suggested values top out at $37. The Price Guide has no problem spending $50+ on Hanley and Pujols. It is quite realistic to end up with 4-5 guys who would typically be 1st or 2nd rounders.

3. Nominate guys that Yahoo overvalues. Once you’ve spent all your money on the best talent, it’s time to sit back and wait a while. Having spent lots of your money in Step 2, it’s time to help others spend their’s.

If there’s anyone autopicking in your draft, they will usually jump up to Yahoo’s recommended bid whenever they can. If there’s anyone that Yahoo has ranked higher than you do, you can easily clear some cash from the room.

All you have to do is nominate someone that Yahoo has ranked highly that you don’t want. It won’t take long for an autopicker to jump on it. Some names that worked well for me:

Rick Porcello
Garrett Jones
Jorge Cantu
Curtis Granderson
Elvis Andrus
Mark Teahen
Neftali Feliz
Ubaldo Jimenez
Gavin Floyd
Jason Bartlett
Aaron Hill
John Danks
Orlando Cabrera
Chris Coghlan
Kendry Morales
Ichiro Suzuki
Brandon Phillips
Andrew Bailey
Nyjer Morgan
Ryan Theriot

None of those are guys that the projections here think very highly of. And even if you don’t have anyone autopicking, your league is unlikely to resist the pull of Yahoo’s rankings. It’s unlikely that you will win any of those guys with a $1 bid.

4. Look for bargains where Yahoo’s prices are too low. As mentioned before, Yahoo doesn’t have the top-tier high enough, so don’t be afraid to get several guys in the $30-40′s. Yahoo is also really down on RP: Trevor Hoffman for $3? Bobby Jenks isn’t even ranked above replacement.

As your league is filling up on the trash you’re bringing up in Step 3, keep an eye out for potential bargains that you can get with the money you have left. Following the Price Guide, these are some guys you could be targeting:

Vladimir Guerrero*
Javier Vazquez
Mike Napoli
Hiroki Kuroda
Jonathan Broxton
Billy Wagner
Ryan Ludwick
Matt Holliday
Lance Berkman
Russell Martin
Ted Lilly
Trevor Hoffman
Carlos Quentin
Heath Bell
Johan Santana
Hanley Ramirez
Jay Bruce
Jair Jurrjens
Tim Hudson
Jose Reyes
Manny Ramirez
Albert Pujols

* Vlad only qualifies at Util, but Yahoo has two Util spots this year. Guerrero under $10 looks like a great deal in this format.

Are there any other strategies you’ve found for Yahoo’s auctions?