The people have spoken! Well, at least 55 of them have. 78% of those who voted indicated they preferred a serpentine draft over an auction at their baseball draft.
To be honest, I'm a bit surprised. I figured with the proliferation of online leagues that the serpentine draft would win out, I just didn't figure that people would prefer it three to one. I like both styles, but I prefer the auction for baseball, in part for variety's sake since I always use the serpentine-style draft in football, but also for the added strategy that an auction requires.
You have so many more options with an auction since you have complete control on how you want to divvy up your funds. For instance, you can change your strategy on the fly based on what you feel the other owners are doing. If they're tight with their money early on, you can get form a cheap foundation early on, and if they're very loose with their money, you'll know that there will be some bargans later.
But on the other hand, it's much easier to screw up an auction. If you blow your money early you'll be stuck with a couple of stars anchoring a roster full of scrubs, and if you sit on your money for too long, you'll likely end up overpaying for everyone else's leftovers.
In a serpentine draft, on the other hand, even a novice owner can emerge with a respectable team simply by relying on a mock draft or two to show them where a player should be picked and how long a player is likely to stay on the board. Most people will agree, there usually aren't very many surprises in the first few rounds of most serpentine drafts, as everyone is simply going through the motions of picking up whatever star they happen to favor over the other stars.
But, since there are only a couple of services out there that provide online auctions, most people don't even have a choice in the matter. It can be extremely difficult getting a group of 12 guys that know each other in the same room at the same time, what with friends living in different cities, states, etc. Plus, playing in online leagues allows people to play with more than just one group of owners, or if you're the only fantasy player in your group of friends, it gives you the chance to compete against people that you've never even met.
I'm interested -- why do you prefer one style over the other? Have you tried both and simply prefer one style, or have you simply not had a chance to really try the other style before? Tell us in the comments, but I'm also attaching a more detailed poll to this story.