Ryan posted an article on fantasy draft strategy yesterday where he proposes taking two dominant closers in the first 7 rounds in your fantasy draft. I, for one, have used that strategy in an NL-only league. I actually took 3 closers in the first 10 rounds with a strategy of only drafting closers and middle releivers. I finished 3rd in that league. But, I figured out that to use that strategy, you must dominate offense, so last year I drafted my closers in the 8th and 9th rounds (I had the first pick) back to back, and drafted offense until some of the better middle relievers started leaving the board.
I've also had success drafting all starting pitchers in an NL only auction league. But what are some of the more successful auction strategies?
Here are some of the more popular strategies:
LIMA plan: the owner follow's Ron Shandlers pitching strategy for auction leagues. The owner only spends $60 on pitching, $200 on hitting, while spending no more than $30 on saves, targeting pitchers with a Command ratio (K/BB) of 2.0 or better, a strikeout rate of 5.6 or better, and an expected HR rate of 1.0 or less. With this strategy the owner should do very well in the hitting categories.
Stars and Scrubs: the owner spends the majority of his budget on the star players at each position, then filling out your roster with $1-5 "scrubs", with the hopes the scrubs add more value than what you bought him for.
Spread The Wealth: the owner stays disciplined and doesn't pay more than $20-25 on any one hitter or pitcher. The owner who uses this strategy doesn't get the Hanley Ramirez or Johan Santana's of the world, but could end up with a Stephen Drew or Adam Wainwright, with extra money to spend elsewhere. An owner in my other NL-only auction league uses this strategy, and every year, he is the first to complete his roster, and he leaves at least one hour before everyone else has filled out their rosters.
Labadini Strategy: this strategy is named after Larry Labadini who decided he would spend $251 of his $260 budget on hitting and buy nine $1 pitchers. One of these years, I am going to use this strategy. With this strategy, you dominate the hitting categories, then trade for pitching mid-season. Yep, I will use this strategy in the near future.
What are some of the auction strategies that have been successful for you?