Setting the Edge

I’m always looking for an edge in competition. This weekend I attended a co-ed baby shower and participated in multiple games. I always pay close attention to the rules and find ways to get around them to win. I like winning. It’s one of the reasons that I love fantasy so much. It’s probably one of the reasons you love fantasy so much. We want to be right. We want to have that thrill. Anyways, back to the baby shower. There was a game where our wives would stand behind us and attempt to feed us baby food out of a jar while everyone is blindfolded. Instantly, I start thinking about what is the best way to do this. As they hand out the jars of baby food, I grab one that I know I can tolerate. Pears and raspberries. There was 0 chance that I was going to eat sweet potatoes and corn or some mixed veggie garbage that I wouldn’t even want to give to my own kid. There was an advantage number one. If I could enjoy it, then it would be easier to go down (obligatory TWSS). Next, my wife realizes that they never actually said we had to use our spoons to feed the husbands. It’s moments like this that I’m reminded just how much I love my wife. She has that same spirit and fire. This competition just got a whole lot easier. They signal to start and not more than two seconds later I’ve swallowed all of my Gerber baby food and stood up victorious. The rest of the crowd is stunned and the judge even admitted that they never said we had to use the spoons given. The victory was ours.

In auction drafts, the biggest advantage you can get players on discounts later in the draft. I talked previously about how tons of money flew off the board early with our inexperienced group. That left lots of value to be had once the first 80 or so players were gone. Once people’s budgets get cut down, they turn into Mr. Krabs and won’t be willing to spend top dollar. Seeing how I blew a ton of money on the QB position, I didn’t want to just let people get away with getting guys cheap. I wanted to bid them up and make them earn those players. This is especially important in proxy drafts where a person can put down a bid of $60 on a player but if no one bids them up to that mark, they get the player much cheaper. For example, I can open the big on Devante Adams at $75, but on MyFantasyLeague (MFL) it will only show for $1 until other people place bids to raise it. So I felt like I had to raise some bids because I just couldn’t let someone walk away with Player X for that little amount of money.

The problem with bidding someone up in a proxy slow draft is that it’s like the game of chicken. The game of chicken is a simple one. Two people go towards each other until one finally blinks (or gives in). As Kevin Bacon showed us in Footloose, it can be a dangerous game.

It’s dangerous for a few reasons. First, you can end up stuck with a player that you may not even fully want on your team. I’ve had this happen to me a few times. Last year during a redraft auction, I ended up raising the bid on David Johnson, a guy I had absolutely no interest in because I thought someone would pay more for him. I was wrong and ended up stuck with the guy. Second, it also ties up your money while there are other players to bid on. If you have $45 of your remaining $180 tied to Kenyan Drake and then see a player like Amari Cooper going for just $40, it is tough to place that bid. Putting $85 onto two guys this late in the game when you still need to fill 22 more spots? That’s going to leave you with some massive depth problems.

As you go into any of your drafts, be aware of the edges you’re trying to gain and the disadvantages that can come with them. If I had thought more about bidding other players up, I would have realized that the cons in this situation outweighed the pros. I became too focused on preventing other players from getting “deals” and not enough on me getting guys that I truly wanted and getting my own deals.