14 Team $200 Auction League With Scott Pianowski

So I need to air something with you here from the get go: this was waaaaayyyy too early to be drafting.  We held this on July 10th which is a good two months from real kick-off.  I highly encourage you to never get that far from the start of the season.  Too much can happen between now and game one of the year.  We don’t know who’s hobbled other than guys with off-season surgery.  I mean, first pre-season snap hasn’t even been made and we’re out here drafting like we know what’s what and in a deep league, no less.  And yes, this is a deep league to an extent.  It’s one thing to have 14 teams, it’s entirely another to have the standard set up plus 3 flex positions on top of them in said 14 team.  Oh and one of the flex spots has a QB just to add to the fun.  But enough of the blather, here’s my team for Scott Pianowski’s ‘American League’ 14 team $200 Auction draft for 2013 Fantasy Football…

So I’m sure you’ve already noticed something strange about my roster.  Even though this league has team defense and – ugh – kickers, I didn’t fill either position during the draft.  I was a tad surprised to find I was the only person to do this.  Remember how I said it was too early to be drafting?  Well if its too early to draft then why the Tobias Funke would I pick something up that is more of a weekly play anyway?  If all kickers go for $1, then where’s the value in drafting them at this point?  You know you’re going to drop them when your bye week comes up.  Same goes with defense.  It’s a streamable position unless you’re willing to spend more then a buck on them.  Someone spent $5 on the Cards defense. I spent $6 on Ryan Broyles.  I think my waiver options when the day comes will be more fruitful.  The second thing you might notice is my QB situation.  I swear to you that wasn’t intentional to be with Tannehill as my QB1 but people went nuts in this draft with the QB position.  I hold firm to the belief of not spending more then $20 for any one QB.  I don’t care there’s a QB flex spot, I’m not going to get into a bidding war for Tony Romo’s services and get stuck with the $31 check at the end (plus tax).  It went a little crazy for the QB to say the least.  Once I saw Eli Manning go for $23, I saw the writing on the wall that I had to change course and go upside/conservative with my QB position and I took that opportunity to bulk up elsewhere.  Even mid-draft people were complaining about their RB depth.  Well, everyone except me.  I got a lot of guys I wanted at the RB position – excluding Rashard but hey he’s a starter – and if I feel a need to upgrade at QB, I think I have depth in the right place to trade from.  I’m also pleased with my WRs even without having drafted a ‘bona fide’ WR3.  The WR position always has that nice surprise in season.  I’m hoping I either drafted it with my combo of Rueben/Julian/Broyles or it’s still out there waiting for me to find him.  That said, if I have one lone regret it’s not getting Danario Alexander when he went for $12 but auction drafts create situational issues.  DX came up 10 picks after I’d spent $25 total on Rashard & Tannehill and I was feeling a bit light in the pocket.  That unused $7 coupled with spending $6 on Broyles hurts a little, admittedly, but I digress.  Basically, when dealing with deeper rosters, you have to make a decision where you’re willing to go dicey.  Me, I want RB depth in a league like this and reasonable production from my QB/WR3 and that’s how I drafted.  You have to make sacrifices here and there to fill your team and I made the ones I felt comfortable with.  All in all, I like what I came up with and feel confident this team will be competitive this year.  Oh and if DeMarco Murray goes down in preseason…well, I’ll just say I’m happy I spent a buck on Joseph Randle and not Rob Bironas.