AHL- Apolyton Hockey League 08/09: Preseason

[Flubber]

Originally posted by notyoueither
I don't know if the asylum can withstand holding the draft til October.

This inmate can --

Its actually good from an information point of view so if everyone can make a live draft on October 1 or 2, I would be all in favor -- I see the season starts with 4 teams in Europe on Oct 4 adn 5th with the rest of the league starting on the 9th. I guess they will do another long week to start??

If it were the first or second I would prefer/need a draft time that was 4pm or later Calgary time (6pm EST)-- I am guessing/hoping/assuming that most people would want a draft that was in the North American evening?

[snoopy369]

Hmm, 6th/7th is looking more out of the question for me, GF's mother is in town and i'll be expected to do things with her. Oct 1/2 sounds good, though, I'd be up for that.

Curious, any interest in doing it auction style since it will be live? Auctions are often a bit more interesting than straight up drafts, since you have a bit more control over your strategy...

[Asher]

How the **** can you auction without currency?

[snoopy369]

Easily. Each person gets (arbitrary number) of dollars/euros/points/whatever to start with. Then, in order (randomly generated), each person names a player, and an opening bid, and then everyone is free to bid on that player. Your max bid is ($ left) - (players left to draft) + 1.

This is the standard method of selecting teams in fantasy baseball, or at least was until online leagues became popular.

It has the huge advantage over a draft that draft position becomes (mostly) meaningless. Any given manager can get Sidney Crosby in theory - you just have to pay enough for him Compare that to a draft league, where if you are the #3 drafter, you know you're not getting Crosby or Ovechkin (or whoever the top two are this year) barring an idiotic move by the #1/#2 folks...

It allows team-building strategy to be more powerful as opposed to draft-position strategy. You decide you want a team with as many amazing scorers as possible, one amazing goalie, and then crap players - you do it. One year in fantasy NBA I had the two top PF's in the league, the #2 PG, and the top C, a set of players a draft league team could only dream of, because they're all first or early second round picks in a draft - I had four of them (by spending nothing on my later players, of course).

It can take somewhat longer than a draft (but can also not, it really depends). Our 6 player fantasy baseball auction earlier in the year took a few hours for 25 players*6 teams (maybe 3 hours?), but it had some difficulties with people connecting and with people leaving in the middle.

[Asher]

That sounds like it will take longer and is much more work to set up.

[snoopy369]

It's actually no work to set up other than one person having a 'tracker' spread sheet. It will take a bit longer at first, but the later rounds are almost draftlike in that usually people just take the player they want and nobody else bids. It usually takes around 1 minute per pick total, so if it is 15 players and 10 drafters, 150 picks, 2.5 hours is probably the estimate, though it could be somewhat under that (particularly as you actually only need to select the starters, there's no obligation to select bench players, though some will fill their bench).

It takes a bit longer, but it is a LOT more fun.

[Asher]

I'm not sure it would be. It sounds quite annoying to me. I kind of like the draft setup.

If you want to introduce economic strategy, you should join a Sporting News pool which introduces player salaries and team budgets...all the salaries are impacted by their market value daily in the global fantasy pool.

[snoopy369]

http://games.espn.go.com/fhl/mockauctiondraftlobby

ESPN has auction available for all of its fantasy hockey games. If you have a spare hour or three, I suggest doing a mock auction to see what it's like ... it's a LOT of fun.

We could actually use the ESPN auction (or mock auction) for the actual league even if we use Yahoo! for the ultimate league, there's no reason we couldn't just all sign up for a mock auction together.

[Asher]

We could, but the basic premise of the stupidity of auctioning for hockey players remains.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Asher
I'm not sure it would be. It sounds quite annoying to me. I kind of like the draft setup.

If you want to introduce economic strategy, you should join a Sporting News pool which introduces player salaries and team budgets...all the salaries are impacted by their market value daily in the global fantasy pool.

That is not relevant... I don't think you understand what I'm talking about

The 'economic strategy' is irrelevant once the auction is over. It's just a way of apportioning the players. There's no 'value' other than what you assign to a player.

It goes like this:

Asher is up first. He names "Sidney Crosby, $20". I say "$25." Sparrowhawk says "$35". Asher says "$40". Kontiki says "$60" to try and end the bidding. I say "$65". It's over, everyone else is out, and I win him at $65. I now have ($300-$65) $235 for the remainder of my team.
Then go on for another 50-60 players. At that point we all have like $30-$40 for 10 players, except for Sparrowhawk who has been hoarding his cash and has $180 for 10 players.
Then the naming goes
Snoopy: "Patrick Sharp, $1."
(silence)
I get Sharp for $1.
Kontiki: "Ryan White, $1."
Sparrowhawk: "$5."
(silence, as nobody else can bid all that high)
This is why it goes fast in the later rounds

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Asher
We could, but the basic premise of the stupidity of auctioning for hockey players remains.

Don't knock it 'til you tried it

By the way, auction or draft, ESPN may be the best place to do this anyway ...

Look at their categories:

SKATING
G Goals
A Assists
+/- Plus/minus
PTS Points
PIM Penalty Minutes
PPG Power Play Goals
PPA Power Play Assists
SHG Short Handed Goals
SHA Short Handed Assists*
GWG Game-Winning Goals
FOW Faceoffs Won
FOL Faceoffs Lost
SHFT Shifts
TOI Time on Ice
ATOI Average Time on Ice
HAT Hat Tricks
SOG Shots on goal
GP Games Played
HIT Hits
BLK Blocked Shots
DEF Defensemen Points

GOALTENDING
GS Games Started
W Wins
L Losses*
SA Shots Against
GA Goals Against
EGA Empty Net Goals Against
SV Saves
SO Shutouts
MIN Minutes Played
OTL Overtime Losses
GAA Goals Against Average
SV% Save Percentage
GW% Goalie Winning Percentage

[snoopy369]

If you'd like to do a mock auction with me any time today evening or tomorrow evening, let me know ... the way your mind works I have to think you'd enjoy it if you tried it. It's all about being more clever than the others around you ...

[Asher]

Originally posted by snoopy369


That is not relevant... I don't think you understand what I'm talking about

The 'economic strategy' is irrelevant once the auction is over. It's just a way of apportioning the players. There's no 'value' other than what you assign to a player.

It goes like this:

Asher is up first. He names "Sidney Crosby, $20". I say "$25." Sparrowhawk says "$35". Asher says "$40". Kontiki says "$60" to try and end the bidding. I say "$65". It's over, everyone else is out, and I win him at $65. I now have ($300-$65) $235 for the remainder of my team.
Then go on for another 50-60 players. At that point we all have like $30-$40 for 10 players, except for Sparrowhawk who has been hoarding his cash and has $180 for 10 players.
Then the naming goes
Snoopy: "Patrick Sharp, $1."
(silence)
I get Sharp for $1.
Kontiki: "Ryan White, $1."
Sparrowhawk: "$5."
(silence, as nobody else can bid all that high)
This is why it goes fast in the later rounds

I understand how an auction works. I just think it's a half-baked idea if the concept of currency evaporates once you build your team. It's half-assed and retarded.

[Asher]

Originally posted by snoopy369


Don't knock it 'til you tried it

By the way, auction or draft, ESPN may be the best place to do this anyway ...

I hate ESPN Fantasy hockey. It's ****, the stats are unreliable, the game modes less fun, and they didn't have a live stat tracker last I checked.

No.

[Asher]

Originally posted by snoopy369
If you'd like to do a mock auction with me any time today evening or tomorrow evening, let me know ... the way your mind works I have to think you'd enjoy it if you tried it. It's all about being more clever than the others around you ...

I don't need to do a "mock auction" to wrap my head around the concept of auctioning for hockey players?

Given that timing is already an issue for most people, you are proposing a longer and more complicated player selection process. Not to mention the serious philosophical qualms I have with it.