Auctions are weird.
The fun part about auctions is that you're able to get any player you want, as long as you're willing to pay the price (and have the salary cap space left). The difficulty with auctions is that they give us a false sense of value on many players, as two people competing for the same guy artificially increases his price way beyond a point the other nine, 11 or 18 other fantasy owners would pay. Is Zlatan Ibrahimovic worth $70 of a $200 salary cap if one person is willing to pay that much? Technically, yes, but that doesn't indicate that's where the overall market believes he should be priced.
I bring this up because Thursday night (Friday morning for competitors in the UK) was the annual IEFSA Auction, a 20-team expert keeper league that began last season run and organized meticulously by our very own Chris Mosinski. The IEFSA league is a beast, as it pits 20 industry experts (at least we consider ourselves experts) against each other in weekly head-to-head matchups based on our teams created through the auction. Additionally, as mentioned, it's a keeper league, so not every player was technically available.
Free agents are done via FAAB and waivers, and managers who had money left over from last season were able to use it in this year's auction. We are only allowed to have players who are in the Premier League, but if a player transfers in (*cough*Paul Pogba*cough) then we must bid on them using our FAAB budgets.
The scoring is very detailed, as this year we're using Fantrax's advanced scoring system, which utilizes a vast number of stats to generate fantasy points:
Trading is allowed within the league, either for players, FAAB dollars or a combination of both, but only during the league transfer windows, which occur in September and February (allowing for real-life transfers to be completed first).
My podcast colleague Mike Gottlieb and I are strong believers that it is not worth paying up for defenders and goalkeepers, as the variance each season provides enough upside players that can be had for $1 or $0 if you can grab them on the waiver wire. While Toby Alderweireld was the highest scoring defender last season and cost $26, the second-highest scoring was Wes Morgan, who was picked up off the waiver wire and cost $0. Of the top 20 defenders last season, nine cost $1 or $0, with one other who cost $2. Within that top 20, 13 were acquired for less than $8.
Goalkeepers followed the same route, with the top three highest-scoring ones, Kasper Schmeichel, Petr Cech and Heurelho Gomes each costing $1 (it should be noted we play team goalkeepers and Cech was drafted in a sneaky way when the manager who got him actually bid on Wojciech Szczesny after he joined Roma - yes, I'm just bitter I didn't come up with that plan first).
On the other side, midfielders and forwards obviously go for higher salaries, but it's because their upsides are more assured. Of the top 20 highest-scoring midfielders last season, three cost less than $10: Dele Alli ($1), Dusan Tadic ($3) and Erik Lamela ($0). The list is a bit longer for forwards, which is understandable given their goal-dependency, but it still left only five single-digit salaries in the top 20.
With all of that out of the way, here are the the auction results, broken down by price:
Sergio Aguero was the most expensive player last season at $76, a price that Hesh Hambazaza deemed too high to keep despite being the third-highest scoring player in the game, only to see the Man City striker go for two dollars more this year. New-comer Henrikh Mkhitaryan was the second-highest paid player, and I'm not sure there was another one who had more people bidding on him (I went up to $69 and stopped, which I regret).
Given each manager's needs based on their keepers (we could keep up up to four players) and roster construction, I don't want to go into who I think overpaid, as my valuation on a forward obviously changes if I don't have any spots to fill at that position, for example. I went into the auction with four keepers: Nacho Monreal ($1), Erik Lamela ($1), Jordon Ibe ($1) and Adrian ($2). I didn't want to worry about a GK in the auction, and while potentially grabbing one at $1 was tempting, it allowed me to not have to get involved in the bidding for guys like Thibaut Courtois ($26), Joe Hart ($25), David De Gea ($22) and Petr Cech ($20). Also, it's worth remembering that this is a 20-team league and we play team goalkeepers, so basically each team in the league is pitting their GK value on a specific team. I'm okay getting West Ham at 10 percent of Arsenal.
And while I said earlier that I didn't want to comment on who I thought was overpaid, as it's not really fair to make fun of Mike Gottlieb for paying $8 each for Glen Johnson and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, especially after he spent $25 for Patrick Bamford last year, I'll point out a few guys who I thought were solid bargains:
Sam Vokes, F (BUR) for $6: Every season we see a forward from a promoted side hit double-digit goals, and while many people think it will be Vokes' teammate Andre Gray (myself included), going $6 for Vokes when Gray went for $30 seems well worth it (think of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo last season).
Stewart Downing, M (MID) for $12: Downing is no spring chicken, but he proved two seasons ago with West Ham that he can be a viable fantasy option, finishing with six goals and eight assists. Reaching that level would be impressive at age 32, but a $12 investment seems worth it for the upside of a player who will be on the ball a ton this term.
Wilfried Zaha, M (CRY) for $8: The Palace midfield is very crowded this season, but with Yohan Cabaye going for $30 (and many managers saying during the auction that they wish they went higher), Yannick Bolasie at $25, Jason Puncheon at $10 and Andros Townsend (kept at $1), picking up Zaha for single digits was a solid get for FantasyYirma.
Jordan Henderson, M (LIV) for $5: The Liverpool midfield is also very crowded, but you have to think there's a consistent spot for their captain. Maybe I'm biased because I paid $28 for Henderson last season (and obviously didn't keep him), but he's too involved and will play too much (if he's fit) to only go for $5.
