Deep roto - autodraft strategy

[horrorfan]

I joined this one-year, 20 team roto league last season and had to autodraft. Unfortunately I didn't rank pitchers high enough and ended up with an unbalanced roster (strong hitting, poor pitching). After a lot of hard work and plenty of luck/fortune, I managed to scrape out a fourth place finish.

This season, the draft is this coming Sunday but once again not sure I can make it so I might have to autodraft again. I don't want to make the same mistake again so I'm bumping up pitchers. However, for such a deep league (for me at least), I'm curious on your thoughts on some other ranking suggestions that jump out based on the settings below. For example, perhaps certain players/positions should be higher/lower, how you'd rank the early vs mid vs late rounds, closers, setup men, etc. I've done a fair bit of tweaking, research and looked at last year's draft results (have a spreadsheet with positions chosen by round) so I do have ideas. However, others' suggestions are always helpful.

Here are the settings:

Yahoo, 1-year, 20 teams, Daily lineups/transactions, Max games=162, Max innings=1475
C,1B,2B,SS,3B,IF,3OF,2Util / 4SP,3RP,2P / 4BN, 3DL (480 players drafted)
R,HR,RBI,SB,AVG,OPS / W,SV,K,HLD,ERA,WHIP

Thanks in advance.

[horrorfan]

Here are a few of my observations to consider:

- Since there's an IF slot, I'm bumping up infielders in the middle to later rounds, especially those with multiple position eligibility.
- Speaking of multiple position eligibility, always useful but especially in a deep league where the FA list will be thin.
- About a third of the first three rounds (60 picks) were pitchers last season. I didn't get my first until the sixth last season so it's important to get at least one solid starter in the early rounds (3rd/4th latest).
- Set up men can be found at the end, even in a deep league. I have a few on my radar that are worth it for the ratios/high K rates and potential closing material, but beyond that there are plenty of guys for holds that pop up during the season.

Feel free to add to the list. Thanks.

[ruckus1717]

My best advice would be to ask in advance if someone could draft for you! No matter how you rank your guys with autodraft lots can go wrong. If you miss something you may draft chipper or someone like tex who dropped recently. There's probably a few guys that wouldn't mind the practice for their own draft and you obviously found last season that autodraft has issues!

[horrorfan]

My best advice would be to ask in advance if someone could draft for you! No matter how you rank your guys with autodraft lots can go wrong. If you miss something you may draft chipper or someone like tex who dropped recently. There's probably a few guys that wouldn't mind the practice for their own draft and you obviously found last season that autodraft has issues!

Nah I prefer to autodraft over someone else drafting for me as it's still my team. I still enjoy the challenge if I have to autodraft and in my experience have been able to still end up with competitive teams. As long as I'm on top of the news I won't end up with guys like Tex too early, or some I just put on my exclude list. Last season had issues since it was the first deep league and didn't know how they valued hitters vs pitchers, but now it's the second time around I'm better prepared. But obviously it's not a perfect system so thought I'd see if anyone had suggestions. Thanks anyway.

By the way, whether I'm there live or have to rely on autodraft I'll be posting my squad for an audit anyway for all to praise or mock!