Speaker 1: Welcome to the Auction Brief. There's a joy in these games.
Speaker 1: Are not taking you on a journey through fantasy football,
Speaker 1: the law, and life. We saw your It depends on
Speaker 1: how much you want. And now you're legal analyst and
Speaker 1: auction draft expert here to help you dominate your fantasy drafts.
Speaker 1: Your host, Drew Dadinport, there are full hearts. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome into the Auction Brief. As the lady said, I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Drew Davenport, and thank you for joining me
Speaker 1: for another episode of the Auction Brief. We are ripping
Speaker 1: through the summer already. I cannot believe that we're getting
Speaker 1: near the end of June already. I say it every year,
Speaker 1: and it's because it's true every year. Man's you know,
Speaker 1: what do you want from me? Bro? I'm so pumped
Speaker 1: because today's show is going to draw on a little
Speaker 1: bit of my past education. Something hit me the other
Speaker 1: day about Taoism. I don't know what you all know
Speaker 1: about that stuff, but I forgive me. I had a
Speaker 1: minor in religious studies and this stuff's interesting to me,
Speaker 1: so deal with it. Feeling feisty today, can you tell
Speaker 1: we're thirty seconds in and I'm already yelling at you.
Speaker 1: I am stoked about today's show because the dow of
Speaker 1: auctions is a really fun way to look at auctions
Speaker 1: and how we can succeed at auctions from a theory standpoint.
Speaker 1: We're not going to do a whole lot of player
Speaker 1: stuff today because we already did that with Marcus Grant
Speaker 1: this week, and as you know, that's how we're dividing
Speaker 1: things up. And I know I got a lot of
Speaker 1: good feedback from last week's show talking about the mock
Speaker 1: auctions and some of the prices and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: so I know that's popular and I get it. But
Speaker 1: what we're trying to do a little bit right now
Speaker 1: is because we're at the end of June, we're just
Speaker 1: creeping into redraft territory here, heading into July, training camps,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and so what I want to start
Speaker 1: to do is build our auction foundation, because we're turning
Speaker 1: a little bit more towards being prepared for our auctions mentally,
Speaker 1: and we can layer the player stuff on top of
Speaker 1: our baseline, which is how we're approaching auctions and our
Speaker 1: auction theory game. That's all important stuff. And just because
Speaker 1: I like to do some more player stuff than I
Speaker 1: used to. Doesn't mean we're going to abandon the theory,
Speaker 1: because that's what's important about the show. And I think
Speaker 1: this episode will serve to get your mind centered. It'll
Speaker 1: serve to get you right mentally to start layering all
Speaker 1: the crap on top of it that you have to
Speaker 1: remember when you go into an auction or get hit.
Speaker 1: A lot more minution, a lot more detail as the
Speaker 1: summer goes on, But for right now, let's lay those foundations.
Speaker 1: And we're going to do that by looking at the
Speaker 1: dow of auctions and what that means for our mindset
Speaker 1: heading into auctions. So before we do all that, though,
Speaker 1: I have a fun little poker story, and I also
Speaker 1: have three exciting announcements. Yes, three exciting announcements. Everybody listen up.
Speaker 1: Three exciting announcements, don't forget. You can find me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Drew Davenport FF on Patreon as the Fantasy
Speaker 1: Football Lawyer just four bucks a month. I strive to
Speaker 1: put out the best auction content you can find anywhere
Speaker 1: on the Internet. I think you're gonna find it at
Speaker 1: the Fantasy Football Lawyer Patreon channel. So people are giving
Speaker 1: me good feedback about the content so far. We just
Speaker 1: dropped our first auction tip of the Day the other day.
Speaker 1: We have our Rushie Rice and our Josh Jacobs updates
Speaker 1: there as well that you can't find anywhere else. I
Speaker 1: still have not put that stuff public, even though it
Speaker 1: will be public here probably in the next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks before training camp opens. You all are going to
Speaker 1: have a five or six week jump on everyone else
Speaker 1: with that information. So get over there to the Patreon
Speaker 1: that worked just four bucks a month. But what about
Speaker 1: these announcements. What exciting stuff do we have going on? Well,
Speaker 1: one of them is selfish and the other two are
Speaker 1: for everyone else. Are are content related? The number one
Speaker 1: thing that I'm excited about right now is I'm getting
Speaker 1: moved up into the Jim Brown division in The King's Classic.
Speaker 1: I don't think this will be a permanent move necessarily.
Speaker 1: They had a couple of people drop out, but I
Speaker 1: was near the top of the list to get moved up,
Speaker 1: and I got moved up. I'm really stoked about that
Speaker 1: because it's a different room and it's going to be
Speaker 1: some real heavyweights in that room, guys like Jeff Ratcliffe
Speaker 1: and Marcus Grant, Michael Florio, Drake's in that room, Jim Coventry,
Speaker 1: JJ Zachareson, Pat Doherty, Matt Harmon, Andy Barons, Brad Evans,
Speaker 1: Scott Pianowski. This is going to be a killer draft
Speaker 1: room in the Jim Brown Division that is the top
Speaker 1: division of the King's Classic. So I'm really stoked about
Speaker 1: that was big news. The other thing that I want
Speaker 1: to tell you is that I've finally picked a date
Speaker 1: for the Salary Cap Summit, So clear your calendars. We're
Speaker 1: going to have a draft on eight to two, a
Speaker 1: draft on eight three, and then the panel on eight four,
Speaker 1: so that's August, second, third, and fourth. We're going to
Speaker 1: have two drafts with my live commentary Sunday night and
Speaker 1: Monday night, and then Tuesday night will be the panel
Speaker 1: where I have on the best auction minds in the business.
Speaker 1: So look for that. Clear your calendars the nights of August, second, third,
Speaker 1: and fourth. I'll be pushing out that information here within
Speaker 1: the next week with more details about time and guests
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. But I'm stoked about the
Speaker 1: Salary Cap Summit year two. It was a huge success
Speaker 1: year one. That's announcement number two. Exciting Announcement number three
Speaker 1: is I can't believe I didn't talk about this last week,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure that I was allowed to quite yet,
Speaker 1: but I am now it is official. Serious XM has
Speaker 1: seen fit to give ye a boy a show. What what?
Speaker 1: I can't believe it. I can't believe it. But Brian Drake,
Speaker 1: I have to thank him once again. One of my
Speaker 1: best friends in the world, but certainly guy I'm closest
Speaker 1: to in the fantasy industry. Drake has just always been
Speaker 1: there for me as a supporter. I put this out
Speaker 1: on Twitter, so I'm not gonna be labor the point,
Speaker 1: but I just want to say Drake has always been
Speaker 1: there to support me. He's the reason the auction brief
Speaker 1: even exists because he got me on the Fighting Chance
Speaker 1: Fantasy Airwaves to get the show jump started. And he's
Speaker 1: always been a huge supporter by bringing me along and
Speaker 1: some of his endeavors, by talking about me and hyping
Speaker 1: me up. And he got the opportunity through Fantasy Points
Speaker 1: to get a show on the air, and he brought
Speaker 1: me along as his co host. So super cool. I'm
Speaker 1: so pumped that I'm gonna be on Serious Radio. We
Speaker 1: have a regular slot on Sundays from three to five
Speaker 1: starting on July twelfth, and then during the season we're
Speaker 1: gonna be six to eight on Sundays, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: recap all the day's action from six to eight on Sundays.
Speaker 1: That's going to be on Serious X Time. I believe
Speaker 1: that's Channel eighty seven, but just check the Fantasy Sports channel,
Speaker 1: and that's where we'll be starting July twelfth. Pretty stoked,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna have Drake on here soon and talk
Speaker 1: to him about all that and talk about some fantasy football, right,
Speaker 1: all right, So I've rambled long enough. I'm cutting into
Speaker 1: the time for the content today, but all that stuff's
Speaker 1: really exciting, and I hope that you are pumped up
Speaker 1: for more content as we go on in the summer.
Speaker 1: So I want to start today with a poker story
Speaker 1: because it's a really good one for what we're trying
Speaker 1: to do today. Because the dow of auctions is all
Speaker 1: about getting your mind right, and sometimes our minds can
Speaker 1: go off track a little bit when we're in the
Speaker 1: heat of the moment, or when we're in the long
Speaker 1: grind of a day at work, of a long poker tournament,
Speaker 1: of a long auction draft, our minds can get off
Speaker 1: and we don't even realize it. So keeping our center,
Speaker 1: keeping our balance is paramount to be an elite auction drafter.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to talk about the dow of auctions,
Speaker 1: but I want to start by leading into the topic
Speaker 1: talking about the idea that forcing things and trying to
Speaker 1: make things happen the way you want them to happen
Speaker 1: is really an illusion that we all suffer under in
Speaker 1: our daily lives. So I'm playing a poker tournament the
Speaker 1: other day and I got no cards. I played for
Speaker 1: about five and a half hours in this tournament. I
Speaker 1: ended up tripling up one time that kept me in
Speaker 1: the tournament for that long, but that was with a
Speaker 1: pair of sevens in five and a half hours. I
Speaker 1: never had ace King, ace queen. I never had a
Speaker 1: pair of above sevens. It was just a rough, rough
Speaker 1: day of starting hands, So tough tournament for me. But
Speaker 1: that's not the point of the story. But it is
Speaker 1: a foundational point because we've all had that day on
Speaker 1: the felt and this goes with the theme about trying
Speaker 1: to force things. And this poker story starts out with
Speaker 1: me having a small pair. I think I had a
Speaker 1: pair of fours or six's, I can't remember. It's not
Speaker 1: really important to the story, but I had a small pair.
Speaker 1: There was a raise and a call, and I decided
Speaker 1: to call with my small pair because I haven't had
Speaker 1: any cards. I'm trying to manufacture something, right, even though
Speaker 1: a three way pot with a small pair is not
Speaker 1: a great place to be. But if you flop a set,
Speaker 1: the implied odds are really high, so I'm really trying
Speaker 1: to make something happen, right, So I call the raise.
Speaker 1: The flop comes out King King nine. All right, King
Speaker 1: King nine, and I've got my small pair. Now it's
Speaker 1: not the worst pot to be in with a small pair.
Speaker 1: It's not the worst flop right now. A lot of
Speaker 1: people play Kings. Obviously, we know that that's a concern
Speaker 1: that somebody could have a set there, King King nine.
Speaker 1: Somebody may be hanging out there with an ace nine
Speaker 1: or something like that. But I'm not really thinking I'm
Speaker 1: worried about the nine, just really worried about the King,
Speaker 1: and of course anybody else with a pair. So we
Speaker 1: check it around to the raiser, and the razor makes
Speaker 1: a pretty stiff bet into the pot, and the reason
Speaker 1: I'm telling the story is this point right here, because
Speaker 1: there is a tendency for us to want to force things,
Speaker 1: to try to bend things to our will, and we
Speaker 1: do that in daily life, but we especially do it
Speaker 1: in auction, drafting and poker because it's their activities that
Speaker 1: we participate in that we realize, Hey, I could be
Speaker 1: doing this better if people weren't acting irrationally, if people
Speaker 1: weren't doing the things that they're doing, I would be
Speaker 1: doing much better at this thing in front of me, right,
Speaker 1: But you just can't force it sometimes, and sometimes that's
Speaker 1: the way life is, and sometimes that's the way these
Speaker 1: things go. And oftentimes you'll look down at that pair
Speaker 1: ofphors or that pair of six is on that King
Speaker 1: King nine flop, and you'll think, I got to make
Speaker 1: something happen here. And then you're on the rail because
Speaker 1: you were up against a king, or you were up
Speaker 1: against a better pair, and you think, well, what just
Speaker 1: happened when you tried to force things because your mindset
Speaker 1: was off from the hours and hours of bad cards. Right,
Speaker 1: The hours and hours of sitting there and looking at
Speaker 1: nothing can make a pair of sixes look a lot
Speaker 1: better than they really are. If you were at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the tournament, you wouldn't care so much about
Speaker 1: that pot. And if you were running hot and you
Speaker 1: had a bunch of chips, you just released the hand
Speaker 1: and not worry about it and then move on to
Speaker 1: find a better spot. But pressure on people. So in
Speaker 1: this particular spot, the razor bets, the other guy folds,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking to myself, this guy's got a pair
Speaker 1: of eights. He's not aces eights, okay, snowman, And I'm
Speaker 1: thinking he's got a pair of eights just the way
Speaker 1: he bet. I knew I played at his table for
Speaker 1: several hours. I knew what kind of player he was.
Speaker 1: He was a pretty solid player, and when he put
Speaker 1: the bet out there, it screamed to me that he
Speaker 1: wanted the pot to end and he wanted to win
Speaker 1: it right there. He felt like he had the best
Speaker 1: hand because he's also thinking, this isn't a bad flop
Speaker 1: for my eightes, and so I just I fold the
Speaker 1: hand and I get away from it. But I will
Speaker 1: tell you that it crossed my mind that I should
Speaker 1: make a play with this pair and try to convince
Speaker 1: him that I had a king in my hand. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't work a lot of times with people because
Speaker 1: they just don't want to believe you, And so I
Speaker 1: got rid of the hand. But then I realized that
Speaker 1: I never would have been thinking about that play if
Speaker 1: I hadn't been running so poorly at the table, right
Speaker 1: And it's the same thing with surfing. You all know
Speaker 1: that I'm into surfing, and some of you are in
Speaker 1: the Auction Brief Fantasy Surfing League, and if you want
Speaker 1: to get in, by the way, let me know. I'll
Speaker 1: get you in. It's free. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: But I'm really into surfing, and I watch a lot
Speaker 1: of competitive surfing, and a lot of times there's a
Speaker 1: surfer who is much better than their opponent. They end
Speaker 1: up on waves that don't turn out like they want,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times those better surfers can manufacture
Speaker 1: points out of those waves. But there is a limit
Speaker 1: to what they can manufacture. And that's the whole key
Speaker 1: to these stories right here, is that sometimes you can
Speaker 1: manufacture things, sometimes you have a modicum of control, but
Speaker 1: there is a limit to it, and we tend to
Speaker 1: forget about that limit. And that's where I want to
Speaker 1: start today, because the limit of what we can do
Speaker 1: in an auction draft room is absolutely there. There is
Speaker 1: a cap to what we can do. However, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of distance between what most people do in
Speaker 1: an auction draft room and the ceiling or the limit
Speaker 1: that we can hit. So we have to focus on
Speaker 1: the things that we can control and not try to
Speaker 1: force things when they're not there. The term that we're
Speaker 1: going to want to use today is wu way. It's
Speaker 1: wu way, and what it means is that once we
Speaker 1: let go of the illusion of control in our lives,
Speaker 1: in our poker and in their auction drafting, then we
Speaker 1: can grow. We can grow from that point because we
Speaker 1: realize that we are not living a thing that we
Speaker 1: can just go fix. We can't just go fix a machine. Instead,
Speaker 1: it's more like trying to coax the water to go
Speaker 1: in the correct direction, and the water's going to sometimes
Speaker 1: hit obstacles, it's going to hit rocks, but it's flow
Speaker 1: right around them if we allow it to. And the
Speaker 1: Tao of auctions is not about wrestling control back. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's quite the opposite. It's about controlling what we can
Speaker 1: control and otherwise accepting our circumstances and marrying those two
Speaker 1: ideas so that we can succeed better than the people
Speaker 1: in the room who are fighting it, who are fighting themselves,
Speaker 1: and who are fighting the game. And the dow of
Speaker 1: Auctions is not about sitting there and doing nothing and
Speaker 1: letting stuff happen to us. Quite the opposite. It's about
Speaker 1: realizing there are things that we can control and pushing
Speaker 1: our effort into those areas and letting everything else be.
Speaker 1: And the best example of that is when I talked
Speaker 1: about last week, when I talked about the mock auction,
Speaker 1: and I realized how high the prices were. You can't
Speaker 1: control that stuff. And we're going to talk about how
Speaker 1: we react to these things and how that leads to
Speaker 1: our success. And that's what the dow of Auctions is
Speaker 1: all about. So I have three points I can make,
Speaker 1: and I'm hoping it's going to be a nice tight
Speaker 1: ten minutes on each point. But they're the central tenets
Speaker 1: of Taoism. And there's a book called The dowd Aging
Speaker 1: by an ancient Eastern philosopher named Laozu. Now, those of
Speaker 1: you out there who have a philosophy degree or know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, or are familiar with the dowd Aging,
Speaker 1: please please please don't hold me to a really tight standard.
Speaker 1: And I'm what this stuff actually is, Okay, Because I
Speaker 1: read the dowd Aging thirty years ago, I have read
Speaker 1: some of it since then. I own it a copy
Speaker 1: of it, and I have leafed through it, refreshed myself
Speaker 1: on some of it. I did a little bit of
Speaker 1: research before the shows to make sure I just I
Speaker 1: wasn't killing it, to make sure I was still on
Speaker 1: the right track. But don't hold me to a superse
Speaker 1: standard here. Okay, it's been a while. It's been a while.
Speaker 1: The points themselves, though, are are instructive and three main
Speaker 1: tenants of Daoism that I want you to take into
Speaker 1: your auction draft rooms. Number one is adaptive ability over force.
Speaker 1: Number two is practicing humility, and number three is embracing simplicity.
Speaker 1: So we're going to take those three tenants of Daoism
Speaker 1: and we're going to take them into our auction draft
Speaker 1: room and we're going to figure out how they can
Speaker 1: help us dominate that draft room auction talk. So one
Speaker 1: of the things that we have to stress above all
Speaker 1: is that you cannot force these situations, like I talked
Speaker 1: about in the introduction, with the surfing and with the poker.
Speaker 1: You have to go with what the ocean gives you.
Speaker 1: You have to go with what the cards give you.
Speaker 1: And no amount of force is going to make that
Speaker 1: auction room do what you want it to do. But
Speaker 1: you can guide it like a stream with banks on
Speaker 1: the side and allow it to flow over the rocks
Speaker 1: and over the obstacles to ultimately reach the destination you
Speaker 1: want it to reach. And I want to lead with
Speaker 1: talk talking about Saquon Barkley from last year, because there
Speaker 1: was a hot debate last summer about Saquon Barkley's prospects
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty five, and that was largely based on
Speaker 1: the fact that he had had so many touches in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Of course they made the deep playoff run.
Speaker 1: He got a million touches in twenty twenty four, and
Speaker 1: so his efficiency was a hot topic last summer. And
Speaker 1: I know that a lot of you and me included
Speaker 1: faded Barkley because we felt like the efficiency drop off
Speaker 1: was going to be there after a huge touch season,
Speaker 1: and it was, and it did in fact happen. But
Speaker 1: that's not the lesson. The lesson is when we're talking
Speaker 1: about adaptability over force, there is a theory out there
Speaker 1: that I'm going to continue to talk about every summer
Speaker 1: and every chance I get, I go on shows, and
Speaker 1: I talk about this NonStop because this is one of
Speaker 1: my biggest pet peeves, and that is that we think
Speaker 1: that nominating a quote unquote elite or very good player
Speaker 1: at the beginning of a draft that we don't want
Speaker 1: wastes other people's money. I know that a lot of
Speaker 1: you like to do that, and I'm not here to
Speaker 1: personally attack you, but if that's something that you're doing,
Speaker 1: you need to stop. And here's why. My example is
Speaker 1: sakuon Barkley because last summer I saw this move from
Speaker 1: several people that I was in auctions with where they
Speaker 1: nominated him early because they didn't want him, and they
Speaker 1: knew that some people did, and so they thought, well, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to drain some money from the room on
Speaker 1: a player that I don't want. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: different problems with this, but in keeping with today's theme,
Speaker 1: I just want to say that that tactic is a
Speaker 1: prime example of trying to force the auction to do
Speaker 1: what you wanted to do with little success. You need
Speaker 1: to adapt to what's happening in the room, not try
Speaker 1: to force the room to do what you wanted to do. Now,
Speaker 1: I know we're trying to influence the room, We're trying
Speaker 1: to have control where we can. But I would submit
Speaker 1: to you that that is not one of those situations
Speaker 1: that gives you any measure of control. And let me
Speaker 1: talk about this in concrete terms, because I know that
Speaker 1: a lot of times I say it in a very
Speaker 1: abstract or theoretical way. It's hard to get your mind around.
Speaker 1: But Saquon Barkley ended up last year as the RB
Speaker 1: fourteen overall. He averaged fourteen and a half points per game,
Speaker 1: and he actually ended up as the RB seventeen in
Speaker 1: points per game. He wasn't a bad running back. He
Speaker 1: just wasn't what we thought Saquon Barkley was before the season. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, a lot of us did think that he
Speaker 1: might fall off an efficiency. He just didn't score as
Speaker 1: many touchdowns or break those long runs. But he still
Speaker 1: was a workhorse and still caught quite a few passes,
Speaker 1: and so he still was a reasonably good fantasy running back. Now,
Speaker 1: if you nominated Barkley at the beginning of an auction
Speaker 1: and said this is what I'm doing because I want
Speaker 1: a quote unquote waste to someone's money. The thing that
Speaker 1: I always tell people is you didn't waste anyone's money
Speaker 1: if they got Barkley, because what they ended up getting
Speaker 1: was a really good fantasy football running back. Now, he
Speaker 1: wasn't Saquon Barkley top three guy, but I bet you
Speaker 1: didn't see top three prices in your auction room. So
Speaker 1: if you called him out and he went for forty
Speaker 1: four or forty six dollars, yes, that's too high of
Speaker 1: a price to pay for the RB fourteen. However, at
Speaker 1: the time that that's happening in the auction draft room,
Speaker 1: his finish is immaterial to what's happening in the room.
Speaker 1: And what's happening in the room is that you only
Speaker 1: bled forty four dollars off of a possible two thousand
Speaker 1: or twenty four hundred dollars that there is to spend.
Speaker 1: Number One, that's not exerting anything on the draft room.
Speaker 1: You're not doing anything. And number two, you gave somebody
Speaker 1: in that room the peace of mind that they got
Speaker 1: a deal on their running back one that they're considering.
Speaker 1: Just because he finishes an RB two doesn't mean in
Speaker 1: the room at the time that that matters whatsoever. I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about that in just a second. But
Speaker 1: they believe they have their RB one and so that
Speaker 1: frees them up to go bid on other players. And
Speaker 1: it's the whole theory of leaving the guy on the
Speaker 1: board rather than calling them out. But let me bring
Speaker 1: it back to the point, which is that a lot
Speaker 1: of people believe that they're shaping the auction that way,
Speaker 1: and so for one reason I would say it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: First of all, I don't believe you're doing anything at
Speaker 1: this point other than pissing away your early nomination. But
Speaker 1: that's point number two. That flows into point number two,
Speaker 1: which is you're giving away one of your only chances
Speaker 1: to nominate people, and you're doing it early in the draft,
Speaker 1: which is way worse. There are times when you want
Speaker 1: to waste nominations, that's the middle rounds middle to like
Speaker 1: three quarters of the way through. There are times you
Speaker 1: want to do that. This is not that time, and
Speaker 1: so you just gave away a chance. Look at the
Speaker 1: example I talked about last week with Chase Brown and
Speaker 1: Kyvin Williams. They both went way lower than they should
Speaker 1: have because the room was cold and so the nomination
Speaker 1: was huge there to get a cheap Chase Brown or
Speaker 1: a cheap Kyrone Williams. And so the Saquon Barkley example,
Speaker 1: I just want to point out that when people say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm wasting money, well not really. You still that person
Speaker 1: still got the RB fourteen. So I think that in
Speaker 1: order for anyone to say that this tactic actually works,
Speaker 1: you'd have to convince me that the loss of ev
Speaker 1: in not getting a Chase Brown or a Kyrone Williams
Speaker 1: with your nomination is less of a deal than saving
Speaker 1: a few bucks on Barkley or wasting a few bucks.
Speaker 1: Let me say wasting a few bucks, because if somebody
Speaker 1: got Barkley for forty four bucks and he was the
Speaker 1: RB fourteen, he's probably still that's probably still a thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars running back, right, So nine bucks there, but
Speaker 1: you lost out on the chance to land a guy
Speaker 1: that's going to send your draft off into one direction
Speaker 1: or another, so that you could waste nine bucks from
Speaker 1: somebody like You're gonna have to convince me that that
Speaker 1: eve makes sense, and I don't think it does, and
Speaker 1: I've never thought it does, and I think that that
Speaker 1: is something we need to leave in the past. That
Speaker 1: is us trying to force things rather than adapt to
Speaker 1: what we should be doing. So let me make a
Speaker 1: couple other quick points before we move on to the
Speaker 1: second tenant here. Another point I want to make is
Speaker 1: that adaptability over a force plays into your mental headspace,
Speaker 1: and I think that we underestimate how cluttered our mental
Speaker 1: headspace gets during the middle of an auction. It's easy
Speaker 1: to underestimate is what that's going to do to you
Speaker 1: and how it's going to make you lose focus. So
Speaker 1: take the example of the mock auction that we did
Speaker 1: we talked about last week when the prices were high
Speaker 1: early in the draft. There's a tendency and I certainly
Speaker 1: do this, and I don't know some of you may
Speaker 1: not do it to the degree that I do, but
Speaker 1: I let it bother me. It kind of worries me, like,
Speaker 1: how am I going to do this? Now? What am
Speaker 1: I going to do? And I'm gnawing on that problem
Speaker 1: and that's limiting my ability to figure out what I'm
Speaker 1: going to do going forward. There's no way to solve
Speaker 1: the problem of high prices, is there? Well, yes, no, yes,
Speaker 1: From the standpoint that you're going to try to change
Speaker 1: your draft strategy, but the actual problem itself is not solvable, right.
Speaker 1: You can't change what people are doing. You can't get
Speaker 1: them to stop bidding, Like, hey, guys, you're going crazy
Speaker 1: here for all these wide receivers. You can't get them
Speaker 1: to spend less. That's without not in your control. So
Speaker 1: worrying about it is not worth it whatsoever. And it's
Speaker 1: limiting your headspace and it's clouding your judgment about what
Speaker 1: you should be doing, because at that point you should
Speaker 1: be thinking to yourself, which way am I going? Am
Speaker 1: I going to get one of these guys? Or am
Speaker 1: I going to slough off and try to find some
Speaker 1: value somewhere. So your mental headspace is limited. And when
Speaker 1: you try to force things, when you try to when
Speaker 1: you try to solve these things that are not solvable
Speaker 1: in the middle of the draft, then you're wasting your
Speaker 1: headspace on things that you should not be concerning yourself with. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let your headspace clear up a little bit and
Speaker 1: understand that you're just trying to adapt and that things
Speaker 1: you can't change are things you can't change. And a
Speaker 1: big part of adaptability over force is focusing your energy
Speaker 1: on your nominations and your bidding, and how those things
Speaker 1: are helping you give out an image land players that
Speaker 1: you want nominate players at the right time. Some of
Speaker 1: the only things you can control when you're in the
Speaker 1: middle of an auction are your nominations and your bidding,
Speaker 1: and let me submit to you that adaptability in that
Speaker 1: spot also means that these things that you do can't
Speaker 1: be static. You can't simply say I have this strategy
Speaker 1: and I'm going to use it. That's not what we're
Speaker 1: talking about. We're talking about mixing up your strategy constantly
Speaker 1: to fit the moment. Let the moment be the moment,
Speaker 1: and adjust yourself like the stream of flowing over the rock.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times I will say
Speaker 1: to myself, all right, next round, my plan is I'm
Speaker 1: going to nominate this guy, and within three players going
Speaker 1: up forbid, I've already decided that's the wrong play. And
Speaker 1: then four players later, I've decided, well, that new idea
Speaker 1: I had is now also the wrong play. There'll be
Speaker 1: times when I go through three or four different ideas
Speaker 1: about who I'm going to nominate in the next round
Speaker 1: between nominations. So that's like an average of like every
Speaker 1: two or three guys, I'm changing who I'm going to nominate.
Speaker 1: These things are not static. You have to change up
Speaker 1: how you're bidding. You have to change up how you're nominating,
Speaker 1: and you do it based on what is in front
Speaker 1: of you. Don't try to solve the unsolvable. Let the
Speaker 1: things be the things, and then flow over the rocks
Speaker 1: like a stream instead of trying to force it. Instead
Speaker 1: of seeing this as a machine that you can fix,
Speaker 1: flow over it. Clear your mind and you know what
Speaker 1: to do. I promise you know what to do, and
Speaker 1: by at the end of the summer, I will have
Speaker 1: drummed in all the details into your head about what
Speaker 1: to do. But today we're about the thirty thousand foot view,
Speaker 1: and that's point number one. Adaptability over force is one
Speaker 1: of the tenets of the Dow of Auctions. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: we went a little bit long on point number one.
Speaker 1: That's okay, because I wanted to talk about that Saquon
Speaker 1: Barkleay thing because I think that's a really important point
Speaker 1: that I want to make every summer and that I
Speaker 1: want people to get in their heads. It's a myth
Speaker 1: that persists. Point number two of the DOW of auctions
Speaker 1: is that we need to practice humility. We need to
Speaker 1: practice humility. And I can sum this up in about
Speaker 1: three different ways that are pretty straightforward and that we
Speaker 1: don't need to be labored these points. But number one
Speaker 1: is something we talked about last summer over and over,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I kind of started really getting
Speaker 1: into last summer a lot, and I hadn't talked about
Speaker 1: it in a lot of previous summers, but I'm carrying
Speaker 1: it over into this summer because I really really think
Speaker 1: it helped me a ton, and I've had some people
Speaker 1: come back and tell me that it helped them as well,
Speaker 1: And that is being player agnostic, and humility is being
Speaker 1: player agnostic. Is all about humility because there are situations
Speaker 1: in which we think we know everything and we think
Speaker 1: we know how something is going to go. And let
Speaker 1: me just say to go back to the point about
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley, this applies here as well, because when you
Speaker 1: call if you think to yourself, well, I'm gonna call
Speaker 1: this player out and they're going to have a bad year,
Speaker 1: and that person just wasted their money, and you pull
Speaker 1: on Nelson like hahah, like I just made that guy
Speaker 1: waste his money. What you're telling yourself and what you're
Speaker 1: telling everyone else is that you know better and you
Speaker 1: know exactly what's going to happen with that guy. Now,
Speaker 1: we all strive to be the best by saying I
Speaker 1: know more, I'm more instinctual, I know this game the best,
Speaker 1: and that's what fantasy football is partially about. But when
Speaker 1: you let go of some of that stuff and you're
Speaker 1: more agnostic and you say to yourself, I don't believe
Speaker 1: in players anymore. I believe in prices and how I
Speaker 1: put together my teams, I think you'll find more success.
Speaker 1: And the reason I talk about Barkley is if you're
Speaker 1: calling out Barkley and saying he's gonna have a bad year,
Speaker 1: what if Saquon Barkley scored four more touchdowns last year. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not here to tell you that's just Oh, that's easy.
Speaker 1: He could have scored four more. They had some limitations
Speaker 1: last year. I get that, but he very easily could
Speaker 1: have scored four more touchdowns. If he scores four more
Speaker 1: touchdowns last year, you know what Barkley is. He's the
Speaker 1: RB seven, the RB seven, and yet somehow we're supposed
Speaker 1: to be happy with a plan where somebody quote unquote
Speaker 1: wastes money for forty four dollars for Barkley. You got
Speaker 1: the RB seven for forty four bucks, Sign me up.
Speaker 1: This is a point that we can make two points
Speaker 1: out of this Barkley scenario, because when you're calling out
Speaker 1: somebody early, you're saying, I know exactly what's going to
Speaker 1: happen to that guy, and you don't. You don't you
Speaker 1: have suspicions. And yes, we were right about Barkley to
Speaker 1: a degree, but he didn't get hurt and go out
Speaker 1: for the season. He was actually pretty good in the
Speaker 1: first two rounds of the playoffs. He had seventeen and
Speaker 1: twenty two in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Those are pretty solid numbers. Now, he lets you down
Speaker 1: with a seven in the Super Bowl, but he was
Speaker 1: a pretty darn good running back. And like I said,
Speaker 1: if he has a few more touchdowns, he is a
Speaker 1: mid RB one or low RB one and you just
Speaker 1: gave him away to somebody for a cheap deal. We
Speaker 1: know touchdowns are weird, so be humble. Practice humility by
Speaker 1: understanding that you don't know exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: We can try to predict, but if we are player agnostic,
Speaker 1: that humility will help us. The second thing I want
Speaker 1: to talk about when I talk about practicing humility is
Speaker 1: understanding that you're going to make mistakes. Auctions are about
Speaker 1: limiting mistakes. But when I say they're about limiting mistakes,
Speaker 1: I'm conceding the point that you're going to make them, right, right,
Speaker 1: that's the whole point here. You're going to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: So that's okay. Just number one, limit them, limit the limit,
Speaker 1: how big they are, how egregious they are. That's why
Speaker 1: we have our parsheet. But understand that mistakes are part
Speaker 1: of the game. And if you think you're going to
Speaker 1: go into a draft and be perfect, you have an
Speaker 1: unrealistic expectation here. So practicing humility is about understanding I
Speaker 1: will make mistakes and how am I going to react
Speaker 1: when I make those mistakes. A lot of life is
Speaker 1: mental preparation for what you anticipate is going to happen.
Speaker 1: Sometimes things won't happen. Sometimes you won't make an egregious
Speaker 1: mistake or a big mistake. But hey, I can think
Speaker 1: back to this mock. I made several important mistakes. I
Speaker 1: should have been fifty two dollars on Puka. I should
Speaker 1: never let him go for fifty one. That was dumb.
Speaker 1: You know, I made several mistakes, so you're going to
Speaker 1: make mistakes. It's how you react to them that makes
Speaker 1: you an elite auction drafter or an average one. And
Speaker 1: the final point I want to make about practicing humility
Speaker 1: relates to those mistakes, because preparation for an auction draft
Speaker 1: is just a different animal. And I'm not going to
Speaker 1: talk about this in depth right now because we're going
Speaker 1: to do this later in the summer, but preparation is
Speaker 1: different when it comes to auctions. You have to know
Speaker 1: your stuff cold, and if you don't, it will show
Speaker 1: up in that draft room. In times of high stress,
Speaker 1: it will show up. Your lack of preparation will show up.
Speaker 1: You'll bid on a guy you shouldn't have been on,
Speaker 1: or you'll bid too much for somebody that you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have been on, and you look back and go, man,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't realize that about X or I
Speaker 1: didn't realize this about Why. Here's something I say every year,
Speaker 1: and I think it gets tiring for my buddy Mike
Speaker 1: and my wife, but every time the drafts come around,
Speaker 1: I just say I don't feel ready. I'm not ready,
Speaker 1: and I say it every year. I'm just not ready,
Speaker 1: and people are like, you're fine, you're fine, you've been
Speaker 1: going on showser, you've be talking about in fantasy all summer. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's true, And I will say this, I'm more ready
Speaker 1: probably than the people in my home leagues. Certainly I'm
Speaker 1: more ready than them. But I'm not trying to compare.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say I never feel ready, and I
Speaker 1: don't think that's a bad thing. That's part of humility.
Speaker 1: Part of practicing humility is knowing you're never going to
Speaker 1: have enough information before you go in there. You can
Speaker 1: only just have as much as you can, just do
Speaker 1: as much as you can until the draft comes, and
Speaker 1: then be at peace with it. And that's part of
Speaker 1: number one. You only have a limited amount of time.
Speaker 1: Get what information you can into your head, do as
Speaker 1: much work as you can, and the more you do,
Speaker 1: the better your results. Will be humble yourself enough to
Speaker 1: know that you can't go in there and wing it.
Speaker 1: The preparation is what makes you able to react positively
Speaker 1: and stressful moments in an auction draft room. Okay, the
Speaker 1: number two tenant of the dow of auctions is to
Speaker 1: practice humility. All Right. The final point that I want
Speaker 1: to talk about today in auction draft rooms, the two
Speaker 1: of auctions is to embrace simplicity. Embrace simplicity. There's three
Speaker 1: different ways. I want you to focus on embracing simplicity
Speaker 1: because a lot of what life is and a lot
Speaker 1: of what auction drafting and poker boils down to, is
Speaker 1: being able to see the world clearly, being able to
Speaker 1: take complex situations and make them simple. The best speakers,
Speaker 1: the best podcasters, are the people who can explain complex
Speaker 1: things to you in a simple fashion. It is a skill.
Speaker 1: It's not easy, and embracing simplicity in the auction draft
Speaker 1: room is a skill. It takes work. You can't just
Speaker 1: go in the like Michael Scott and declare bankruptcy. Okay,
Speaker 1: I declare bankruptcy. You can't just go in there and
Speaker 1: declare that you're gonna be simple. What are the steps
Speaker 1: you can take? Okay? Well? Number one is something that
Speaker 1: I say all the time, and I think people probably
Speaker 1: dismiss this one a little bit, but I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: saying it because I believe in it. Your draft day
Speaker 1: mindset matters. It really matters. Let's say your draft set
Speaker 1: eight o'clock at night and you're on sleeper. Okay, your
Speaker 1: draft's on sleeper, it's at eight o'clock at night. Now
Speaker 1: I understand if your kid has soccer until seven point
Speaker 1: thirty and you're blowing in the door at seven point
Speaker 1: fifty two to sit down for your eight o'clock draft,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do about that. Okay, there's nothing
Speaker 1: you can do about that, So get that out of
Speaker 1: your head. But what are some things that you can
Speaker 1: do to prepare yourself, maybe before you leave for his
Speaker 1: soccer practice. What are some things you can do? Well.
Speaker 1: You can get your draft space ready. You can get
Speaker 1: into a sleeper mock and become familiar with the software.
Speaker 1: You can have all of your stuff by your computer
Speaker 1: so that when you get home it's all there and ready.
Speaker 1: There are things you can do. You can pack yourself
Speaker 1: some food so that you can eat while your son's practicing.
Speaker 1: You're sitting in the car watching his practice, Eat your dinner,
Speaker 1: make sure that you're full, be looking over your notes.
Speaker 1: There are things you can do. So this is just
Speaker 1: an example, but I want you to focus on your
Speaker 1: draft day mindset. I do several live auctions, and there
Speaker 1: is a certain kind of personality who shows up late
Speaker 1: to the auction, and then that contributes to a cluttered mindset.
Speaker 1: Do whatever you have to do ahead of time. Go
Speaker 1: to the bathroom, eat something, make sure you have a
Speaker 1: drink nearby. Get there early. I just can't stress that enough.
Speaker 1: At my home leagues, there are certain people who are
Speaker 1: always going to be late, and that's okay, I don't care.
Speaker 1: My point is that if you care about the beginning
Speaker 1: of that auction, which is a really critical part of
Speaker 1: doing this thing that we do, then you need to
Speaker 1: get there early. You just do. It's so much nicer
Speaker 1: to set up your laptop, take a deep breath, go outside,
Speaker 1: have a smoke, have a chat with a buddy, break
Speaker 1: open a bag of chips, open your soda, get ready
Speaker 1: to go, open your beer. Do whatever you need to do,
Speaker 1: but get there and worry about your draft day mindset.
Speaker 1: Worry about it. Please do it ahead of time. Please,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you it matters. Okay, enough of that. Number two,
Speaker 1: don't clutter your headspace with actual clutter. Embrace the simplicity
Speaker 1: of what we're doing by making sure that you are
Speaker 1: prepared with the stuff in your head and then go
Speaker 1: into your draft with very little in front of you.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this before. I just have to say
Speaker 1: it again, and again, I'm sorry that I say we've
Speaker 1: talked about this before a lot, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of new people that come onto the show every year
Speaker 1: and listen to it. And also, I don't think it
Speaker 1: hurts Fristy here this stuff over and over because I
Speaker 1: really believe in this stuff, and that's why I repeat it.
Speaker 1: So there's only a few pieces of paper that I
Speaker 1: want you to have in front of you for your draft.
Speaker 1: Number one, of course, is your par sheets. That's obvious.
Speaker 1: And number two is your tier sheets. You have to
Speaker 1: have those two things. Have your tier sheets and your
Speaker 1: par sheets. Now there is a third piece of paper
Speaker 1: that's optional. I like it for beginners. You don't have
Speaker 1: to do it if you're a veteran, but if you're
Speaker 1: a beginner, and I still think you can get value
Speaker 1: from it as a veteran, And that is a nomination sheet.
Speaker 1: And that's a sheet that has players that you A
Speaker 1: don't want to have it all. B want to nominate
Speaker 1: early on because they're hyped up players that are going
Speaker 1: to cost a lot of money. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: early like first or second round. I'm saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: you get to the fourth round and you want to
Speaker 1: waste a little bit of time and wait for some
Speaker 1: spending to die down. You want a list of players
Speaker 1: like that that are hyped up, that you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: care about and you know they're going to draw some money.
Speaker 1: And then another nomination sheet, which is targets that you
Speaker 1: have that you think to yourself, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: nominating these guys at some point during the draft. This
Speaker 1: is optional, but I think that the very act of
Speaker 1: preparing the nomination sheet is part of what helps you
Speaker 1: to succeed when it's your time to nominate. I believe
Speaker 1: that act of preparation is what makes you better at
Speaker 1: it when it's going on. Okay, I just wholeheartedly believe
Speaker 1: that this is an amorphos concept. I can't give you
Speaker 1: any data about that, but I one thousand percent believe
Speaker 1: that the act of creating your nomination sheets, you didn't
Speaker 1: have to bring them in the room, just create them
Speaker 1: and then have a look at them, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have that stuff in your brain and just you don't
Speaker 1: even leave them at home. But if you bring them
Speaker 1: into the room, those are the only three things I
Speaker 1: want you to have in front of you. Your tear sheet,
Speaker 1: your par sheet, and a nomination sheet. If that makes
Speaker 1: you feel better, Keep it simple. Don't have a bunch
Speaker 1: of crap in front of you, rankings, all that stuff
Speaker 1: from different sites. Just do not do that to yourself,
Speaker 1: all right. The last part of embracing simplicity is a
Speaker 1: really thirty thousand foot comment, and that's why I'm ending
Speaker 1: the show with it today because it's a perfect finish
Speaker 1: to the dow of auctions. Embracing simplicity involves getting your
Speaker 1: mind right. And I've talked about not cluttering your mind
Speaker 1: and your draft day mindset, but getting your mind right
Speaker 1: before the draft starts is not just about those physical things,
Speaker 1: about those verifiable things that you can see and know.
Speaker 1: It's about gathering yourself in your own headspace to execute
Speaker 1: your plan. You have some overall goals in mind that
Speaker 1: you use to create your par sheets right, and that
Speaker 1: you think about ahead of time. My draft is this
Speaker 1: way with running backs, My draft is this way with quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: You formulated a strategy based off of that, and so
Speaker 1: your overall goals don't need to get lost in the
Speaker 1: minutia in this moment. Don't ever forget that your preparation
Speaker 1: allows you to execute the details. So in the minutes
Speaker 1: leading up to the draft, in the half hour, the
Speaker 1: hour leading up to the draft, I just want you
Speaker 1: to spend some time visualizing. This sounds like something that
Speaker 1: a lot of people are going to roll their eyes about,
Speaker 1: but I believe in visualization. I believe in saying, what
Speaker 1: does it look like to be successful in this draft?
Speaker 1: My goals are X, Y and Z. Say them in
Speaker 1: your head, put them actually in a sentence in your head,
Speaker 1: and then stop. Okay, just stop. Don't get lost in
Speaker 1: the minutia when you're gathering yourself. Focus on your overall
Speaker 1: goals and focus on how you're going to execute those
Speaker 1: goals early in the draft. After that, nothing else matters.
Speaker 1: But if you've visualize what success looks like in your
Speaker 1: auction draft room, you can embrace the simplicity knowing that
Speaker 1: it has a correlation to success. And so when I
Speaker 1: talk about embracing simplicity, we have to remember that our
Speaker 1: draft day mindset is laid out by the actions we
Speaker 1: take by getting there early, by knowing the software by eating,
Speaker 1: by being prepared, that we're not going to clutter up
Speaker 1: our headspace. That we're going to have a couple pieces
Speaker 1: of paper in front of us and that's it. That's it.
Speaker 1: We're not going to clutter ourselves up. And finally, the
Speaker 1: simplicity lies in thinking about our overall goals and visualizing
Speaker 1: how it's going to happen while leaving the minutia of
Speaker 1: the preparation phase behind. That is the time when we
Speaker 1: flip the switch from preparation to game day to getting
Speaker 1: ready to do battle and clearing your mind of all
Speaker 1: the minutia and focusing on the big picture. Is how
Speaker 1: you will succeed right out of the gate in your
Speaker 1: auction draft. All right, well that's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this week. The taw of auctions are all about
Speaker 1: the three major tenants that are going to allow you
Speaker 1: to succeed. Being adaptable, over forcing it, practicing humility, and
Speaker 1: embracing simplicity. These are good lessons about life, but these
Speaker 1: are certainly good ways to approach your auction draft. Yes,
Speaker 1: we want to have a killer mindset in the auction
Speaker 1: draft room, but we do that by focusing on our
Speaker 1: mental headspace that allows us to adapt and by keeping
Speaker 1: our heads clear as we push towards our final goal
Speaker 1: of an elite auction squad coming out of that draft.
Speaker 1: So the Dow of Auctions are laying the foundation for
Speaker 1: how we are going to succeed, and we're going to
Speaker 1: pile everything on top of this episode going forward. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening to another episode of the
Speaker 1: Auction Brief. I'm going to get you out of here
Speaker 1: because we are pushing time. But don't forget. You can
Speaker 1: find me on Twitter at Drew Davenport FF. Don't forget
Speaker 1: the salary cap coming up the second, third and fourth
Speaker 1: of August, and don't forget my new show on Serious XM.
Speaker 1: Listen on Sundays from three to five in July and
Speaker 1: August and from six to eight during the NFL season
Speaker 1: and all the way through the Super Bowl. So we're
Speaker 1: going to be doing it there, Drake and I. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a ton of fun, and I hope
Speaker 1: you're there with us. So check out that Patreon network.
Speaker 1: That's four bucks a month at the Fantasy Football Lawyer.
Speaker 1: And that's all I got for you today. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the Dow of Auctions. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Keep your center, keep your balance, and adapt to the
Speaker 1: things that are happening around you. I know that today
Speaker 1: was a lot of theory, but I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it. The Auction Brief is adjourned
Speaker 1: and I am out. The Auction Brief is chart. That'll
Speaker 1: do it for this week's episode. See you next time
Speaker 1: on the Auction Brief.