Lessons From My First Fantasy Football Auction Draft

After 7 years playing fantasy football I finally did an auction draft last week. My 14 team work league made the switch this season. It was a lot of fun and kept my attention more than a traditional serpentine draft.

In an auction draft you're always on. I had to consider each player on the block, manage my budget, make bids, plan my next nomination, evaluate my team's needs and try to figure out the strategies of other coaches. That's a lot to process but it was exciting and made the draft more strategic.

Here's a summary of what I did right and wrong in my first auction draft...

My Auction Draft Mistakes:

• Overpaid for my kicker and defense. I let myself get caught up in a run on kickers and spent $4.
• Got burned a couple times trying to drive up prices. This is how I overpaid for my D...thought I could get another coach to outbid me one last time. Not.
• Didn't bid high enough on stud players early in the draft and finished the draft with $10 unspent. That money would've done me more good going after top players I wanted earlier.
• Did very little player research and barely followed NFL news over the summer. It's tough to value players, identify sleepers and avoid problem players that way.

Things I Did Right In The Auction:

• Mostly stuck to my strategy. The FantasyGuru draft kit on Yahoo's "Draft Central" tab provided good auction strategy advice.
• Did a mock auction draft the day before. This helped me learn the mechanics of the online draft tool so that I could focus on my strategy during the draft. Definitely do a mock draft before doing your first auction draft.
• Nominated some players that I wasn't interested in to determine value and get money off the table.
• Looked for other coaches' strategies during the draft. This wasn't easy to do with 13 other teams so I focused only on the guys I knew had experience with auction drafts. They were usually the ones nominating backups and kickers early in the draft.

One downside to the auction format is that the draft can take longer. Snake drafts in this league have taken 90 minutes to 2 hours in years past. The auction draft ran about 3 hours before the last teams were done. Some coaches were done in under 2 hours...it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to fill my roster.

Overall I liked the auction draft format better than a snake draft. It was fun and I drafted a decent team despite my rookie mistakes. What do you think...is an auction draft or snake draft better?

12 First Year Gardening Lessons Learned

My family always had a big vegetable garden when I grew up and I have many memories of tending it with my dad and enjoying the fresh veggies we grew. That was a long time ago and last year was the first time that I had a big enough yard to start my own garden. Now that the winter snow has finally melted and I can see the garden again, it's a good time to review the key things I learned from my first year of gardening...

#1 - Protect The Garden From Critters
I knew bugs and slugs could be a problem but didn't realize how many rabbits and deer are in our new neighborhood. They quickly put a hurtin' on my unprotected plants. Eventually I found a way to keep them out that still allowed me easy access to the plants. Lesson here is to defend the garden early and well before the first critter gets into it. Once he does and finds that delicious buffet line, he'll tell his buddies.

#2 - Cherry Tomatoes Grow Like Crazy
I put in 1 grape and 2 "Sweet 100" cherry tomato plants (we love fresh cherry tomatoes on our salads). The grape tomatoes did well but the cherries would've taken over the entire garden if I'd let them! Both plants shot up and out with at least 4 or 5 new trunks growing out from the base. We had so many cherry tomatoes I was taking them to work for a healthy snack every day. There were dozens that fell off the vine because we couldn't pick them all in time.

#3 - Space Out Tomato Plants
In addition to the cherry and grape tomato plants, I had one each of Big Boy, Better Boy, Early Girl and Cherokee Purple planted in about 18 square feet of the garden. This was way too dense...the 2 cherry plants could've taken up that space by themselves. By the end of summer, all the plants (except the Cherokee Purple which suffered the most damage from the deer) were so large and interwoven that it was nearly impossible to tell the big tomatoes apart. This also prevented enough sunlight to get in to fully ripen some of the tomatoes and prevent rot.

#4 - Build Garden Beds Long & Narrow
My first raised bed garden is 10'x6'. I figured that a 6' width would maximize the square footage and I'd still be able to reach plants in the middle without stepping in and compacting the soil. What I didn't fully consider was that I'd need to put a fence around the whole thing to keep the critters out (see lesson #1). Reaching over or through the fence makes it difficult to reach the middle. Future beds will be 3' to 4' in width.

#5 - Start With Seedlings For Some Plants
It took forever for my cucumber, zucchini and squash to get going. I had to reseed each of them. Maybe I did something wrong planting them or they didn't like the soil...I haven't figured that out yet. This year I'll start them indoors and transplant the seedlings.

#6 - Harvest Carrots On Time
I forgot that the seed packet had given a time to maturity for these. When I finally pulled them out of the ground, it was 30 days past their maturity. The carrots were tough in the middle and tasted bitter (this could also be a soil issue). I'll pay more attention this season and hopefully have better tasting results.

#7 - Soaker Hoses Work Well
These hoses are made from recycled tires and slowly weep water out over their entire length. It's a great way to water your garden and minimize water lost to evaporation.

#8 - Mulch The Garden To Reduce Weeds
Covering the bare soil helps prevent weeds from taking root and keeps moisture in the ground for your plants. We never mulched our garden when I was a kid but someone recommended it and I'm glad I tried it. I used grass clippings as mulch and had very few weeds to pull. Straw, old leaves and shredded newspaper are some other things that can be used as mulch.

#9 - Mr. Stripey Tomatoes Rock!
Mr. Stripey is an heirloom tomato plant that I bought because I wanted to try different heirloom varieties and this one looked cool with its red and yellow stripes. Unfortunately I planted it in a container on the deck using some old topsoil and it never thrived. It produced only one tomato...an awesomely delicious tomato! Possibly the best I've ever tasted. It will get a proper spot in the garden this year.

#10 - Plan Your Garden
Before planting anything I plotted out where every plant would go on graph paper. Using different sized coins and other round objects I traced a spot for each plant based on its expected size at maturity. It's much easier to move things around with pencil and paper than when they're already planted. Even though I underestimated the full size of the tomato plants (especially the cherries), this chart helped me get the most use of my limited garden area.

#11 - Use The Right Stake For Tomatoes
My dad rarely staked the tomatoes (or any plant) in our garden when I was a kid. I don't know why, maybe because we had so much space, maybe because his dad didn't. Since I have limited space in my garden, I bought bamboo stakes for staking the tomatoes. They worked well for the first month but once the plants reached a few feet high and started producing fruit, they pulled the bamboo stakes over. So I had to buy heavy duty 5' wooden stakes and drive those in next to each plant, possibly damaging its established root system. Now I know to use big stakes when planting and can avoid wasting time, money and risk of root damage.

#12 - A Garden Can Be Started Almost Anywhere
I said at the top that last year was the first time I had a yard big enough for a garden. Well, it was really the first time I thought I had a yard big enough. For most of my life I believed that a garden required a big yard. Last year I learned that's not true at all. Turns out I could've planted a garden in any of the small yards or decks I had before moving into this house. Whether it be a salad box or a couple small raised beds, you can start a garden almost anywhere and start learning valuable gardening lessons. It only takes a little initiative and creativity.

What lessons have you learned about gardening?

My Fantasy Football Draft Day Nightmare

Serving as a league commissioner is usually an easy job...not this year. I'm the commish for a fantasy football league that me and two friends started years ago. We rotate the commish job each season and this year it's my turn again. There's usually 8-10 returning players with some new additions each year. We always do an online draft since everyone's all over the country.

Being a responsible fantasy league commissioner, I set up the league in Yahoo back in mid July, scheduled a good draft date/time near the end of pre-season and sent out the invites. About a week from the draft we had 8 teams registered. I started sending emails and making calls to get us up to 12 teams. Two days before the draft we had 11 and one of the other league founders had #12 lined up.

On draft night I logged in 45 minutes early and #12 still hadn't signed up. Tried calling the guy who recruited him but couldn't reach him. Meanwhile I'm planning to boot #11 if we're not at twelve teams right before draft time. Last thing we want is an odd number of teams and have to deal with bye weeks...that's no fun for anyone.

Then the real trouble starts. Refreshed my browser 29 minutes to draft and see a message from Yahoo that the league was switched to an "Auto Pick" draft format (where the computer picks players for all teams) because we didn't have an even number of teams. Crap!

I quickly kicked out team #11 to get us down to even teams. #11 is a long time league member, and I hated doing that, but he dragged his feet and signed up last. I thought that if the league had an even number of teams and I set the draft type back to Online, we'd get our original draft time back. Sounds reasonable and it's how I would've designed the system.

But that's not how Yahoo works. It let me switch to Online draft mode but forced me to pick a new draft date and time! And it wouldn't let me pick any draft times that night! Are you kidding me?!

All this time I'm trying to keep folks updated via the league message board, get one of the other league founders on the phone and fire off a quick email to Yahoo support. And I called #11 to explain why he was booted.

One guy suggested creating a league in another system and trying to draft there. The members who replied on the message board all wanted to do the draft that night so I told him to go ahead. He set up a league in ESPN and got us a draft time two hours later. We had everyone who was online sign up for an ESPN account and create a team.

There was some discussion about still trying to get 12 teams. Unfortunately, the format that the dummy draft league was created under only allows 10 teams using ESPN standard scoring. The scoring wasn't an issue because I would load the draft picks back into Yahoo but we couldn't change league size. I decided to stick with 10 teams. Getting a hold of everyone again to join yet another league and try to get #11 back plus a 12th team in time to meet ESPN's league size cutoff (1 hour before draft) was too much chaos.

One league member wasn't available online so I registered a team for him and sent him the login info. Since he wasn't online for the original draft time and Yahoo would've picked his team, it would be ok for the ESPN system to auto draft his team. I forgot to consider that he might have pre-ranked his players in Yahoo.

That guy ended up getting on in time for the draft but couldn't get ESPN's draft tool to work on his computer so he got an auto pick team. Another team couldn't get the draft tool to work either but he had someone else log in for him and told them who to pick over the phone.

It was a mess but we got through it and the league had a successful draft. I'm very thankful that the league members were flexible and patient enough to roll with the changes.

Turns out the guy whose team had been auto picked by ESPN knew he wasn't going to make the Yahoo draft and spent a lot of time pre-ranking players. He wasn't happy and has a legitimate gripe. Unfortunately there wasn't much else we could've done without rescheduling the draft to another night which didn't work for most people.

Afterward I manually loaded all of the draft picks into our original Yahoo league. That was a lot of fun.

So what did I learn from this draft fiasco?
1. Make sure all league members register in advance. This was my responsibility as commish and I dropped the ball. Mainly because I don't like hounding people. Give your league a deadline to register well ahead of the draft and hold to it.
2. Know your system's rules on league size and draft type. We always have an even number of teams so I didn't pay attention to these when creating the league. Yahoo supported odd number leagues in the past via bye weeks and I assumed it wouldn't complain if we had an odd number right before draft time. Well, they changed that rule this season and I got caught by surprise because I didn't do my homework.
3. Have alternate contact info for league members. Having a list of phone numbers or IM IDs for everyone might've helped me get folks re-organized quicker. If we had a league IM chat going, it definitely would've helped.
4. The commish has to make decisions quickly. There wasn't a clear solution. Rescheduling to another night this close to the season opener wasn't feasible. After a reasonable amount of input from the league it's up to the commish to make the call.
5. Don't count on Yahoo's fantasy sports support! The only support is an email link which I didn't expect much from. I got an auto reply email saying that I'd get a reply in 24 hours. No response until 54 hours later and they couldn't do anything for me. ESPN on the other hand has a toll free number which one guy called and got a live person and an answer right away.

It was a lousy situation but I'm good with the decisions made that night. We got the draft done and the season can begin. Here's hoping for a trouble free fantasy season!

Sneaky Tricks Some Gas Stations Use to Rip You Off

Imagine you're on vacation or a business trip. You're running late getting to the airport for the flight out and still need to fill up before returning the rental car. No worries though because you saw a gas station across the street from the rental lot when you got into town.

You pull into the station, swipe your credit card and start pumping. While the fuel is flowing you look around and realize there's no big sign with the gas prices. Hmmm...that's odd. Then you look at the price on the pump and realize you're paying two dollars a gallon more than the local average price! You're getting ripped off!

Yeah, this happened to me recently while vacationing in Orlando...almost. I did swipe my card but noticed the price as I was reaching for the nozzle. It was $3.99/gallon. The local going rate was $2.06/gallon at the time!

The culprit was the convenience store gas station on SR 436 (Semoran Blvd) north of Orlando International Airport directly across from the Thrifty and Hertz lots. No sign anywhere with prices except the little display on the pump...which is difficult to read due to sun glare. No doubt they're hoping that rental car drivers will stop and fill up in a hurry before they realize their wallet's getting cleaned out.

I expect stations to charge a little more in locations like that because they're selling "convenience". But nearly double the going rate?! That's ridiculous. They must make a ton off of tourists and business travelers...I can't imagine many locals buy gas there.

Fortunately I saw the price before I started pumping and in time to alert the guy at the next pump. We both canceled our credit card transactions and drove a mile up the road to a 7-11 charging $2.11/gallon.

Lesson learned...always check the price on the pump before filling up...especially at a station you haven't used before.

P.S.: Make sure you select the fuel grade you want. I stopped at a station in rural Maryland once that had the grade buttons in the order Premium, Regular, Plus...not Premium, Plus, Regular like every other gas station. If you expected Regular to be on the end and hit that button, you're now buying Plus instead.

They also had the octane stickers down near the bottom of the pump instead of near the buttons so you don't have that extra visual cue that something's different. That tells me they're intentionally trying to trick customers into selecting a higher priced fuel grade.