LaDainian Tomlinson will likely be the most expensive pick in a draft auction -- but how much is too much for LT? John W. McDonough/SI

By John Georgopoulos, Special to SI.com, SportsGrumblings.com

As much as I enjoy traditional fantasy drafts, I must admit a special fondness for auction-style drafts. Auction drafts add a poker-type element to the event, making it even more compelling than its traditional cousin. The added strategy involved in knowing who to draft, when to draft them and how much to pay for them can be daunting for first-time auction participants; to help ease fantasy owners into the process, I present my 2008 Auction Draft Survival Guide.

The Basics

In auction drafts, the scoring rules and roster requirements are similar to traditional drafts. Additionally, each owner is allotted a fixed budget (usually $200), which will be used to draft players.

There is typically a "draft order", by which owners nominate players for bidding; for example, the first owner in a draft typically says "I nominate LaDainian Tomlinson for $10". All owners are then permitted to bid on the nominated player. Bidding is done in the traditional "Going once, going twice, GONE!" manner with which we are all familiar. The nomination/bidding process continues until every team's roster is filled.

Some points of order to keep in mind:

• Bids are typically as follows: $1 starting minimums, with all incremental bids in whole dollars.

• Owners must always have at least $1 per unfilled roster spot. For example, if I have 10 rosters spots remaining to fill on my team and only $12 left in my cash allotment, I cannot spend more than $3 on any one player, because if I spent $4 on player X, that would leave nine roster spots with an $8 cash allotment. I would be unable to fill my roster as the result of the $4 bid -- so the auctioneer would disqualify my $4 bid and award player X to the previous high bidder.

• Trading of dollars during a draft is typically forbidden, although player trades are permitted.

With these assumptions in mind, we can work on a general Auction Draft Strategy.

Pre-Draft Strategy

Auction drafts involve a great deal more strategy; while this means extra work, it could also be very rewarding. In a traditional draft, you could never hope to draft Tomlinson and Brian Westbrook; in an auction draft, it is quite possible.

Much of auction draft strategy involves nuances of human behavior, much like poker. How much will your opponent pay for his favorite player? How far can you drive up the price, causing him to deplete his budget? While I can't write a column that will turn you into a behaviorist of Skinnerian proportions, I can provide you with a auction draft method to guide you.

Using the principles defined by our 2008 Best Damn Draft Method and the following assumptions:

• Assume a $200 budget

• Assume that all $200 will be spent, i.e. you don't need to save money for free agents in-season

Assume standard roster requirements (1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DT, seven reserves)

• Assume WCOFF scoring system

... then we can devise the following guidelines:

1. Total spend: 20 total spots, $200 budget.

2. For K and DEF:

• Each position will be capped at $1 per position;
• We need a starter and reserve for each position;
• A $4 total spend for both positions.

3. Thus, 16 spots and $196 left.

4. For starters, we will allocate roughly 80 percent of remaining roll:

• 7 starters required ($196 * .80) = $157
• 2 RB will be given ~35% of roll ($54); average of $27/RB
• 3 WR will be given ~45% of roll ($72); average of $24/WR
• 1 TE will be given ~5% of roll ($7); average of $7/TE
• 1 QB will be given ~15% of roll ($24); average of $16/QB

5. For Reserves we allocate 20 percent of remaining roll:

• 7 reserves required ($196 * .20) = $39
• 1 QB will be given ~20% of roll ($8); average of $8.00/QB
• 2 RB will be given ~25% of roll ($10); average of $5.00/RB
• 2 WR will be given ~35% of roll ($14); average of $7.00/WR
• 1 TE will be given ~20% of roll ($7); average of $7.00/TE

Note that I've allocated percentages of my budget per position, according to the relative importance of the position.