I was in Boston all day yesterday for my fantasy league’s draft. We do an in person auction draft using a point system and salary cap. Makes for a different sort of challenge than the traditional snake draft most online sites use.

In any case, the first set of analysis by our commissioners alter ego, Kimmelitis, came out today in the form of preseason power rankings. My team is the West Hartford Trees, and you’ll find me near the bottom at 10th place. Now, I didn’t have as strong a draft as I did last year, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t have one of the worst drafts.

I finished in second place, arguably could’ve easily won the championship if it weren’t week 17, and believed that I had the best starters on draft day. So where did the Power Rankings have me? In 9th place. I’m taking this year’s ranking, then, as a compliment.

In all fairness to the commish, the Kimmelitis features are one of the best things about being in NERFL. Nothing beats having an active commissioner who really enjoys making the game better for all the players.

I’ll be doing some more in depth analysis over the coming week on the league’s draft. Auction drafts aren’t covered as much as the more widely available online draft formats, so it’s hard to get a lot of insight into them online. The NERFL draft, while pretty unique, should offer some good insights into good auction strategy. After a third year in the league, I’m starting to see patterns emerge around the typical draft day questions: better to pay for 1 or 2 RB studs early or hold out for more mid-tier players and how to rate players’ draft day value.