I just read the article by Kevin Zatloukal regarding the trend of diminishing difference in production form early running back selections and later running back selections. His comparison took ADP into consideration as well as referencing the 4for4 rankings and how they differ from the ADP trends. I am in a salary cap league and we have to manage our roster based on auction values. We use the same projections as everyone else does in a traditional zig zag draft selection process be it a PPR league or standard type scoring. My question is : Can one get a correlation between his findings and auction values, ie bang for the buck. For instance I have Eddy Lacy who counts $55 towards my $200 salary cap. We do not necessarily have the luxury of choosing any player listed in the rankings as some owners or should I say most owners will keep the backs ranked 1-15 already on their rosters. So no good way to trade Lacy for say the number 10 ranked back. as that back may be a better value for the dollars spent towards the cap. It is possible I could attempt to make a trade involving multiple players and get the RB I want but at what cost else where. Kevin did not do an analysis but I would like to see what he would come up with when it comes to auction values as I am sure they are skewed as well just like the ADP values are off. Just thinking about it all and wondering what it means for the auction based leagues.
I would try tweeting at Kevin for his take on how his article affects salary cap leagues: @kczat
I can only guess what he'd say, but I know that I have shifted my thinking a little in regard to this as well. This manifests itself mainly because of how many teams have multiple running backs that are valuable, rather than one bell cow like it used to be. I've changed the way I approach leagues with flex situations especially. I used to automatically load flex spots with backs if I could, and now I tend to look at WR's.
When evaluating Lacy, I'd probably still overpay to keep him since he's such an elite option. Even if I'm blending the backs and receivers on my draft board, he still falls somewhere between 3-7, and I tend to spend about 50-60 on my top guy anyway.
Good luck, hopefully that was helpful!
