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If you are new to fantasy baseball auction leagues or have been playing in an auction league for a few years but have not had much success winning, this article will take you on a step-by-step guide of how to rebuild in an auction league format.

The majority of keeper auction leagues have contract limits which means you are likely going to be able to be competitive for a certain amount of years before you have to rebuild. Some owners think they can draft every year and have a shot at winning, but that is not the case. In an auction league with keepers, there is too much inflation to prices to be able to draft a team and make a run at the title unless you get extremely lucky, it is a shallow league and the rest of the owners are not very good.

Your best chance at rebuilding is by doing it from day one of the season. That way you can focus on which rookies you want to target in the draft as well get first dibs on the best keepers in trade from other owners. If you wait until June before deciding to throw in the towel and rebuild for next year, you are already behind the other rebuilding teams. At that point, you are rebuilding for two years away instead of being competitive the following season.

Heading into the auction there are two types of players you are trying to draft. Players that will help your team next year and form your core and the second group are players that you can trade to bring back in return younger players and draft picks.

Here is a look at my team from a NL only auction league from last season. This is a 14 team league with a $275 salary cap plus a six round reserve draft where the draft picks can be traded.  I went into the draft knowing I wanted to rebuild from day one.

My keepers:

• Ryan Doumit – 11
• John Baker – 10
• Rickie Weeks – 25
• Cameron Maybin – 16
• Tim Lincecum – 22
• Chad Qualls – 6

Out of this group, the only players I wanted to keep for this year were Lincecum, Qualls and Doumit; the other players were traded.

Drafted:

• Edgar Renteria – 13
• Matt Kemp – 36
• Jake Peavy – 31
• Aaron Cook – 13
• Ricky Nolasco – 26

This entire group were players I wanted to trade. While Kemp was at a good price, there are always outfielders in the $30 range I knew I could grab in 2010.

Core: these were the main players I targeted to form the cornerstone of my team for the next few years:

• Alcides Escobar – 2
• Carlos Gonzalez – 3
• Jonny Gomes – 3 (did not plan on him being a core guy but at $3 for 15-20 home runs makes him a core guy)
• Jason Heyward – 1
• Pedro Alvarez – 7
• J.A. Happ – 2 — I was able to get him as a relief pitcher due to our rules based on a certain number of appearances as a starter / reliever.
• Tim Hudson – 3 — injured players are a great place to look for keepers when you are rebuilding. If you are in an NL only league this season and are rebuilding, you should be targeting guys like Edison Volquez and Jordan Zimmermann.
• Stephen Strasburg – 5

Farm System:

Before the auction I had several other players I did not want to keep going into the draft so I flipped those for draft picks, so instead of the usual six picks per team, I went into the draft with close to 20 picks to search for players that would be able to have an impact for me in 2010. As from my previous articles, I am always looking for players that have the best chance of helping me the following year so I am targeting guys that are in Triple-A or in Double-A with a shot to get to the major leagues based on the guys ahead of them at their position. Here is who I got:

• Drew Stubbs – 5
• Chris Coghlan – 5
• Everth Cabrera – 10 – his salary was higher because he started the year in the major leagues
• Gerardo Parra – 5
• Bud Norris – 5
• Aroldis Chapman – 10 – picked up September 1 when rosters expanded. Again, it pays to know and understand the rules of your league. In my league in September we can add three slots so I look for guys that may be coming over from Japan or were drafted in the June draft and could make a direct leap to the major leagues.

Picked up in trade:

• Bronson Arroyo – 8
• Omar Infante – 3
• Eric Young Jr. – 5

In addition I have 23 out of the 84 draft picks in the reserve round. Six of my own picks plus 17 I picked up in trade, including three additional first round and second round picks.

So overall my team looks something like this heading into 2010:

• C – Doumit – 11
• C – open
• 1b – open
• 2b – Infante 3 / E. Young 5
• ss – A. Escobar 2, E. Cabrera 10
• 3b – open
• of – C. Gonzalez 3, Gomes 3, Stubbs 5, Coghlan 5, Parra 5,
• utility – Heyward 1, P. Alvarez 7
• sp – Lincecum 22, Arroyo 8, Norris 5, Strasburg 5, Happ 2, Hudson 3, Chapman 10
• rp – Qualls 6

You can see from the roster layout that there are several trade opportunities I will have to improve the team by moving a shortstop, outfielder and starting pitcher.

With the additional draft picks I will also be able to use those to trade for guys from other teams that will be rebuilding this season.