Thanks for getting in your bid sheets on Saturday. We have kicked off our 24th Finks season with another auction, the same method used to disperse players from our inaugural season of 1994.
As I've written before, the first Finks auction was held by using a silent-bid process since two of our original four owners, Matt Simo and Mike Wilcox, did not live in Chicagoland in order to hold a live draft. This was before the internet became popular. At that time, I was in a baseball league that would sometimes hold live drafts via telephone for out-of-town owners. That was always a dreadful experience to be in a draft room with someone needing to make a phone call during every round only to start each conversation with a list of who was selected.
I wanted to avoid that, so the silent-bid auction was born. I think it works.
In 2017, Anthony Quagliano is our only out-of-town owner since he is attending grad school at the University of Delaware. We could still hold a live draft, but I like the idea of waiting until Labor Day weekend and after Preseason Week 4 to select players. A live draft would have to be held earlier, given our different schedules. I like the auction. It's me and sheets of paper.
My wife is in a fantasy league through work and her live draft is tonight over Yahoo.com. That could be a two-hour process.
Here's some news and notes regarding Finks Auction 2017:
"Wow, two Bryants": Serkus picked them both up, getting Dez from Dallas and Martavis from Pittsburgh.
Three's enough: Two Finks owners reached out to their favorite NFL teams for new players, picking up three each during the auction. Goff won bids for Prescott, Elliott and D. Bryant from Dallas and Bucs fan Herigodt picked up Winston, Martin and Evans.
Don't read too much into Dah Commish getting three Lions (Stafford, Tate and Prater), other than his Finks moniker this season -- Portsmouth Spartans -- was the original team from Ohio that would become the Detroit Lions in the 1930s. Bears fan Cassidy won bids for three Saints, Brees, Peterson and M. Thomas.
Top bids: Here are your auction champs, by position. QB: Rodgers GB, $33.00 (won by Gaga); RB: D. Johnson AZ, $41.45 (Jays); WR: A. Brown PIT, $31.00 (Gaga); PK: Gostkowski NE, $6.03 (Eggers).
Lotto fever: With so many owners throwing penny bids at players, there were five tiebreaking lottery selections made among Finks owners. QB Luck IND proved to be the most popular with three teams -- Cats, Jays and Gaga -- seeking to own Luck as a backup. The Jays won.
Other players selected by a blind draw with penny bids were WR Hopkins HOU (won by Gaga), QB Cutler MIA (Quags), RB Fournette JAX (Cats) and RB Abdullah DET (Jays).
