In the NFL, every GM has a cheat sheet to help determine the value of a draft pick. It was started by Jimmy Johnson during his Cowboy heyday and I imagine that every NFL GM has some egghead on staff who has a slightly different value for each draft pick. This comes in handy when draft picks are exchanged or traded.
Since some fantasy baseball leagues allow you to exchange/trade draft picks (and I’ve gotten various related questions throughout the years), I built the below cheat sheet using the average projected auction values for players who ranked within the draft range – e.g., $36 under MLB 10 team for picks 1-5 was derived by averaging the top 5 dollar values on the 2012 10-team Point Shares (https://razzball.com/2012-point-shares-10-team-mlb-espn-roster/).
Notes:
- These values are the same regardless of Roto vs. H2H
- ESPN = C/1B/2B/SS/3B/5 OF/CI/MI/UTIL/9P, Yahoo!=C/1B/2B/SS/3B/3 OF/2 UTIL/8 SP, AL/NL-only is ESPN format with a 2nd catcher
- For keeper leagues, there are a number of variables that would need accounting for including: 1) number of keepers, 2) are they dollars or draft picks, etc. If you put a gun to my head and asked for my general guidance, I’d say (after crapping my pants) to add up all the keepers in the league and then start at that draft pick range. So if you’re in a 12-team league with 5 keepers/team, the first round is worth an average of $16.
| Estimated Auction $ Value ($260) Per Draft Pick | ||||||||||||||
| Draft Pick Range | MLB (ESPN) | MLB (Yahoo!) | AL-only (2C) | NL-only (2C) | ||||||||||
| # of Teams -> | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 12 |
| 1-5 | 36 | 36 | 35 | 36 | 36 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 43 | 43 | 34 | 36 | 36 | 36 |
| 6-10 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 38 | 38 | 37 | 38 | 38 | 29 | 32 | 31 | 31 |
| 11-15 | 30 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 32 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 36 | 27 | 29 | 27 | 28 |
| 16-20 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 34 | 25 | 26 | 24 | 26 |
| 21-25 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 31 | 23 | 25 | 23 | 24 |
| 26-30 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 23 |
| 31-40 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 20 | 22 | 21 | 22 |
| 41-50 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 23 | 23 | 24 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 20 |
| 51-60 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 17 | 19 | 18 | 18 |
| 61-70 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 17 |
| 71-80 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 16 |
| 81-90 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 15 |
| 91-100 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 14 |
| 101-110 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 13 |
| 111-120 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 12 |
| 121-130 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 11 |
| 131-140 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 8 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 10 |
| 141-150 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| 151-160 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 9 |
| 161-170 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 8 |
| 171-180 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| 181-190 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| 191-200 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| 201-210 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| 211-220 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| 221-230 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 | -1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 231-240 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | -2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| 241-250 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 7 | -3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 251-260 | -1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | -3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 261-270 | -1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -4 | -1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 2 | -1 | 2 |
| 271-280 | -2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -4 | -1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -2 | 1 | -1 | 1 |
| 281-290 | -3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -5 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -2 | 1 | -2 | 1 |
| 291-300 | -3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -5 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -3 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
