The Players I Roster Most In Ottoneu

For the fourth straight year, I spent some time once my drafts concluded compiling my rosters to see what players I roster the most. This year, I again have seven Ottoneu leagues, but only 12 total leagues (down two from last year thanks to cutting out NFBC), and for today’s article I’ll focus on the players I roster most in Ottoneu leagues.

My teams are a bit less diversified this year than in the past. For example, at this time last year, across my seven leagues, I had 281 total roster spots and rostered 186 unique players. This year I have 285 roster spots and roster 173 unique players. Last year, I had six players on four or more rosters; this year I have 12. Last year, no one was on more than five of my rosters. This year, one player made it to six rosters.

The two players on five or more of my rosters are Chase DeLauter (on five rosters) and JP Sears (on six). DeLauter isn’t much of a surprise to me and shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who listens to me on Keep or Kut – I am a huge DeLauter fan. I believe in the bat. I have believed in the bat for a while. Injuries have kept his profile, his stats, and his value deflated, but between the Arizona Fall League and Spring Training, he has demonstrated what he is capable of and what he is capable of is pretty darn good.

Since the start of 2023, across 351 PA in the complex league, High-A, Double-A, the AFL, and Spring Training, DeLauter has 45 K (12.8%) and 42 BB (12.0%). He has 14 HR over that stretch, but also has 28 doubles, putting him on pace for 24 HR and 48 2B in 600 PA. MLB players who had 72+ combined extra base hits last year: Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuña Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Luis Robert, Austin Riley, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien. Of that group, only Acuña also had a double-digit walk rate and a strikeout rate under 15%.

Now, I am not silly enough to suggest that DeLauter is immediately part of that tier of player. But I do think this illustrates the type of talent he has. And that is coming off an injury that likely sapped his power, at least for a bit.

Sears is a totally different story – kind of. He is a lot older than DeLauter, at 28. He is closer to “journeyman” than “prospect.” But what makes them similar (and drives them both to my roster) is that they both have recent history that cast doubt on their ability while also having some gaudy numbers to look at.

Sears has thrown 242.1 career innings between 2022 and 2023 and they have been uninspiring. 4.35 ERA, 4.88 FIP, unexciting strikeout numbers. It’s all kind of blah. But go look at his minor league track record. Straight up through 2022 he was regularly posting impressive strikeout rates (32.9% across Double- and Triple-A in 2021 and 2022) and stingy walk rates (6.1% over that time-frame). Spencer Strider is the only pitcher who had that kind of K%-BB% in 100+ MLB innings last year. Only one other player in all of affiliated baseball beat that K%-BB% in 100+ innings last year.

Doing that in Double- and Triple-A is not the same as doing it in MLB, but we know he has that kind of talent. And he is bringing that talent in Spring Training, throwing 13 innings with a 30.0% K-rate and 2.0% BB-rate. Is that a guarantee of success? No, not at all. But given how far his value fell over the last 18 months in MLB, he has become an easy player to take a shot at.

Typically, I cover more than two players in this piece, but since only two were on 5+ of my rosters and there is no need to go into detail in 10 others who are on four of my rosters, let’s instead do a lightning round for those players. The ten players on four of my Ottoneu rosters are:

• Isaac Paredes – Yes, he is a platoon bat whose xwOBA suggests his wOBA wasn’t entirely earned, but he also has the ultimate xwOBA-breaking skill: pull hard-hit fly balls at an elite rate.
• Kerry Carpenter – I am a sucker for a high BB-rate and an impressive ISO and so I bought in hard on Carpenter in 2022 and he has done enough to stick around since.
• Spencer Steer – Did you know he was better away from home last year? Only barely, but given how much that park should help, it’s surprising, no?
• Tylor Megill – Like Sears but more hype cause New York is New York and Oakland is not New York.
• Drew Thorpe – Three paragraphs up I mentioned that “only one other player [besides Strider] in all of affiliated ball” had a better 2023 K%-BB% in 100+ innings than Sears had in 2022-23 combined. You probably wondered why I didn’t drop the name. I was saving it. I hope you enjoyed this big reveal.
• Kyle Bradish – Please be healthy please be healthy please be healthy please be healthy please be….
• Luke Little – He’ll probably walk too many guys, but look at all those strikeouts! And so far this spring, the walks have no been an issue.
• Max Kepler – An old man’s Kerry Carpenter. Last year he started striking out more, but that looks like a reasonable tradeoff for the improvements he got in hard-hit rate, barrel rate, and exit velocity.
• Pablo López – You know Lopez is good. He’s only on this list because I have been holding him since 2019 in two of my leagues.
• Yennier Cano – I bought in on Cano early last year and, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with where the strikeouts ended up. They look much better this Spring, though.