Heading into the 2011 season, there’s only sure thing about the Nationals’ outfield situation: Jayson Werth is going to play everyday. I don’t know where, he’s been playing right for the last few years but there have been some rumblings that they may use him in center, but I don’t really care. I’m interested in the team’s other two outfield spots, and how it might effect my fantasy team.
With the National League Outfield Rankings released today, I thought I’d take on the Top 5 as seen by the collective group of RotoGraphs writers. Now, obviously, I’m not here to give you the no brainer names and tell you to go after them in your draft. That would be a pretty short article, no? But perhaps I can give you a few things to think about that just might make your decision as to which one (or two) to target a little more thought provoking. Read the rest of this entry »
ottoneu Fantasy Baseball has received a tremendous amount of feedback since launching, and it has resulted in some new features that I would like to share with all of you.
The largest improvement is that we’ve created an alternate draft method for those of you who aren’t able to get the league together for a live auction draft. Based on feedback from various leagues, you can now opt out of the auction draft and run 48-hour blind auctions between now and the start of the season. Now instead of needing one block of time that can last longer than six hours, you can organize the auctions to only require 5 minutes a day. You can even do a live auction for part of the league, and then switch to the 48-hour auctions whenever you want. Choose whatever is most convenient for the league.
We’ve done a lot to clarify and improve our FanGraphs integration as well. The FanGraphs toolbar now gives you fantasy-relevant projections, sortable stats, free agents, and a stronger player search within one click. The FanGraphs staff league is going to draft this week in Arizona, and as the FanGraphs guys get to play with the game a bit, we will be adding more tools and features based on their feedback.
Of course, at the end of the day, this operation is to share a really neat fantasy baseball game with all of you. As those of you who have contacted us already know, I am very responsive to comments, bugs, new feature requests, and questions. ottoneu consists of one person, me, trying to build something that you, the informed baseball fan, will enjoy much more than a traditional fantasy game. Since I am familiar with the entire site and the game format, you can reach me at the contact us page and I will do everything in my power to add any new tools or integration or features you want, resolve any questions you have, and respond and understand any comments you send.
Already, existing leagues have pointed out the need for a league message board (resolved, and being improved shortly), the need for an alternate long-form draft option (resolved), as well as the need for clarity in player search and other FanGraphs tools (resolved). Go to the contact us page, send an email to help, and let’s keep improving fantasy baseball!
Free Team!
We aren’t done giving away free teams for this season, and after Eno picked on me a few times with my ‘bad’ keepers and ‘bad’ trades, I think I’ll give away the next team. Let’s do an exercise about positional scarcity. ottoneu lineups consist of 1 C, 1B, 2B, SS, MI, 3B, Util, 5 OF, 5 SP, and 5 RP. There is no CI since the util spot tends to lean CI. Here are some players, their positions, and their prices. Based on positional scarcity and performance in the 4×4 format (OBP, SLG, HR, R and ERA, WHIP, HR/9, K), who do you think is the best value, and who do you think is the worst? All prices are from the original ottoneu league. As always, show your work:
Shin-Soo Choo, OF, $27
Hanley Ramirez, SS, $57
Tim Lincecum, SP, $58
Bobby Jenks, RP, $6
Pretty varied set of players, and all but one of these prices was set at our auction draft on February 28th. I’m very interested to see what you come up with! Good luck!
You’ve probably gotten a handle on how things are going here. We RotoGraph writers got together around Carson’s virtual, incredibly round table, and ranked the players. Then we smashed them together and today I’ll add the tiers. These rankings assume regular settings (but plan on seeing some articles about players that step forward in alternate settings). Once the season starts, I’ll be your NL OF correspondent, continually updating the rankings and discussing player news at the position.
RotoGraphs will also provide a list of mixed-league OF ranks. Because of the way things are set up here, we won’t be able to offer strong coverage at the position without splitting them into leagues. But we can give you a draft-prep sheet for mixed-league outfielders and will as soon as we can. And one last thing – click on the tags in the bottom right navbar and you can easily skip to the position you’d like to read about.
Caddyshack
Ryan Braun
Carlos Gonzalez
Matt Holliday
Though this tier is not without questions, the questions are a lot more muted than the rest of the position. Braun’s power will hopefully regress to career levels, and even if Gonzalez is unhappy about his regression in batted-ball luck, he should be a valuable player. Holliday is the metronome, but the lineup around him is worse than you might expect, and he owns less power than you might think. Don’t sell them short, though, they’re tremendous slouches/outfielders.
Ghostbusters
Matt Kemp
Andrew McCutchen
Jayson Werth
Justin Upton
Jason Heyward
Hunter Pence
If you gotta call someone, you might as well call these guys. Every member of this tier will give you something in all five categories – and yet they may give a little something back somewhere else. Kemp’s Ks mean a lower batting average, McCutchen’s power is an open question, Werth is leaving a nice home park and has always struck out a lot, Heyward needs to stay healthy and show the power we know is coming, and Pence has to avoid the bad streak that comes almost every year.
This is Spinal Tap
Andre Ethier
Jay Bruce
Shane Victorino
Mike Stanton
Drew Stubbs
Chris Young
Corey Hart
Colby Rasmus
Martin Prado
This tier is mostly in transit. Some are on their way up, some on their way down, and all feature questions more prominently than the last group. For the most part, you won’t get a nice batting average here, and if you start falling behind in that category, you may find yourself skipping the group. That would be too bad, because someone here will dial it to eleven this year.
The 40-Year Old Virgin
Angel Pagan
Jason Bay
Aubrey Huff
Michael Bourn
Carlos Lee
Jose Tabata
Dexter Fowler
Chris Coghlan
Same as the last verse, just a little bit worse. All the veterans here are closer to extinction, and all the young guys have lower ceilings. These guys are flawed, but if they fall far enough, they’ll provide your team with value. And even limited upside is still upside – just don’t put them on a pedestal.
Step Brothers
Carlos Beltran
Lance Berkman
Marlon Byrd
Seth Smith
Will Venable
Alfonso Soriano
Logan Morrison
Nyjer Morgan
Andres Torres
Ryan Ludwick
Raul Ibanez
Tyler Colvin
This is not the time for a Will Ferrell referendum, but even his biggest fans would admit that he has better movies. Still, the movie was good for some great lines, and most of these guys will be able to hit offer some good lines for a stretch or two. Over the course of the year, you will start to see their flaws, but a few high notes is enough at their prices.
Coneheads
Cody Ross
Garrett Jones
Nate McLouth
Domonic Brown
Carlos Gomez
Jonny Gomes
Ben Francisco
Cameron Maybin
Mark DeRosa
Mike Morse
Roger Bernadina
Ryan Spilborghs
Chris Dickerson
Kosuke Fukudome
Ryan Sweeney
Brad Hawpe
Kyle Blanks
A fundamentally flawed movie and tier, you’ll still get a chuckle or two. One or two of these guys may even rise above his peers and make great movies, I mean become a fantasy regular at his position. But the odds are not in their favor this year.
While we have been really happy with the launch of ottoneu Fantasy Baseball, the launch of the prize leagues definitely left something to be desired. So having taken your comments into consideration, we’ve taken our industry leading prizes and improved them.
First, we’re changing the prizes to all cash, both for simplicity and to give our winners a bit more scratch in their pockets for the off-season. Second, we’re introducing a $49.99 tier, available immediately. First place at the end of the season will receive $300, second place will receive $100, and third will receive $50. We’re also increasing the first place prize at the $99.99 tier. First place will now receive $650, with second place receiving $200, and third place receiving $100 in cash.
Finally, we’re dropping the $249.99 and $499.99 tiers to interest-only lists. If you’re interested in playing at a higher tier for higher prizes, let us know. We will work with you on a league by league basis to optimize the prize structure for what you and your league wants!
Of course the $9.99 tier is still available, with multiple public leagues looking for members today and drafts happening all the time.
Between a game we think is excellent and prizes that are better than any other prize league out there, I believe we have a really strong offering for all levels of fantasy players. We hope that these revamped prizes will be more to your liking. Please let us know what you think in the comments or by contacting us. Of course, there is still plenty of time before the season, so you can start a league or join one today!
The Rays lost a lot of firepower this offseason in the form of Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena, though they replaced some of that production with Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon. Not all of it though, and one player expected to help pick up the slack is outfielder Matt Joyce, acquired from the Tigers for Edwin Jackson once upon a time. He put together a .361 wOBA in limited playing time last season and is a sneaky good late-round fantasy option.
One of the growing trends we see in fantasy baseball these days is the significant increase in the number of players contributing in the stolen base category. With that, the price for speed, overall, is decreasing. However, people still seem to go out and spend extra auction dollars on Juan Pierre or reach too high in their snake drafts for Brett Gardner. You don’t have to be that guy (or girl). Here are a couple of much cheaper options who will help keep you right in the thick of things in the speed department… Read the rest of this entry »
Manny Ramirez was humbled this winter. The dreadlocked one pulled in over $23 million last year and has career earnings topping $200 million, but he inked a one-year, $2M deal with the Tampa Bay Rays after a 2010 season sullied by three DL stints and a power outage. Even compared to his DH brethren signing single-year deals on the free agent market — Jack Cust, Hideki Matsui, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome — Manny got less money.
Ramirez’s stock is similarly down in fantasy leagues. MockDraftCentral lists Manny’s ADP 42nd among those with outfield eligibility, and 156th overall. Jason Kubel, Ryan Ludwick and even Carlos Lee place ahead of Ramirez. Is it possible that Manny is actually underrated at this late point in his career? To answer that question, let’s review Ramirez’s injury-marred 2010 and try to project whether he could have a quality year in the land of cowbells.
Let’s take a look at a pair of 20-something AL East outfielders with a chance to move up the rankings this summer…
Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes…it rains. Fortunately, the ominous, dark clouds that usually precede the storm are visible enough to give you fair warning and help keep you from getting wet. So as we talk about the AL outfielders this week, here are a few that have those dark clouds hovering over that you might want to avoid. Read the rest of this entry »