The keeper deadline for ottoneu leagues is upon us (midnight on the night of 1/31 – tonight!), and that means it is time to start auction prep in earnest. As I have the past two years, I am going to help out with my auction values for all four ottoneu formats.

Also as per usual, I made a couple tweaks to the approach this year.
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This post continues our Depth Chart Discussions. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will continue to break them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find the Depth Chart Discussion posts gathered here.

When rounding to one decimal place in WAR, the Royals and Yankees were tied for Best Bullpen of 2014. Both teams received dominant—historically dominant, even—breakout performances from set-up men. Both had excellent closers. The difference between the two teams going into 2015 is not so much one of quality, as both bullpens project to be among best in baseball again; rather, it’s a difference of roles. The Royals are returning all of their major relievers for 2015, with Greg Holland set to resume his role as closer. The Yankees, on the other hand, saw their 2014 closer leave via free agency, and brought in another excellent set-up man via the same method.

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In what amounts to a teachable moment for my children, I had to declare a big fat public mea culpa (although my kids don’t study Latin, nor do they give a crap about FIP. So it goes). Not realizing that the S & P had declared Mock Draft Central’s stock officially “junk,” I mistakenly used their average draft position data for a misguided post about finding value at third base some days ago. The comments ran from agitation, exasperation, to contempt, and understandably so. So, yes, I did it and I’m sorry.

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It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

For a rotation that was terrible in 2014, the Twins come into the 2015 season with an awful lot of ink committed to the group. The first four spots from a group that finished last in ERA and second-to-last in K/9 are mortal locks. Of course, it’s not exactly the same bunch, but by and large it’s close. There is, of course, one highly-priced newcomer — quick check, he probably follows you on Twitter — and plenty of young competition should any of the veterans falter.

The locks:

1. Phil Hughes
2. Ervin Santana
3. Ricky Nolasco
4. Kyle Gibson Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The Minnesota Twins have a whole lot of boom-or-bust potential in their infield for 2015. Brian Dozier is the one relatively sure thing, having put up a solid year-and-a-half of excellent production, following his June 2013 breakout. Aside from him…well, there’s a reason I titled this column the way I did. Let’s start things off at first base and work our way around the diamond up in Minneapolis, shall we?

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Earlier in the week, I went over how I set up a for a draft (Part 1 and Part 2). Last night I participated in the draft set up by Howard Bender and his Mock Draft Army.  The pre-draft work I normally go through may seem a little tedious, but after the dust settled, I look to start the season in good shape.

The draft was fairly standard 5×5 league with 23 rounds and 15 teams. The draft participants consisted of nine industry experts and six non-experts. I will give some thoughts on my draft results (full results), my final roster and the projected finish.

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It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The Miami Marlins are known for roster turnover, but they’ll return their entire starting outfield for the 2015 season. Those starters range from 23 to 25 years old, and they possess the tools to be fantastic fantasy assets. The Fish traded away a few outfield prospects who might have served as valuable depth. Instead, they’ll depend on one old guy to back up three positions. It mostly worked for them last season with Reed Johnson.

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It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

The Baltimore Orioles offer fantasy owners an array of usable infield options, with one of baseball’s best upside bets at third, a veritable mixed league shortstop, a three-time all-star behind the dish and a true bopper at first base. And that’s before you factor in a home ballpark that’s known for boosting offense. What’s not to like?
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This 30-part series will look at the projected Top 5 freshman contributors for each big league club for the year ahead. The rankings take into consideration a mixture of ceiling, readiness and potential playing time allocation, which is to say some players with lower ceilings may be ranked ahead of others with higher ceilings because they project to have a greater impact in the coming season.

In a Nutshell: The immense (and enviable) depth in the system means that there may not be many opportunities for prospects in 2015 despite the high level of talent ready to contribute. The club already has a solid mix of high-ceiling youngsters like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts and newly-acquired veteran players like Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez to go with the established stars on the club. The biggest opportunity for youngsters to break into the Majors will likely come on the mound.

1. Henry Owens, LHP: As mentioned above, the enviable depth on the mound in Boston is evident but the back end of the Sox rotation could be vulnerable to injury and/or inconsistency — which could create opportunity for Owens. The tall, lanky southpaw spent most of 2014 in Double-A but also made six appears in Triple-A. His command and control are both hit and miss at times but, when he’s on, he can be down right dominant as witnessed by his 170 strikeouts in 159 innings last season. Just 22, he should be ready for The Show in just his fourth pro season.

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Episode 188

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live! It’s tough to let go, so this one runs a little long.

In this episode, Eno Sarris and Nicholas Minnix talk about, among other players in the news, Glen Perkins, Devin Mesoraco, Michael Bourn, Mike Napoli, Travis Snider, and Anthony Ranaudo.

Requested topics discussed: Marcus Semien, Brock Holt, and Mike Fiers; keeper question about Cueto/Harvey/Betts/Dickerson, Wright/Alcantara/Pederson/Benoit, and Altuve/Braun/Han-Ram/Scherzer; and general questions about depth by position for a 15-team league, replacement level with bench players included, and the portions of your budget to allocate to hitting and pitching.

As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions so that we may answer them in our next episode.

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