A Season In Review: An Ottoneu Championship

Ottoneu Mondays return. Last offseason, I covered an ottoneu related topic on most Mondays. We’ll continue the tradition this offseason. Do look for more ottoneu content from Chad Young too.

Let’s cover two things today. First and foremost, don’t cut anybody! Unless it’s a $28 Greg Holland, almost every player at nearly any price could look valuable to somebody. Jeff Zimmerman David Wiers made the mistake of cutting eight players in FanGraphs Staff Two. One of those was a $47 Stephen Strasburg. Accounting for inflation, I figure Strasburg should cost at least $55 on draft day. Wiers might have received a decent player in return – maybe my $6 Melky Cabrera? (I might cut Strasburg too if that was my best offer).

If you’re in an allocations league, you’ll sometimes be surprised by the players who draw bids. One strategy is to bid up already expensive players so their owner is more likely to cut them. Who knows, maybe Strasburg would have drawn a few dollars. We’ll discuss allocations and arbitration in more depth next week.

The other topic of interest relates to my personal performance this year. Since I took over for Summer Anne Burton after the 2013 season, I’ve been on a quest to go from worst to first. I finished a solid fifth last season while acquiring a high volume of (re)building blocks. This year, I captured the title with a strong 19,012 point performance. Huzzah!

My team didn’t even fire on all cylinders. George Springer, Yasiel Puig, Jonathan Lucroy, and Anthony Rendon came up small. Luckily they were offset by Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt, Charlie Blackmon, and Alex Rodriguez (among others). A few disasterpieces including Shane Greene’s five home run catastrophe further held back my performance. The lesson: even the most strongly constructed roster requires depth.

Unfortunately, the anatomy of my roster isn’t very instructive. In short, I rostered several top 10 and a bunch of top 40 players. Lucky me. I also built a lot of depth around my weakness in the middle infield. Justin Turner, Jonathan Schoop, and Eugenio Suarez helped to pick up the slack for Wilmer Flores and Chris Owings (both were cut).

My pitching staff featured Kershaw, mid-season acquisition Zack Greinke, Corey Kluber, Jon Lester, and a bullpen that averaged about nine points per inning. Plenty of other pitchers contributed too at a league average level. All told, they posted the most points per inning. So yea, roster a bunch of aces and elite relievers. Duh. And easier said than done.

The hitting side of the equation leaned on two elite hitters, a surprisingly valuable ARod/Adam Lind platoon, and Matt Carpenter’s 28 home run bombardment. Of the guys who contributed regularly, only Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley were below league average. I actually cut and reacquired both infielders, and they started in about a quarter of my games.

I snagged Matt Kemp on a discount off waivers just in time for him to revert to his career norms. I kept Blackmon for $3 as a platoon outfielder, but he quickly leaped ahead of Melky Cabrera and Brandon Moss on my depth chart.

One interesting note is my use of prospects. I rarely rostered more than one at a time and shopped them very aggressively. I finished the year with A.J. Reed, and he’s probably the best one I acquired all year.

A hot September allowed me to edge Brandon Warne for the top point total among hitters. I finished with a comfortable 500 point lead, but it didn’t emerge until Chad Young hit his inning cap with a week left to play.

This offseason, I’ll once again chronicle my efforts to win in 2016. I sold a lot of win later talent (including ultra cheap Christian Yelich, Stephen Piscotty, and Dellin Betances) to ensure my 2015 victory. The players on my current roster cost $548. The 20-25 guys I’d like to keep run a few bucks over $400. As you may recall, the salary cap is $400 for 40 players. I’ll have my work cut out for me.

I was in a fairly unique circumstance last offseason. This time around, my experience should be applicable to many more owners.