I was looking forward to this list and it turned out to be pretty uninspiring. Even while merging in the utility-only bats like Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna, this group isn’t as exciting as 1B used to be. For years it felt like a necessity to have two 1B to fill 1B and Util, because those were the biggest boppers. It doesn’t feel as true today.
From the giant lists covering OF and MI to one of the shorter and least interesting lists – catcher. Last year, I was pretty excited about the catcher position and this year, I am not. In the intro to my rankings last year, I called out a number of young catchers that were emerging or ready to break out that left me feeling confident I could find catcher production. That didn’t so much work out.
This list might have actually been harder than the outfield list, if only because it gets so ugly towards the bottom. Middle Infield is always odd because it is both where some of the absolute best players play and because it is a couple of spots that can be relatively shallow and feature a bunch of glove-first dudes. But there are some interesting patterns at play this year.
I don’t think I am breaking new ground by suggesting that platoon bats are useful for Ottoneu. The combination of daily lineups (and most Ottoneu leagues are daily, though not all) and deep rosters makes it possible to roster players you know you can’t start daily, but who can still provide value.
It’s pretty easy to look at a player’s platoon splits but platoon splits don’t tell the whole story. Because you aren’t starting a player for his PA vs. RHP or LHP. You are putting a guy into your lineup or on your bench based on who the opposing starting pitcher is, and a lot can happen after that.
I typically start with catcher and work my way around the infield, but I went straight to the outfield grass this year. Is it because OF is the most important position? Or because I have deep thoughts about OF this year? No, it is because it covers the most players which makes it the most painful to write notes for, and I wanted to be done with it.
Do you ever sit down to read something and think, “wait, I have read this before”? If you get that sense of deja vu while reading this article, it’s because – for the most part – I am repeating what I wrote last year. It is once again a new year and once again time to dive into my Ottoneu tiered rankings and once again I first need to introduce my rankings. Then, over the next few weeks, hopefully concluding before the cut deadline on 1/31, I’ll roll out individual positional rankings.
As always, I am following the lead of Lucas and Jake, the intrepid explorers who ventured into the grass of the outfield earlier this week to wrestle with some difficult keep/cut decisions. And now it is my turn to go over some additional names – and perhaps repeat one.
When I wrote about relief pitcher spend last week, I kept looking at the data I was using – Opening Day rosters and end of season results for all OPL-eligible FanGraphs Points leagues – and thinking about all the other questions I could explore. It took a lot to stay focused on bullpens. But with that behind me, I can now turn my attention to a topic I have wrestled with for years: how to split budget between hitters and pitchers.
If you have been reading my content or following me on Twitter (or now on Bluesky) over the years, you know my stance on RP. If not, here is the TL;DR of everything I have ever written about relievers in Ottoneu: I don’t like to spend on them. Go cheap on the pen, spend elsewhere. But, to be transparent, that was always more a vibes-based thing than real analysis. Until now.