Like many of you, I fantasy baseball at multiple sites (Ottoneu primarily, but also FanTrax, CBS, and ESPN) and so I find myself navigating leaderboards at multiple sites. Kind of.

Yes, I do use the leaderboards at those other sites to find players, but that’s mostly out of laziness. When I have the time and the desire, my preferred way to find free agents and evaluate players is to come back to FanGraphs and use our player pages and leaderboards. CBS can tell me what a guy’s OBP is over the last 30 days; but it can’t tell me what has changed to drive that newfound on-base talent. So I identify free agents at one place, dig into them back here, and then head back to the other place to make FAAB bids or waiver claims.

The integration between Ottoneu and FanGraphs is one of the best and yet most underutilized aspects of the Ottoneu platform. And there are some little tricks you can use to make them even more powerful.

Read the rest of this entry »

Was that the best defensive game by an outfielder ever?

On the Agenda:

1. Closer Chaos
2. Various News and Notes
3. Quick Hits
4. Streaming Pitchers
5. Six Picks

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the big leagues, kid.

On the Agenda:

1. Closer Chaos
2. Various News and Notes
3. Quick Hits
4. Streaming Pitchers

Read the rest of this entry »

They say necessity is the mother of invention. And they are right. But you know what else is the mother of invention? People saying seemingly weird things and then stopping and thinking, “Wait, maybe this is something!”

That’s where the latest Ottoneu innovation came from, and it’s a fun one. During the heat of draft season, when we run out of things to talk about other than the 10,000th debate over Edgar Quero’s auction value, a discussion about slow auctions (the 10,000th of those, too) resulted in people to start making outlandish suggestions about how to run drafts. And then Ottoneu creator Niv Shah commented:

What if players were randomly distributed?

He immediately got an “I would sign up for that” response. I half-joked, “Randomly assigned players with randomly assigned salaries.”

“Error bars around last 10 salary,” Niv replied. “So some variance, but generally market.”

And from that “a random league” was born. And while this sounds like a gimmick there is real interest in it and real value to it (which you can see from that thread). Niv and I will be co-managing a team in that league and I want to talk about a) why I think this is not just an interesting experiment, but a useful concept and b) what Niv and I need to do as managers of our randomly created team.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the first few days of the season, I have heard (and made!) a number of references to swing speed changes. As fantasy players, we are always looking for that leg up, the first piece of actionable data that we can act on to make a move that no one else is ready to make. Bat speed certainly seems like early useful data. If a guy has gained or lost bat speed, that might not show up in the results yet, and even if it does, we know better than to overreact to a guy hitting one more or one less homer than we might have expected.

But bat speed is subject to small samples sizes, as well. I looked into two specific examples of names that came up this weekend and – in both cases – found reasons to pause before acting.

Read the rest of this entry »

It feels like everyone played extra innings Saturday, but Dominic Smith had no interest in that.

Read the rest of this entry »

And that is how you celebrate after hanging an American League Championship banner.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the first games underway, we are going to be flooded with new information. All the spring lineup speculation will give way to actual lineups. The dream that someone might not be stuck in a platoon will die. The hope that a player’s newfound spring plate discipline is a game changer will be dashed. And before too long, you will learn where your roster is deep enough to withstand those losses, plus injuries, and where you aren’t.

You will also potentially have some open roster spots. Maybe you roster Justin Steele and now he is on the 60-day IL. Maybe one of those guys you were dreaming on turns into a cut by April. The good news is, sudden roster needs and suddenly available roster spots go together like a hot dog and a beer – the existence of the former means you probably need the latter, and the latter is just so much better when you pair it with the former.

So let’s try to find readily available players to fill those needs on your open roster. Here is one guy at each position who is currently <50% rostered in Ottoneu who you can go out and pick up if you find yourself in need.N

Read the rest of this entry »

I can usually tell you sometime in January or December who will show up in this piece. That’s not because I have started drafting – my leagues are all keeper or dynasty formats and I didn’t have any drafts until late January – but because I start to realize who I trust, who I am higher on than others, and who is likely to be on my rosters. This year, however, there are some surprises on my list.

I am not sure what to make of those surprises, but diving into these players, there are some patterns that might help me plan better for future seasons.

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, on the Keep or Kut podcast, I discussed (among other things) how all Spring Training news is bad. The good news (Jac Caglianone hit a ball a million miles per hour! Shota Imanaga has added velocity!) is all interesting but we immediately get into small-sample-size, how-much-does-it-mean debates. But the bad news is a lot of injuries and suspensions and that stuff you can act on right away.

You can see this in the Ottoneu add/drop data. The players being added in the most leagues the last seven days are mostly guys who are new to MLB or struggled last year – Tatsuya Imai, Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto, Mookie Betts, etc. The only player in the top 10 most added this week who can reasonably be attributed to spring news (the new kick change) is Kyle Harrison. The top 10 most dropped, however, are all spring news: Jurickson Profar, Pablo Lopez, Reese Olson, Anthony Santander, etc.

Way down on that list, but creeping up, is Hunter Greene.

Read the rest of this entry »