Honestly, I feel bad writing this. It’s been a day. Actually, not even a day – I am at my laptop hours before the first pitch of the first games of the year (yeah, Seoul Series, whatever, today is Opening Day) and I am already reporting on players who are being cut? Ouch.
But, whether we like it or not, players are being cut, and it is my duty to report on those players.
It’s Opening Day! I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “No, Opening Day was last week in Seoul.” Or maybe you are thinking, “No, Opening Day is tomorrow.”
But you are wrong because today is Opening Day…for Ottoneu Hot/Cold Right now. Yes, we are bringing back everyone’s favorite twice-weekly series, looking at the movers and shakers of the Ottoneu universe. Who is getting cut? Who is being added? Who should I bid on? Who is tearing the cover off the ball? This is where you find out.
My wife asked me recently how much time I put into Ottoneu and I realized that a) I didn’t know and b) I didn’t want to tell her. So I took a few minutes to think through what I do each day and how long it takes me and realized that sharing my routine might help others think about how they manage their Ottoneu teams.
It depends. Thank you for reading my article, I hope you enjoyed it.
Ok, snarky intro aside, this question is coming up a lot lately and it is a good question and one worth considering. Gerrit Cole is, unquestionably, one of the best pitchers on earth. He is a bit better for 5×5 than he is for Ottoneu Points or 4×4 because he can be a bit homer-prone (he wasn’t in 2023, but HR/FB rate is noisy and I expect his will come back up), but that’s beside the point.
He is a legit ace, one of very few reliable aces in the game, and people paid accordingly. And now he is hurt. So what do you do?
For the fourth straight year, I spent some time once my drafts concluded compiling my rosters to see what players I roster the most. This year, I again have seven Ottoneu leagues, but only 12 total leagues (down two from last year thanks to cutting out NFBC), and for today’s article I’ll focus on the players I roster most in Ottoneu leagues.
One of the most common questions I get is, “Who are you targeting for $1 at the end of auctions?” I find this to be a particularly tough question to answer. The guys I am hoping to get for $1 I am often willing to pay more for. And guys I sometimes think should be more only go for $1. But five of my leagues have completed drafts this season, so now I have data on who is available for $1 and who I like.
I commonly hear people praising active managers in fantasy leagues, and there is good reason for this. Active managers make for a fun league. My favorite leagues are the ones with regular transactions, trades, etc., where every manager is engaged. While activity makes for a fun league, the praise for active managers often assumes active managers are “good” or “winning” managers. Fun is hard to measure, but good we can try to validate.
As draft season ramps up, one of the most common questions I get is how to get started with Ottoneu. It can, admittedly, be overwhelming if you don’t know what you are looking at. Starting a new league is a challenge – you need 12 managers committed to a long-term venture together. Building a roster from scratch can be a challenge. And so I recommend people start by claiming a team.
I talk a decent amount about inflation. It comes up in my rankings intro, I have discussed in on the Keep or Kut podcast, and it is a regular topic of debate in the Ottoneu Slack community. But that is hardly the only thing that impacts player prices and it is not the only factor I consider when preparing for an auction.
As we move into draft season, I will be updating these rankings occasionally, when there is news to justify changes. The original rankings will stay at the bottom of the article to maintain my player notes. The original SP rankings were posted 1/31 and the most recent update is 2/28.