Sunday morning, at 7 am (which felt like 6 after springing forward), I sat down at my computer, started the auction for Ottoneu league 1199 and immediately dropped $88 on Juan Soto. Spending $88 on one player isn’t something I would typically do and (as much as I would like to) I can’t blame the early hour. When prepping for the draft a couple of days earlier, I had put $90 as a target price for Soto…and then upped it to $95. $88 wasn’t me panicking, sleep-bidding, or just going all out to get my guy – it was very much the plan. And it’s all because OF has become so deep that it’s shallow.

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The other day, a discussion related to the Ottoneu Prestige League (which opens again this week) brought out the fact that Willi Castro was the only player with 3B/SS/2B/OF eligibility who was projected at over 4.5 points per game. That was a fascinating fact. Having broad eligibility is really useful, but it is only useful if the player produces and Willi Castro doesn’t produce – but he was projected to produce! Willi Castro over 4.5 P/G is pretty intriguing!

But something didn’t pass the smell test.

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This was exhausting. We have so much data we can analyze on pitchers and so many people are so good at doing that. And I find myself ranking pitchers and wondering what, exactly, I bring to the table. The biggest thing, to be honest, is my Ottoneu knowledge. There are a number of people out there who are great pitching analysts. There are great lists for re-draft. And for dynasty. But the combination of Ottoneu’s scoring systems, the keeper-but-not-dynasty nature, and the Ottoneu economics make this a bit of a unique list.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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