Ever since the opener became a thing in MLB, I have been wondering if I should be aggressively targeting openers among my RP corps in Ottoneu. I typically like to carry 6-8 RP on a roster, and having the option to extend my bullpen by locking in an opener on occasion seems like a nice way to get some extra pen innings. But opener innings aren’t exactly relief innings. Yes, they are pitched by relievers, and they are short-burst outings like relief appearances, but they don’t offer any hope of a save or hold, and they are often not as short-burst as they would be from the pen.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the Ottoneu Prestige League knockout rounds starting today, OPL is now a spectator sport for all but the 27 players who manage or co-manage at least one of the 32 remaining teams. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t good data or lessons to be learned from what those teams are doing. And looking at changes made to those rosters might help the rest of the Ottoneu world make smarter choices starting as soon as today.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the Ottoneu Prestige League about to hit the knockout rounds, there are about 40 teams still scrambling to figure out what to do ahead of the final OPL snap for the season. There are another 200 teams wondering what went wrong this year and thinking about next year. And perhaps there are many other managers looking forward to their first foray into OPL in 2023 and wondering how to prep.

One of the most debated topics among OPL managers is what changes to make ahead of each snapshot – do I bail on this injured player? Do I hold this prospect? Should I drop this underperforming player? I want to look into some of these questions over the next few weeks and into the off-season, but today we’ll start with a quantitative question: how much should my team turn over round-to-round?

Read the rest of this entry »

I thought about making this a special Joey Gallo edition of Cold Right now. Gallo has been cut in 11.75% of leagues over the last week and in nearly a quarter of leagues over the last month. And while there are some other players who have been cut more, none offer the potential of league-altering production the way Gallo does. But rather than focus on just Gallo, I want to take a quick look at some other names before figuring out what to make of Gallo.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ottoneu never rests, even for holiday weekends, and extra time off often serves as an opportunity to catch up on cleaning up rosters, filling gaps in the lineup, or just making interesting trades and pickups. As we wrap up 4th of July weekend, there are five players who are up for auction in 25 or more leagues.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I covered four prospects rostered in less than 10% of Ottoneu leagues who deserve more attention. This week, I want to go the other direction and look at prospects who are rostered in too many leagues. This proved far more difficult, for a couple of reasons.

Read the rest of this entry »

For a variety of reasons, since the start of June I have been reloading my Ottoneu rosters with prospects and have been surprised to see some interesting names almost universally available. While I am not a prospect expert by trade, I love scouting stat lines, reading scouting reports, and finding prospects who others may not have noticed yet. These four players are all rostered in less than 10% of Ottoneu leagues and should be on your radar.

Read the rest of this entry »

Typically a look at the most ongoing auctions shows 4-5 intriguing names, but right now there are a few in the top 10 overall that just aren’t interesting. Trevor Bauer and Adalberto Mondesi are just being auctioned to reduce their cap penalties. Alex Lange and Jason Adam are decent enough RP options, but there are probably 10 other RP you could throw out there right now.

Rather than dive into all of them, today we’ll focus on three names: Christopher Morel, Tyrone Taylor, and Oscar Gonzalez.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the quickest and easiest ways to find productive Ottoneu hitters is to go to the Ottoneu search and sort by points per game. At the end of the day, that is what we are trying to maximize as Ottoneu managers – we all get the same 1,944 games split over 12 positions and we need to get the most points possible from those games.

However, those numbers can be skewed by pinch hit, pinch run, or defensive replacement appearances. A hitting putting up 1.25 points per plate appearance should score over 5.0 points per game, but if they have a handful of games with one PA, that will pull down the average.

To find players who you might be underrating by viewing points per game, it’s helpful to look at points per game as a starter.
Read the rest of this entry »

As of Thursday afternoon, there were four players up for auction in more than 10% – a prospect, a guy finally getting a clean chance, a power hitting 1B, and a reliever. And all four of these players are legitimately interesting and worth rostering.

Read the rest of this entry »