As we push towards the stretch run, almost every league I am in has a contender desperately pleading for innings on their trade block. Between injuries and underperformance and weird drop-offs in production after the crackdown on sticky stuff, there just does not seem to be enough pitching to go around.

Last week I covered free-agent position players to help you fill your games played; today we look at pitchers rostered in less than 50% of leagues who can help you fill out your innings pitched. Reader beware: If you need starting pitching, the choices are not good.
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Even though it comes from a football coach, the saying, “The best ability is availability” absolutely applies to Ottoneu baseball leagues, particularly points leagues. Having the best players won’t do you much good if you aren’t able to fill out all your games played.

Just as an example, in one of my points leagues, the best offense is putting up 5.72 points per game. The second best is putting up 5.61. For the second-place team, at that scoring rate, a full season of 162 games per position at all 12 positions would be 10,905.84 points. If the team at 5.71 P/G ends the year having left 35 games on the table, that would be enough to fall behind the other team in total offensive points. Put another way, those teams are separated by 138 points right now. Leaving 24 games on the table could make up that difference.

As injuries, COVID cases, and other issues increase, Ottoneu managers should be searching for players they can add to help max out that 162 games player per position. Here are some names that are rostered in less than 50% of leagues who can help you out.
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This is a fun time of year for fantasy prospects. Guys are getting traded left and right, creating conversations about players like Ezequiel Duran who otherwise might have been ignored (0.291% rostered in Ottoneu right now and being auctioned in one league). Those trades are also opening up space for other players to get a shot – might we see Andres Gimenez back in Cleveland soon?

At the same time, the players selected in the draft a few weeks back are starting to sign, making them eligible to be added in Ottoneu leagues. It’s no surprise that the current leader in live auctions right now (he is being added in nearly 60 leagues) is Jack Leiter, who was just added to the Ottoneu player pool Wednesday afternoon. Henry Davis has been added in more than 10% of leagues. Marcelo Mayer has been added in nearly 7% of leagues. The tough call is what to do with these guys if they are free agents or up for auction in your leagues.

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Last week I outlined how I plan for the trade deadline and earlier this week I walked through a points league example. Today, I walk through a roto league example.

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Last week, I wrote about Ottoneu trade deadline preparation and promised I would come back with case studies this week: One about a points league and one about a roto league. Today, I’ll take a look at my team in 90% Mental, league 670, which is a SABR Points league.

My team, Fisher Bunnies, is currently in third place and has some serious ground to make up if I am going to win. Determining how likely I am to make that up and what path I can take to do it will help me set my strategy for the trade deadline.

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The All-Star Break isn’t officially a milestone in the Ottoneu season – it doesn’t represent the mid-point, it doesn’t start the playoffs, it doesn’t line up with the trade deadline – but it is a moment to stop, reflect, and figure out where you stand as we head into the home stretch. For me, it’s always a time to think about the upcoming trade deadline (August 31) and get myself and my team’s ready for a flood of trade offers, both incoming and outgoing.

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I regularly check in on the players who are being auctioned in a large number of leagues, but of course, there is the other end of the spectrum – players who are being let go in high numbers. Today, we’ll look at some players being dropped widely and determine whether there is any reason to try to buy in while others are jumping ship.

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Welcome back to our semi-regular feature, which dives into the players with the most auctions currently active across all leagues. There is a good chance someone in your Ottoneu league will be adding one of these players to their roster in the next 48 hours. The question at hand: should it be you?

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Last week, we took a look at the Ottoneu Prestige League second round offenses, and tried to draw some rough conclusions about roster structure based on what we saw. Today, we’ll take a look at the pitching side of the equation.

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This year, Ottoneu introduced the Ottoneu Prestige Leauge (OPL). The unique format allows 240 teams to enter a second competition (separate from their “home league” – the Ottoneu league they are already part of). While this isn’t the only “league of leagues” type set-up (The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitation, for example), it’s structure is one-of-a-kind and creates challenges for managers that they don’t face in other formats. For example, while TGFBI involves every team from every participating league, OPL is opt-in and includes 240 teams representing 139 leagues. The roster rules stand out even more.

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