Author Archive

Why I Won’t Bid on Correa (and most draftees)

In the original ottoneu league, the weeks following the amateur draft tend to be among the most active. As contracts are signed, draftees become roster-eligible and teams – particularly those that are out of the running for this year – begin the process of stocking their farm system with newly minted millionaires.

This year, Carlos Correa was already auctioned in that league, going for an impressive $6. Not only that, but half the league bid on him and four of the bids were for $5 or $6. All for a 17-year-old. The kid has a ton of potential, and may very well be the second coming of Alex Rodriguez. But I didn’t enter a bid.

Read the rest of this entry »


Jose is Okay

Two years ago, when Jose Bautista was enjoying his 50 HR breakout, I was enjoying slotting him in to my lineup on a daily basis in the original ottoneu league. A $1 in-season auction pickup, Joey Bats anchored my last championship team before getting voted off through the off-season arbitration process. He was a stalwart for me again last year, but this April was a different story.

May has been better, but has Bautista turned a corner or had the pauper-turned-prince turned back again?

Read the rest of this entry »


ottoneu Hot Right Now: Lonnie Chisenhall

Last September 27, Lonnie Chisenhall ended a rough first Major League season with a 2-for-5 effort, including a run scored in what turned out to be a pretty meaningless game against Detroit. On Monday, Chisenhall returned to the big leagues for what he hopes will be a more impressive sophomore campaign, and got things started with another 2-hit performance, against featuring a run scored, this time on a first-pitch home run in his first plate appearance.

Chisenhall’s ownership percentage in ottoneu was high even before the powerful debut, and is poised to climb – there are more auctions currently underway for Chisenhall than for any other player. The question for both current and prospective Chisenhall owners is what to expect from the youngster.

Read the rest of this entry »


ottoneu Hot Right Now: Matt Adams

Ever since writing my first ottoneu Hot Right Now a few weeks back, I have been tracking the numbers and planning to cover the topic again. I’ve seen a number of players creep up into Humber-Territory, crossing into double-digit auctions, but when I pulled the numbers on Monday, something remarkable happened.

And that something is Matthew Adams. As of Monday evening, there were only four players with five or more ongoing auctions, but Adams had almost as many auctions himself as the other three (Todd Frazier, James McDonald and Craig Stammen) combined – 25 to their 15.

Read the rest of this entry »


Quarter Pole Evaluation: Using Rates to Find True Standings

It seems like just yesterday we were talking small sample sizes and trying not to panic about our fantasy teams sitting in 9th place. Or some of us were assuming our early season success was a mirage, masking what was sure to be a brutal year. But now we are coming up on the quarter pole, and it’s no longer time to make cheap excuses.

For ottoneu owners, it is time to evaluate our teams, identify our weaknesses, figure out where we have depth, and decide if this is the year to make a move.

Read the rest of this entry »


Managing a Team When You Can’t Manage a Team

I spent the last nine days in a baseball-less haze, wandering the fjords of Norway and promising my wife (as those of us with significant others have to do from time to time) that fantasy baseball would not interrupt our vacation the way it does many (okay, okay…all) of our other nights. Sadly, the commissioners of my leagues did not agree to my recommended “everyone takes a hiatus and stats don’t count this week because Chad is out of the country” rule.

Baseball is Summer and Summer is a heavy time for vacationing, which means that most owners will, at some point, have to go a few days without maniacally checking their rosters on a daily basis. How do you go about doing this without suffering a free fall in the standings?

Read the rest of this entry »


ottoneu Points League Standings Analysis

At the end of the night on April 23, I pulled down all of the standings for all of the ottoneu points leagues that had a full complement of 12 active teams. This being my first year playing in a points league, I wanted to know how my (at the time) third place team stacked up against the rest of the teams out there.

Was my 1,813.4 points a solid number that deserved to be in third? Would my 5.3 points per game and 4.7 points per inning hold up against stiff competition? I still not sure I have clear answers, but at least I have some additional data.

Read the rest of this entry »


ottoneu Hot Right Now: Most Active Current Auctions

Last week I provided some notes on a series of players who were most recently added to ottoneu rosters. The methodology was far from scientific (I watched that little scroll bar that lists recent adds on the ottoneu landing page and took notes). This week, we take a step towards the quantifiable and take a look at a better representation of who is hot in the world of ottoneu.

The list below shows the 11 players who are being auctioned in at least five ottoneu leagues as we speak (and by as we speak, I mean “as I type, at approximately 12:15 a.m. ET, eight hours before this thing appears on RotoGraphs”). Among these players, five have been covered by my colleagues in the past few days, so I will focus on those who have escaped our attention, although they have clearly gotten yours.

Read the rest of this entry »


Who You Are Signing: Latest Adds in ottoneu

Every time I log into ottoneu, I check out that little scroll on the home page. You know the one – right at the top, above your teams, below the player search. This banner shows a constant update on the latest players added across all ottoneu leagues and is one of my favorite ottoneu features. It’s like an instant update on who’s hot right now. Or, I guess, who was hot 48 hours ago when these auctions were started.

Well, we are always telling you who is un-owned in most leagues, but today I am going to look at the most recent additions in ottoneu and see who is being added, why, and who you should be targeting. Some of these guys may still be up for auction in your leagues as we speak.

Read the rest of this entry »


Why I am Not Only Keeping But Targeting Kyle Seager in ottoneu Leagues

Six games into the 2012 season, Kyle Seager has a .333/.360/.417 line and is owned in approximately 40% of ottoneu leagues. And that rate is dropping.

Seager is playing every day right now, but with Mike Carp on the verge of a rehab assignment and Franklin Gutierrez on his way back, the Mariners outfield is about to get awfully crowded, which will push the resurgent Chone Figgins back to third, and Seager to…probably the bench. On top of that, his bat probably isn’t good enough to play everyday at 3B. But I am not ready to sell.

Read the rest of this entry »