Oh, Ike Davis, what is it about you that convinces me, time and time again, to draft you, sign you, and trade for you? When all of my leaguemates are willing to cut you loose and leave you on the wire, why am I always the one to say, “No! Ike Davis is NOT a waste of a roster spot!”

And it is not like Ike is the only player I have this problem with. I’ve hung on to the belief that Chad Billingsley was moments away from being an ace and that Miguel Montero is about to become an MVP candidate, and I get burned over and over. So why are there guys that I just can’t quit?

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A year or two before ottoneu was founded (so about a decade ago) I swore off head-to-head baseball leagues. The beauty of baseball, I think, is in the daily grind – six months of daily grind, with no one day being more important than any other. Besides, if you are going to make one day count more than another, choosing September, when the rules of the game change and when different teams have such wildly different incentives and goals just does not make sense to me.

But I am now in my second year playing in a matchup league again. I took over a last place team in this dynasty league, barely missed the post-season a year ago, and now I am just a few hours away from my first playoff matchup in years. And the strategy for the post-season is taking some getting used to.

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As David Wiers mentioned about a week ago, Albert Pujols is done for the year, and his value in 2014 will likely be all over the board. In re-draft leagues, you have the pleasure of writing Pujols off for the next couple months and not thinking about him again until pre-season rankings come out.

However, dynasty leagues such as ottoneu will require a different look at the ailing (and maybe aging?) first basemen. In some leagues, Pujols has been (or will be) cut, while in others owners are trying to decide what to do. The big question is, “Have we seen the last of MVP Albert Pujols, or is there reason to expect a bounce back next season?”

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I have a share in Dan Uggla – one I acquired earlier this year in an attempt to boost my power numbers in the ottoneu FanGraphs Experts League. The results have been mixed, and missing Uggla for at least a couple weeks now won’t help. But Uggla is not overly expensive in that league ($14) and a boost from Lasik could make him a keeper in the off-season.

Yesterday, Eno Sarris made me very sad when he tweeted out some bad news. A study from 2005 with evidence that Lasik was not helping MLB players. But I had some questions upon reading the study.

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After the Ryan Braun suspension was announced, the most common question I got from ottoneu players was what to do with their $45, $50 or even $60 shares in Braun. No value left this year, but what will he bring to the table next year.

Eno Sarris looked at Braun’s value yesterday, so I’m not going to go down that path. Instead, we are going to take a look at the chain reaction that occurred when Braun was cut in the original ottoneu league, as a bit of a warning of what you should expect should he get cut in your league.

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It is not necessarily the best time to be a Phillies fan, what with the no shot at the playoffs and Ryan Howard getting paid forever and whatnot. But there is some help on the horizon, at least if you ask ottoneu players.

Two of the top three most auctioned players right now are in the Philly system, with an Astro in between them. We’ll take a look at Cuban pitching prospect Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, Double-A 3B Maikel Franco and presumptive Astro closer Jose Cisnero.

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Fantasy owners across the internet were likely cursing at their monitors as they cut loose Ryan Braun this afternoon. Owners in re-draft leagues made the cut already; those in keeper leagues may have a tougher choice on their hands.

But Braun is an interesting case in ottoneu leagues and potentially becomes and intriguing trade target for owners selling this year and building towards 2014.

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As those of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen, I spend some time digging into the ottoneu data the last week or so, looking at which players are on the most winning teams. Basically, I was figuring out what percentage of teams a player was on were in each standings spot. This gave me all sorts of wonderful insights, including that 25% of Dioner Navarro owners are in 4th place or that Jake Marisnick is equally likely to be in 12th place as 3rd place.

But it also provided an interesting look into what players (and what kinds of players) are driving success.

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As a Seattle resident, I have the pleasure of attending a good number of Mariner’s games each year, mostly in the company of another founding member of ottoneu (owner of this team). A couple weeks back, we attended a game and marveled at the massive swings being taken by one Raul Ibanez, which led to one of us commenting, “It’s like he’s decided, ‘Screw it – I’m old and I am going to try to crush the ball, even if I can’t do anything else.”

It reminded me of the Jerry Seinfeld quip about old people backing out of their driveways: “I’m old and I’m coming back! I survived, let’s see if you can.”

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A couple months ago, I shared a piece that explained how I pro-rate standings in ottoneu leagues to figure out where I ACTUALLY stand and what I should be doing moving forward. Now that we are at the half-way mark, I wanted to revisit that piece, make a couple adjustments to my process, and update my plans.

If you haven’t read that piece, you can start with that and take a look at how I look at all stats on a per-game and per inning basis in roto leagues and the score I use in points leagues to see a more realistic look at what each team is doing.

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