In the FanGraphs Experts League (most recently discussed here), my team (Amateur Hour) has been in a free fall, sinking from first all the way to 8th and 15 points out of the top three.

But I am thinking of acquiring at least one rental, if not two or three, to try to make a push this year. Before doing so, I want to lay out my case here and explore why a team in the bottom half of the standings might decide the time is right to make a run.

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Just four short days ago, Jeff Zimmerman inspired anger and vitriol from the loyal readers of this blog by suggesting that it was time to sell C.J. Wilson.

Well, I am nothing if not a man of the people, so I am here to defend the honor of the Angels’ very expensive lefty.

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Without any major news impacting the ottoneu player pool this week, no one is attracting the kind of attention afforded to Lonnie Chisenhall or Matt Adams the last two times I wrote this column. But there are auctions on-going and four players have stepped out ahead of the pack.

Two relievers, a starter and an outfielder are atop the list of most current auctions, and if you are deciding whether or not to bid on this fab four, I’ll let you know what I am planning for each of them.

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Summer is (almost) officially upon us and if your teams are anything like mine, you are starting to feel the injuries more than the heat this June (maybe that is because the heat hasn’t come to Seattle yet, but still). Every year, at least one of my teams gets hit by an injury bug and I am left scrambling for replacement players and trying to figure out how to make room for a stop-gap at multiple positions when I really don’t have anyone I want to cut loose.

When that happens, I look for the Multiple Position Temps. These are not the guys you expect to carry you to a title, but players you can pick up, fill in as needed, maybe get some decent stats, and weather the storm until you starting infield makes its way back to full healthy. Most importantly, you can grab one of these guys, use him at 3-4 positions, and not have to scramble every time a spot in your lineup opens up.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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