Many times in life we convince ourselves to spend money on name brand items. The impact of this can be extremely wide ranging – look at the choices people make for where to attend college, what car to drive, what clothes to wear, or even what food to eat. Regardless of the area of life in which these choices are present, it is hard to ignore the impact that branding has had on our culture. While the choice to spend money on name brand items can be conscious or subconscious, it is usually extremely difficult to seperate out the inherent biases that people have toward specific products. (Try convincing a Pittsburgher they don’t need Heinz ketchup for example).

This brings me to Ottoneu. If someone asked me how to succeed at the format (besides knowing the rules well) I could go into any number of nuanced strategies that could helps someone be successful, but if I had to boil it down to an oversimplified piece of advice, I would probably tell them to “Buy the same things as other teams, while spending less money” or to rephrase, try to ignore the name brand items and buy generic instead.  Today, I want to look at a name brand item I see within Ottoneu, and a generic item I would be just as happy with.

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I trade a lot. Like Justin, I am also a trade-aholic.  So once the Ottoneu trade deadline has ended my feelings are mixed. There is slight disappointment; I will readily admit that fantasy baseball is a little less fun (for me at least) if I don’t have the ability to make trades. I also feel relieved. After sending out offers constantly since our March draft, I would be lying if I said exhaustion didn’t catch up with me. Not feeling compelled to check trades is a nice change. Baseball is still here after all. I am happy. Leading up to the Ottoneu trade deadline (August 31) I tried to cover how you should prepare for next year (if selling) or how you could stock up for the stretch run if buying. Today, I want to take some time to talk about how you can use September to bolster your chances of clinching the championship, or of improving your odds for 2017. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ottoneu Trade Deadline is today! If you’ve followed along recently, we have covered the trade deadline (or trading in general) in some detail.

Ottoneu 101: Roster Organizer – Using the roster organizer as you start to plan for next season.

OttoGraphs Episode 16: VetoGate 2016 – Podcast on acceptable behavior of vetoing trades.

Ottoneu 101: Approaching the Trade Deadline – Primer on the Ottoneu Trade Deadline, and how to approach it as you consider buying/selling.

Ottoneu 101: Production, Salary, Surplus, Value – Definitions and applications of how trades can be viewed when trying to weight surplus and current production.

Today we want to try something a little bit different. We are encouraging everyone to leave their Ottoneu trade questions in the comments and we will help to answer them as best we can. Trey, Tom, and Justin will be stopping in throughout the day as well. As a reminder – each of us focuses on Ottoneu and it’s various formats. We are happy to help out to the best of our abilities with other league types, but recognize that is not our strong suit. The deadline ends at 11:59:59 ET. So get those trade offers out and work towards finishing those deals as soon as possible. Today is not the time to be nickle and dime your league mates in hopes of extracting every ounce of value you can. Time is short.

If you discuss player valuations with anyone who plays Ottoneu, chances are the word “surplus” has come up. Fellow Rotographs contributor Justin Vibber and his robotic heart love the S word, while others believe it to be a catch all that does a poor job of incorporating context, and therefore should be applied a little more conservatively. Maybe the S word isn’t used; maybe owners mention a player is “overpaid” or “underpaid.” Maybe they mention that they prefer talent they “view as a keeper.” Or maybe they claim someone is a “$30 player” without defining what they mean by “$30 player” and without acknowledging that they actually own this player for $15 salary.

As with all areas of life, communication comes with barriers. Written communication creates more barriers than most. Whatever jargon or form of communication is being used, we should recognize that owners tend to skew heavily toward talent that fits these descriptions “surplus”, “keeper”, “underpaid”, etc. We’re all very loosely trying to define the same thing. First let’s talk about why paying a player less than he produces is important.

If Mike Trout is a $70 player (generally), and you own him for $60, that would be viewed as a very good contract. It doesn’t matter that Trout is eating up $60 of your budget (especially if acquired via trade with a loan), because if he was cut, he would auction for more than $60. So, let’s say this hypothetical Trout is $10 underpaid. Does that change the fact that he is still producing $70 of production? No. Regardless of the salary I own Trout for in my league there is zero impact on his on field production. However, he is certainly more valuable to me at a $1 salary than a $99 salary (extreme I know). In this example, his salary of $60 would allow you to buy around $10 dollars more of production in the auction next season. If I bought Trout at $70, I would still have $70 dollars of production. However, I would now be unable to spend $10 on something else compared to if I had owned Trout at $60. If I owned Trout at a $90 salary, well I am still banking a $70 dollars of production, but now I have given up the ability to spend $20 later. Make sense? Because of this, players who are underpaid tend to be the building blocks of successful teams. They are the most highly coveted assets across leagues.

First, Let’s define a few terms. Then we’ll come back to this example. Read the rest of this entry »

With the Ottoneu trade deadline fast approaching, you are probably trying to determine where your team stands for the rest of 2016. Do you need that extra piece to make a title push this year? Is your league out of reach? Does a team in your league have (what appears to be) and insurmountable lead? These are all factors that need to bear in mind as the August 31^st trade deadline approaches.

The first place to start is to know how your team compares to the rest of the league. As one of the twelve owners in your league, it is important to know where you stand in relation to the other eleven teams. A great place to start is to run your league through the standings dashboard. While this tool gives you a pace at which you are performing (prorated for the whole season), it does not project what will happen based on a projection system (like ZIPS or Steamer). It can still be very useful to get a general idea of where you stand relative to the rest of the league. While this standard is different among many owners, I typically try to shoot for being within 350 to 400 points of 1^st (innings adjusted) if I am going to make any moves to buy. Read the rest of this entry »

With just over 2 months left in the season, it’s likely that your Ottoneu league has started to have some separation at the top of the standings. In reality, this has probably been happening for a while.  Typically races do not stay “close” for this long and (since Ottoneu has no playoff structure) you have probably been faced with the opportunity to start rebuilding in some aspect. A lot of advice could be given on the type of moves you should consider if you’re rebuilding – which trades you should make, players you should claim, which breakouts players are for real, etc. – but instead of commenting on that specifically, today I want talk about a tool that can help you have perspective as you plan toward 2017.

If you’ve played Ottoneu for more than a season, you are probably familiar with the Roster Organizer. If you’re new to Ottoneu, you may not have noticed its existence in season. In the offseason, the roster organizer replaces the lineups page as your offseason planning tool. However, it still can still be accessed in season from your team’s lineup page (boxed in red). The Roster Organizer can be located from your team page as well. The link is in the same place on that page.

From this link you will be able to access the Roster Organizer. Clicking the link will take you to a page nearly identical to the Lineups page but with additional slots for cuts, disabled lists, and minor leagues. Note that any player can be put into these three categories, and listing a player as a “cut” does not actually cut them from your squad. However, it reduces the player’s salary from your current cap penalty. This can be useful when trying to determine which of your current players you can build around for next year. I’d highly recommend looking at your squad and seeing where you stand. By doing this, you can get a better idea of players you want to hold on to going into next year, as well as the financial implication of keeping that player. Maybe you have a lot of players you like, but will have trouble meeting the salary cap if you keep all of them. The Roster Organizer can be helpful in realizing this – and can help you organize the players you have who may be worth trading in season. But what about players you want to target? Is there a way to plan for acquiring players? Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past 7 days, the most added player in Ottoneu is Yulieski Gurriel. Over the past 30 days, the most added player in Ottoneu is Yulieski Gurriel. That’s a lot of Gurriel auctions! Here’s quick glance at the most added players in Ottoneu over a 7 and 30 day split:

This post is not so much about Gurriel, but rather a larger Ottoneu topic. What do you do with free agent top prospects during the season? How do you bid? (In this sense, the term prospect can be broadened to mean any player added to the player pool midseason). If you don’t see Gurriel as a pertinent example, consider the likes of Kyle Lewis, Corey Ray, Nick Senzel, Lazaritos, or any other of the recent draftees or international free agents. While the same premise should hold for any of them, Gurriel is an exaggerated example.

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Ottoneu 101:

Ottoneu 101: The Cap(ps) Space Dilema

Ottoneu 101: Ready, Fire, Aim

Ottoneu 101: How Loans Work in Ottoneu

Over the course of 2014, I became infatuated with two Boston prospects, Manny Margot and Rafael Devers. Margot was in A ball and Devers in Rookie ball at the time, and I wanted to add them to my Ottoneu team. However, I was faced with a dilemma. Was owning Margot or Devers for $1-$2 in 2014 worth the roster spot and cap space I would commit to these players over the next 3-5 seasons? I knew Devers/Margot existed and were talented (probably before my league-mates) but felt the rules were constructed in such a way that it made committing roster spots to Rookie and A ball prospects a poor use of resources. Per Ottoneu rules:

b. Owners shall be permitted to retain any of their players at a salary which is increased based on their previous year salary.  Rules for salary increases are as follows: 

i. Players who have no major league service time (as defined by being placed on an active MLB roster at some point in the past 2 full seasons) will have their salary increase by $1.

So in the case of owning Devers for $1 in 2014, I would likely be looking at a $4 – $8 player by the time he debuts (depending on arbitration) along with committing a roster spot to him for 3-5 seasons. I personally don’t know if that’s a worthwhile trade off, but It’s these types of observations that led me to adding one of my favorite “unofficial” wrinkles to Ottoneu – the 5MILB system. With the help of Trey Baughn, we developed this system to allow prospects outside the scope of the top 50-100 (or in the low levels of the minors) to be owned off roster – where keeping a player for 3-5 seasons can put a real tax on your team. Here are the rules we came up with:

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Whit Merrifield, Brandon Nimmo, Zach Davies, Steven Moya… These are 4 baseball players. Three are outfielders. One is a pitcher. All are from the United States (or a US territory in Moya’s case). I’m sure there are other common facts about these players (most of us are pretty similar). However, perhaps the most interesting commonality between these 4 players is that all have seen their Ottoneu ownership increase by 10% over the past week. Let’s look at which of these players I would actually consider owning.

Owned in nearly 50% of Ottoneu leagues, Merrifield has burst on to the scene over the past month, posting 5.47 P/G since early May with 2B and OF eligibility. However, his rest of season numbers look far less optimistic. The depth charts here have him posting 3.83 P/G and a .291 wOBA over the rest of the season. This level of production is very near replacement level at 2B. Considering how shallow MI can be, I can see the case for rostering Merrifield, however I do not see much in his skillset to inspire confidence. He appears to be a product of a .389 babip, which has provided some nice production. However, without good plate discipline or power, his production will likely subpar in FGpts leagues. He’s a replacement level player at present. If you need to fill middle infield games he could be worth a roster spot, but I wouldn’t be bidding more than $1-$3 for him in leagues without SBs. While his FGpt outlook isn’t great, Merrifield has exhibited good speed in the minors (32 SBs in AAA last year) and could provide some solid value in 5×5 leagues where owners are in need of steals.

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Playing Ottoneu typically requires an adjustment. Many fantasy leagues have some form of keeper/dynasty component, but having a player’s “keepability” be tied directly to his salary can add a wrinkle many owners are not familiar with. Sometimes this can be daunting. How do you value players when salaries come into play? Where is the line between talent and salary and how much weight do both of these factors hold? What do you do with a highly paid player who is under performing? How do I account for the salary cap? What if I have no financial flexibility? How am I supposed to make free-agent pickups or gain cap space?

These are several questions that spawn out of the specific salary structure within Ottoneu. While I certainly can’t answer all these questions at once, I want to take some time to focus on the last one. Specifically, how Ottoneu is different than other fantasy formats for free-agent pickups and how you can use this format to help gain an advantage on your league-mates?

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