Last week, I re-introduced the ottoneu arbitration omnibus. It’s a one-stop shop for just about everything arbitration. Since then, Chad Young has chipped in with a few additional thoughts about this season’s allocations.

Arbitration runs through November 14. So you still have a few weeks to decide on your allocations or votes. Once the 14th rolls by, we can shift into offseason trade mode. Even though I don’t have much more advice to offer about the arbitration process, we can still discuss arbitration-adjacent topics.

You can’t trade yet. In fact, the trade wizard is completely disabled. However, nothing is stopping you from early negotiations. And, depending how those talks shape up, it can affect your (and your rival’s) allocation decisions.

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Last year, my new year’s resolution was to join a dynasty league. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept, but it’s challenging to find the right league. Generally, you need 20 very competitive, knowledgeable owners. Too often, attempts to form dynasty leagues include too many weak links and fall apart.

Luckily for me, fellow RotoGraphist Chad Young wanted a partner in his league – The Devil’s Rejects. Other owners include Eno Sarris and representatives from a variety of the top fantasy services.  The majority of teams are run by at least two owners.

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Entering the year, Francisco Cervelli had a career high of 317 plate appearances in a single season. The narrative was familiar: he could hit, he could receive, he just couldn’t stay healthy. The 29-year-old finally shook the injury prone label with a 510 plate appearance, 3.8 WAR season.

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Over the offseason, the Red Sox refused to trade catching prospect Blake Swihart (plus others) for then-Phillies ace Cole Hamels. In retrospect it was a wise move if only because other components on the roster failed spectacularly. If one of Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, or Rusney Castillo had performed as expected, then Hamels may have been the difference between a Wild Card berth and a trip home. As it turned out, he would have been dealt again at the deadline.

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Last Saturday, I was watching Daily Show re-runs from the previous week. When I saw FanDuel and DraftKings had wrangled a lead story, I was happy. Obviously the segment was going to be about the “insider trading” scandal. DraftKings employees have made around $5 million on FanDuel. It’s bullturds, but it’s also hard to get too bent out of shape about it.

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Sometimes, there are only so many things that can be said about something. On the topic of ottoneu arbitration, that amounts to about 10,000 words. Below, I have republished (with some embellishment) the omnibus I created last year on this wonderful topic. But first, some background.

Perhaps I jumped too quickly into the details. Ottoneu is the award-eligible* fantasy platform hosted by FanGraphs. Think of it as dynasty-lite. You get a 40-man roster, a $400 payroll, and way too much freedom to manage your team your way.

Over the offseason, the price of every major league player increases by $2. Minor leaguers increase by $1. Then there is an arbitration process that can be done one of two ways. Most leagues use the allocation process which ultimately adds an additional $11 to $33 per team. This omnibus is dedicated to both forms of arbitration, but the allocation process does open more possibilities for strategery and thus has more words dedicated to it.

As I mentioned, there are two systems of arbitration: voting and allocation. An asterisk indicates that the article is intending for voting leagues. I’ve organized the omnibus into sections: intro, intermediate, and advanced.

*This particular asterisk does not indicate an article about voting leagues. I’m just noting that I can’t claim credit for this wonderful phrase.

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Swing expert and friend of the Daily Grind Dan Farnsworth sent me his thoughts on three players right after the season ended. Typically, I’d post those comments in the Grind, but it’s time recover for next season’s grind. I don’t want Dan’s effort to go to waste. What follows is analysis of three early sleepers for the 2016 season.

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I’ve already gloated about my ottoneu success, bemoaned my DFS performance, and wistfully analyzed my nearly 7-for-10 Bold Prediction performance. Today I’ll run through my performance in eight other leagues.

I’ll be up front – it wasn’t my best season. Even in March, I knew I was biting off more than I could chew. In my sophomore year of high school, I doubled up in Geometry and Algebra 2. Every time I caught up in one subject, I fell behind in the other. That’s how my 2015 season felt. Whenever I put in the time to grind some advantage in one league, I let another fall into the weeds. By the end of the year, I was down to actively managing two teams. Let’s discuss those successes first.

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I had a weird experience with my bold predictions. A majority of my predictions were close to right. However, I ultimately fell way short of my goal to hit .400. Let’s get to it.

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It’s accountability week for yours truly. Yesterday, I wrote/gloated about my winning roster in the ottoneu league FanGraphs Staff Two. I consider that post my reward for winning an otherwise free league. Today’s conversation is decidedly less celebratory. My DFS season didn’t come close to replicating my 40 percent ROI from 2014.

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