Last night, the Screw Cancer ottoneu league held their auction draft. Twelve owners (and a co-owner) came together to submit competing bids for around 200 players. Well, mostly. I entered the draft with $31 and 18 open roster spots. I vowed to draft only $1 players, reserving a $3-bid or two for the troublesome position of catcher. The result, I’m proud to say, is a pretty shiny roster.

In chats on FanGraphs and Discord throughout the early winter months, I advised countless ottoneu players to trade for expensive, elite players. “Don’t worry about running out of money,” I said. “Draft a bunch of $1 players,” I said. Yesterday’s draft is a perfect example of how to execute this approach.

The league is Screw Cancer. My team is Haliax Chandrian Explosion.

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A transcript of today’s chat is available. We argued about the merits of rankings.

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Today’s post shall cover three things in a rather perfunctory nature. Intro complete.

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With draft season kicking into full gear, this may be the last highly custom league I highlight this winter. Today we’re here to talk about elimination leagues including my own Top Tout Beta. Previous entries in this series covered 2×2 Roto, Split Auctions, Roto-to-Head, Rotating Divisions, WAR wars, Category Wars, Public Trade Negotiations, and If Only.

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A couple weeks back, I unveiled my Public Trade Negotiations format. It’s begging to be included as a module in a league that encourages trading. But it’s rather heavy handed to simply say: thou shalt make trades. Instead, the league design should be such that certain resources are only available via your rivals. By George, I’ve got it!

Previous entries in this series covered 2×2 Roto, Split Auctions, Roto-to-Head, Rotating Divisions, WAR wars, Category Wars, and Public Trade Negotiations.

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It’s Prospect Week. And it’s Valentine’s Day. So I’m here with five underhyped prospects who could provide sexy fantasy stats. ADPs are from FantasyPros. There’s no further need for introduction. CHARGE!

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The chat is complete. Read the transcript below.

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It’s Prospect Week at FanGraphs, the most exciting “week” outside of the one dedicated for sharks. I’ll have a chat at 4:00pm ET where we can talk all about prospects for fantasy purposes. In the mean time, let’s lay out some food for thought courtesy of the Dynasty ADP Project.

Please note: my standard for “prospect” may be slightly inconsistently applied. I didn’t bother to confirm rookie eligibility for all players with minimal major league experience. I just eyeballed the list. I might have incorrectly included or excluded a name. Feel free to call me out.

There appear to be a few areas where prospects clump together. You can think of these as tiers. What stands out to me is that with the exception of Vladito and possibly a few others, there isn’t a lot of difference in (my) perceived value between the early prospect picks and the guys around pick 300.

What do you think? Let’s chat about it here and at 4:00pm.

One of the most successful video game franchises in history is Sid Meier’s One More Turn. It’s a horrifically addictive game in which you manage cities, military units, and other aspects of a society to build the best civilization. Countless millions have lost days upon days of their lives micromanaging in this civilization simulator.

Out of the Park (OOTP) is the baseball nerd’s Civilization. After purchasing the game a little under a week ago, I’ve already played through a two-season scenario (I failed my goals). More on that in a moment. The game offers nearly every historical scenario imaginable and even has real amateur targets available for the 2019 draft. If you want to play non-MLB professional leagues like Honkball Hoofdklasse, you can. Hours and hours of my life have already vanished in a poof of baseball simulacrity.

The singleplayer experience is rich and immersive. I’ve yet to test the most promising functionality – online multiplayer mode. As such, this article will focus on singleplayer mode versus 29 AI franchises. There’s a lot to like, although there are a few eyebrow raising aspects to touch upon too. Even a glowing recommendation – and to be clear I highly recommend purchasing this game – should have some negative comments.

Please note: I was not paid or approached to write this post. 

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Last year, I wrote a piece about Luis Castillo. Even though I liked him, the draft helium priced me out of the room. In the process of drooling about his upside, everybody forgot the myriad plausible scenarios in which he could disappoint us. So I wrote about how it could go wrong.

Here we are in 2019, and it’s as if nothing has changed. A painful first half chilled owners, many of whom cut bait. Those with the patience to hold or the perspicacity to buy low were rewarded with a wonderful second half. Castillo is once again among the most heavily hyped non-ace pitchers in the league.

Today, we’re going to revisit that post, using the classic internet technique of quote – respond. You’ll see what I mean.

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