Holds leagues are always tricky, and holds leagues that have innings limits are even trickier. Finding relievers who are in line for high hold-to-innings pitched ratios are often undervalued in these types of leagues, like ottoneu, and can be found for cheap while providing respectable value. These are not world beaters or team savers, but they can boost points totals efficiently and effectively over the course of the year for an extremely cheap cost. Here are three LOOGY’s who have done so thus far and should continue to the rest of the season.

Tony Sipp

As an owner of Sipp in ottoneu, I have seen his value first hand. With just 9.2 innings pitched and with ten strikeouts to two walks, Sipp has been worth 62.43 points. His six holds in just those 9.2 innings has made him very valuable, and in a league that accounts for innings limits and uses holds, he is an undervalued commodity. He is certainly not a team saver, but he is an efficient point getter in this format. In ERA leagues, he looks like a terrible addition, due to his 8.38 ERA, but that number should come down rather rapidly. If you are looking for a cheap source of holds in a limited amount of innings with what should be solid strikeout and rate stats going forward, Sipp is worth a look in certain formats.

Tim Byrdak

Byrdak has been extremely good this year, with a 2.33 FIP and 13.03 K/9 to 2.79 BB/9, along with seven holds in 9.2 innings. Byrdak had just eight holds last season, so the jump in this level is at least somewhat surprising. His career high is 11 from two years ago and in 2005, which means he should be in line for a career high mark this year. Byrdak’s situation is similar to Sipp’s in that his ERA does not quite match his FIP, but his difference is not nearly as drastic. With a 3.72 ERA, Byrdak has been playable to date in ERA leagues and if he continues to strikeout as many as he has and walk as few, he should see that number drop.

Marc Rzepczynski

Scrabble has four holds in 13 appearances spanning 10 innings, with a nice 8-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 28 games last season he netted 8 holds in 22.2 innings, so this is a nice trend that has continued in his Cardinal tenure. A total of 12 holds in 32.2 innings is pretty respectable and valuable in certain formats. ZiPS has him with a 3.60 ERA and 3.61 FIP going forward, but his sub-3.00 FIP in the NL points to the projection being a bit high. He won’t continue to receive a .179 BABIP, so his 1.80 ERA should certainly rise, but his command has been solid thus far which is nice to see from a pitcher with a career walk per nine rate above 4.00. Again, in leagues where you can take advantage of holds and have innings limits, Rzepcynski is a solid add if the roster space is available.

Last week I provided some notes on a series of players who were most recently added to ottoneu rosters. The methodology was far from scientific (I watched that little scroll bar that lists recent adds on the ottoneu landing page and took notes). This week, we take a step towards the quantifiable and take a look at a better representation of who is hot in the world of ottoneu.

The list below shows the 11 players who are being auctioned in at least five ottoneu leagues as we speak (and by as we speak, I mean “as I type, at approximately 12:15 a.m. ET, eight hours before this thing appears on RotoGraphs”). Among these players, five have been covered by my colleagues in the past few days, so I will focus on those who have escaped our attention, although they have clearly gotten yours.

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Every time I log into ottoneu, I check out that little scroll on the home page. You know the one – right at the top, above your teams, below the player search. This banner shows a constant update on the latest players added across all ottoneu leagues and is one of my favorite ottoneu features. It’s like an instant update on who’s hot right now. Or, I guess, who was hot 48 hours ago when these auctions were started.

Well, we are always telling you who is un-owned in most leagues, but today I am going to look at the most recent additions in ottoneu and see who is being added, why, and who you should be targeting. Some of these guys may still be up for auction in your leagues as we speak.

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Six games into the 2012 season, Kyle Seager has a .333/.360/.417 line and is owned in approximately 40% of ottoneu leagues. And that rate is dropping.

Seager is playing every day right now, but with Mike Carp on the verge of a rehab assignment and Franklin Gutierrez on his way back, the Mariners outfield is about to get awfully crowded, which will push the resurgent Chone Figgins back to third, and Seager to…probably the bench. On top of that, his bat probably isn’t good enough to play everyday at 3B. But I am not ready to sell.

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Reliable middle infielders have always been my white whale. I overvalue them on draft/action day and somehow always end up getting burned. Whether it’s Rickie Weeks‘ wrist or Dustin Pedroia‘s foot or Chase Utley’s knees, I always seem to wind up scrounging for infield help. This year I decided to cast a wide net in our staff league, loading up on various $1 options in addition to keepers Utley and Yunel Escobar.

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Last year, Eno Sarris gathered a group of fantasy experts from around the internets and formed the FanGraphs Experts league – an ottoneu league using traditional 5×5 roto scoring – pitting some of the best fantasy minds around (and me) against each other in a battle royale.

This year, we resume the battle.

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Last season, I was a part of the FanGraphs Experts Ottoneu League. As there wasn’t a prize and I was in three other leagues, my team fell into disarray pretty quickly and I missed a bunch of opportunities to add good players in the midseason. I finished in 10th place with a team largely deserving of said finish. Therefore, when I heard there would be payouts of $600/$300/$100 for the top three places this year, I had mixed emotions. Payouts for a league I don’t have to pay into? Awesome. But my team sucked, meaning I had a lot of work to do in the auction.

The reason my team didn’t do well is, naturally, because I drafted a lot of bad players. Ottoneu gives players ample chances to make sweeping changes midseason — trading or picking up prospects, acquiring chips to trade in the offseason. But instead I just let it sit, and as such I only had 14 players worth keeping, one of whom was a $63 Albert Pujols. I threw him back knowing I needed a big budget to work with in the auction. As such, I kept the following list:

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As a long-time ottoneu player, I have come to realize that the traditional waiver wire columns are great for leagues with 23-27 man rosters, but don’t quite hold up when you teams all go 40-deep. So from time to time this year, I will try to offer up names of players who are free agents in more than 90% of ottoneu leagues, but are worth keeping an eye on.

To differentiate from waivers, I’ll call them Watchlist Wonders — guys who are worth adding to your ottoneu watchlist and, depending on your team needs, worth starting an auction for.

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As Chad Young already spelled out in his piece earlier today, the two of us recently completed a trade in the second FanGraphs Staff League: Pablo Sandoval and Hong-Chih Kuo for Matt Thornton and Paul Goldschmidt.

I was on the end receiving Sandoval, and as far as overall trade analysis goes, I have to agree almost entirely with Chad. Due to the relative strengths and weaknesses of both our teams, I think this was one of those trades that — right now, at least — rates as a win-win. Both of us are dealing from depth; I get the third baseman I desperately need without destroying my bullpen or offensive depth, and Chad improves his bullpen considerably and gets a young, high upside first baseman without hurting his offense. Only time will tell exactly how this works out, but in the moment, both of us left feeling quite happy with our returns.

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Twice in the past few days, Howard Bender (whose name I cannot hear without imagining this) has provided a list of guys he will not draft in 2012.

I wanted to add my own list, but with an ottoneu twist. I’ll just add a note that I am very specifically saying I won’t draft these guys. At the right price, I would have held onto any of them as keepers, and I actually have the first one on one of my rosters because his price is so low. And so, without further ado…

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