With the hours of July 31 ticking away, the MLB trade deadline is winding down and by the time you sit down to dinner tonight, you’ll know whether your favorite team has landed that arm/added that bat/moved that contract/restocked the farm. But you are not a GM (unless you are, in which case you have better things to do than read a fantasy column on deadline day) – you are an ottoneu owner and you still have the month of August to get something done.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll take a look at how the ottoneu trade deadline differs from the trade deadline in other keeper leagues and lay out some recommendations for how to handle the deadline. We’ll start with a sellers guide today.

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Keeping an eye on the future while reloading for the stretch run is just about as difficult in fantasy as it is in real life. The wrinkle is that the fantasy player universe is smaller, so fantasy players deal with stars for the most part. Non-elite or low-level prospects can easily get overvalued — there’s little use for an organizational player or a backup shortstop in fantasy ball, and Double-A separates the real from the Formica.

So I’m really psyched that I traded some of my stars for non-elite prospects this week.

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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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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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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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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.