The summer is heating up which means the standings are starting to solidify in your league. Big trades are going down and you find yourself uncharacteristically indecisive – do I make this deal or not? Will it actually improve my team enough to matter?
As mentioned in the past, Ottoneu is a deep but enjoyable game of fantasy baseball economics perfectly suited for the FanGraphs reader. However, the learning curve in year one can be steep, so consider this point a primer on how “loans” work in Ottoneu leagues.
All Ottoneu teams, regardless of the format (5×5, 4×4, FGPTS, SABR) are bound by both a 40 player roster cap and a $400 salary cap applied between the annual league player auction and the end of the MLB regular season (these caps do not apply in the off-season). Exceeding either of these caps will result in a “frozen” roster thereby preventing the owner from bidding on players, making trades, or even setting lineups until the issue is resolved, per Rule 1b. In other words, your only option when faced with an illegal (“over-cap”) roster is to cut players until you get to 40 or fewer players or $400 or less in total salary. For new Ottoneu players, keep in mind you should never willingly exceed these limits (per Rule 1c), and each of your 40 roster spots inherently costs $1 each, so you really only have $360 in “free” roster salary to play with (see Rule 1bi) at any given time (including during the annual auction).
Niv, creator and grand poobah of all things ottoneu, was gracious enough to share with me some data regarding the most added ottoneu players over the last 30 days(across all league types). I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the hot pickups in ottoneu, so here we go!
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?
Three weeks ago, fellow rotographs contributor Trey Baughn looked at some ways to approach discussing trades. At the time, your league may not have entered the selling/buying stage of the season, but as we move into June, it is likely that some teams who labeled themselves “competitors” for 2016 have begun to change their tune. So much can change in three weeks – with the line between a competitive and non-competitive team being more clearly established. Several teams in your league(s) have probably made the move to sell (or buy) already. As a fellow owner of a competitive team, it can be very frustrating to watch your rivals scoop up top talent while you’re left sitting on your hands. In these circumstances, you can be best served to take some initiative, act quickly, and not second guess yourself.
In this episode of OttoGraphs, Tom and Trey discuss some players who have had notable seasons so far, for good and bad reasons! On the positive side, players like Jonathan Villar, Aledmys Diaz, Derek Dietrich, and Rich Hill have all provided a big bang for very few bucks, but some more expensive players like Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, and Matt Harvey have not quite lived up to their auction salaries at this point in the season. Plus, we talk about Evan Gattis and how his value has changed now that he has added catcher eligibility; and Clayton Kershaw, whose average salary of $57.34 has, incredibly, represented a discount on his otherworldly production in 2016.
As a reminder, OttoGraphs is now available on iTunes! Subscribe using this link or the one below, and if you like what you hear, we’d happily accept ratings or reviews to help us reach new listeners, and potentially recruit some new ottoneu players!
Feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions you may have about this episode or future topics. We can be reached individually on Twitter:
Lastly, special thanks to Treemen who provided our intro and outro music. If you like what you hear, please check out their other work at http://treemen.bandcamp.com/
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With another month of the baseball season gone, it’s time once again to present the ottoneu power rankings. Much of the history and methodology of these rankings was explained with last month’s post, so be sure to read that if you haven’t already.
I’ll pick up on the prospect theme that Justin and Tom touched on in this week’s podcast: helium watch. In other words, here are a four somewhat under the radar prospects that have caught my eye this year that could have increasing value over the second half of the season and turn into real assets in the near future in Ottoneu (and other deep leagues).
In this episode of OttoGraphs, Tom and Justin highlight some prospects who are gaining value this spring, with a specific eye towards ottoneu’s unique prospect landscape. We also give a brief pitch for ottoneu football, the brand new ottoneu format that recently wrapped up a successful first season. If you’re interested, you can find out more about ottoneu football by checking out OttoGraph’s sibling podcast, Gridiron Geeks, also hosted by Tom and Justin.
Feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions you may have about this episode or future topics. We can be reached individually on Twitter:
Lastly, special thanks to Treemen who provided our intro and outro music. If you like what you hear, please check out their other work at http://treemen.bandcamp.com/
Podcast (ottoneu-podcast): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Entering the 2014 season I knew my fantasy team was setup to succeed. After all, I had just spent the entire 2013 season tearing it down and building it back up again, so I had the benefit of a full year of preparation, collecting as many assets as I could along the way to ready myself up for another shot at the title.
Unsurprisingly, at least three other teams in my league also appeared to be possible front-runners, so I knew it was going to be a hard fought battle towards the top. My roster looked great on paper, but what I really needed was an edge, a small but real advantage that would work in my favor and help me outlast some very savvy Ottoneu owners. So, I decided I would be obsessive about daily roster management…and I built a spreadsheet to help me track my team’s performance (by player) over the course of 180 days of baseball. If I was going to win a tight race, I would need more than just excellent players. I needed to know that I was effectively managing those players, too.
I ended up winning the championship in 2014 and owe a ton of credit to the daily roster tool I built to help me track it. You can view the tool here. I’m doing the same thing this year, so here are four roster management lessons I’ve learned that might be helpful for anyone playing daily fantasy baseball.
