As this year’s MLB draft picks have signed their contracts and entered the ottoneu player universe, owners have been auctioning them off like crazy. Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, and Brendan Rodgers in particular, have been flying off the shelves, and often at rather high prices.

Those three are all owned in more than a quarter of leagues with prices ranging as high as $15. So far, I have placed only one bid across all my leagues – $5 on Swanson in the original ottoneu league – mostly because I am not sure these players are worth the risk. But everyone else seems to think they are. So am I missing something? Or are you?

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It’s the holy grail for any team competing for a fantasy title, maybe even more so in a 5×5 league – the opportunity to add Mike Trout mid-season (assuming, you know, that you did not have him PRE-season).

In the FanGraphs Experts ottoneu league, I am in the midst of negotiating for just that opportunity. My team in this 5×5 league currently sits in 6th* place, but only 6.5 out of 3rd and with some upside. For example, the team in first is currently tops in strike outs – but has also thrown 110 more innings than any other team. He’ll be dropping in K, W, and Saves as other teams catch up once he hits the IP limit. So I want to make a run, and how better to do that than with Trout.

*All stats as of Saturday, so they may be out of date by the time you read this.
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This marks the fourth year of the Second FanGraphs Staff ottoneu league, and we are setting up for a highly competitive year. Before each season, I set up projected standings to help me understand where my team stands and what I need to do to improve.

This year, based on the FanGraphs Depth Charts projections, my team has its work cut out for it, sitting within striking distance of first, but chasing two teams.

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Sorry for the week-long hiatus. I actually found myself in Arizona with the Fangraphs crew last weekend, and I’ll be honest with you: I sat at a table with my fellow nerds and started working on this, but found the conversation too interesting to finish it before we left for Talking Stick to see the A’s take on the Diamondbacks. A million apologies.

You’ve already been subjected to Ottoneu Fangraphs League II banter from Scott Spratt, Brad Johnson and Chad Young, and now I’m going to subject you to just a little bit more.

Here’s a rundown of what we’re working with here:

Roster Spots Filled: 40/40
Dollars Used: $335/$412 ($400 + $12 trade)
Linear Weights

I’m aware I broke the cardinal rule of not spending all or nearly all the money. Part of that is my methodology — I love having free agent flexibility — and part of it was a few guys I targeted that came in under values. Ultimately, I have a 40-man roster that I rather like — not likely a contender, but interesting nonetheless — and even as a revisionist, there aren’t too many players I’d retroactively wish I had won. Carlos Santana comes to mind, and that’s about it. Read the rest of this entry »

As many of you in the ottoneu world know, the format which has been playable on FanGraphs for the past five years got its start with a single league. Originated by three high school friends and bringing in six of our college friends (yes, our first year had nine teams). Well, 2015 is our tenth year playing ottoneu and I recently discovered a treasure trove of emails from before, during and after that first season.

One of these emails included a spreadsheet of rosters from the last day of our first season. With everyone busy with auctions right now, I thought it might be fun to glance back at what the league looked like in year one.

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This past week, in the ottoneu Slack Community, (check this out if you are interested in joining, which you should be if you play ottoneu) there was a heated debate about paying for top RP, particularly in points leagues. One side was arguing that the elite RP put up a Pt/IP score that few other players can manage. That if you are willing to pay $35 more for Mike Trout than Ryan Braun (projected to have a 200 point gap between them), why not pay the same premium for Aroldis Chapman over a guy 200 points below him – Santiago Casilla?

The other side argued that spending $30+ on a relief pitcher would be crazy – there are always solid RP options on the wire, so why not just wait and see who will be the next Wade Davis?

Both sides are right.

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On Sunday, I participated in the FanGraphs Staff Two Ottoneu auction. One of my favorite things about Ottoneu and auction drafts in general is the ability to compare their results to the greater market. If you trust crowdsourcing as a fair representation of a player’s value, then the team that came away from the auction with the most surplus value relative to player average prices across all Ottoneu leagues is the best team entering the season. You can find those total surplus dollars listed for each team below, as well as best and worst values by the same criteria. To see Ottoneu market prices, click here.
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The league FanGraphs Staff Two conducted our draft last Sunday. I discussed the weird position I was in last week with $76 to spend on nine roster spots. Chad Young has written about his own experiences and strategy. Today we’ll talk about the nine players I selected.

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After two straight first place finishes, I landed in second in the FanGraphs Staff League last year, and went into the off-season dead-set on regaining my crown.

I made a few trades, made my cuts and sat down to look at the available free agents…and was stopped in my tracks. I really had no good options.

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What I have in mind today is a review of everything I’ve done between the end of arbitration and last Saturday’s keeper deadline. I’ll begin with my 31 player roster entering the draft and include each trade that was made along the way. We can use the comments today for two purposes. Those who want to crow about their own accomplishments can do so. Others who have questions or concerns about why I did certain things should ask away. While there is an essence of humblebrag in this post, my purpose is to teach through example.

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