Sometimes, there are only so many things that can be said about something. On the topic of ottoneu arbitration, that amounts to about 10,000 words. Below, I have republished (with some embellishment) the omnibus I created last year on this wonderful topic. But first, some background.

Perhaps I jumped too quickly into the details. Ottoneu is the award-eligible* fantasy platform hosted by FanGraphs. Think of it as dynasty-lite. You get a 40-man roster, a $400 payroll, and way too much freedom to manage your team your way.

Over the offseason, the price of every major league player increases by $2. Minor leaguers increase by $1. Then there is an arbitration process that can be done one of two ways. Most leagues use the allocation process which ultimately adds an additional $11 to $33 per team. This omnibus is dedicated to both forms of arbitration, but the allocation process does open more possibilities for strategery and thus has more words dedicated to it.

As I mentioned, there are two systems of arbitration: voting and allocation. An asterisk indicates that the article is intending for voting leagues. I’ve organized the omnibus into sections: intro, intermediate, and advanced.

*This particular asterisk does not indicate an article about voting leagues. I’m just noting that I can’t claim credit for this wonderful phrase.

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Ottoneu Mondays return. Last offseason, I covered an ottoneu related topic on most Mondays. We’ll continue the tradition this offseason. Do look for more ottoneu content from Chad Young too.

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One of the more unique parts of the ottoneu format is the arbitration process. It has a huge impact on the entire off-season (as it should), but far too often owners allow arbitration to cast a shadow on the regular season.

Owners considering acquisitions, particularly via trade, worry about what will happen to the player in the off-season arbitration process, rather than focusing on the player’s immediate value. When you do this, you are just hurting yourself.

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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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