In November I used the Prospect Scorecard to take an early look at the top 100 fantasy prospects for both Roto leagues and Ottoneu’s wOBA-heavy FanGraphs Points leagues.  In February I also added a quick fantasy spin on Eric and Kiley’s great preseason work ranking the top 100 prospects in baseball. Later this summer (July) I’ll update the top 100 for fantasy purposes, but today I want to briefly check in on a number of prospects that I think are rising (⬆) or falling (⬇) in value for various reasons in 2018.

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Saying that Dan Vogelbach is on the verge of fantasy relevance takes some storytelling cues from “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Back in 2016, it seemed like only a matter of time until Vogey was a regular fantasy contributor. In the first half of 2016, Vogelbach hit .318/.425/.548 in Triple-A Iowa, with 16 homers and 18 doubles in 89 games. However, with Anthony Rizzo entrenched at first base, Vogey didn’t seem to have a role with the Cubs, so they dealt him to Seattle in exchange for Mike Montgomery.

Mostly because of his poor defense — but certainly also due in part to his non-athletic body — Vogelbach was never a darling of top prospect lists, but for fantasy purposes he seemed like a relatively sure thing for production in Seattle. As it turned out, he slowed down a bit after joining the Mariners system, hitting .240/.404/.422 over the final 44 games of 2016, and with Adam Lind performing at an okay-ish rate for the major-league club, it seemed Vogey would have to wait until 2017 to strut his chubby stuff in the big leagues.

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The AL East is loaded with talent at both the big league and minor league levels. And the minor league talent is well-distributed throughout each club’s system from top to bottom. Most clubs, with Boston potentially being the anomaly, could receive significant impacts from their systems in 2018.

Previous Reviews:
AL West Top 10s
NL West Top 10s
NL Central Top 10s
AL Central Top 10s
NL East Top 10s

2018 Arrivals:
4. Jake Bauers | 1B/OF | 2018 Level: AAA
5. Willy Adames | 3B | 2018 Level: AAA
9. Justin Williams | OF | 2018 Level: AAA

2019 Arrivals:
1. Brent Honeywell | SP | 2018 Level: Injured
7. Nick Solak | 2B | 2018 Level: AA

2020 and Beyond:
2. Brendan McKay | 1B/SP | 2018 Level: A
3. Jesus Sanchez | OF | 2018 Level: A+
6. Joshua Lowe | OF | 2018 Level: A+
8. Lucius Fox | SS | 2018 Level: A+
10. Austin Franklin | SP | 2018 Level: A

Other Names to Know:
Sleeper: Ronaldo Hernandez, C
Beyond the Top 10 Help in 2018: Yonny Chirinos, SP

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One of the great things about Ottoneu is the high level of engagement by the growing community of owners.  Few topics get the masses talking more than crowd-sourcing feedback on recent league trades, so today I want to highlight a few of the more interesting trades I’ve seen recently to get a pulse on how some player values are already shifting early this season.

As a quick reminder, Ottoneu is a keeper system by design that shifts the balance just short of traditional dynasty leagues, and offers a variety of scoring systems (including H2H this year).

Few players have seen their value shift as wildly as Shohei Ohtani over the past few weeks.  What he’s managed to do to start the season with both the bat (1.286 OPS) and off the mound (97.8 mph fastball) has at least verified that he’s as talented as the world thought he was, but the fact that he now looks less raw than he did just a few weeks ago in spring training tells you everything you need to know about the upward trajectory of his value in fantasy baseball leagues.  If you don’t happen to own Ohtani already, he’s going to be one of the hardest players in the game to acquire over the next 30 days.  He’s young, exciting, and just for the cool factor of clicking between batting and pitching stats on his FanGraphs page makes him the hottest commodity in the game right now, especially if you have the flexibility of slotting him into your daily lineup or your rotation like Ottoneu provides.

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The NL East features the best minor league system in the game in the Atlanta Braves. And it also has one of the worst with the New York Mets. The remainder of the teams in the division fall somewhere in between — although the Nationals could surprise some people with the depth that’s beginning to develop.

Things drop off really quickly for me after the first two prospects on this list.

2018 Arrivals:
7. Chris Flexen | SP | 2018 Level: AAA
10. Corey Oswalt | SP | 2018 Level: AAA

2019 Arrivals:
1. David Peterson | SP | 2018 Level: A+
2. Peter Alonso | 1B | 2018 Level: AA
5. Justin Dunn | SP | 2018 Level: AA
6. Marcos Molina | SP | 2018 Level: AA

2020 and Beyond:
3. Andres Gimenez | SS | 2018 Level: A+
4. Mark Vientos | 3B | 2018 Level: A
8. Ronny Mauricio | SS | 2018 Level: R
9. Thomas Szapucki | SP | 2018 Level: Injured

Other Names to Know:
Sleeper: Gerson Bautista, RP
Beyond the Top 10 Help in 2018: Tomas Nido, C

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Last week I wrote about a few lesser known opportunities within Ottoneu to maximize salary cap space, which is important to understand before your fantasy season begins.  However, by the time you read this post the fantasy season will have already begun, so I want to focus your attention today on strategies that will help you in-season as you attempt to squeeze every bit of value out of your team during what is sure to be a long but very fun Ottoneu season.

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We continue our six-part look at the Top 10 prospects (by division) with the National League Central.

Previous Reviews:
AL West Top 10s
NL West Top 10s
AL Central Top 10s

The Pirates feature an organization that has nice balance, although the majority of its top prospects are nearing the MLB.

2018 Arrivals:
1. Mitch Keller | SP | 2018 Level: AA
2. Colin Moran | 3B | 2018 Level: AAA
4. Austin Meadows | CF | 2018 Level: AAA
8. Kevin Newman | IF | 2018 Level: AAA

2019 Arrivals:
3. Ke’Bryan Hayes | 3B | 2018 Level: AA
5. Cole Tucker | SS | 2018 Level: AA
10. Taylor Hearn | SP | 2018 Level: AA

2020 and Beyond:
6. Shane Baz | SP | 2018 Level: A-
7. Luis Escobar | SP | 2018 Level: A+
9. Lolo Sanchez | OF | 2018 Level: A-

Other Names to Know:
Sleeper: Calvin Mitchell, OF
Beyond the Top 10 Help in 2018: Nick Kingham, SP

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The American League Central doesn’t feature the strongest minor league systems but there are some interesting prospects littered throughout the teams.

Previous Reviews:
AL West Top 10s
NL West Top 10s

The Indians always find a way to develop players in house — and the current system has some interesting players — but it lacks depth overall.

2018 Arrivals:
1. Triston McKenzie | SP | 2018 Level: AA
2. Francisco Mejia | C/3B | 2018 Level: AAA
5. Bobby Bradley | 1B | 2018 Level: AAA
9. Eric Haase | C | 2018 Level: AAA

2019 Arrivals:
6. Shane Bieber | SP | 2018 Level: AA
7. Willi Castro | MIF | 2018 Level: AA

2020 and Beyond:
3. Nolan Jones | 3B | 2018 Level: A
4. Will Benson | CF | 2018 Level: A
8. Tyler Freeman | MIF | 2018 Level: A-
10. Johnathan Rodriguez | RF | 2018 Level: A-

Other Names to Know:
Sleeper: Sam Hentges, SP
Beyond the Top 10 Help in 2018: Greg Allen, OF

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Ottoneu auction leagues are drafting furiously to finalize rosters prior to the start of the regular season. Earlier this week Justin touched on the best way to build out a roster. Head-to-head is also coming to Ottoneu in 2018. The Ottoneu community is buzzing with prospect junkies and interested owners looking to join new leagues.

Needless to say, Ottoneu is now in full swing, so if you’re still on the fence about trying out the game this year, now is the perfect time to jump in with both feet. With so much activity in March, most of our Ottoneu content is geared toward helping new owners learn the basics of the game. However, today I want to detour and offer a few tricks of the trade that veteran owners have figured out over time that might benefit those who are trying to take their Ottoneu game to the next level this season.

Trading for players you intend to cut…for cap space.

No matter how good your pre-auction plan, it’s not all that uncommon to exit an Ottoneu draft with less cash that you had hoped to save for future transactions. While a good rule of thumb is to keep about $10 in cap space, it’s easier said than done when some of the better bargains find their way into your hands at the end of a long draft night. What do you do when you’re up against a tight salary cap to start the season?

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We kicked off this six-part series last week with the American League West Top 10 Prospect Lists. Today, we take a look at the National League West, which includes a couple of really intriguing systems with the Colorado Rockies and, especially, the San Diego Padres (and the Dodgers aren’t bad either).

Previous Editions:
American League West Top 10s

The Giants seem to develop prospects with a philosophy of quality over quantity. The organization never has the deepest system but it always manages to develop big leaguers — many of who have significant impacts in The Show. Years of strong performances at the big league level (2017 being an exception) also kept the club from having high draft picks.

2018 Arrivals:
3. Austin Slater | OF | 2018 Level: AAA
4. Aramis Garcia | C | 2018 Level: AA
5. Chris Shaw | 1B/LF | 2018 Level: AAA
7. Andrew Suarez | SP | 2018 Level: AAA
8. Tyler Beede | SP | 2018 Level: AAA
2. Shaun Anderson | SP | 2018 Level: AA
10. Steven Duggar | OF | 2018 Level: AAA

2019 Arrivals:
6. Garrett Williams | SP | 2018 Level: A+

2020 and Beyond:
1. Heliot Ramos | OF | 2018 Level: A-
9. Jacob Gonzalez | 3B | 2018 Level: A

Other Names to Know:
Sleeper: Gregory Santos, SP
Beyond the Top 10 Help in 2018: Reyes Moronta, RP

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