Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as an early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Jameson Taillon (RHP): If there is one thing the Pirates do really, really well… it’s developing pitching. The hard-throwing Taillon joined Gerrit Cole in the big league rotation in 2016 and didn’t look out of place. He pitched to a 3.38 ERA in 104 innings while showing otherworldly control for his age with just under 1.5 walks per nine innings. Like Cole, Taillon can dial his heater up into the upper 90s but he doesn’t chase strikeouts. His strikeout rate was a decent — but hardly elite — 7.36 K/9 but his ground-ball rate of 52% was above the league average. It’s quite likely that the K-rate will climb as Taillon matures as a pitcher and further sharpens his command. He needs a better weapon against left-handed batters when you consider his K/BB splits (9.60 vs RHHs, 3.08 vs LHHs). As it stands, he’ll be the No. 2 starter on the club.

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As we close out 2016, we’re nearing that point in time where we look forward to what the future holds and then solidify commitments about changes we plan to make.  From a fantasy perspective, there are few things to look forward to more than the annual Ottoneu auction, so whether you’re anxiously anticipating your very first or are committed to improving upon your second or tenth, preparation is everything.  As in life, you rarely get the chance to make a second first impression, so recovering from a poor draft can be a challenge that plagues you all season long.  

I covered the mechanics (many of which have since been upgraded) of the Ottoneu auction last year here.  We’re still roughly one month from the keeper deadline (1/31), but today I want to offer some practical suggestions (especially for those new to the game) for how to begin preparing for your auction draft.  If you’re thinking about playing Ottoneu for the first time in 2017, leagues are forming daily here and here.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Aledmys Diaz (SS): Diaz came out of nowhere to limit the impact of the loss of injured veteran Jhonny Peralta in 2016. The freshman hit .300 and produced more power than expected (17 homers). The middle infielder doesn’t look like a one-hit wonder or fluke, either. Along with the ability to hit for average, he produced above-average pop while striking out at a low rate (13%) and showed a willingness to take a free pass. Diaz’s defence was worse than expected at shortstop but he’s earned the opportunity to prove himself capable during the 2017 season.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Jose Peraza (UTL): The Reds didn’t have a lot of luck with rookies in 2016 but Peraza showed well in 72 games while spending time in the middle infield and the outfield. Despite his decent performance, he doesn’t have a clear shot at a starting gig in 2017 unless the Reds can find a taker for veteran second baseman Brandon Phillips – or one of their inexperienced outfielders struggles in the spring. Peraza, 22, hit more than .320 as a rookie and also stole more than 20 bases. Unfortunately, he was also caught stealing 10 times and walked less than 3% of the time. With some polish, the young athlete has impact potential in both the field and on the base paths although he needs to be more patient and get on base more consistently without putting all the pressure on his contact rate.

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Jon Gray.  Alex Bregman.  Michael Fulmer.  Edwin Diaz.  Yoan Moncada.  Willson Contreras.  Josh Bell.  Blake Snell.

The young players listed above are hot commodities right now in keeper leagues like Ottoneu. These players are the building blocks of hope for many eager fantasy owners looking to turn the corner from rebuilding to contention over the next season or two.  Each of these players were also well outside the top 50 prospects listed in Chris Mitchell’s KATOH Top 100 prospect ranking posted almost oneyear ago.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Joe Biagini (RHP): A Rule 5 draft pick from the Giants last winter, Biagini narrowly snuck onto the team at the end of spring training. Within a couple of months, though, he began pitching in more and more meaningful games — becoming one of Manager John Gibbons’ most trusted relievers by the end of the season. The organization feels that Biagini’s stuff would play well in the starting rotation and has considered sending him back to the minors to work him out as a starter in 2017 but reliever values are at an all-time high this winter so the Jays may be hard pressed to find enough depth that make that move a reality.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Heath Hembree (RHP): The Red Sox leaned heavily on a veteran roster in 2016. Freshman Andrew Benintendi didn’t play enough to graduate from his rookie status so that leaves us with Hembree. The right-handed reliever didn’t pitch a lot of important innings but he gained some valuable experience, produced respectable numbers and soaked up innings — 51 in 38 games — despite being more of a one-inning guy in the minors. Hembree, 27, can hit 94-95 mph with his heater and the slider showed potential so his role could continue to expand in ’17. For that to happen, though, the fastball command will need to improve and he’ll also be at the mercy of future offseason moves as the club looks to improve its bullpen.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Gary Sanchez (C): The 23-year-old Sanchez needed just 53 games to convince the Yankees to go all in and send veteran catcher Brian McCann packing. The ball absolutely screams off the rookie’ bat and he slugged 20 home runs in his debut — en route to a 1.032 OPS. He struck out a lot (25%) and saw his numbers dip noticeably during his second month of his debut leading to some questions: Was the league beginning to adjust to him, or was he just tiring after never playing into September in the past? Still, he projects as an above-average hitter and has improved his defence significantly — making him a must-have in keeper leagues (and all other leagues, for the matter). Sanchez should open 2017 with some pretty hefty expectations and it will be interesting to see if he can live up to them.

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Welcome to the annual series that provides both a review of your favorite teams’ 2016 season, as well as a early look toward 2017. It also serves as a helpful guide for keeper and dynasty leagues.

The Graduate: Blake Snell (LHP): Control has been Snell’s nemesis throughout his career — save for 2015 — and it came back to haunt him during his MLB debut in 2016. His 3.54 ERA was impressive — and speaks to his raw potential — when you consider his walk rate of more than five batters per nine innings. He’ll also need to better leverage his 6-4 frame to generate more ground balls after being an extreme-fly-ball pitcher in the AL East. Still, Snell succeeds by missing a lot of bats and his struck out almost 10 batters per nine innings in his freshman season. With improved command of his low-to-mis-90s fastball and slider, the young hurler could eventually develop four average or better offerings (He also has a curveball and changeup).

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For those following along, Ottoneu is at it’s busiest during these winter months leading up to the start of the next baseball season.  It’s designed that way, and the year-round activity of Ottoneu is one of the features that help set it apart from other fantasy platforms.  As Joe mentioned recently, there are plenty of reasons why you should give Ottoneu a chance this year, but today I want to assume you’ve already seen the light and are ready to sign up.  So, what’s next? Here are a few practical ways to get started once you plug into this great game.

Select Your Game Type

First things first: you’ll need to decide which scoring format suits your interest. Ottoneu offers a nice range of scoring options that include:

Classic: This is rotisserie-style 5 x 5 built into the basic foundation of Ottoneu, which (like all formats) includes 40 man rosters, $400 salary caps, daily lineups, off-season arbitration, and auction-style economics.  If you’ve been playing traditional Roto for years and have interest in Ottoneu, this is a great place to start.

Old School: This is considered the original Ottoneu  (4 x 4) format, and was designed with a sabermetric bent and geared toward power hitters and power pitchers (OBP, SLG, HR, R and ERA, WHIP, HR/9, K).  You can find an example of 4 x 4 standings here.

SABR & FanGraphs Points: Based on linear weights scoring, these two sabermetrically-inclined options are very popular, and it isn’t uncommon to see owners playing in multiple points leagues. Tons of resources and tools are available if you decide to try your hand in one of these advanced scoring leagues.  Standings for a points league look like this.

New: Head to Head is coming to Ottoneu in 2018!

ICYMI, head-to-head will be an option in @ottoneuBaseball in 2018. https://t.co/UsTO21a9kE

— Ottoneu Fantasy Sports (@Ottoneu) December 18, 2017

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