Chad Young’s Ottoneu Points C Ranks

With auction season upon us, it’s time to start looking closer at positional rankings and auction targets. Throughout February, I’ll be sharing my positional rankings for Ottoneu, focused on points leagues. We’re starting today with catchers, but first a few notes on my methodology and what to expect.

Other Ottoneu Rankings: 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF|SP

I am focusing on points leagues because those are the most common and most unique Ottoneu format. Plus, the two points formats (FanGraphs Points and SABR Points) use the same scoring for offense, so the non-pitcher rankings are the same for both. If you are playing 4×4, you can pretty much use these rankings. While 4×4 is not weighted the same as the points leagues, the things it values (getting on base, extra-base hits, power) are mostly the same. Both also value early lineup spots (4×4 because of increased opportunities to score runs, points because more PA means more chances to put up points).

If you are playing 5×5, you can use Justin Mason’s or Paul Sporer’s rankings to look as a baseline. Those are for re-draft 5×5, but both add great notes that will help you identify players with upside who may have keeper value. My ranks will also show you were I put top prospects and likely callups, which should help for long-term planning, regardless of scoring system.

To do these rankings, I start with each player’s points per game (P/G) based on Depth Charts projections. I pulled these projections when I started this process, and projections change over time, so some of the numbers you see in the tables may have changed. It’s worth going back to look at a guy’s projections more closely, especially if he has signed a contract, been traded, etc., in the last couple weeks.

While I start with P/G, you’ll notice that the order is not a pure P/G rank. There are a few factors that can move players around:

1. Playing time – a backup like Willians Astudillo might project for more P/G than most others (and he does!) but if he doesn’t have a clear path to regular playing time, that doesn’t help you much.
2. Future value – Specifically, future value at this position. If a guy is older, close to retirement, or likely to lose positional eligibility, his value will decrease. If he’s younger and has a lot of upside, he’ll rank higher than he otherwise would.
3. My own adjustments – Sometimes I just don’t fully agree with the projections. I like Travis d’Arnaud and Austin Nola more than the projections do, relative to other catchers. I like Yan Gomes less. So they move.

It’s also important to note that I am looking just at one position at a time. That doesn’t matter much for C, where there isn’t much additional value for guys being eligible at other spots. But it will matter when we look at 1B. For example, Isiah Kiner-Falefa gets a bonus in the C ranks because he will play far more than any other C this year, but he does not get a bonus for being a SS. Similarly, when we get to 1B, Yasmani Grandal will be ranked as a 1B and the fact that he is also C-eligible won’t be a factor in my ranking.

I am not looking at value vs. cost here. I am not ranking guys higher because they cost less or are easier to add, nor am I ranking them lower because they are too expensive.

Lastly, don’t over-index on ranks within the tiers. If you like d’Arnaud better than Salvador Perez or Christian Vazquez better than Sean Murphy, that’s totally reasonable.

With that, here are my C rankings for Ottoneu points leagues.