ottoneu Arbitration Results

ottoneu arbitration came to an end last weekend, with more than 25,000 allocations totaling more than $35,000 handed out to nearly 450 MLB and MiLB players. The results, as always are occasionally interesting, often expected and sometimes surprising.

You probably won’t be surprised, for example, to find out that Carlos Correa received the most arbitration dollars, but you might be surprised that Mike Trout and Joey Votto – neither of whom were particularly cheap in most leagues, were among the 35 leading targets.

Total Dollars Allocated by Player

Player	Dollars Allocated	Total Allocations	Average Dollars per Allocation
Carlos Correa	1396	755	1.85
Kris Bryant	1359	786	1.73
Jake Arrieta	1273	751	1.70
Josh Donaldson	1197	701	1.71
Nolan Arenado	1138	683	1.67
Jacob DeGrom	1049	661	1.59
Bryce Harper	966	572	1.69
Dallas Keuchel	961	631	1.52
Manuel Machado	907	585	1.55
Christopher Archer	793	565	1.40
A.J. Pollock	783	515	1.52
Kyle Schwarber	761	490	1.55
Noah Syndergaard	748	534	1.40
Anthony Rizzo	628	425	1.48
Mookie Betts	626	432	1.45
Miguel Sano	616	415	1.48
Paul Goldschmidt	570	377	1.51
J.D. Martinez	546	394	1.39
Gerrit Cole	509	378	1.35
Matt Harvey	460	327	1.41
Corey Seager	455	318	1.43
Corey Kluber	428	314	1.36
Sonny Gray	395	304	1.30
Lorenzo Cain	378	293	1.29
Max Scherzer	370	267	1.39
Carlos Carrasco	367	289	1.27
Zack Greinke	362	242	1.50
George Springer	360	270	1.33
Todd Frazier	351	267	1.31
Francisco Lindor	350	265	1.32
Jose Fernandez	338	244	1.39
Xander Bogaerts	332	245	1.36
Joey Votto	324	236	1.37
Mike Trout	308	186	1.66
Chris Davis	300	221	1.36

That is a table of the 35 players who received $300 or more across all leagues. A couple names jumped out at me. Trout and Votto, I already mentioned, but there are a couple more. I’m surprised how many players in here likely were NOT cheap already – Rizzo, Goldschmidt, Scherzer, Greinke are all pretty pricey in my leagues. I was also surprised to see Corey Seager make the list. His AAA numbers were more good than great, though they would certainly play for a SS, and he didn’t really have enough MLB time to prove himself – but it seems the ottoneu owners are not waiting to drive up his price.

A couple players mentioned above – Trout and Greinke – stand out for another reason. While they are not right at the top of the list (34th and 27th in dollars, respectively), they were 7th and 13th in dollars per allocation. It seems that they were not popular targets, per se, but had the “biggest fans.” The relatively low number of owners who targeted them hit them hard.

1,757 total teams were allocated to, out of which 31 (1.8%) were hit with the max possible $33. 145 teams (8.3%) were hit with $30 or more. That means that, on average, one team per league was hit with $30+ and one team out of every six leagues was hit with $33. This includes some leagues that didn’t have all owners allocate, so if your league had full participation, your chances of getting hit were a bit higher.

How about some really random stats? Seven players were hit with only one allocation across the entire universe – but were hit for the full $3 with that one allocation. Four seem like joke allocations or perhaps a result of collusion (J.D. Davis, Jeremy Jeffress, Mark Trumbo, and Seth Maness), but three – Alex Guerrero, Chase Utley, and Raimel Tapia – are likely the result of one owner who really just wanted to take a swipe at them.

Among players with at least 10 total allocations, Correa lead the way with $1.85 per allocation, but Tyler Glasnow tied Bryant for second – 15 allocations for $26, or $1.73 per allocation).

By position, your leading targets were:

• C – Kyle Schwarber ($761 across 490 allocations)
• 1B – Anthony Rizzo ($628 across 425 allocations)
• 2B – Jose Altuve ($299 across 224)
• SS – Carlos Correa ($1396 across 755)
• 3B – Kris Bryant ($1359 across 786)
• OF – Bryce Harper ($966 across 572)
• SP – Jake Arrieta ($1273 across 751)
• RP – Wade Davis ($161 across 128)

And overall by position?

Total Dollars Allocated by Position

Position	Dollars Allocated	Number of Allocations
1B	2442	1763
2B	1649	1337
3B	5226	3327
C	1149	809
OF	7606	5551
RP	1163	946
SP	12120	8766
SS	4109	2702
Util	41	33

SP and OF clearly the largest, which makes sense since they take up nearly half the starting positions on a roster. 3B and SS the next two big dogs (thank you Correa and Bryant and Lindor and Arenado and Sano and so on).

No big take-aways here – but allocations are among my favorite part of ottoneu, so it’s fun to look closer.