Ottoneu Domination: It’s A Perm

The FanGraphs in-house league drafted last week, and 60 cans of PBR and Tecate into the Arizona dawn, we were mostly finished. My domination – though assured – will be even sweeter against competition like the FanGraphs staff. Despite the danger of putting the cart before the horse, I’ll call PBR the champagne of beers and crack one open for myself.

Well, maybe. I tend to be a little bipolar with my fantasy teams. It’s either all good or all terrible. Tell me what you think.

12-Team Ottoneu LWTS Points
It’s A Perm
C Geovany Soto $26
C Ryan Doumit $1
1B Adam Dunn $41
2B Dan Uggla $31
SS Stephen Drew $25
3B Aramis Ramirez $13
MI Jed Lowrie $8
OF Nelson Cruz $27
OF Carlos Quentin $19
OF Jason Bay $10
OF Josh Willingham $9
OF Austin Jackson $4
Util Ryan Howard $27
BN Matt Joyce $7
BN Freddie Freeman $5
BN Grant Green $3
BN Ryan Kalish $3
BN Derek Norris $1
BN Nick Franklin $1
BN Mark Ellis $1
BN Alex Avila $1
BN Ryan Spilborghs $1

SP Francisco Liriano $24
SP Yovani Gallardo $23
SP Colby Lewis $13
SP Jaime Garcia $9
SP Trevor Cahill $4
RP Brian Wilson $13
RP Carlos Marmol $8
RP Jonathan Papelbon $8
RP Francisco Rodriguez $5
RP Hisanori Takahashi $1
BN Michael Pineda $8
BN Jarrod Parker $3
BN Tyler Skaggs $1
BN Jarred Cosart $1
BN Casey Kelly $1
BN Javier Vazquez $1
BN Marc Rzepcynski $1
$390 spent out of $400 total budget

Good thing this isn’t scoresheet, since I put together a roster of slow-footed bad glovers. Hopefully the linear weights structure will reward my high walk-rate team. It’s definitely one of the older rosters in the league, but oldies are often undervalued in keeper leagues. Someone’s got to win the first year, though, and it’s not like I didn’t end up with some high-end young talent.

Picking up Ryan Howard was an afterthought based on the belief that our sabre-distaste of the player had gone too far and he was actually a value at that price. I followed that strategy some with the Trevor Cahill and Austin Jackson acquisitions. Sometimes you have to zig while others are zagging even if it means picking up flawed players? Not sure how well it will go, but I feel pretty sure that the money I spent on those three players will provide modest returns. Medium-risk work for medium-level potential rewards.

At the end of my roster, the dollar players are a little uneven, but intentionally so. Since our rosters are so deep, I did double up some positions with low-upside veterans that should get playing time. I also spent almost all of my FAAB budget since so many players will be owned and I don’t anticipate this league being won on the waiver wire. So I don’t think Alex Avila, Mark Ellis and Ryan Spilborghs are going to be great players, and I don’t need them to be. I just need to be able to use them to make sure I use up all my max innings and games.

The dollar prospects are hard to hate on since they represent such a small amount of risk. I did avoid paying double-digit prices for prospects, even as Matt Klaasen went oppo on that strategy by paying big for Jesus Montero ($9), Wil Myers ($9), Brandon Belt ($8), Dustin Ackley ($7), Mike Moustakas ($6), Eric Hosmer ($4), Jason Kipnis ($4) and Lonnie Chisenhall ($4). So yeah, he’s got better youth. We’ll see how the ‘present talent’ portion of the rosters match up though.

For a free team-year of ottoneu baseball, make a good argument for my best & worst picks, factoring in both long- and short-term needs. Bring it! It’s a linear-weights-based points system and you can read more about it here and here. Think FIP (with a little saves and holds built in) and wOBA.