Ottoneu: Using the Roster Organizer

Fellow league mate: Are you interested in J-Ram?

Me: Yes, of course. J-Ram rules!

With the cut deadline looming (January 31st, 11:59 PM) many Ottoneu managers are probably in similar situations. Rather than cutting players to slim down maxed-out budgets, some are looking to make trades that will bring back the players they want without having to compete at the auction. This is one of the many beauties of Ottoneu. As all other fantasy leaguers are only focused on drafting, Ottoneu managers can wheel and deal all through the winter.  This article will detail a few ways the player organizer can be useful when analyzing your team going into the keeper deadline.

My first instinct when someone offers me an elite, first-round, player like José Ramírez is:

But then I say to myself, “Pump the brakes, Kelly, let’s be analytical about this.” So I head over to my roster organizer and take a look at what this will do to my overall budget, my roster availability, and my general team vibe. But, I can’t get there unless my team is already organized. Let’s start there.

NOTE: To get to the “Roster Organizer” all you have to do is click on your team at the top of your league page. At this point in the season, you are directed straight to the organizer.

Cuts
Once you drop all your players down into the “cut” designation, your budget will adjust accordingly. Don’t worry, the cuts won’t be made. You’ll have to do that on your own by clicking over to the “Cut Players” sub-tab, which is directly next to the “Roster Organizer” tab under your team. Once you do that all the players you’re expecting to cut will be highlighted in red making it much easier to make your cuts all at once. Now you know who you’re cutting and how that will affect your budget. Maybe you like to cut one player at a time, inducing a slow burn into every league-mate email inbox, but you can also just cut all your players with one click in the “Cut Players” tab.

Minors
This one is easy but very important. Move all the players you don’t expect to be up in the big leagues on day one into the “Minors” section. This simply helps you see what positions are solid and what positions you’ll need to focus on going into the draft.

Trades
Now you’re organized and can more easily analyze a trade. Take the players you would give up into the “Trade” section and manually input the players you will be receiving into empty roster slots. You’ll notice that empty roster spots have a “Click to add target” option and the following pops up once you click:

Now, add the player, in my case José Ramírez, theoretically to your squad and take a look at how it all shapes out. How does the trade affect your budget? What does that mean for you going into the draft? Do you have too many or too little of one position? In the case of José Ramírez, I would have two full-time third basemen. That’s not a huge deal because I can roll one out in the UTIL spot, but it does limit my roster flexibility. It’s still a viable option. With J-Ram on the squad, I would have around $100 going into the draft and would need to fill out a lot of SP/RP spots and a few OF spots. Now, I can input player targets, or I can input general allocations such as “OF1, $15”, and “OF2, $20”. Again, my budget will be adjusted accordingly. This is an excellent exercise because it gives a manager a sense of what their team truly looks like should they accept a trade.

Draft Targets
Maybe you aren’t being offered a trade. Maybe you’re just waiting for the draft to be scheduled. Once February 1st comes along, you’ll be able to see all the players available for drafting. You can now put specific targets on your roster organizer and play with dollar amounts you’d be willing to allocate. It’s a simple way to prepare yourself for your draft.

In the end, I chose not to accept the trade for José Ramírez for several reasons. It was a nice offer and one that I may regret not taking. But, it was the Roster Organizer that helped me come to my decision. I’ll take what I have into the draft and hope to get some star quality by bidding late into the night. Isn’t that what it’s really all about? Oranize your roster with this nice built in tool and you’ll be better prepared for your draft.