The Best (ottoneu) Team Money Can Buy

I was feeling pretty good about the 17,377.6 points my She’s Just Not that Shin-Soo Choo squad put up to win the FanGraphs Staff League, especially after predicting that a strong finish would carry my team to the top of the table.

And then I started looking around at other leagues and saw many champs up over 18K or even 19K (no one over 20K so far as I have seen) and it got me wondering – if an owner REALLY played their cards right, what was the best team money could buy?

I set out to answer this question following a few simple rules:
1) I have to pay every player their average 2012 salary across all ottoneu points leagues, as of the end of the year
2) I have to follow ottoneu roster rules, including a salary figure that is below $400 and leaves me enough room to fill out the roster (so I can’t sign 22 guys for my full $400)
3) I max out innings pitched and games played using players positional eligibility as of the end of 2012

With that in mind, here is the best team money can buy (I think):

Pos	Player	GP/IP	Salary	Points
C	Buster Posey	148	$25	1023
1B	Edwin Encarnacion	151	$4	1075
2B	Robinson Cano	161	$42	1120
SS	Ben Zobrist	157	$23	928
MI	Aaron Hill	156	$3	1008
3B	Chase Headley	161	$3	1043
OF	Ryan Braun	154	$45	1238
OF	Mike Trout	139	$15	1164
OF	Andrew McCutchen	157	$34	1133
OF	Alex Gordon	161	$19	957
OF	Adam Jones	162	$12	967
Util	Adrian Beltre	156	$23	1053
BE	Yadier Molina	26	$7	158
BE	Ian Desmond	12	$4	73
BE	Alex Rios	43	$3	255
			Pts/Game	6.79
SP	Justin Verlander	238.1	$39	1312
SP	Johnny Cueto	217	$6	1045
SP	David Price	211	$28	1133
SP	R.A. Dickey	233.2	$3	1202
SP	Gio Gonzalez	199.1	$14	1146
SP	Jake Peavy	37.2	$3	173
RP	Aroldis Chapman	71.2	$7	764
RP	Fernando Rodney	74.2	$2	751
RP	Craig Kimbrel	62.2	$13	747
RP	Grant Balfour	74.2	$4	630
RP	Tom Wilhelmsen	79.1	$2	624
			Pts/IP	6.35
	Total Points	22,722
	Total Salary	$383
	Roster Spots Used	26

Not too shabby – closing in on 23,000 points, and with 14 roster spots left to fill with prospects or other cheap players to help get this roster ready for 2013. A few notes on decisions I made.

First, I looked at players sorted by total points, not points per game – my guess is you would pick some different players if you did this on a Pt/G (or Pt/IP) basis. Allen Craig jumps to mind as a guy who probably belongs in this roster, at his price ($3 on average), but who didn’t make the list due to games missed.

To fill out my games played, I assumed that Molina would play 26 games at C, letting Posey play 12 at 1B, which in turn let Encarnacion play one at 3B, effectively filling out those three spots. Desmond played six games at SS and six at MI with Zobrist playing one at 2B. And Rios played the remaining six games at Util and 37 games at OF.

The premier fantasy hitter this year was Miguel Cabrera, who edged Braun’s 1238 points with 1267 of his own. But at $51 and with Encarnacion, Headley, and Beltre locking down the corners/Util for less than that TOTAL…well, I just couldn’t justify the expense. Maybe there is a better lineup out there with Miggy instead of Beltre and a cheaper MI instead of Cano.

Other tough exclusions on offense included Austin Jackson (855 points for $5), Billy Butler (1016 points for $18), Josh Willingham (929 points for $7), and Martin Prado (878 points and endless positional eligibility for $9). Other big scorers who missed the cut included Matt Holliday (1010 for $32) and Josh Hamilton (1037 for $31).

The hardest pitcher to cut was probably James Shields, who accrued 1072 points for $18. The biggest earners to be cut were Felix Hernandez (1243 points for $41) and Clayton Kershaw ($1297 for $38).

Let’s have some fun in the comments – who can come up with a lineup that outscores this one? Average Prices are available here, but keep in mind that all those prices went up $2 this week. I rounded the prices to the nearest dollar (up from $X.50+, down from $X.49-) and then subtracted $2 to get 2012 prices. Sortable stats can be found here or by clicking the “Sortable Stats” tab on an ottoneu league page.

I fully expect someone to outdo my 22,722 points – have at it!