The Saga of Ottoneu Rule 1a

Each team shall during the regular season maintain a roster of 22 major-league players that can fill out a starting lineup as defined below. The remaining 18 roster spots can be used for reserves, consisting of both major and minor leaguers.

That is the text of the very first rule on the Ottoneu Rules page and it is also probably the most debated text passage in all of the Ottoneu universe. And yet, I am not sure we have ever discussed why it’s so hotly debated or what you can or should do about it. Today we address Rule 1a.

The topic of Rule 1a can be broken into three sections:

1. Why does it exist?
2. Why does it inspire debate?
3. What should you do about it?

Why Does Rule 1a Exist?

Rule 1a exists because Ottoneu is, as much as anything, an economic system built on a set of assumptions around how teams are built, intended to at least somewhat mimic the job of a real MLB General Manager. So, like a real GM, manager of Ottoneu teams are required to manage their rosters within certain restrictions.

Some of these are focused on roster-building – you have a budget that you can’t go over. You are limited to 40 players. You can expand your 40-man roster if players are on the 60-day IL

Some are focused on lineup-building – you get five OF. You have a MI spot and a util spot but not CI spot. You can play two C (in season-long points and roto leagues) but you can’t go over 162 games at the position.

Rule 1a bridges that gap. Effectively what it says is that, like a real MLB team, you need to actually be able to play the games. The A’s are in the middle of a rebuild, but they still have to trot out a lineup every night with eight position players, one DH, and a SP, and they need to carry the other 16 players necessary to have a bench, have a bullpen, and start the next few games, as well. They have a lot of flex with how they balance those 26 spot, but they need to have some player they are comfortable putting at SS or 1B or RF every single night.

In practice that means they need MLB-ready players, even if they aren’t very good. They can’t just stash a 40-man roster full of 40 prospects that aren’t MLB-ready because they would be forced to throw some of those players into the fire, potentially negatively impacting the player’s development and the team’s long-term interest. And they can’t just not field a lineup – they have to go out there and play.

Ottoneu basically puts the same expectations on managers. You need to field an MLB team. This matters for competitive reasons and economic reasons. In head-to-head leagues, the need to field a lineup for competitive reasons is pretty straight-forward: like the A’s you are playing a game every week and you need to have a team on the field because just forfeiting creates an unfair advantage for the team you are matched up against.

In season-long leagues, though, there is still a competitive issue. Each night, MLB teams start (assuming all teams are playing) 90 OF; Ottoneu leagues start 60. MLB teams start 60 MI; Ottoneu teams start 36. Those ratios impact the depth of a league. If a couple of teams are punting 2023 and chose to carry fewer MLB OF or MI, the rest of the league now has more talent to choose from. Replacement level is effectively higher. Building a roster becomes a little easier and teams that are struggling at OF or MI are given a boost relative to everyone else, because they have more options to try to find an upgrade.

The economics follow from that, as well. Player salaries are based on a market that assumes a certain number of MLB players will be paid and rostered. If fewer MLB players are rostered, replacement level increases and player salaries change. This can have long-lasting implications if a league goes through a chunk of a regular season with players being more easily replaced.

In an extreme example, imagine only two teams are contending and no one else is using MLB players (yes, I said an extreme example). The 5th best 1B would be dirt cheap – the two teams can only use four 1B between them. This would make the top 1B far more expensive than he would otherwise be. If you want to budget $75 for two 1B, you can suddenly drop $74 on your first choice and just pick up whoever for $1, because “whoever” will be a stud.

This can play out, writ small, if teams are not capable of filling out their lineups.

Why Does it Inspire Debate?

Part of the debate is about how important the rule is. While I laid out above why I think the rule is important for protecting competitive balance and the economics of the game, other managers feel it just doesn’t matter. If a team wants to tear it down to the studs and roster 40 prospects, let them. Especially in a season-long league, who cares if a last-place team stops accruing points? And the economic impacts will likely be small, right?

As noted above, I think the competitive and economic impacts matter, but I understand that not everyone agrees.

Another issue is that “maintain a roster of 22 major-league players that can fill out a starting lineup” allows for some interpretation. Is a player on the IL a “major-league player that can fill out a starting lineup?” Is having five relievers a requirement, given that we know MLB teams can very the size of their bullpens and could move SP to the pen as needed?

Another chunk of the debate is that Ottoneu does not automatically enforce this rule. The $400 salary cap and 40-man roster limit are enforced systematically by locking out managers who are over those caps until they make the necessary cuts. The 162-game caps in season-long leagues are enforced by preventing managers from scoring points for a 163rd game.

This rule, however, is not enforced systematically. There are good reasons for this, most notably that it is hard to enforce automatically. You can’t lock a team out if they are violating the rule, because they need to be able to make moves to comply with the rule. Plus, given the open interpretation mentioned above, any automatic enforcement would need to enforce decisions on those points.

What Should You Do About It?

First, talk to your league, especially if it appears this is an issue. At the end of the day, every league can and should decide for themselves whether to and how to enforce this rule. The important thing is to be proactive about it and not wait until some team has 35 prospects to bring it up. Bring it up early and get alignment on a plan.

If someone in your league is currently in violation of this rule, address it directly but fairly. In FanGraphs Staff Leauge 1, we recently had a manager violating this rule and realized it had never been addressed. You can see on the message board how the discussion played out. The discussion was not about how to punish that person but determining if we, as a league, care about this rule and, if so, how we address this issue moving forward.

In that conversation, we answered a number of questions and your league should get aligned on these as well. Those questions (and my preferred answers) are outlined below:

1. Should we enforce this rule at all? I think the answer is yes, for all the reasons outlined above, but you need to decide for yourselves and it is perfectly valid to decide to just let it go. If you decide to let it go, you don’t have to look at the rest of the questions.
2. Do players on the IL count as able to fill out a lineup? My preferred approach is to allow players on the 10-day IL to count, but not players on the 60-day IL. What I want to avoid is making a team drop a player or a prospect to replace someone who is out for a week or two, and no more, due to a minor injury. Unfortunately, we can’t easily define or see a major vs. a minor injury, but the 10- vs. 60-day distinction helps with that and brings another benefit: Once a player is on the 60-day you can replace them without cutting someone. Under those circumstances, it’s fair to expect the manager to replace that player with someone who can fill their lineup spot. You could decide to count all players on the IL, or none, or make some other distinction, but that’s how I like to think about it.
3. What about demoted MLB players? For example, should Alek Manoah count as an MLB pitcher? My general thought is no, they should not. Part of this is that it is hard to reliably and consistently differentiate a guy going down for some quick work and a guy who may be down the rest of the year. Oscar Gonzalez was a pretty clear MLB player in March, but he’s now in Triple-A and it is unclear when he will be back. I don’t think he should count.
4. How many SP and RP do I need to carry? This I don’t have strong feelings about. I generally think you should have to carry 8-10 pitchers, but don’t care much if they are SP or RP. If you want to require five SP and five RP, cause that is the lineup, I get it. If you think SP matter but RP don’t, that is fine too.
5. How will you enforce the rule if someone is breaking it? That is one of the harder questions for me, but in my experience it is usually as simple as pointing it out – “hey manager, you don’t have an MLB MI – can you add one?” In my leagues, I like the expectation to be that, other than currently pending auctions/trades, the manager’s next move will be to meet the rule. If they are trying (they start a couple of auctions and lose them both), they get some leeway if they make other moves in between. If they are not trying, they get reminders and, if needed, the commissioner can reverse transactions. For example, if they need a MI and don’t bid on any MLB MI, but add a prospect via auction, the commissioner could remove that prospect from their roster. You are effectively blocking them from making any moves other than those to get legal. If they continue to defy the rule or refuse to comply, at some point I would have them removed from the league. I want to be clear, I am not saying they need to be kicked out because they are breaking this rule. I think they need to be kicked out at that point because they are refusing to act in good faith within the agreed-upon norms of the league. I think that is a pretty harsh step and I would only take it if I really believed a manager was actively choosing to be a jerk about things and trying to cause problems. In all my years playing Ottoneu, I have never taken that step. A simple reminder has always been enough.

Are there other considerations leagues should discuss? Other ways to handle this? I would love to hear ideas and questions in the comments!