2018 Playoff Options

Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball Ottoneu Basics
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I know there has been some confusion about the different playoff options, and as I get to work on coding the playoff scenarios I think it makes sense to write out what you should expect from each of the 3 options under all league configurations.

H2H leagues can have 2 or 3 divisions, and non-H2H leagues do not have divisions. I will write out how each of these 3 league configurations will behave under each of the 3 playoff options.

In 2018, Playoffs will start on September 3

Wild-Card
The wild-card option creates a wild-card round and a first round bye for the top 2 teams in the league. This is the only option that will put 6 teams in the playoffs.

4 will play 5 and 3 will play 6 in the first playoff week, and the winners will be re-seeded and play in the second playoff week. The championship will occur during the 3rd and 4th playoff weeks.

  1. For leagues without any divisions, the top 6 teams will make the playoffs based on the final standings.
  2. For leagues with divisions, the division winners make the playoffs as the top seeds, and the remaining teams are picked based on the best record regardless of division.

No Wild-Card, Extended Semifinal
The top 4 teams make the playoffs, with the 1 playing 4 and 2 playing 3. The semi-finals will occur over the first two playoff weeks and the finals will occur over the second two playoff weeks. Both playoff games will be two weeks long.

  1. For leagues without any divisions, the top 4 teams will make the playoffs based on the final standings.
  2. For leagues with divisions, the division winners make the playoffs as the top seeds, and the best remaining teams by record make the playoffs as the wild-cards. The division winners are the top seeds and the remaining teams are seeded to set matchups.

No Wild-Card, Regular Semifinal
The only difference between this option and the previous option is that the semifinals will occur over the first playoff week and the finals will occur on the 2nd and 3rd playoff weeks. This is the only way to avoid the final week of the season. Seeding and team selection will occur as it does in the previous option.

All playoff matchups will take on a head-to-head format, regardless of what league format you have during the regular season. You can select between SABR and FG point systems depending on your preference. There will only be 1 C slot and 2 SP slots in the playoffs, as per the limitations in the H2H game modes.

Please use this thread for any questions or concerns you have! I know there are some specific choices above, but I think most of them are at best coin-flip-y against their alternatives.

UPDATE (8/20/18 9:15a): Edited to reflect the reality of how teams make the playoffs.

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Hi, guy with annoying questions here. So, in the Wild Card format, if we do 2 divisions, are the two division winners AUTOMATICALLY the 1 and 2 seeds? Or could the 2nd place finisher in one division end up being the 2 seed?

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Division winners will automatically be the top 2 seeds in 2 division configurations, and the top 3 seeds in 3 division configurations.

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In a H2H Fangraphs Points league with 3 divisions, how does a No Wild Card, Extended Semi-final look? You would need to have 1 Wild Card and the three division winners right?

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I moved this post over from another thread to the one that answered your question.

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Thanks for the help

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Newbie here. Which week will the wildcard begin?

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September 3 this season. The first full week in September, usually, depending on how the MLB season shakes out.

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Hi. I’m trying to understand if there are 162 game limits for position players in H2H. It seems from reading the posts that there is such a limit. Understand and appreciate that limit for roto, but seems odd in H2H. I’m not sure part of gameplay should be thinking in Week 2 whether you should start your 3B b/c if you do, you might run out of 3B games in the playoffs. That doesn’t mimic “real” baseball at all. But maybe I’m missing something. Thanks.

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Game limits are intended to keep all teams on the same scale and to remove streaming incentives. Staying under a full MLB season’s worth of games is not a particular large burden, and the benefit of keeping all teams on the same season-long scale is worth it.

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Let me start by saying that I really appreciate your work in setting up ottoneu and your responsiveness here. But I still don’t understand this approach. All teams are already “on the same scale” with the roster size and salary cap.

And streaming is generally only an issue when teams use multiple starting pitchers in the hopes of winning counting stats - that is addressed here (somewhat) by the 2 SP limit, the 48-hour auction period, and the salary cap hit from cutting a player. I don’t really consider it streaming to put a starter in at your 2B position seven times in a week if the schedule works out.

And while keeping under 162 may not be a “large burden” - it most certainly is a burden when there are approx. 180 days in the season. I just don’t see any corresponding benefit to the limit - there is really no way to game the system (except by being attentive to daily lineups - which should be encouraged and rewarded).

If the issue here is that it would be difficult for you to alter setting in H2H since they are already set in Roto, that is another story and make sense. But, otherwise, I’m interested if anyone else agrees that the 162-game cap doesn’t make a lot of sense in H2H.

Thanks.

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Hi everyone. I’m a first time Ottoneu commish and have two questions regarding the play-offs in a HTH Fangraphs points league format:

  1. If a team exceeds the 1500 inns pitching limit prior to the play-offs, are they then unable to earn points from pitchers during the playoffs? Or does the limit only apply to the fantasy regular season?

  2. Our league has opted for the extended semi-final play-off round starting in September. Is it possible to move the August 31 trade deadline to an earlier date in order to avoid play-off teams being able to load their rosters via trades in the days leading up to the play-offs? I haven’t been able to find such an option under commissioner tools.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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There will not be a 1500 IP limit in H2H, only a 162 game limit. The 2 SP slots effectively replaces all IP limits, both on a game and season-long basis.

As discussed in this thread, there will not be a change to the trade deadline. It is a universal deadline across all Ottoneu leagues and will affect everyone who has playoffs enabled equally, since playoffs will begin on September 3 of this year for all leagues that opt-in to the playoffs.

Hope that helps!

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Thank you very much for the feedback Niv. This helped a lot.

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Hey @nivshah please confirm who makes the playoffs in 3 division wild card setups. Obviously the winner of each division, but are the next three teams the 2nd place team in each division, or the next three teams with the overall best records, regardless of divisions?

In an earlier post, it stated this: “Each division winner will make the playoffs, and from there the best records, with points scored acting as a tiebreaker. Playoffs will start either the first or second week of September, depending on if there is a wild-card round.” (Head-to-Head scoring coming to Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball in 2018)

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I’ll edit the original post in this thread to clarify. I see that I was inconsistent between the two posts, and I’ll clean that up today. I apologize for the inconsistency, I know that can be frustrating.

Playoffs will start September 3 for all leagues that have opted in to playoffs.

Each division winner makes the playoffs. In leagues where more teams than just the division winners make the playoffs, playoff teams are picked based on best record regardless of division. If two teams have the same record, the tiebreaker is total points scored.

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@nivshah Do non play-off teams get a consolation bracket so we can keep playing or is the season over for us next week?

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There isn’t a consolation bracket for non-playoff teams this season, but I could implement that for next season, based on interest.

There will be a 3rd-place game for the two teams that lose in the semifinals in parallel to the championship game.

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I would like it, but I just like playing and it’s something I’ve gotten used to with other fantasy platforms but I get that there’s only so much you can do and a lot of times teams check-out at the end of season if they aren’t in contention.

I guess the only thing I’m super worried about is missing auctions because I don’t check the site anymore.

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That all makes sense to me, and I’ll look into it for next season. Make sure to turn on auction announcement emails!