It started out with a joke in Slack…
Today I’m happy to announce Ottoneu’s first ever Random League. This is a 12-teamer in which all the players were distributed with semi-random salaries, semi-randomly to teams.
The league can be found here:
Methodology
Twelve teams were created. The current list of average salaries, restricted to FanGraphs Points. Each player was given a salary range, 79% to 94% of their average value. This was meant to simulate the pricing range of a first year draft. Players were then divided into groups roughly based on tiers. The first tier was the 12 most expensive players, then the next 24, then the next 48, then the next 96, and then the next 192.
For the actual draft, the system went through the tiers in order. Players were picked at random and placed on one of the teams that had to that point in the draft spent the least. This continued until no team could afford a player that cost less than $3.
These teams are unbalanced and need help
As you’ll notice, there is no mention of position consideration in the previous section. That’s where you come in. I’m looking for 11 other managers to join this league for free this year and see if there is anything to this form of player distribution. Every single team has positional needs and either money or depth to throw at that problem. This league should be heaven for those who want to trade in order to craft their team.
This league will play a full FanGraphs points season this year. It just will start on May 13. I’d like to have the managers added by April 8.
If you are interested, reply to this thread with a link to your favorite Ottoneu team.
This feels like the part where I’d drop an April Fools’! But I assure you, this is an April Serious. I am pretty interested in using this method to help replace drafts for existing leagues and spin up new leagues as early as 2/1 without the need for a startup draft. If you’re interested in helping be part of the experiment, I’d love to have you.
Thanks for supporting Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball!
UPDATE: I also want to be explicit that I did not pick the team with Ohtani and that absolutely bonkers pitching staff. Generating these leagues gives the first team to me regardless. Anyway, I look forward to trading you some SP so I can have a 3B and a bench.
UPDATE 2: Incredible amount of interest. Thank you all for checking this out! Make sure to link to your favorite existing Ottoneu team - not one from this league - to get selected. I’m going to make this fully random, since that’s the ethos of this league. On or around April 8, I’ll randomly select 11 other managers from this thread and I’ll randomly assign teams. As we go through the season, I’ll explain more how this could tie in to existing leagues or jumpstart new ones. Also, I should have mentioned that the season will start May 14, aligned with round 2 of OPL. I’m excited! You guys all gassed me up!
