This is my first year to play Fantasy Baseball with Ottoneu and I still run into issues I guess that were not explained to me enogh after I took over this team…The area I am confused about now is the Cap…I am working on a potential trade and if I make the deal, my budget will be $374.00, 26 dollars under my max, however the trade details also told me if I make this deal my cap would be at $-16…What does this mean? Am I able to complete a trade even if it says I will be in negative cap…And how much money is in my cap and where should I keep my cap at to avoid penalties,etc?
Good article that explains this here:Ottoneu 101: The Cap(ps) Space Dilemma | RotoGraphs Fantasy Baseball.
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Post the trade (if you don’t want to specify specific players, just salaries will suffice) along with your current cap and open slots and someone can help walk you through it. I don’t know that we can really offer much advice based on what you’ve shared thus far about your current situation.
Am I able to complete a trade even if it says I will be in negative cap
Yes, but you will have to make cuts to make your team legal after the trade, including possibly cutting players you just acquired. I have a plan for how to make my roster legal before I bid on a player or make a trade.
And how much money is in my cap and where should I keep my cap at to avoid penalties,etc?
$400 = Salaries + Penalties - Incoming Loans + Outgoing Loans + Free Cap
Or equivalently
Free Cap = $400 - Salaries - Penalties + Incoming Loans - Outgoing Loans
You can also set up that equation as an accounting ledger (i.e., debits and credits). But that’s the basic Ottoneu accounting identity.
You’ll want to minimize penalties, but you won’t be able to avoid them altogether if you’re actively managing the team. And there will definitely be occasions where you absolutely should incur a cap penalty via a cut if it allows you to improve your team. Note that you can reduce your cap penalties over the course of the season by starting up an auction on a player you cut >30 days ago and then recut after winning the nomination (or be free of the penalty entirely if another guy nabs him).
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I currently have $386 in my budget with 5 spots open…The proposed trade would have me giving up 2 players, A) $27 B) $15 and receiving 3 players in return C). $21 D). $6. E). $3…When you subtract the 2 players and then add the 3 players, my budget will be $374.00 with 2 spots remaining open on my 40 man roster…So where is it that my Cap after this trade will be $-16 As far as I know, I don’t have any penalties against me and I have no loans that I still owe on…I took over this team just a couple weeks ago and the previous owner left me in a $552 rut…I have climbed out of that and still have a very competitive team in my opinion but really want to finish this revamp of this roster and can’t understand why my cap would be $-16 when I would have $374 left with 2 open spaces after this trade…What am I not seeing here?
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Your salary math appears correct, but you should have 4 open spots on your roster, not 2.
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When you refer to the fact that your cap will be -$16 after the trade, is that the number shown on parenthesis on confirmation summary of a trade offer, before you click “confirm” to send the offer to the other team? If this is not the case, where are you getting this information regarding the -$16 cap?
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For trades after the draft is complete and during the season, it is common for the team that is offering the more expensive players to include a loan to make the trade net no change to either teams’ salary cap. This is certainly not required, but is factored into the value exchanged in the trade. In the possible trade that you mentioned, the fact that the other team is giving up $12 of cap space will be included in their review of the value exchanged in the trade.
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The use of loans on trades during the season increases the value that the “sellers” can obtain from “buyers” on their overpriced stars during the season. When you are out of it and trade an $80 Mike Trout to a contending team, you can obtain much better players in return, if you include a loan to cover the salary difference. Contending teams frequently take on a lot of salary during the season this way and they subsequently have to deal with it when the loans expire at the end of the season.
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Also, for what it is worth, your current available salary cap space of $14 is not unreasonable at this point in the season. That should be adequate to fill out your roster and still have some cap space available for the early in-season auctions. If you manage your cuts as @walt526 discussed above, you should be okay.
Hope this helps!
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I’m not sure if this was resolved, but I’m curious if this was a counter of an existing offer, so there was a loan included that is carrying over to this new offer. Check those text boxes and/or the confirmation modal window to see if a loan is mentioned.
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