As we get close to the start of draft season and then regular season to follow, I want to know what kind of Ottoneu content you want to see out there. What types of articles would be most useful? What topics would you like to see covered?
Some thought starters:
Are the Hot Right Now/Cold Right Now pieces I have posted on RotoGraphs useful and interesting?
Would regular articles outlining which SP and/or hitters to use in the next week be helpful?
What kind of strategy articles would you like to see?
Would mailbags/chats/Q&As be useful?
And donât limit yourself to those ideas - I want to know what you want to see!
Great question! And thanks for putting out the call for feedback.
I think the fantasy articles that I check the most are player-specific news and scouting reports. Players news gets quickly into known unknowns and many scouting reports are in paywalled sites and/or quite dated. So when a fantasy writer can take a long look at playerâs expanded stats, usage by a manager and team, analysis of player news, and possible some live scouting, to describe something promising (or worrying) about a player, Iâm intrigued.
I always enjoy Ottoneu strategy pieces regarding team builds and draft room. I also think that discussing different types of leagues could be beneficial in helping others expand their interest or open their eyes to new ways to play.
Thereâs a lot of content out there regarding player ranks, prospects, etc. so I think any way you can take typical Fantasy info and slant it toward Ottoneu-specific would be a bigger influence to this community specifically, but then you may miss a wider audience if you are just wanting to reach maximum demographic possible.
Iâve always liked the hot / cold articles in the past. There are many of those out there for fantasy but having one for Ottoneu is really helpful.
I think mailbags / chats, etc. would be a great feature.
Itâd be cool to see the occasional âgreat for 5x5 but maybe not for Ottoneuâ piece (or incorporated into the hot / not). Weâre all awash in roto coverage that is 5x5 focused and sometimes it canât help but elevate players who might be speed demons, for example, and great for a traditional leagues but really are just âmehâ in Ottoneu.
As for strategy, the question I always grapple with in roster construction is when is it advantageous (if ever) to âover payâ a player. By that I mean, maybe Max Fried is overpaid at $35 when the AC might say heâs only worth $28 (Iâm making those numbers up), but if your team is projecting to be in the top 3-4 of the league, it might be worth overpaying a bit for those marginal wins â so to speak â rather than having a maximally surplus efficient roster.
Bring back the podcast! Strategy articles are awesome - but the value of just Chad vs Chad+Niv+Justin
interacting and discussing their various perspectives within the context of Ottoneu is so helpful in making the game more approachable. Keep or Kut is good - but the Ottobot podcast was so helpful in getting me started in Ottoneu and Iâve really missed having that format. The Hot/cold content lends itself to a regular podcast section. As does the hitters/pitchers to use in the next week. Then there could be a sections on a strategy topic/mailbag questions to round out the hour. Iâd listen to that every week, probably a couple times. ha
Would appreciate more frequent articles analyzing Ottoneu data such as who is being dropped and picked up across the leagues. Also information of player cost trends would be helpful. Which players cost is going up as the season progresses and who is going down? Periodic revisits to player ratings by position would be great as well. Thanks for asking.
All the ideas are great, thanks for the outreach, the more ottoneu specific stuff the better!
Iâd like to see a central âottoneu libraryâ where past content is easier to find and navigate. A lot of the old articles and content are still very applicable (Trey Baughn 101 stuff comes to mind) but probably wonât be seen by new/prospective players. A comprehensive list of Ottoneu content by Date/Title/Author going back in time to inception would probably work great.
Not really an idea, but is there Ottofootball / basketball stuff hosted anywhere? I imagine it wouldnât be on RotoGraphs. Iâd like to write up some basketball stuff myself and am happy to post it on my own (more or less defunct) blog and here but can also post elsewhere, too.
There isnât, and FanGraphs toyed with the idea of hosting some football content but ultimately moved away from it. If anyone wants to create more Ottoneu content, youâre more than welcome to use this forum to promote your work.
I found the hot/cold pieces very useful, but especially the discussion of the most current auctions. It would sometimes confirm my interest in a player or give a reference for players to be interested in.
Chats and mailbags would be great. Sometimes it is helpful to get an opinion on a player that might be more off the radar for discussions of other types of fantasy. I do not usually participate during the chats on Fangraphs, but frequently read the transcripts later. Mailbag articles would be helpful, because they would allow for question submittal at a variety of times (I do not keep track of the time for chats in the middle of busy workdays).
I think that articles regarding strategy (roster construction, trades, auction) would be helpful and provide insight beyond merely players to be interested in.
I enjoyed the podcasts from a few years ago, where you would look at specific teams and talk about strategies and potential directions that the team could be taken.
I think that an occasional âProspects for Ottoneuâ feature could be interesting. Some prospects are highly rated for skills that are more useful in real baseball, than in fantasy, or for 5x5 fantasy. Highlighting prospects with skill sets suitable for Ottoneu would be useful for roster construction and rebuilds.
Just about anything! But for a specific suggestion - discussion of different team-building strategies depending on where a team is in the competitive cycle (going for top 3, firmly rebuilding, somewhere in the middle, etc.) at various key points in the Ottoneu season (draft, trade deadline, arbitration, keeper deadline, etc.)
Adjacent to Leifâs âOttoneu Libraryâ idea above, Iâd appreciate a refresh of the articles with the Ottoneu 101 tag: Tag: Ottoneu 101 | RotoGraphs Fantasy Baseball
For stuff that has changed materially, perhaps add a pointer from an older article to a newer one. For instance: Chad wrote an article about the new Ohtani rule in September 2022, but an article about the old one from 2017 is still out there and roughly as findable.
For stuff where Ottoneu thinking has evolved some in the last five years or so, an Ottoneu 101/201 Update series that points to the old material but incorporates that new thinking would be welcome.
On the Fangraphs Auction Calculator in Ottoneu - In this article: Using the Auction Calculator in 2022: A Beginnerâs Guide | RotoGraphs Fantasy Baseball is the following statement: âHow about an Ottoneu league? The calculator has that all worked out for you. Just click on the âPresetâ that matches your Ottoneu style.â
That works, if one doesnât mind having a replacement level thatâs different enough from what most seasoned Ottoneu managers use that drafting and trading gets tough.
There have been a few Rotographs articles written over the years about how to tweak the Calculator settings to create a price curve that better matches typical auction bidding conditions - Iâd appreciate one for Ottoneu as well. Or if that isnât workable given the Calculatorâs math engine, a note of caution on the subject.
Thanks to everyone who has shared thoughts on this thread. Please continue to do so, as we are still figuring out what exactly Ottoneu coverage should look like (and will continue to be open to feedback and changes even after we get started).
As a first step, there does seem to be interest in chats, so Iâll be hosting a chat on FanGraphs on Tuesday January 31 at noon PT/3 PM ET for Ottoneuâs cut deadline. Join for questions about keep/cut decisions, trade advice, Q&A about my rankings or anything else Ottoneu!
Lots of great ideas. I actually enjoy articles about someone starting a team and then following along throughout the season. It may not have advice or hot/cold trends, but I enjoy the story and the ups and downs that the manager experiences.
Strategy about setting lineups, particularly the split on IP for SP & RP. My P/IP for season tend to be on low end of league, and I run out of IP too soon.
Following along the lines of rosborneâs request above, strategy on playing matchups to help optimize IP/GP in season-long leagues. Last year I raced to the lead in a few different leagues only to run out of IP/GP in the final stretch and be overtaken in the last week or so. Looking back, I now realize that some of the things that hurt me was insisting on starting SPs who were coming back from injury and not giving enough consideration to opposing pitchers when setting my lineups.
Also, roster moves H2H teams should make ahead of the playoffs.
Additionally, I have found the results of the ongoing mock drafts for Fangraphs points leagues very useful. It has been interesting to see the extent to which player values are set by the market. I think that analysis of this data could be very useful. For example, it could look at players valued much higher/lower than the rest of the fantasy industry. Additionally, it would be interesting to look at the players that appear to be over pays or good values for Ottoneu (e.g., what are the market inefficiencies in the values that Ottoneu players place on players).
Finally, I think that a mock draft for H2H Fangraphs points league would be interesting. While the player values are similar for H2H, there is a greater emphasis on depth and volume over quality. For hitters this means having enough bench depth to fill your lineup 7 days a week, and for SP it means looking more at P/GS for SP versus P/IP.
Background: I drafted a 4x4 team in the Keep or Kut listener Ottoneu league (1372) in 2022, then had to give it up to deal with personal stuff. I wasnât around long, but it was quickly clear that my 5x5 brain did not get a good grip on 4x4s category overlap, and my Fangraphs Points brain did not get a good grip on how to adjust player evaluations from FGPts to 4x4.
So: some âhow to adjust to Ottoneu 4x4â content would be appreciated. But even more, Iâd love some âAnatomy of 4x4â articles that arenât about transitioning from some other format, but discuss 4x4 on its own terms.