Why is the freeze date in Ottoneu so early? And why can’t leagues set their own date?
The unofficial start to fantasy baseball season is the day after the Super Bowl, so we’re left sitting on our hands for two months until we draft, regretting the freeze choices we made. It’s also hard to recruit new owners to leagues before Jan 31, and makes it harder after that when you tell them they can’t make trades.
I searched around these message boards, but didn’t see anything, so apologies if this is in the FAQ or something.
Deadlines are global because communal dates are Good for niche games like Ottoneu. There is already a ton of fracture between 4 scoring systems, H2H points, and playoffs. Ottoneu is a very small community, and having shared dates creates a sense of commonality between the 400-odd leagues.
I don’t think it is early. It is tied to making commitments to your league for the upcoming season, which is a natural combination. Managers should make this commitment both in terms of setting your keepers and paying for their team early enough that if they choose to bail out, there is time for them to be replaced.
If you want to do post-draft stuff, you can consider drafting earlier!
I don’t see what this has to do with freeze dates though. No reason a draft date can’t be set before freeze.
I’ve been commissioner of fantasy baseball leagues for 40+ years and have never heard of any league that has freeze dates so early. It’s the only complaint I ever hear about Ottoneu.
I meant ‘schedule’ a draft. Being forced to draft weeks early just so you can make transactions isn’t ideal. The issue is the freeze date, the time between the freeze and spring training.
I really do not know why drafting after or during Spring Training is better than drafting before Spring Training. The amount of information gleaned from Spring Training is really minimal. And of course, since you can make transactions after the draft, you can act on anything you learn during Spring Training after your draft.
It sounds like you want to do the post-draft transaction stuff, trades, etc. The best way to do that is to draft!
I also talked about how recruiting is an issue. Having the draft would make it even harder to get someone to take over a team, if not impossible.
It’s not the information from Spring Training, it’s the amount of time that has passed since the offseason. Most people aren’t thinking about fantasy baseball this early and this early of a deadline can disuade folks who want to take a breather for a few months.
I don’t understand what this means. Why can’t each league decide on their own. If a league wants to freeze in January and draft in February, let them. If a league wants to freeze on March 15th and draft on April 1, let them.
and makes it harder after that when you tell them they can’t make trades.
It would be interesting to explore decoupling the roster freeze from a trading window in the pre-auction period. February 1 would remain the same as the cut deadline/lock but during February 1-the assigned auction date, teams would be able to trade the players they’ve committed to, as long as both owners remain under the salary cap/roster size restrictions and no salary cap is included as part of the deal (for auction competitive integrity). Since trading would be enabled, users wouldn’t feel like they are sitting on their hands, and there would be more incentive for more players to pick up abandoned teams and shape them in their vision.
I dunno i think it works exactly as intended. The only minor quibble is that there are so many abandoned teams whos rosters are essentially unavailable for trade offers all offseason. Otherwise im a fan of early keepers, early draft, then get after it.
Couldn’t agree more. With free agents taking longer and longer to sign each and every offseason as well as the amount of random injuries the first days of spring training camp the keeper deadline being January 31st is pretty damn brutal. Not sure why we can’t wait till February 20th right before the first bevy of spring training games get going. Having a month plus worth of available days to draft before season seems like plenty but what do I know. Also the no trading in this period is definitely a downer too for new comers that just signed up for league usually in January.
Agreed. Not only the early spring training injuries, but until pitchers and catchers report there’s been basically a news blackout since the season ended on these guys. So many players show up every year with things like ‘had a setback on offseason rehab’ and we have no way of knowing since we haven’t had news in several months.
But leagues can’t really do this until all teams are filled. Which is part of the problem with such an early freeze. Hard to recruit new teams when they can’t trade.
This is a weird bone you’re fighting over. Otto isn’t like most leagues, and the type of player worth having is going to understand that this is a different animal than 5x5 roto. If you’re trying to recruit for abandoned teams, it’s not that complicated: the new owner gets a free shot to shed payroll, and then can start working the phones ahead of their draft, but why do need to immediately start trading?
Part of what makes games is the rules. No matter the game and how reasonable the rule, someone hates it (see “nolan ryan” and “not hitting batters”). I think the fallow period between End of Jan and the draft (typically mid/late march) isn’t a huge deal, and don’t think that is the barrier to entry. I think finding the kind of weirdo who wants to play otto is the hardest part
We have an opening in one of my leagues we can’t fill if you’d like to join. And every year it’s a struggle to replace teams that drop off. The vast majority of posts on these message boards in the last couple of weeks are looking for owners to take over teams.