NotGraphs OOTP Fantasy: Year X! Final Consummation!

Check out the Draft Registration post or peruse the links at the bottom of this-here post to understand the context.

You know me; I’m an honest guy. I had every intention of posting the results from Year 10. But here’s what happened: I simmed up to Year 10; I surveyed the prospect carnage before me; and I knew immediately the dream was dead. Out of sheer pity, I went ahead and proceeded to Year X, the year in which the all the prospects had retired. And because the vast majority of prospects had retired by Year 10, I needed sim only three more years until the deed, like holding a pillow fast over the throat of our baseball dreams, was done.

Or maybe not.

After the simming, it became apparent two careers had bloomed late and we indeed had some legit major leaguers on our hands. So instead of going through the 17 spoiled careers of our custom-made prospects, I’m going to lighten the tone and celebrate the mildly successful careers of two of our young men: 1B Fred Hamilton and INF Andrew “Swede” Osborn.

Here’s a look at the career MLB numbers of all our players:

Hitters

And career statistics across all levels:

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1B Fred Hamilton (5.8 career WAR)

Yeah, he may have missed the 70 WAR rule of thumb for Hall of Famers, but Fred Hamilton is a singular player among our NotGraphs prospects. The next best was SP Jerry “Juice” Loose who collected 0.3 WAR across 29.0 IP as a rookie reliever — before a single injury effectively ended his career.

But Hamilton, he was a grinder. He never once made it into my Top 5 or Top 10 lists, earning a No. 12 ranking in Year 3 (2022), but never better than that. Despite expectations, he broke into the majors at age 27 and hit 17 homers with a .334 wOBA. By accumulating 1.7 WAR that rookie season, he guaranteed himself the best NotGraphs career in just 87 starts and 26 pinch-hitting appearances.

In 2023, the Tiger signed free agent veteran Joey Gallo, whose offense success limited Hamilton to just 12 starts and 32 pinch-hitting appearances. Then, in 2024, Hamilton then found himself shuttling around the minors like many sluggers before him.

It wasn’t until 2026, as a 31-year-old Quad-A first baseman, that Hamilton got a chance to prove himself again. He started 66 games and again hit a .334 wOBA, but his stellar defense helped compensate for his otherwise okay slugging. Then, in 2025, as a 32-year-old vet, he blopped 25 homers across 473 PA and won a gold glove.

Despite his 2.5 WAR season in 2026, the Tigers began to look towards young blood, bringing in a 28-year-old switch hitter 1B Milton Osborne when Hamilton began to show signs of aging.

Hamilton became a free agent after the season, and when the phone chip implanted in his brain remained dormant all winter, he began to suspect the end was near. He held out four seasons as a free agent before calling it a career.

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INF Andrew “Swede” Osborn (0.1 career WAR)

Ranked a top prospect most of his minor league career, Swede ultimately failed to reached the high ceiling many in the OOTP scouting community predicted for him. He reached the majors in 2020 (Year 7 by our measures), where he made a splash with the Washington Nationals as a 28-year-old utilityman.

In just 79 games and 54 starts, Swede cranked a .353 wOBA and collected an impressive 1.7 WAR. But Osborn remained buried in the depth chart behind SS Pepe Rodriguez and 2B Branden Kaupe. While many fans in the Internet Cloud wanted to see Kaupe benched in favor of Osborn, the Swede remained on the bench until 2022, where he doomed his chances with a .296 wOBA and only mediocre play at second base.

After his -0.7 WAR debacle in 2022, Osborn simply could not keep a regular job. He began shuttling back and forth between the minors and majors until he became a free agent in 2026. He waited two years without an MLB offer, then called it a career at age 36.

It might be tempting to call a utility infielder with a high-ceiling-never-attained a failed prospect. But the truth is in those 15 other prospects, who never so much as sniffed a full season of Major League Baseball. So well done, Swede. Well done, Fred. You guys were special.

(No awards.)

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Links

• Draft Registration
• Year One (2013)
• Year Two (2014)
• Year Three (2015)
• Year Five (2017)

Plans and Schemes

• Year 3 (2015), with a complete prospect summary.
• Year 5 (2017), with Top 5 + released players list.
• Year 10 (2023), with Top 5 + released players list. f*** it
• (YOU ARE HERE) Year X (20XX), with Top 5 + complete prospect FINAL summary.

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I hope you guys enjoyed this! I sure had fun, although it took a lot of work. As always, I’m open to any suggestions on how to improve it the next time around.