Rotisserie leagues still reign supreme in fantasy baseball. They’re a six-month slog to the finish line, where thousands of at-bats and innings come together to produce one champion.
But absent a battle that goes right down to the wire, rotisserie baseball isn’t the most exciting game on the planet. It’s kind of like building a giant snowman with your kids – it’s fun, it takes a long time, and you’re totally numb and a little bored by the end of it.
Head-to-head (H2H) categories leagues combine the best parts of rotisserie baseball and mix in the same highs you get from fantasy football. You have a different opponent each week, and your team statistics are totaled up in each of the 10 categories, producing some combination of 10 wins, losses, and ties for each scoring period.
There are even playoffs. It’s sort of like you took the building a giant snowman experience and mixed in a huge snowball fight every five minutes to keep it interesting.
Because you’re dealing with the same 10 categories in both formats, the draft strategy remains relatively the same. But, there are a few small considerations for categories leagues, and keeping them in mind can be the difference between a good team and a great team.
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Not all production is created equal
In a rotisserie format, you’re just looking for the best production you can get over the long haul. If your players want to hit 10 homers one month and zero the next, it’s all good, so long as their numbers end up where they need to be at season’s end.
But in categories leagues, it’s a different story. Players, and specifically hitters, who are notoriously streaky are not ideal for the format. Although they may win you a week or two, they are certainly going to lose you a few, too.
That doesn’t mean to avoid every hitter that is prone to streaks. But when I’m making my draft board, I generally have high-strikeout and Rockies hitters a little lower than I do in my rotisserie ranks.
If you have to punt a category, this is your format
I recently wrote about punting categories and how, as a general matter in rotisserie leagues, it’s not a very good idea. But if you’re just really feeling like you need to punt a category, you can get away with it in a categories league.
Take saves for example. If you punt saves in a rotisserie league, you’re taking a “1” in that category, and you need to nail every other category to have a chance to win the league.
In a categories league, however, punting doesn’t put you in nearly as big of a hole. First, even if you lose that category every single week, that just means you’re starting 0-1 out of 10 categories.
Unlike in rotisserie leagues where you would have to beat almost every other opponent in every other category, in a categories league, you just need to beat one opponent in the other categories over a one-week period. That’s a much easier task.
Second, counting stats, and mainly saves, come in bunches. In any given week, your opponent could start two closers and get zero saves. You just bought yourself a tie in saves, and probably a win in the strikeouts and wins categories without doing much of anything.
Again, I’m not advocating for punting a category in any format. But it’s easier to do in a categories league.
Ratio stats aren’t nearly as important
Yes, of course, you still need to be thinking about things like WHIP, ERA and batting average. But the fact is, you just don’t know what you’re going to get in those stats week-to-week.
You could have the team with the highest batting average over the course of a season, but in any given week, your hitters could combine to bat .150. Similarly, if your two ace pitchers draw the Red Sox and the Cubs, you’re probably going to have trouble winning WHIP and ERA that week.
Obviously, you want to draft excellent starting pitchers and hitters with good batting averages if you can. But, ratio stats are a bit less important than counting stats in categories leagues, and you should remember that during your draft.
Go heavy on the hitters
Along those same lines, you’re probably going to do a lot more streaming with pitchers in categories leagues than you would in rotisserie leagues. Two-start pitchers = good. Fringe starting pitchers with one start and a bad matchup = bad.
With hitters, sure, you might get a tough draw for a week, but you’re not going to bench a solid hitter just because three of his six games are against elite pitchers. A 0-for-4 doesn’t hurt you nearly as much as a three-inning, six-run outing!
So, with that in mind, make sure that your hitters are the strength of your team in categories leagues. You’re going to do a ton of mix and matching with your pitchers.
Avoid the platooners
As baseball analytics have become more advanced, we’re seeing a lot more platoon specialists. I’m seriously half expecting the Dodgers to have two completely different lineups for righty and lefty starters this year.
Because of that, lefties that can’t hit lefty pitchers are often riding the bench in favor of a specialist when a southpaw is on the mound. And that’s a killer in a categories league. Joc Pederson is a great young player, but that career .178 batting average and .599 OPS against lefties isn’t going to fly on a team trying to make the World Series.
Guys like Pederson with huge platoon splits are just less valuable in categories leagues. In a rotisserie league, you can just take their projected season-long stats and slot them in the right place on your draft board based on those numbers. But in a categories league, there are always going to be weeks where their teams play five lefty starters, and you’re left without a key player and losing the scoring period.
Again, none of these are earth-shattering. We’re still dealing with the same players and, for the most part, the same considerations. But if you want a bit of an edge in your categories league, take advantage of some of these small but crucial differences.
Learn about the differences between H2H Categories and Points Leagues
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Dan Harris is a correspondent with FantasyPros. For more from Dan, check out his archive or follow him on Twitter at @danharris80.