Forget ADP. Forget sleepers and busts. Forget your favorite podcast. 

All of these are great to have and to use for your fantasy baseball prep, but they are all meaningless if you don’t take one step first.

Learn the rules of your league. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a Fantrax best-ball league, an NFBC Draft of Champions league, a 12-team ESPN league, or an auction league on CBS. Yahoo feels left out, so maybe a keeper league on there?

OK, no enemies made now.

Dammit, I forgot Ottoneu. 

Anyways, knowing your league settings is paramount to success in fantasy, and even when you’re discussing your league with someone and you say it’s a head-to-head league, the first question that they should ask is “well, head-to-head points or head-to-head categories?”

It’s a huge, huge difference.

While the settings within categories and points differ league to league, I’m going to discuss my blanket strategies for both scoring systems and how they differ from one another.

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Approach to Saves

More and more category leagues are shifting to a combo of Saves+Holds in some form or fashion.

And it makes total sense.

I understand the appeal of the traditional roto scoring that some sites and leagues use, but if the game is going to continue to evolve, why can’t we?

Teams continue to deploy more and more arms in the backend of their bullpen, and they are approaching games differently (and correctly). 

But for fantasy managers, it makes it tough on us to nail down a sure-fire closer.

It’s easy to say that you’ll stream saves throughout the year, but you and everyone else are going to be trying to do the same thing.

I was reluctant to change my point of view, but it’s OK to change our approach and philosophy.

For category and roto leagues, I’m more than OK with taking one of the top-5 closers in the first three to five rounds now to give myself a good foundation at the position. I’d much rather take Liam Hendriks (RP – CWS) in Round 3 than Jordan Romano (RP – TOR) in Round 6 due to inflation.

It allows you to use your FAAB more wisely throughout the season, too.

But here’s where the approach changes for points leagues.

In points leagues, I rarely have a closer. Instead, if there are designated RP spots, I’m going to target a pitcher who has SP/RP eligibility (SPARPs, as the old-school CBS crew coined it).

The reason is that pitchers, while valuable in category leagues, are the absolute highest-scoring players in just about any points league out there. Even if they tank in a start, it’s hard for them not to break even for the week.

But a closer? In a lights-out week, they may score 20 points. We call that a decent outing for a starting pitcher.

SPARPs are a hot commodity in points leagues, so you kind of have to treat them like closers in category leagues. You should be willing to jump on them a few rounds early to get the elite ones (Freddy Peralta (SP – MIL) in 2021, for instance) or you’ll be stuck with someone who really should be just a streamer. 

Scarcity of Steals

Sure, you can find guys throughout the draft who can get you 10-12 steals, but everyone else is looking at those players, too. So like saves, you need to be able to adjust your draft process and build a good speed foundation early.

It’s why Trea Turner (SS/2B – LAD), Jose Ramirez (3B – CLE), and Fernando Tatis Jr. (SS/OF – SD) should be the first three picks off the board – in some order.

If you invest early, you can avoid taking rabbits (speed-only players) and not fall into a trap of reaching for players like Myles Straw (OF – CLE) and Adalberto Mondesi (SS/3B – KC) earlier than they should be going. Instead, you can collect the value with hitters and pitchers who fall further than they should.

Turning our attention to points leagues, you really don’t have to worry about filling categories. You’re getting points based on an outcome, and steals are typically very undervalued (1-2 points per steal) and if the player gets caught, some leagues have it set up for them to lose points (-1 to -2).

The points format pushes down players whose main value driver is stolen bases, but it keeps those well-rounded players – like the aforementioned top-tier – incredibly valuable in the scoring format, too.

Walk This Way

More category leagues are incorporating OBP or OPS as a category over batting average (as they should, to be honest), but the standard leagues still use average. It’s hard to predict batting average year to year, and it’s not sticky. It’s essentially the easiest category to fade in your league where you can make up ground as you go.

For points leagues, you do get a point for a hit, but you also get increased value for players who walk a lot (and also lose points for those who strike out a lot).

In this format, players like Starling Marte (OF – NYM) lose the most value. Marte’s biggest calling card is his speed, so there’s one mark against him, but he also has a career 5.3 BB%, which sends him down a few rounds. 

Volume is Key

Overall in fantasy, opportunity and playing time are drastically overlooked aspects of the game we play.

For points leagues, it’s one of the most important elements to succeed.

For your pitchers, you want guys who are going to strike people out, sure, but you also want someone who is going to throw a ton of innings. Even someone like Marcus Stroman (SP – CHC), who is one of my favorite pitchers in general, is more valuable in points leagues because of the number of innings he throws per start and per season. 

For hitters in category leagues, you care about the end result. What does your score look like at the end of the week against your competition? That’s all you care about.

But for points leagues, while you care about the result, too, how we get there is a different story.

You want players who are hitting in the upper-third of the lineup because those who are buried toward the bottom won’t accrue as many points for you.

The same goes with pitchers. You want to bank as many innings as you can, which will lead to more strikeouts and more wins/quality starts. While you lose points for runs against and walks, they hurt you less in points leagues where you don’t have ratios to protect. Volume is everything with pitchers.

Overall Approach

My overall approach in category leagues is to build an early base that covers everything in the first five to six rounds. I want to have a solid foundation for all 10 categories if I can, without reaching for categories just to fill them.

I tend to fill my bench with a mix of hitters and pitchers, looking at elite relievers who can help me with my ratios even if they aren’t recording saves or wins for my club.

For points leagues, everyone is going to be pushing pitchers up – especially the ones who throw elite innings with elite strikeouts to match.

I tend to volume my way into a formidable staff, as the replacement-level pitcher will produce greater than a replacement-level bat, at least in my opinion.

I like to target the old veterans that aren’t as sexy but can throw 170 innings for me. I typically fade closers and go for the SPARP approach, but will grab a closer to sit in an RP spot to churn points daily.

For my bats, I target hitters who hit in the upper-third of their lineups with good walk rates and OBPs. Power is nice, of course, but I like to find hitters who attack the gaps and can get me extra-base hits in any form.

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Whether you’re new to fantasy baseball or a seasoned pro, our Fantasy Baseball 101: Strategy Tips & Advice page is for you. You can get started with our Sabermetrics Glossary or head to a more advanced strategy – like How to Make Custom Fantasy Baseball Rankings with Microsoft Excel – to learn more.

Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.