Fantasy Baseball Strategy Guide: Roto vs. Head-to-Head

  • There are primarily two types of leagues that fantasy baseball players generally compete it.

    Roto (Rotisserie) leagues or Head-to-head (H2H).

    The categories that matter in these leagues can, and does, change league-to-league as the most common is the traditional 5×5 setup that counts batting average, homers, RBI, runs and steals on offense; wins, strikeouts, ERA, WHIP and saves for pitching.

    Roto leagues see all managers competing against each other in a year-long marathon. Managers earn points based on where they rank in each category. So in a 12-team league, if someone is first place in homers, they get 12 points. Second place gets 11, third gets 10, and so on and so forth.

    That is then calculated across all the categories that matter for that particular league.

    In H2H formats, managers compete against each other in each category over a seven day span, much like in fantasy football. But instead of points, the managers compete in categories.

    If a manger gets more homers, RBI, Saves, Wins with a lower ERA than the other manager, then they earn a 5-5-0 record. If they win those but tie in another, its a 5-4-1.

    As you can imagine, there are different strategies that need to be deployed, starting on draft day, for managers to set themselves up for success.

    The first thing a manager needs to consider are their league’s settings outside of the type of scoring (roto or H2H)

    Do you set your lineups weekly or daily?

    Is it traditional categories being counted or do things like OBP, SLG or holds also count?

    When are the playoffs? Does the final week of the regular season matter?

    All of these things will change the valuation of many players.

    Let’s dive into some strategy and player valuation differences for roto and H2H leauges.

    Platoon bats/injury-proned guys – They have more value in roto leagues than H2H because it is a marathon were all the stats are counting on the whole, no matter when the game is played. So, a player that may not be a full time player, or may be more likely to miss time due to injury are more valuable in roto leagues.

    In a H2H format, if a player is out for multiple weeks, that’s potentially more L’s your team is going to take and you can find yourself in quite the whole. But in roto, if a player misses time, they can make up for that missed time when they return and you get the value regardless. You can’t retroactively apply stats to earlier weeks in H2H.

    In roto, if a player pitches 130 innings and strikeouts 150, those 150 strikeouts count, no mater what. But if those 150 strikeouts come in the later parts of the season, a manger in a H2H format might be too far behind for it to matter.

    Or if a hitter smacks 25 homers in 400 PAs, that counts the same in roto, no matter when the homers were hit. But for H2H, if those homers don’t come in the weeks the manger needs them, then it’s all for not.

    From this perspective, these are examples of players that are more valuable in roto leagues than in H2H:

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