H2H Points Leagues Draft Primer

Draft strategy and advice for head-to-head (H2H) fantasy baseball points leagues. Mike Kurland provides advice on how to approach draft day and prepare for the 2021 season.

We recognize that some of our readers may be new to fantasy baseball and interested in trying a points league for the first time.

The goal here is to outline the traditional format scoring while offering up suggestions for draft strategy.

Below is a pretty generic Head-To-Head Points Format scoring outline. You will need to adapt to your specific league's settings and that is why it is so important to pay attention to the scoring in your league.

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Head-To-Head Points Format Breakdown

Hitting

Total Bases: 1 Point Per Base
Walks: 1 Point
Hit By Pitch: 1 Point
Strikeout: -0.5 or -1 Point
Caught Stealing: -1 Point
Runs: 1 Point
RBI: 1 Point
Single: 1 Point
Double: 2 Points
Triple: 3 Points
Home Run: 4 Points

Pitching

Hit Batter: -1
Walks Issued: -1
Hits Allowed: -1
Earned Runs: -1
Inning Pitched: 1 Point
Strikeouts: 0.5 or 1 Point
Saves: 3-7 Points
Wins: 3-7 Points
Quality Starts: 3 Points
Losses: -5 Points

Takeaways

When we take a look into the scoring format, it appears quality pitching is at a premium. This means you should be targeting workhorse starters with ace potential early and often. The deeper a starter can go into a game while throwing quality innings, the better. Hitter values also change in this format compared to that of traditional rotisserie leagues (which most rankings list out there cater to). Players you typically target for steals that do not offer much in the power categories take a huge hit in value. Not to mention, players that also strike out too much also lose some value as well.

As previously mentioned, the rankings you find online for the most part are for rotisserie formats. ADP is also generally skewed towards rotisserie-style formats as well and that is why it is vital to point out the values in ADP and adjust your rankings to make sure you exploit said ADP and find optimal value at various points throughout the draft.

At RotoBaller, we offer updated points league rankings, available by clicking here.

Head-To-Head Points Draft Strategies

Now, it is time to discuss a strategy to consider employing when drafting in a points league. Something that requires to be repeated over and over and over again is to KNOW YOUR LEAGUE SETTINGS. It was written in all caps to stress the importance of it. The scoring settings of your league with change player values. You need to be ready to adapt. 

Starting Pitchers

First of all, starting pitching is a premium and gets pushed up. Pitchers usually score the most points in these formats and they can also easily hurt your team the most so quality, high-upside aces are invaluable. If you find hitters are being prioritized in your draft, target high-OBP and low-strikeout types early. Players like Mike Trout and Juan Soto should be your top targets in this format. Try to let the draft board fall to you, but pitchers should get preference very early on. 

You should not be surprised to see more than 10-to-12 starting pitchers go in the first two rounds and you may see teams (or consider doing this yourself) taking two starting pitchers with their first two picks in a draft. With that said, however, it would be good to aim for least two pitchers in the first three to four rounds. Beyond that, attack starting pitching often throughout the middle rounds as well.

Beyond the scoring being in favor of pitchers, points leagues often require less offensive players than that of other formats. Typically, you only need three outfielders instead of five and there is no middle infield or corner infield spot. That leaves you needing upwards of four fewer hitters for your team. That allows the hitter pool to expand greatly and it allows for good value to fall on the offensive side of things. So in order to take advantage of offensive values, attacking starting pitching early and often can put you in a prime position to scoop up the values on offense that others pass on as they are scrambling to get some starters. This is partially due to you taking so many. You are helping yourself out more than you know.

Relief Pitching

There are typically at least two relief pitcher (RP) spots to be filled. This is where things can be interesting. You can fill these slots with traditional relief pitchers, or you can go for starting pitchers with relief pitcher eligibility, or “SPARPS”. There are pitchers every season that enter the year with relief pitcher eligibility and these pitchers often give you an advantage as starter score the most points and now you can stream extra starters into your lineup giving you an advantage over other opponents. 

It allows for the chance to score the most points from the relief pitcher spot. Ultimately, it maximizes your scoring potential. For reference, players like Kenta Maeda, Carlos Carrasco and Carlos Martinez among others were starting pitchers with relief pitcher eligibility in 2020. Plenty are available at various points in the draft. It is worth considering reaching for them a little to secure them and the higher end the pitcher with this eligibility the more valuable they are. 

Drafting Hitters

With hitters, it is best to keep it simple. Target players who do not strike out a lot and have good on-base skills and hit for power. This skill set is not too hard to come by and plenty of them fall in drafts and can be value picks because the ADP on sites or ranks you find at various sources are not set up for points leagues. You really can take advantage of this. 

ADP is strictly a tool and your job is to exploit it. Do not be afraid to “reach” on a player because ADP suggests it would be a reach. Target players with high walk rates, lower strikeout rates, and that hit for power. Higher-end players like Bryce Harper and Joey Gallo can be tricky. Sure, they are prolific hitters but they strikeout enough to limit the value gained by their power.

An obvious steal in drafts is Carlos Santana. The guy never strikes out, walks a ton, and hits for a solid amount of power. You can take him two or three rounds ahead of his ADP and there is still so much profit potential there. Meanwhile, most of your league mates may have already grabbed a first baseman and you could easily argue Santana is a top seven or top eight option at first base in this format.

You should avoid hitters with low on-base percentages or who are mostly stolen base threats. You may see Adalberto Mondesi or Tim Anderson higher in the ADP but they should drop a bit due to their skill sets. They are primarily valuable due to their stolen bases in other formats and that is reflected in their rankings and ADP.

It is a delicate balance. I am not saying these players have no relevance or should not be drafted at all, but there are a lot of players going later than them that should be going ahead of them in points formats.

Streaming In Head-To-Head Points Formats

As far as streaming goes, it is fairly important in points formats. This is because they are weekly formats. Players mostly affected by this are those that are on an innings or start limit or players in a platoon situation. Pitchers like Shohei Ohtani lose value as well as hitters like Joc Pederson.

The reason a player like Ohtani loses value is that in a weekly league you cannot utilize him as you would like. Due to the confines of a weekly format, and the limitations of starting just one game per week as well as hitting only roughy four-to-five games per week leaves you shorthanded on whichever side of the ball you start him at.

Going back to platoon situations, that is my biggest concern with hitters in points formats. Again, this is because they are typically weekly formats. You need to pay close attention if you do have a player who is part of a platoon because there’s a chance they play very little, if any, in a given week depending on match-ups. Joc Pederson is a great example of this.

Although he is a free agent, he is known for being utilized against right-handed pitchers in a platoon. You know he will face right-handed pitchers but if he is on a short week and only faces two right-handed pitchers, then Pederson offers you very little scoring potential and is of little use compared to a player who should or will play more games. This doesn't mean you should not draft platoon types but you need to make sure you have someone else ready to roll out on weeks he is not going to get the playing time you expect or need from them.

Streaming Hitters

This is where the streaming comes to play. Ideally, you want a player likely to play five or more games in the given week and have great match-ups. You should target players who are at Coors for a series or if they are on a strong side of a platoon and are in line for a full week of pitchers that favors their playing time.

Another option is just playing the hot hand. It is simple but can be effective. Sometimes adding those players at the right time can win you a week or two. Never be afraid to turn and burn players off the waiver wire. Always keep a spot or two (if possible) on the end of the bench to utilize for streaming. 

Streaming Pitchers

This is much like streaming hitters. You ideally want pitchers with average to above-average match-ups. Not to mention, you want them to have two-start weeks. This allows them to have a chance to really put up a good amount of points. You need to be tread lightly. Not all pitchers are created equal and if you settle for a bottom of the barrel starter with two starts, he can burn you and cause you to lose points on the week.

There is no worse feeling than losing by single digits and having a pitcher put up a score of -20. Yes, that is negative 20. It has happened to me and many others. The horror stories are very real. There are very few worse feelings. This is where streaming a quality one-start pitcher may be more beneficial.

Lastly, before streaming, you should count your opponents' starts for the week. Say they have seven or eight starts then you should aim to at least match them. Again, it goes back to that balance because you do not want to force yourself to give up quality for quantity and end up doing to yourself what was previously mentioned. Just ideally, you would at least match the opponent's total and that is where those SPARP players can give you that advantage. 

I hope you found this helpful. For those new to fantasy baseball, welcome! It is the best fantasy sport around. For those trying out points leagues for the first time in general, know that they bring their own challenges but bring that head-to-head competitive nature we love from other fantasy sports. Just remember to have fun and enjoy the season.

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