Roto vs. Head to Head Scoring Basics

As you begin your fantasy baseball adventure, one decision that might be taxing is whether or not you should play in a basic roto (rotisserie) league or a head-to-head league. You wonder what your best option is. Is it better to participate in an old-school roto-type league where you don’t worry about weekly lineups… or, do you want to play like the fantasy football boys do – week-to-week hoping that your fantasy starting lineup is good enough to get you into the playoffs?

When I say head-to-head, I’m simply referring to a league in which teams face off against each other, usually on a weekly basis. It’s very similar to fantasy football except for the fact that you only win “a point” for beating your opponent in a category like RBI or home runs. Whether you win by one RBI or 21, it’s still only one “point” or “win” for your fantasy squad. Depending on the number of categories your league includes, your fantasy baseball team could end up as good as 10-0 for the week, or, if you have a horrible performance, 0-10.

Consider a head-to-head league the equivalent of 25 or more mini-seasons. It’s not a matter of how your team does over the course of the regular season; it’s how they do week to week. Do they get hot at the right time? Will it matter if your fantasy team hits 5 home runs one week and 25 the next? Do you want consistency or do you want a roller coaster ride? In a rotisserie league, those questions are not asked. In a head-to-head league, you might be “right on” in your projections, and you might have the best fantasy team in your league, but because of some “off weeks”, you don’t make the playoffs or you lose in the first round.

In a rotisserie league, projections mean more. Projections are not done on a week-to-week basis; they’re done over the course of the year. Timing is not nearly as important. It doesn’t matter if your team gets 5 wins on Opening Day, right before the All Star Break, or on the last day of the season. It all counts the same… towards your season total. However, in a head-to-head league, if you get 5 wins in the first week of the season but are held without a win in the final week… you’ll get a “W” or a “point” for the wins category in Week 1, but you’ll likely take a loss or not get a “point” in the final week for the wins category. See how that works?

Baseball purists enjoy rotisserie style fantasy baseball, only because it’s the original. It was around long before the head-to-head format was created. However, there is one solid defense for H2H leagues that can’t be said for roto baseball – randomness. Just like real MLB baseball, H2H formats allow the feel of hot and cold streaks. Any MLB team can appear to have the “best team on paper”, but if they get cold down the stretch and forget how to hit or pitch or field, they’ll fail to reach the World Series. Trust me, I know. I’m a Yankees fan. In H2H leagues, you can have the best statistical team through Week 23, but your hitters can all get cold at the same time, costing you precious offensive numbers. It could mean the difference between winning and losing the first round of your playoffs… just like real baseball.

Fantasy baseball is great because it can use all sorts of statistical categories, both offensively and defensively. In most leagues, however, the following categories are usually standard:

Hitting

• Average
• Home Runs
• RBI
• Runs Scored
• Stolen Bases

Pitching

• Wins
• Saves
• ERA
• Strikeouts
• WHIP (Ratio… Walks/Hits per IP)

In a standard 12-team league playing a roto points format, the team that has the most “points” at the end of the day is in first place. Stats are tabulated on a daily basis, and the leaderboard can change drastically on any given day. Points are given based on each team’s ranking for every category. For instance, in this same 12-team league, the most fantasy points one team can receive for each category is 12. The leader at each of the 10 categories gets 12 fantasy points (per stat category). The team with the second best statistics gets 11 fantasy points (per stat category) and so on. So, the team bringing up the rear in each category gets how many fantasy points? If you said, 1, you are catching on.