Who needs balance in a fantasy points league?

Have you ever tried explaining fantasy sports to people who are completely unfamiliar with the concept? “So, you take all these players and you build a team and whoever comes in last has to wear his college sweatshirt and re-take the SATs?” Well, that’s particular to my leagues, grandma, but you’re getting the idea.

Fantasy football is a little easier for folks to understand. Every Sunday during the football season, you root for your players, and if they score more points than your opponent’s players, you win that week. Even my grandma kind of understood it (and by kind of understood, I mean made me meatloaf when I told her I beat my cousin in Week 11).

But rotisserie baseball? No chance. See, there are these 10 categories and you get a ranking in them depending on your statistics after 162 games and . . . forget it. Grandma’s already tuned you out and is watching Matlock. It’s not happening.

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And that’s why there are head-to-head formats (which I’m going to now refer to as “H2H” because I’m super lazy). Being honest, I hated H2H leagues when I first tried them. They obviously involve much more luck than rotisserie leagues (as with fantasy football, there will always be those times where you have the best team but fail to make the playoffs). And it takes away some of the slow grind that, frankly, is part of the beauty of both real and fantasy baseball.

But as I’ve grown older, more parent-y (is that a word?) and less handsome (not relevant, but my wife asked me to throw it in), I’ve come to appreciate H2H leagues. They help you quickly get over that one-inning, seven-run start that your ace pitcher just had because it doesn’t matter in a few days. Plus, they add a fantastic opportunity for major side bets and smack talk with your opponent. So, it’s fair to say I’m a fan.

There are two types of H2H leagues: H2H categories and H2H points (and to maintain my excellent streak of laziness, we’re shortening them to just “categories” and “points” leagues). Categories leagues are similar to rotisserie, but you play against a single opponent each week. Whichever one of you “wins” a particular category, gets a win. So, each week, every team racks up some combination of 10 wins, losses, and ties, one for each of the 10 rotisserie categories.

In points leagues, you’re essentially playing a H2H DFS matchup against another opponent for an entire week. One of you gets a win, and one of you gets a loss, depending on whose team scored more total points (for the basics on points leagues, feel free to check out our points league primer).

Although they both offer the same benefits of a weekly matchup, strategy for drafting in each type of league differs greatly. So let’s briefly run through some of the most significant differences.

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Balanced rosters matter in categories leagues, but not points leagues

With points leagues, it’s just about getting as many points as possible. It doesn’t matter if you get your points by hitting 70 home runs or because you found your way to 15 wins for the week. Points are points. So, you can eschew saves or steals or whatever you want to do in a points league draft.

With categories leagues, every category is a win or a loss each week. As with rotisserie leagues, you need to be thinking about all 10 categories during your draft. You certainly can punt a category or two in categories leagues if you must, but for the most part, you’re pretty much looking to put together a well-rounded team that will be competitive in every category each week.

Real skills matter more in points leagues

Have you ever thought about how archaic the standard 5×5 categories are? If you’ve followed the Hall of Fame voting the last several years, you know that sabermetricians have basically determined that stats such as wins, saves, runs, RBI, and batting average are really unrepresentative of a player’s worth.

In points leagues, batters earn points for walks and lose points for strikeouts. Triples are worth more than doubles and innings matter. In other words, if Brian Kenny or Keith Law plays fantasy baseball, they’re probably playing in a points league.

So, in points leagues, you need to consider a player’s real-world skill a bit more – does a pitcher get you 200 innings each year, what’s a hitter’s OPS, things like that. But with categories leagues, you’re still just focusing on how well your players perform in the standard 5×5 categories.

Depth is key in categories leagues

Because you’re just trying to win a week, there’s some amount of streaming involved in both types of H2H leagues. But truly, streaming, especially with pitchers, is essential in categories leagues. And that means that drafting depth is critical.

Your entire goal in a categories league is to win as many categories as possible. If you normally start three closers but your opponent is punting saves, then you’ll only want to start one closer and activate your bench starting pitchers. Similarly, if you own several stolen base threats but your opponent has none, then it’s time to swap out most of your steals players for power guys.

The ability to mix and match depending on your opponent’s lineup is critical in a categories league. That means drafting a deep roster with a bench that can easily plug holes in pretty much any category.

Volume for pitchers matters more in points leagues

Hey, I just started an ace pitcher or two and five solid relievers. I’ll take the guaranteed wins in ERA, WHIP, and saves, maybe even get lucky with wins, and be on my merry way, thanks. With pitching in categories leagues, your ratios are far more important than your volume, so you can much more easily afford to take high-upside pitchers, even when they’re on innings limits or returning from injuries. A five-inning start with zero runs and three baserunners allowed is golden in categories leagues.

In points leagues, however, volume is key. You get at least a fraction of a point for every inning your pitchers throw, and wins are worth a boatload. Thus, pitchers who throw a lot of innings are far more important in that format. Points leagues require you to be a little less exciting with your pitching, while categories leagues allow you to get a little saucier.

So, those are the basic differences in strategies between the two formats. The main key is that, either way, grandma is probably going to understand the basics and make you some solid pea soup. So, we’ve got that going for us.

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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.