While I believe a topic such as this should have both sides’ argument presented, I’ll throw a little bias into the mix right now and tell you that I hate the idea of punting categories. I get why people do it – wait. Let me rephrase that. I get why people think they should do it, but in truth, I believe that it actually puts the fantasy owner who does it at a distinct disadvantage.

Let’s start with the obvious reason which is that, by punting a category, you are taking a zero. Zip. Zilch. Nil. Nada. Nein. Bupkus. However you want to put it. You ain’t gettin’ squat. While technically, if you are in a standard rotisserie league, you get one point in the category, but it’s essentially still a zero. It’s like scoring points on the SATs for filling in your name. In a head-to-head league with category scoring, you’re automatically conceding a point you may not have even had to try too hard to win. Points leagues work a little differently so the impact may not be immediately noticeable, however, in the end you’re still giving away an opportunity to edge out your opponent. Sure, you can change your mind at any point during the season, but depending on when you decide to wake up, in most cases, you’ve fallen so far behind that catching up becomes more work than is usually worth the effort.

But the disadvantage doesn’t end there. Let’s say you decide to punt saves, the category most often punted in the fantasy kingdom. Not only are you gaining nothing in the saves category, but you’re also foregoing any potential help you could be getting in both WHIP and ERA. Closers do a significant amount of work to help your ratios and by not having them, you’re forcing yourself to pay up for starting pitching because the ratios you need to win, whether it’s roto or head-to-head, are not helped by most fourth or fifth starters. You could use middle relievers to help you out there, but then we’re now talking about sacrificing strikeouts, wins and quality starts.

If you opt to punt stolen bases, then you’re also going to slight yourself in runs scored and possibly even batting average or on-base percentage. Punting home runs? Well, you may as well kiss RBIs good bye as well as runs scored. And do I even need to address the all-closer strategy? You’ll kill it in saves and your ratios will look tight, but again, your strikeouts, wins and quality starts are sitting in the toilet. It’s really that simple. Sacrificing one category can negatively impact at least one or two more, thus causing further damage you never intended.

Let’s also not forget what you have to do in the other categories in order to win overall. Again, whether it’s roto or head-to-head (categories), you need to kill it everywhere else just to make up the difference. If you’re punting saves, you need to completely dominate virtually every hitting category in order to win the overall. Think about it. In a roto league, if you’re getting just one point in saves while someone in your league is getting eight, you need to blow this guy out of the water in three or four of the hitting categories just to make up that seven-point differential. If you don’t have a crazy dominant group of hitters, you could find yourself losing in more than just your punted category. And that’s not even addressing the probability of you losing guys to injury.

It works the same in a head-to-head league which uses categories. You stand no shot at beating the guy in saves, your WHIP and ERA could be struggling and if you’re not killing it in wins (a very arbitrary category), strikeouts and most, if not all of the hitting categories, you could be in trouble week in and week out. Suddenly, your one category punt is turning into a multi-category nightmare.

Now I could sit here and cite example after example of how the punt just doesn’t work. I could also show you that even having just one guy helping you in the category would help you avoid digging such a big hole. But to be fair, I will consider the point made and hit the counterpoint by saying there is actually one situation where punting might not be too detrimental and that’s found in head-to-head points leagues, probably my least favorite of all the fantasy formats.

In many points leagues, depending on the way the scoring is set up, you could theoretically punt saves and still come out on top without issue. Yes, you need to have solid contributors in the offensive categories, but without having to worry about cumulative ratios, even just for the week, then bypassing closers really does only impact you in one area. That’s why, in many cases, the save, and the win for that matter, are scored significantly higher than a strikeout.

If you’re really considering punting a category, do yourself a big favor and take a nice, long look at the rules and scoring of your league. Also try and get a feel for your competition. All it takes is for one more owner to try the same strategy and suddenly you’re both screwed because now there is increased competition for the same type of players as you now both need to make up for the rest of your teams’ shortcomings. Again, it’s not that you can’t win with punting a category as your strategy. It just becomes significantly more difficult to do so.