Points Leagues

By Matthew Beck

Points leagues continue to gain popularity among fantasy baseball enthusiasts with their highly customizable league settings being arguably the most attractive feature. While some leagues are straight points where the team with the highest seasonal total is declared the champion, others are head-to-head leagues in which a team’s record comes into play. Either way, the advice available for those participating in points leagues is not equal to that of traditional Rotisserie scoring which makes it very important to understand how to prepare for this type of format. Below are five topics specifically designed to help points league players prepare not only for draft day, but aid in in-season decision making.

KNOW YOUR SCORING SYSTEM

As straightforward as Rotisserie leagues can be, points leagues are the opposite. Despite sharing some similarities, like the player pool or roster size, there are major differences. That’s why it is vital to understand how your league scoring system influences a given player's potential. Like all other formats in fantasy baseball, points league participants will want to adjust player potential based on a given scoring system.

When evaluating hitters, one of the many areas to take notice is in the strikeout category. Participating in leagues that subtract points for strikeouts will significantly affect the player pool as strikeouts continue to rise throughout the league. On the flipside, a player like Chris Davis (208 K in 2015) will not see his value diminished by his high strikeout rate if there is no penalty for his swing-for-the-fence approach at the plate.

Predicting wins or saves for a pitcher are by far the hardest areas to forecast as there are a lot of variables that can affect the outcome of a game. That is why it is very important to understand how much a pitcher will be affected by base runners per innings pitched as many points leagues may penalize heavily for walks, and hits compared to the amount of points received for innings pitched and strikeouts. This helps decide between a pitcher with solid skills versus one on a good team or having a good matchup that day.

USE SPECIFIC PRE-DRAFT RANKINGS

Due to the highly customizable nature of points leagues, choosing the right studying material becomes even more crucial in this format. Depending on how exactly a points league is set up, a given player could either gain or lose value resulting in the shuffling among the rankings when compared to that of traditional Rotisserie scoring. With that said, using net points over raw points becomes a very important factor to consider.

Comprehending the usage of net points over raw points goes against the traditional style of draft preparation, as you have to weigh the differences between players based on a player's potential production against everyone with the same position eligibility. At the very least, breaking the player pool into three parts, (catchers, non-catchers and pitchers) followed by netting out potential point totals, will in fact start to paint a clearer picture as to how players should come off the board. While there are other variables to consider while in the war room, these pre-draft rankings will at least give a solid base to follow, even if the three basic groups are not broken down by position after net points are determined.

Net points may be the most vital to determining pre-rankings, but there are other variables that also need consideration. Although a single results in fantasy production, it is important to understand that all scoring is weighted differently. Take extra-base hits for example. Michael Brantley gets a serious boost in points leagues due to his knack for getting on-base (.379 OBP in 2015) and his ability to hit extra-base hits (first in doubles with 45), compared to a traditional 5x5 rotisserie league where any hit outside of a home run result in the same fantasy production.

However, the same can be said for the negative effects of a player’s value in points leagues, and no better example is with starting pitchers. Unlike other formats that only award for wins and saves, points leagues penalize for both losses and blown saves, to go along with a variety of scoring among base runners allowed and innings pitched. A great example is Shelby Miller. Despite owning a 3.20 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP through 33 starts in 2015, his 6-17 record found him down the rankings by season’s end. A little more run support could have increased his fantasy value significantly, instead becoming more of a casualty in points leagues due to all of his negative scoring.

DON’T OVERTHINK THE ODDBALL STRATEGIES

This might sound like a no-brainer, but it is easy to get caught up in the flashy categories, as there is no way of predicting when a player will reach a personal milestone. These categories include hitting for a cycle, no-hitters, shutouts, etc. While the elite level of pitchers are going to have better odds of tossing a shutout, or pitching a complete game, there isn’t enough information out there that can make one think they can call when this type of occurrence is going to happen. So stick to the basics and don’t let the oddball categories steer you off track.

UNDERSTAND A POINT IS A POINT

Unlike Rotisserie leagues where a balanced team will lead to the most fantasy success on most occasions, the points league concept follows a different path. No matter what position your points come from, all points are equal. Whether you get a point from an inning pitched from your starting pitcher or log a point for a single, there is no difference. That is why the distribution of production is not as important to worry about in this format.

If there is a weak spot on your roster, trading away a strength to make a team more balanced isn’t the best approach as the object is to rack up the most points over a given timeframe. It is essential to understand that when making moves, whether via trade or through waiver wire pickups, the goal is to add more points to your lineup, not to shift points around.

For example, there happens to be a few second basemen worth adding on the waiver wire but are sitting on a top-five player at the keystone. If wanting to improve, one would have to deal their second baseman for an upgrade at a weaker area then fill the void with a solid pickup from free agency. This will give you the best chance to produce more points with two new players over the two that have been replaced. Understanding the point potential from both sides, whether to do a trade or not, is essential so that lateral moves are avoided.

WORKING THE WAIVER WIRE

This goes along with the last topic. Remember, the objective is to upgrade your scoring potential, not to even out the point distribution. When there is a hot player on the waiver wire, the majority of the time that player is only contributing in a couple categories, and in points leagues this may end up affecting your judgement when determining if an upgrade is necessary. It is important to understand that depending on whether daily moves or weekly moves are allowed streaming pitchers may be dangerous, as a one-start pitcher may be better to deploy than a pitcher with two starts if your league penalizes heavily for base runners and losses. If that is the case, utilizing the waiver wire to stream pitchers could end up bringing a team down, rather than helping it.

As far as hitters are concerned, players with multiple-position eligibility are important in leagues with daily moves, as this will help accumulate the most points in a given time frame. If in fact daily moves are allowed, playing favorable matchups will increase point potential, especially when dealing with ballpark factors that would affect players that may be available on the waiver wire.

Here’s a sample scoring system for those of you looking to set things up. Remember, you can change the system to anything that you and your friends desire.

Head to Head Point Values

BATTING CATEGORY

POINT VALUE

PITCHING CATEGORY

POINT VALUE

Single

1 point

Win

7 points

Double

2 points

Save

5 points

Triple

3 points

Quality Start

3 points

Home Run

4 points

Strikeout

.5 points

RBI

1 point

Base on Balls

-1 point

Run

1 point

Inning Pitched

3 points

Base on Balls

1 point

Hits Allowed

-1 point

Stolen Base

2 points

Earned Runs

-1 points

Strikeout

-.5 point

Hits Batsman

-1 points

Caught Stealing

-1 point

Loss

-5 points