We've all been there. Waking up with a vague memory of the night before. You glance around the room, see your pants on the floor and remember... something?. What did you do? When the sexy stranger comes back to the bedroom you think "I won." However you've also lost. Why? Other than the fact that you forgot all about your wild night of passion you realize that your life is spiraling out of control as the once a year bender has become a bi-weekly event. I feel that same way - sort of aimlessly adrift - when I play head to head (H2H) fantasy baseball. 

If you're one of the nineteen people left who doesn't play fantasy football understand this. Matchups are for one week only in a head to head battle. Whomever has more points gets the win that week. There's one huge failing in H2H. It makes no sense to me for you to be in a 12-team league, to score the second most points in the league in any given week, and end up with a “loss” because you happened to face the team with the most points that week. You beat 10 other teams but you're 0-1. That seem fair to you? 

What if we pull back from the weekly battle and take a broader view. Let's say you end up missing the playoffs in fantasy baseball because your team is 9-13 even though you've scored more points than all but one team. It happens all that time. Again, I ask, does that seem fair to you? I advocate that leagues go by total points – i.e. rotisserie style – as the best way to judge success or failure in the fantasy game. Weekly matchups just bring too much uncertainty to the table. A few poignant points. 

(1) Baseball is a marathon with a 162 game season. H2H turns that marathon into a sprint. That's just wrong. Fantasy baseball shouldn't be played based on some artificially contrived session of a weekly match up where the team that wins might simply be maximizing playing time. More on that below.

(2) Andrew McCutchen is a superstar, but even though we 'know' that we have no idea how he will perform game to game, week to week, month to month. McCutchen had no homers in May last season. Check out his August: seven RBIs, 10 runs, no steals. If you are playing in a H2H match up what happens if McCutchen hits .450 with three homers and 10 RBI in week one? You’ll likely win that week. What happens though if he hits .150 with no homers and no RBI the following week? You would likely loose that week. Still, if McCutchen followed this unlikely pattern, alternating fantastic and disappointing efforts, he would end the year batting .300 with roughly 39 homers and 130 RBI. That’s a phenomenal season that would make him the fantasy MVP. However, in H2H he’d be a killer to your club in those 13 of 26 weeks that he disappeared. Potentially the best hitter in baseball would be a total failure 50 percent of the time in a H2H setup. 

(3) Would you ever draft John Lackey over Madison Bumgarner? That’s like saying you would prefer to cuddle up with Meryl Streep or Jessica Alba? However, in a H2H scenario that might be a situation that would lead you to start Lackey over MadBum (there is no scenario with Streep over Alba). What if Bumgarner pitches once in Colorado and Lackey has two starts in San Diego and San Francisco? We've all had this decision to make - starting an inferior pitcher merely cause he is making two starts. Does going Lackey make any sense? Of course it doesn’t, not if we are attempting to have the fantasy game reflect reality. We’re sometimes “forced” to go with an inferior pitcher merely because we need the starts to keep up with an opponent in the H2H format. In this instance we’re not rewarding the fantasy owner who rostered the player with the best skill, we’re merely rewarding those that were first two the waiver-wire to add a 2-start pitcher for the coming week. There isn’t any skill in doing that, not when you're just trolling for starts.

(4) H2H pretty much invalidates the draft. Why? Any pitcher you take in rounds 20+ who has a bad three weeks, you're dumping them. There's no incentive in H2H to keep an arm around if he's struggling. You can bide your time in rotisserie, but in H2H, where you have to win this week, how long do you hold out? You know what Corey Kluber's numbers were after two weeks last year? Mr. Cy Young was 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA and 1.71 WHIP. You likely would have dumped him in a H2H setting. Innings matter in H2H, so pretty much any pitcher who isn't in your top-5 starters can be dropped in any week to either (A) add a pitcher with a better matchup or (B) add a pitcher who is making two starts. I simply can't support a system that invalidates the draft as this one does.

H2H is one of the worst trends to hit fantasy baseball – ever. If you want to go soft and set your lineup once a week instead of on a daily basis while playing rotisserie baseball I can live with that. However, if you want to make baseball a one week matchup game where you take on a single opponent each week - I'm out. If you think it makes sense to play a game where it's all about volume and note about skills? I'm out. If you think you're gonna change my mind about this, well, I'm gonna have to sneak out of the room, just like I did on Saturday morning when my "date" went to make us some coffee.