Is this draft strategy any good? WHIR

[nnamssub3]

I'm in a 10-team H2H league(its not a keeper nor a dynasty). Categories are 6X5 (commissioner added walks to the hitting category) I was thinking of drafting the top 4-5 hitters that are available the first 4-5 rounds. I would neglect starting pitching and when rounds 5-7 came around, i would take the top closers available. I feel if i can win 5 hitting categories every week on top of saves, I'll win every week. Also, the league is set up as we only have a 7IP minimum. All I would need to do is find one good SP to start every week and hope to win ERA and WHIP on top of saves. My closers will hopefully keep my ERA and WHIP down(I know that on occasion they may blow a save). Any suggestions on this strategy? Any advice is appreciated. WHIR

[Brendo]

by the time you pick in round 6, the top closers may be off the board, especially in a h2h.
That would leave you clutching to your strategy with Jose Valverde and Francisco Cordero.

Dicey.

[j24jags]

Yea also, there's no gurantee you'll win 5 batting categories. Even if you grab what you think is the best combination of power and speed (Pujols, Sizemore, Rollins, Atkins for example), there will be times they have bad weeks and if that happens in the playoffs you'd be done. Your response will be "That could happen to anyone," and you're right except they'd be able to count on their pitching to win 2-3 categories.

[citti34]

If you make 0 trades, you'll end up in the middle of the pack. Punting categories can get very dangerous, and I've personally never seen anyone do it successfully (win it all). I know that there are those people out there, the same people who've won every league ever and have the biggest hog ever.

[ondeckb]

Yanno......the beauty of H2H to me is how it actually feels like baseball. You compete against another team every week.....with ALL of your stat categories a factor in your success. The only strategy I've ever used, and with a lot of success, is a balanced one. To try to cherrypick some cats trying to outsmart the game seems slightly perverted to me......

[tinfoilxtouch]

Anything is possible, but it just isn't probable.

I actually saw a guy in 5x5 h2h decide to pick only pitchers, except for Ichiro. His plan was to pick his best starts from his dozen aces, start five closers, and win all of his pitching stats every week. Ichiro would win BA for him most weeks, as he'd get a high average from a good game or two, then bench him. It actually got him into the playoffs as the sixth seed, where he was a hit by Ichiro away from making the second round. Go figure.

[rainman23]

Actually, there are so many guys who refuse to draft pitching early that waiting four or five rounds isn't really that unusual. Your offense won't be unusually strong. And even with a hellacious offense you can't count on sweeping the hitting columns every week. Personally I think both the all-relievers and the churning starters strategies are exceptionally lame. Devices like this take the challenge out of the game, which to me is building the strongest team top to bottom that you can. Too bad they didn't bump that 7 inning minimum to something reasonable.

[tinfoilxtouch]

My 12-team, 5x5 H2H hitting last season:

C- McCann
1b- Pujols
2b- Utley
3b- Aram
SS- Young
OF- Crawford, Bay, Holliday
Util- Ortiz

I lost in the playoffs because I couldn't sweep hitting

There are no sure-things for sweeping cats.

[krtemn]

While I agree with your point, your post doesn't ring true . I would LOVE to know how you manged to draft (get) 3 first round picks (pujols,crawford, ortiz) & three second round picks( bay (often rnd 1pick) Utely & Young (also often rnd 1 last yr) . Were there only 2 teams in your h2h last yr???

[krtemn]

While I agree with your point, your post doesn't ring true . I would LOVE to know how you manged to draft (get) 3 first round picks (pujols,crawford, ortiz) & three second round picks( bay (often rnd 1pick) Utely & Young (also often rnd 1 last yr) . Were there only 2 teams in your h2h last yr???