Sportsline H2H Daily Leagues-Dumbest Game Ever

[CubsRefugee]

I have played Roto and H2H on all the major Internet sites. I recently joined my first Sportsline
H2H Daily (pay) League. Buyer beware! Sportsline's Daily H2H is the dumbest game ever. The
"secret" to winning is to drop most or all of your pitching roster each day and pick up as many
available Free Agents as you can that are starting the next day. In introducing H2H daily leagues,
Sportline has not adjusted the rules from a weekly game to daily, so this is perfectly legal.
Their goofy point system does not sufficiently penalize poor pitching performance vs. getting as
many starts as possible. Forget wasting time trying to assemble a quality pitching staff.
And, there are no limits on drops, adds or starts to control this. So, you end up with a league in total disarray.

To further prove how poorly thought out this game is, the league I started in a couple of weeks
ago began on a Sunday. The weekly H2H scoring periods are Monday through Sunday. Instead of
rolling Sunday into the following week or waiting one more day to start, Sunday's results counted
the same as a full week--just plain unfair and stupid.

Complaints to Sportsline are a waste of time. Their customer service principles are: 1. Don't
bother me, 2. The customer is always wrong, and I told you not to bother me. In spite of their stonewalling, unless they are completely brain-dead I would not be surprised to see them trumpeting a "new and improved" H2H daily format next year.

Even if they fix these issues, I would not like the game unless they also fix their point system. Points for pitching vs. hitting are way too lopsided in favor of pitching. But, that is just my personal taste.

If you are going to play fantasy baseball, you are well advised to pass on Sportsline's H2H daily leagues unless they do major surgery on their rules.

[T-fence92]

I too have got burned by this and yes it sucks!

[WaCougMBS]

I have played Roto and H2H on all the major Internet sites. I recently joined my first Sportsline
H2H Daily (pay) League. Buyer beware! Sportsline's Daily H2H is the dumbest game ever. The
"secret" to winning is to drop most or all of your pitching roster each day and pick up as many
available Free Agents as you can that are starting the next day. In introducing H2H daily leagues,
Sportline has not adjusted the rules from a weekly game to daily, so this is perfectly legal.
Their goofy point system does not sufficiently penalize poor pitching performance vs. getting as
many starts as possible. Forget wasting time trying to assemble a quality pitching staff.
And, there are no limits on drops, adds or starts to control this. So, you end up with a league in total disarray.

To further prove how poorly thought out this game is, the league I started in a couple of weeks
ago began on a Sunday. The weekly H2H scoring periods are Monday through Sunday. Instead of
rolling Sunday into the following week or waiting one more day to start, Sunday's results counted
the same as a full week--just plain unfair and stupid.

Complaints to Sportsline are a waste of time. Their customer service principles are: 1. Don't
bother me, 2. The customer is always wrong, and I told you not to bother me. In spite of their stonewalling, unless they are completely brain-dead I would not be surprised to see them trumpeting a "new and improved" H2H daily format next year.

Even if they fix these issues, I would not like the game unless they also fix their point system. Points for pitching vs. hitting are way too lopsided in favor of pitching. But, that is just my personal taste.

If you are going to play fantasy baseball, you are well advised to pass on Sportsline's H2H daily leagues unless they do major surgery on their rules.

I think any of us that have played in leagues with daily transactions feels your pain, but there are many ways around this problem that you can implement in the future, like start limits or total innings pitched limits. This is not a problem specific to Sportsline, but rather to the set of rules that your league used - unfortunately, you will find streamers on ANY site that uses these rules, as they are doing what any good fantasy GM would do...anything within the rules to win! I'm sorry that you had to learn it the hard way, but you will be a better fantasy GM in the future because of it (or something like that ).

Anyway, I just wanted to point out the difference between the rules being flawed and the website sucking, so you don't rule out one of the better fantasy sites out there for the wrong reason. Hope this helps...

[CubsRefugee]

WaCougMBS,

Your comments are correct up to a point. But, not everyone wants to have to hunt down a custom league or be a commissioner to start such a league. Sportsline is not the only game in town. I will and am playing elsewhere. If customers accept a bad product that is what they will continue to get. There is no excuse for standard rules being so insane, especially in a pay league.

ESPN's standard daily pay H2H leagues limit the number of pitching starts per week to 12. Rather than puny pitching point deductions for earned runs and walks issued, they use ERA and WHIP at fully weighted scoring values. Such rules encourage trying to build and maintain a quality pitching staff rather than merely gunning for the most pitching starts to score points.