H2H Strategy

[Gandalf]

10 team H2H 6x6 adding OPS and pitching losses. 2 UTIL spots
8 keepers

1B Fielder
2B Kinsler
SS Ramirez
3B Wright
OF Bay
OF Quentin
OF
UT Utley
UT

SP Halladay
RP Papelbon

That's nine and I made an offer for Pujols and if not accepted, one will be jettisoned.

My question is this:
With many top SPs being kept (probably cause a few of us have the top bats), is it better to go for 5 closers and just a few low whip SPs like Harden or Halladay, pretty much minimizing Wins and Ks for Losses, Saves, ERA and whip.

[ayebatter]

Well in your 6x6 scoring the idea certainly has some merit, so if you go that way I'd assume that Bay would be your drop if the Pujols trade falls apart.

[kab21]

I think it could work, but SP'ing looks real deep this year. I think you'll be able to put together a good pitching staff with what isn't kept. Another problem with your strategy is that if you get stuck with some of the mediocre closers to make sure that you dominate saves you can get hurt in ERA and WHIP in addition to being last in W's and K's. I think with your offense you can go hard after pitchers in the redraft portion and have a real good staff.

[eftda]

The strategy your looking at works best late in the year. You can't accurately predict/project which closers will dominate in 09 (Expect the elite). If you want to go in this direction you really should have drafted Santana or Lincecum. You need a pitcher who will be lights out every time. Halladay may work but you'll lose more weeks than you'd like. The next step will be to pick up elite long relievers. You do this though out the year, riding hot streaks. This is what my winning playoff pitching staff looked like.

SP: Johan Santana
CL: Trevor Hoffman
CL: Troy Percival
CL: Francisco Rodríguez
RP: Grant Balfour
RP: Frank Francisco
RP: LaTroy Hawkins
RP: Matt Thornton

I drafted a hitter first, then Santana, then more hitters. I grabbed Rodriguez in the 5th and Percival/Hoffman in the early teens. I picked up RP every week and settled with the above. By the end of the year I made 72 transactions mostly RP.

[The Artful Dodger]

A reliever-intensive strategy works fine in H2H, but the thing to keep in mind is that relievers with potentially good ratios can be recovered in free agency. Guys like Hong-Chih Kuo, Taylor Buchholz, and Brad Ziegler were likely to go undrafted last season, but wound up being very useful. No need to touch upon the turnover in closers over the course of the season.

Personally, I'm the opposite: develop a very good starting rotation and spend reasonably on RP's. The more appearances you get from your quality starters, the likely your ERA and WHIP will be competitive enough barring any glaring fluctuations while keeping you in line for a volatile category such as wins.