Carrying Bench Hitters in Various Formats

[LMack]

C - 1B - 2B - 3B - SS - OF - OF - OF - UTIL - 5 P - 4 Bench - Standard 5x5.

What is your opinion on stashing hitters on your bench? In daily roto leagues vs daily H2H leagues?
I've read that some hitters on the bench in roto can help, while grabbing hitters on your bench in a H2H league is discouraged. Discuss

[Grounded Polo]

I don't carry bench hitters in H2H unless I have a position that isn't solidified or a guy is hurt but not on the DL.

I generally have a even split in roto. There's no point in loading up on starters with a innings cap and trying to guess the favorable matchups can be overkill. I'll stash some bench hitters to see if any emerge.

[heyeaglefn]

Depending how my team is built for H2H, I may carry one speed guy who can get me stolen bases on my bench, usually an outfield guy to sub in if needed.

[LMack]

I generally have a even split in roto. There's no point in loading up on starters with a innings cap and trying to guess the favorable matchups can be overkill. I'll stash some bench hitters to see if any emerge.

My problem with carrying hitters in roto is that at the end of the year, one of my bench hitters could finish .285/.307/.425 but the day I play him he always seems to go 0-3 with a sac fly.

[Grounded Polo]

I generally have a even split in roto. There's no point in loading up on starters with a innings cap and trying to guess the favorable matchups can be overkill. I'll stash some bench hitters to see if any emerge.

My problem with carrying hitters in roto is that at the end of the year, one of my bench hitters could finish .285/.307/.425 but the day I play him he always seems to go 0-3 with a sac fly.

That's part of the game that we play.

Why bother with 8 starters in a standard 1250 innings yahoo cap?

[LMack]

Why bother with 8 starters in a standard 1250 innings yahoo cap?

Yeah I suppose thats the truth. I guess I'll end up grabbing some younger players and seeing if they pan out.

[BALCO All-Stars]

I don't carry bench hitters in H2H unless I have a position that isn't solidified or a guy is hurt but not on the DL.

I generally have a even split in roto. There's no point in loading up on starters with a innings cap and trying to guess the favorable matchups can be overkill. I'll stash some bench hitters to see if any emerge.

This.

I like to carry extra SP in h2h for the innings boost each week. But I like to keep high upside guys on my bench (hitters and/or pitchers) in roto due to the max IP limit...I.e. No reason to dilute my pitching stats in a limited IP environment and i want to max out my games played for my hitters.

[MTUCache]

Utilizing my bench properly is probably my weakest area in fantasy. I'm the type of guy who tends to draft the lineup he wants and only varies from it when forced to (injury, loss of job, or glaring matchup problems).

I can see where keeping a specialist guy (most likely an OF-SB guy) on the bench is going to be a big plus in a daily H2H league, where you can plug him in the second half of the week and have a good chance at taking a category for nothing.

In daily lineup leagues I can also see carrying an extra C so you can keep your counting stats up with all those extra days off.

Mostly though, I'm all about stashing potential closers. In a league with the positions you've listed I'm probably going to be carrying 4 starters and 5 relievers (hopefully 3 full-time closers and 2 in waiting). Depending on the starters I might even go as low as 3 starters and 6 relievers if I feel I can keep my innings up (not likely with only 5P spots though). In a more typical league, where you're starting up to 9 pitchers on top of your bench spots, I'll probably carry 7+ CL/MR and only 1 or 2 bench hitters, both of whom are probably hit-or-miss prospects as well.

In much deeper leagues where you're looking at 400+ players on rosters, instead of 200-300, I could see the value of insuring your team with more stable talent... but for a league this small I really don't see any value in holding a guy on your bench who's completely replaceable by a dozen guys on the WW.

[da bears]

I like to have one hitter on the bench that typically plays a lot of different positions(DeRosa or Wiggington) so I can almost always insert him in if he is playing on an off day in my head to head leagues. Don't play roto but agree with other poster who said no point in loading up on pitchers like many of us do in head to head.

[moochman]

I also like to carry a hitter who multi-position availability to insert on days off. I also like to have a slot devoted to players who may blow up, or just blow. That allows me a cutable player for any injury coverage or waiver wire wonders. As the season progresses I learn where my weaknesses are and adjust my roster to cover my sloppy drafting.