H2H Draft Strategies?

[davdav]

Hey! So I am in a ten team, 5x5, FAAB, H2H keeper league (we don't keep anyone for this year), and was wondering if anyone has some good H2H draft/season strategies. Our league does have one weird rule that 6 minimum SP starts are required each week to qualify for ERA and WHIP.

Anyway, one strategy that peaked my interest was to draft really heavy on hitters with a few SP, punt saves, and then pickup some 2 start guys every week. I dunno.

Anyone have a good one?

[thejusman1]

In a 5x5, I'd hate to punt saves as it's 1/10th of all categories. That's tough to stomach all year. Just draft a few closers, do your due diligence during the season, and after the trade deadline you should have a solid bullpen.

In a ten-team league, you definitely want to target elite hitters early and often. SP is deep this year, so you can afford to target sluggers and draft SP later. And I do mean sluggers - I find HR/RBI guys who hit for a good average much more valuable and consistent than SB guys, especially in H2H. You should have enough SB if you choose guys with power and speed early in the draft and just get maybe one SB-specialist on your bench towards the end of the draft.

[ayebatter]

Bats - lots of hr/r/rbi, screw the average, sb on the bench for the weeks you play a team that has 'em
Arms - starters on good teams with lots of K's, draft lots of saves

if you're going to 'punt' anything make it the ratio cats (ba/era/whip) as you can still have decent #s on any given week.

[kab21]

I don't really like the idea of punting any category before draft day. I am willing to wait on stats like SB's and saves for later in the draft and focus heavily on the other 8 categories. but definitely not willing to punt.

[MTUCache]

I don't really like the idea of punting any category before draft day. I am willing to wait on stats like SB's and saves for later in the draft and focus heavily on the other 8 categories. but definitely not willing to punt.

"Punting" takes on a different light when it's a H2H league... Assuming that even the best team only has a 75% chance of winning a given category one week, almost regardless of rosters, you're going to be losing categories nearly every week anyway. I don't have too much of a problem planning to do that, as long as you're giving yourself a significant edge in the other categories. Voluntarily giving away that 25% chance to win Saves or SB, simply because you don't want to put the energy into those categories, is asinine... and it's certainly not going to make up for it by giving you that big of an edge in the other categories.

I really don't see "punting saves" in H2H as a viable strategy, simply because it's not going to give you an edge in the draft. The spots where you would have drafted those mid-tier closers is barely going to make the difference between winning HR/RBI/R/AVG 8 out of 10 weeks instead of 7 out of 10 (i.e. maybe 4 points over 10 weeks), and in the meantime you're willingly giving up a point all 10 of those weeks that you might have won 2 or 3 times just by accident.

There's a difference between "punting" saves and drafting three or four bottom-tier closers and then watching the WW closely during the season.

Same situation with SB... any team can add a Rajai Davis in the 20th round and suddenly have a 40% chance of winning that category. Especially in a 10-team league, where at least a handful of speed guys are going to go undrafted. Draft any well-rounded team and keep a guy like this on your bench and you don't have to punt.

Let's face it.... H2H is easy if you're paying attention. See what your opponent has, concede what you can't win, know what you will probably win, and then throw everything you've got into the categories which are undecided. Make as many roster moves as you need with your bench, and just by winning 6.5/10 categories every week you'll be in the playoffs.

There's a difference between being relaxed about a category (like AVG, ERA, WHIP), and completely punting it.

[goldtop]

Im in a 10 team H2H mixed. Guess I got the short straw and im drafting in the 10 spot. Many of the players I feel excited about will be gone at this point. If that holds true, how crippling would it be to draft 3rd base at 10 AND 11? I should mention we have 2 utility slots.
With third base so weak this year is anyone using this strategy?

[MTUCache]

Im in a 10 team H2H mixed. Guess I got the short straw and im drafting in the 10 spot. Many of the players I feel excited about will be gone at this point. If that holds true, how crippling would it be to draft 3rd base at 10 AND 11? I should mention we have 2 utility slots.
With third base so weak this year is anyone using this strategy?

I used this strategy last year in my 12-team H2H league, knowing that 3B was shallow. I ended up drafting 4 3B, two of which were multi-position players. I was pretty unpopular with the rest of the league, until the trade offers started rolling in. I ended up flipping Sandoval for Kemp somehow (early on, and other players were involved), and really put a stranglehold on the rest of the league after that.

Anyway... 10/11 isn't so bad. Getting two out of the three of AGon/Crawford/Wright is a nice start, and then backing them up with a #1SP and a top-flight OF (Holliday/Lee/Cruz/Choo) makes for a pretty solid start that I'd be happy to have in just about any format. You definitely don't need two 3B to start with, but I'd say you definitely need to get one in your first four picks. Seeing as how neither Zimm or Youk will fall to your #3 pick, I'd probably hope for Wright at #11 or make a decision about grabbing Beltre early at #31 (way early for my tastes).

[AKhomebrewer]

I'm just going to agree with the general consensus thus far ... don't punt (at least not consciously, at the draft ... you can always punt a cat in a given week - if you run into a six-closer opponent, for example). Sometimes a hot stretch from a couple of lower-tiered closers is enough to make the difference for that week.
Load up on the hitters early; power/speed combos first, then look to power. There's a lot of good pitching available later, along with the sb specialist, especially in a 10-teamer. Speaking of 10-teamers ... that's a small league (at least, smaller than I've played in). You probably have fewer position scarcity concerns than those in larger leagues, unless you're dealing with CI/MI spots or a 2-catcher issue. So don't get hung up on filling positions while passing on solid stats elsewhere.
And don't sweat the last pick ... in this shallow a league, there's going to be a lot of juice available.