Roto League Strategies

I'm sitting here today thinking about my article on winning CBS H2H and I thought I might as well lay out for you my strategies in roto leagues. Now most people go into a roto league draft trying to win every category. Some people go into the draft wanting to compete in every category. Some people go into a draft trying to win every offensive category or every pitching category. What I try to do is dominate about four categories and be above average in the rest. The categories I like to control are R, HR, RBI, and WHIP. I spend a good part of my draft stocking up on 100 R, 30 HR, 100 RBI guys and pitchers with a WHIP under 1.25. If I can get 12 points in all of those categories and get 7,8,9 from the others, I'm a happy guy. The thing is you don't want to dominate these categories too much. You don't want to be too far ahead an any categories late in the year. This means that you spent too much on that category that could have gone to use in another.

Do you know what happens to people that try to win every category? They wind up being average in all of them. They might get a couple of 10's in certain categories, maybe even an 11 in one, but that's not going to compete when I have four 12's. The guys who try to just compete in every category end up being extremely average with 7's and 8's across the board. The guys who trying to win all hitting and all pitching end up being to poor in the other categories and can't contend.

People think you need a bunch of 5 tool guys on your team. While having a 5 tool guy is certainly nice you don't need to try to cover every category with every pick. You can get SB cheap and late in drafts, same thing with HR. I stock up on my huge 30 HR, 100 RBI guys early and get steals cheap and late. Then for my pitchers, I get a bunch of good WHIP guys who are undervalued or the John Maine, Tim Lincecum, Rich Hill guys in the 10-14 rounds who will keep me above average in the rest of the categories.

Now this didn't work for me in my Fantasy Baseball Mafia League 25 draft. The draft dictates your strategy not the other way around. In that draft, all of the big hitters where going early. I couldn't get many of the 30 HR, 100 RBI guys that I wanted. But while hitters going early I was stocking up on some of the best pitchers in the league. So my team is a little reversed this year. I have WHIP, K, hopefully W's, and SB locked up. Yet, I still was able to stay above average in rest of my categories. I'm a little worried because it's not my normal looking team but I think a very good one nonetheless.

Listen guys, I'm not telling you that what I say is going to win you your league. I'm telling you what has worked for me and what would be my advice for you. I'm not saying this is the way that it has to be. I'm simply trying to give you my opinions and some options you can look into.