I Hate Head-to-Head Leagues
I hate them. I hate head-to-head leagues. I won’t win a single one this year. And, obviously I’m not saying I had the best team in all five of those leagues, but I figured I’d win at least one of them.
Nope.
This is the lineup of my team that I figured would win it all (12-team H2H):
| C | Carlos Santana * | SP | CC Sabathia | |
| 1B | Joey Votto * | SP | Yu Darvish | |
| 2B | Dustin Pedroia * | RP | Tom Wilhelmsen | |
| 3B | Brett Lawrie * | RP | Ernesto Frieri | |
| SS | Jose Reyes * | P | Steve Cishek | |
| OF | Carlos Gonzalez * | P | Frank Francisco | |
| OF | Mike Trout | P | Kris Medlen | |
| OF | Jayson Werth | BN | Andy Pettitte | |
| Util | Justin Morneau | BN | Anibal Sanchez | |
| BN | Jason Kipnis | BN | Streamer | |
| BN | Matt Joyce |
I mean come on man. It wasn’t even like I had catastrophic injuries to my entire lineup in the semi-finals or anything. Just a few missed games from Carlos Gonzalez, a little slow down from Mike Trout, some oh-fers from the rest of the lineup… honestly, I don’t even know what to take away from this loss. Maybe I could have had better pitching early in the season, but you can see my six keepers, and going into this year it didn’t seem like it was worth keeping a pitcher (Cole Hamels) over these guys. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have kept Carlos Santana. Maybe that’s enough to separate a winner from a loser in head-to-head.
It’s still a good enough team to win. And this isn’t about sour grapes, this is about the nature of the game. Build the best roto team, and you win. Roto was the original fantasy game, and it represents the tradition of accruing stats and winning over the large sample. Build the best head-to-head team, and you’ll make the playoffs. Who knows what will happen after. That makes head-to-head the newcomer, the one with more luck built-in, the long-sample game with a short-sample conclusion.
And that’s why I hate it. I mean I love it. But I hate it. It’s brutal some years. Some years you won’t get your hands on a title despite pairing Mike Trout and Carlos Gonzalez in your outfield. Shouldn’t the best team win?
Proponents of the setup say they love the head-to-head competition, and the trash talk. And it’s impossible to ignore the fact that head-to-head mirrors real life the best. You can build a great team, but who knows what will happen in the playoffs. And, judging from the end of the day that happened in the home league of Amazin Avenue’s Chris McShane, head-to-head can mimic the excitement of those real-life playoffs, with nail-biting end-of-seat frantic refreshing:
When the Reds-Dodgers game began, the only players that were left in our matchup were Dodgers relief pitchers. I had Kenley Jansen. Michael had Ronald Belisario and Brandon League. …
In short, strikeouts, saves, and WHIP were up for grabs. … So we were down to a battle of the bullpen. With the Dodgers ahead by four in the seventh inning, Jansen came on. He walked the first batter he faced, nearly killing me, but struck out each of the next three Reds hitters. My Beans went from trialing strikeouts by one to leading them by two.
Belisario pitched the eighth inning. He struck out one and allowed one hit, a two-run bomb. For the purposes of our matchup, what mattered was the fact that it was one hit against Tony Plush’s WHIP and the fact that it turned the ninth inning into a save situation for Brandon League. If League recorded just one strikeout and got the save, the entire matchup would come down to a battle of WHIP.
League struck out the first batter he faced. The next batter grounded out, and I accepted the fact that my fantasy season was very likely over. At that moment, Michael had tied me in strikeouts, was about to tie me in saves, and held a lead of .002 in WHIP. But Joey Votto, who plays for Michael’s team, came up with two outs and drew a walk. Tony Plush’s WHIP swung back above that of the Beans, and when League retired the next batter to end the game, my Beans’ margin of victory in WHIP was .006.
Somehow, this was almost an exact repeat of last year’s first round, in which my team beat Michael’s team 6-5-2 and won WHIP by .034.
I love that last detail. As rare as that Dodgers-bullpen-watching moment felt for McShane in the moment, he had to admit — it happened just last year, with the same managers beating a hole into the same walls with the same spot on their heads. And just as angry as I am about losing most of my head-to-head leagues (I only have a third-place game and consolation tournament final on the line now, but at least that one’s for the #1 pick in the draft), I did have a few exciting matchups that went down to ties on the final day.
So this is why we hate head-to-head leagues and yet we love head-to-head leagues. This is why I still play about half my leagues in head-to-head, and this is why I’m so glad I have some roto leagues left to win. But then again, I have to play all sorts of leagues, just to stay on top of different players in different settings. If I had to play one league, it might be one of those head-to-head/roto hybrids with two winners — one regular season roto champ, and one head-to-head playoffs champ.
Then again, one of those winners has to get more juice. So, people playing the H2H/roto hybrid leagues out there — which trophy matters more? Which format do most of you prefer?
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
I completely agree. Roto setups are inherently more consistent in terms of producing a valid winner, but I have a tough time finding guys who are willing to pay attention during a 20+ week fantasy baseball season without the thrill of head-to-head matchups. I love the trash talk and personal aspect of it all, but week to week statistics (SMALL SAMPLE SIZE!) are extremely volatile and a couple of piss-poor weeks can be the difference between a playoff berth and an embarrassing consolation ladder finish. I lost my first matchup of the year 11-1-0, because my opponent had Matt Kemp and Derek Jeter. I lost another 10-1-1 within the next two weeks. Despite finishing above these guys in a potential roto setup (I added up the categories myself), I missed out on the playoffs because of a garbage two week stretch that saw me 19 games below .500.
It’s not as simple a conversion as “adding up” the stats from a H2H league because people make decisions about who to start precisely because it IS a H2H league.
In my 10 team mixed h2h league, the team with the best record of the regular season gets the lion’s share of the money, while the regular season runner-up and the winner of the playoffs each get a small cut of the pot. 8 teams make the playoffs, so it’s basically a consolation prize to keep the bottom teams interested all season. This year I won the regular season, earned a quick exit from the playoffs, and am now watching the 5th and 7th place teams duke it out for the “championship.”
How does the 7th place team even make the playoffs? Sounds like a garbage league. I hope it’s not for money 🙂
Sam: We do something similar. The first place team at the end of the season (before the playoffs start) plays for free the following year. Here’s the kicker, the last place team pays for them. This has kept everyone active throughout the entire year and we no longer have those guys who ignore their team because they are out of it.
I’m in a H2H league but we just forgo the playoffs. We play regular season weekly matchups all the way through, and best record at the end of the season is the winner.
I think it’s a pretty good system. It gives you the volatility and excitement of H2H weekly matchups, but it’ll even out some over the season.
not a bad idea
I like this, what website gives you this option?
Yahoo
There is a no playoffs option? Must have missed that one. Good to know.
I have made the playoffs 5 times in the last 6 years. All five times I have finished in the top 3. Not once have I been able to get past the 2nd round. It’s at the point where I have to question if I am cursed.
I think what I detest most about H2H is how success can boil down to who is at a computer at the right time in order to get the best streamers for the following day or week.
Just do weekly rosters instead of daily.
174 – 106 – 14
C: W. Rosario
1B: A. Gonzalez
2B: J. Keppinger
3B: E. Encarnación
MI: D. Solano
CI: E. Hosmer
OF: A. McCutchen
OF: M. Bourn
OF: M. Trout
OF: J. Jay
UTL: J. Pacheco
UTL: L. Cain
DL: Tulo
P: Luke Gregerson
P: J Broxton
P: F. Rodney
P: G. Balfour
P: M. Bumgarner
P: A. Sanchez
P: D. Price
P: J. Peavy
P: D. Fister
P: M. Estrada
P: A. Cashner
Lost in the 1st round vs a guy who went 120 – 140 – 26
Kill me, please.
How many teams in the league/how many make the playoffs?
12 team, i dont remember but probably half the teams qualify, i dont have any ties to it, just a last minute league i decided to join
Roto is better for identifying the best team. H2H is more fun. I play H2H.
Precisely. If you like rivalries and a little bit of trash-talking and heightened competitive spirit, H2H is where it’s at. Plus, you know, I could never figure out why someone would spend a lot of effort into setting up a league structure that most closely reflects what happens on the field and players’ true talent levels and then put together a team that doesn’t actually, well, *play anyone*.
Um, in ROTO you “play everyone” in the league. Roto is so much better to determine the actual best team that I stopped playing head to head years ago.
Your pitching staff is junk.
yeah could be. Hamels would have helped push those guys lower and I could have mixed and matched at catcher. I guess that’s what I would learn from this. But I don’t think CC (was Sale and Parker), Yu, and Medlen is a bad 1-3. And I did fine in saves.
A counterpoint, and not in praise of H2H leagues, but instead to piss on roto leagues:
Bad draft? If you can’t wheel and deal and sell some junk in the first six weeks, your season’s over. Well, what can you do? If it’s a keeper league, start trading for next year, and maybe your young kids will get a little feisty later on in the year. Not a keeper league? Start planning your fantasy football draft.
Great draft? Did your team come screaming out of the gate and you now have 50% more points than everyone else six weeks in? Pff, barring a Homer-at-the-bat level of catastrophe befalling your team, kick back and enjoy the ride because you’ve got first place sewn up.
Roto leagues have the highest level of quitting from teams that are behind because, whether or not it is actually possible to come back into contention when you’re in the bottom half of the league two months in, it sure *seems* like it is. Roto leagues are bad for the psyche.
I think there’s a little more movement than this in roto leagues. I’m in a roto league with three guys (none were the first half rabbit) within one point, all scrapping in the final days.
Perhaps this is the difference between the kinds of roto leagues internet baseball writers find themselves in and the kinds I’ve found myself in. 😉
I am in an AL only and a NL only roto leagues. Really competitive and my 2 favorite leagues. I started poorly in my AL and was in last into May. Me and 2 others are fighting for first and we swap positions everyday! Most stressful league I’v ever played in. Half the league has forgotten it exists though, I will agree with that!
My roto league last season had the 7th place guy on July 25th win the league.
Yow, what happened? Massive injuries among the top guys, too many Red Sox, Mets, Braves; combined with extremely shrewd management on the eventual winner?
He had Ellsbury, Doug Fister, and Cliff Lee
And Dan Uggla
It’s certainly not impossible to come back from last place two months into the season. I’ve done it before a couple times, it just takes some some skill, research, and, sometimes, a bit of luck. Remember you still have 4 months left at that point, baseball is a LONG game.
I was in a linear-weights 20-team H2H league where I ended up with the #1 overall seed. In the first round of the playoffs, I have my worst week of the season and lose bigtime. At least I won’t have the last pick next year…
Fantasy isn’t fun for me unless I’m competing against someone. Roto is boring, like a time trial. Lame.
Most things that require effort are not “fun” for the general public. They would rather that luck prevail in outcomes.
Hence: Monopoly and the Game of Life.
Tried one for the first time this season. Am in the finals, against the only team I thought was better than mine at the start of the year. So it’s worked out, but I totally understand that there is a lot of luck involved come playoff time in particular.
Prefer the roto style, but I think head-to-head can be good if you’re really busy and don’t have much time to put into a league.
Poor poor Ben.
I enjoy the random variation in my H2H league because it’s a dynasty league that models real baseball pretty well. The rebuilding teams would NEVER pay attention if it was roto. With that said, my team would have wracked up a league leading 151 points in a 14 category league. The next highest was 140. Of course H2H and our categories change what some owners would do but here is the lineup I lost with.
C: Grandal (W.Ramos, Soto)
1B: Fielder (Adrian Gonzalez)
2B: Platoon of Ryan Roberts/Gordon Beckham/J. Weeks
3B: Ryan Zimmerman
SS: Troy Tulowitzki (Bonifiacio) – This is clearly a major reason I lost. I played without a SS for a long period of time.
OF: Braun, McCutchen, Bruce
UTL: Adrian Gonzalez (Bonifacio)
SP – David Price, RA Dickey, Jordan Zimmerman, Colby Lewis, Chris Tillman, Jeff Niemann, Jon Lester, Anthony Bass
CL – Chapman, Motte, Soriano
HLD – Sean Burrnett, Pedro Strop, Marc Rzepczynski
Misc – Javir Lopez, Koji Uehara
Ugh.
This year, my H2H team was far more exciting each week than my roto teams, because my pitching in roto pushed me down to the bottom early in the year (Lincecum as an anchor of 2 roto staffs? Seemed like a good idea at the time!). Then, after battling into 1st to start playoffs and competing against the 8th place team who was starting a terrible offense and only decent pitching, I lost the first round based entirely on the matchup’s starting pitchers. My competitor was able to get enough 2-start pitchers to pitch 9 games, against my 5.
The playoffs in H2H try to mirror the unpredictability of real life, but they also happen at a time of year where real teams are expanding rosters and resting the star players and leaning on useless bench pieces more. I can imagine an H2H league being a little more ‘like real life’ if playoff matchups lasted a little longer than the standard week, maybe 10 days or 2 weeks, to spice things up a big.
I also like the idea of giving incentive to the consolation ladder. In my league, if you don’t win 1st place you may as well try to lose it all so that you can get the 1st draft pick the next year. No incentive has made it difficult for me to care about my team in the last several weeks.
You and every other league need to get the hell away from 2 start pitchers. Why should a team get more starts than another? Set a weekly limit on starts (7 works great). 2 start pitchers being an advantage is the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.
I like to do just one or two H2H leagues each year just for the fun of it. The 2 or 3 leagues I do focus on, however, are my roto’s. I think you just have to approach each format with the right mindset. Don’t pour tons of work into drafting/acquiring the best possible team for H2H before the first game of the season even starts – you have to go in a little more relaxed and ready to make key adjustments on the fly. However in roto leagues I go nuts all offseason preparing draft materials and projections in order to field the best possible team from day one.
I play in 10 team mixed H2H league with a $50 dollar buy in and 6 teams make the playoffs. The payouts are as follows:
$275 first place regular season
$50 second place regular season
$150 playoff winner
$25 second place playoffs
I like the structure of rewarding the better teams over the long haul yet still having a prize for the playoffs. The guy with the best team actually won both this year. I probably had the second best team and came out of the league with a 4th place regular season and 3rd place playoffs (narrowingly losing to the 1 seed in the semifinals). So, very disappointing. Here’s my team:
C: Napoli (Rosario and Lucroy when he was on the DL)
1B: Fielder
2B: Hill
SS: Zobrist
3B: Longoria
OF: Braun, Stanton, Holliday
Util: Headley
BN: Ellsbury
SPs: Lee, Shields, Gio, Waino, Niese, Sanchez, Stream
RPs: Perez, Perkins, Bailey, Broxton
I had an overall playoff record of 24-7-2 yet didn’t make the big dance. I swept the first round, lost 6-4-1 in the second (offense decided not to show up this week), and then won 9-1-1 in the third place game.
We have the same sort of payout structure but have included fines for the two last place finishers. The bottom four places have a “playoff” for the fines. We also charge transaction fees.
Roto is better for identifying the best team. Roto is more fun. I only play one H2H league because match winners get good beer. Ties means both sides get beer. In 2 long term keeper roto leagues 1ea AL & NL only I’m in the money, in H2H in dead last.
H2H is more fun and I feel it requires more managing (spot starters, maximizing your line-up, minimizing your line-up, etc.) because you know what to do by the end of each week. I’ve picked up spot hitters before, just for Saturday/Sundays, when I was losing a category like steals or home runs. I picked up Tony Campana several times this season just to win steals on the last day of the week. Yeah, you can get unlucky, but I manage to consistently place in the top 3 every year. I’m in two H2H leagues right now, and I’m in the finals in both. It’s not impossible.
Winning OR Losing due to luck and random factors != more fun
Being rewarded for 6 months of work with victory, rather than having it stolen from you by someone who “got lucky one week” != fun
You must play with some crap competition if you are placing in the top3 every season.
Second
In one of my H2H leagues I ended up playing the only team that beat me twice in the regular season in the second round of the playoffs where I finished first and had a bye, so he was going to win a tiebreaker. You can guess what happened after that.
I would have won 6-5-1 except I started the wrong relievers over the weekend. Oh well. At least I’m in the finals in another league.
H2H is crap-o-la…
I lost a league in the semifinals one year because of Hurricane Ike. The next week in the finals I would have beaten both teams in the finals combined.
H2H categories is pure garbage. At the very least you should be playing the H2H league as a points league. I’ve been running one on Yahoo using the TT linear weights points from here, and it’s fantastic.
Just need an innings limit in Yahoo H2H and it would be nearly perfect. And you won’t lose 1/10th of your week just because Braun decided to steal 3 bags in one game.
As an aside, I won that league this year with this team.
McCann
Fielder
Hill
Headley
Rutledge
A-Jax
Ludwick
DeAza
Beltran
Willingham
Swisher
Mayberry
Stanton
Bautista
Ortiz
Weaver
Gallardo
Dempster
Darvish
Cain
Holland
(Limited to 6 starters SP slot starters)
Janssen
Holland
Estrada
Wade Davis
(we force 4RP eligible pitchers to be rostered)
I had samardizja and chapman instead of estrada and davis, who were both shut down in the playoffs 🙁 fwiw
I agree 100% with you, Eno. I hate that one week (or two weeks in some formats) can claim your entire season. A trophy in roto/points much more to me than in a coin-toss/h2h league. They are still fun to play but my preference is pretty obvious.
I’d be in H2H finals this week if i hadn’t started Halladay with his worst start ever , who knew.
i feel your pain eno. i just lost in the semis after being more than 20 games up the entire second half of the season. oh, and i had braun and trout in my outfield. that will never happen again.
I feel your pain and raise you Eno’s. I’ve been playing fantasy baseball for three years; I’ve finished with the best or second best record each time, and lost in the first playoff round every season. Not only that, all three losses were to the same guy.
It’s a cold cruel world.
I’d like H2H leagues if the match-ups went longer to smooth out potential abnormalities and allow for more managing. There’s enough games in season to allow it. Why not play someone once for three weeks rather than three times for one week?
I am in a H2H league about to wrap up the championship but I would have won in roto as well.
Made a few (dumb) trades (Reyes and Lynn for Greinke) (Willingham for Cuddyer).
Picked up Dunn after one owner drunkenly misread rotoworld and dropped him during the early season.
Team: Ryan Braun’s Attorney
Yadier Molina
Billy Butler
Danny Espinosa
Miguel Cabrera
Marco Scutaro
Corey Hart
Jay Bruce
Adam Jones
Adam Dunn
Garrett Jones
Matt Moore
Tommy Milone
Octavio Dotel
Casey Janssen
Ronald Belisario
Vinny Pestano
Jonathan Papelbon
Erasmo Ramirez
Felix Hernandez
Zack Greinke
You don’t have Ryan Braun on your team… ?
I’ve played fantasy since 2007, all H2H leagues. Had the #1 or #2 seeded team 3 of the 6 seasons I’ve played in and reached the playoffs one other season. I have yet to claim a H2H playoff victory. I went wire to wire this year as the #1 seed and just got blown out. It’s eternally frustrating, but when I finally get to claim the ring for myself, I hope it feels that much sweeter.
Ran out a team almost identical to yours, except had Jeter at SS instead of Reyes. Had David Murphy, too.
Pitching was somewhat similar, but also had Jake Peavy, Jordan Zimmermann and Phil Hughes, but otherwise very close to the same, with a VERY solid pen of Robertson, Clippard, Venters, McGee and Benoit, plus a few reserves who helped here and ther.
Bottom line: we got knocked out in the semi-finals when Santana, Gonzalez and Kipnis took a couple of weeks off. Votto, Lawrie and Belt. VERY disheartening…
Much prefer roto.
Also had Josh Rutledge, Jhonny Peralta and Hector Sanchez on the bench.
It’s a 30-team league, and we had the best record in the AL for the regular season. Hard to swallow bowing out when you get that far. Alomst the same team in a roto, except no Votto, we had Verlander and are winning by plenty — as much as a 22.5 point led until two weeks ago.
I only play keeper roto leagues. I can get my H2H fix during football season.
Seems like a hybrid league could put you in a quandry where you have to ultimately decide which is more important, the weekly matchup or the roty/standings side.
Part of what’s fun about H2H is the volatility. I agree with some comments that having no playoffs is a good “fair” idea, but part of the excitement is coming in 4th or 6th and still having a shot at first. How would we like real baseball if at the end of the season they just said “OK, Washington Nationals are the World Champs.”
I agree Tyler about that expanding the H2H playoffs to 2 weeks– certainly at least for the championship– is a great idea. Would be pretty easy to pare down the ~22 weeks of regular fantasy season to 18-20 and expand playoffs.
Head to head is not for baseball.
Figured this was as good a place as any to complain about my incredible underachieving H2H team (10 team keeper league). Finished 2nd two years ago, 1st last year, but now this team is inexplicably in the consolation match:
C – Napoli, Perez, Lucroy
1B – Pujols
2B – Kinsler
SS – Espinosa
3B – Hanley, Moustakas
OF/Util – Kemp, Granderson, Ellsbury, Hart, Werth, Victorino
SP – Weaver, Lee, Strasburg, Shields, Scherzer, Miley, Lynn
RP – Nathan, Betancourt, Perkins, Romo, Lopez
The fantasy gods are fickle. But at least I’m still in the championship game of my other two leagues. Sorry Eno. 🙂
I finished first and had stanton and cargo all week not playing plus tulo on DL what a joke H2H is
My H2H 12 team league has 6 playoff spots and the #1 and #2 regular season teams get playoff byes in the first round. Makes for a good compromise. The regular season is rewarded, but we still have the excitement of the playoffs. We split the pot evenly between playoff champion and regular season champion, with some reward for 2nd place teams in each. The playoff championship has more prestige, perhaps because it gets you a trophy in your Yahoo trophy case.
Honestly, I think H2H leagues are better when there’s an uneven playing field. I consider myself one of the better fantasy players in most of my leagues (not bragging – they’re just all pretty casual), but the H2H aspect allows players that aren’t as experienced or don’t have as much time on their hands to have success. This might seem like a bad thing to some, but I’d rather lose some playoffs early and have the league be more active and enjoyable for everyone than always place near the top of an inactive and bored league.
I play both types, but there is soooo much more interaction from owners for the entire season. In my 16 team mixed h2h, we had 12 owners who were active on the boards for the entire season and no abandoned teams. That’s why I always play a h2h league.
can someone help me read this article, i tried to open it but all my computer did was slowly drip out this salty watery discharge from the corners of the screen.
get over it ENO, h2h is infinitely better, roto is a joke.
Hah. I knew I’d get one of these. Tried to not make it so much about me and my leagues, I play half and half, so obviously I like H2H. But I hate it too.
This is such a tired argument. If Roto is so supreme, then why do so many h2h guys find roto easy to win, and not vice versa? It takes a lot more to CONSISTENTLY win in h2h format. yes, luck plays a role, but after doing this for years Ive found you create most of your own luck. Ive played h2h for a long time now, and win most of them, and every yr I hear somebody cry luck-foul. It flat out takes a ton more attn to win in h2h. I recommend non keeper formats though, being tied to guys can really be a killer. Its much more of a live in the moment kind of setup, long term keeping can make that rough. Even if keepers are your thing, it still takes moment to moment strategy to win in this thing. Its not “better” than roto, its just different. And saying its the “original format, so its better” argument is also played out, as it has everything to do w the roots of fbb going back to pre internet days, not some vague skill factor implication. For 12 teamers, only let 4 into the playoffs. Cuts down on the “lucky” team sneaking in and getting hot. Or just do away w playoffs in general, best record wins. Or start them earlier, no sept callup/streamers to win it all. Change your setups, do what you need to do, just stop whining about “luck”. Or cling to your soccer-esqe aggragate scoring (yawn), and complain about how kids today just dont get it. And while you’re at it, stay away from roto stars that only hit at home(Cargo), over hyped rookies(Lawrie), and super streaky hitters in general (Santana) as they will lose u as many wks as they will win you. Example: I was laughed at for breaking ADP and taking beltre over hammy, and as good as hammy’s final line will be most of his production was wasted in h2h as he overloads for a few weeks and disappeared for 2 months. As im in the title game this wk, who’s laughing now? one strategic ex of many i could make
The argument I made, which is that Head-to-Head comes down to a week of stats, which makes it more exciting and yet also more infuriating, that’s a tired one? I did not claim either as more superior, and I play half and half. I like the volatility of Head-to-Head, I like the fact that, by definition, the best team wins in roto.
Your argument, on the other hand, stinks of “I’m winning, so it’s obviously all strategy.”
Were each of my keepers not first-rounders? No, obviously. But as a six, I felt pretty good about them, built a heck of a team around them, and then built a staff that was flexible and had three good pitchers at the top. Then a slow week derailed the train. I lost in the semis, maybe that’s all the team ‘should’ have done, but I could easily have gotten a better week, and then my ‘should’ have lost in semis team would have been in the finals.
You can’t argue that you have control over seven-day samples, no matter the team. Look at some of the teams listed here, they’re awesome and didn’t win. It happens in H2H — and as I said, that’s great and it’s terrible.
Agree with Eno, this stinks like you’ve not played much H2H. At least not competitively.
Simply put, it’s much harder to place well in a roto league because you must employ a much more balanced team throughout the season. H2H is prone to all manner of luck, and much of the skill is removed from the final outcome.
The outcomes of a Roto league are more reliant on your entire roster. H2H is stud driven. If your studs don’t show up the one week of the playoffs, boo hoo for you.
I’ve lost H2H leagues for countless stupid reasons, and won them for just as many. My favorite story to date is 2008. Hurricane Ike hit the Houston texas area, raining out games early in the week of the semifinals. Then proceeded straight up through Chicago, raning out another set of games in the second half of the week. I lost about 10-12 games played (because real leagues have move limits) over the course of that week and had no chance in most counting categories.
I won my league by more than 20 games over second. Having Cutch and Trout in your outfield will do that to you. (miggy too) I lost to the 4th seed 14-2. Grrrrr.
Not for nothin’, but the H2H guys usually drink cheap beer, drive Tercels with “nice” rims, and sort for 7-day stat leaders.
That last one hurts.
The only h2H anyone should be talking about is points, not categories. It’s active and engaging and when aramis Ramirez hits over 50 doubles it means something.
I’ve told you about this before Eno. My team looked like this
C- Jesus Montero SP- Cliff Lee
1st- Joey Votto SP- Matt Moore
2nd- Ben Zobrist SP- Edwin Jackson
3rd- Pablo Sandoval
SS- Danny Espinsona SP- Max Scherzer
IF- Billy Butler SP- Marco Estrada
OF- Ryan Braun SP- Brett Anderson
OF-Mike Trout SP- Jon Lester
OF- Matt Holliday A few SP streamers
OF-Josh Willingham RP- Jim Johnson
ULT- Platoon of Belt, Joyce, and Murphy RP- Ernesto Frieri
RP- Kenley Jensen
I was beat in the 2nd playoff round because Jimmy Rollins thought it was 2007 and outproduced every member of my team. Going into Saturday I was confortably leading stolen bases 3-0 and Jimmy Rollins proceed to steal 3 in one game. Granderson had the privilege of playing at home all week and hitting 4 HR. My team combined that week for 5….
But here is the real story our league was one by a guy who didn’t check his team all season and made 0 moves. Not steams or drop. Sizemore and Valencia were on his roster. His drafted team wasn’t awful, but was under performing, He has Pujols and Kinsler, both having career worst years. He had Derek Jeter who through some black magic is playing well. His OF was Soriano,Victorino, Tori Hunter and Carlos Lee. Quite possibly the worst fantasy outfield. As for his pitching? Gio, Lincecum,Haren, Ervin Santana, Mark Buerhle, and Tim Hudson…. Please excuse me while I vomit.
But Ichiro carried his team batting .600 with 2 HR, 6 SB, 24 TB, and good RUns and RBIs… He won 9-4…..
oh what the heck this is cathartic:
20 team mixed h2h dynasty $120 cap 7×7 (TB, OPS, HLD, QS extra cats)
was #2 seed and got bounced by #7 seed 2 weeks ago:
C-Posey ($12)
1B-Fielder ($15)
2B- Kipnis ($1)
SS- Rutledge ($1)
3B- Aramis ($7)
OF- McCutchen ($12)
OF- Stanton ($12)
OF-Holliday ($8)
Util-Hart ($7)
Bench-Harper ($1)
SP- Price ($10)
SP- Bumgarner ($10)
SP- Harrison ($2.5)
SP- Burnett ($1)
SP- Estrada ($1)
SP- Tillman ($1)
SP- Milone ($1)
SP- Hammel ($1)
SP- Millwood ($1)
RP- Betancourt ($1)
RP- Balfour ($1)
RP- Janssen ($1)
RP- Grilli ($1)
RP- O’Flaherty ($1)
RP- Peralta ($1)
RP- A. Miller ($1)
I’ll reiterate this is a 20! team mixed league and it was that killer offense that let me down….not the questionable stars/mostly $1 scrubs pitching staff which I at least would have accepted/expected given my strategy of 2 2nd tier aces and a bunch of $1 fliers to fill out my rotation/bullpen.
To each their own …
I hate, hate, hate all category formats where I’m only rooting for a player to contribute in a specific manner.
Points is a good fit for me because I believe a player on your team contributing positively in any way should help you out.
Also, the OPs team is really not that great of a team imo. In H2H, you MUST have 2+ elite arms or else very, very lucky in matchups to not be knocked out along the way to the championship.