Everyone will always tell you that the most important factors you have to take into consideration when deciding whether to join a league are the settings. The two most popular types of leagues are rotisserie and head-to-head. While both have their pros and cons, here is why head-to-head is the superior format.

Staying Alive

The biggest reason that I love head-to-head leagues is that it keeps more teams competitive for a larger part of the season. If you draft a rotisserie team and have a bad injury or two complemented with a couple of slow starts, you could be buried in the standings before Memorial Day. Fantasy baseball is supposed to be a six-month marathon, but a couple of bad breaks early on and you could be hitting the beach instead of worrying about your roster. On the flip side of that, it is better for the league to have everyone paying attention as long as possible. How frustrating is it to want to trade for a player and have the guy sitting on a team that is mired in tenth place who hasn’t checked their team in three weeks and isn’t trying? Head-to-head leagues tend to keep more teams in it for longer and therefore a more fun and engaged league.

Playoff Fever

Why are people more engaged you ask? Head-to-head leagues culminate in multi-week playoffs while rotisserie leagues tend to just have the team that has the most fantasy points on the last day of the season be the winner. How anticlimactic is that? Sure, sometimes there is something dramatic that happens in the last week to potentially change the standings late, but likely the last month of the season is just a dash between potentially two teams with one likely winning. A playoff system also would come down to two teams at the end, but other teams had an equal chance of getting there by advancing in a single elimination playoff format.

Crush Your Friends

Another great part of head-to-head leagues is the weekly matchup itself. There are two reasons that I like a weekly matchup. The first is the competitiveness against one of your friends. Who doesn’t like the trash talk of saying that you are going to kick the other one’s ass? I mean isn’t that kind of why we play fantasy? There are a lot of leagues that are for money, but there are still a good number that are for bragging rights. Even if you don’t win a championship but you beat your friend in a couple of head-to-head matchups you can still talk all kinds of trash. The second reason I like the matchup is for the finality of it. Having a really bad week? Monday wipes the slate clean and that .065 average that your team hit for last week is a thing of the past. When the new week starts that 32.54 ERA that your pitching staff had last week doesn’t matter anymore.

A Marathon and A Sprint

Head-to-head leagues also bring in more short-term strategy and the season is really 25ish individual seasons that you try to win each one. Matchups in a weekly league certainly play a factor too. The better team could possibly not win in a seven-day period if some of your top hitters are going to San Diego to face Yu Darvish , Blake Snell , and Chris Paddack while your opponent has a few hitters going to Coors Field to face Kyle Freeland , Jon Gray , and Germán Márquez . Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t. But it can make roster decisions that much more complicated and fun as you try to navigate through a given week just to get that win. It is further complicated in leagues that don’t allow daily roster changes. Then you are putting your entire matchup in place at the beginning of the week. Rotisserie leagues also can have weekly roster moves, but the standings just continue on and don’t have the added fun of head-to-head leagues.

Give Me Drama!

Who doesn’t like drama in fantasy baseball?!?!!? These types of leagues bring drama to your life almost every week. It won’t be every single matchup, but there will be several times during the season where you are sweating out Sunday baseball and sitting on the edge of your seat, biting your nails, and downing beers as Sunday Night Baseball starts. In rotisserie leagues, Sunday is just another tick off on your way to 162 games. Not only is there weekly drama, but that last week before the playoffs start is completely bonkers! Rarely in head-to-head leagues is there a year where the playoff teams are decided before the final week of the fantasy regular season. It could be two teams or more that are vying for a final playoff spot or two and that last week just has you a basket of nerves, what could be better than that?

Freedom (of Roster Construction)

Another thing that I like about head-to-head leagues is that you can construct your roster however you see fit and don’t have to try to win every category on a weekly basis. Rotisserie leagues can force you to have a “one trick pony” or two in order to help you win certain categories like stolen bases or saves. Many head-to-head leagues are points based and if you punt saves, stolen bases, or batting average you can do that and don’t have to be forced to draft a player who could be a drain on two or three other categories in an attempt to win one. These leagues give you the ability to use the players you want to, and not feel obligated to pick a certain type of guy just to fit a need. Some leagues give you a “win” for each category that you win in a week while some just give a “win” for whoever wins the most categories or who scores the most points. The wins for each category make you have to consider each category a bit more, but you can still punt and win.

If you are a traditionalist who doesn’t like too much change too quickly you can still play a head-to-head league with rotisserie scoring instead of a point system. In that way the team that wins the most categories gets the win for the week instead of who has the highest points. It isn’t my preferred type of league, but they do exist. That gives you the chance to have the fun of weekly matchups but still holding on to the old guard of rotisserie scoring.

The Other Side

While I love head-to-head leagues, there are some things that people see as cons. The first is the playoff format. Head-to-head leagues are more like fantasy football with the playoffs in that the team with the most points at the end of the regular season doesn’t always win. Luck can play a factor in the championship in head-to-head leagues. As mentioned earlier your pitchers could be playing hot offenses or your hitters could go against a buzzsaw pitching staff and your season could end by bad timing in a playoff matchup. Personally, I like this fact, but I can see how some might not like that.

Also similar to fantasy football you could have the best team and not even make the playoffs. You could continuously find yourself matched up against the team that scores the most points in a given week. One week you face Joey Gallo who hit seven home runs in a week, the next week you face Zack Wheeler who happened to throw a complete game shutout. These things are certainly not common, but they do happen. It is a little less likely in fantasy baseball since the season is longer, but it is a possibility. In a rotisserie league you are just accumulating points throughout the season and generally the best, most balanced team wins.

Head-to-Head Strategies

You can be patient. While in roto leagues if you get off to a bad start you could dig yourself a hole you can’t get out of, in head-to-head you can get off to a bad start and still be in it. An 0-4 start doesn’t doom you. A 2-6 start doesn’t mean you are finished. It doesn’t make your life easy, but if you feel like you drafted a good team and there are either minor injuries or slow starts there is no reason to panic in April or even really May. If you are looking at an uphill battle after the All-Star Game things would certainly get tougher.

The important thing to remember in head-to-head leagues is that until you are mathematically eliminated, you are not out of it. While you could have six bad weeks to start the season in rotisserie leagues and essentially be out, a hot free agent pick-up or a stellar trade could turn the tides of your entire season. If things don’t go your way early, you can’t throw in the towel in one of these leagues. It is one week at a time. Do what you need to do to win THIS WEEK, and then we do it again starting the following Monday. If you are in a good spot in the standings mid-season take advantage of those who need wins around July and try to trade for a player, they may have that could be injured for three or four weeks which cripples their roster, but you can afford to play a weaker guy for a short period of time because of your record. If not an injured player, perhaps target some of their top players for several of your mid-range players to make your roster more top heavy and take advantage of a team that is scrambling to stay alive.

Some leagues are getting more hip to this trick, but if there are no restrictions on transactions during the week, you can cycle in some pitchers especially on the weekend to pad your stats in wins and strikeouts. If your league is deep and the waiver wire is a little thinner this could blow up in your face and hurt your ERA and WHIP. On the hitting side if you are perhaps behind a home run or two heading into the weekend you could stream a power hitter for the last couple days.

Another important thing to remember is to not get complacent and just run out the same lineup every week. For many players, baseball is a streaky game, and you have to take advantage when some of your bench players are hot or have very favorable matchups in the given week. Now, I am not saying to sit Fernando Tatis ever, but pay attention to trends and take advantage of what you can to get that weekly win.

Case Closed

So, while the purists love rotisserie leagues, this has been a point-by-point reason why it is time to change from what you might be used to and try a great way to play a format of fantasy baseball that is more fun, will keep your league more engaged for a longer period of time, and will give you more drama and excitement as well as the chance to trash talk your league mates more. Don’t be out of it by mid-May because of injuries. Don’t have the last month of the season be a yawn. Don’t be forced to draft a .235 hitter just because he can steal 30 bases. Play in head-to-head leagues in 2021 and then find me on Twitter @fightingchance to tell me how much better it was. Good luck in your leagues this season, the #FAmily will be here to help you along the way.